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Ronan didn't wait. He ran.

Swerving over to Isobel he grabbed her hand as a way to keep them from getting separated, the three of them now in a sort of chain. "No water!" he yelled, hoping the others could hear him. "They'll wait for us above the surface!" This might have been killer bees he was remembering, and not wasps, but there was NO way he was going to take that chance. As a selkie, he might have been able to hold his breath long enough, but he doubted the others could. For the most part Ronan made a straight beeline through the jungle, only changing course when he ran into an obstacle or felt the others having trouble keeping up.

When he saw some dense brush off to the side up ahead, Ronan stuttered in his running for a moment before changing course and swerving into the greenery, coming out of the thicket a few moments later. The change had slowed them briefly, but once they were through the brush returned to it's previous shape - it was hard to tell anyone had ever been through there. Ronan kept running. He hoped it was enough.

s**t. s**t s**t s**t. Ronan had a point about waiting, but would wasps know to wait? Did bees wait? Rivener wasn't sure, but Ronan sounded like he was knowledgeable on the matter so the Raevan decided not to insist. He ran after the group, always trying to keep himself between them and the crazy insects. If they were to sting him, he hoped to high heaven his natural toxin resistance might keep the reactions to a minimum.

Ronan ducked through a bush and Riv followed over the top, glancing behind: many of the wasps couldn't pass the foliage and so the group following them was much smaller! But not gone yet! Riv groaned and realized the damned things weren't leaving, so he rounded. He would try to beat them away.

"Keep going! Into the water! Into the water, and I'll get them out of here!" He didn't want to lose his team in the woods, and if they were in the stream they came across, the wasps couldn't get them, right?

So Riv turned and started swatting. His wings smacked a good few out of the air, stunning them to the ground, and he stung one or two of his own. But there were many of them, and he couldn't get them all: some managed to get onto him, stinging at his arms, stinging at his rib, stinging at his back and on his wings, puncturing the leathery webbing. Each sting felt like a small stabbing knife and Riv grit his teeth against the pain, flailing to smack as many as possible and keep them away from his teammates.

Ronan's longer clothing ended up being a blessing as he ran, only one sting managing to sneak in on his forearm. Even so, the pain was horrible and it was because of this that Ronan missed Isobel pulling away from his grip. A last minute grab was made for her slim hand when he realized what was happening, but by that time it was already too late and his continuing strides separated him from the group. Part of him - a very large part of him - told him to just keep running, to get away from the wasps -

He stopped, branches crunching under his boots. There hadn't been any more stings since he'd gotten separated from the group. Looking back he found the wasps now completely focused on the others, and still way too many present. Something need to change, and fast.

Dumping his supplies on the ground Ronan began to scramble through his pack, eventually latching onto a cylindrical can of bug repellant and a lighter a few moments later. Popping the cap off with his thumb he sprinted back towards the others, knuckles turning white as he gripped the two items. This was exceedingly stupid, and had every chance of backfiring horribly, but things were too far gone for him to care anymore. Seeing the swarm of wasps lurch into view in front of him Ronan brought up the can in his left hand, beginning to spray, and after a few moments, lit the lighter and touched the flame to the stream.

In that instant a giant gout of flame bloomed to life, one that continued as he held down the spray button and torched wasps in droves. He felt the heat drafting back onto his hands, and he was pretty sure the hair had just been singed off his fingers, but he continued the process several more times, reigniting the bug spray each time he sprayed. Ronan had no idea if this was enough, or if it might be too little too late, but damn if it wasn't satisfying.

Rivener flinched at the sudden fire, whirling around to find its source, getting a panic-stricken mental image of these unnatural insects somehow turning into small fire-breathing dragons. His quick turn was accompanied by a swinging arm to swat at the last bugs around him, bugs that were screeching like they knew what was going on, and the gout of flame met his arm in a painful kiss.

With a scream of his own Rivener curled down on himself, hand going to the burned skin and instantly causing more pain as it gripped the affected area. But despite the haze of pain the red eyes still looked for the source of fire: it was Ronan! With an aerosol can of bug-spray and a lighter! The Sigel looked around right quick to take stock, finding all the bugs either dead or flying off within moments, but he still motioned for the two girls to duck under the flame if they could, not wanting them to suffer the same singe he had.

Once the fire, the buzzing, and the sound of crackling, burnt chitinous skin stopped, Rivener floated himself closer to the stream, dunking his arm in and using the other hand to splash water on whatever stings he could find, rinsing the blood away. Because damn, those stingers had been so big they DID draw blood.

"Well THAT was interesting. Good job, Ronan, thank you. Although you should watch your aim." He smirked, clearly joking. "Is everyone okay? Is there swelling anywhere?" Now that he had gotten stung himself, Rivener knew the wasps's venom. That meant he could now produce it AND its antidote, if any of the people here started showing reactions to it. He lifted his arm from the water and reached for his backpack, searching for the first aid kid. There was gauze in there and hopefully some ointment. "Could someone give me a hand with wrapping this up, please?"

It was only after all the wasps were dead that Ronan finally noticed the burn on Rivener's arm, blood draining from his face and having to keep himself from being sick. "J-Jesus, I'm so sorry." He swallowed hard at Axel's question, letting out a long breath and running a hand down his face. "I'll be fine. Go ahead and focus on Rivener for now." At this point he made a hasty exit to the stream bed, still not trusting his stomach, and squatted down by the stream edge. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit.

Eventually he went back into the woods and retrieved the supplies he had dumped in the chaos, and, after a moment, secured his blade in it's sheath and placed it on his belt. He didn't know what else was going to be coming, but those wasps had been all sorts of wrong, and he wanted to be prepared.

Rivener blinked at Isobel's petulant question, raising an eyebrow. He could see she was covered in stings, and that was no doubt why she was complaining of being in pain... But Axel was focusing on binding his burn first. He did wince as the ointment was spread on, groaning at the sensation, but at the same time he tried to grin and bear it. Ronan's heartfelt apology was met with a shrugged shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I'd rather this than have those murderous things still hanging about." A little burn, he could deal with. The growing itch of these stings, however...

Everyone's wounds were getting quite visible. Riv knew he needed to produce an antidote for them, but his wings were beginning to feel heavy, sore. "Isobel, come here please. I'll give you both something to help with the itching." He thanked Axel with a nod when she was done, flexing his hand to check on the sensation. The skin pulled and hurt under the bandage, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Ronan had a bite too, so Riv also motioned him nearer. "I can give you an antidote for the wasp venom. C'mon. And so you know, Isobel," Rivener smiled faintly as he took her arm and brought his stinger close, pricking her skin if she allowed it, "My guardian isn't here. He's... I worry for him a lot so I felt better if he didn't come. Sorry I had to borrow yours for a little while."

He then gave Ronan and Axel the same p***k of antidote, if allowed, and finally just to err on the side of caution, he pricked himself, too. By then his wings actually HURT to move, and he tried to rustle them to get feeling back into them, wincing. The movements were jerky and hard, clacky and snappish. Frowning in concern, Riv closed them tight against his back and figured he wouldn't be doing any flying for a while. What was wrong with his wings??

"I guess we should be crossing," he said after looking around and seeing impassable brush surrounding every way but back, or across. He frowned at the trees, though, tilting his head and trying to place what was so weird about them... "I'm sure the water isn't so deep. Or we could try to cut something down to cross?"

Ronan murmured a short "Thank you" when Rivener gave him the antidote, his own sting having become more and more distracting - and he'd only had one. Shifting his gear so it wouldn't rub against the sting Ronan examined the river and the trees on the other side. Like the others however, he wasn't able to make out what was going on with them. "Well, I'd say the first thing to answer before we try to cross is how the deep the water is. It will make a big difference if we can ford it instead of swimming or using a raft." Going off to the thick brush nearby he looked around until he found what he wanted - a long thin branch even taller than him. Using a combination of kicking and a small saw in his own multi tool Ronan eventually got it free, hefting it to check how solid it was. It should work.

"I'm going to check it out," he called back to the others as he walked to the bank, poking the makeshift depth gauge into the water right off the shore. "If there's anything else you want me to check, let me know." As long as the water proved shallow enough, Ronan would wade in and test a little more of the river bottom with the depth gauge. Sure, his pants were going to get soaking wet, and a lot more if anything went wrong, but he wasn't exactly the type to complain about getting damp.

Rivener didn't like the feeling in his wings at all. He frowned and constantly flexed his wings, open and closed, open and closed, wincing and trying to work out the odd feeling of heaviness. He tried to summon up a dose of antidote, just as a test, and the ache throbbed so bad he groaned, reaching up to rub at his poison bulb until that feeling of being clogged up went away, the liquid absorbing back into nothingness.

He really felt like he had a cold. This was... was not cool. Not cool at all. He looked around the clearing, extra alert for dangers now, knowing that they couldn't rely on his antidotes anymore. What if there were poison plants?? More wasps?? Hell, they could accidentally eat a berry and get poisoned, and what would Riv be able to do to help?! Nothing! He flexed and rustled his wings again, trying to rub out the ache without pause.

Ronan walked into the water and Riv could see the current in the waves trailing beside the man's body. They couldn't likely cross this wading, then. Not even swimming, most likely. And Rivener couldn't fly them across. They would have to build a raft, then.

"It's getting dark," the Scorpion mentioned as he looked up at the sky. "Maybe we should just set up camp here, and while we wait to sleep we could build some kind of... of raft or a bridge or... or... Are those towels??" He scrunched his face as the setting sun illuminated the far bank enough for him to make out what he'd thought looked so odd before.