Finding D&D - 3

John returns from the bathroom and looks around, saying, “The girls are on the deck.” I nod and he takes his seat. “Remind me again; how many children are there?”
“56,” Rick answers, before I can.

“That’s right.”

John sighs. “I wish there were more of us.” I understand that he would like there to be more adults to look after them.

Olivia and Susan, having seen that John’s back, come in, leaving the door open. The sun has set and the eastern sky is deepening from steely blue to azure.

Susan’s eyes are a little red. I make a guess about things she might have said to Olivia, but I don’t ask. I don’t worry. Susan’s seen dark times and she’s made of nails. As she sits down, she starts right in, as though nothing’s happened. “If the haruchai are coming after us, they won’t come from above—they’ll come from below. Right?”

“Yes,” I say. That would make sense.

“And what about beasts up on the pass? Should we expect anything?”

“Probably not. I’d have to roll for that.”

Susan glances at the others. “Since we have five unconscious kids, I suggest we split into two groups. Einrugg and Lisandro stay down here with most of the younger kids, and Chen to help keep them in order. Lisandro can keep watch with her owl. Piotr and I will go up in three trips, carrying the unconscious ones, setting up a camp about a thousand feet below the top.”

“It’ll be freezing up there,” says Rick. Then, to me, he asks, “What’s the altitude, roughly?”

“Well... you can't be sure, but based on the look of the mountains, the plateau you’re on, the part of the world you’re in… you’d estimate the pass is about 8,500 ft.”

Continued on The Higher Path