"Thank you, ma'am. I expect that Master Deskyl will want something to eat at some point, but we're unlikely to need anything else before morning."

"Oh, right." Allegra stands up, rummages briefly in her bag, and sticks a brown paper bag with some rectangular compressed oat and fruit bars on the table. "I'll talk to anyone I see on the way home, you might end up deluged in trail snacks, but if you don't at least you've got something.

Water upstream of where the bluebells start is good to drink if there isn't enough left in the jug, anyone hanging around should be happy to play fetch."

"Thank you, ma'am."

There's a barely perceptible rustle from the tent. "I should go," and she does.

Allegra begins to head off, but deliberately taking her time in case something happens. 

Nothing happens immediately, but she may still be in sight of the tent a few minutes later when Deskyl emerges and leaps into the tallest nearby tree, looking for a good view of the sunset.

Well. That's a thing. Deskyl can probably register her brief surprise before it gets overtaken by weariness, and the fascination and interest of a handful of people who had been deniably doing chores as close as possible to the strange encampment.

It doesn't seem like they want to be bothered and it's been a bit of a day, so Allegra just continues to heads home, asking a couple of people she knows to be night owls to keep a general ear out.

Deskyl stays in the tree for a few hours before leaping back down, landing on her feet with an audible thump but no sign of discomfort, and returning to the tent to get an update on the situation from DZ.

That done - it takes most of an hour - she decides to take a bit of a walk to get a sense of the area around the tent; she won't go into town, but what else is nearby?

The 'town' - less than fifty rather improvised looking buildings, with a set of larger and slightly sturdier looking outbuildings along the forest's edge - is pretty much all there is in the way of man-made features.

The forest closes in soon after the little clearing where the tent has been placed, coming down to the banks of the stream. There are some signs of forestry work and wood harvest but it's fairly subtle and carefully sustainable; there are no main paths or signs that people venture far into the forest regularly.

The stream has a distinct area where it throws off huge amounts of bluebells, cheerfully oblivious to the season, then abruptly stops doing that either side.

There are some people still up. Someone's sitting against a tree just on the border of the forest with line of sight on the tent, apparently consumed in a whittling project by the light of the lightstone on his belt, but more alert than he looks. A couple of people are still out panning the stream - the moonlight seems to somehow feel brighter in the bluebell covered area.

The road away from here, such as it is - a muddy, rutted cart track - is actively guarded, or at least there are four people scattered in positions they find reasonably comfortable, one of them up a tree, vaguely keeping an eye on it while doing some kind of repetitive hand work like cord weaving or making twine.

If Deskyl doesn't actually try to leave via the road, or call attention to herself, they don't pay attention, although if she gets close one of them may spot her unless she's seriously trying to avoid it. 

She stops to watch the panners, first, lurking unobtrusively nearby for a few minutes before levitating a crystal out of the water and presenting it to the nearer one with a noise of wordless curiosity.

Brief startlement. Oh no. Got to be polite to the powerful stranger. "Oh, thanks," says her benefactory, rather nervously.

The nerves are only partly down to the strangeness of the situation, mostly from having to interact directly with anyone at all - there may be a reason he's out here at night.

He wipes the crystal off carefully and nestles it in a little wooden box with some absorbant sawdust. 

She backs off without further comment, finding another spot a little farther up the river; in ten minutes when she's ready to move on she returns, quietly clicking her tongue to get his attention while she's still several feet away and pointing to the pile of a dozen or so crystals she's leaving on the riverbank.

She checks out the road next. She's making no particular effort toward not being spotted, but a quietly-moving person in a black clothes with no light source in the middle of the night hardly needs to make an effort; on the other hand she is interested in seeing where the road goes, which might draw a bit of attention.

The man's eyes widen and he can't seem to decide between being amazed or pleased or terrified. He shares out most of the crystals with the other panner to put away safely, but slips one into a pocket.

One of the lookouts is sitting nearly on the road at its entrance, and scrambles lightly to her feet as the quiet shadow goes by. She's proud that she spotted the figure before the others, adding to her quiet confidence in her own abilities.

"Hey," she calls, fairly quietly, "Need anything? We're to let you go where you want, just checking."

Deskyl stops when the lookout calls out, but gestures at her ear and shakes her head rather than answering.

"Okay then. You need an escort?" the lookout says without thinking, then feels a bit embarrassed. Then she tries to mime two people walking down a road by pointing hands downwards and gradually wiggling both hands towards that direction as if walking, then a querying gesture with one hand, then repeats the first gesture with one hand and shrugs expansively, trying to convey she doesn't mind either way.

She just seems to assume that she can be seen; there is a bit of moonlight but here there is more shade from the surrounding forest.

She's a sensory specialist, of course a minor consideration like 'light level' isn't going to stop her from seeing her surroundings.

She shrugs and continues down the road, avoiding the worst of the mud.

Unless she appears to object, she is being followed at a polite distance by the erstwhile lookout, mostly out of curiosity.

The road continues like this for about a mile before it joins another road, there's an obvious direction to keep going as a slight right turn or a sharp left turn available. This road has noticeably more fresh foot tracks, although only one recent set that take the sharp bend. 

She'll spend a minute or two looking around, to get more of a sense of the place, and then head back.

Other than the road, it's pretty much wild forest, although there's something slightly off about it - not _completely_ wild, somehow... influenced, curated, made safe and useful for people, just not in an obvious way.

That's weird, but trying to sort it out now will just give her a headache. She heads back, pausing to acknowledge the lookout when they get to her spot, and then takes the long way around the settlement to get back to the tent.

The lookout nods back, and smiles. Nobody else seems to spot her, although she can feel the smugness radiating off the successful lookout as she brags to one of the others about it.

(That's cute.)

She doesn't leave the tent again that night; DZ goes to look for breakfast for her when the sun has been up for about an hour.

Quite a few people are up by now, although there's no sign of Allegra. Before DZ can get to the Steading, three different briars have converged cheerfully on her from separate directions.

"Good morning!"

"Did you sleep well? Oh, uh, did your friend sleep well?"

"We've still got some bacon left if you want to join us for breakfast!"

"Maybe they don't eat bacon. I've got three kinds of museli and powdered milk..."

"We've got porridge on if you'd like! Cinnamon, raisins and honey to stir in, nuts as well..."

"Master Deskyl slept well, thank you, sir, but she'd prefer to eat in the tent this morning. She does like bacon, though, and would it be possible for me to get her bread and butter and fruit?"

"Absolutely! Separate on a plate or a bacon butty?"

"What kind of fruit? We've got apples, pears, dried apricots, raisins, some dried orange slices..."

"Can we get her anything to drink? I can go refresh your water, or we've apple juice, pear juice, grape juice..."

"Separately, please. She likes pears and apricots, thank you, and whatever juice is easiest to come by will be fine."