Gondar-Nor moved a little ahead of the group, while Gebo knelt down to more closely examine the tracks they had discovered scattered amid the soft dirt of the trail. The five companions had been on the road for days now, traveling through the mountains in search of a talisman that would aid them in the battle against Na'Mok, a renegade northern dragon who was attempting to harness all magic in the realm, for her own twisted uses. Far from home and friends, they had known for some time that there were goblins in the area, but this was the first sure sign of the enemy they had yet encountered.

The very fact that the footprints were scattered across the trail bothered the dwarfen warrior the most, as goblin scouting parties usually traveled in single file, so pursuers would not know how many of the creatures they were up against. These tracks indicated that at least five, perhaps six goblins had passed this way and not overly long ago. He squinted at the tracks a bit longer, then quietly said, "Vek."

Gebo had used the dwarfish battle tongue, which he knew Gondar-Nor would understand, but any others who might be listening would not. The Dragon Lord stopped as Gebo had requested, his eyes and ears alert, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

The dwarf rose to his feet and brushed off his hands, one of them coming to rest on his battle axe as he moved slowly toward where the two girls and the scribe rested by the side of the trail. "Tog lak, keln mot shalab," Gebo added, without looking at Gondar-Nor.

Gilder was following what was happening with a curious look on her face, but Magway realized something was wrong and got slowly to her feet, giving Gilder a gentle tug, indicating that she do likewise. Completely absorbed with his writing, Penrod still sat in the grass, hunched over his scrolls.

Gondar-Nor did as Gebo had asked and looked more closely at the tracks before him. At first, he could see nothing unusual about the footprints. Then he noticed that on some of the prints, the dirt at the forward edge of the impressions was raised slightly higher than the dirt at the heel portion of the tracks. To an untrained eye, this bit of information would have meant nothing, but Gebo had known what it implied and now Gondar-Nor slowly raised his head and nodded. It was all he could do to keep from turning to look over his shoulder, but he casually moved toward where the rest of his party waited.