Osiria: Battle Blood.

Hippocerfs surrounded Osiria and the other adventurers. Great claws stirred up the desert dust as they encroached, circling her like prey, jaws snapping hungrily. She felt her blood surge with the thrill of battle as her breath quickened to meet each hasty step. Others around her cast spells of protection, and soon Osiria too was engulfed in the blue aura of safety. Although she was not raised a mage as those who fought beside her, with a quick bow she revealed her appreciation.

Once the battlewarden indicated their enemy, Osiria let her arrows fly. One after another, she barraged the great monsters with her ranged attack; then chased obediently after the battlewarden to discern their next target. Hippocerfs always attacked in packs of ten to twenty and they spent the better part of an afternoon following their slobber filled tracks.

The ragged band returned to Camp Horizon, all Hippocerfs defeated, as the great sun sank below the dunes. Covered in sweat, dirt and blood, Osiria slumped against a market stall. She cringed when yet another wave of sand whipped through her hair.

Osiria realized her chapped lips longed for the rejuvenating groves of Gridania. She missed the smell of lingering sawdust leftover from workdays at the Carpenter’s Guild and the moist scent of incense wafting across the ponds from the elusive Conjurer’s Guild. Most of all she missed Miounne’s stories and her own sense of belonging in that strange forest town.

And so, she set about commencing her return.