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Sailor Ares snorted, but otherwise did not acknowledge Moonstone. She didn't understand the importance of Negaverse names. Her namesake was the god of war. That one was... a rock? A mineral? Ares was done caring about that particular train of thought five minutes ago.

She watched Moonstone wander off for a moment, the antler still in the headbanded girl's hand, and then started off toward the right path. "Come on, Cali. We'll backtrack if we have to, okay? Tell me if you see anything strange." The switches were still in her hand.

Together, they set off down the right break in the trees.

"Never claimed to be... if I was, maybe I wouldn't be in this uniform." She replied, she kept walking though she would need to find -somewhere- before dark. She knew that from the last bird.


She did glance back over her shoulder then, no arrows on the sign.

It couldn't be.

The blood seemed to have stopped at the tree. She paused in her treck.

"Not bright at all... or I'd not be thinking about this." She added as she turned back with hurried step towards the tree....

She had to be a fool for doing this, what did she think she was going to find, doors in it like Princess Bride?

"Uh, well its a good thing that I'm not from the Moon Kingdom, Mr. Bird?" Calintha didn't even know what a 'Moon Kingdom' was, so how on earth could she have been from there? These ravens were really strange, and they had creeped her out ever since they had started appearing in her dreams (not to mention outside of them! curiouser and curiouser). Absentmindedly, she reached into her pocked and ran a finger along the spine of the raven feather she'd taken from the ground, looking up at the bird curiously.

"Is this the way we should be going?" It was worth a shot, the last bird had answered her question before as well, so maybe this one would? Or maybe it was the same bird?

It looked like the same bird, but there was really no way that she could tell them apart if they were different. The voice sounded a tad bit different too, but it still had that creepy mocking gravelly sound to it.

"Do you have a name, Mr. Bird?"

What could she say, Calintha liked to know names, even if she was terrible at remembering them. The girl had also failed to notice the number of roses on her had grown. What had been just a few was now close to 10, including one wrapped through her headband. The smell was starting to get to her.

Ares felt like she was going to develop a bird complex if these ravens continued to be the bearers of bad news. She watched the bird fly away and narrowed her eyes. "We need to make progress. Let's go forward, not backward." She took a few steps and then stopped.

A trail of glass marbles dotted the ground like bread crumbs from the toe of her boot up the path ahead as far as she could see. They gleamed like hidden jewels among the dead grass. Ares frowned. "Everything here feeds on nightmares, on our nightmares. Trusting the phantoms here is a double-edged sword." For a moment, Ares glanced back to the tree behind them.

The Negaverse agent was there. "We should move on." Ares began to slowly walk farther down the path.

Moonstone moved closer and reached a cautious hand out to touch the wet blood.

Was the tree bleeding?
Had the blood been spread on the tree deliberately?
Did it look like an accident?

She checked the sign where it lay on the ground, checked under it to see if anything lay hidden, and looked up as well.

Finally with a deep breath and a sigh she tried pushing on the tree, knocking on it to see if she could hear anything that sounded different,
and if that failed, well... she was going to try to offer it some of the blood off her already cut cheek.

"I'm missing -something-" though as soon as she said it she was just as sure she was being foolish.
She heard an all too familiar ghost of a laugh behind her dry and filled with a terrible mirth.

//I like the decor// she thought she heard it say.

If you keep on this course you may enter a thread where death is a possibility -- which will not happen without GM warning in the Introduction Stage. Your options are to a. continue along this path, or b. go back to the tree for more directions.

"I was just trying to decide that actually..." She said with quiet fascination.

"The sign has no arrow... and there was another damned bird, something it said made me think about the arrow and the fact the blood STOPS here, The rest is fresh. Either there was a sacrifice made... maybe spread on the tree, the tree is hurt..."
She held up her already bloodied hand from touching it...

"Or... or I don't know... you already laid my cheek open with those sticks. I can either see if it wants a taste of blood or we can... use the antlers or your branches and see if it bleeds."

She filled the other woman in and gazed up with simmering brown eyes.

"I didn't hear you say anything in alarm, what brought you back?"

//they want to play// whispered the voice almost in her ear, she fought not to turn, she had no desire to see the thing that went with that voice

Calintha was happy to be moving away from the twilight on the other path. It was dark. And ominous, the darkness in the forest gave her shivers and she the farther they had gone, the more it had felt like they were being watched. And in a forest in Tartaros, Calintha didn't doubt that possibility one bit.

"Its probably a good idea. Maybe in the morning we can try again?" It was optimistic at best. Who even knew if there was a morning in this forest? That was a depressing reality.

She walked forward to the tree, trying to avoid the blood as best as she could. The sign was what interested Calintha. It was so strange, to have an empty gap like that at the bottom. She ran her fingers over the aged wood of the sign, looking for some kind of catch, button, or trigger. For good measure, she rapped on it a couple of times to see if it was hollow.

Let the agents of good and evil figure out the blood; it was something that Calintha would prefer not to touch.