Arriving at the creek, the trio crept towards what Rho could only hope was a lake to the north. They had only a few more hours of light, and if he could help it, he wanted to be out of the woods with giant bugs before dark came. He imagined himself diminished in size, and anything that preyed upon another being would outmatch him. The thought tugged at him in the back of his mind. So distracting was the dreading he felt, he almost didn't notice when his party stopped and got low to the ground around him.
Snapping-to and following suit to a crouching position, he searched carefully with his eyes and ears for the cause. Looking to Keefe, Rho's gaze followed hers to what appeared to be a boulder. Knowing better than to dismiss animal instinct, Rho confirmed her suspicions when he noted Kalak also eyeing the rock intently with his sword-hand ready to draw steel. Re-centering his vision on the oh-so-suspicious rock, he inched closer to investigate. Stopping a few feet closer to it when he spotted movement.
It was subtle, but there was something off. He looked closer still. There was a texture upon it, blowing bristles softly in the wind, and more, it expanded and contracted. It was no boulder at all, but some furry beast curled up in a bed of leaves, sleeping near the stream, and it was positively massive. Broken trees and crushed foliage told him the creature had positively ridiculous strength and it would be best not to disturb it. On that note, he signaled for his band to circle back and avoid the thing entirely.
Losing a few more minutes, they managed to avoid picking that fight, and finally found themselves at a large clearing. An expansive lake stretched before the group, with a wall of mountains on the adjacent side. A blast of water shot from the ground across the lake, startling the alchemist all the more when the sound of the blast rang off the range of mountains. "A geyser is a rare event around here." he noted with a smirk, "We need to find a place to start making camp, and loud echoes of a large geyser like that may keep the predators away. If we stick to the treeline for cover, we should make it within a couple of hours and still have time to make camp."