protested Carbo, as the four travelers trudged out of the forest and onto the familiar flat, brown plain. “Can’t we stop and camp for a day? In the mountains? By the stream?” Sulfie, plodding behind her brother, nodded miserably in agreement. “Water and cool grass! Oh, the smells! I want to go to sleep!” “Yeah. Can’t we stop?” asked the red-eyed Dram, stumbling over a root that curled across the trail. “Ouch. Damn. Slow down, will you?” “We have to get some miles behind us,” Jaymes said, unsympathetically. If he was feeling any ill effects from the ale he had shared with them and the hill dwarves of Meadstone, the fact was not apparent to the others. “We have to cross the plains again, then return, in two months. Don’t have time to waste.” He nodded at Sulfie, who had a bulging bag strapped to her backpack. “Have a care with that sulfir. It’s a valuable specimen.” The little gnome woman sniffed but reached around to make sure the sack was secure. The hill dwarf had provided them with a generous sample, and Sulfie said she would embark on a study of its properties.
