Serys rode Naple for three days without much more than cursory rest, passing the edge of the world she had known that evening. She couldn't understand how she knew where to go, but somehow she had an intuition about which way to ride every time she came to a fork in the road. It was a long way from the King's Highway here, wherever here was. She spied an inn up ahead, and decided she better stop before Naple stopped of exhaustion. She came upon The Inn at Long Last, a rustic, slightly run-down old building, but not without its charm. She went in, and was surprised to see a large, rather ugly (in her opinion) creature behind the desk. Serys had never seen an Orc before, or even a Half-Orc like Grishna.
With a grumbling noise, Grishna stood up, towering over Serys, and in that moment of mortal danger, Serys grabbed the knife she had brought and held Grishna back from her apparent attack. Grishna bellowed at Serys, but the wayward princess held her ground, backing away from the large creature, and ran out to her horse. Mounting Naple hurriedly, she spurred the steed on past the town and into the dark wilderness. "If the towns crawl with aggressive orcs laying in wait, it does not bode well for the wild lands," Serys commented, more to herself than to Naple. The horse was exhausted, and slowed to a steady but tired trot.
Looking up at the fingernail moon, Serys had a moment of doubt. What if she had imagined the voice? It had seemed so clear at the time, but everything seemed so strange here, and she didn't have any sense that they were anywhere near the blade they sought. But then Serys shook off her undertainty, "There is no room for doubt. I will prevail." And with that, she spurred Naple onward through the darkening land.
The trees became denser, until there was more tree than field. Finally there was no doubt they were in a forest, and that forest was getting darker and thicker. Still, the road continued faithfully through the nightscape, Naple eyeing the woods nervously at the noises that came from just out of sight, in the dark wood. It must have been after midnight when they saw the firelight up ahead.