Frostbound

With our first meeting concluded, it left time for a few awkward encounters. It was obvious that neither I nor the other City Owner knew how to treat one another. I didn't care much for throwing my weight around and he didn't seem to want to impose on me either. It made things strange at first but they eased as the hours passed while the trackers were still out.

The group with Hal still hadn't come back by sundown and neither did the other group from the city. It did worry me a touch when Hal didn't arrive back at camp but I trusted him to get the job done.

Or at the very least, to be so noticeable that we were alerted to something wrong.

While I sat and waited, I stayed outside of the city mostly. I had our group set up a very temporary camp with only the bare minimum in terms of structures. I wanted everyone to be ready at a moment's notice.

I almost didn't have people set up, but ended up thinking better of it. While Ashton had agreed to go on the offensive if the demons were found, his City didn't look like the pinnacle of readiness of being able to do so.

He was only just now gauging how people felt about going and getting numbers on the volunteers. If word came back now that we had the trail, he would need at least a few hours to get everyone in order on his side.

While it was frustrating to know we would be ready and waiting well in advance, there wasn't anything I could change about it. The hours spent waiting for word certainly helped him get his ducks in a row.

The more time that passed without any new information gave him that much more to be ready when it eventually did.

Other than only waiting, I ran over a few battle preparation things ahead of time. This was going to be a direct assault on a mass of enemies rather than what we were used to.

The training for defending the pylon wouldn't help much in this instance.

Without Hal, it left Rachel, Gabriel, my mother, and myself to discuss plans and come up with something viable. Of our council, Brayden, Sam, and Vincent chose not to come, and Jonathan but that wasn't by choice.

One main thing we had to worry about wasn't even the fighting itself. It was not letting any of the Demons get away. I was hoping when word came back we would have a clearer picture of what we were dealing with so these plans could be finalized.