That sounds great! Will you need a bunch of trees or one big one with different fruits on different branches?

Easiest way might involve different trees that get grafted together onto one once they're ready?

It can be so big and we can have branches with fruit on them reach right into the treehouse. Is Bonesaw unclinging enough to let Beka resume packing.

Sure - Bonesaw can pack as well.

"I guess we can set out on our own tonight and camp out somewhere? It might take me a couple of days to make us something faster than walking but I can do it while we travel."

"Yeah. We should cross water, in case smell matters, and try not to leave a trail of weird stuff or anything, and maybe zigzag a little so if we do leave something it doesn't lead in a straight line."

"I can dose us with the same chemical I used for our treehouse to mask the smell. Zigzag a bit might make sense but I think it's easier to do that once we have mounts and don't have to worry about how far away we are as much."

"How long will mounts take?"

"Hm, tommorow I can capture some deer so they follow us around for the day, the day after that they should be ready for riding? I can do it faster if we need to be far away sooner than that, but they wouldn't be as well made. They might break or need lots of repairing and I probably would find it harder to improve them later."

"...I don't really want to wait that long to get moving. Can we catch them on the go?"

"Oh yeah, that was my plan. Are we leaving tonight?"

"Yeah." Pack pack.

"Okay."

Bonesaw packs hurriedly - throwing together some things to help make the mount creation easier as well as her own basic tools. She keeps a single glowing shell from the strings on the wall as well.

As long as it doesn't slow them down! Off Beka strides into the woods, south-by-southeast.

Bonesaw trots after her, srays herself and then Beka and Kat with a green liquid for de-scenting purposes.

The moon is plenty to see by and they don't need to walk quietly, anything that could hear them would be way too close anyway. Until it comes time to catch a couple deer, anyway.

Bonesaw brought bait! It is very effective once she has managed to keep it from squirming out of her hands. After a bit of slapdash brain surgery they have two deer following them around.

The deer slow them down - they're quick in short bursts but need more rests, at least before they have modifications - but will hopefully speed them up soon.

They can speed up to the point of not slowign them down within hours, and by dawn of the next day they are ridable.

"Do you want something to help you stay-up longer? I can combine our mounts into one Friend once we stop for a couple of hours I think, than we can take shifts steering."

"I've been singing myself awake but if you have something else that would help it'd make it easier, the song's not perfect."

Bonesaw can inject something through Beka's eye into her brain that does wakefulness.

"That won't actually help with physical fatigue too much, so avoid using your muscles. Also your dreams might be a bit more vivid than usual next time you sleep."

"'Kay." She can ride with as little muscle use as possible till they're far from where they were tracked down.

Eventually they camp for the night and Bonesaw can merge their mounts into one. The next few days will be exhausting regardless, but they'll outpace any attempts to search for them and once they find a safe spot to make a new home they can stop.

After a while they can stop looking for ways to get farther away and start looking for places that look nice to stop at and settle into.

"That's a nice looking river," Beka says. It is, wide and slow and with shallow banks and lots of willows bending over it, plenty of fish. They can find a treehouseable stand of oaks just barely out of the sightlines on the water.

"Oh! I wonder if I could catch fish with an automatic net thing - it would be easier than hunting so often."

"Maybe! I don't think it would've occurred to me that you could make a net that worked by itself, unless it was also a creature? It'd be neat though!"