"I don't think we can make it to a village tonight. Let's camp here and go back down tomorrow."

"Alright. I'll stay alert in case, like, wolves come up." The howling's mostly remained in the distance, but the amount of it's been picking up a bit.

Bump. "Thanks.

El starts gathering wood for a fire and leaves to turn into a pillow.

Bellona helps with the wood - she'll be feeding the fire, after all - and with lighting it.

"Night, El."

"Good night, Lion." She lays down to sleep in the rock tent she made.

And she settles in to keep watch.

...The wolf howls get closer. Bellona stands up once a closer yelp and a rustle in the bushes startles her, tense, and creates a little wall with alchemy as quietly as she can.

There's scuffling on the other side of it. Bellona stays alert.

...It's hopefully her imagination that the wolves are talking to each other. She doesn't recognize the language, but - she can almost hear words, harsh and dark, in their growls and yelps.

They move on, eventually, as it gets close to dawn.

Bellona leaves the wall up, and keeps the fire going.

El wakes up in the morning, eyeing the new wall warily.

"Did anything happen overnight?"

"A lot of wolves started investigating us. Figured it'd be best to avoid a fight, especially since they sounded like they were talking, almost."

"Talking wolves. Great. This just keeps getting better."

Snicker. "I'll avoid suggesting ways it could get worse."

"You never know who's listening."

"I doubt anyone important."

"Let's not find out."

"Let's also find something to eat."

"Sure. Plants, or catch something?"

"Catch something. Keep an eye on the plants to see if we recognize any, though."

"Sure." She takes down the wall; the ground outside is a bit churned up, immense wolf tracks left in the softer dirt.

"Big dog."

"Yup. Sounded like a bunch of them, too."

"Wonderful. Let's hope they don't come back."

Off into the woods.

She nods.

It's still dim out, the tall mountains casting a long shadow against the still rising sun, and a morning mist has settled over the land, muffling sounds and cutting their visibility down almost to nothing.

It's hard to say if the shapes in the mist are trees or wolves.

At the moment, she'll settle for a rabbit.

The rabbits, fortunately, seem about as unaware of the girls as the girls are unaware of wolves.

They stumble on a couple at the edge of a small clearing.

Two dead rabbits, coming up.

They're easy enough to catch for two young alchemists, and preparing and cooking them is easy enough with alchemy.

They at least look and taste appropriately rabbit-ish.

Bellona keeps an eye on the shapes in the fog while El eats. There's almost certainly something following them...

"Think we should deal with whatever this is now or keep going and try to lose them down the mountain?"