[The rations have a couple of things going for them, at least -- they don't try to fight back or run away. They would be the path of least resistance in a predator's eyes, at least temporarily, even if they wouldn't be quite the mouthful that Arthur or Markus could provide instead.

Still, the way a raptor attempts to claw itself up the tree is discouraging. Or maybe encouraging, that it provides motivation for them to make a rather swift decision regarding what they should do.]

A spell? [A few weeks in this place, and it's still strange to default to magic as a solution to anything, as if readjusting his own expectations takes more than being told that such a thing exists -- that seeing proof of it is still surreal, still odd, despite all that's happened. Sends his processing into a tizzy of trying to parse what happens, the same way a human mind must experience bafflement at the grand display of a magician's performance on stage.

Even so, it's not enough to derail his train of thought, not wholly.] That sounds straightforward enough, but it means we'll have to take advantage of that head start and run where they can't follow us. Or are unwilling to follow us.