To Pluck A Secret, Pluck A Feather -[Ell]-

[Amur]

And very suddenly Ace found himself wishing that Mentor Josk, Niko and The Fire Breather were still talking about him as though he wasn’t there... After Ace had said his piece everyone had fallen quiet and Ace found himself looking into one of the Fire Breather’s eyes. For all the good it did him Ace managed to hold the gaze, but, it didn’t take him very long to start feeling uncomfortable. What was it with everyone here managing to make him feel uncomfortable just by looking at him? Ace didn’t like it when Mentor Josk managed it and he found himself liking this situation even less... The size difference alone just made Ace’s discomfort feel that much worse.

How the Hell did The Hunter face down these two without so much as blinking?

His discomfort eventually got to him enough to start making him shuffle awkwardly. He had no idea what to do with himself and quite simply wanted the gaze to shift away from him. His posture shrank ever so slightly as he did the only thing that came to mind.

“I’m sorry, ya’ didn’t deserve that... Niko jus’ pissed me off.”
He mumbled, running a hand through his hair nervously as he spoke. The silence, however, simply stretched on further, even after Ace had apologised... That just made the feeling of awkwardness intensify which only started to make Ace feel embarrassed. The silence continued to the point where Ace started to feel as though The Fire Breather wanted to make him feel embarrassed, Ace briefly considered apologising again since the first one had clearly not been good enough, however, he didn’t get the chance to say anything.

And then he was being lectured again... Only this time it was different. This one was unlike the lectures he got from Baldur and Mentor Josk. And he couldn’t say why... He already knew everything he was being told, and it struck at his pride... Why was this having more of an effect on Ace than Mentor Josk’s lectures –rants- were?

“That ain’t what I... I didn’t mean for... I already... It’s all... I ain’t... I just...”
Ace stammered, growing flustered as he became frustrated. In fact, he abandoned his efforts to further explain himself and settled on just throwing out the first expression that came to mind, if only so he could have the last word, the expression he settled on was “bite me”, however, he didn’t get the chance to use it since he was led away during his repeatedly failed attempts to explain himself.

(Although, with more than just a few seconds to think on what he had planned to say Ace silently concluded to himself that it was probably a good thing; since he had the strangest feeling that The Fire Breather would have seen his expression as a request.)

The walk did nothing to alleviate Ace’s frustration and embarrassment. But, he said nothing else. He had already been frustrated enough for one day. He couldn’t see how either Mentor Josk or Niko could ruin his day any further, whatever they had planned now couldn’t be much worse than anything he had already endured today.

... That was of course until they entered the manor...

The few Elves that were present in the first room they walked through stopped what they were doing, as if to acknowledge Mentor Josk’s presence. But then immediately looked at Ace... And they didn’t look away; he could almost feel a chill settle over him as he blanched.

“Oh, k-komm AUF.”
Ace muttered, trying to back away as he spoke. He wasn’t even allowed that small luxury, Mentor Josk simply continued leading him through the manor in the direction he wished for Ace to go... Ace paid no attention to where he was being taken, for there were still Elves present in each direction that Mentor Josk led him in. So, Ace was far too busy being very aware that everywhere he went every single eye in the room was turned in his direction.

Even once they were out-of-sight and walking down a narrow hallway that seemed to be made of dirt Ace remained silent and simply listened to what Mentor Josk and Niko had to say... He was now under the impression that they were trying to scare him, the trip through the manor alone had been enough to convince him of that... But, why bring him down here? Ace just couldn’t make sense of it; he knew he was out of his comfort-zone... Why keep pushing that point?

Ace stood rigidly as Mentor Josk finally released his grip on Ace’s shoulder and stepped forward. Still trying to make sense of what was going on Ace ignored what was happening completely, right up until he was forced to briefly shield his eyes from a bright flash of light before he immediately returned to his rigid silence. In fact, Ace wasn’t jolted from his thoughts until he pitched forward as he was pushed forward by Niko. He staggered several steps, but, ultimately managed to remain standing.

“Ack. Berühren Sie nicht mich, intoleranten Idioten.”
Ace grumbled quietly, his confusion and growing stress at the current situation causing him to slip back into his native language. Flinching visibly at the loud sound that followed both his and Niko’s entry into... Wherever they were now... Ace looked around gingerly, taking note that the only way out of here now was clearly with Mentor Josk or Niko... And that was an idea that Ace most definitely did not like.

He remained quiet; he had no idea what to do or what to say... What could he say?

[Elloria]

Josk ignored everything but the paths for several moments, trying to find the right path. He would rather not invoke the vault number if he could help it – that was an option created for those who were not the head of the family. It was usually not very difficult to find the proper thread to follow, but The Vaults were still prone to changing their arrangements at arbitrary times. The mage sometimes wondered why his ancestors had made the decision to do so, but then he recalled some of the…objects that were contained within The Vaults. He shivered slightly as he finally found the thread he was looking for – the third passage on his left was today’s route. “Ah, there we are.” Pleased, he turned back towards Ace and Niko, gesturing for the boy to move forward and join him. With a quiet grumble the boy does so and the trio heads down the path Josk has selected. The walls are still plain – no strange carvings, glowing text or anything; just simple earthen walls broken at semi-regular intervals by equally plain stone doors. But there is an eeriness and sense of foreboding to the corridor, as though it was crowding the group in and trying to weight them down. Josk was practically skipping down it, though. He loved The Vaults. He could think of absolutely no logical explanation for his love and fascination with them. The items sealed away down here were hazardous to one’s health, one way or another. They were dark, dangerous, and their use was highly ill-advised. That was probably what drew him to them. He had always found beauty in the more malicious side of life.

Niko, on the other hand, was shivering and having some second thoughts about this course of action. It was dangerous to let Josk indulge in his darker desires and fantasies – Niko knew that better than anyone. And the Rider could probably get all the information he wanted without the risk. But they were already heading towards wherever Josk intended to take care of business. There really was no going back at this point, even though Niko knew that his twin would scrap his interrogation plans if Niko just asked. No. He was resolved. He would follow through with this. Solomon had already ensured that there was no going back for Niko. Fucking Solomon.

The group eventually stopped beside a door marked Vault 25. Josk pressed his hand against the icy door and murmured, “Open.” The door silently slid away at his touch and he guided Ace through the doorway, followed closely by Niko. The door closed just as silently behind them, leaving them in a surprisingly well-lit room that looked like it might be used for healing procedures. There was a long table with straps on it, three smaller tables to hold whatever instruments one might use, several cabinets filled with who-knew-what, and even a few chairs. Josk gestured towards the chairs. “Sit, Ace. You may as well be comfortable while I work. Niko, just toss your guest on the table.[/i][/color]” The mage went to one of the cabinets, opened it slightly and leaned in to start rummaging through it for some of his basic interrogation instruments. Niko complied with his brother’s request, earning an indignant squawk from the bag he had been carrying when he literally tossed it onto the hard stone table. Josk paused in his rummaging and leaned back out. “Did your bag just squawk?” Niko nodded, shrugging as he did so. Josk raised a slender eyebrow but simply mimicked Niko’s shrug and went back to rummaging.

[Amur]

Ace began to shift around anxiously as Mentor Josk stood in silence... He still couldn’t make sense of what was going on, if Mentor Josk was looking to punish him then he was going much, much further than usual to do so. No, it made no sense; there was something more to this than Mentor Josk simply wanting to punish Ace... But what? It was a question that Ace simply could not answer, and that only made his anxiety intensify.

He felt his chest tighten slightly as Mentor Josk turned back to face him and beckoned for him to move forward. Ace already knew that he had no way out of whatever was happening, and had known that he had no way out back in the clearing... But he still didn’t want to be here, he was still anxious about what was going to happen.

“Was tun Sie? Ich möchte nicht hier zu sein.”
He mumbled as he moved...

The further into these tunnels they moved the more oppressive the atmosphere felt to Ace, and the more oppressive the atmosphere felt the more anxious Ace got. He began trying to find a use for his hands without having to resort to using his Pyromancy, and after many failed attempts simply resorted to silently rubbing his hands together in an extra effort to prevent himself from using his Pyromancy as a distraction.

... For what it was worth to The Young Pyromancer, against all temptation he managed his task...

(Though, he had noticed that Mentor Josk had almost appeared to be... Happy in this place... That was enough to cause Ace to worry further.)

It was when Mentor Josk finally stopped that Ace found himself having some difficulty keeping his breathing steady. But, he managed it. Even when Mentor Josk led Ace into the next room he still managed to keep his breathing steady –though it did take a lot of effort on Ace’s part- but only felt confused once he set his eyes on the room he had just been led into.

After the oppressive –and somewhat frightening- atmosphere of the tunnels the room Ace found himself in was not at all what he had expected it to be... It seemed almost... Light-hearted when Ace compared it to the ordeal that was walking to it, which was still not enough to dispel Ace’s current and still building anxiety. Even as Mentor Josk instructed him to sit down on one of the chairs scattered about the room –though Ace couldn’t see how he could possibly make himself comfortable when he was so anxious- which told Ace that this wasn’t to punish him, no, clearly, there was something else going on.

Nevertheless, Ace followed the instruction and sat on a chair placed furthest from the large table.

And, as tense as Ace was now, he jumped at the suddenness of the squawk he heard when Niko threw his bag onto the table.
---

Aimé remained as quiet as possible, with the multiple threats now hanging over his head from both the wingless and the giant-wings he was determined not to cause himself any further harm by making any noise... And with any luck they would actually listen to what he had to say after having some time to come to their senses. And if that failed, he had heard one of the voices outside the.... wherever-he-was speaking in the language that many of the wingless in Empire Nirvana spoke, he could try to appeal to that wingless, couldn’t he?

He lost track of the amount of time he had felt himself being moved, but that didn’t matter, with his focus on trying to keep himself quiet Aimé was able to stop himself from feeling any further fear since he was not spending his time dreading whatever the wingless and the giant-wings had planned for him... Since he was sure that it involved pain.

He was jolted from his efforts when he felt the wingless carrying him stop moving, and then after a brief conversation –most of which Aimé did not understand- he felt as though he was falling. Aimé panicked and tried to fly, but his wings were still bound by that unseen-force. He prepared himself for the inevitable impact, but that did nothing to lessen the pain as he landed on his side, hard. He cawed involuntarily at the pain and immediately started panicking again.

No! He had tried, he had tried to keep himself quiet, but how was he supposed to do that when the wingless was clearly trying to hurt him. He struggled to stand up, but, still bound as he was he failed at even trying that... He began trembling, why were they targeting him?

[Elloria]

“Curare-dipped knife…sterilized and rusty scalpels…pincers…rope…cloth…hmm, I wonder where that water pouch went…better put the cloth back, I don’t think beaked things can even be waterboarded…oooh, I forgot I even had those old bone drills!” Josk laughed as he pulled the leather case that held the bone drills in question, adding it to the collection of items he had set on the small shelf that extended from one side of the cabinet. He gave the items a once-over, decided that he had everything he needed for the moment – he would have liked a larger toy to use the blooming lotus or perhaps Argetorúm, but he couldn’t have everything in life – and scooped everything up in his arms. He headed back to the “operating” table and laid out all his instruments on two of the small tables – the leather drill case on one, everything else on the other. Once the instruments were arranged to his liking, he carefully undid his cloak and tossed it over the third table before unbuttoning his azure silk overshirt and setting it more gently on top of the cloak. This left him in a plain wool tank top that was dyed a similar color. Without glancing around, he said, “Ace, shift your chair around so that you have a clear view of what I am about to do.” His tone indicated that there would be no arguments. It was not threatening, exactly, but it was not kind either.

Once Ace had scooted around so that he had a clear view of the table, Josk took a deep breath and let it out slowly, blocking off his mind from all outside influence and thought. There were going to be screams and cries of agony. It would be delicious. No toy was unworthy, no whimper a waste of his time. With a loving smile he reached forward and opened the bag, gently lifting his new toy from its sack. Oh? Now wasn’t this an interesting development. Here in his hands was a sentient Crow – a messenger used in the distant Empire Nirvana by a multitude of beings. Supposedly they were anatomically identical to non-sentient crows, save for their bizarre red eyes. Irises nearly white with his delight, Josk continued to gently move the crow around – lifting its wings, testing the movement of its legs, examining its eyes and beak and feathers. To his critical and observant eye, this was a fine specimen indeed. It was quite young by any standard, but old enough to be aware and useful. There was something wrong about using children for one’s dirty work, but sometimes you had to be ethically ambiguous to achieve anything worthwhile. “I assume my brother has threatened you with pain unimaginable if you broke your silence. I am giving you permission to answer my questions and you will broadcast your answers so that everyone in this room can hear them. That is all you may do.” He licked his suddenly dry lips, moistening them slightly. It had been a long time since he had done a private interrogation. “You may certainly scream, though, should the mood strike you. Do you understand, little Crow?”

[Amur]

For everything it was worth to The Young Pyromancer, Ace tried to make himself comfortable as he waited for Mentor Josk to get started on whatever undoubtedly shady business he had planned. He kept his peace and ignored Mentor Josk as he mumbled to himself; he caught the odd word but was unable to make much sense of what he was hearing.

(Though that was likely as much down to the tension Ace still felt as it was to his only getting bits and pieces of whatever it was Mentor Josk was mumbling about.)

He felt a knot form in his stomach as Mentor Josk made some kind of explanation regarding bone drills. He flexed his fingers absently, intently focussing whatever self control he had into not using his Pyromancy to distract himself from everything that was going on. He drew in a deep breath, as long as nothing more happened to increase his anxiety he would be fine.

“Ace, shift your chair around so that you have a clear view of what I am about to do.”
Ace simply clenched his teeth and swallowed hard, moving to do as he was told. At this point he was resigned to the fact that there would be no arguing with Mentor Josk.

Ace stiffened as Mentor Josk removed the Avian Non-Human from Niko’s bag, holding his tongue to prevent himself from asking after Nel. The species all looked the same to Ace, it was impossible for him to tell one of them apart from another unless they were actively speaking to him. Was this somehow related to Niko’s grudge against Master Hunter Latro?

Was he really that warped?
---

There was a brief silence to follow as Aimé hit whatever surface it was that the wingless had thrown him on, he heard mumbling and then some kind of exclamation from one of them. The meaning lost to Aimé, whom held no interest in whatever it was the wingless required to make themselves capable of living day-to-day life. And then the same wingless giving what sounded like an order to an... “Ace”, Aimé ignored the name for the time being and renewed his attempts to stand up. The unseen-force still held him fast, however, which caused him to fail, once more in his attempt. He was starting to get desperate.

He tried to squirm away from the sudden pressure he felt around his body as one of the wingless grabbed him. However, the sudden brightness of wherever-he-was now was overwhelming after having spent so long in that dark-place that Aimé had to stop moving and narrow his eyes at the almost offensively bright light that surrounded him.

It took a long moment for him to adjust and almost at once he was confused, this was the wingless that had found him first wasn’t it?

His thoughts were interrupted, however, when the wingless opened his wings for him. Aimé tried to squirm away from the contact, hating the sensation of having a vile wingless being so quick to explore his wings. However, as before, the unseen-force prevented that.

He was close to vocalising his displeasure at the situation when the wingless spoke... Aimé froze, finally able to notice the very minor differences between this wingless and the other one. What did these lookalike-wingless have against him? He had already said he would tell them whatever they wanted to know. Nevertheless Aimé took the moment to find all three wingless closest to him before he even dared to speak.

He wanted to avoid any further pain.

“Ialreadytoldthelookalike-winglessandgiant-wingsthatIwouldtellthemwhatevertheywantedtoknow! Ialreadydidbuttheywouldn’tlisten!”
Aimé blurted quickly, trying to secure himself a way out of this situation, if this lookalike-wingless was to listen to him, then he could say his piece and be gone. And he would keep his word, he wouldn’t tell Solomon that the lookalike-wingless and giant-wings knew what Aimé had told them... Solomon was a Hunter, he could take care of himself.

[Elloria]

Ialreadytoldthelookalike-winglessandgiant-wingsthatIwouldtellthemwhatevertheywantedtoknow! Ialreadydidbuttheywouldn’tlisten!

Josk frowned. He had wondered whether the toy was being cooperative with Niko or not. Clearly it wished to avoid pain or death at the hands of its enemies – coward that it apparently was. But it was involved with the Solomon individual that his brother despised. So it was obvious that Niko – blinded as he was by hatred – had no interest in showing mercy. The mage wasn’t certain if that elated or saddened him. But that was irrelevant at the moment. They could discuss the matter later. Josk had a job to do and he was going to do it. And it was already off to a magnificent start. So he frowned down at the toy. Moving his hand until it was directly over the toy’s leg, he pinched it gently between his fingers. “That is not the question I asked you, Crow. We have barely begun our questioning and you have already broken the only rule I have given you. That does not bode well for you.”

PleaseIalreadysaidI'dtalk!

His grip on the leg tightened. The resultant caws from the toy made Josk shiver with delight. Its pain threshold was low. Delicious. Speaking both aloud and mentally, his thoughts piercing and direct, he said “I heard you the first time. But telling me information that I have not asked for, while useful to me, will not get you out of this predicament any faster. I will repeat my rules once more. Do not make me say them a third time. You will ONLY answer questions that I ask you. You ARE allowed to vocalize your pain, but those are the only things you may do. Do you understand?” He punctuated the last three words by snapping the bones in the toy’s leg in three different places. The slight frown marring his features deepened as he did so, though it was clearly a look of concentration rather than concern. He only wanted to fracture the bones rather than splinter or cleanly split them – a delicate process in one so small, thus requiring his utmost concentration.

[Amur]

Aimé didn’t understand the thought process behind what the wingless was telling him, why would it need to set “rules” when all it wanted from him was information. He could already guess what kind of information the lookalike-wingless would get use from, but, so far both of them had been refusing to listen to what he had to day. Even going as far as to deny him the opportunity to tell them what they wanted to know.

Aimé doubted that he would ever fully understand the wingless hordes.

He tried to squirm once more as he felt the pressure the wingless was putting on his leg increase. But like every time before this one, whatever unseen-force it was that still held him prevented that, Aimé began to panic as the pressure on his leg began to hurt. But why? Heh ad already said that he was willing to tell it anything it wanted to know.

“PleaseIalreadysaidI’dtalk!”
He pleaded, only to find the pressure on his leg further increased. He winced at the sensation and began cawing as the pain caused by the pressure on his leg began to get unbearable. And once again the wingless was speaking to him, leaving him barely able to understand it through the pain; however, he managed to keep his wits about him enough to understand what he was being told. He didn’t understand why, but, he would only speak when asked a question.

However, the pain in his leg didn’t relent, no. In fact, it got gradually worse. Aimé closed his eyes against the sensation and fell silent only long enough to feel something in his leg give way. He shrieked as the pain struck him. The wingless had obviously just broken one of Aimé’s legs in some way. It had made its point.

“Alright!”
He pleaded frantically. Taking a moment to organise his thoughts enough to speak at a more measured pace, it wouldn’t help him if the wingless couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“I understand.”

[Elloria]

Josk smiled as the toy shrieked in pain. Oh, that was such a satisfying sound – misery vocalized for the world to hear. The elf flicked his tongue briefly over his lips, as if he could taste the suffering in the air. That was preposterous, of course. But he sometimes thought that perhaps it was not so crazy after all.

Alright! ...I understand.

The mage ran his fingers lightly over the broken leg. “I am glad you understand, little Crow. Follow the rules and this will go swiftly.” He murmured a brief healing spell, knitting the bones back together rapidly and completely undoing the damage he had caused. “Displease me and you shall be punished. Please me and you shall be rewarded. Very simple, yes?” he asked as he shifted his hand to begin stroking and lightly tugging on the toys feathers. Where did he begin? There was so much ground to cover – so much that he was personally curious about that would also be of use to Niko. But where…

Well, he supposed he would start with immediate information. After a quick mental confirmation of the subject with Niko, Josk decided on the tack he would start with. “How many hidden camps does the Hunter have and where are they located? How does he move between them and how frequently does he do so?”

[Amur]

This wingless was confusing, that was about the extent of the information that Aimé had managed to gather about it. The moment he had told it that he understood its “rules” the wingless seemed to soften, it even repaired the damage it had just inflicted to his leg –though, the sensation that inflicted actually caused Aimé some discomfort- making him wonder just what this wingless was playing at, was it trying to put him at ease?

“Y-yes.”
He answered immediately to its first question, fearing the threat of further pain. But, there was just one thing that confused Aimé, what did the wingless mean when it said he would be “rewarded”; it was unlikely that it could do anything to-

His line of thought froze as an odd sensation travelled across his body, almost like a wave... Aimé didn’t know how to describe it, but it felt... Nice. If he had been able to move he would have tried to press himself further into the sensation so that he could get the most from it. But, still somehow restrained as he was, all Aimé could do was gently close his eyes as the sensation persisted. No! He couldn’t lose whatever wit he had left, he was in trouble. He managed to open his eyes and keep them open, regardless of how good the sensation felt.

(And he liked the way it felt. But no-one else needed to know that.)

It took whatever force-of-will he may have had, but, Aimé managed to keep himself alert throughout the persistent sensation and was perfectly able to answer the question the wingless had for him when it asked.

“Hidden camps”? Those were the temporary-nests that Solomon travelled between, weren’t they?

“Three” Aimé answered almost immediately “He never stays at one of them for longer than two days. He does have a specific method of moving between his hiding-places, but I-”
At once Aimé froze as he realised he had no idea how many of the places Solomon hid in may have had names. And if they did, he similarly had no idea what those names might be. He had to think quickly, he wanted to try and avoid further pain, and he had zero doubt that this wingless would hurt him again if he was unable to offer an acceptable solution.

“I would have to show you where his hiding-places are located, since Solomon is the only wingless I converse with in this land, I haven’t learned whether or not any of these places have had names given to them by the natives... I-is that acceptable?”
He asked fearfully, he would have to word responses to questions like that very carefully. The wingless was clearly trying to put him in situations where answering its questions would be difficult for Aimé. He needed to be careful, very, very careful.

[Elloria]

Josk nearly purred as the Crow answered almost immediately. It probably thought of the world in more “avian” terms – nests and wings and chicks, etc. He would keep that in mind as the interrogation continued. Not to make things easier on the Crow, but as a small mercy. Its hesitation would have cost it, were it humanoid. See? It was being rewarded and did not even know it.

Oh, and there was the anticipated pause – the reason he needed to hurt it. His hand instantly stilled as the Crow explained that it had never learned the names of…well, any location in Alagaesia, presumably. Solomon was its only contact here. On the one hand, seeing the exact location would make it easier to find the target. On the other hand, he hadn’t said that it could answer non-verbally. That was a tricky decision to make. He doubted it would lie – it wanted to avoid pain, not encourage it.

As he contemplated, he looked over its body. Once his decision was made, his hands moved to shift the Crow to its stomach. After a moment and without warning, he plucked a feather from its back. It squawked in shock, pain – and probably outrage – but his words drowned out any response it might have made.

“You call yourself a messenger?” He plucked a second feather. “You can hand me the exact locations; that is a terrible failing as a messenger. Had you ever wanted to protect an ally that was hiding here, you should have learned the names used by the natives.” He plucked two more feathers in rapid succession, a small one from each wing. The Crow squawked and cawed, apologies blurring into a cacophony of nearly senseless words. It made Josk smile. He flicked the back of its head, causing another loud caw. “Cease your apologies and show me where he hides and how he travels.”

[Amur]

As silence fell following Aimé’s explanation he found himself getting anxious, he had put forward a suggestion to the wingless which –in his mind’s eye- was a very viable alternative to giving it the knowledge it had requested from him. But, so far, this wingless had confused him just enough for him to know that it probably wasn’t of the same opinion.

He felt the wingless move him so that he was upright once more, and then suddenly he felt a sharp pain. He squawked at the shock of the sensation, however, the shock and the pain of the action were heavily outweighed by the fury he felt as he immediately recognised the sensation of having one of his feathers pulled out.

This filthy wingless had pulled out one of his feathers! One of his beautiful feathers! Aimé immediately began to panic and at once began trying to prevent the wingless from pulling out any more feathers.

“Nonononononono!” He pleaded rapidly “I’mnotamessengerbyoccupation! IjustkeepSolomonconnectedtootherwinglesshe’scloseto!”
However, his pleas fell upon deaf ears as the wingless pulled out three more of his feathers while it proceeded to tell him how, as a messenger, he was a failure... Vile wingless...

“No! I’msorry! I’veneverhadareasontolearnwhatevernamesthenativesmayhavegivenplaceshere!”
And once more, his plea went willingly unheard as the wingless simply hit him in the back of the head, somehow. Aimé cawed angrily at the sensation and then spent several seconds glowering as the wingless spoke again. He took a moment to compose himself enough to be able to show this wingless the memories that best showed the location of each hidden-temporary-nest that Solomon had.

Slowly, Aimé showed the wingless the mountainous region to the west of the land. How his attention moved to a specific spot between two small bodies of water before he descended toward a small almost dip-like form the mountains seemed to take. From there, he showed the wingless a small, tightly-packed cluster of trees in a narrow valley between the mountains... He even went far enough to show the wingless exactly how each of Solomon’s hidden-temporary-nests were laid-out and hidden in the tree-tops.

For the sake of simplicity, he simply named this temporary-nest “one”.

Next, he moved onto the small forested area that stood a very short distance away from the much larger forested area covering the most of the north/north-east. Once again, he showed the wingless his descent toward the hidden-temporary-nest and exactly how Solomon kept it hidden and laid-out in the tree-tops... He even showed the wingless the rock formation that Solomon sat on when he wanted some time to himself.

Much like the last temporary-nest, he kept it simple and named it “two”.

Finally, he moved and showed the wingless the larger forested area near the large-warm-golden-yellow area of the land and the large body of water nearby. As before, he showed the wingless exactly where the hidden-temporary-nest could be found, exactly, and even showed it the lay-out and how it was hidden within the tree-tops.

By now, the wingless should have known that Aimé had simply named this hidden-temporary-nest “three”, but he told it anyway.

“L-like I said. He never stays at any one of them for any longer than two days each. He begins moving as soon as the second day ends, and then moves from ‘one’, to ‘three’ and then to ‘two’, rarely stopping at wingless-nests as he moves. And if he does stop at a wingless-nest for any reason, he tries to stay there for no longer than a single day. Once he has travelled that route, he returns to ‘one’ and then travels back to ‘two’ and then over to ‘three’ only to go back to ‘two’ and then ‘one’ to begin the sequence all over again.”
Aimé took a moment to think if what he had shown and told the wingless would be enough... But, it was hard to tell, so far, the wingless had been difficult for Aimé to understand, which had made it difficult to know what the wingless may or may not find acceptable... Which gave Aimé all the more reason to be especially thorough in his explanations, if the wingless found what he said to be unsatisfactory then it would hurt him again.

“H-he does it in that order to try and make it difficult to follow him. If he thinks for even a moment that he is being followed he’ll deviate from his routine to try and throw you off.”
He added, surely that extra little bit of knowledge should have been all the wingless would have needed to be able to locate Solomon, wouldn’t it?

[[OOC: Map. To simplify the locations of each of Solomon's hidden camps, "one" is located at The Spine, at the almost "L" shaped dip located between Fläm and Woadark Lake.

"Two" is located in the small cluster of trees just off of Du Weldenvarden, near Marna.

While "three" is located in the forested area between The Hadarac Desert and Tüdosten.]]