Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rain couldn't swim, but she could walk along the bottom of the lake to get to the other side. Zombies had many talents, most of which were unknown or unappreciated. "Where are all these jack damned trees coming from?" Of course, it was a silly question. There were trees all over the place but only a fraction of them moved or attacked.

Sheeki agreed, edging away from the tree that was in battle with Mandy. "The southern path sounds like the best for the group. I suppose I could have floated and carried the shifters up, but it wouldn't end well if they suddenly changed into a larger form..."

He had to bite his lip at Rain's comment. It didn't help; he let out a cough/laugh in response. "Ha-coug-ha!" He coughed some more to try to get the weird feeling from his throat to go away. "Sorry. Allergies... to uh... pine needles."

Mandy was hit in the stomach by one of its flailing branches which winded her along with the needles scratching her. "Hey this isn't a game!" she yelled then took a swipe at it with her claws.

Mandy's HP: 18
Damage: 1
Tree's HP: 1

Julian gave Alessa a small nod and decided it was best to freak her out any more by staying nearby. She was the size of food after all.
He moved away with a shuffling kind of movement, dragging his stuff with him. He'd picked the smallest bundle of lights, thankfully. He'd been in human-ish form when he'd grabbed them, not thinking that he would have such a problem maintaining his form like this.

As he was doing so, the tree showed up.

He let out a startled hiss and puffed up, making himself look even bigger than he was.

He WANTED to tell Rain which way he wanted to go, but his best chance would be by writing it in the snow, which would be tough to do with all the trees battering them. When it all came down to it, he didn't care, he was willing to follow her judgement, it seemed like she had made a good argument. He'd have to fly either way unless he changed back...

And then it hit him. Water. He would be petrified going anywhere near it.

Rain stomped over in the snow and picked up Julian's gear, leaving the Christmas lights behind for him. "I'll carry your tent for you while you are in cute giant bird form." Ok, maybe giant was overkill but he was bigger than most of the birds she had seen around the cemetery back home. She didn't give him any room to argue either, not that he really could in his position. Heck, she would even carry his weapon for him but there was a good chance he might need it in a jam. It was better for him to have that on hand or in this case, in talon.

These trees were really starting to annoy her. She knew just where they could shove their Joy and it wasn't pretty.

Iggy was busy battling her tree, but she heard part of the conversation nonetheless.
"No swimming, please!" she yelled over to the others. "I can't swim at all and I tend to get stuck in the muck something awful!"
And with that she turned back to her battle, waiting on the tree to do it's worst.

Julian made a soft click sound at Rain but he didn't make any augmentative moves. It was actually a big help. He could easily carry his own weight or smaller, like the lights, without problem. Anything greater than that, like the tent, and he'd have a time of it.

While she was over there, he pointed north with one long wing, towards the mountains, nodding a couple of times. He really wanted to get off the ground, but couldn't very well perch on anyone else and the trees around them were less than trustworthy.

Rain nodded, thinking she understood the point he was trying to make. It seemed that they were split right down the middle. Some preferred the north and others the south. They could either split up and go in two groups or one group would have to make sacrifices. Well, if they needed her to make a formal decision, I guess she could give it a try.

"Sometimes the more difficult path can be the most rewarding. North would require us helping one another but that wouldn't really be anything new, would it? I can take both my gear and Julians, and like I said earlier, a sling could be fashioned for Alessa so that she was carried up. Of course, if she changed mid-climb, that could be disastrous, so we'd be taking a great risk. I think.. maybe you should carry her, Iggy. That way if she changed, she could hold on to you. I think it would be less likely that her weight would be a burden to you as you're probably much stronger than any of us. We should take proper precaution. If we are lucky, we might be able to find a mountain path that will make it easier on us."

Of course, Merope might have some trouble in all this and of course, Barth might not be able to climb as quickly as others. No matter how you look at it, there were pros and cons with every situation but there seemed to be less people terrified of the mountain path.

"Alwine, I'll be your climbing buddy. I'll tie something to you so that if you fell, I'd be able to support you long enough for you to get your footing again. I think I could handle that and my claws are very strong. But I could be worrying over nothing. For all we know, there could be a safe path through the mountains." Hopefully Alwine was as light as she looked.

They could do this.