As the boar's squeals die off, Yoshi stops his circling. He take one obvious moment of putting his On back on. Then upon hearing Hekasu's words he grunts acknowledgement. Putting arrow to bowstring he scans the forest from where the beast originated. Controlling his breathing, in and out consistently on a three count, Yoshi grows still like the woods. Only he eyes move.

::Water(2)Survival(1)Assist(1): I roll two explosions with strife, an option, and a blank. I keep the explosions and option. The explosions give men another success and a blank. I'm in water stance so I use the option to remove 2 strife. I finish with a total of 3 successes.::

The trail of bloodied and broken twigs and saplings is not hard to follow, but continues to the west for some distance. Yoshi is careful not to move too far from the road lest he lose sight of his companions or outpace the wounded Hekasu. The two samurai pick their way carefully along the trail for several minutes before Yoshi gestures for the pair to stop in the lee of a massive, ancient willow tree. The trail of the boar changes between one side of the small dell from a panicked charge to a gentle, meandering saunter, with some of the leaves and fungi of the deep woods nearby casually chewed on. Hekasu moves to search one side, whilst Yoshi searches the other. It takes a few moments before Hekasu beckons the tall ronin over; the boar, in the first few moments of its charge - or, as Yoshi suspects, flight - the boar had darted under an arch formed by one of the largest roots of the tree branching away from the main trunk.

Snapped off on the ground, where it had broken against the bole of the willow's root, is the rear part of a long grey-feathered arrow-shaft.

Yoshi searches the vicinity, but either the shot had been made at very long range or by a huntsman more gifted than most at leaving no tracks. With the tracks of the boar going back and forth, and the earth churned up when it panicked, it's tough to say which direction the boar was facing when its mad flight began, but if forced to make a guess, Yoshi thinks the archer would have been somewhere to the southwest.

Kenshin looks around the clearing once again, trying to see if there are any more dangers to the party, animal or not.

"Hekasu-san. I think this is as far as I can easily follow. If we return to the horses and leave now... On the road I think we would outpace anyone traveling on foot through the undergrowth. If they were bandits and wished us harm. And not just some poacher who just wishes to disappear back into the forest. I think our first duty here is to get the horses to the Ide merchant. Do you agree with my logic?"

" Hmmm. " Softly, Yoshi continues, " About that arrow... "

::Air3/Ranged1. Roll Two successes, a blank and an option. Keep the 2 success and the option ... if this counts as a scholar check then I use the option to learn something about the creator as per 329. If not then I'm subtle about how I check out the arrow, in case the archer is still around hidden and watching::

Giving a last look around, Yoshi and Hekasu turn and start to head back to their comrades as the tall ronin pensively runs a thumb up and down the broken arrow-shaft.

As we get back to the mounts Yoshi is quick to hop up and get ready to move.

"Strange. The arrow that shot the boar is professionally made. And look how thick it is. Maybe it didn't come from a yumi style bow. Aruzhan, do you think this might have come from a horse bow?"

Yoshi holds the arrow up so everyone can see it.

"I don't think its from the quiver of some peasant who moonlights as a poacher. That might be bad news if we've run into the remnants of the ronin who ...used to use the ponies were riding. But the feathers are weird. I am confident its goose, but they don't have feathers this dark around here. Anyone know of anywhere with dark feathered geese? I think the Jawcracker was more or less local..."

"...and I think we should get moving."

"Yes, we should head back." Hekasu follows closely, trying to stay alert to whatever may have been hunting the boar.

As they return to their mounts, he takes a chance to inspect the arrow.

Air 3/Martial Arts [Ranged] 1:

, , , (b). Keeping the two successes and the explosion (assuming bonus successes = more I know; otherwise I'll do the opp like Yoshi did. I just figured having the same result as him would only get me the same info).

Resolve explosion: . Kept.

Resolve Strife: 5/8.

Resolve success: 4 v TN2.

As he scrambles back onto his mount, still looking at the broken shaft, Hekasu's brow furrows slightly. He takes a moment to try and pin down the source of his confusion.

"Goose... hmm. Nope, can't think of any."

Is there anything wrong, Hekasu-san, Yoshi-san?

Kenshin then asked.

(( TN 2 Earth/ survival roll. 2 ring dice come up exploding success with strife and opportunity with strife, the skill dice rolls blank. Keep the exploding success which comes up another exploding success with strife, so I get two successes and 2 strife total. This should put me back at 6/8 strife I think.))

“ we really shouldn’t be looking for trouble right now, we’ve been delayed so much as it is.” Aruzhan waits impatiently for the others to get back on their mounts. She looks at the arrow only briefly. “These lands and their inhabitants are not really my area of expertise. Still, it is unusual..” Aruzhan takes some time to think.

The ronin have now remounted, and are ready to continue on their way.

Shaking his head, Hekasu replies to Kenshin, "just some hunter, probably. Long arrow, heavy draw on the bow." He shrugs.

:: Yoshi is ready to go. Yoshi would move the boar, if someone asked him, but doesn’t want to wrangle an unclean carcass that recently embarrassed him... ::

((I was thinking about moving or butchering the boar or something, but I imagined he it would be heavy and time consuming / hard to move.. and as much as Aruzhan might want some bbq, doesn’t think the others would want to eat it.))

The quartet make their way along the Merchant Road. They travel for couple more hours, with the road gently sloping downhill to the west, back towards the river. As the densest forest is starting to thin, allowing occasional glimpses of a sky gently starting to dim into an early Southern dusk. Ahead of the ronin, the glittering of the River of Gold is visible through the trees.

The Merchant Road turns south in a broad arc, but as it does so, a well-maintained and well-travelled earth path leaves the road and curves down into a small, stone-walled gulley that looks like it should lead to the edge of the river. The path is flanked by a neat garden of stone and gravel.

Hmmm... is it me or are there some clouds in the sky?

Kenshin asks as he points at the wisps of clouds he can see.

And shall we seek shelter for the night?

Hekasu squints in the direction Kenshin points. "Eh, I feel like you're being generous calling that 'some clouds.' The inn shouldn't be too much further along, right?"

He winces and presses a hand into his wounded shoulder. "As much as this may disagree with more riding, I'd appreciate sleeping on a nice tatami tonight, rather than the ground."

((Water 3/ survival 1. I keep 1 success with 2 opportunity.. I don’t have access to the book right now, but i’m Pretty sure water will let me reduce my strife, unless there’s an obviously better choice.. I might be willing to assist another roll.))

Aruzhan catches the faint scent of smoke and cooking fish from towards the river; the bank must drop away quite dramatically to hide the inn. In addition, she realises she can hear a very faint bustle of human activity, presumably coming from the inn. She can also hear a very faint but enthusiastic splashing over the distant burbling of the river against the bank - presumably a heimin child or children playing at the water's edge.

As she turns back to inform the other ronin, her eyes pass over the edge of the path. Whilst the floor of the gulley is densely-packed dry earth, the sides are rocky, but it shows signs of being artificially shaped and dressed stone, though overgrown with brush and grass. Some distance down the path, as it drops below the level of the visible ground, there is a slight narrowing of the path which looks for all the world like a ruined and overgrown gate-post for what may once have been quite a sizeable gate.

"So. Does that path lead to the Inn? And are we stopping or pushing on?"