He takes a moment to look at the fissure, too, while he's examining the area.

"Looks like we've found them, then," he points out the tracks with the foot of his walking stick. "Fire protection?" He casts it and offers it around, leaving himself for last.

The fissure smells a bit foul, and is a dark opening that's quite hard to see into. It doesn't look like anything is ready to leap out at them, at least. They all accept fire protection. Privately, Mrs. Remington is wondering whether this was really a good idea, but of course she doesn't say anything. Just adjusts her grip.

"Say something if something feels... Off, everyone." Abernathy says. "The human mind is observant and powerful. Raafi, can you lead us on the trail?"

"Mmhmm," he nods. "This might be a good time for an augury, first, though."

They look a bit doubtful, but, "Those have a reputation of not working when mystics and such attempt it, but your other powers have proof, so may as well."

So he does, crouching to burn a pinch of incense and roll a par of dice on a small sliver tray.

"Weal," he reports. "Looks like we'll be successful."

"Grand!"

They get much more serious as the hunt is afoot. Over the course of several hours, they track their way through jungle (seeing some interesting plants along the way), and eventually find a patch of disturbed ground that almost certainly contains their lizard. It looks to be about four feet long. With fire protection up, Mr. Remington volunteers to go forward and 'beat' it out of cover by stomping loudly and shouting.

When the Heater Lizard scrambles out of its hole, flames lick along its hide. It doesn't bother trying to attack, instead scuttling at top speed towards another piece of cover, setting a bush alight as it goes. Three guns bark, and several shots hit. The small fires set off by the panicking creature are suppressed by other plants, dark grey vines with purple flowers which almost seem to eat the smoke and heat.

The hide is imperfect now - only a clean hit through the eye or a limb joint makes for a perfect hide - but it'll serve well enough and it was over for the animal in less than a minute. They separate out the hide and meat and skull and some of the bones, for trophies, and several large organs that they think the scientists would want, taking photos of the butchering process and commenting cheerfully on it to Raafi. It's only fair that Raafi gets the hide, if he wants it. The meat proves to be slightly bitter in a way that carnivore meat often is, but with a thick heaviness to it and deliciously oily.

After that, it's about time to move on. His captain greatly enjoyed the stopover in the Nature Reserve, but New Winchester awaits! Thankfully, the remainder of the journey is uneventful, aside from Tisha the engine's rat-engineer giving him an address in New Winchester and a passcode - "Rubber Band Maxim". 'Some rats what are mostly good folks probably', according to her.

New Winchester itself is a far bigger city than Port Prosper. Prosper had perhaps thirty or forty thousand people - New Winchester is at least twice that size, built into, around, under, and through, a sprawling series of sky islands. Refineries and construction echo through the sky, and giant pipes rattle with their contents here and there. The outskirts of the city look abandoned, and smog coats the inner areas. They pass several landmarks on the way in- A hospital, Company House, Victory Hall, the scrapyards full of dozens of laid-up sky engines, Victoria Market (an upscale collection of twisty streets and warehouses, quite bustling).

They're guided into a dock by signals, and when the train clunks into place, all the crew relax and cheer. Raafi is free to leave, and Captain Abernathy says it was a pleasure.