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Great.

Hector looked around. They were well into the middle of the night now. Thankfully, there was a very bright moon out tonight, and the canopy wasn't so thick as to block all light from it. The contrast was incredibly stark, however--pitch blackness interrupted by visible bars of moonlight, each only able to illuminate a small patch of the forest with its pale white glow.

It was beautiful, Hector thought. And a bit haunting, perhaps. Almost like a painting. He'd never seen anything quite like it before.

He was again grateful for the Scarf of Amordiin. With it, so much more of the surrounding area was perceptible to him. However, he still decided to materialize a hovering cube of red hot iron above his gauntleted hand. The extra light wouldn't hurt.

As long as he didn't accidentally start a forest fire, he supposed.

Even with the Scarf, though, he couldn't yet tell where the monster was. This 'nucleus' that Pauline spoke of must've been pretty huge, still.

He decided to just pick the same direction that they'd been going in earlier. If he somehow ended up leaving the nucleus, then he figured she would warn him.

Man, it sure was quiet. The only noise seemed to be coming from himself. The clink of his armor. The rustling of leaves and branches as he brushed past them. The subtle hiss of his iron cube.

Even Pauline was completely silent. Was she masking the sound of her own movements? Or did her feathers just allow her to be that quiet naturally?

He supposed it didn't matter. He needed to stay on task, attentive with all thought processes. No distractions.

But as he thought about it more, he still had some questions for her that might prove relevant to the mission.