Pelmarco must have managed to convince Tilendru not to join our expedition since the man was no longer around when I awoke this morning, and we never saw him the rest of our time in Kaluna. I asked Pelmarco about this, and he said the difference between him and Tilendru was the involvement of Zhethou. If a Red Exemplar survives his time with the unit, he won’t be returning to the unit. In Pelmarco’s case, however, Zhethou explicitly said he would return. Unless Zhethou visits Tilendru too, he most likely would not be able to rejoin the Red Exemplars. In fact, Pelmarco expects he might need to fight when he finds the Red Exemplars, because it’s very unlikely the current captain, whoever he is, would step down without the order coming from a direct encounter with a Lunari. Those Red Exemplars are very proud soldiers.
When we returned to the telefs, we found a large crowd gathered to see us ride away on the large beasts. It’s rather odd to be the center of attention after spending so much time in the wilderness. I don’t think Mo’Amu liked the crowd either, but she didn’t hurry away in fright. They’ve grown well enough accustomed to our presence that as long as we’re there and remaining calm, the telefs also try to remain calm.
Traveling east from Kaluna, we plan to pass by one more village on our way to Sehol, or at least one more village that Pelmarco knows about. The locals say there is a minor road from here to Sehol, so travel should not be difficult. The hardest part is avoiding farms. We don’t want the telefs to eat or trample someone’s crops, but when farms seem to be scattered randomly around the countryside, it’s hard to avoid them. We’re also nearing the eastern edge of the natural range of the telefs so we’re taking them out of their usual territory again, but I think the plants will be mostly the same so food will not be a problem. It just takes them away from their instinctual migratory range between the Razhin Jungle and this part of the Toram River area.