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It was the most... surreal thing that Ametrine had ever experienced. She had thought her nightmares had been strange, but this went so far beyond them that it was incredible. The first byroad that she'd taken had led her nowhere, and crankily she had traced her way back to the main road. Now she was on a divergent path, and could only think of the Wizard of Oz. She was following the yellow brick road, as it were, except that she had no idea where it might go, and the thing wasn't consistent. There were so many pathways that she was, in a word, lost. She hated being lost.

Not so much because she was frightened; no, Ametrine had decided when she had first set out on this course that no one and nothing would get to her. Sort of. Kind of. A little maybe. But she wasn't frightened. She was a bit angry, wondering who or what had brought her here. Still half-convinced that she was suffering an ill effect from the painkillers her doctor had proscribed, she made her way past places where she could have sworn she saw movement. A hand gesturing her way, beckoning her off somewhere. At times, she thought she heard a voice, or the warm hiss and crackle of a fire.

A campfire, she had assumed. Not knowing whose camp it might be, she was unwilling to explore off of the path. "Hello?" she called out, scanning the trees around here. "Is anyone there?" Her current trail was comparable to the one she had left, but she had no way of knowing where it might lead. That was why it was important to pay attention, to keep track of things. She had wanted to skulk along the way she did at night, but there was nowhere to hide that wasn't among the rotten logs, and moss covered landscape.

"HELLO?"

Well, that was new. Never before had anyone answered her when she'd called out. Ametrine had been sure that she'd heard a voice before, but never so distinct. "Over here!" she called back, trying to reach the voice without leaving the path. It would be better not to be alone, for now. She didn't like to have company on her hunts, but this was an entirely different issue. She was in a new, unfamiliar place, and she was fairly sure that she was lost. How one could be found in a place that they had never before been, she didn't know, but until she had heard that voice she hadn't believed she'd ever make progress.

Now though, she felt a hair more confident in the situation. Was that... a flicker of red? No, orange. ... No, definitely red. A fire, perhaps? She hadn't wanted to find the campfire, but in all honesty it might be better to bite the bullet and seek out assistance from the camper. "I saw your fire and I..." Oh. That... that was not a fire. Blinking, Ametrine took in the most fiery head of hair that she had seen since her foray with Captain Obsidian. It was almost disappointing, really. She'd been looking forward to the prospect of warming her hands by the fire.

Sizing the stranger up, she recognized her outfit as being a fuku. What, really? All of this, and her first encounter with something human was a senshi? She almost allowed her disgust to show in her expression, but caught herself just in time. Eh, a senshi would be more useful than nothing at all, surely. She would just choose not to bandy this about later, when she met up with her own teammates. "Are you lost as well?" she asked unnecessarily. It was pretty obvious that the redhead was as out of place in this forest as she was.

Her hand clutched reflexively for her pitchfork, closing just a little too tightly for comfort. ... Of course. How could she have forgotten that her weapon was nowhere to be found? It bothered her on a rather basic level to be weaponless in the presence of an enemy. Well, her best bet was probably to act casual, as though there was nothing wrong beyond their present predicament-- her present predicament. No sense in borrowing more trouble than she already had.

Right. There was no way she was going to give her full name. It wasn't particularly that she was afraid to do so, but more that she preferred to have the upper hand here. In Ametrine's opinion, withholding the information that she was a part of the Negaverse would give her the advantage. She gave Lyra a long, considering look, and reached out to shake her hand. "Ame. I've been lost for... well, I don't know how long. It's hard to keep track of time without a cellphone or a watch." There. Perfectly normal, right?

Of course right. 'Super Sailor Lyra' sounded a little ominous. She'd never met a super before, and she wasn't entirely sure that she was prepared for the experience. Now was the time to prove that she could handle herself in difficult situations. Since the woman didn't seem inclined to attack her, she decided to roll with things as they were. "Lyra, then. Shall we try to find a way out of these woods?" Anything, anything at all to find a bit of civilization.

Distractedly, Ametrine gave Super Sailor Lyra a smile, though the expression did not quite meet her eyes. No, she was far too wary to be at her ease around the other young woman. "I tried a couple of paths before, but they all seemed to lead to nowhere." Nowhere and nothing but the phantom sounds and sights of before. Now wasn't that just incredibly frustrating? In the distance, she thought she could hear a toad. She'd never heard a real toad before in her life until arriving here (however that had happened), but there she was, hearing toads... in the middle of $*@#ing nowhere.

There was a noise on the path behind them -- an odd sound, for rather than the swish of leaves and branches, or even the crack of splitting wood, or the rustle of forest creatures going about their daily habits, this sound was more of a long, slow creaking. It was the sound of a door, well-balanced, but on old hinges, creaking back and forth in the wind.

The path behind them was narrow, barely wide enough across for one person to pass. It seemed much narrower by far than the path ahead, more crowded. Perhaps the path before them led nearer to a main road, but then -- perhaps the path behind them led to a cabin. Hadn't they heard a door? It had distinctly sounded like a door.

Neither direction seemed an entirely sure prospect.

She too heard the creaking at the same time Ame had. It caused the senshi to stop and wheel around- noticing the path that went by unnoticed before. "Shh..." She said- listening intently to see if the noise was still ther- AH! yes, there it was again!

"It... does sound like a door, a old door." She had the same puzzled look- but it soon turned to a look of curiosity. She started to inch towards the pathway... it was still a pathway after all! Similar to the others, just less used. She was soon stopped by a hand in her way when she tried to step towards the path.

"It couldn't hurt to look right? We can be cautious, if anything seems out of place we can turn right around again." Naive as ever. They did say that red heads were just blonds with high blood pressure.

"I say we risk it." Moving around the hand she walked past it and grabbed the wrist of Ametrine. She tugged lightly on it- as they moved single file down the new pathway as cautiously as possible.

She didnt want to admit it- but it felt like the eyes of all the creatures scurrying around were on them.

A pile of straw was strewn across the path, about half a foot high. It seemed to have been in neatly cut, tied bundles, once. A few of the ties still held.

Grimly, Ametrine observed the straw. "Were the situation not what it is, I would say that we should just burn it." Being an individual who make good use of cover, she recognized the opportunity for it when she saw it. Carefully, she prodded the straw with her stick, frowning like a rainy day. "No, I don't like this at all... but you're right, who knows what awaits us either way?" They might as well pick one direction and stick to it. Stalling wasn't going to help matters, not at all.

There was indeed security in numbers-- up to a point. The mob mentality had never helped anyone. Or rather, the herd mentality. Like hell Ametrine was going to be a part of any stampede. There were better ways to die than to be crushed under the feet of one's terrified comrades. Personally, she had a rather long list of preferable deaths, and she wasn't ready to meet any of them.

"Ehhh, yes, there is that. This road leads somewhere." Road might be overplaying things just a tad. Just a smidgen. Gritting her teeth, she continued to prod and poke at the straw, much more prepared to deal with something that came out of hiding under her control, rather than something that sprang out at her. Still, she could roll with the punches, when it came to that. Literally.

"Fine. We can walk over it," she said rather sourly, because she did not at all like the idea. She was letting Lyra call the shots right now, because she wanted to be free to act when the time came. If the time came. Also, it was better to let her enemy's back be to her than to have Super Sailor Lyra behind her. Rogues might do it from behind, but she wouldn't completely discount senshi. For all she knew, they were as sneaky as ever a rogue. After all, they certainly had the citizens of Destiny City fooled.