"I think the point is that it's trickier to do it in your head? We could think of something less tricky though." 

"I was thinking along the lines of you pick a topic like fruit or something and have to come up with examples starting with the last letter of the last example but I'm not sure that's a good game by itself."

"I mean, we could try it for a while and see if it's too easy, and then add more constraints..." He yawns. "Maybe tomorrow, I'm tired." 

"Me too, that was a long walk."

Ma'ar gets up and starts setting up the tent artifact for them. "Skan, will you be comfortable just out here?" 

"Yess, I have featherss to keep warm." 

Yawn. "Good, I'll just do an illusion on you then." 

Ma'ar does this and then sits on top of the canvas sheet he brought to go under the tent-barrier, between them and the grass, and unrolls his blanket. He waits for Azabel to come in as well before raising the barrier. 

In she goes. She sets up her bedding insofar as she has any and pillows her head on her arm.

And they go to sleep. 

...Ma'ar has nightmares much less frequently, nowadays, but still sometimes, and it turns out that sleeping out in the open, exposed, in a place he's not used to and in a context that has all the associations of never-being-safe of his childhood, is not great for this. He doesn't actually wake up screaming, but he does toss and turn and whimper a lot, and occasionally startles awake and needs to spend a while calming down. 

Aza sleeps pretty soundly. When he wakes up he can calm down to the sound of her murmuring things like "Oats. Rainbow. Vinegar. Ball. Parade."

Ma'ar wakes up not totally rested, but he can manage. He sits up, yawning, and makes part of the tent-barrier transparent on the inside so he can watch the rest of the sunrise. 

"- Did you know you talk in your sleep?" he says to Azabel once she's awake. 

"- no, I didn't! What did I say?"

Ma'ar can quote her the snippets he remembers while he packs up his things and eats some dried fruit and nuts that he packed. 

"None of that has anything to do with any dreams I remember at all."

"Huh! That's interesting." Ma'ar would ask her what she dreamed about but then she might ask him and he doesn't really want to talk about it. 

Once they've breakfasted and packed, they can head out again. It's cloudy today, and colder. 

"Be easier to make it rain with all this. Maybe tonight before we fall asleep so we don't have to walk in it."

"Makes sense." Ma'ar shades his eyes, peers at the horizon. "- Skan, figure you could fly out and scout again? I think we should be most of the way to Kiyam clan lands, but - even if they're still around they might've moved, people are nomadic here anyway, right." 

"Ssure, I could do that!" Can he hand his pack off to them again? 

Ma'ar is happy to take it. 

Zooooooooooom up up up into the sky! 

"I'm glad we brought him."

Ma'ar nods, smiling. "So am I." 

Skan is back about half a candlemark later. "I ssaw people! About ten miless away, that way. They weren't paying attention to me sso I flew a bit lower to get a look - is there a way to tell which clan it was, if I describe them...?" 

"If you think it really loudly in your surface thoughts, I can read it from you without getting anything else?" 

Wing-shrug. "I don't mind that much if you do get ssomething elsse too." And Skan holds the mental image of the clustered tents and guarded cattle-herd as clearly as he can.