A Magical Monks Dilema Ch. 02

This chapter contains smut.

Chapter 2: Distractions and Discretions

When the twin moons were halfway on their way to reach the peak of their arc, the celebration had slowly died down to an end, everyone making their way home. Gigi, Kar'liss and Seline all left together with Zephyr catching up shortly after, having supposed to stay back and clean dishes, but was let off for the night.

Kar'liss spoke up to Gigi. "So, miss big three zero, does this mean you're too old to hang out with us youngsters?" She teased.

"Dunno, how about you ask yourself in five years?" The minotaur replied flatly, but her thin tail swatted at the dragonborns ass, eliciting a small yelp from those scaled lips.

"Ugh, four years until I hit that mark too... I hope I'm out of that damn dish-pit before then." Zephyr joined in, lifting her glasses to rub her tired eyes.

"I hope you'll all still be taking care of yourselves by then, I don't want to have to realign your spines before you start getting grey hairs." Selina, the youngest of the four at 22, spoke up last, and the other three hummed or chuckled in response to the assumed joke. The apothecary apprentice looked at them with a cocked brow.

"What? What's funny?"

The group split off one by one as they stopped by at each other's houses, Kar'liss being the second to last to take a turn in the direction of where her house was. House was putting it nicely, it was just a repurposed shack near the docks. As soon as the others were out of sight, her posture faintly slouched, her expression softening with a melancholic sigh from her nose. She was just about to pull a key from her pocket when she froze mid motion, the thinner spines near the base of her neck twitching from that sixth sense feeling of being watched. Just as she turned her head to look behind her, the split second sight of a fist coming straight towards her jaw greeted her widened eyes. It connected, but not as solidly thanks to the flinching pullback of the dragonborns head.

In a blurred, dimly lit motion, the aggressor shoved Kar'liss up against the wall of her shack facing away from the beach, the moons hovering above casting a soft silver light upon said aggressor. The half shaved head of the bad mouthing huntress trainee stared daggers at Kar'liss, knife in one hand and the other clutching a fistful of the reptilian woman's vest.

"Agh- Stella," Kar'liss muttered, working her sore jaw and holding her hands up at her shoulders, palms facing outwards. "and company..."

The three others of the hunter trainee group stood behind Stella, one holding a practice bow knocked with an arrow.

"Think you're hot shit, casting that spell back there and embarrassing me in front of everyone? I know that wasn't the only time, I know it was you always pulling fast ones on us during drills. Let's see how well you can cast your little tricks without being able to speak them into existence."

Her voice dripped with venom, eyes glancing back at one of the others to nod him in. He stepped up and began to pry Kar'liss's mouth open.

Panic began to rise in the dragonborn's chest as Stella raised her knife, bringing it in closer to her tongue...

Pupils went paper thin, neck flexing and tongue clenching to the back of her throat, the folded skin covering her neck suddenly fanned out in a bright display of faded yellow. From two glands beside her uvula, twin streams of dark green poison shot out and sprayed onto Stella's face, primarily her eyes.

"AAAAGH FUCK! FUCK! GET IT OFF!" She recoiled immediately, instinctively rubbing her eyes and backpedaling, the knife falling to the ground. The one holding her mouth flinched back as well, giving Kar'liss just enough time to snatch up the blade and get into a more readied stance. Stella was helped over to the shore to try and wash her eyes, the other two staying back and facing their target. The practice bow was drawn back, but the other trainee's gaze flicked to do a double take up and to the side.

"Hey, um... the lighthouse is off." He barely spoke up over Stella's wailing, the only reason no one else was coming to check on the noise being that they were too far away from anyone in the village that cared to get up from bed.

"What?" The one with the bow dropped his aim a bit to look where the attention was being drawn to. Kar'liss hesitantly looked back around the corner to check as well, and sure enough the usual beacon from the lighthouse was out, leaving the ocean stretched out before it a dark, foggy wall. Before she could even mutter "what the fuck" under her breath at the vague outlines of massive sails, four small thumps graced her ears. Snapping her gaze back to her attackers, she stumbled back into the wall at the sight of what were now their dying bodies, all in a state of falling to the ground or gasping for breath they couldn't catch, each with an arrow stuck in either their neck or chest. Kar'liss watched in horror as the light steadily left their eyes, the only thing pulling her attention from her now dead competition was the quiet sound of row boats scraping up on the gravely shore.

Kar'liss was clever enough to get by mostly on her own most of her life, but you didn't need to be a scholar to know when an invasion was literally on your village's backdoor. If she wasn't already cold blooded, she would be now, but fear would have to wait. Swallowing her nerves as best she could, her shaky hands darted down to pick up the practice bow and arrow quiver from the dead trainee. Help, she needed to get help, but she didn't want to scream for it and call down an arrow for herself. The only guards posted in the village were at the waterfront, since the forest on the other side was so dense and thinly pathed that no one dared to try and move an army through it, and seeing the lack of alarm from the beach watch walls, there was one last place to turn to for help. Her eyes looked up to the monk temple southwest from the village walls, if she ran now she could hopefully make it in time...

--o--

Twigs and bushes snapped and rustled under the hurried yet tired footfalls of a human and minotaur, their pace having slowed to a heavy breathed jog from running for the past hour with very minimal stops to catch their breath. Zephyr stopped to hunch over, leaning a hand on a gnarled oak trunk while she took raspy, dry throated gasps. Gigi wasn't as winded as Zephyr, but it was clear that she wasn't fit for running as much as she was for hammering metal all day. Seline had calmed down a little since their escape, but she was barely keeping up with the others.

"Can we please... huhh... stop for a while? I don't think they're coming this way..." The half elf panted heavily, resting both hands on her knees.

Gigi looked back, ears flicking occasionally as she eyed the high climbing smoke pillars now about three miles away.

"We probably could, I think I hear a river up ahe-"

"Someone's coming." Gigi interrupted Zephyr, her head sharply turning to the right slightly.

"Hide." Zephyr whispered, going over to Seline to help pull her into a bush. It was a stretch, but it was the only thing she could think of. Gigi wasn't doing much better though, seeing as how she just laid down behind a fallen log and pulled shrubbery over herself.

Sure enough, the sound of approaching footsteps came closer, but only a single set. Zephyr looked to Selina, both holding their breath with beads of sweat rolling down the sides of their faces. The steps got closer, slowing to a stop, then a thankfully familiar voice spoke up.

"Y'all, it's me, come out. You suck at hiding."

Seline was first to spring out and run up to Kar'liss and wrap a tight hug around her.

"You're alive! Thank the Gods!" She cried out in exasperated joy.

"We tried to look for you, but it was just... we had to get out of there." Zephyr added, getting out of the bush and pulling a twig from her frazzled hair.

"How'd you get out? Your place is by the beach, they came in by ships." Gigi rose up, brushing moss and dirt from her shoulders. Seline pulled back from the hug to give Kar'liss a look over.

"And you're dressed... and equipped..." She added in, an uneasy air of suspicion began to linger.

"L-look, can we talk about everything later? After we move out a bit further or find a place to sit down?" The dragonborn glanced away, unable to meet the others' gazes. A brief moment of silence hung between them all until Gigi turned and began walking towards the sound of a distant river.

"We have a lot to talk about." She looked back at Zephyr for a split second, her commonly unreadable face giving the human a nervous shiver down her spine.

The group now reunited continued their travel through the dense woods, not a word spoken between anyone. Following the sound of the river led them to a decent enough spot where the trees started to spread out, said river not too far away from it. By the time Gigi and Kar'liss set up a small fire, both sure that they were far away enough for it to not be seen, the Eastern sky had begun to light up a dim orange from the first sliver of sun. Seline essentially collapsed to the ground when she tried to sit down with the others, her knees almost clacking together from how much she was shivering.

"So." Gigi broke the silence, looking at Zephyr first. "You exploded."

"Wait, that flash and fog was you? I thought it was that wizard guy." Kar'liss leaned forward with a furrowed brow.

"You saw him too?" Zephyr squinted while she got her first chance to clean her glasses on her uniform sleeve.

"Not the point. What happened back there?" The minotaur kept her tired yet firm gaze on the human.

Zephyr took in a long breath, trying to find the words to explain herself.

"It started before I was born..."

"Oh boy..." Kar'liss muttered, but was cut off by a look from Gigi.

"My parents were having trouble conceiving a child, so they decided to try and use magic to aid the process. It worked, obviously, but they uh... were indecisive on some things and mucked it up somehow. I dunno. When I was born I immediately blew up. Literally. I got this... affliction that makes me passively absorb mana, too much of it makes me pop, but it's um, a random effect. The numbing magic my mom got during the delivery got sucked in by me partially, she said I made the doctor fly back into the wall and I plopped into her lap." Zephyr's eyes weren't trained on anything, staring off into the dirt as she regaled her past.

"Do you remember that fire that spontaneously started in the garden ten years ago? Or the time everyone just suddenly felt physically better?" She finally looked up at the other three, who were just silently watching and listening. It made Zephyr squirm a bit and bring her crossed legs in a little closer.

"Yeah, me. It's why I so often went to the monks, to try and get a grip on myself and... siphon out excess mana. But they could only do so much. It's also why you didn't see my parents very often. I assumed they were... ashamed or embarrassed, or something."

The silence returned, lasting for about five seconds until Seline broke it... with a snore. Everyone looked to her to see her head slumped forward while she leaned back against a rotted tree stump. No one said anything about it, they couldn't blame her, everyone was tired and sore.

"That's... a lot to keep secret. Wow." Kar'liss mumbled, bringing Gigi's eyes over to her.

"Now you, where were you?" The minotaur asked, her tone telling she knew something was off.

The dragonborn tensed her jaw and rubbed her thumb over the side of her clenched fist.

"I um... I got jumped. The other trainees got to me at my place. They were gonna..." She holds her shaky fingers on top of her snout for a moment, their faces still etched into the back of her eyes.

"They saw the lighthouse go out, but were shot down right after. I didn't want to make noise and get shot too, so I uh... ran. B-but I went to the monks, and they told me to stay there, but then I saw that green fog..." She trailed off to silence. Zephyr was unable to pick an emotion to feel, she was mad at Kar'liss for not bringing alarm to them, she was happy she managed to get out alive too. With a deep breath, she pushed herself to stand up.

"I'm going to go wash off in the river." She spoke quietly, starting to walk off. Kar'liss looked like she was about to speak up, but a subtle shake from Gigi's head stopped her.

"I guess I'll... get Seline situated more comfortably." She mumbled to herself instead, Gigi got up to help.

--o--

The sight of fresh running water was almost enough to take Zephyr's mind off of everything, the rising sun made it glisten and sparkle in a pleasing, relaxing manner. Looking down at her dirt and ash scuffed self, then behind herself to make sure she was truly alone but still able to see the flicker of the small fire they set up, she began to strip. Her top was undone and set aside, folded neatly on a dry flat rock then double checked before sliding her pants down after undoing the sash belt, also folding them up.

She decided to bring her underwear in for a wash off as well, undoing her bra to free her modest handfuls to the brisk morning air. Next was her strap, still distended with her most safely guarded secret. With her pointer finger and thumb she pulled one of the ties holding it together on her hip, the cloth and her bulge immediately sagged two inches upon having tension released. Zephyr sighed in relief as the garment was pulled off completely, fresh air gracing her other affliction she was born with. Hanging from her crotch was her penis, a disproportionately large one at that. Despite it being in a soft, somewhat chilly state, it hung nearly as long as her hand and was thick enough that it had to be squished a bit in order to barely wrap her fingers around its vein riddled mass. A thick sleeve of foreskin covered her crown, glistening at the top with slowly leaking translucent precum that had just the faintest opalescent shimmer to it. Beneath that were her testicles, each one hanging down to her mid thigh and comparable to a large, very ripe orange in size... if oranges were oblong.

Zephyr looked down at it with a slightly disappointed gaze, as if annoyed that despite everything that happened, it had the gall to leak as it did.

Walking into a shallow pocket of the river to her knees with her uniform clutched to her chest, she sucked in a few quick breaths through tightened lips as the near freezing water gave her fatigued body the second rude wakeup call she had today. Dirt and ash fogged up the water around her as she rinsed off both herself and the uniform, eventually satisfied with what she was able to get, and setting her clothes aside to dry. Next and last, was between her legs. She squatted down into a cleaner area of the river pocket so her waist was submerged, her hands coming in to hold her shaft and slowly pull back its foreskin.

It wasn't like she was ever dirty under there, having always taken good care of its hygiene, she just wanted to wash the slick pre off. The slick substance wavered around in the water as she rubbed her thumb and fingertips over her purplish-red crown, more joining the barely visible opalescent strands as her urethra leaked more of the stuff. Despite the cold water and the lack of a mood, she both felt and saw her shaft starting to lengthen a little, an annoyed huff leaving her nose.

"Gods dammit- ugh." She muttered to herself, cheeks starting to flush. Her right hand grasped her steadily growing length while the left cupped her balls, giving them a gentle fondle as she started slowly stroking herself underwater. This was certainly one way to get the emotions out.

Just as she was getting into a rhythm, the snap of a thin branch from behind made her flinch and freeze up, legs closing up instinctively to cover her shaft and head whipping around to see who was coming. The sight of Gigi slowly walking up out of the trees did little to relax Zephyr, who felt her heart pounding in her chest from having someone else other than family in proximity to her nudity. Gigi seemed nonchalant as ever though.

"Hey." She grunted, giving Zephyr a passing glance as she approached the river bank about 15 feet away from the naked human.

"H-hi..?" Zephyr replied, looking back to see if anyone else was coming.

"Just me, Liss wanted to be alone for a bit, keeping watch over Seline. Thought I'd wash up too, if that's alright." She picked at a fleck of dried blood that wasn't' hers from her forearm.

"Ah, uh... sure." Zephyr nodded faintly, hunched forward with both arms squeezed in to cover her chest from the sides, hands pressed down onto her lap. She immediately regretted looking over at Gigi while she started undressing, cheeks flushed a darker red and eyes widening behind her round glasses. The minotaurs sleeveless shirt was pulled off over her head, revealing a tight wrapping binding her chest that was gradually unwound loop after loop, getting piled up next to her top. Zephyr thought those mounds were big before, just one rivaling her head in size, but now that they were freed they were nearly doubled in size. They had a bit of sag to them, the fur covering her body thinned out the closer it got to her bottle cork sized pink nipples, Zephyr caught herself staring... and so did Gigi.

"Yeah, I know." She sighed out, not pausing to pull the tie of her pants and push them down along with her underwear in one go. It all looked so normal for Gigi to do, but for Zephyr, she didn't know how much more she could handle. She felt herself stiff as iron under her pressed together thighs, her mass trying to break free and angrily throbbing for attention, for release. "You promised!" it probably would be saying.

When Gigi waded into the river without flinching from the cold and began effectively washing herself and her clothes, Zephyr watched as her soaked fur made the outlines of her naturally strong body all the more prominent. Her high body temperature also made her steam a bit. When Zephyr's gaze fell down that massive minotaurs toned ass... it was all over. With a powerful lurch her shaft bucked up, breaking free from under her thighs and splashing up over the water, slapping Zephyr in the cheek. She grunted in panic, and instantly pushed it back under the water, but when she looked back to see if Gigi saw anything, she was met with her shocked, wide eyes. Both of them were frozen and silent, staring at each other for what felt like minutes on end. Gigi once again was the one to break the quiet, pointing over at Zephyr's submerged waist.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Shh!" Zephyr's clearly panicked expression and quick look over to the tree line was all Gigi needed to lower her voice, but her eyes stayed glued to the thin human. The shallow water splashed around her shins as she made her way closer to Zephyr, who was now getting a full frontal view of the naked minotaur. She couldn't see much between her tree trunk legs besides a patch of fur that was pressed down by water. When Gigi was standing almost uncomfortably close, she glanced over to the trees before lowering down to sit on her knees.

She just stared into Zephyr's eyes, unblinking and boring into her soul, who felt like shrinking down into a hole and burying herself.

"Ok fine! Gods! Yes I have a penis, now stop looking at me like that!" She whispered loudly, turning her head down to avert her gaze.

"... Can I see it?"

The question hit Zephyr like a slap to the back of the head, making her look back up at her large friend.

"What? Why?.... What?"

"Can I see it?" She repeated, nodding down to the human's closed legs.

"... That's the first thing on your mind?" Zephyr scrunched her brows in with surprise at Gigi's calm demeanor, who shrugged.

"Look, I'm trying to find a way to distract myself from all the shit that happened, and this is pretty distracting." Her monotone voice was as steady as ever, but the way her ears were perked forward told Zephyr that she had her full attention on the matter. A few long seconds go by before the human sighs, doing another check over her shoulder.

"Fine. Just... don't make a big deal out of it?" She got a single nod from Gigi.

Biting the inside of her lip, Zephyr took a deep breath and slowly opened her legs, keeping a hand down on her shaft's base to keep it from springing up. Gigi's eyes slowly widened again as she watched the reveal, the water's surface made the image a bit wobbly, but it was clear enough. Pointing out from her crotch, all the way down to just above her knees, Zephyr's penis stayed pinned underwater, twitching to its owner's pulse and almost completely covered in thick veins.

"Holy shit- Zeph how the hells do you have that?" Gigi muttered, leaning forward a bit with her hands on her knees.

"It's uh... part of the whole magic birth thing. Mom and dad couldn't decide on if they wanted a boy or girl, so they got both. It also lets me uh... vent out excess mana by... release"

"Wait, you have both parts?" Gigi's gaze was finally pulled away to look at Zephyr properly.

"Yeah... hold on." She mumbled, slowly getting up to scoot back and sit on a flat shale rock on the shore. Gigi followed, sitting next to Zephyr on her side.

Having to use both hands, Zephyr lifted her balls up and inadvertently pressed her member up to her stomach, the tip prodding the center of her chest with her slightly hunched over posture.

"It's not as uh, developed as this thing, but there it is." Sure enough, just underneath where her hairless scrotum connected to her crotch, a puffy Y shaped slit resided where a male's taint would be.

"That's... huh. Why's your dick so big though? I mean, Gods above Zeph, you're putting my kind's sizes to shame with that, at least in terms of girth. How did you hide that from us?"

Now it was Zephyr's turn to shrug. "Baggy pants or skirts and tight underwear?"

"Mm." Gigi, grunted. Another moment of silence hung between them, Zephyr let her shaft go so it jutted out in front of her again.

"Can I touch it?" The minotaur spoke in a quieter tone, leaving Zephyr stunned for a second, her heart racing. Before she could even answer, her shaft gave a seemingly excited throb and a fat bead of faintly shimmering precum oozed from her fist sized glans.

"I... guess? Just uh... be gentle please." She nearly whispered back, Gigi nodded once in return. Slowly her large, rough looking hand came in and simply brushed its fingertips over the top of her length, running them from base to just behind the tip. Gigi's warm breath puffed over Zephyr's shoulder as her hand turned palm up and wrapped her thick fingers completely around her girth, a first time sight and experience for the overly endowed human, who couldn't help but let off a shivered breath of excitement. At the same speed and gentleness from before, Gigi moved her hand up and down the venous member, her knuckles brushing her low hanging fruits on each pull down.

"Like that?" She whispered, glancing slightly up at Zephyr, who couldn't take her eyes off the hand that pleasured her.

"Y-yeah... like that..." Zephyr whispered, leaning back on both hands and trying to keep her whole body from shivering with excitement.

"What's it feel like?" Gigi's hand pulled up higher to that fat tip, spreading around the viscous precum for lube.

"It's uh... I dunno, I can't exactly um... give a response the average person could give." She let off a breath of a chuckle. "But, when it's soft, it just kinda flops around or feels heavy, like... holding one of those chewy rice balls we used to make between your legs? I dunno-"

That earned a snicker from Gigi, whose stroking started to get ever so slightly faster.

"I always wondered what it was like for men. 'Specially the bulls, I like their horns but I dunno if I'd want to deal with one of these every day." She mumbled, Zephyr humming softly with a nod and looking up to Gigi's head.

"I think you'd look.. ah... pretty cool with horns, yeah..." Her breath picked up in pace, a tight warmth starting to build up in her gut and her orbs starting to clench up closer to her base.

"Mm, thanks. Getting close?" The minotaur leaned in a little closer, her strokes focused more on the upper half and crown of Zephyr's rod. Nodding shortly in response with squinted eyes and bitten lip to try and keep quiet, she felt her climax rising to a crescendo.

Zephyr's hand closest to Gigi shot out to hold onto her shoulder right as her hips bucked forward, her other hand coming up to cover her mouth and muffle a shuddered moan. The faint outline of her abs flexed, and her urethra swelled out underneath her cock just before the first finger thick rope of seed was shot out. It arced far out over the water, landing with a plopping splash a good four feet away from its point of origin.

"Oh damn-" Gigi's brows raised as she watched the ongoing climax in awe, one after another those long strands of semen shimmered with that opalescent tint, faintly keeping their shape in the water before sinking down or being carried off by the current. Five shots, six, seven... Gigi's expression went from surprise to gobsmacked at the volume this cock was putting out. After the tenth rope flew out, only a few weak globs trickled out of Zephyr's crown and rolled down Gigi's knuckles, the shaft she still held onto slowly starting to wilt. The only sound between the two of them was the humans labored breathing, until Zephyr spoke up.

"Holy shit... I can't believe you just did that..." Whether she was talking to herself or her fiend, neither of them could really tell.

"That was... something." The minotaur mumbled, pulling her hand back and looking at the rather pleasant looking streak of white across the back of her fingers.

"This... hhh... stays here." Zephyr sat up a bit, then leaned forward to cup some water into her hand and rinse the leftover cum from under her tip.

"Obviously." Gigi chuckled, and managed to lick her knuckles clean without Zephyr noticing.

"Um... thank you, for the uh, distraction." She added, standing back up and heading over to her nearly dried off clothes. "Hope this means you'll return the favor later on." She had her back to Zephyr, but she could hear the subtle smirk on her bovine lips.

"Favor? I thought this was your distraction." Zephyr smiled back, feeling a little more comfortable with being naked around Gigi, who chuckled in response. "Ok, yeah I'll return the favor. Hopefully you'll provide as much of a distraction for me as I did you."

--o--

The two finished up the morning with some shared silence, listening to birds and drying off in the sun before getting dressed. Gigi made a comment on Zephyr's member behaving like a turtle with how far it was able to shrink back, which coaxed a giggle from them both. Eventually they both made their way back to the campfire, which was just a smoldering pile of embers by now.

Kar'liss was still sitting by it, Seline had been moved to a makeshift bed made from thin, leaf covered oak twigs and was still asleep. Kar'liss looked up from poking the embers as the other two came back.

"Been away for a hot minute, get lost on the way back?" She leaned her cheek on her fist.

"Had to wait for our clothes to dry." Gigi replied, taking a seat on a fallen log.

"Mm. So what next? We can't exactly stay here, those knights are probably cutting their way into the forest by now." The dragonborn stood up and swiped some dirt over the dead fire with the side of her boot.

"We have to keep going west, Ralden's Keep has to know about this." Zephyr moved over next to Seline.

"Guess we're skipping breakfast then, I don't think I could eat anyway." Kar'liss muttered as she picked her bow up. Zephyr gently shook Seline awake.

"Hey, c'mon, we gotta move, we're going to the city." She spoke softly to the half elf, who very begrudgingly got up.

"Can I wash up first?" She looked down at her hands, the blood on them from earlier having dried and somewhat flaked off, but a fair amount remained stuck to her skin.

"Sure, but we shouldn't take too long." Gigi got up last.

"Can you um... wait nearby? I don't want to be too far from you all." She spoke even quieter, fingers nervously rubbing together.

"Of course." Zephyr gave a small nod and a faint smile, the four moving down to the river together.

While Seline washed herself to the bare minimum, that being just her hands and face, the other three sat on the shore and discussed whether to continue by trail, or cut through the forest again.

"I think the trail might be better, it's a sure way to the city and we won't get dirty again going through the trees." Zephyr offered, getting a nod from Gigi.

"Yeah but the woods are way fuckin' faster, we can save like a days travel going through them." Kar'liss gestured to the trees across the river further west.

"Liss, we can't all handle the forest like you can. Besides, what'd we do if, I dunno, a black panther drops down on us?" Zephyr furrowed her brow a bit with straightened lips.

"Don't be ridiculous, black panthers aren't a thing, just leopards with more melanin. And those things don't live in oak forests, wolf-spiders do."

"Wolf-spiders?" Zephyrs scrunched brow shot up in a mix of surprise and hoping to prove her point that they were most definitely not capable of the woods path.

"Seline, what do you think?" Gigi cut in, the half elf had just come back to join the group.

"U-uh... well, the trail sounds a lot safer..." She looked like she was going to shrink into nothingness as three sets of eyes were on her for the final vote.

"Alright, fine, trail it is. Don't blame me if we get pinched by highwaymen or something." Kar'liss slapped her knees as she stood up, and started walking off in the direction the river flowed. "Trail's this way, river thins out too."

With a collective sigh, Zephyr, Gigi and Seline trail behind their dragonborn guide.