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Lani glanced back at the little jackal and offered him a sweet smile. He seemed as frightened as she did, the poor thing. But, then again, they were probably all frightened now. No one could stand against an adult elephant, could they? Lani didn’t think so. She didn’t want to try. By now she had no ill feelings toward the ‘monster.’ Its child had been killed. Lani had never had pups of her own, but she knew how strong the bond between parent and child could be.

She was frightened, certainly, but mostly she felt pity toward the beast that had done this.

“It may be,” she said to Haki,” I don’t know how a whole bull could get through the jungle without leaving a bigger trail, though.” Elephants didn’t fit between trees too easily.

“You can stay with us, if you like,” she offered to the jackal, with a quick glance up at Ndege.

Tahir’s mad laughter had quieted, but not ceased. He was panting heavily between giggles, his whole body rocking with the effort. He made no attempt at all to rise from the dirt. What a sight he made, filthy and covered in paint! Lolling on the ground like some crazed, dying beast. Amali’s eyes on him only made him curl his body tighter around itself. He rocked from side to side, flashing his teeth now and again should anyone attempt to approach him.

Clearly, he’d lost his senses.

He did not, however, miss the red leopardess’ question. It let out an obnoxious bark and reeled off into another fit of cackles. “They probably buried it themselves!”

Haki let his ears raise slowly, and he slowly walked over towards Lani. "Maybe it's just skinny." He half-joked. Monster hunting seemed much too sinister to have time for making jokes, so Haki kept it to a minium. Besides, since he was terrified no amount of jokes were going to enlighten his spirits. Oh, if they just found the monster all this would be likely to stop. All his fear and anxitey would fade away to nothing, required they finally managed to catch the beast causing all the chaos around here.


"Your just being ridiculous now." The leopardess walked closer to Tahir. She could tell by his appearence that he wasn't going to be to much of threat if he attempted to attack her. Then again, people are capable of the most unusual things when pushed to their limits. Stil, she could attempt to coax the Maned Wolf into relaxing. He wasn't helping the situation in the slightest, getting him to shut up would probabley help the calm the area. "Now would you please calm down? It's not like your in any immediate danger."

[ Oh man, saiorse wanted to but I didn't want to make anyone mad XD ]

The whine had been the last straw. Ears flattened, and lips wrinkled to snarl as her tail lashed behind her. The lioness's forepaw snaked out, lashing itself across Tahir's cheek before even her own growl had the chance to leave her throat. "We're here to do a job, and we will do it. Do not blame the moneky for your own cowardice, and stop unsettling the rest before I give you a real reason to squeal like a child." The lioness let out a huff, willing ehr breathing to be even. Males. She should probably beat his little tail ragged where he lay, but even she kenw that would be excessive. She took a deep breath, "Panic will do us no good, and your noise will only attract and anger whatever is here, elephant or not." The lioness closed what little distance was left between herself and Tahir, mere centemeters between their noses. "Now tell me, you idiot, does that sound like a good idea to you?"

Panic and agitation was descending upon the group, and An knew they had to get control of this fast. She hopped up on one of the snapped trees and tried to gather some attention. "Listen, everyone. This doesn't change anything. Baatar is right, this is no time to panic. We knew we were in danger hunting this monster back when we had no idea what it was. Now that we have some idea and we aren't in the dark."

Veru gave the baby elephant a final look before standing before An. An elephant was going to be no easy enemy to face, not if it could do all this damage in a rage. But if the firekin were looking for a challenge, they'd certainly found it.

"While I'm sure his or her reasons are quite sympathetic indeed, it doesn't excuse what it has been doing to travelers in this wood. Its possible it can be reasoned with..."

Veru doubted that very much, but perhaps it might set the conscience of some of the other members of the group at ease. "...but if it doesn't, we have a brute of an enemy to go up against. Even one angry monster is an army," this time, he looked across Spaki and the other firekin. Then some of the more rougher looking participants in this hunt. "But on the plus side, it won't exactly be hard to find now that we know what we are looking for. An elephant is not something that can just duck away into a cave or a tree."

An nodded. "Its likely no one took notice of him. Even the leopards must have just thought the beast was passing through like anyone else."

Veru took in a slow breath, his bright eyes looking across the shattered trees. "But whatever the case may be, the beast isn't here and this damage is old. That means he's out there, possibly sizing up another target."

Baatar nodded. "I agree, moving on is the best thing we can do at the moment. If we have a chance of stopping the creature." He paused, looking to the group, "Which we do. We need to act fast so we can try and minimize any further damage, or save anyone that might run into it in their path." This would be a challenge indeed, and although he was apprehensive like everybody else, he had faith in their group. This was one of the first times he'd distinctly worked with other creatures before, and he found it quite enjoyable, there was a sense of security. He looked to Margulis. "Yes, we could try tracking? Or we could follow any damage in the trees?" He looked around for a clue.

They were going after an elephant.

Hel could swear he heard a ringing in his ears, followed by a faint roaring sound.

They were going after an elephant.

He looked a little lightheaded as he followed the conversation, head bobby woozily. They were serious, and that in and of itself was a little horrifying. He tried to clear his head but one thought ran around his mind in giddy, slightly hysterical circles.

This was so much worse than an angry hippo.

"Right, riiight. Kill a bull elephant, no problem. Is there anything else we needed to do, say, maybe pull the moon down from the sky?" He was sulking, ears laid back against his skull. He tried to console himself with the idea that at least if they succeeded, there was a LOT of meat to be had on an elephant.

This explained a lot. Honestly, it did. And his suspicions had been confirmed, but Spaki got not joy from that. No one was happy to find out their current worst enemy was an elephant. He had never feared the Nergui, not really. And army of lions still seemed more easily fought than a giant.

He listened very quietly as the others reacted to this news, eyes focused on the skull as his ears turned about to catch individual words. Some of them seemed terrified. He didn't blame them, this was probably the first time Spaki had ever really felt scared. The white male immediately tried to distance himself from the feeling, because it just couldn't help him now. So he focused on the task at hand.

"There are a lot of us. Individually we stand no chance, but collectively I believe we can do something about this threat, even if the elephant isn't willing to talk." It did no one any good to just assume all was lost because their opponent was so large. Anything could be dealt with. "I'd recommend we all consider the advantages we do have, if you need to calm down." He did a bit of that himself.

At least some people were more rational about this all, and Spaki took the opportunity to muse out loud. Reason was good right now, very good. "I imagine when fighting an elephant we'll need to rely greatly on our surroundings." He shrugged. That was a bit hard to plan for, since they had no idea where they would find it.

"If enough of us jump on its back it might be overwhelmed and topple over, but that leaves the matter of getting up there in the first place, then hanging on." He figured a fallen elephant would do quite a bit of thrashing. "Ideally when we find the beast it'll be somewhere we can trap it, somehow, without needing to rely too much on muscle." Because even if they could, there would probably be casualties by the time the fight was over. If the elephant did them the favor of getting itself hurt again, that'd just be brilliant.

"But we won't be able to do anything if we don't find it, so we should keep moving. We need to find it before it find us, and maybe then we can settle on a more solid 'elephant-fighting' strategy."

He paused for a moment. "Isn't there a famous 'elephant graveyard' somewhere? If elephants are in the habit of visiting their dead, it might not be too far away from here, where its calf is buried." Which could be both good and disastrous! All the more reason to stop the chit chat and get moving.

-

Kimaji wasn't quite sure what to feel yet. Fear was still a rather unfamiliar thing for her, and it hadn't quite sunk in in just how dangerous a situation they might be. The reaction of the group probably scared her more than the elephant itself, because all the pachyderm inspired in her right now was pity. She must be the mother of this calf, and must be mourning and sad and just so angry. Perhaps her calf had been predated, because who knows, it probably happened sometimes.

With a little sigh, she laid down as the group discussed what they were to do. She would follow, of course. She'd just be considerably less happy about it. Kimaji just hoped they wouldn't have to kill the poor elephant, and that she would listen to them once found, or else this would just result in more hurt and sadness.