Goud, Ian and Raphael were rushing back to the main building where the rest of the party was along with the menagerie of pets when Raphael suddenly stumbled over and object that was half sticking out of the mud. 

His partial fall, made the hounds start barking and that made the situation a bit more chaotic than it needed to be. While Ian corralled the hounds and got them to calm down, Goud checked over Raphael's front leg to make sure that he had not injured or damaged anything.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

"Not, it's not really painful," Raphael said.

Goud didn't seem to believe him and continued to check, prodding at different parts of his leg.

Ian left the dogs sitting obediently and went to look and see what it is that Raphael had tripped over. It turned out to be circle frame. 

"What is this?" he muttered to him.

Goud came over finally to have a look.

"It is an old instrument that used to be played in the wars in the olden days," Goud explained, "I got this knowledge from one of the old militia members. He is long retired now."

"I can't see how it would be an instrument in this form," Ian commented, "It's all bones."

"The rest of it is probably rotted away," Raphael noted.

"Should we unearth it and move it out of the way?"

Goud shook his head at Ian's suggestion, "It is out of the way, we were just trying to take a short cut after all."

The two acknowledged that he was correct.

They completed the rest of the journey and found Ravin and Vynak outside.

"What is going on?" Goud asked, he was very alarmed that the party had been split up even further."

"Nathaniel insisted that we come out and leave him to have an in-depth chat with Solomon," Ravin said and you could tell him his entire countenance that he was very displeased with this turn of events.

"Oh dear," Ian sighed, "Why does that seem so ominous to me."

They all looked at the building, with varying expressions.

Goud went over to Vynak's side and presented him with the wisp. Raphael couldn't quite catch what they were saying because they were speaking from low but it definitely looked like two people flirting.

He shook his head. This was the very last thing he expected from a stick in the mud like Goud but he wisely kept that to himself.