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Veru followed the first cry of bones being discovered, hoping it would be some sign of the creature they were hunting. He approached the few gathered there. Unfortunately, bones wrapped in vines didn't seem like it could be anything too recent. In the Motoujamii, they watched for sand decay. He imagined forest decay was something of the same.

"I doubt it means baboons are responsible," he explained, moving his paw about the thick undergrowth. "Vines like those don't grow overnight. It could have been here for years. Maybe even longer." He wasn't a native of the area, so he couldn't attest to how fast they grew.

But the white lion tensed when the bird sound called through the forest. "Well, I suppose we can forget catching anything off guard. These birds will give plenty warning," he sighed. His eyes flecked to Seide and An. "Have I mentioned my dislike of birds?"

Ugly, winged rat-things.

Bluu rewarded Sandor with a final smile before slinking off after the other creatures into the forest. The big scarred male intrigued her; she made a mental note to discover more about him later. She stuck towards the edge of the group, but not the very edge. At the cry of bones, she hurried in that direction, not being able to move as quickly as she would like due to all the trees. It was a good thing to be aware of - any escape she attempted would not go as well as one she made on the savanna. She scrutinized the skull, but was no healer and was unfamiliar with monkey skulls, so learned nothing.

Despite the order to spread out, Ndege stayed close to the other dogs. All of the training she had received as a pup returned and she grew silent and tense, alert to the smallest noise. Mostly she heard the noise made by so many other animals moving through the forest, but off in the distance she heard the cry of a bird. She turned to look that way, wondering if the bird was startled by the movement of their group or of someone else. Perhaps the leopards? Or the Greenwood monster, what ever that might be.

Mura jumped when she heard the bird shout. She glanced up to see if she could see anything. "I wonder what that was about?" she wondered, still sticking with Tahir. She gave her companion a glance. "Do you think that the poor thing is hurt?" referring to the bird. She hated thinking that anything was in pain.

With the call of bones, she went over to look at them. "I have never seen bones like this before, though I also haven't seen to many bones other then those belonging of prey." She wondered if there wasn't anyone in their group more knowledgeable about bones.

She didn't want to jump to any conclusions yet about the bones. There wasn't enough evidence to point to baboons as Tahir thought, at least in her opinion. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the bones, hoping she could spot something, anything that could help them.

Haki had been reavlently quite for the duration of the trip. This was due to his fear towards the situation. Talking amongst his group made him feel more anixous, that'd they would be found by this monster. Killed, eaten. His imagination had difted away from Elephants and more towards terrifing monsters that lurked in the darkness. Terrifing monsters with glowing red eyes and overly sharpened teeth. The jackal shivered at the thoughts he was coming up with. His fear caused him to have the desire to turn in every direction a suspisious sound emerged from. These suspisious sounds were happening to include his very own footsteps- although Haki was quite unaware that it was his own feet that were scaring him.

He nearly jumped out of skin at the cry of a bird, he fought to resist whimpering at this point. He had to be brave, after all everyone else here was brave. Tahir was brave, or at least he seemed like it. (As stated before, its very difficult for Haki to see faces; as such he judges others feelings based on how they speak and the tone of their voice.) Mura was brave too. All the other, bigger, creatures here were brave as well. So Haki decided he couldn't act scared, he had to at least try and be brave like everyone else. Although, such things are easier said than done...

For most part, Kimaji was unaware of the effect her presence might be having on the group. With no parents in this lifetime, and still very few memories of her past life, she hadn't yet begun to consider a cub in this situation might be odd.

She was absolutely delighted when they finally began to move, and the hyena came to her. Kimaji didn't react in an extravagant manner, however, and just nodded. "Okay." After smiling briefly, she gingerly picked the root up in her mouth and trotted along to follow the others, a bit disappointed that the healers weren't coming along. They seemed nice. Miramar was particularly interesting.

She followed along, dutifully carrying her charge. She changed places in the group frequently, according to her whims, but for most part managed not to trip anyone up by running between their legs. Then, finally, thing started to get interesting.

The scent wasn't immediately attractive to her, nor the bird's cry, but quite eagerly did she go look at the bones, standing up on her hind paws and balancing herself that way to see better. They were rather fascinating! But due to the root in her mouth, Kimaji didn't say anything about it.

--

Moto'spaki took a few moments to consider their options now, listening to what a few of the others had to say. Like Veru, he thought that while the bones were certainly "creepy", they had been there a long time, and probably wouldn't mean much. Unless they had anything fresh, it didn't even mean they were near the monster's frequent haunts.

"We should go after the scent." It was a rather bizarre smell, and he thought it less likely to just be a false alarm than a bird's cry. Birds cried about anything.

Some of the trackers were already picking up an unusual scent. That was a good sign, An thought. Leaving Veru and Seide with the bones, she hopped a few lengths forward to get a better grasp of what they were detecting. She couldn't smell much herself...but she did not profess to have that particular skillset. "I trust your noses," she said, looking at Pam and the others. "If you think its worth investigating, we shouldn't miss the chance."

After all, maybe it was the leopards who were behind it! Or the monster himself...

Back on the other side of the group, Veru finished with the bone investigation. The leopard's questioning caught his ears. "Well, unless this is a conspiracy involving all of leopard kind...its more likely that this is just a small troop. Its quite possible they have nothing to do with this." He leaned to the side, a smile stretching across his seemingly perpetually cheerful face. "I would think that a leopard of all things would keep tabs on their home, wouldn't they? From so high above?"

Leopards were dangerously close to birds. This was something of a revelation.

------

An odd scent lingers in the wind, drifting northward. Is it the monster, or just some of the locals? Looks like we'd better find out!

arrow Roll a dice, 1-20. The first person to roll 17 or above successfully finds the trail.

You may post more than once, so long as you wait a post between yours.
If we fail by tomorrow, the scent is lost.

Doing his very best to discern the scent some of the canine hunters were talking about, Sandor breathed in through his nose in short sniffs and held his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth to trap the scents a little longer and try to taste them. This was, he suspected, an exercise in futility for someone with a sense of smell like his, and he would leave the tracking to any canines present if it turned out that scent was the only marker they'd have to go by, but it would be better if he could at least get a handle on what he was supposed to be smelling.

If it turned out that scent was the only means of tracking the killer that they found, Sandor planned to be more engaged in the subduing and killing and reaping the rewards part of the hunt. It didn't really bother him that his vows as a Jedi knight were supposed to prevent him from accepting rewards. He'd give the reward back to the temple when he got it, and hope no one asked where it came from.

The concerned murmuring of his companions about this being a bad smell to follow struck Sandor as somewhat cowardly. Maybe those people should move toward the middle of the group. Or, at any rate, away from him. They annoyed him.

It seemed that the latest focus was on the strange scent drifting from the north. Ndege stood still and tested the air, trying to separate the strange scent from the myriad smells of the forest and the other members of the expedition. Was that? Yes!

"It's this way!" she called, taking a few eager steps forward.

She turned to Lani with a worried frown. "It is the only lead we have right now," she answered softly. She gave Lani a quick, kind smile before scenting the air again.