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Jamie stopped not to far from the quaint huts door. He liked it, it was far quieter and calmer to the town. Since his ears had grown he couldn't stand all the noise in the street, or even inside the inn at all. But here, there was just the rustling of the trees, steady trickle of the river, and the sounds of distance animals. He could get used to this.

He went ahead and knocked on the door, his mood now oddly uplifted.

As soon as the knock on the door was heard, a anxious bark came from the inside, followed by a bleat, but no one answered the door
If they were to open the door, Alex and Jamie would Adam, the large wolfhound and Ivy, the goat, along with a good quantity of food and water for both animals. But there were no signs of Gerta anywhere, nor of Iris and the donkey

At first sight there were no signs of anything missing or of any struggle, but a closer inspection would reveal the fireplace had been out for a few days and the shabby bed hadn't been used for likely the same amount of time (though Adam had been sleeping on it)
On the table there was a kettle with some stew (which had gone bad by then) and some very hard bread besides it, along with an empty plate and goblet. It seemed whenever Gerta had gone missing, she was about to have her meal

Outside there were no sigs of tracks thanks to the rain of the day before, but close to the barrels where she kept her water there were some faint hoof marks circling around and leading west, towards the abandoned chapel

Alex raised an eyebrow and sighed as he noticed the large dog. The dog that didn't seem to like him one bit the last time he visited. So the pilot just moved around Jamie and the dog and took a peek into the cabin. "Hello?"

He looked back to Jamie and frowned some. "It looks that way", he said, not wanting to freak out Jamie any more than had already happened. He frowned some and rubbed his hair and feathers some. "Why don't you go find something to eat inside, Jamie? I'm gunna have a look around..."

He didn't want to think something bad had happened, but making Jamie stay in the cabin for now was a good excuse to not panic the kid as he looked around.

And with that, the pilot started to look around for any signs that might help point out where the witch went. Alex wasn't much of a hunter. Damian could probably attest to his futile efforts to catch rabbits and other prey in the forest. Still, his eyes did eventually come across the hoof tracks and the general direction they went.

"Hmm...", was about the only comment the pilot made as he followed the tracks a short ways, till they seemed to disappear, before heading back to the cabin to check in on Jamie.

Alex frowned and made his way back to the hut, before looking inside. "Nothing? Errr. Great. Okay. It looks like she left with her mule. Not sure where she's going though. I mean, she is blind, but I guess she probably knows more what's out here than I do."

At least, Alex hoped so. Gerta didn't exactly look young, and if she had gotten hurt out in the forest, he doubted anyone would know or notice for quite a few days. He ran his scaled fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his eyes. "Well, damn. Well, lets wait here for a few. Maybe I can find something she has stored away for you to eat."

The pilot entered the hut, trying to stay out of the way of the goat and dog, idly wondering where Iris, Gerta's cat was, although he bet that the feline was more than able to survive in the forest on its own.

Alex shrugged a bit. "Not off the top of my hand." He walked over to the cupboards, to see what sort of food stock the old witch had in stock. Most of the food was just things that wouldn't perish quickly, unlike the stew that she had been making. "Well, there looks like there are some preserved foods in here at least."

Oh sure, preserved foods meant either dried or heavily salted, but food was food, right? And so Alex got the kid a few things and set them down on the table for him to eat. His own tail twitched under his cloak as he sat down.

He started to ponder what to do, and the ideas of leaving Jamie alone in the cabin for a bit to go follow Gerta crossed his mind, although taking him to camp also was an idea, although he wasn't sure how Jamie would react to Damian. If only Jade was around. He probably would have an easier time dealing with her, but she wasn't around. Lastly, he could take Jamie with him to go looking for the witch, but that wasn't sitting well with his thinking either.

He'd figure something out, but for now he'd let Jamie finish off the food he'd set out for him.

Alex tapped his taloned finger against the wooden table, before picking up a few of the pieces of salted meat that Jamie didn't seem interested in. Oh sure, dry salty meat didn't sound nearly as good as say a nice hot boar over a fire, or maybe a nice rabbit, but at the moment it was good enough to silence his hunger.

At least some dried fruit would probably keep Jamie from going hungry till they could get some better foods.

"Ok, Jamie, after you finish off that, we can either go looking for Gerta, or I can take you to the campsite I've been staying at. Its not quite the same as you staying with Gerta though." That was an understatement, mostly because Gerta wasn't a large wolf-croc beast thing. "If you're up to it though, we can go see if Gerta's ok though. I know she's lived here a long tie, but if she got hurt, well, I'm just worried since she hasn't been here for a few days. Thats all."

Part of him hoped the witch wasn't in any trouble. The forest still gave him the creeps at time, as well as the occasional tree limb in the face.

Alex looked over from Jamie to the dog, as he chewed slowly on the dry, salty meat. He nodded a bit. "Thats a good enough idea I suppose. As long as he'll listen to you that is. He didn't seem to like me none the last time I was here."

He guessed that the canine's nose might be able to follow Gerta's scent better than nothing. If Damian was around, he could probably have done the same, but this was the next best thing. He chewed on the food a bit more before standing up.

"Whenever you're finished, you can see if he'll follow Gerta's scent." And with that, he headed outside to get some water from the water barrel outside. That meat was VERY heavily preserved, and some nice fresh water would do well to get the stinging salt from his mouth.

This day had no chance of being good. Julia dreamed of wolves. The beasts caught up with her around dawn, whereupon she discovered something really was chewing on her, and it wasn't a wolf.

"Get off!" She ripped a shoe off and whacked the goat on the nose; it bleated, released her sweater, and nibbled on the shoe instead. Another hit and goat decided there were less dangerous things to chew, so it ambled off to taste Gerta's furniture.

From there on things got no better. She felt both covered in bruises and covered in filth, and was hungry to boot. The bread and stew Gerta left were both no good, and the salted meat both travelers were chowing down on now looked more like leather than food. So she took to the woods. And promptly got lost.

'At least I have food.' Julia rolled her palmful of blackberries around, painfully aware it was only enough for a light snack, if that. She jumped at a noise like a dog's bark; before it could fade away she started through the bushes, praying it was Gerta's stupid dog.

The sight of some familiar territory made her heart pound a little less. Julia slowed down and listened, frowning when what sounded like conversation hit her ears.

"-can you show us where Gerta is? Can you?" someone said. They sounded young. She saw the hut first, then the mystery person - a kid, definitely young - and last a very familiar person.

"Alex?!"