Unaware of the turn of his thoughts, Triel got up and stretched after a short time. She rummaged in her pack and withdrew a thin, tightly woven and well-made elven rope. It had a silver sheen by the light of the fire, and although it looked too thin to hold anything heavy, it was as strong as steel. With a quickly muttered incantation, she threw the rope into the air...where it hung as if suspended by a solid beam, although looking at it, Micheal could see the end of it clearly hanging in the air. Triel took hold of the bottom and smiled at him, then shimmied up the rope with a natural grace. He saw her disappear into the same thin air where the top end of the rope...hung. In a moment, her pixie-like face reappeared, upside down and blinking at him. "Whenever you're ready, you're more than welcome to sleep up here," she told him. "Don't forget to put out the fire."

The rogue stared up at her, mouth hanging soflty open. He leaned foward tentatively and tapped the rope, jerking his hand back as though expecting it to bite him. Considering the rope and the apparent "nowhere" bed, he wondered his options. He could play it safe, not use the magic he had no clue about, and try to dig himself a nice little cave somewhere, risking snakes, bears, and lords and ladies only knew what else in the shadows. Or he could take the risk, climb into thin air, and bunk down with a beautiful elf........in the most pure mindset possible of course. He spat the fish bone into the bushes, kicked dirt onto the fire, waited for it to cool, then tossed the logs in various directions. He kicked more dirt on the burnmark, mussed it with a treebranch, then groped his way to teh rope and started up, wondering if this was the part where it let go and dropped him on his ass.

The magical rope was as sturdy as a steel cable, and when he reached the top, he was looking into a blank, extra-dimensional space, a bare "room" roughly 10' x 10' square. Triel had unrolled her bedroll and blanket, and placed her pack next to her on the...floor. It seemed solid enough, and the half-elf smiled at his wariness. "It's okay, really," she assured him. "But it will only last for about seven hours or so, so we should make the most of it and get what sleep we can. I'll wake you up before the spell expires, and we can climb down again."  She shifted off of her bedroll and pulled the rope up into the room with them, coiling it on the floor nearby. "There. Now we should be pretty safe from anyone or anything even knowing we're up here."

It was funny really, how when she said "make the most of it" he felt heat creep up the back of his neck. She's got a vow of, whatcha call it, chasetatty or somethin' like that, right? Yeah, she's practically a nun, right? Yeah. He mentally calmed himself with this. It wasn't that bein' close to a female upset him, mind you. Not even a pristess or whatever it was she was, it was the fact that, flat out, he'd never had all that much to do with elves. As it was, he felt like he was using a stick to probe deep waters. Laying back agasint ta wall, he watched her as she settled down to sleep.

Triel saw the man's blush and a puzzled expression crossed her fair face. She frowned and raised her head, asking, "What's the matter? Aren't you sleepy? Listen, the rest will do us both good, and we'll be better for it, come morning. It's really quite safe, I assure you."  The half-elf wanted to reassure him that the magic was reliable. "Besides," she added, "I can't go to sleep with you watching me like that."

"Sorry." Micheal muttered, moving until he was laying on his side, facing away from her. If he didn't see her, he couldn't stare,a nd out of sight, out of mind, right?

Yeah right.

Not quite seven hours later, Triel's internal clock woke her and she came forward from the light sleep she had been in. She opened her eyes and quietly rolled up her bedroll, attaching it to the light backpack she wore. Before shouldering the pack again, she crept over to where the rogue was resting, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder and giving him a light shake. "Hey," she said softly. "Time to wake up. The spell's almost done, and we need to be on the ground before it happens." The half-elven woman waited to see if he would wake up or if he would be like most other humans she had known and groan about needing "five more minutes".

Well, he did wake up. And she found herself with a hand on her wrist and a knifepoint at her throat before he realized who was shaking him. The dagger seemed to vanish as quickly as it had appeared, and he let go of her hand as he stood, brushing himself off with an apologetic shrug. "Not used to having someone wake me up." He said simply. Least not without wanting to string me up. He checked himself to make sure he was still armed and still had his money before turning back to her. "Sooooooo, do we climb down, or just wait until this place goes poof or what?" He didn't like the idea of free falling to the forest floor. He liked it even less when he considered he wasn't sure what was ON the forest floor at the moment.

Triel gasped as Micheal almost pierced her delicate throat and her eyes went wide in both surprise and fear. "Good GODS, what is the matter with you?" she asked and then he answered her question as he checked his possessions. The mage's lovely eyes immediately narrowed at him and the look she shot him was disbelieving. "Do you really think I would've robbed you?" she asked him point blank. Trielittica was very intelligent and knew exactly why the handsome rogue who stood before her had patted himself down. With a roll of her eyes, she shook her head in disappointment and sighed, looking away from him. He could see that his actions had stung her pride. "Just climb down," she answered in a soft voice, uncoiling the rope and throwing it through the hole to the ground. Then she nimbly disappeared down the rope without another word.

"I believe you mighta tried. I've seen old ladies slit throats an' children make off with goods while thier owner slept." He answered with the same point blank tone, scambling almost monkey like down the rope after her. "So you'll pardon me if I happen to have concerns about someone I barely know." He slid off the rope and checked the surroundings. A soft blanket of fog spread out around them, dancing soflty over the water and chasing itself around the ever silent sentinals of the trees. Very pretty. Also very hard to see anything.  

Triel wasn't quite sure what to make of the man. She watched as he descended the rope with the grace of an acrobat and landed on the ground with nary a sound. One well-shaped brow quirked upward in thought. "Accustomed to climbing ropes, are we?" she asked quietly. It gave the half-elf a little more insight into his character, and after the images his words had just produced in her mind, she found herself curious again. But as she had been taught by Vidious, Trielittica kept her thoughts to herself for the moment. She gave a small jerk and the stiff rope collapsed. As she wound it back into the tight coil she kept in her pack, she looked around their fogged surroundings. "I don't suppose you can see as well as me in this mist, can you?"

"Can't see a bloody thing." Moth said carefully. "But my hearin' ain't bad, an' I got a pretty good sensea smell." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Any idea what time it is?" This fog seemed, unseasonal. If it were early morn he'd relax a little, but until he was sure....

"The lost leading the blind. This'll end well." Moth muttered as he followed, trying to stay close, but not TOO close. This was hard to do, seing as how he could barely make out shapes more than a foot or two in front of him. So it was that he found himself trying not to bump into her and fighting to keep pure thoughts......well, least he was doin' pretty well on that first one.

"Ow!" Triel grated with annoyance as the rogue somehow managed to step on her heel for the hundredth time in the span of the few hours they had been traveling. The fog hadn't lifted much, despite the half-elf's earlier prediction. It was still as thick as...well, pea soup, for example. The mage stopped and sighed, peering into the mist and frowning. "Damn," she muttered softly to herself. From her robes, she took out a small, black oblong stone attached to a thin leather thong and let it dangle in front of her for a few moments, squinting at it intently. It twirled a little and then stopped.