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Unlike most of the group Songbird wasn’t getting scared by the mysterious taps he received as they trudged along; he was, on the contrary, getting mad. “Oi, stop that, will ya!?” The white-haired nobody screeched in frustration as something brushed his hat off his head. When he bent down to pick it up something poked his bum. Okay, that’s it! Nobody touches the Birdu’s butt! [i]Most especially[/i] not some celerydang treeant or ghost!“GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!” He jumped up and roared. The ethereal disturbances stopped soon after.

[i]"S-so, how was it the last time you were here?"[/i]

Not really the best topic to open with Songbird, and he hesitated to answer seeing how nervous Jasper already was. The item hunter skipped the question and opted to pat her on the hand instead. A few seconds later they saw a marked tree blocking the path and the nobody’s suspicion was proved to be correct. “Ha! I knew they were moving!” Songbird huffed out before hearing a loud banshee-like scream. 

The forest was starting to get the Lost Souls and Avian didn’t know how to react to their various stunts. The redhead started chanting a creepy song, Lesley stole Martini’s trident and the albino ran headfirst into a blocked path. The royal dragoon could only be glad that it wasn’t his wife here right now because if Victoria was witness to these events, no doubt her whip would’ve left bright welts on most everyone’s butts. 

[i] "Let me at her! MEOWMEOWNEEOWWW!! HISS!(ノ=^ಠ益ಠ^=)ノ"[/i]

Avian’s eyes widened as Lesley suddenly began clawing at the mermaid. It became apparent to him that Martini was trying to prevent the human from attacking a fellow Lost Soul, and though he had no idea why Lesley would want to scratch a friend’s face, he decided to help the guide restrain him. He and Martini ended up sandwiching the tall human who still kept aiming for Jasper and Inadi.

Lesley calmed down and Avian let go, at a loss for any other responses save for generic ones, so he gave the human a pat on the shoulder before moving away. “Are you alright, miss?” The soldier popped in between Inadi and Jasper, unknowingly breaking off whatever sort of awkward atmosphere they might have had going on here. “Please don’t get scared. We’re a large group and the creatures in the Dark Side are usually peaceful, if not horrendous-looking. The truly aggressive ones reside in the Moors and the Blackwater Bogs, where Songbird went way back then,” He cleared his throat, noticing the remnants of a blush on Inadi’s face, and then stepped away courteously. “Let’s head back to the group?” Avian suggested quietly. 

[i]“I don’t suppose you’ll know a path around all of this, Song? Could we possibly ask the trees for help? Not that they’d be very willing after…”[/i]

“I’m not so sure, Brandy. I mean, I sure would if I knew where we are exactly… It’s easy to form a route if you know which patch of land you’re on even if the trees keep moving around,” Songbird glanced at the bunny before crossing his arms over his chest. He mirrored Brandy’s irritated face since the humans discarded their advice and went on a tree-marking spree, so now they’ve got to deal with possible whiplashes. Just great. Best way to go for travelers lost in some forest.

“Hey redhead, mind stepping back from the trees? I don’t think they’d like to see you right now,” The item hunter called out to Ace. He swore he saw a flash of red in the tree Lesley was inspecting, so their suspicion was right. This was the Forest of the [i]Ancients[/i], after all. He just didn’t bother to know which ancients they were talking about.

“Everyone, I think we’re better off navigating [i]through[/i] the blocked paths where the treeants can’t follow us. Let’s scout around for less dangerous routes, shall we? And for carrot’s sake, don’t burn anything down!” The white-haired nobody spoke up so everyone can hear.