Bob was often known for accompanying different hunting parties out on their excursions, He was seen as an extension of their Lord's will, as the people understood him to be the Lord's son instead of Seth's.

Thus, when he was gathering at the gate with a group of relatively unknown people, who were clearly gathering for an expedition of some kind, little was thought about it. It was just another hunting party, they assumed.

It was this assumption that they were playing on, and part of the reason they took this choice of party members. The other reason towards this parties make up, was because of their abilities and their unnerving levels of loyalty.

You see, if anyone were to focus closely on this group of nobodies, they would notice that they all wore different bindings or gloves over their right hands. It was an innocuous and harmless coincidence, some might believe. But if they were to know what each of these members hid beneath these bindings or coverings, then suspicions over this group would only rise.

When it came to their abilities, it had been Tiff that had selected them and not Bob himself. He had reviewed her choices, but ultimately it was her who put them forward. It was a little curious how she had put together such a team in barely a few hours, but he chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Plus, it wasn't exactly unexpected that she was acting suspiciously and creepily. It would be more disturbing if she wasn't.

Nevertheless, they all had abilities linked, in some way or another, to stealth, deception or information gathering. Bob himself was here to act as their muscle, for this was not a hunting party but instead one perfectly crafted for espionage.

After a final check of equipment, they mounted their acquired beasts and headed out, most of them riding a relatively basic and easy to tame variant of a horse called a Sleipnir - a large horse with 8 legs and simple enhanced stamina and speed.

Bob didn't bother with a mount, and simply transformed his particulate body into the form of another Sleipnir to run alongside the rest of the 'hunting party'

They didn't travel for long, however, and had only reached the edge of the old cities limits when they began to slow, coming to a stop at a particular sight. The ground was littered with dried patches of green blood, remnants of chitinous shell and membrane wings were scattered throughout the battlefield.

Small tatters of evidence that hinted towards the battles that had taken place here only days prior, yet no bodies were left. Prime meat like that was quickly snatched up by scavengers.

Standing in the midst of this ravaged battlefield was a lone tree. It sprouted in the middle of a peculiar patch of dirt, where the road had been previously destroyed and allowed the nature underneath full reign once more.

This tree was small, a few feet taller than the average man, and had withered bark. No leaves clung to its bare branches as it slumped depressingly, looking like it was on the verge of death.

Dissolving from his equine form, Bob returned to his humanoid appearance and strolled casually over to the tree, while gesturing for the rest of the ground to stay behind. He glided over, pausing next to it's rotten and decayed looking trunk.

Glancing around briefly, he lifted his hand and hardened part of his hand to form knuckles, using them to knock on the wood a total of seven times, no more no less, and made sure to do so in a particular melody.

One... TwoThree ... FourFive... Six... Seven.

He waited for a few moments, the air around them so quiet you could hear a pin drop, yet despite the odd actions no one seemed amused or confused. All of them had neutral expressions, as if this was nothing out of the ordinary and was perfectly natural behaviour.

After a minute of silence, the dead wood of the sad tree began to twist. It cracked and creaked, swirling into a knot that opened a hole into the hollow tree trunk. Once the knot was fully formed, a woman's face popped out of the hole - a face that was entirely made of wood, although much more vibrant wood than the dead and rotten wood of the tree.

Juniper blinked and yawned, as if she was just rising from a 'quick' ten hour nap and regarded Bob with an irritated expression.

"You're late. You were supposed to be here an hour ago."

Bob's sandy face swirled, turning into a perfect reflection of Juniper's irritated expression, as he spoke in a voice that absolutely didn't match the cute, pixie-like face.

"Something came up so we left behind schedule. Besides, aren't you supposed to ask me the pass-code before you show yourself?"

"Oh yeah~ How could I forget about that? It is very important. Well go on then, tell me the Pass-code, just to make sure you're not some other strange sand man instead of the one I was told about."

A sly, mischievous smile spread across her lips as Bob shook his head, his face melting away and returning to its basic blank look.

"...Your master smells like cow farts."

"What was that? You'll need to say it louder, I'm a bit hard of hearing in here."

"Your master smells like cow farts!"

"Louder sandman!"

"YOUR MASTER SMELLS LIKE COW FARTS!"

"Alright, enough enough."

Alfie stepped out of the shadows of a nearby building, shouting with an irritated sigh. He held up his hands, as if surrendering to the tame, yet still horribly embarrassing reminder of his past. Why oh why did he ever let that damned punk think of the pass-code?

Who cares if he was the leader now, he definitely deserved an ass kicking when he got back. Actually, maybe he should find the most rancid smell possible and shove that in his face. That would be perfect.

Alfie pressed his fingers to his lips and let out a sharp whistle, before heading over to the group of 'nobodies' that had accompanied Bob. Before the whistle had even stopped echoing in distance buildings, more figures were already moving out of the shadows.

Fox appeared, leading Lee and a few more individuals hand picked from the city guards, with abilities tailored for combat as well as the various mounts of this group.

While Bob's group had left publicly, and with little fan fair, this group contained two members of the Lord's inner circle as well as guards high in the publics 'strength ranking', and gathered much more attention from the populace of Ravenskeep. For those curious, Seth himself ranked rather low in this 'strength ranking', something he would be most pleased about, while the Lord naturally took the top spot, with many of his inner circle taking the top ten spots.

Thus, their departure had been kept secret, slipping out where no one would notice and gathering in this area as their rendezvous.

Now that they were together, without much word, they mounted up and immediately rode out as one unit, after Juniper removed the tree and clambered on the back of Alfie's mount that is.

With Alfie in the lead, and a particular glowing antler hanging around his neck, it was easy to retrace the steps of their previous expedition. Their journey was faster, fraught with less dangers than before.

There were, naturally, still some beasts that were unaffected by the Antler, it wasn't a perfect deterrent, but with their increased numbers and knowledge of what they might encounter, the second expedition had no trouble in their adventures.

Before they knew it, a few days later they found themselves standing at the edge of a vast lake with water that glistened like diamonds in the evening sun. The waves of the Loch lapped at the shore as they gazed at the seaweed covered horses trotting along the waters surface.

Fox slipped off of Bob, who was acting as his mount, as Lee nervously did the same. The mocha skinned young man wasn't much of a fighter and was constantly glancing nervously towards the Kelpie, who were minding their own business on the waters surface.

"There are worse things in the world than those beasts Sonny, but lucky for you we took care of that the last time. We'll be back soon, you just need a look at the interior, right?"

Fox chuckled softly as he placed a hand on Lee's shoulder, who nodded quickly.

"Then it will be real simple. The quicker we get in, the quicker you can bring us back out. Now, let's see if I can remember where that entrance was..."

Humming like a bewildered old man, Fox shuffled off and dragged a bewildered looking Lee behind him, leaving the rest of their venturing party standing at the edge of the Loch. Despite travelling as one unit, they began to split themselves into two sides.

The two groups regarded each other neutrally, as they exchanged a few of their members from their original groupings. Other than Fox, who was still with Lee and would be staying with Bob on his return, the majority of the fighters stayed with Alfie. In exchange for the mirror hopping swordsman, a pair of recon orientated members moved over to Alfie's group.

Once they were all with their correct assignments, Bob strolled over to Tiff' mount, which carried a pair of identical duffle bags. He removed one of the bags, tossing it over to Alfie who caught it out of the air.

"We'll make camp here, wait for the two of them to come back and move out when it gets dark."

Alfie nodded softly as Bob recounted his plan, fixing the duffle bag to his mount, Alfie gestured over his shoulder to Juniper.

"I've got my guide sorted already, so we'll head out now. With the antler, we should be fine. Take care of yourself Sandman, I know a certain someone will be heartbroken if I have to report your death."

"I could say the same about you Sir Alfie."

"Sir Alfie... I like that. Much better than Fartie."

He let out a hearty laugh, giving Bob a salute before riding off with Juniper and his bodyguards, leaving Bob and his espionage team alone by the shore of Loch Ness.