Finding His Way...

Now that Aralt has managed to lose Meen by having her go off and obtain a cup of tea for him and has picked her wee Pkysee brain about what she might know, he turned for the road heading to the Baron's mansion.

Aralt chuckled to himself, "I would love to be a tiddlefly on the wall in the council room when that Pyksee minion reports that she lost me." 

"The council members truly do not understand what is returning and the power I hope to re-claim when "She" returns," thought Aralt to himself. ​

Now Aralt was familiar with the many caves in and around his own home and on the out-skirts of the Village but he wasn't aware of any caves located under the so called Baron's mansion.  Maybe he shouldn't have gotten rid of that Pkysee just yet he thought as he continued walking down the path leading out of town and hopefully in the direction of where he figured the Baron's home would be.  Since Aralt lived in the opposite direction and had no previous reason to explore this part of the countryside before, it made sense to him that this should be the way to go.

"It can't be much further down the road surely?"  grumbled Aralt as he pulled out a small rock that had worked it's way into his shoe and was rubbing his toes the wrong way.  He had been walking (which wasn't his favorite way to travel) for quite a distance and was getting hot and miserable when he spied something blue flashing ahead.  "There!  It flashed again!" he said to himself turning his head slightly to catch the glimpse of blue in some nearby bushes.

Slowly and ever so quietly he crept towards the bushes - hoping to not frighten away whatever was causing the blue flashing.  As he gently pulled a few of the branches away he could see several Wysps hovering together and sounding very vocal.  Actually, they were arguing over the rules of some leadership stick!  

"We can't drop the stick while standing in some bushes to decide who has to be the leader at the next meeting," one of the Wysps was complaining.  "It's got to be in a cave where it's harder to not get hit when it falls.  Besides, if we are all in the bushes and the stick hits the bush which hits some of us, then who has to be leader?  We should just go back to the meeting cave instead of being here!"

Aralt just could not figure out what the problem was.  "I would think one of them would want to be the leader and tell the others what to do," he thought.  "Wysps are so strange."  ​It was also surprising to Aralt to see so many Wysps together at one time like this.  They were usually solitary in planning their next bout of mischief.  "It's unusual that they seem more concerned about what they were talking about instead of finding me as a lone walker on a path," he wondered confused.  "I can't believe that things have changed that much since I have been gone.  Their favorite choice of things to do has always been to prank someone out alone."

Aralt wished he could get closer to hear more as his curiosity was now tweaked but he was afraid of making them scatter and disappear.  As they continued arguing, all he could hear was a few scattered words but what he heard had his attention.  When they complained about a "portal" and "blinding light in their cave" it made Aralt wonder.  "Were these the same caves that are under the Baron's house?" he asked himself.  After all, that seems the direction they were coming from if he was heading in the right direction to get there.

Backing up slowly as to not startle the Wysps while they kept arguing the fine points of dropping a stick, Aralt found new energy and resolve to find those caves hidden below this Baron's house.  Once he was far enough away from the Wysps, Aralt quickly turned around and immediately began his trek up the path and to where he hoped were the caves.