To be fair, the sun was falling pretty fast, and the group didn't know what exactly they were in for if they were to search for Luke. They'd be losing time to search for resources to sustain themselves, and even if they do find him, then what? By then they'd die of dehydration. Hunger was an issue as well, but that came after. Time was ticking and Rae-Ah had to decide fast. Her heart couldn't bear the thought of him dying somewhere, with the food poisoning eating him from the inside. Sad to say, it was better to prioritize the majority - even if that meant coming back for him, she knew the guilt would eat away at her if anything were to happen to him. As usual, the girl nodded in agreement with the rest of those who supported finding the bare necessities first.

“So any of you have skills that might be helpful in our situation? Served a bit, so I’ve got the basics, but I want to know what jobs you guys can do.” Funny. Of course, another obstacle had to land in her face. The girl was brought up to serve, pray and obey. Besides following orders and cooking decent meals, she had little to no experience in things such as surviving in the wilderness. Sometimes she'd make ointments out of herbs for other followers or visitors at the temple, but she wasn't sure whether the world they were dropped in had any of the ingredients she'd need. Other than her mutations, she had no idea of any of the basics needed to keep herself alive, such as building a fire and knowing what to eat besides particular plants.

"I do not know of any tactics. However, my hearing and sense of smell seems to have been highly enhanced. Perhaps I could utilize them to track flowing water, or keep watch for any adversaries?" The idea was for Rae to keep in charge of the sight around the area. Even if that excluded using her actual sight, the fact that she could smell and hear things up to 25 meters, could probably be of use if they do happen across a usable shelter and the dark fell upon them. The range was not too short nor too far, giving Rae the perfect advantage of only detecting whatever or whoever strays significantly close.

@PKMNB0Y @Zombehs @VitaVitaAR @WeepingLiberty

Nova glanced back at the direction the old man had stormed off in one last time before turning her full attention to the tasks at hand. "No, no... You're right. We should focus on ourselves first then worry about others." She wasn't too well versed in the art of survival but it wasn't as if she was completely helpless either... The problem was finding something she was good at that would actually help them out with their current situation. Running her "skills" through her mind over and over again, Nova had to take a deep breath to calm herself before speaking through fake confidence. "Back at home I was a bit of bookworm, fantasy novels being my favorite. Thus far most of our appearances seem to match mythical creatures familiar to me. I might be able to help you with identification of species should we come across any other life forms in this realm. Apart from that the only physical skill I am certain of is my ability to run. Not much help but I haven't had the time to study my new body yet, so I can't be certain of anything else." Nova exhaled slowly, hoping the others wouldn't make fun of her. It might not have been the most noble skill but creature identification might be just as important as shelter building, especially in their current position. She wished she could have helped Adam more, him already doing so much for them. Taking the lead, keeping them from panicking as well as making sure that they were alright, not to mention his military skills meant some form of protection... Well, at least it gave them a sense of security; no matter how false. Nova looked to the other, hoping that they could offer more than she, otherwise things were bound to get uncomfortable quickly.

@Zombehs

Okay, good. Goals. Goals helped keep her focused on not panicking. These people didn't seem stupid, at least, if they were so good at actually focusing on what needed to be done. Rika didn't think the older guy should get hurt, but someone else could handle him being an idiot right now. Maybe he'd come back. For now, well...

"I can start a fire when we're out of all this grass," she said, swiftly. It seemed like the obvious note to start with, starting a fire was an important part of cooking any food that they got. "My father has told me about what kind of plants are... plants are..."

She trailed off. What was with her? That still sounded so disgusting... "... Urgh, I can't even talk about eating stupid plants it sounds so gross, gah! ... Grr, fine, I can tell you people what plants are safe to eat but I guess that's totally useless to me right now. Hmph.

She folded her arms in irritation. Rika had to guess that it must have had something to do with the fact that snakes were generally never herbivores and she was now a snake from the thighs down. That probably explained the sudden, natural revulsion at the idea of her eating plants. It was like if you'd previously suggested eating natto to her, really. To be fair, that idea was even more disgusting to her now, but still. Still, Rika supposed she could tell the others. They didn't seem like they'd have any problems eating plants.

"... I... can identify some animal tracks?"

@Tokki@WeepingLiberty@Zombehs

Marcus bit his lip as he tried to think of any relevant survival skills for the situation they were in. Damn. Maybe if he had taken medical science...
No, that wouldn't have helped them at all. Unobtainable medicine would do no good for them, especially in this world. But there had to be something that he could provide that would be of use to them...
No, wait, there was! Even though it wouldn't have been as useful, this was still definitely better than nothing!

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I studied what I did, then. Though it isn't the most efficient way of doing things, for the moment I can probably craft some rudimentary tools out of whatever we can gather..."

Yes, that was it! Tools! Though that old man was trying to do much of the same, the materials he was using and the way they were being crafted was subpar, at best. He, who had studied history from the Paleolithic era to the present day, knew what had worked and what hadn't, and since quite a few of his classes focused on the creation of such tools...

"Yeah, I think I can handle that. Though... At the current moment, my options seem to be quite limited."

As the group continued walking on, a few small trees came into their field of view. Marcus smiled; sustaining trees of that size and number, if at all, required a nearby source of water. That would be one less worry for them, which was a burden off of his mind. Water also meant animals, which meant food...

"Hey, Rae, there any bodies of water nearby? Rivers, lakes, streams... Anything in this general area?" Marcus asked as the group continued walking closer to the trees that now seemed to dot their field of vision.

@Tokki@VitaVitaAR@WeepingLiberty@Zombehs

----------
The Dwarven guards were in shock for a moment as the man immediately gave in to them. Most humans they had seen were usually cocky enough to pick a fight with them and ended up dying for their troubles, so this was... New.

"...You go check him out."
"Nah, I dealt with the last one. You do it."
"...Fine."

With that little dispute out of the way, the first guard handed the second his axe and moved to go and pat down the human intruder. After ascertaining that he was of absolutely no threat to them, the two dwarves immediately sheathed their weapons and, with strength betraying their stature, dragged the man through the cavern and to a small restroom, which in actuality was nothing more than a caved-out area meant to serve as an outhouse for the miners.

"Hurry up in there. We have to take you to the boss as soon as you're done."

@SadCubone

Well… Adam supposed the situation and skill set could be worse. He hadn’t expected Rae to be all that knowledgable given her reaction to all this. He’d thought Nova’s aloof act might have been born from confidence, but there was apparently nothing to back that up with. Her knowledge might prove unexpectedly useful; after all they already had a lamia, elf, and fox girl, so running into even more exotic creatures was hardly unthinkable. “You’ve got good ears apparently?” he pointed out to the elf as his pace slowed slightly at the sight of trees on the horizon. Still a couple of miles away, but it was a promising sign. At the very least if there weren’t any water sources nearby it meant that rain was common enough in the area.

Rika seemed like she’d be the most helpful without any direction from him, being capable of helping set up camp or forage around for edibles. Marcus on the other hand wasn’t going to be immediately useful, but hey manual labour was manual labour and he was another male. “Right,” Adam muttered after he collected his thoughts, “guess we’ll sort things out once we find a decent camp spot.” At Marcus’ prompt for the foxgirl, he also mentioned, “Try to stay aware of any scents in the air. It shouldn’t be too hard to smell fire even from a few miles off.” Hell, the breeze was against them so that’d make detecting anything that was ahead all the easier for her.

The grass slowly began to decrease in length as the group moved closer towards the trees, shortening from his waist to just around his knees. It had to be an hour or so since the group had started their trek, but given he could only guess the other four were civis, Adam didn’t want to push too hard. “If any of you want to take a break in the shade, now would be the time.” While he wouldn’t be getting blisters any time soon, the ancient boot design was far from comfortable and it’d be a bit until he’d actually broken them in. Letting the others reach a consensus, he moved up to examine one of the nearby trees.
@PKMNB0Y@VitaVitaAR@WeepingLiberty@Tokki

The Dwarven guards were in shock for a moment as the man immediately gave in to them. Most humans they had seen were usually cocky enough to pick a fight with them and ended up dying for their troubles, so this was... New.

"...You go check him out."
"Nah, I dealt with the last one. You do it."
"...Fine."

With that little dispute out of the way, the first guard handed the second his axe and moved to go and pat down the human intruder. After ascertaining that he was of absolutely no threat to them, the two dwarves immediately sheathed their weapons and, with strength betraying their stature, dragged the man through the cavern and to a small restroom, which in actuality was nothing more than a caved-out area meant to serve as an outhouse for the miners.

"Hurry up in there. We have to take you to the boss as soon as you're done."

@SadCubone

Luke entered the small outhouse like area and started to throw up. His innards hurt more and more and his throat burned. Eventually he finished though and he was ready to leave, would he start again? Who knows but he knew he couldn't stay in there forever. He wiped of his face and quickly cleaned his ,always amazing, mustache and walked out of the bathroom."Alrighty then, sorry about that. Ate something that I guess didn't settle right with my stomach. Any who let's go meet that boss of yours before my stomach acts up again." Luke tried to play it cool. He was being held hostage, had food poisoning, could vomit at any second, and was probably going to be executed. This was not looking good for Ol' Luke. At least his mustache looked amazing.

By the time the group had finished discussing their useful attributes, they had managed to come by a border in which the grass began to thin out. Although the odd color stayed the same, it was a relief to have a little more vision around them. The place, Rae-Ah realized, was oddly beautiful in the most extraterrestrial sense. The trees and vegetation glistened under the afternoon sun, while distant, foreign sounds rushed to fill Rae-Ah's ears. The louder it got, the more uncomfortable she became. They were definitely not alone.

“Try to stay aware of any scents in the air. It shouldn’t be too hard to smell fire even from a few miles off.” she nodded at Adam's comment, as Marcus asked next,

"Hey, Rae, there any bodies of water nearby? Rivers, lakes, streams... Anything in this general area?"

The priestess stood in place, in an effort to inhale all of what the environment had to offer her. The musky smell of dirt, dried leaves, grass, smoke and rot invaded her senses. Her acute sense of smell only brought her pointless information, nothing she couldn't have already seen with her own eyes. Then again, she did catch a hint of charcoal burning off in the distance. It came from within the collection of trees, but that didn't seem like a good idea to her. Were they- whoever 'they' were, trying to start a wildfire? And what on earth was that putrid stench?

"I have caught a hint of smoke, coming from deep within the forest, but there is also a stench... worse than the rotting deer we encountered earlier."

Rae-Ah strained her ears this time, blocking out any unnecessary boot-stomping and leaf-crunching noises, until finally she heard it: the slight splash and trickle of flowing liquid, along with scuttling of tiny feet int he distance. "Yes! Just beyond the trees, if we go deeper we're bound to find water..." she trailed off. She was sure there was water, but what else? They had no idea what kind of creatures they were bound to run into in this place, much less how they would handle them. Although the water source did seem far enough to get lost within the abundance of trees, she had no idea of what they would run into if they tried to search for it. It wasn't a guaranteed chance they'd find a clean source, but Marcus and Rika would most likely know how to deal with that. Night was coming soon, and as the group inched closer to the forest, the stench began to grow unbearable for Rae-Ah.

Marcus had suggested for the group to rest at that point, but Rae knew she had to feed on something before her markings started to act up again. "I'd be willing to venture in deeper to find food... if you don't mind." the foxgirl gently rubbed her stomach. Of course, she was scared. Hell, even terrified. There was no doubt about that. Even at this point, there were plenty of red flags for them to turn back- from the foul stench to the footsteps coming from the trees. That didn't spell safe, but if they were going to make any progress they could only move forward.

@PKMNB0Y @Zombehs @WeepingLiberty @VitaVitaAR

"That too, though I doubt they're as powerful as our friends' senses, but I'll do my best." She responded, eyes trying to focus in on the trees. It wasn't as difficult to do now that she was getting the hang of it, but the forest was still far enough away to give her trouble. Adam's pace slowed slightly, but hers increased, excitement fluttering in her chest. The world they found themselves in was incredible, full of a beauty so great that not even the best of authors could prepare her for such a sight. When mention of a break was issued, Nova couldn't help but to feel disappointed. She wanted to keep exploring, to discover all that this world had to offer.

As everyone was making their decisions Rae seemed focused on figuring out the world around them through smell, inhaling deeply before speaking. The hint of smoke caught Nova's attention but not as much as the mention of a stench worse than the rotting deer meat. A concerning thought, but intriguing all the same. "I'm sure we could all use something a little more substantial to eat, but I'd like to investigate that smell first. For all we know it's more dead animals or worse... I'd assume disease and war are things that exist in most worlds, let's try not to get caught up in something too nasty before we get our bearings." She looked around, hoping for someone to agree with her. Nova might not have been the smartest or the most skilled at survival but she had read enough to know that foreign worlds could be very dangerous. There was nothing she wanted less than to be killed before she had a chance to explore the world further. "I'd like to see what it is with my own eyes if you don't mind, so I guess what I'm really asking is if anyone would like to go with me to scout ahead."

@Tokki@Zombehs@PKMNB0Y@VitaVitaAR

Indeed, she could smell it too... that awful scent on the wind. Was someone just leaving animal carcasses around? It seemed like their might be a fire as well... Rika sighed. Hopefully whoever set it actually had a remote idea of how to properly set a fire without making all the local plant life go up in flames. Thankfully, most plants didn't actually burn that great unless the conditions were right. It's not like trees were just tinder, after all, they had lots of moisture in them. Some people didn't seem to know this, and Rika classed those people in the category of 'morons who lack basic knowledge of the world'. Seriously, didn't everyone know that plants needed water? Where did they think that water went? ... Still, it's not like they weren't flammable, and someone stupid enough could still trigger a forest fire. Contemplating her options, the naga girl guessed that there was likely to be wood to build a fire and potentially something to eat on whatever route they would take. That and, well...

"You, kitsune and elfgirl," she said, gesturing to each of them in turn. She hadn't caught their names before, caught up in her efforts not to panic so thoroughly, so hopefully that would prompt them to repeat them. "Going off without any good knowledge of what's edible and what might be dangerous is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and I'm sure you don't want to be idiots. So I'm coming with you. I can gather supplies for a fire while we go, too."

@Tokki@WeepingLiberty

Marcus frowned at Rae's most recent comments. Fire and a stench worse than rotting flesh... Danger flags being raised left and right was probably an understatement here. Though under normal circumstances he would've advocated to hold back for a bit to let the squishier people (aka everyone who wasn't Rika or maybe Rae) prep themselves to some extent, the fact that over half the group was more or less raring to go put him at a numerical disadvantage. Forced to go along with the flow, Marcus sighed as the group began to approach the forest.

"Well, since we've got a majority vote already, I guess we're going deeper into the forest. Hopefully, we'll be able to discern what's making you two so antsy and take some action afterwards." he said as a shadow seemed to slip by almost out of his field of vision as the forest grew denser with undergrowth and tree saplings abound. This, of course, caused Marcus to tense up and glance around warily.

"I'm not entirely sure, but we may have been noticed. Be on your guard."

With that statement, Marcus backup a few steps and looked around; was there a tripwire or something? All that he could see was some sort of weird red line that seemed to outline the perimeter of the forest just under all the plantli...
Wait. Shit.

"...Uh. Dunno about you, but we may have a biiiit of trouble on our hands." he stated, motioning to the others to come and check the line out. "This clearly isn't natural, so we might be in for a bit of hell regardless of if we go further in or not."

@Tokki@VitaVitaAR@WeepingLiberty@Zombehs

------
The Dwarven guards looked at each other, half in confusion and half in amazement at this man's demeanor. Was this bravery they were seeing? Or simply stupidity? Either way, they had a job to do, and they were going to carry it out. After Luke announced his readiness for whatever was to come, the guards immediately escorted him to what seemed to be a section of the cave that had been covered in stone bricks, with a simple door in front of it.

One dwarf, the one who hadn't patted Luke down earlier, knocked on the door and, after a small back-and-forth over the door, entered the room behind it. A few minutes later, the dwarf guard seemed to be sweating bullets, as if he had just seen a demon king or something of the sort.

"The foreman requests your entry now, human." the guard said, stepping away from the door and standing by his peer.

@SadCubone

Though he didn’t quite manage to catch the scent as quickly as the others, upon approaching the forest Adam too became aware of the stench in the air. It was bad enough to give him pause and he could only imagine those with better senses had it much worse. Unfortunately the trees were dense enough that anything beyond the first couple dozen meters into the treeline was obscured. While he didn’t think it was the best idea to let three people with apparently no experience in stealth creep forward to scout ahead, he also couldn’t simply volunteer for every job. “Do as you wish,” he told the three before he turned to glance at what Marcus had noticed.

It was barely visible and Adam had to move forward to get a better look at it, but it seemed the red line continued on to encircle the entire treeline. With the number of possibilities this line could represent, Adam stepped away warily as he scanned the group’s surroundings once again. Although reluctant to do so, he was now inclined to simply circle around the forest if possible; his best guess was this was a mark of territory. With their current situation, they’d probably be at the whims of any decently equipped travellers they came across. “I'll check how far the forest stretches to the side, rather not encroach if it’s avoidable,” he told the others.
@VitaVitaAR@WeepingLiberty@Tokki@PKMNB0Y

"Please, do call me Rae." she told Rika.

Rae-Ah forgot about her hunger, and diverted her attention to the red lining. It sort-of embarrassed her how she hadn't noticed something that was right under her nose all along. She knew that she had lost her head right then- selfishly setting aside the safety of the group for her own concerns. The girl hung her head low in disdain. For a moment, her mind lingered to wonder where Luke was and how he was doing.

"I suppose we can go later. My apologies..." she quietly replied. Rae watched as the two men scanned the surroundings, wondering what the line could've meant for the forest, and more importantly, for them. "Maybe that explains it, the fire could belong to another settlement..." she trailed off. What could they do with that information? Surely crossing the border could mean trespassing, and they didn't know what rules were counted. If they were found, would they be arrested, or prosecuted? Were there even any models of authority around this place? A plethora of theories piled upon one another. On the other hand, they'd never know what they were in for if they just stood there.

"N-nova, perhaps we could all go together after a bit?" she considered what Marcus said, about there being 'trouble regardless of whether or not they venture in further'. The thought did concern her, but she had the idea that maybe this forest could be their salvation- a risk worth taking. At least for the day.

Just then, her wispy ears twitched, as a sudden realization struck her.

"Everyone, there is faint whispering coming from the forest..."

@WeepingLiberty @PKMNB0Y @VitaVitaAR @Zombehs

Nova growled under her breath at Rika's response, not pleased at having someone criticize her for the second time that day. Clenching her hands into fists she stared the snake woman down. "My name is Nova and if you were so worried about going off and making stupid decision then why did you follow a bunch of complete strangers?" She did her best to control the tone of her voice but her eyes reflected the burning rage she pushed down. Nova knew that there was no real reason to be angry with Rika, she just wanted to make sure that everyone stayed safe but there was something about the way she spoke that really ticked her off. Before she could say anything else Marcus pointed out a red line that was well shaded from the untrained eye. "Well isn't this getting exciting? A mysterious line around a forest and a sense of danger about us, reminds me of a book I read once. Won't bore you with the details." She glanced at the red line curiously before turning her eyes to the depths of the forest. Already her mind was racing, working to solve the mystery as if this were some sort of novel or show.

"Can you understand what the whispers say?" She asked, resisting the urge to march right into the forest to find out. Nova knew that walking around the forest would take too long, by the time they got anywhere the sun would already have gone down and they'd be in even bigger trouble. The smell of fire and death mixed with the red line and whispering didn't sound all that promising, but it was the fastest path and the most likely to allow them a real peek at the world. Everything in her body urged her to take that step forward but as selfish as Nova was, she wasn't about to do something that could very well put everyone's lives in danger. "Red line or not, we're exposed out here. Entering the forest will at least give us some cover from the elements and something solid at our backs so we can't be snuck up on from behind."

@Tokki@Zombehs@PKMNB0Y

Rika folded her arms across her chest in irritation. The elf girl, Nova, had taken issue with what she'd said. What, did she want to go off and be an idiot and eat some poison mushroom that would get her killed? Rika contemplated downgrading her status from 'someone who doesn't want to be an idiot' to 'total moron', but decided to retort in a different manner from that.

"Yes, because I just had so many other options," she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm as her blue eyes narrowed at the other girl. "Because when you wake up alone and suddenly have a snake tail instead of legs from the thighs down, you're clearly in a position to be choosy and ignore the only people who might be able to help you."

Turning away from Nova with a huff, Rika's attention turned to the strange red line. Well, that was... ominous, to say the least. It seemed like a pretty resoundingly awful idea to attempt to cross something like that until they knew what it was. It certainly didn't seem to be natural as far as Rika would tell, and she didn't like it one bit.

"Going over that red line towards the creepy whispering in the forest is frankly one of the worst ideas I've heard all day. And besides, it would probably provide cover, but it'd e pretty easy to sneak up on us through all those trees."

@Tokki@Zombehs@PKMNB0Y@WeepingLiberty

Marcus rolled his fingers over his leg as he stared at the line, the others giving their input as they saw fit. To be completely honest, in their current state, avoiding combat and setting up a base of operations was probably the highest priority of all, and diving smack dab into the middle of an unknown forest like Nova had suggested they do (even AFTER Rae's prior warnings about some sort of whisperings) made the least sense of everything. Wasn't the safest and most logical thing to do be sticking to the outskirts of the forest before anything else? Everyone else seemed to think as much, so...

"I say we avoid heading in for now. Place sounds REALLY ominous, and without any means of self-defense we're basically sitting ducks if we go in now." he sighed, standing up from his previous position and looking to the sides. "I'll head right and circle around the forest; Adam can probably take the left if we're splitting to cover more ground, or we can all just go as a group. In the case of a former, if we hit a dead end, meet right back here, alright?"

With that, Marcus glanced around and took a fallen branch off the ground before stepping behind the red line and drawing a giant 'X' in the dirt; right after that, he planted the branch firmly in the ground. Luckily, due to the lack of brush, the branch stood out quite well among the low-lying grasses, making it easy to spot if they decided to return here. With that, Marcus walked off to the right, hoping to find something of interest... Hopefully one that wouldn't try to kill him.

It didn't take long, though, for him to come across one of the reasons for their earlier discomfort, though; an entire section of the forest, completely razed to the ground. What made it worse, though, were the obviously burnt corpses of what Marcus assumed to be people. The heat still emanating from the area only served to further his discomfort, and though he was nowhere near sick, the sight of it all was quite... Disturbing.

"...The hell happened here...?" he asked himself before cautiously looking around the charred remains of trees and underbrush. The region seemed to be a former campsite, given how the bodies were near a circle of stones clearly made to contain a fire, but... That campfire didn't seem to be the cause of the mess... No, given how the bodies seemed to be sprawled out nearby, it was quite likely that these people were killed, and the fire used to try and erase the evidence. The ability to handle dead bodies wasn't really somewhere he wanted to tread (no, in fact, he'd much rather be off looking for artifacts if that was to be his job), but given the situation information was key. Cautiously moving around the first corpse (of what he counted to be five people), he found something that he considered himself lucky to find- a small dagger, one sheathed away and that had barely escaped the worst of the damage from the fire by having itself buried in the dirt, presumably after it's previous owner fell. Though his moral compass was obviously freaking the heck out because he was essentially a grave robber by doing this, Marcus took the dagger, sheath and all, and slid it onto his belt before continuing to look over the site. Hopefully, the people behind him (if any) would be able to find some more clues as to what the hell went down here.

"...Well, whatever the hell caused this, it might come for us next..."

@Tokki@VitaVitaAR@WeepingLiberty@Zombehs

The Dwarven guards looked at each other, half in confusion and half in amazement at this man's demeanor. Was this bravery they were seeing? Or simply stupidity? Either way, they had a job to do, and they were going to carry it out. After Luke announced his readiness for whatever was to come, the guards immediately escorted him to what seemed to be a section of the cave that had been covered in stone bricks, with a simple door in front of it.

One dwarf, the one who hadn't patted Luke down earlier, knocked on the door and, after a small back-and-forth over the door, entered the room behind it. A few minutes later, the dwarf guard seemed to be sweating bullets, as if he had just seen a demon king or something of the sort.

"The foreman requests your entry now, human." the guard said, stepping away from the door and standing by his peer.

@SadCubone

Luke stood as manly as he could. With his chest up and his head held high he strutted his stuff and marched through those doors. As he walked he could feel eyes on him but he shook that off, he just had to make sure he didn't get killed. Or he didn't throw up. Whatever no he was fine. Luke entered the room and stared at the foreman, eye to eye, mustache to beard. For a guy that small he looked pretty tough. "So you must be the overseer of this.....fine establishment. How are you?" Luke smiled in a sort of welcoming but still dead serious manner. He wanted to show this man he too was tough. Luke wasn't here to cause trouble far from it.

Frankly Nova’s idea was far from desirable for a number of reasons, but Adam didn’t bother to voice his thoughts. The girl was already pretty confrontational with Rika who had responded to her suggestion, and adding in his thoughts might just very well set her off on her own path. Which would be fine with him really, if it weren’t for the fact that they were apparently no longer alone. There might have been whispers intermixed with the gentle breeze that rolled from the vast plains at their backs, but hell if Adam was certain. Still, there wasn’t any real reason for Rae to lie and her ears twitched occasionally as if to better pick up the sounds. If Nova pissed off whatever resided in the forest he wasn’t all too optimistic that he and the others wouldn’t naturally follow as further targets.

Hopefully the two girls wouldn’t stay too confrontational, but then again it was a rather stressful situation; people were bound to butt heads, hell it’d already happened. “Sure.” He watched as Marcus marked their position with a planted branch just shy of the red line with a nod before he bent down and picked up his own decently sized branch. It was a bit more curved than he would have liked, but better than his fists and it would work decently as a walking stick. The dry bark crumpled around his grip to reveal solid wood beneath and he took a few experimental steps to get a feel for walking with it. It felt pretty smooth though, so without further ado he set off at a brisk pace compared to before, opposite of Marcus.

The treeline continued on relatively straight for quite some time, before it suddenly bulged out into the grassy plain. A glance behind him showed that the others were still in sight, if just barely, and he scanned the forest for a moment before he pressed onward. Not too surprisingly the moment he was around that portion of the forest and unable to see the others, Adam felt the air weigh down on him. Was he nervous? Oh yeah and the goosebumps that formed all over his body were a dead giveaway. Nonetheless he propped the branch up on a shoulder and began to retrace his path, eyes scanning his surroundings at the same time.
@VitaVitaAR@WeepingLiberty@Tokki

The tips of Nova's elongated ears twitched slightly in her irritation, the elf folding her arms tightly to keep from snapping at Rika. "Ha, as if anyone would want to sneak up on you. First glance at your tail and they'd probably run the other way crying," Nova sighed internally, she had snapped at the girl anyway. At this rate she was going to end up like the mustache guy, wandering alone because of some thick headed pride. Taking a slow deep breath through her nose, Nova tried to convey her thoughts in a more calm manner. "We're going about this as if we were still humans. Maybe going around the forest would make more sense back home, but that doesn't mean it'll work out here. Rae needs to get something to eat or that glowing will be giving us away by sundown." She turned her gaze back to the forest, not quite understanding what it was about it that was frightening everyone so much. Where was their sense of adventure? All her life she had been wishing for something like this to happen to her, and now here she was... Two steps away from setting out on a journey that could be the most epic thing of all time, and she was being held back by a bunch of whispers and an unnatural red line. This blows. Nova thought to herself before continuing her rant.

"If you don't want to go into the forest that's fine, in joining this little group I decided to follow the group vote... That being said, you can't possibly think that someone could sneak up on us in a forest without one of us catching on. Rae and I have enhanced hearing, you and Rae the better smell... Not to mention you're part SNAKE! That means you can feel the vibrations of any sort of footsteps through the ground long before they reach us." She stomped her foot on the ground a few times for emphasis before turning her nose to the air. The smoky scent seemed to be coming from the same direction that Marcus had walked off in, Nova's heart skipping a few beats out of excitement. "I'm going to go this way with Marcus... Or do you think that's a terrible idea too?" Nova raised an eyebrow at Rika before laughing and turning away, setting off after the man at a brisk jog.

She slowed her jog as she entered the burned area, eyes wide open in awe of the destruction. "This is incredible." She breathed, eyes beginning to scan the ground in order to avoid stepping on the burnt corpses. Nova felt a pang of sadness as she stepped over the remains of a few smaller bodies, most likely belonging to children of the group camping out in the forest. The farther she walked into the destroyed portion, the worse the smell seemed to get forcing Nova to cover her mouth and nose with her arm. "Careful now, don't go giving whatever it is any ideas. It might still be close enough to hear you; judging by this heat anyway." It might have just been wishful thinking on her part, but beast after fire breathing beast ran through her mind as she looked around for any evidence to support her suspicions (or hope rather). There were many different kinds, some she would rather witness than others, but all equally as dangerous as the last. Still, it was always possible that such destruction could be accomplished by people, people capable of doing such a horrible thing.

@Zombehs@PKMNB0Y@VitaVitaAR@Tokki

Rika raised an eyebrow and sighed. Jeez, what was the elf girl thinking? Sure they had better senses... and she was definitely half snake. It was hard to ignore her body from the thighs down after all. But who even knew what could be in this weird place? What if there was something freaky in the forest that none of them could even try and deal with? "I'm not being contrary just for the sake of it. Going to Marcus-san makes sense, alright? Don't be a total moron."

With that, the purple-haired naga slithered along after the man, heading around the forest and giving the red line a wide breadth. When she started smelling it, that terrible scent of burning flesh... and then they came upon it. While she had, with her father, cleaned fish before and various other things of that nature, there was nothing that could have prepared her for the terrible slight. She clapped one hand over her mouth, feeling ill as she swayed on her tail. Those... those were people, the charred, burnt corpses were people...

Who could have done this? Something so... horrible. Why?

Marcus bit his lip as he heeded Nova's words, cautiously moving around the burnt grass and brush at his feet as if to not disturb the final resting place of the fallen. In fact, he even contemplated burying the dead, for whatever good it might be now. He didn't particularly like the stench of burnt human flesh, and he was pretty sure the two girls who had followed him here weren't either. Though... To be quite honest, they weren't exactly in a position to bury them in the first place. Fow now, it seemed, he'd have to let nature reclaim them on its own.

"...Maybe the line and this incident are related...?" he mused to himself as he continued to scour the place for usable goods. Well, the pot over the now-defunct campfire seemed to be... Relatively intact? They'd need to clean it out first if it was to be made usable, if it even was at this point...

Wait. The pot didn't melt? With this heat still covering the area? What the hell?

"...That... Can't be. That goes against the laws of thermodynamics..." Marcus muttered as he quickly moved over to examine the pot in closer detail. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to have a half-destroyed mark of some sort on the bottom of it. The mark itself seemed to be mirrored down the center, but...

"...I think... This was intentional." he said, carefully picking up the pot (which was, to his amazement, lighter than what he had expected). "Not sure what this design is for, but..."

Frowning as he stood up, Marcus took another way look around the campsite before sighing. It just didn't feel safe here, for obvious reasons. The sooner they could meet back up with Adam, the better.

"It can't be helped, but... We should salvage what we can from here and meet up with Adam ASAP. This whole thing seems engineered, and I wouldn't doubt that whoever or whatever caused this might still be lurking around..."

Well, examining the mark on it might also give some insight to the nature of this mess, but for now it was just a very suspicious-looking pot...

@VitaVitaAR@WeepingLiberty

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The room that Luke entered was, understandably, much tidier than the mine he had been in just minutes ago. Adorned left and right with various trophies of all sorts, the foreman's room felt like a more rustic version of a CEO's office.

Well, one with beast heads mounted left and right, at least.

The foreman himself seemed to exude an air of danger around him, and the pair of axes mounted on the wall seemed to only exaggerate that fact. Though his height was about the same as those guards from earlier, the marginally fancier attire and well-maintained beard put on a facade of dignity usually not associated with dwarves. The desk the foreman sat at was, of course, lined with gold, so as to flaunt his wealth. In a way, it was quite stereotypical.

"Hrm. So you're the human that dropped into the mines, right?" the foreman asked, his brown eyes carefully running over Luke as he himself stroked his beard. "Well, at the very least, you seem to have some manners. State your business here. I'm pretty sure there were no human settlements in the region, so your arrival is quite strange."

@SadCubone