The Path Forks
Seventeenth Day of Ashinu-ezna (Ashinu Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
"We will do what we may in the time we have on these shores, the tides and the seasons wait for no man," you reply after a moment's thought on the needs of the fleet. "Given a guide to these hills we will go there and look upon this beast with our own eyes and then we shall see... what we shall see." It is a bitter thing to admit the possibility of failure ere you had even set off upon the journey, yet you can see in the deep searching gaze of the Voice, as alike to a man in spirit as it is unalike in form, that he understands the hedging.
"Go then and may you find the answers you seek to lift the veil of nightmare from us all. Know that whether you find me or another Voice in Willowbrook you shall be no less welcome for it. "
At this you nod understanding that he does not hold you to the span of his own years, for all that is his hope... then you almost drop the wooden skewer in your hand, fish and all, as the second meaning comes to you, unburdened by words. You are not merely welcome here no matter the hour of your victory, but welcome still even if you should choose not to fight the battle at all so long as you keep the secret true, which alone had been asked of you from the start.
What a strange day to have found company more gracious than a king in home of an otter. So you vow again, to yourself, to God and to the Angel Gabriel, that you shall do all you can to lift the burden of their long watch from kindly kindred if you can without leading those sworn to you to their deaths.
In parting you are given food left over from the feast, of the same kind but wrapped in leaves or set in simple baskets prepared for the road, such that even the most suspicious of your men cannot help but look back with a smile on their faces of the hill and its guarding willow. "If there's more who would feed us like that for a tale in these lands I'd be glad to meet them," Tom says, speaking for all of them you would reckon, but Tender looks to you in askance.
"What did they ask of us?"
"A tale for what we are on the ship that all might hear, I do not wish to tell it twice," you reply, recalling what the Voice had said, that it would be his burden alone to know the full tale of the Jade Beast and the lost tribe of Kinkut.
***
The captain's cabin is starting to get more than a bit cramped these days, between yourself with Tom standing to your right, Zaia seated beside Inge and Esha practically squeezed into a corner with Inge sitting in her lap, all weariness forgotten while Antonio himself sits opposite to you in his familiar chair, the two Knikut Tender and Watcher making it full circle of eight.
Other that a few uneasy mutterings it is Esha who asks the most questions, about Listens-to-the-Wind and about what you recall of the caves of the otter-folk, as well as of their manner and address, but once you had reached the end and the favor asked of you Antonio breaks his silence: "It seams to me that we already have the supplies we meant to garner and can set off at once..." Reading your expression no doubt he raises a hand and adds: "Soonest off, soonest returned, we would have more time with tin in our holds than jars of olive oil and pots of mead, and while we sail upon the sea our learned company will have all the time in the world to take counsel one with the other and mayhap even read in the books we took from Mad Ipsit about what manner of beast it might be..."
"There is another way, swifter and surer to know the nature of this beast," Tender interrupts. "The otter-kin said it would tempt us with offers of power and wealth, of glory and knowledge, so then let us sleep on the shore. Thus we may know his voice and guess his form, no need for musty parchments."
"And thus he might know us and know that some with the lore of the Beyond have their eye on him," Esha interjects. "A gamble."
"No more of a one than walking unprepared onto ground where a whole tribe has perished." The shamans' words are heavy with warning. "Do you think their bones lie easy on the stone now that the birds have picked them clean of flesh?"
Which path do you take?
[] The path of study
-[] While you wait upon the shore, you promised at least to try to deal with this now, even if the Old Voice will not hold you to it
-[] Sail as Antonio suggests, his plan makes the most sense
[] The path of dreams, know the foe by the temptations if offers
-[] Write in dreamers
[] The path of seeking, travel to the hills where it lies sleeping and seek to catch a glimpse of it
-[] Write in scouting party
[] Write in
OOC: A bit plan heavy and not a lot of answers, but hopefully a good vote to leave this on overnight 
