"Funny enough, no," Winterscale said. "They're bloody fast, and hard to spot, but not any harder than any other arboreal predator. Maybe we'll take a few lesser trophies along the way, if it takes a while to find one."

It did take a while, as happened, and Anika had plenty of time to talk to the other people on the skiff. Hadarak Fel proved a charming and pleasant conversationalist, if a bit foppish, but Anika never quite lost the impression that it was all an elaborate act for his own amusement. "Oh my, yes," he was saying. "We actually found the Righteous Path. That would be what you meant? It was quite the adventure. You had questions, perhaps?"

Every so often, the skiffs would pull into a hovering stop to survey the surrounding countryside. Several times they descended, pursuing low after a herd of some xenos or other, at the request of one of the passengers, and before long the cargo compartments on the skiffs - refridgerated, conveniently - were filled with several carcasses. Winterscale was growing increasingly sour as the time went on, though, and they failed to find what he was looking for. Eventually, however, Echo caught a glimpse of movement in amongst the trees. Something huge and silent, and qiet as a shadow, shifting beneath layers of dense foliage. Beneath the tree were a few scattered bones, the remains of one of the local prey animals.