Lexus woke early in the relative discomfort of the waystation and set out. She'd been making good time but knew there was still at least a days travel ahead. She refreshed herself, ate, and opened a groupmind with the Drone to discover its whereabouts. Thankfully, it has not wandered far in search of food, and was back in front of the waystation when she was ready to depart.
She heard the muffled sounds of her Communicative playing beneath the ambient noise of the Commons and turned up the volume slightly. Thievery had been her companion for many years, and she was enjoying its new-found excitement at sights and sounds it had likely never seen. She found it taking particles of sound from the Common's fauna and lacing them into its rhythms, and tying the rhythms to the pace of the Drone and its walking.
On the previous day Lexus had taken her blade and shaved the Drone's shoulders, only nicking it once or twice, and subsequently ordered it to bathe. She now found the travel far more pleasant, and had even rewarded the hard-working humanoid with a glimpse of the Accord. It's loyalty to her has jumped immeasurably as a result.
The day wore on slowly, and gradually the boundary forest of that marked the edge of the Majestic Centre's domain grew in the distance. Lexus knew that beyond and above the forest was a plateau, and on that plateau was the Lesser Centre. Her sponsor in the Transept had provided scant details of the exact path to the Centre, which rankled with her desire for certainty, but the assurance the Transept provided was enough to ensure her continued determination to reach the indicated destination in good time.
She rested near midday, and allowed the Drone to wander a short distance. A stream had come down off the plateau, and the Drone proceeded to drink, to bathe again as she had taught it, and to make small, happy noises. Lexus smiled when she saw it, and Thievery collected the noise, repeating it back to her in a simple tune. She felt the presence of the Watchers above her, noting her progress and seemingly enjoying the scene.
Lexus had barely stood to summon the Drone back to her when the noise rolled down out of the lightly sloped cliffs above her. The Drone turns from the water towards the cry, a low grunting shout, echoed by a harsh cry from a distance behind.
STARTLER Lexus shouts to the Drone. It drags its heavy and wet frame out of the water and lurches over the soft ground to her. She vaults up into its harness and draws her blade, while the Drone pulls up to its full height.
The Startlers burst from the treeline beyond the stream, screaming, wailing, flailing their bodies with their hands, terrible, adorned in rags and furs, armed with jagged blades and fire-hardened spears, desperate in their hunger to reach her. She sees their bodies painted in blues and reds, deep scars etched beneath. When they are with arms reach the Drone strikes out, grabbing the first to reach it with a colossal fist, snapping its neck with a horrifying 'ping'. The second Startler steps inside the Drones reach while it kills his comrade and drives its spear into the humanoids leg, before dragging its blade across the vast belly. The Drone roars, the first audible Lexus has ever heard a member of the Commons make, and falls forward onto the Startler, its weight crushing the hapless savage beneath it. Lexus, still shocked at the noise the Drone has made, finds herself rolling forward out of the saddle, her blade still in hand, as the noises of yet more Startlers roll out of the trees above her.
She stands, and runs, leaving the wounded Drone to its fate.