[At the rest stop]
"Hello and Yes Ms Yulya, I'd love to!

Ashley pushes out of Alice's grip.
"This is the opposite of how you get candy in the future!"

Alice wakes everyone and reports her encounter with the guards during breakfast.

The temperature immediately drops as you move along the road. It becomes earily quiet and the wind picks up, a side draft that has gales of 10-15 mph. There are no chirping birds or skittering squirrels, many of the plants show signs of frostbite and hard freeze has killed some of the trees along the treeline or sent them back to dormancy after they were just coming out of their slumber.

[Saturday, Spring 22, 16:14, Partly Cloudy, 2C 27miles]
You see the Trees to the east, not more than 100 feet away, unnaturally covered in patches of snow. the north side of every rock, every dip, every bush, anything that doesn't get direct sunlight is holding on to fluffs of snow. And you're also becoming wary of this gale that seems to follow you and chill you as you walk.

Suddenly you're confronted with Two large Grizzies with a total of 4 cubs, they all look emaciated, as they would just exiting their dens after winter, but these Bears are far enough South that they wouldn't have hibernated, so the lack of food in Early spring are threatening their existence. They're headed North along the trail directly for you and stop as they spot you, sticking their noses in the air. Given the they can easily smell both you and the girls, they're considering what to do next but the look in their eyes says awfully hungry and cranky. They're wary but aren't backing down.[/i]

Past the turn off to Phandalin, you feel like this is the dead of winter and not well into spring. You continue and it just keeps cooling, by 10th hour, it's nearing freezing and it's taking a toll on the girls. They're still able to go a little further but not by much.

Suddenly you're confronted with Two large Grizzies with a total of 4 cubs, they all look emaciated, as they would just exiting their dens after winter, but these Bears are far enough South that they wouldn't have hibernated, so the lack of food in Early spring are threatening their existence. They're headed North along the trail directly for you and stop as they spot you, sticking their noses in the air. Given that they can easily smell both you and the girls, they're considering what to do next but the look in their eyes says awfully hungry and cranky. They're wary but aren't backing down.
Sandra skids to a stop, terrified by the bears ahead. Sophia hasn't seemed to notice them and keeps plotting along, tired but determined to pull.

Yulya is both amazed and frightened by the group of bears
Do not threaten them!
Let us slowly retreat. If they follow us we must defend ourselves but I do not want to hurt them. They have it hard enough!
Cat do you think you could lure them off the path with moose meat?

The bang reverberates through your lungs and the cubs scatter followed shortly by the mama bears. The smoke clears and the large black cat can't help but stare down the bears but by now the bears are already running off in all directions.

You arrive at Barthen's Provisions and Hobbie's sitting on the porch, smoking a long pipe, wrapped in a blanket. He hears you clopping up long before he sees you and when he sees who's trotting up he smiles, throws his hands in the air and cheers, "Look who's here!"

He squirms a bit and then says, "you're wrong Ms. Ashley, I have a full paying customer just today, she was happy to pay whatever I asked in fact! Well though not everyone can afford everything the same and you're not asking for me to take on finicky draft horses, so how long are you staying?"

Ashley takes a sigh, "Yulya? He says 50 flipping silver for these stinky girls and we only made 100, what a jip!"