After falling out with the loggers who might otherwise have given the party passage to Paleon, the party resolved to gather their own food supplies and make their own trek through the [[western woods]]. [[Bemo]] bandaged [[Eithan]]’s (only) ankle so that he could walk, but not run. The party split up to hunt. Bemo fished two salmon with bra he'd stolen from the young vendor in [[Sherman]]. [[Yuzu]] attempted to fish by throwing a pebble but killed a wise old turtle. Eithan went into the woods and overkilled a deer, spinning a knife such that it severed the deer's head and lodged into the trunk of the tree beside a cluster of men in camouflage uniform who approached him and spoke in a language he couldn’t understand, though it was clear enough they wanted him to leave. When Eithan brought the party to this place in the woods, the uniformed men had all gone, but there was a procession of smart-slow [[sirens]], huge in number, migrating toward [[Paleon]]. In an exchange with [[Markafarkafus]] one of these sirens, they learned the smart-slow sirens, lead by [[Sithica]], were marching for voting rights in [[Palestan]] so that they could vote to change the zoning rules of the western woods such that the would permit the development of a siren village and street-level retail. The sirens' days of people eating were over. They’d discovered the [[primordial fruit]], which can be eaten infinite times and shared among the smart-slow sirens. They offered some to the party, a suspect brown gunk jiggling in a bowl. After the sirens left, the party force-fed it to a squirrel who immediately vomited, then accepted reconciliation peanut butter from Eithan. The party prepared food. They distilled salt from seawater by boiling it in the shell of the wise old turtle Yuzu killed. Eithan insisted this was respectful to the turtle because he performed a ceremonial dance and Bemo said a prayer. Further along the party ran into the procession of Sirens again (they are slow-smart after all) near the bridge to [[Paleon]] and learned that the southern edge of the western woods, which mushrooms from the [[Lion Lands]] have grown into, were contested by the [[Duke Marshal]], who occupies the floating sky archipelago, and the [[Duke Phát]], whose home territories are unknown. They proceeded with Markafarkafus into Paleon and found it already evacuated. A pale red light shone from the city’s eastern end, which Yuzu, upon inspecting it from atop a tall tower she climbed, saw that all the buildings had turned white, monochrome white, possibly an optical distortion. The party went into a hot air balloon operator’s home, where they were taking shelter from the rabbit invasion. The buildings had not turned white, but been covered by rapidly breeding rabbits. Along with the operators, the party took the balloon up to the The Duke Marshal’s floating sky island, where they found a battle in progress between his forces and the forces of The Duke Phat. The operator on the island, a cousin of the ground operator, hopped on for the return trip. They preferred to take their chances with the rabbits. Both operators informed the party of their intention to discontinue to the balloon ferry until peace returns to the sky archipelago. Will the party alight? Next: [[elder's path 8]]