Welcome to Gaia! ::

Space, in Low Orbit over Gaia

A blue and violet Jedi interceptor sliced effortlessly through the atmosphere of the planet, angling toward a forest to the south of the central township in a quad-city area.

The craft made several passes over the forest, until it found a clearing large enough for it to slip into, and deep enough up as to remain undisturbed. Once the small craft had settled to the forest floor, it began shutting down. Landing lights were the last thing to go off, plunging the clearing back into the darkness of the planet's starless night.

The cockpit canopy opened upward on its forward hinge, allowing a figure in a hooded, brown full-body cloak to leap out, landing gently on the ground with nay a sound. With a wave of the figure's right hand, the canopy closed itself again.

Then the figure stalked off into the woods, moving swiftly and silently into the night.

(consider me signed up biggrin )

"These aren't our tents. This isn't the remains of the caravan. It must be the remains of something else."

He listened to Kane and added, "We should be careful to avoid it then."

((The beast/beasts can not be tracked. Following their trail would lead towards the sea. The prints, however, are mixed with prints of scattering humanoids, so it's description is unable to fully be realized.

And if you want a comparison to how it smells, they smell like dirty diapers and rotten sewage. Similar to undead, although it smells like something that lives in the forests of the world.))

Bolt walked up to one of the tents and looked inside. There were rations of food in sealed bags. The bags werent' taken, and the rips in the tents look like they were made by claws. He opened a small book ni the tent and noticed a picture.

"I don't think this was a human camp," He said sadly. He held up the picture to the rest of them, "It was a dwarf camp." The picture was multiple dwarves posing with their armor and battleaxes. Of course, they were basically the same as humans except for their love of mining, crafting, and weapons. Not to mention their small stature. They had feet large for dwarves, which gave the impression that they were human. Also, their smell was almost exactly the same, except for the strong smell of hair.

The puppy barked, "Master smell somewhere around here. Gone from here, though. Trail lead to big water."

There were some people talking in the woods between where the Cloaked Figure was and the campsite. They were dwarves. There were only three of them, but they were still quite loud. They surrounded a hearty fire with something like a pig roasting over it. That would have attracted EVERY beast within ten miles to the spot, but for the fact that they have a unique basting sauce that blocks out the smell but not the taste.

"All I'm saying," a black-bearded one said, "Is that those things ain't gonna leave us alone until we kill them."
A brown bearded one responded, "We should go get the entire clan and come back here. We'll chop this whole forest down, slaughter anything in it."
A grey bearded one shook his head, "We ain't suppose to kill anything we don't need to kill. We should leave the forests to the Imps, Elves, and Humans. Stay in our caves. It's home there. Besides, look how many we lost on the run out of the camp?"
"True," the brown bearded one replied, "but them elves are too snotty."
The black bearded one laughed heartily and added, "Yeah. I'd kill the lot of them, if the women weren't so beautiful."

They continued discussing the events (and women) more quietly. The words "Imps" and "Claws" continually were said.

The dwarves immediately stood up, axes in hand. THe black bearded one said, "Halt! Who goes there?" Cliche, but it worked. It seemed like the grey-haired one was the oldest, and therefore most respected of them.

The dwarves relaxed a bit, the grey one said, "Well, you've come at a good time, then. We just lost our entire group save for us three."
"Yeah," The brown one said, "four big hedge-hog things came and completely ran us out of our camp. We all survived and waited for it to leave."
"When it seemed like it was gone," The black bearded one added, "we returned and gathered our weapons. Then they came back, we ran from the site and got picked off one by one. Now it's down to us three."

The grey one said something in the dwarven tounge to the brown-bearded dwarf. Then, the brown-bearded one motioned to the man in the cloak to come by the fire. "Sit with us," He said, "and tell us of your trav-" but he didn't get a chance to finish. From the shadows came something like a giant hedgehog but with large fangs and a thick snout. It completely killed the brown-bearded dwarf, and sliced the black-bearded one in half. It's sound was like a bear's roar mixed with a high-pitch scream. The grey-brearded dwarf cut off one of it's arms with his axe. The hedgehog twirled aroud and impaled the dwarf onto his back with it's massive metal-like spikes. Then, missing one arm and being full of rage, it turned it's attention to the mystery man. The smell of it's breath was horrendous. It was as if it's mouth was full of rotten meat.

Meanwhile...

It was night-time.

All the sounds could be heard from far around. The people in the clearing, Bolt, Kei, Killey, and Kane could all hear the distinct sounds of roaring and screaming coming from the dwarves.

Bolt walked over and looked at Kei as she slept. He figured she was still awake, since she wouldn't let any person sneak up on her unnoticed. He felt such love for her, but he had to remain professional. He'd protect her from this monster. Turning back to where Kane was, he nodded as the behemoth ran off in the shadows. With that, Bolt lit up an old golden pipe he had in his bag.

His smoke reflected the moonlight, and he tried to relax despite the sounds of killing. The stars gave him some comfort, but he still felt an impending dread. They needed to find a hint of this caravan. What they were going to trade.. it was valuable.

He had to get it back.

For the sake of Fulmine Manor.