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Trust lions to disagree with him. But in reality Tahir was clinging to a futile hope, but stubbornly cling he would. It wasn’t as if one quiet voice from a maned wolf would sway these people. He snapped his jaw shut and harrumphed under his breath. Mura’s questioned made him bark with laughter.

“Hurt?” he cackled,” No, I think not. But it sounds as if some of our party wish they were.” He planted himself and yawned, trying to look for the entire world like he cared not about the proceedings. Only the erected streak of hair down his spine gave him away. He stank like fear. But, then again, Tahir always stank.

“If these lions hoped to sneak up on our murderer they should have built a better strategy.” But he left it at all. So many of them grouped together in the woods was bound to make plenty of noise. The tawny lion’s early words still rung with dread in his mind, though. He did not want to accidentally volunteer himself as a scapegoat.

Noisy or no, Tahir wanted to remain with the group.

{ooc; derp, slow! }

Hurrying to keep up, Moshi flicked his ears, listening to everything around them. A bird cried somewhere off in the distance, and some bones were found... He wrinkled his nose. "What's that smell?" He looked at Veru when he got close, then turned and poked the bones. "I come from a swamp... We get vines around there quite a bit. They DO grow rather fast... But not quite like this. Something did this with the vines, maybe wrapped the bones in them so they later grew like this." The adolescent tilted his head, frowning. "Maybe we're dealing with something working with baboons..."

"Maybe whatever it is enslaved the baboons." Jahina inclined her head, frowning. "And birds can drop bones on us as well as peck and claw at us, that certainly hurts, so to say they can't hurt us is a gross misstatement." She then reached up, mimicking the strange little red and gray lion, poking a bone tangled up in a vine. "I do agree we follow the strange scent, though. Maybe it'll lead us to something more interesting than this." She grabbed one of the bones, examining it closely, as if trying to find strange marks. The cream orange lioness then gave a snort, shoving it away. Bah, bones were of no use to her!

Moshi stared at the lioness a moment, wondering what was with her, then went about looking for the trail. As good an idea as any...

Taking her own advice, Jahina began searching around the area, trying to find and follow the scent. There were so many smells around now, though, it was hard to follow just one. Twice she ended up following what she thought might be the right trail... And ended up finding instead one of the other creatures trying to search. She let out a frustrated growl, swatting at some bushes. This was getting so frustrating! Why didn't the trail just REVEAL itself to them?! It was like trying to find a zebra-print lion in a herd of actual zebras that, for some reason, weren't running in terror!

He wasn't having much better luck. Moshi finally decided to try a different approach, climbing slightly up a tree to try and see if the scent was that way. It proved useless an endeavor and he climbed back down... Rather slowly. Since there wasn't water all around him, he didn't feel quite so safe jumping out of these trees... He stood for a moment, wiggling his toes on the ground in thought. With a puff of air, he blew his mane out of his face, the red streak flickering amid the gray. He shook his head. "I'm starting to think they hid the scent on us!"

Oh dear! Lani folded her ears back carefully. It seemed her companion had found the trail. Everyone else might be happy about this, but Lani was far from. Now that they had a good whiff of it, they were sure to continue following it. If only the leopards had shown up.

At least Ndege seemed… apologetic about her success? Well, willing to comfort Lani as best she could anyway. The brightly colored dog wagged her tail a bit and rose up to her paws. She was dainty and small, not the sort of animal to fare well in a fight.

“I suppose you’re right, Ndege,” she said, voice low. She stuck close to the other female’s side, unwilling to leave the familiarity of canines,” You have a very smart nose.”

Some of the lions seemed to have already found the trail and Pam followed quickly after the leading group, keeping his head high as he examined their surroundings. The last thing they needed was for something to catch them by surprise while they all had their noses on the ground. There seemed to be a few good trackers anyway so his help was hardly necessary... in that department at least. The young lion had been born in the swamplands but his parents had come from the outside and so he did not share the smaller frame of most of his fellow pride members. Pam was actually rather large and he was still growing in muscle which was why he felt so surprised that so many lions around were actually bigger than him. His eyes kept travelling to a cream lioness who he found rather pretty even if a bit intimidating considering she was even larger than him.

"Ay, this way," Ndege said to Bataar.

"Thank you Lani," said added, pleased by the praise. She was not the only one who had found the scent, but she was the first, and she took a small amount of pride in that. She could tell that Lani was still worried and despite her excitement, she was on edge as well. "Don't worry," she said in a soft aside to the other dog, "there are a lot of us and many of the ones gathered here are trained warriors." Taking a deep breath, she pressed on. She wasn't thrilled about being near the front, but for now it was where she belonged.

Margulis kept to the group, a good distance back from the trackers. They had been successful it seemed, the black wild dog had caught on to it. Fascinating creatures, such a keen sense of smell. She couldn't help but pause to appreciate the inner workings of such olfactory genius. But there was no time for long contemplative pauses right now. They had to keep moving. If they waited too long the trail might go cold. She could feel her fur bristling as they moved deeper in the woods, something was definitely about.

The lower light allowed her vision to function better and she focused on the wild dog and placed herself within shouting distance. "Focus in and lead the way for those of us whose noses aren't so quick, I have no doubts the rest of us will keep close behind to protect your back and flanks," she called to Ndege with a soft smile, taking a side just a few feet off from her.

Now THIS was where he excelled! Moshi hopped with ease from rock to rock, finding the right grip. A life in a wet environment and traveling around both wet rocks and logs and ground and even mossy and wet AND mossy had prepared him for just this. But neither prepared him for the sight before them. He flicked his ears back, eyes widening and jaw dropping. "Is that.... Blood...?" His nose wrinkled as the smell hit his nose. No, not blood... But it STUNK. He reached a paw out, tentatively swatting at the water. Just what WAS this stuff? And where was it coming from?

While she'd been born and raised in the Pridelands, Jahina was about as well-equipped as their leader with moving over the slick rocks. She nearly fell into the strange water near the bottom, and had slid a few times on the way down. Her poor rear end showed the streaks of mud... Oh this would be embarrassing to explain. She then wrinkled her nose at the water. "Where is this stuff coming from?" She leaned as close as she dared, looking for any kind of movement. "Maybe it's coming from up stream... If it's moving... I can't tell in this fog, though!"