With nobody seeing any of the birds nearby, and nobody deciding to do anything noteworthy, the spritelings move on. There's not as much to see here as in the hills. In on the horizon, sometimes it becomes possible to discern new mountain peaks and estimate the distance to them. But close by, the land is more hard and barren, with the occasional patches of grass and bushes where it's more hospitable.
A couple of hours of travel later, you witness a fork in the river, and, judging by the stones in it, a potential ford that could be used to cross from the southwestern shore to the northwestern part of the fork. Somewhat concerningly, there's three birds, each almost as large as a typical spriteling, fluttering in the fords area, perhaps 50 yards or so from each other.
These do look like they might be shrikes. In a manner that seems un-shrike-like, they seem to be taking low swoops above the water in attempts to grab some fish that's too close to the surface.
[ +- ] Map update (image)
OOC:
Time is around 15:00 of the third day. Food supplies are down to 0.55 meals after the brief lunch.
Before taking any actions, decide how close you came are (minimum about a hundred yards, maximum around or or two thousand). Mara and Nemma are likely to have been the first to notice the shrikes, but surely everyone would spot them eventually.
