Following the Leader

JP with Omni and Lorem:

It wasn’t as if Gonyaul couldn’t be sneaky, but in the case of following Voah and Alcuin, he wasn’t really trying very hard and they were both fairly perceptive individuals. If he was going to be so obvious, he may as well join them. This was no place or time to argue the wherefores, so Voah waved Gonyaul over to their position with grimace and a squint.

Alcuin looked to Voah as a leader, so that’s what she would be. Studying the scene, she considered which course to take: To go in the den of the dark robes again, to follow the wagon, or split up and do both?

She had already cased a section of the building and splitting up didn’t really seem like the best option. Moreover, her overwhelming curiosity to know about those barrels was peaked. What could be inside? Where were they headed? Why?

She let the others know that she was going to be following the shipment of barrels and offered the option to both of them to:

a) follow along, keeping an eye out for more dark robes
or
b) continue staking out the den from a distance, alone or together, remembering the possibility that the “hound” could be around

Taking any other action was inadvisable unless required.

Gonyaul felt mildly embarrassed as he quickly and carefully came over to them when Voah summoned. He thought he had done a good job staying out of their awareness net; however, he clearly didn’t.

The only reason he was there was to keep Voah in his sights and keep her safe. This meant from both external and internal threats, because sometimes Voah could be her own worst enemy for getting into trouble. Therefore, wherever she decided to go that would determine his choice too.

“You go, I go too.” He answered promptly and simply.

“Good. Be sure to stay close, stay quiet, and stay alert for now. We will need to switch things up and when we get closer to the more populated parts of town. Blend in and act natural. Ozainae if you must speak. We may need to take alleyways to keep up or get ahead.”

With that, she led the group around an alleyway just down the road to get a jump start on the wagon before it headed out.

Gonyaul didn’t make the mistake of not paying attention this time around. Even though he was there for a very different reason than the others, he was now technically invested by being in the same proximity. He knew this was Voah’s area of expertise and not his. If he wished to survive the day, it would be prudent to have a sharp learning curve. So he kept quiet, kept watchful, kept close and followed her lead.