Apart from a few days spent in towns, they were mostly back in the wilderness again, and while they weren't making as much progress (or going in the right direction) as Cara would have liked... she didn't hate it, not least because it meant not having to deal with people who weren't Richard, Kahlan, or Zedd.

Though there was the downside of having to stand double (or triple) watches because certain people needed to go for 'walks' (and honestly, who did they think they were fooling at this point), and the chill beginning to creep into the air at night. Both of which were reasons why when she realised she was waking up curled around a soft warm body, which if it wasn't the right warm body still had a different kind of rightness to it, she'd just curled in tighter without opening her eyes.

( In which the form of Cara's soul is a terrible surprise to all )

Cara had been feeling the effects of yesterday's battle when she'd woken this morning, and while she could have just ignored it and kept going without too much fuss, she saw no reason why she needed to when the Onsen was right there. She'd even managed to convince Kahlan and Richard to join her without too much resistance (mostly Richard's) on their part.

Which meant she had plenty of patience to ignore deal with the staff when they tried bringing up Richard and Kahlan's (non-existent) bathing attire.

She sank into the water with a grateful sigh. She'd needed this.

[OOC: mostly for me, myself and I.]

Like usual, Cara had avoided the picnic. Instead she went running in the preserve until she was almost too tired to lift her feet enough to climb the stairs back up to her room.

Unlike usual, she locked the door behind her before she pulled off her boots and gloves, and started unlacing her leathers. It was hardly a secure barricade, but at least it would prevent a repeat of any unwelcome surprises.

[ooc: for two.]

Cara had decided to give the picnic a miss. She didn't like crowds and mingling at the best of times, and given she didn't have anyone coming to visit her, going to this particular one was a slap in the face she could avoid

Besides she had much, much better things to be doing with her time. One of which was in the room with her.

[For ze boy and then...]

The ride out to the location indicated on Zedd's parchment had been marked by sullen, mulish silence on Cara's part and awkward silence on the others'. Finally, the wizard reigned his horse in.

"We're here."

Cara stared at the structure Zedd was pointing at. "That's not a school. That's a bridge." A rickety wooden one at that. Clearly, this was a sign the whole idea was flawed and Richard should listen to her when she said she didn't need to go back to school.

"That's because the school is in another world," Zedd explained. Again. "One where time will pass much faster for you than for us. You must cross the bridge and the school will be on the other side."

"I can see the other side from here. Nothing but empty fields." There wasn't even a fog.

"There is powerful magic on that bridge," was the only elaboration Zedd gave.

In the end, after no small amount of verbal prodding from Richard and Kahlan, Cara eventually stood on the riverbank, bow in one hand, pack on her shoulders. She turned back to the others. "When I get to the other side and there's no school, we'll stop with this idiocy, right? Go rescue something in distress? Probably Richard."

"We'll miss you too, Cara," Kahlan said, before shoving her onto the bridge with a firm push between the shoulder-blades.

After that first step, there was nothing for it but to keep walking, however reluctantly, one foot in front of the other. Halfway across, the air in front of her swam, and the sight of empty fields dissolved into that of a small city on an island, a castle dominating the skyline. Under her boots the creaking wooden boards were now solid black stone.

Cara spun in place, a much wider and longer bridge stretched out behind her, and she was alone.

[NFI as Cara's gone up to the school.]