Elaina sat back down and, instead of answering the question and scanned around them quickly before finding a small hill ahead of them with a few small boulders on it. "There, we'll set up over there."

The wagon trundled up the hill coming up alongside the boulders. Elaina took a moment to check the direction of the wind and which way the storm was moving and was sure to have the wagon parked in such a way that the boulders served as a small windbreak. The redhead hopped off the wagon and made her way around to the back to retrieve the shovel. It was shorter to save on space, but it would do the job. Overhead there was a loud rumble from the darkening clouds, and Elaina wondered if they would even have time to set up the tent.

"Anisha," she called as she began to circle around the wagon and the boulders, considering the best place to dig, "Can you help Azade get the tent set up, please?"

Now looking convinced with Elaina's caution, the half-elf began to get the supplies to make camp. Elaina turned the shovel over, holding it head up the way someone might if they intended to swing it at someone. She closed her eyes and took just a brief moment to focus her will. Through her hands, she channeled the magic into the shovel. It was challenging to think of it as a weapon, which was sort of required for this particular magic trick, but she tried regardless. There was a brief thrum of magic that answered as the shovel took the charge.

"What are you doing?" Azade paused in mid-stride, carrying some of the supplies over toward the boulders.

"Giving the shovel a bit of my magic, enhancing it so it performs its function a little better than it normally would." Elaina waved the shovel around a little, which now felt lighter than her sword when she infused it.

"You can do that with a shovel? I thought that was just swords." Anisha commented as she lugged two of the packs over to the camp as the clouds let slip another rumble of thunder overhead.

"It's easier with swords," Elaina plunged the shovel into the ground, which it did so with considerable ease, "The way swords are forged leads them to hold the magic more efficiently. Other tools or improvised weapons, or even crudely made blades, can take the magic, but it takes more for a smaller return for a shorter time. It sort of bleeds off faster."

Azade nodded a little vaguely and then gestured to the shovel, "I meant why are you digging?"

"Oh!" Elaina exclaimed as she tossed the dirt aside and continued to dig in a line, "This will channel some of the water around and away from the camp."

The redhead pointed very briefly before continuing to dig, "There's a stream down that way, and the mountains are up that way. This little hill will help if it's just a drizzle, but if the storm is going to be as bad as I think, we'll need something to move the runoff away from us and around us."

As the two women continued to set up the camp, Elaina continued to dig, the clouds above them continuing to swell and cover the sky. As it began to drizzle, Elaina had managed to cut a few lines about a half foot wide and several feet long around the camp with a few more that fed into those. The shovel cut the soil much more easily than normal due to the magical infusion, reducing the work Elaina had to put into the task. Though she would have liked to do a few more or make the lines a little longer, a deafening clap of thunder followed by a flash of lightning let her know her time was up.

Anisha and Azade had been just as quick to set up the tent and get the bedrolls laid out inside, but as Elaina stepped closer, she saw that there was a thick tangle of roots wrapped around the stakes of the tent that wound partway up the sides to help hold it in place. Elaina had not been the only one to employ a little of her magic to enhance the work. The horses had been brought close and tied off as best as they could manage before the rain began to fall. With a second clap of thunder, the downpour started, and the three women remained huddled inside the tent that was sized for two at most.

The alchemist reached into her pack and retrieved two fist-sized bottles filled with a strange yellow-orange fluid that moved like oil more than it did water. She removed the stoppers from each and dropped some pebbles from the ground inside. After she closed the bottles back up, she gave each of them a quick shake, causing the little stones inside to rattle around inside the fluid. Each of the bottles began to glow with the same light as a few candles each. When Anisha handed one of them to Elaina, she could even feel the warmth radiating from inside of them.

"How long will this last?" Elaina wondered wide-eyed as she turned the bottle over a few times.

"Few hours. I have a couple more, but I would like to make them last." Anisha answered, taking a piece of dried meat from Azade, who handed some over to Elaina next. It wasn't quite the meal she had in mind, but with the rain coming down the way it was, a fire just wasn't viable to cook anything up.

Each of the women picked a spot that became theirs, with Elaina's being right at the entrance of the tent so she could keep an eye on things outside. She peeked out to check on the horses and the wagon but found that there wasn't much to see as night fell. She decided that, rather than keep the glowing bottle for herself, she would gently roll it out up against one of the boulders to cast it's dim light around the camp. Despite the eerie shadows the light cast out into the night, Elaina felt better seeing the state of the wagon and the horses with it.

"How long do you think it'll last?" Azade asked between bites of her jerky.

Elaina stared into the dark for a long silent moment before giving a vague shrug, "Not too long, I hope. It was quick to come up so that should mean it dumps whatever it has quickly. We should be able to travel by morning... I hope."

The three had finished their food quickly and set up the sleep rotation just as they had the night before. Though it was uncomfortable, Elaina elected to sleep in her armor rather than attempt to strip it off, store it, and don it once again in such a cramped space. Azade and Anisha had also decided against stripping down, which was a shame in Elaina's mind. Watching the two of them squirm around to get into less clothing would have been both amusing and stimulating on such a dreary night. Eventually, Elaina gave up her spot near the tent's flap to lay down next to Azade, who had been asleep for a few hours by that point.

Sleep didn't come swiftly for her, with several failed attempts to doze off occurring before she was finally able to find some rest. It wasn't long, though before she felt a hand on her shoulder and a whisper close to her ear, "Elaina."

The redhead turned her head slightly, opening only one eye to regard Anisha groggily, "My turn already?"

The half-elf adjusted her glasses and shook her head, "No. I heard something."

Elaina sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily before scooting away from Azade to listen near the tent flap. All she could hear was the sound of the pouring rain all around them, amplified by the canvas of the tent itself. Anisha, too, listened carefully, her mouth turning into a slight frown as whatever sound she had heard wasn't presenting itself a second time.

"What did it sound like?" Elaina asked as she peeked out of the tent flap to see where Anisha had rolled a second bottle out to replace the first that had gone out while she was asleep.

"Like a whooshing noise," Anisha said, looking out just beside her.

Elaina's emerald eyes shifted to look at Anisha, a little irritated, but before she could speak, the half-elf waved a hand, "Not like the wind. I'm not stupid!" she snapped.

"I didn't say you-" outside, there came a sound like a canvas flapping, though it didn't sound like it was coming from the wagon where perhaps some of the canvas they'd used to cover the shipment might have come loose. Instead, it sounded like it had come from above them somewhere, passing over them quickly.

"Stay here. Wake up, Azade." Elaina said as she grabbed a cloak and stepped out into the rain. The cold hit her instantly despite the extra thick layer of fabric wrapped around her. Though the rain had let up a little since the initial downpour, it was still coming down in heavy sheets that restricted visibility beyond what the night usually would have. Just a few feet from where she stood, the horses began to stamp and move about, clearly unsettled by something.

Elaina drew her sword and moved slowly around the horses so as not to spook them further. As she came out from behind the boulders' windbreak, a stiff wind hit her, nearly causing her to slip in the mud and go sliding down the small slope of the hill. Near where she stood, one of the channels she had dug was running quickly and nearly overflowing with water. With a brief effort of will and a word of magic, she worked a simple spell through the blade of her sword, causing the metal of the blade to glow red. Of all the colors she had tried with this spell, red was the one that seemed the most effective. Normal light presented the problem of only seeing what was in the lit area and nothing beyond it and being temporarily blind if the light were to go out. But the crimson hue she cast from her sword now didn't seem to be quite as bad concerning the latter, allowing her vision to move from light to dark with minimal interruption. She didn't know why it worked that way, but it did.

Even with the advantage of the light, her eyes strained against the rain-soaked night. The faint sound of the two other women in the tent barely reached her ears, but she didn't turn her head, her focus entirely on the dark just beyond the red glow of her weapon. She didn't hear anything but the more she looked, the more she had the very distinct feeling that something was looking back at her.

Then, from that black of the night, came the low growl that sounded as if it was bubbling up through a few inches of water. She felt the size of it before she saw it and slowly, cautiously, took a step back as the large head of a Drake was revealed as it inched closer into the light. Its head was as big as that of a horse's, with a long narrow snout and eyes that looked like black pools in the red light. Its neck was long and arched, poised in a readied position to strike. A fin ran down that neck and all down its sizeable, sleek body to the tail, which vanished back into the dark. Unlike dragons, drakes did not have forward arms, just the two wings held tightly to its side. Where Elaina expected to see the hind legs, though, there were instead large, powerful fins that scraped and pushed at the mud to move it forward at its creeping pace. The fins and the snout told her this was, specifically, a River Drake.

To her left, she heard the tent's flap come open, and she held a hand up to signal to the other two not to make any sudden moves. The head of the river drake turned to look in their direction, giving Elaina a good look at just how long the snout of the thing really was. Used primarily for catching fish, the teeth inside were just as capable of ripping through the flesh of people if the creature desired. Elaina's grip on the sword tightened, and she moved it a few inches to the right and back again, catching the river drake's attention once more with the movement of the light. Her eyes searched the dark behind it desperately for the tail, knowing that somewhere at the end of it was a long vicious barb poised and ready to deliver a deadly poison. Just one sting would be enough to kill any living thing sitting there in the camp.

The bubbling growl rose in the drake's throat once more and turned into a warbling hiss-like noise as it opened its mouth. Elaina heard the tail before seeing it. It made a "whish" like noise as it sailed through the rain for her. She brought her sword up to intercept the tail. The sound of the barb connecting with the metal of her blade made a brief "pang!" that sent a shock from the impact up her arm before she pivoted into a spin, moved in toward the drake, and swung her sword out at its snout. The creature's head moved in a snake-like motion just out of her reach before it spread its wings in an intimidating display and let out a shriek.

The drake's head darted forward, jaws snapping at Elaina, who managed to step backward just in time to keep out of reach. Twice more, it snapped, and this time the redhead was forced to bring her weapon up in a crude defense. The scraping of teeth and scales on the metal was uncomfortable, but it was better that it was on the sword than on her armor. It's head reared back once more as its body moved forward, creating an illusion that it remained stationary if one kept an eye only on the head. Doing this extended its reach while fooling prey about how much space it had to work with. An arrow appeared briefly in flight and found a place in the creature's right side, causing it to let out a pained hiss and turn its attention once more toward the tent.

There, Azade was already nocking another arrow on her bowstring. The drake shifted and began to advance in her direction, causing the horses to start panicking and straining against the leads that held them fixed in place. The drake let out another shriek, its head moving in a way that told Elaina it couldn't decide whether to strike at the horses or the woman. Beside Azade, Anisha was fishing for something in her pouch frantically. The drake gave a mighty beat of its wings to throw the both of them off balance with a sudden blast of wind, but whatever it planned to follow up with, it was distracted from as Elaina leaped forward and brought her sword down on its side it had left exposed to her.

Elaina was surprised to see that the blade only made a shallow cut, barely more than a scrape. Much of the edge was met with thick scales that protected the beast, and Elaina remembered that though her weapon was glowing, it was a spell separate from that which she usually used to enhance her weapon's cutting edge, which she had not done yet. She cursed under her breath and reeled backward as the beast turned on her once more. As she moved, the back of her boot caught the edge of the trough she had cut for the water earlier that night, and she stumbled. She tried to catch herself, but she soon found herself half tumbling and half sliding back down the hill with the mud being as slick as it was.

The swordmage managed to keep a hold of her sword as she scrambled back to her feet at the base of the hill. At the top, the faint orange glow of the bottle should still have illuminated at least the silhouette of the creature, but it was nowhere to be seen. Her eyes darted around quickly, trying to spot it when she felt a slight pressure from above. Without thinking, she leaped back several feet from where she stood, barely managing to keep her footing when she landed in the mud again. The massive weight of the drake collided with the muddy earth where she had been just a moment before. The wings of the great beast billowed out to either side.

A moment later, a large blast of fire formed along the side of the creature in a violent explosion, washing most of the beast's flesh in white-hot fire amid the pouring rain. At the top of the hill, Anisha stood with a hand outstretched from where she had let the vial of explosive liquid fly. The drake let out a vicious shriek as it writhed in pain from the heat, but the rain and the mud made it impossible for the flames to remain for long. Elaina pushed some of her magic into the blade while it was distracted. The light from the spell flickered as the weapon's magical field shifted to make "room" for the additional power. She'd never stress-tested this sword to see how much of her magic it could actually hold, but she was confident that this wouldn't be too much for it.

Elaina rushed forward as the flames began to flicker out on the hide of the creature and swung her weapon, scoring a hit on its flank as it writhed around in pain. This time, the wound she opened was more significant. A line of crimson split the toughened hide of the beast, though it wasn't as much as Elaina had hoped for. The snake-like head reeled about and snapped at her erratically, and this time she was able to remain well ahead of it. From atop the hill, more arrows came one after another. The arrows didn't seem to do considerable damage with how thick the hide was, but they kept the creature from being able to focus on Elaina as she darted this way and that cutting into the beast wherever she could reach.

The tail came swinging around at the swordmage again, though this time as a massive clubbing motion along its length instead of making use of the stinger on end. Elaina narrowly avoided the impact by sliding underneath it, not wanting take a chance to strike at the tail in mid-swing only to find out the hard way that the sword might not be able to cleave through. Before she could get to her feet and strike, the drake leaped into the air once more and vanished into the night somewhere overhead, leaving only the sound of the rain behind.

The three women stood utterly still, searching the sky for any sign of the creature, Azade with an arrow already drawn and ready to be loosed. Anisha clutched a potion in one hand, her eyes darting around frantically.

"Do you see it?" Anisha called down to Elaina, who's blade still glowed a menacing red in the night.

Elaina squinted into the night sky, briefly wiping some of her wet hair from her face before shaking her head, "No, I can't see a thing."

But she could hear it, somewhere overhead. The flapping of the Drake's wings seemed to come from multiple directions. It was circling them, waiting for an opening and a chance to strike.