Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mitsu’s knees were knocking together by the time Yuki made his way to her. When he reached out to take hold of her he would find a slight resistance as she clawed into the tree afraid to let go. After his reassurance though, Mitsu finally released her hold on the unyielding tree but quickly replaced her hold on Yuki. “It’s so high.” Mitsu whined, her eyes still tightly shut as she clung to whatever part of Yuki she could find. How she had gotten this high was a mystery on its own she had never been able to climb well enough before to even get off the ground.

Neko's eyes went wide for a moment at Riyo's response. This didn't sound like the normal Riyo. The tone of voice, her movements, and her eyes. They all gave way to the fact that before him was not the Riyo he had come to know. His shock was short lived, however, as she seemed to slip back into her childish state of mind and rush to aid Mitsu at the tree.

“Hmph, stupid mutt.” Neko mused to himself as he sat back down and watched the rescue party at work. How she had even climbed up there was a wonder to him but the fact that she had done it but then couldn’t get back down made him want to laugh. Though with effort he refrained from doing so. Instead he went about stoking the fire a bit placing the remaining twigs and small tree branches on it that they had retrieved to keep it going through the night. Might as well use up the last of them, they would probably enjoy the fire for a bit longer before moving on.

Once closer to Yuki Mitsu scrambled to take hold of clothing putting a death grip on his shirt as if it were the only thing that was going to keep her from falling. She huddled as close to him as physically possible only daring now to open an eye and look up toward his face. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears that lingered giving them a glassy and overly pathetic look.

When instruction was given for Mitsu to move onto his back a soft whine escaped her throat. She didn’t want to move, it was so high, and if she fell from here she would surely be hurt. “I..I’m scared.” She admitted though it was easy enough for Yuki to see that on his own. Releasing the grip she had on his shirt with one hand she moved it about an inch over before she took another firm hold of his shirt in a different spot. Using this method she would inch around Yuki and be at his back in the next year.

Chuckling lightly to himself, Neko continued his work. Apparently Yuki had his hands full. He would look up into the tree where Yuki was trying to direct a frightened Mitsu around but his eyes would fall back downward and settle on Riyo. What had happened earlier? It was a bit unnerving.

Trying to set those thoughts aside, maybe he was imagining things, Neko looked around to check on the other members of their party. He was surprised all this excitement hadn’t awakened Hitsu, she was normally a very light sleeper. As his gaze shifted around the area he saw Poke not far off but as he continued to look he failed to see Hitsu. Maybe she had curled up somewhere out of sight? Though she usually liked to stay close to everyone. “Hitsu?” Neko called softly so Yuki wouldn’t over hear. Though he was probably too busy to notice at the moment.

Standing to his feet Neko gave another look around the area. She wasn’t here. Where was she? The first thing to come to mind was that this was not a good time to go wandering off like she did at home. Who knew what kind of animals lived in this area, it could be dangerous. Not to mention how close they were to a human city. There was no telling if there were scouting parties out to pick up random stay animals for whatever reason. “Hitsu?” His voice was a bit more panicked this time as he moved out of the clearing trying to find some sort of scent trail. The early morning and the fire however, seemed to be throwing off his senses making finding a trail rather hard.

Mitsu was frightened, it had been obvious even before she'd said so. Why else would he have come to help? "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He assured, leaning forward as well as he could manage in order for Mitsu to climb onto his back, apparently with the speed of a dying sloth. "We've got to get moving soon, Mitsu." He said, and quickly tucked an arm around her middle from underneath and hoisted her swiftly up onto his back. Not something he'd put any forethought into.

-----

The first call of her name didn't reach her ears, but the second did if just barely. She moved on in a bit of a jog, though careful not to drop everything she was trying to carry. "Coming!" She called, reaching her destination in little time. She paused a few feet from Neko, looking at him cautiously. How long had he been looking for her? Was he the only one? "Uh, I was out getting us something to eat..."

"I-I'm sorry..." She had started, frowning. It hadn't come out as much more than a whimper; Neko looked angry. His continued scolding only made her feel worse, and she started to tear up. She never had been one to take well to being scolded, and she was generally an easy one to upset. She tried to hide it, though, but didn't say a word to Neko. When he took some of the fruit and walked off, she rubbed at her eyes a bit. Did he have to be so mean? It wasn't like she'd went off looking for trouble, and she made it back safe. That was what counted, right? She followed after him quietly, mulling over just what she was supposed to say if Yuki questioned her as well.

Yuki's plan quickly backfired when Mitsu panicked. He struggled, gripping blindly for a hold as her movements caused him to lose balance. "M-Mitsu!" He shouted, having a bit of trouble speaking through the tight grip around his neck. "Calm down! Calm do-!?" He lost grip on the tree, when much to his horror the slim branch he'd been holding onto for balance snapped at the base. It was hard to tell what profanity he yelled out, but soon the both of them were in for a quick meeting with the ground.

The fall had been unpleasant to say the least but the meeting with Riyo and the ground had topped that by ten fold. Mitsu had screamed the whole way down but as she met with Riyo and then the ground she tumbled away landing face down in the dirt. Shakily she pushed herself up, her face scuffed from her meeting with the ground. As soon as she sat back on her rear the tears began to fall anew and Mitsu began to sob like a small child. Between being afraid and now being hurt she couldn’t hold back anymore and just cried her eyes out bringing her hands up to try and shield the tears from view.

“What was that?” Neko had heard a crash and Mitsu scream which lead him to believe things had not gone as planned. Picking up his pace he made it back to the campsite to find Riyo flattened under Yuki and Mitsu not far off bawling. “What happened?!” Rushing over he went to check on Riyo first and foremost hoping Yuki hadn’t crushed her in his fall.

Riyo, though not exactly realizing it, was probably much worse off in reality than she was in her dreams.

Two people had just fallen on her tiny frame from an excessive height. Not only that, but she was suffering from exaustion. Her head fell to the side. Blood trickled out from her mouth. Perhaps it was just the tissue.. Perhaps a rib had pierced her lungs. She was breathing, but it was slight.

Riyo frantically looked around in her nightmare for a familiar face. someone she knew. Recognized. But no one was there. Only dead bodies...

The man watched her with a cold smile. "look closer Riyo." He whispered and pointed at the corpses.

Riyo looked back at him with a frown. She didn't want to look at them. She didn't want to see the eyes of the dead...

But as they say, curiosity kills the cat. With reluctancy, she edged towards one of the bodies and gave it closer investigation. Her eyes widened. "M-mitsu?" She asked and backed up, only to feel something against the back of her leg. She swung around. "Yuki?!" Her eyes grew extremely frightened. She tried to look away, only to see another one. "Neko?!" And another. "HITSU?" And another. "POKE?"

She fell to her knees and screamed. The taste of their blood was on her tongue. She was covered in it. She was soaked in it. She had done it. Oh God, she had killed the only people to ever make her open her eyes to the world.

Back in reality, Riyo's face seemed to show her displeasure with the dream world she was now in. A little red tear leeked out of her eye. Not from the pain of the real world, but from the pain of the illusion. Her claws grabbed at the dirt. Oh, how she wished she could wake up. Even if the pain was horrible, it wouldn't be as bad as this.

Mitsu gave a muffled sob as she buried her face in the crook of Hitsu’s shoulder. From there she tried to give an explanation of the events but they seemed to omit quite a few important details. “I..I..I was in the tree **sob** and Yuki swung m…m..me **sob** and we f..f.fell on Riyo.” The short sentence took much longer for her to spit out between her sobs but once it was complete she had went back to crying, clinging to Hitsu for comfort. She was shaking violently from being scared out of her wits but over all she was fine. Just a few scuffs and a bruise here and there. Nothing that wouldn’t go away in a couple of days.

Kneeling down beside Riyo on the opposite side of Yuki, Neko went about checking her over trying to figure out what was wrong. She was out cold, that was obvious, but there was blood at her mouth. Wiping the blood away with his thumb Neko cupped her face in one hand to bring it in his direction and forced an eye open with the other to see if her eyes were dilated. “Riyo?”