As he crouched behind a scrubby bush not far off the eastern road, Colin found himself wishing the vegetation were tall enough to provide some shade. The late afternoon sun beat down upon his back and the muscles in his legs quivered in protest of holding his large frame in such a stooped position.
It had been more difficult than he had anticipated to follow Emalia on this first leg of her journey. The relative lack of other travelers meant that he had to travel the sometimes difficult terrain alongside the road instead of the well-worn road itself. Once, Emalia had caught him off guard by looking back over her shoulder unexpectedly. Colin had successfully ducked behind the low property wall he was following at the time but he had come far too close to being seen. He made it a point to keep additional distance and be more attentive from that point on.
Now, he peered intently at Emalia through the sparsely leaved branches of the bush. Although she was over 100 yards distant he could easily make out her slender, white robed form against the gates of New Thalos rising before her. Colin eagerly anticipated entering the city. It would be much easier to follow Emalia with other people around and it would afford him an opportunity to gather some supplies of his own. He had no idea how long this journey would last, or how far it would take him, but he was determined to follow Emalia to the end.
