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"No," Sevilin admitted, pulling his dufflebag a little tighter across his shoulder. Unfortunately, he wasn't as excited about this whole nature thing the way Xiu was. It had sounded fun at the time--Well, not fun exactly. Obviously, Dr. Kyou's disappearance was a very serious issue; however, it still sounded like a grand adventure.

Now that he was in the thick of it, humid and itchy from brushing against branches and spider webs, the sea fairy didn't find nature so exciting anymore. "and I don't think I'll want to again after this." He was thankful for the beaten path laid out in front of them. At least they had a convenient road that would lead them right to Dr. Kyou.

"Stop. Stop!" We`rika suddenly barked from the front of the trail, his hands outstretched to keep everyone back. Watching the lay of the path closely, We`rika squatted down to get a better look. The huichol was by no means a huntsman or a tracker, but he had followed plenty of downtrodden paths from hundreds or thousands of feet plodding along year after year on pilgrimages. Well, until cars had come along.

"What're you doing?" The sea fairy asked impatiently before sliding his dufflebag off his shoulder and into the dirt below. It was too heavy to carry if they were simply going to hover there.

"Dunno," was his cryptic answer. "Could be nothin'. Could be someone came through here..." When, who, and how many was beyond We`rika's skill level of tracking, which was woefully very low to begin with.

“Oh... I see,” said Xiu a little disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm from the blue haired Frei. “I guess we shall just have to persevere a little longer; at least until someone finds Dr. Kyou,” said Xiu in an attempt to cheer the frei up.

Turning to Lette, Xiu was just about to ask her how long she thought the rations would last when We’rika let out an exclamation. Stopping short just behind the human, Xiu; as with the rest of the team, peered over We’rika’s shoulders and at his findings.

And this is why you should stay focused thought Xiu to himself in a slightly accusatory tone. If We’reika had not spotted those footprints...

But the human Lette seemed to think that these were not the prints that they were supposed to be pursuing and her argument made sense. They were supposed to be searching the area within their given grid and not be distracted by false leads that may jeopardise their very mission. Let the team in charge of this particular grid investigate the footprints.

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“The night is falling rather fast here. I think we may have to light a lamp soon,” said Xiu after several minutes of silent walking. It was barely an hour since they had left the base and here the jungle was already metamorphosing into an altogether darker and more sinister environment. The evening calls of roosting birds had ceased almost abruptly and crickets were beginning to chirp shrilly all about them. Occasionally the snap of a twig and the sounds of scuttling above and around them could be heard.

“And while there is still light, may I suggest we cut ourselves good sturdy branches?” said Xiu looking from Lette, to We’rika and finally to Sevilin. “We may not be able to see as well in the dark and the beating of branches against the ground might warn animals keep their distance,”

Well...at least that was what the nature guy said on TV...

Lette decided she was not a fan of the encroaching darkness and s**t making noises where she couldn't see their source. This was all starting to create a mixture of "what the hell was that, I'm going to stab it" and "noo, I don't want it, keep it far far away". Was she a pansy? She didn't think so. But she was a realist and whatever kept Kyou from returning to the Lab could very well keep them from returning to their homes. Which she'd really like to be right now, wrapped in a blanket under heavy A/C, as opposed to feeling as if she should shed all of her clothes in a party of males in the middle of a dank forest with creepy animal noises and who knows what else.

Snapping out of her reverie, Lette quickly volunteered herself for a flashlight. "I'll take one of those off your hands Sevilin! I'm not sure about you guys, but it's getting harder and harder for me to see and I'm not the biggest fan of that." As she reached out for her requested item, intending to pass on Sevilins request to sing but considering Xiu's suggestion, a loud screeching sound resounded through the forest, like the cry of a giant bird, followed by what sounded like a crack of a tree branch or a breaking bone.

"Oh helllllllll no, what the heck was that?"

“Singing huh?” said Xiu in a contemplative sort of tone. “I’ve never done much of it to be honest but it sounds like a good way to pass the time and your reasoning about alerting animals of our approach is sound. Who knows, if Dr. Kyou is merely lost, he may be drawn to the sound of people singing too,” It was a long shot, the Sigel knew but it was important to keep everyone’s morale up. “Why don’t you teach me Sevilin? “

When Lette moved forward to get a torchlight from Sevilin, Xiu politely floated to the right; thus flanking both Lette and Sevilin. The Sigel figured We’rika seemed capable enough and would probably be able to hold his own. Lette though, seemed a little high strung and when that sudden screech resonated through the forest’s dark shadows....

“It’s just a large bird, Lette,” said Xiu as he tried to soothe the human. “Probably landed on a branch that was too brittle to-,”

There was that screech again but this time, it left everyone with no doubt of its owner’s end. Despite all of this, Xiu was not overly distraught. His encounters with not-so-friendly beings in the past had given him a certain amount of tolerance for the spooky. Even the rustling in the bushes yielded nothing more than a casual glance from the Sigel. “Probably a small animal,” said Xiu speculatively. “It’s too close to the edge of the forest to be anything too dangerous and umm...the bush is only two feet tall...,”

The unexpected screech had left Lette's body flush with adrenaline, her skin feeling clammy and her body vibrating with the need to run. Internally biting down on her fear, she collected her thoughts and did her best to get her s**t together.

"Oh now you want to say something isn't fantastic or extraordinary," she snapped at We`rika. "Just a little while ago you were saying footprints in the sand were monumental, but something killing off whatever the hell that screech came from, and is now creeping in a bush, is a friend."

For a moment she regretted being snappy and showing her sass to individuals she hadn't really gotten to know yet, but she brushed it off. If they couldn't handle her in her natural state, she'd chalk them up with the rest of the people in the world who could not either. Freaking hot a** forests with creepy noises, Lette felt like she had found herself in the makings of a horror movie. It was true that the creature in the bush could just be a feral cat attacking a bird, but that bird creature thing had sounded massive and impressive on its own. And whatever had attacked it had made no noise...

Taking a deep breath, and placing one small foot in front of the other, Lette made a slight approach to the source of interest. Directing her newly acquired flashlight to the bush, she waved it in a crazy 8 pattern, trying to draw out whatever was inside or, potentially, scare it off. "Uhhh, come out come out whatever you are." And please don't be scary.

“Uh...if you are expecting one of those intricate movements as seen on television, you’d be disappointed,” said Xiu looking embarrassed. “Looking after a bookstore does not warrant the use of a swor-“

DADDY!?

Blue eyes snapped to the source of the yell. While Xiu was willing to allow the rustling bush to contain a myriad of foresty creatures, a physically deformed child was not one of them. Momentarily frozen in shock, Xiu watched as the child ambushed We’rika and clung to the man as though its very life depended on it.

That child had called the human “daddy” but that statement in itself is impossible. Even IF We’rika did abandon a child in the forest and the child somehow survived, deformed as it is, it was unlikely the child would recognize its father. Something did not seem right...

Keeping his voice calm, Xiu observed the shrieking child. There was something off about it. Something...not quite human. “You!” said Xiu with a sudden half snarl at the kid. “Get away from We’rika!”

That was it! The child, it did not have any innocence about it. Even the most hardened human that Xiu had met had some small aura of innocence about them but this child...it had nothing. No innocence, no malevolence...

Even animals had some kind of fuzzy, if unpalatable energy about them.

Was this creature even sentient?

"Reading too heavily into my comments, We`rika! Still doesn't mean anything when you..." her voice trailing off, Lette became quickly distracted and consumed by the sudden shift in shaking bushes around her. As the noises seemingly flew from bush to bush, Lette did her best to follow them, her body and flashlight twisting around to track the movement. When it seemed like the rustling had stopped, Lette turned back to check on the Raevans, where it seemed they hadn't moved from once the screeching had started. "Are you okay, Sevilin? Looking a little shaken there --"

"DADDY!?"

"The hell, who is calling Daddy out here in the middle of the fo...rest...," for the second time in the span of a few short minutes, Lette found her voice and train of thought leave her as she looked to the source of the sound. The creature, no child, had a heavy grip on We`rika's arm and didn't seem to want to let go. Nevertheless, with a curse and a heavy shove, the child stumbled back a step or two, mouth gaping with almost a look of fear and sadness on its face.

Looking on the poor soul standing by itself in the middle of the forest gave Lette a wrenching feeling in her gut. While she couldn't deny she was a bit creeped out by his sudden apparition from nowhere, and his appearance, another part of her wanted to comfort him. But how the hell did he get out here in the forest and find them? She doubted anyone from the lab would have pointed him in their direction without escorting him, unless they were that disturbed by his looks. But he still wouldn't have had an easy time getting out here. They'd been walking for a good while. And had came in on a bus! The forest wasn't exactly close to civilization. Though this didn't look like the spawn of something derived from modern medicine. Was We`rika the kind of pervert to drive hours away from his home to get some punani? She doubted, but she had just met him...

Taking a hesitant step forward, which seemed to be the new thing to do since they got here, Lette opened her arms to appear as non-threatening as possible. "Oh, uhm, hello little one. Do you have a name? Or a mother? How'd you get out here?" Glancing back at We`rika and the Raevans, who seemed to either be knocked senseless at this development or, in the case of Xiu, territorial. But it was a child. Obviously it didn't have the best of circumstances dealt to it, they should help it, not condemn it.

In the same thought, Lette couldn't help but think that maybe they were right to back away. Maybe she was the one who was wrong. And with those teeth...what if it had been the one to eat that bird.

“It’s not human!” shouted Xiu above the wailing of the deformed creature. “I do not know what it is but-“

"DADDY?"

"PAPA?"

"DADA?"


"YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME!"

"YOU TOLD ME YOU USED PROTECTION!!"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU RETURN MY CALLS?"

"VASECTOMY MY a**!"

"YOU CALL THIS FIRING BLANKS?"

"YOU DEADBEAT SACK OF s**t!"

Xiu watched with horror as a legion of these non-humans materialized; seemingly out of thin air, from the bushes. Grabbing onto a woman who seemed out of place in her office uniform in the middle of the jungle, Xiu triggered what would have been a massive cramp right up the woman’s arm but the non-human merely gave the Sigel an odd look before wrenching herself away and staggering towards We’rika.

“We’rika! You must flee. We will meet you at the designated location!” yelled Xiu as he shoved a plumpish looking girl back. “Whatever these things are, they seem only interested in you!”

In the scuffle, the white Sigel forgot that We'rika had neither torchlight nor flare gun with him.