Meanwhile, at the edge of the forest, the remaining cultists were getting… restless.
"What's taking that mutt so long?" one of them grumbled, kicking at a loose rock. "He should have found them by now. Those Ava worshippers can't have gotten far."
"Maybe… he found something… more… interesting," another cultist chuckled, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "You know Baruk. Always had a nose for… the ladies."
"Yeah, that's probably it," the first cultist laughed. "He's probably… entertaining himself. While we're stuck out here, freezing our asses off."
"Let's go find him," a third cultist suggested, his hand resting on the hilt of his dagger. "If he isn't dead, he better have a damn good excuse for not signaling us."