#fenixtj

"Research. I thought, out of everyone in Renaissance, -you- would be the most thorough at investigating nobles, finding absolutely any leverage you could find, uncovering every important detail. That's what I need from you. No surprises when I meet with these people. I'm going to have to trust whoever gets the role, to one degree or another."

"On it" he assures

"Excellent, thank you. Now, I need to see if I can go collect Clem. If you'll excuse me?"

"Of course" He nods

So she does.

She finds Clem near the kitchen

"Hey."

"Hey. Hope all is okay?"

She nods. "It will be. You get everything settled?"

"Pretty much" she smiles "Got some goat meat waiting for me when I leave tomorrow"

"Excellent." a deep breath; Jessica's always been serious (as trolls are wont to be) about her duties, and she makes a visible effort to set her concerns aside for her friend's sake.

"None of that.." Seeing the visible effort "Let's go somep lace you feel comfortable talking as little or as much as you like. You do not have to put on a show for me"

"Really, Clem, it's fine. I've talked about everything I need to talk about for now."

"Alright. SO , where to? "

"Depends on what you want to do. We could go on a hike, or the beach, or....?"

"I think a hike. Beach is nice, but I want to stretch my legs, get some altitude. Not many high trails in iowa"

"Sure, we can do that. Let me grab a few things? Ask the ladies to get you a water bottle?"

"Will do. See you in a feww" She nods

Jess grabs a few things; water, her maul, a pocket knife... a hiking kit. She also makes sure she's got a few items she can leave as tributes in the wild places.

Clem meets her with her own water bottle and backpack

"Alright! So we can take my little car, or you ride behind on my bike?"

"Which every will get us there the way you like" Clem says "ive ridden on a bike before"

"The bike is probably less cramped." she confesses "We can take that." And they do.

And they travel, Clem's eyes light up as they find that trail up, and up not an hour outside the city. It's true, iowa has hills but nothing like this

Jess motors up to the trailhead and parks, then locks up the bike.

Clem steps off "you know, I love Westerns, but they really need to stop showing all of Mexico as Brownn orr with that yellow filter? So much blue and green here"

"Most of those films are made in Southern California, which -is- brown and yellow." Jess points out "Ready?" she has her maul in the sling made for it.

"Ready"

And off they go!

the views are lovely, Clem touches the trees and whispers to them. A mistress of prirmal, she's good at willow whisper

"you have nunehi near here" She says

Jess nods. "Not surprising. Most of these natural areas are sacred spaces to them. I suspect I'll be protecting them for Nunnehi use, once they get me a list."

"Hope we're not horning in" She moves along. they are near a cliff where Duff and she used to down over the valley and even the ocean

"I brought token tribute. We'll leave it when we go."

"There's a great view here...." Jess shows Clem.

Clem goes to see "Well son of a gun" She looks down "that's something all right"

"It's really amazing around sunset."

"Mmm you ever learrn how to fly?"

"Um. No."

"Mm.. hold on sec" She gestures "Filigree, apogee, pedigree, perigee!" And suddenly Jessica is a bird of prey!

As is Clem!

Jessica squawks with surprise and staggers, wings flapping.

"relax" Clem says speaking tto her "We're Chimerical birds, allowed to talk."

"Jeeze, Clem, there's such a thing as asking...." she grumbles.

"Oh don't get your feathers all in a fluff...Let's get a mountain view" She's a hawk, of course. Iowa is the hawkeye state

Jessica flexes her wings, getting a feel for them.

She tries a few flapping hops.

Clem takes off "Even strong flaps at start, then catch the air currents"

She tries that, too.

Instinct kicks in, rapidly. This is Elderform