Their pace was steady, taking only small breaks here and there to relieve the muscles of strain. There was no hurry to their stride, but for the female there was some urgent need to escape the valley before they made camp for the night. Perhaps it was this warning in the pack of her mind that compelled her to continue, her pace not quickening but her strides lengthening to inconspicuously cover more ground. At their rate, they would have long been beyond the Valley before night fell, but the threshold couldn't come soon enough. However nature had its way of attempting to slow progress.
It began as a soft rumbling in the pit of her stomach, no more than the soft churns of ignored hunger. She was fine leaving it be. But then the demands grew louder, her large form commanding an appetite most unwise to be unattended to for much longer. She spared glances at her companion time and again to see if he had noticed her belly's pangs. She maintained the mask of indifference, choosing to instead maintain their progress than stop for a much needed... much demanded meal.
"It shouldn't be much longer," she offered in conversation hoping to dispel the awkward air invoked by her rebellious gut. True there was no set course and no deadline to meet, but the warning was growing ever louder, just as her belly raised it voice for attention. "Are you familiar with these lands?" she continued, raising her voice above another boisterous roar.