Beginning VI-2-3-3
You decide the small crowd is too intimidating, and at the last moment, make to pass them by, raising your hand in greeting and nodding hello.
They are all quiet now. Even the children are watching you closely.
"Hello all," you say, as the path leads you beyond them.
You move on, peering all about at the unfamiliar terrain, suddenly feeling exposed and somewhat embarrassed. It feels as through all their eyes are boring into your back as you leave them to their revels.
You continue onward downstream, and pass into a thicket where the river slows and grows wider. Reeds and rushes make swishing sounds in the twilight.
The trees close over, and it grows increasingly shadowy - the twisting roots of the oaks begin to impede on the path, which begins to turn away from the river and head in a more southerly direction, somewhat up hill.
You wonder where it will take you, and what you will do for the night's refuge. Perhaps passing by the fire was foolish.
The path takes a left turn ahead, directly southward, and begins to climb more steeply, winding between the great trunks of the ever more shadowed trees.