The rush to Meadowfen

It took so long to recover from knowing my home was gone forever. I could think, I couldn't move, everything felt unreal. I do not know if it was Cairith or Faye, but one gave me the drive to get up and do something about it. After the initial foolishness of wanting to run straight to my burning home, Scrap and Collina joined me as we headed towards Meadowfen, coming across a scorched woman in the process. She was survivor from Ashbarrow, trying to get help. We left her with Faye as we dashed for Meadowfen. As we tried to get a hold of the mayor, it slipped what had happened to Ashbarrow, causing some panic. The mayor was sympathetic and concerned but didn't know what their small village could do about it and now had to focus on calming the people. He suggested we go to Alderhart to let them know the situation and call for aid. I offered to calm the people, which thankfully worked for the most part. Scrap and Collina went to get some supplies while I stop and spoke to Faye before we moved on.
 
While on our way to Alderheart we came across those bandits again in the middle of a mugging in the middle of the road. I can not lie, it is exceptionally foolish, they could have tried doing it off the path if they didn't want to be interrupted. They also had the same vulpin with them that was at the last fight, we can't seem to escape her. She challenged me to a dual and was an exceptionally powerful opponent. She did not want to take my forfeit until her loss was in sight, strangely I find myself looking forward to fighting her again. I want to beat her on my own merit. Show off the time my mentors put in to training me as a sword bard.
 
The victim of the mugging was a lovely cat woman named Eliza Pennygleam. She asked if we would escort her to Winnowing Reach to ensure she could make it there safely this time. We agreed and I helped with getting her cart stacked back up. She seemed to struggle a bit with moving it so Collina and I offered to help. I was not needed though as that chickadee is scary strong. We spoke briefly to Eliza of our goals and she suggested we get letters of recommendation from the surrounding areas to get a meeting with the bird council.
 
While we continued our adventures we smelled fire, and I could hear the sound of emberbats not far away. With how close we are to the woods, my conscious would not let us just let them set fire to the place. We went to take care of them and found they were attacked two skeletal birds. After fighting off the bats, which caused one of the skeletons to fall, and taking care of the fires the other skeleton looked as though he thought of attacking us before seeing Collina. He quaked in fear and dropped to the ground. I knocked him out to be safe, though Collina said it was nothing to worry about. Turns out they were after a meteorite that recently fell from the sky. Scrap grabbed the "sky shiny" quickly, adding it to his collection. He then decided to split one of the skulls from the bird to ensure it is dead which really bothered Collina as they were apparently voluntarily this way. They had donated their bodies to the school she was from and chose this life.
 
As we left we saw a giant eyeball watching us, which set Scrap and Collina into a worry. We reported what had happened and continued on our way.
 
Winnowing Reach is quite the swampy area, it is very close to the Mokkfields so it makes sense. We helped Eliza get set up and she offered all of us a free item from her shop. I decided on a new bit of armour. The road is far more dangerous than I thought and I need all the protection I can get. We decided to get some rest before heading to speak with the head of the village as he will likely want something in return for an endorsement to see the council in Alderheart. While at the bar of the inn we ran into Scrap's mentor. He was a pleasant man, easy to talk to. Scrap bought us food and drink and is apparently quite the light weight. Upon saying goodbye to his mentor and heading to bed scrap was playing with his meteorites and I admit my curiosity got the better of me. Oh what a mistake that was, the first one didn't feel like much, just a hollow rock. But the second one... it didn't like me. Something in there hissed and clicked at me and I tossed it back to scrap. I let the manager and Collina know and while Collina could name all the possible creatures it could have been they didn't seem to concerned. I do hope I will still be able to rest tonight.