Kielo, the defacto leader of the small colony known as Dendan, looked over her small group. Tarin and Firelight had their packs ready and were prepared to pick up any decent items they found during their outing. Of the welps only Tuli and Talvi were coming with them, the others would stay behind with Brrr babysitting, as he was nearing his age of adulthood. Lohi was out on her own foraging expedition and was away for the day.

Tuli and Talvi, were coming along to gain a little more experience, it was good to rotate the welps as they went out scouting and on other errands, that way each could get some one on one time and learn the skills they needed to be productive members of the colony.

All were standing outside the storage dome, waiting on Kielos final check. She turned to the welps who were staying "While we're gone all of you need to stay alert. Your jobs will be to check all our supplies for vermin or invasive fungus, and to feed the Jaebos." The Jaebos were newly caught, and would have to be carefully watched until they acclimated to captivity and could be trained.

Liila who had been found in the flooded bunker had taken a strong liking to the little critters so no doubt she would spend most of her time today trying to tame them.

Kielo now gestured to the others and everyone moved to pick up their gear and start off into the jungle. Firelight, being belamoid -the only one in the colony for now-, only had a small, light satchel, in case she found something that wouldn't fit in her pouch. Tarin and Kielo had heavy packs, and the welps Tuli and Talvi had light satchels similar to Firelights.

The group walked through the jungle, being mid gemesh the air was hot and humid. The large mycelium growing around them seemed to make the humidity feel even worse to those not accustomed to it.

Talvi and Tuli grumbled quietly amongst themselves, "I hope we see something exciting, its so hot and this is so boring." Talvi scuffed her feet as she walked.

Tuli nodded, "I wish we were going to the river instead." She brightened, having a thought she raced ahead a bit to where Kielo was leading, "Cant we go to the river? Wont the herds be there?"

The Tsabhua paused, "Well, they could be, but when Tarin was out scavenging last he reported a pack of flowering hounds that way, so I doubt the herds will have stayed around that area. Otherwise that would be a sound idea." She commended the little Tarkee.

Firelight nodded in agreement, "Yeah, the herds wont stay in an area where a pack is hunting. It'll no doubt be a few weeks before the herds feel safe enough to venture back near the beaches close to our colony."

Tarin had taken advantage of the pause to examine a rock he'd found, "I'm sure we can visit the river soon though, or maybe go scouting for another water source soon in the opposite direction so we have options."

Talvi and Tuli smiled at the idea, and got back into line when Kielo nudged them along.

All around them the jungle seemed to thicken, pale yellow mushrooms towered above them, some with trunks the width of their smaller domes. The group instinctively went quiet, even the welps sensed the need for silence. In the distance, small "poofs" and the sound of particles filtering through the leafy boughs could be heard. Spores settling down to their new resting places, ensuring the survival of the fungal forest.

Firelight, who was the better tracker of them all, took the lead now. Tarin took a place behind the welps to guard from any predator attack from behind, just in case. And Kielo was in the middle just ahead of the welps, she had pulled out her digital map and was making notations. Talvi and Tuli were creeping as softly as they could, which, walking in the squishy dense nutrient rich soil of the jungle was easy enough to accomplish.

There was a large lichen covered rock just ahead, to either side of it was dense overgrowth so Firelight climbed and perched on top, she turned with a smile and gestured the others to come closer. It wasn't as easy for the others to climb but they managed it well enough. The view showed a clearing ahead into a small valley where a herd of about twelve Shriive were grazing on small purplish reedy mushrooms.

Kielo quickly made the notation on her map, also noting the abundance of grazing fungus here. Tarin crept down from the rock and began scouting around for the easiest entrance into the clearing. They weren't going to go in, but it would be good to have paths marked out on the map. Tuli and Talvi made themselves busy trying to spot anything else that could help, like clusters of good foraging shrooms or water sources.

Once everyone had rejoined each other on the massive rock they settled in for their packed lunch. They'd packed an assortment of meats bread and sauces to season it. All in all, it had been a very successful scouting mission. Tuli and Talvi had ended up finding a small pond, Tarin had found better entrances to the clearing, Firelight had found several useful items foraging in the underbrush, and Kielo had updated the colonies map with many new resource locations.