Welcome to Gaia! ::

The man's face turned to the last one to talk, another strange looking woman type creature. There was a slight frown upon his face, as his hand tightened around his lance, "You there, come with me, and we'll deal with it. Frankly, the rest of them don't look like they could go out there and handle a broom closet," he told Sarabi, his voice sounding detached from everything. Even the weird woman yelling at him for tossing a little creature that was clinging to his precious lance.

The man's frown turned into a small smirk as he turned towadrs where airship and intruders had landed. He walked slowly, his lance held ready, his shield close and tight. They saw one group come down, but lord only knows what else could have come down, what they had planned, or set up.

The man sighed a little, fighting along side rookies, or so he thought, and ones with questionable backgrounds and training. IT seemed, a waste of his potential, his training, his years, his life. Regardless, he had his duty to preform. He stalked through the woods slowly, first scouting for where and how many of these people there were here.

Javira looked around, taking it all in. This was slightly more varied than she was used to. "I think that anything that lives out here is likely capable of taking care of itself. Gauri, stop stuffing your beak." Javira nudged the chocobo with her toe, and the oversized yellow bird swallowed another mouthful of greens.

I wasn't drawn here, Javira thought to herself. I was just exploring. Still, people dropping from airships were about as risky as getting around a sleeping dragon. Might as well have herself an escort. And she frankly wasn't sure that the man's arrogance was a sign of experience or inexperience.

Well, there was always running away.

Gauri seemed to have an end of eating, so Javira hopped on her saddle and settled in, and quietly followed the man. Gauri seemed to have more of a sense of stealth than her rider, but it wasn't nearly as honed as this gentleman's.

What was she thinking, following a stranger around?

Something about being followed by the undead just kind of creeped Sarabi out a bit. She attempted to kepe an eye on the child from the corner of her eye. It's not that she had a problem with them...she just didn't want them getting too close. Sarabi fluttered on hoping to fidn the source of the disturbance in the woods. The blue light around Sarabi's hands seems to have almost congealed around her digits and drips into the forest floor before being quickly absorbed by the soft loamy soil. "There HAS to be something in these blasted woods."

[prompt]

It seemed that whatever creatures may have lain ahead were also of a similar mindset to those who desired to find them. Silent and guarded they continued to patrol the forests in search of that which they sought nevertheless, every so often one of expert hearing might have heard an occasional exchange of words ahead as though the beings knew that what they wanted was in this area but they simply couldn't see it!

"Her patience wears thin, if we do not find it today -" A voice piped up although it soon dropped into a virtually inaudible whisper again as it reminded itself of the current situation.

"We have search high and low, I do not see it!" Snapped another irritably, a further distance from the others and therefore he was requied to raise his voice enough to be heard by them even if it was only slight, "Accursed egg." He added and waded his way through the undergrowth once more towards his companion.

"Are you sure it's here?"

"Yes, the clue states that it's in a Ring of Fire with it's face pointed to Durem..."

"If you hadn't noticed - I'm facing Durem!" One of the voices retaliated, "And I see no flames, no rings - nothing...where the hell did you buy that clue anyway?" He added irritably and perhaps one might have even imagined a mild pout of fury as he spoke such words.

Nevertheless, the men fell silent again and seemed to move away from the vicinity and their stalkers. The forest grew quiet once more and with the exception of the birds within the trees nothing stirred, not even the wind. It could have been a sign of forboding but after a few moments a loud rustle could be heard from within the bushes followed by a 'bang' - a bang that was directly beside Sarabi...

She'd been watching long enough, it was time to make this groups aquaintance -odd as they may be. So flying down from her perch above Ada appeared next to a tree off to the left of the group trying to stay out of everyone's field of vision as she decided what to do next.

But she wasn't really sure what to do next, should she speak? they might notice her no matter what she did...and Gerard had always told her not to make the first move....aaah, but it was so very much against her personality to be cold
and calculating.

Luckily the forest gave her exactly what she needed. The man in the group was right, those robed figures were out there and if she wasn't mistaken she could hear very faint mumbling -that wasn't native to the forest- coming from up ahead. 'Why isn't everyone shutting up! Can't they hear?' she thought frantically. Their cover would be completely blown if this unnecessary chatter didn't cease immediately.

Turning to the panda girl Ada spoke calmly, but firmly. "Look, I'm sorry those creatures scratched you; why you decided to grab an unfamiliar creature is truly beyond me but that isn't the point. The point is, that there is something our there, possibly ahead of us, and it's making noise. Now I personally would love to know if that noise is going to be attacking me anytime soon, so if you wouldn't mind hushing for two minutes I'd be greatly appreciative. Oh and my name is Adalar...Ada actually, and it's really great to meet you! Thanks." With that Ada turned back around and pretended to listen...but of course she was thinking...always thinking...

She hoped she hadn't been to harsh, she'd been working so hard to control herself but nothing seemed to work. No, she'd over done it, she could feel it so reluctantly she turned back around and was about to address the panda girl again when a loud *BANG* echoed from above.

Masa frowned a little as the girl addressed her. "I picked them up because that jerk over there threw them..." as she spoke, she pointed over to whewre the robed man had been. It was only when she looked in that direction that she realised he had gone. "That jerk!" Her fists clenched. "Someone should teach that brute a lesson...he has no respect for animals OR humans!" She turned back to the girl, sighing as she did so. "I'm sorry...it's just...my main concern right now is the well-being of the animals in this forest, as well as what and who resides in the temple...I spoke with the Guardian there, and she said these people were just 'visitors', and are no threat to the temple..." It seemed Masa was always apologising for something. "Oh...and my name is Masamune, but you can call me Masa...pleased to meet you Ada..." She was usually much happier than this when meeting new people...but the combination of that ignorant man from before, and this unknown possible threat to the forest was just getting her down. Her head strayed down towards her feet, as she attempted to gather her thoughts. Then she heard the bang. Her head shot up and she looked around.

"Alright guys..." She muttered "Go find out what caused that bang..." Two figures began to materialise on each side of her. One large, bulky figure, the other tall and slender. Both were black and white, and after a few moments, it was clear that they were two very different-looking pandas. The large bulky one had a big smile on his face and as soon as he had finished materialising, he grabbed hold of Masa and began cuddling her, seemingly crushing her with his massive arms and weight. The other, which stood tall at about 8 foot, just stared off into the forest, snarling.

"Yin..." Masa uttered as best she could whilst patting the shoulder of the cuddly fat panda. "Put me down dear, you and Yang need to go find whatever caused that bang..." As soon as she said that, Yang bolted off into the forest, digging his claws deep into the ground to propell his long, slender body at an incredible speed. Yin cocked his head rather comically, before letting go of Masa. He then began walking, slowly at first on his hind legs, after Yang. Masa glanced back at Ada as she followed Yin. "If the guys from the airship have evil intentions, I'll stop them..."

-/ I was curious as to what kind of 'bang' it was so I sent a PM to Epee asking her..and this is the response:
So uh...yeah. /-

Sarabi jumped at the loud noise. She plastered her back against a tree, the large spider legs poised and ready to strike. Small spikey hairs on the extra legs stand on end. The blue glow around her hands solidifies around her hands and drips down into the soil. "What WAS that?!" Completly disagreeing with the knight. Sarabi cautiously fluttered around the tree, and throws down a fist full of the blue gel, it glows brilliantly as it hits the underbrush lighting up whatever it was that fell. Sarabi cautiously fluttered nearer to figure out what exactly it was. A clue of some sort perhaps?