As he seems to be the only one of their little group bringing a mount, Barlan feels kinda silly riding his pony and very early on their journey dismounts and walks beside the rest of them, leading the pony as well as his packmmule along. While he listens intently to the old mans exposition, he doesnt add anything on that subject himself. He only wearily looks at Gareth as the man talked about that orc army. Were those relatives of this guy? He still didnt know much about his new traveling companions and trust is something that doesnt come easy to Barlan.

Instead of speculating about their mission, Barlan uses the time on the road to talk with Muirella. He doesnt get to use his native halfling language as often as he would like, so he really enjoys simple smalltalk with her. In time he mixes in jokes about their traveling companions, which are pointy but not really malicious, and eventually the talk becomes borderline flirty.