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"Tch. Whatever you say, man. Just thought you'd like the help." He turned away. "I'll be heading off, then." He returned to his and Ivana's caravans and hopped up into the driver's seat again, turning the horses to go around the scene. He pulled up by the young woman's caravan as he passed. "Would you mind company, miss? Looks like you're heading out across the badlands, and we're going in the same direction."

Himura cocked his head, well aware that the man was dying though he doubted the soldier knew it. "I know you aren't going to talk or betray your former comrades, though I see little reason in trying to be pleasant," he said coolly. He wasn't surprised to see the man's hands rise to his head before twisting it sharply, the snap clearly revealing the broken neck.

Taren shrugged. "I never said you had to. We didn't expect to meet anyone in the badlands anyway. Just thought you might like some company." He may have come off as flirting, but he was being completely serious. He also realized it sounded a bit odd for him to be saying 'we' when it looked like he was the only one in his caravan.

Quinn was only running for five minutes when he found the remains of his squad. It was more gruesome than anything he had ever seen, and he had to fight to hold in the contents of his stomach.
In an area of about a ten foot radius, blood stained every tree, every leaf, and every inch of the forest floor. He could not take a step without hitting a scrap of gun metal, a shred of clothing, or a chunk flesh. Some thing had torn them all apart. Whatever it was, it had killed for pleasure, not hunger. And it was big; there were foot prints (or paw prints) etched into the dirt and blood that were bigger than those of any animal Quinn knew.
Before his thoughts were completely absorbed in trying to comprehend the size and ferocity of this monster, he caught sight of something familiar. That was the face of the recruit: the frightened one. He lay with his head on its side, face frozen in a look of confusion and despair. His arms were twisted at unnatural angles. His legs were simply gone, maybe thrown to the far side of this brutal scene or taken by the attacker as a snack.
Quinn crouched beside the recruit and sighed. It was either that or scream. He had survived because he had taken his time returning. This boy would have survived, too, but Quinn had sent him back. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Quinn had put him there.
What do I do now? he thought. The mission is definitely over; you can't train recruits if they're all dead. I'm days from the nearest Council settlement, and I don't even know if I can find my way there.
It suddenly struck Quinn that he was very much alone, and very likely doomed. Rather than scaring him, the realisation calmed him, and helped him think. If he was going to die out here he might as well do something to pass the time until his own demise. Revenge seemed like as good an idea as any. He would hunt down the abomination that had killed his comrades. He would kill it, or it would kill him. Either way, he knew what he was doing for now.
He took what ammo he could salvage before following the bloody paw prints away from the massacre.

Himura rolled his eyes as he turned away as the corpse collapsed, having dealt with his own injuries as the soldier had dragged the survivor back up for interrogation.

A low growl of annoyance escaped him as he loped onward before he frowned, seeing the bloodbath. His eyes narrowed as he examined one of the corpses and spotted markings he was familiar with. "Shin`kaa," he muttered; from the paw prints he noticed, as well as the boot prints, he suspected the soldier from earlier was stalking not one, but likely as many as three, two adult and one juvenile.

Himura was also stalking the creatures, though from a different angle than Quinn. He had his bow out and had acquired several thick barbed broad-head arrows, perfect for his current purpose. He noticed a momentary shift in the leaves several yards in front of him and roughly ten feet behind the soldier and drew the bow taut and released it in one fluid movement into the branches. He heard a hissing snarl and knew he'd hit his target before he saw the branches shudder as the Shin`kaa charged in his direction; he could see what seemed to be a second one darting visibly through the branches of the tighter branches and ignored it; he had killed Shin`kaa beasts before and so knew their critical trick: the visible form of the creature was a false illusion meant to throw off prey that focused on sight. Due to his unique talent, it did no good, especially against him. He drew a second arrow, not seeing the swirling gleams of bluish sparks that were nearly invisible in the sunlight that wound from his fingers close to the head of the arrow that melded into the steel of the head of the arrow. He drew the bow taut before releasing the second arrow. He heard a coughing snarl before he saw the beast fall with a heavy thud to the ground several feet from his right; he could see 'blood' spurting from the throat of the illusionary beast before it slowly faded away as the true beast materialized directly in front of him, the arrow buried almost to the fletchings in the Shin`kaa's throat while the head of the arrow stuck out between its shoulder blades. A small smirk flashed over his mouth as he kicked over the corpse and jerked the arrow from its throat before wiping it clean on the plantlife, well aware the blood scent would likely draw the other two in since they did tend to eat anything they could, even their own kind. He whistled softly, well aware the sound would carry to the soldier's ears before he cocked his head, his eyes narrowing.

Himura exhaled as he shifted his weight, firing off two rapid arrows into the air in front of the soldier, gratified to hear snarls though he noticed that the arrows would do little more than annoy the adult Shin`kaa. "Do not trust your sight, for their talent of illusion will deceive," he snapped as he rolled as a tree imploded, narrowly missing him as the other adult snarled, breaking off a tree behind and to his left.