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"S-Sorry." Reks flinched and apologized when Anya scolded him. He stayed as still as a statue after that, even doing his best to keep his hovering motionless.

The gargoyle watched in amazement as Anya became the spider-whisperer. Just like that the little tarantula was off of him and hurriedly scurrying up the tree. He flushed in embarrassment when the size of the spider was so much smaller than it felt. The poor little thing looked pretty harmless as it sat on a branch already working on rebuilding the web.

Iorek smiled gently at Cesc as he patted down his now-messy hair, "Heh, well that was exciting...and embarrassing."

His attention followed his stag friend to Anya and he followed the others example. "Yes, thank you for the help, Queen Anastacia." Hopefully he was doing this right. 'Queen' did seem like a little too much, but she did just rescue him when he thought an eight-legged beast was roosting in his hair. "I really appreciate it."

As they got a move on, Iorek paused to say a few words to the fuzzy little gal in the tree, "Sorry for scaring you. Next time I'll react better." Then he was off and following after Cesc now onto being mesmerized by his wing trick. Like a moth to a flame he drifted closer to his friend, reaching out to wave a hand under his wings to see the light reflect off of him.

"Wow..." He sad in a hushed tone. Quickly he moved back to give Cesc enough room and got back to scanning their area. Now that the natural light was diminishing, the jungle was looking more and more sinister.

Zeke concealed a chuckle behind one hand, but was unable to mask his smile when the team got moving again.

"Anya's got a pet tarantula at home," he said as he fell into step next to Iorek, "so she's kind of a natural with those things." Of course, her soul helped but he kept mum on that front. He also didn't say a word in regards to the two male Frei calling the Widow 'queen', amused by it and the way she oh-so-subtley reacted.

Anastacia did not speak, but her actions spoke volumes. The Frei rose a little higher as she floated on ahead and both her crown and wings spread wide. Her head was even lofted as well. It felt good to be addressed as such. However, as the light began to fade, Anastacia slowed her pace and allowed the others to catch up. She enjoyed the nighttime usually, but in the middle of this godforsaken place that wasn't the home she knew like the back of her own hand, she wasn't about to take the risk of getting lost by herself.

Her Guardian also made note of the change in light, looking up at the darkening trees and what little sky he could see beyond. Sucking on his lip ring, he pulled his flashlight out and flicked it on. A decent beam of light came from the bulb, but this was no spotlight. He wouldn't trust himself not to get injured in the dark.

"I think maybe we should consider setting up camp for the night."

As much as he had hoped they would have stumbled onto Kyou before dark, these things had a way of plotting against the search and rescuers. And he was feeling hungry himself. The sandwich he had chowed down on during the tail end of the bus ride was riding thin. Stepping forward, he bypassed Cesc and Anya and waved his flashlight around the darkening trunks. Birds and insects were as noisy as ever - though the latter was beginning to drown out the former - but Zeke was sure he could just make out the babbling of water up ahead. He pointed in that direction.

"Sounds like water. What do you guys say; wanna see what's over there? We could decide whether we make a camp or keep on going." After all, there was still SOME daylight left. A few extra feet towards Kyou before breaking was just extra progress today, right?

"I'll say. It's a great ability." Iorek said to Zeke as they headed down the trail. If he could talk to spiders there would be no need to go through all the ways to catch them. If they ended up in someone's bedroom, all he'd have to do was chitter like Anya, and then they'd move up to the attic. Too bad he already knew the purple-haired raevan would be against becoming his homes' spider-whisperer. She could really make a business out of it.

Iorek drifted along with his team as night fell and washed over the forest. Lucky for him this was the period of time he always felt more alert and powerful. Just another handy perk that remained of the soul he was born from.

The journey through the forest didn't seem so bad, Iorek concluded. There had been an embarrassing spider attack but other than that nothing else jumped out at them.

He kept an eye on Zeke as they crawled over fallen trees and maneuvered through tight overgrown paths. Iorek wasn't too worried for the raevans, they simply had to fly a little higher, but Zeke wasn't like them. By now the poor guy must be starving and since he couldn't pick up a rock and eat it, maybe it was time for them to stop for a snack?

Plus, the sound of running water tickled his ears. When he first heard the faint sound, it stopped him in his tracks. For a brief moment he hovered and just listened to the noise. His heart skipped a beat at the thought of having to cross a large river.

'We should try another way.' The stone raevan wanted to say as he put himself back in motion. Sure, they had just travelled a few hours to get here but why not turn back? Why not try and find another way to Kyou?

Iorek was a brave raevan but being around deep water made him feel sick all over with fear. This wasn't like at home where he could just avoid the deep end of the ocean. Right now there was a life at stake and he knew he'd have to go through the water no matter how wide and murky it's depths were. He wouldn't back down because of this age-old fright, but he really wanted to.

To ease him forward, the gargoyle convinced himself it was just a little stream they'd have to go through. Maybe it wasn't natural water at all? Just a water fountain or a tap someone forgot to turn off? In the middle of the jungle. It didn't make a lot of sense but at this moment Iorek didn't care.

"Lets just see what's ahead." He swallowed the worry and trekked on. "We'll see what it is. If it's too big to cross at night, we'll settle for camp and try in the morning. Kyou wouldn't want us to get hurt." Or drown.

Iorek knew he was being silly to let this sound make him so anxious. They hadn't even seen what the cause of it was, and he was already jittery with nerves.

'Pull yourself together.' The gargoyle scolded himself while smiling at Cesc, "Lets hope not." He chuckled, "We already gave a great show with that."

Zeke nodded to the responses, and looked to Anya.

"What do you think?" She was part of this team too. Her vote mattered.

The spider queen nodded and got her own flashlight out.

"Sounds like a good idea." She could get behind it, especially since her mind didn't hazard to think that she might have to share a tent with one, two, or all three of her "companions". She let Zeke take the lead, but kept her flashlight's beam at an angle so it bypassed her Guardian entirely and hit the trees that bordered their path beyond.

The sound of water grew as they trekked further and further in and then Zeke and Anya broke through the clearing. The vet made a low whistle.

"s**t." Not too tall, but with the task at hand - and no climbing gear to boot! - the cliff looked like an impossible hurdle. Zeke shut his flashlight off, frowning at the hurdle that had decided to plonk itself right smack dab in the middle of their search zone. "Well that's something..."

Anya was not impressed. She could see this hulking behemoth as a blurry grey wall with a streak of white running down the middle and a blue pool at its base but she did not see what would warrant a swear out of her guardian. It was no challenge; all she had to do was float up and over and voila, she would be on the top of it. Zeke would have a hard time, but it wasn't her fault he didn't have the gift of glorious flight.

As soon as Iorek saw that cliff and heard Zeke curse he knew this was his moment. It was his time to shine. Cesc was locating Kyou through his special powers, Anya fended off a spider, and now he was meant to carry Zeke.

Quickly he turned to the man with a look full of childish glee. "Don't worry, I'll carry you."

After he was given the affirmative by Zeke and the man's pack was handed off to Cesc, Iorek scooped him up into his arms. Good old bridal-style was just the way to carry someone when you didn't have much to cling to. Iorek checked, and then double checked that he had a safe grip on his teammate. When everything was squared away he and the others took off into the sky. Finally the raevan had a Lois Lane to his Superman, if only for a few moments.

Iorek made sure that there was enough room on the cliff to set Zeke down. Even so, Reks hovered close just in case the rock wasn't sturdy enough or there was a reason to grab him again. "It looks big enough for us...and on the way up I think I saw a cave behind the waterfall. That's pretty neat?"

"Thanks for the lift, Iorek." Zeke had to beam at the Gargoyle and give him a grateful pat on one of his massive arms, all while struggling to rein in the desire to loudly declare that the stony Frei had to give him another ride. The bridal style handling was something Zeke was entirely used to thanks to his boyfriend and the older man's inclination for sweeping the raver off his feet, but the feeling of flying was like that was totally new and thus totally exhilarating. There had been some whimsy intermingling with the momentary gut wrenching trepidation as Iorek had taken off, but all the same it had been a riot and something Zeke assumed many humans did not get to do with any Raevan, let alone this one. "There's a damn nice view from up here. If we make a camp by those trees, we'll have a great view of everything for miles come morning!"

Though it wasn't to say that the sight wasn't already impressive even in the dying light. The only one who wasn't affected by it was Anastacia, but only because her eyes failed her in seeing farther than a few feet in that regard. She had been happy to clear the cliff's edge and settle at her usual height, being the last one up as her wings were not at all suitable for flying as Cesc and Iorek's were. Because of the former, the spider queen instead turned her attention inward to the trees and waterfall that lay behind her other teammates. Gripping her light, she held it out at arm's length, flashing the beam from trunk to trunk as though something lay beyond. And something did. A dark shape moved between blinks and the Virus Frei felt her heart skip a beat with the suddenness of it. Her wings and crown flared out in alarm and she took a subconscious "step" backward, head raising and eyes struggling to find what had crossed her flashlight's beam.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Zeke began to turn around, smiling all the while in ignorance for having not seen a thing.

Iorek looked about with the same amount of wonder as Cesc. His eyes scanned the scenery to see that it was a safe area but also to soak in where they were. He'd never been to a place like this before. It was unsettling down below, on the ground, where so many things could get you. But up here on the cliff he felt so much closer to the sky. Up here, closer to the stars, it didn't feel like the darkness would choke their lives away. "Waterfalls, beautiful trees, a nice sky..." He whispered in awe, "You know this would be a great place to take someone you love."

Now that it had gotten darker the conversations felt like they had to become even lighter. "Good idea, Zeke. Everyone can rest up and we'll be on our way bright and early."

But when his attention had turned onto the man he'd miss the movement. It would be just their luck that the raevan who could see fairly well in the dark would look away just as things got creepy.

"Hm? An animal?" Iorek looked curiously to where the shadows festered. He squinted and followed where Anya's flashlight when. Up until this point the lady raevan had been as cool as a cucumber. Even though he hadn't seen anything it made him slightly nervous that she was on edge.

"I'll uh...I'll take whatever watch suits you guys. I'm better at night anyways." He said as he tried to get back to the conversation and push his worry away, at least long enough to start building the tents.