I heard the man looking for me, I kept my hand firmly over my mouth, not replying to the man. I was trying to come up with some way to reason with all of the things that I had seen. Maybe he just pretended that woman covered in blood wasn't there... maybe the things I saw and heard were the results of a hallucinogenic drug... yeah, like the stuff he put on my elbows to make me feel that warmth, it could have caused hallucinations. Maybe the bloody woman was just a hallucination, or really his partner. Then she threw something that looked like a skeleton behind me... and that man used the lights in his gauntlets to trick my drug addled mind. The skeleton could have been made of certain materials, which on contact with something solid, would turn them into powder. I'm sure that there's stuff like that... The hissing... well... it could have been the woman, or maybe a recording device hidden nearby to grab my attention.

They... they're probably doing it... so then I'll be lulled into a false sense of security. It's part of their game, make their hapless victims believe that they're with someone that'll help them, someone that could even be called a friend, then they'd betray them when they finally gained their trust, to make the kill all the more gratifying. I wasn't going to fall for it... magic isn't real. This is a fact, there is only technology and tricks that can make magic appear to be real.

I was starting to slowly calm down, still on edge, but at least trying to think things through logically. Anyone that I meet is likely a threat. They likely want my death. I cannot trust anybody. I must find a way out, some mode of transportation and/or communication in order to escape and alert the authorities as to the horrors that are going on here. I cannot be fooled by their illusions, the second that I believe in them, is the second that they'll make the killing blow.

"I guess it's no use. The idiot will get himself killed. What a waste." He sighed, then turned around and looked at Ayaka. "You followed me, too? I say we give up on the guy. It's clear no amount of help can bring back his sanity." He then shouted, "If you ever need to run, head in this direction." He brazed an arrow into the ground using concentrated light.

"Now, to answer you question... we're in a forest. I don't know its name, but I do know it's a creepy place filled with unholy beings who deserved to be purged from the face of this world like the scum they are- Oh, woops, may have gone on a tangent there. But I do know they're a lake near here - Lago de Sange Humana. Nasty thing. Filled with human blood and bodies. The reason why he's so messed up. He waded through it, and I bet they don't have anything like it where he comes from."

"Sorry, I've rattled on for some time. Who might you be?"

@mmarage@NinKitty

@arockysmith
As he was walking, Arin noticed a girl covered in blood pass by and as much as he loved to help others when they needed it, he wasn't sure if he should try to help this girl or leave her be. Wouldn't hurt to try, would it? He slowly approached Lex.

@mmarage
Still sitting his tree, he noticed someone come into view. Hmm, he's cute. Jyden still seemed totally calm despite being in a creepy forest. He just gave him a quiet "Hi." He looks like he's been through something, why not put him out of misery? How about, no? He just sighed to himself before looking back at Joe.

I suddenly heard someone above me. "GAH!" I quickly threw myself away from the tree. "THE TREES CAN SPEAK! HE WASN'T LYING!" I turned around and quickly flung my pocket knife at the tree, near the top where I assume the head would be situated. Only to instead nearly hit a boy a bit younger than I. Miraculously, the knife actually landed tip first into the tree, only inches from the boy's head, just as he was looking back at me.

Unfortunately for me however, the knife's quality wasn't that high and didn't last the impact that it made against the tree. The blade separated from the handle. The blade stayed buried in the tree's trunk, while the handle fell, bounced off of one of the tree's roots, and landed a few inches away from me. I stared at the handle dejectedly. If I could barely defend myself with a knife, I very well couldn't protect myself with my bare hands. "I'm so dead."

@IceboundMemoire
"I wish he'd calm down. We can't even talk to him when he's like that...." Though Parell's explanation of where they currently were sort of told her why he might be like this. "Well that explains the smell of blood. Anyway, I gather he saw this lake and didn't like what he saw so he freaked out. That girl covered in blood earlier most likely found herself in it somehow." At least now Ayaka understood more of what was going on and where she was. And she didn't need to track down where the smell of blood was coming from either, which was a good thing. The smell was already annoying her. At least she didn't have to go closer to it and hoped she didn't.

Parell did have a point of the crazy guy. The guy wasn't calming down and clearly still freaked out. "Unholy beings huh?" She had no idea what exactly he meant by this. She did sense the place was creepy though.

@Ninkitty

"What do you suggest we do? If we head back he'll run off. But I can't help but feel I haven't done enough to help him. It's my fault; wouldn't it be a waste of time to go check when he'll run away?" He groaned, annoyed.

"You're a neko, right? Never met one in person before. Say, you must have a pretty good sense of smell. You could probably track him down with his scent; it must be on these gloves, right?" He took off the gloves and handed them to Ayaka. "You still didn't tell me your name."

Shiro let out a small sigh as he found himself in a dark, creepy-to other people anyways-forest. He looked around, but blinked as he heard the sound of someone running, and he turned to see a neko girl running through the forest. And, while he did admit she was cute, it wasn't anything to be excited over. Even suddenly finding himself in this forest didn't bother him, as he already understood everything about it.

As she was running, Luna thought she heard someone sighing. She stopped running for a minute and looked around. "Hello?" she said.
@arowne97

---

@IceboundMemoire
"Oh I'm sorry. I'm Ayaka and yes I'm a Neko." In truth yes she could find him by smell, but she felt like she was a dog when she tried tracking like that. In this case, she probably needed to. This guy will probably end up getting himself killed. "I doubt it's your fault. He was most likely already freaked about something when he met you. He for some reason thought he was in danger. Most likely because he saw that lake of human blood.

"Honestly, I have no idea. Can he even be helped at this point?" Ayaka asked sniffing gloves. "Yeah I should be able to find him. He went off in that direction." She pointed to he direction the scent was coming from.

@Ninkitty
"Ah...hello," Shiro said, in his usual bored, uninterested tone.

@Ninkitty

"Hmmm... We could knock him out and then explain everything to him when he's bound up... Scratch that, we need to make him lose his memory somehow... or we could try the normal way. He's very much an idiot, isn't he?" Parell led the way as he walked in the direction.

"Honestly, I'm surprised the trees didn't skewer him immediately. That's completely unlike them. Usually they'll attack anyone they deem weak. Maybe the smell of blood threw them off him? Odd." He sighed in thought.

They would eventually come to the scene of Joseph and the knife in the tree. "Maybe he is crazy... he threw his knife in the tree..."

@mmarage

@arowne97
Well he seemed quite bored. The opposite of what Luna felt. Of course, she feels as if she were on an adventure at the moment, which was enjoyable to her. "I'm Luna. How about you?"

---
@IceboundMemoire
Ayaka saw the knife in the tree and where it was. "Look he almost struck someone with it. Yeah he needs to calm down." She turned into her cat form which was a black cat. "I'll try approaching him this way." As a cat she walked up to Joe and meowed at him. Hopefully, seeing a cat would calm him down? Well the main hope was that he didn't have some silly superstition to black cats like some humans do.@mmarage

@mmarage
Jyden looked over at the knife he threw and instead grabbing it, he just inched away from it. He then looked back at Joe. "Hey, easy there. I didn't even do anything." As proof, he just continued sitting there on the tree branch.

@Ninkitty
"I'm Shiro," he said. "Ah...it's nice to meet you." Despite all his genius and understanding of everything, Shiro was not good with people unless he wanted a specific reaction from them. So, therefore, this was awkward for him.

@Ninkitty

"I'm willing to bet a load of money that he'll get freaked out by a black cat." He thought.

@mmarage

"I'll stay out of sight, but close enough to restrain him." At that moment he accidentally released a small blast of light energy that illuminated the area. This angered the trees, who were sleeping, thus sending them into an unconditional rage, attacking everyone and everything nearby.

"Woops."

@Letmehaveone2

@arowne97
"It's nice to meet you too." Luna said. "Anyway, have any idea where we are? Obviously some type of forest that gives off some creepy vibes, but beyond that I have no idea." He didn't seem very comfortable at the moment. Maybe talking to someone was new for him? Luna knew some people didn't talk very often.

@Ninkitty
Shiro shrugged. "I just woke up here," he said, deciding not to give away the fact that he certainly did know where they were, due to his powers. "I would be careful though. I feel a strange presence that makes up this forest, as if there are things in the forest that can see us but we can't see them."

"...I still do not trust you." I didn't know if this guy was part of it all. I mean... enough blood and dead bodies to fill an entire lake... there's probably at least a small demented town full of people in on it. One of my rules that I cannot break is that I can't trust anybody here. I need to hurry up and find some way of escaping and alerting the authorities as to what was going on here.

Suddenly a black cat wandered up to me, I gave it a critical look. "Run kitty cat, there's nothing but death here." As much as I loved cats, I couldn't get distracted by one. I got to my feet unsteadily and began backing away from the boy and the tree, afraid of taking my eyes off of him for even a second, in the event he tried to pull something.

@Letmehaveone2

Lex turned her head and saw Arin coming toward her. She turned herself toward him and held up her hands to let him know she wasn't carry any weapon, or trying to harm him. She took a step toward him before speaking, "Who are you?" she asked. She did a silent prayer that he wasn't the person in charge of adding bodies to the lake she just swam out of. "Do you have any weapons or anything...don't think I'm helpless," she continued as she let a spark of fire escape her hands.

@mmarage
Ayaka as a cat just continued meowing at him. Seeing that he didn't seem freaked out by a black cat, she slowly walked toward him again, meowing. Of course now it seemed the trees were going crazy. It was like they just randomly started attacking out of nowhere for no reason. Deciding the reasoning behind this can wait, she put up a shield of wind around around herself and Joe since he was closest to her at the moment.

Of course, now she had to concentrate on maintaining her cat form and wind shield at the same time since normally, she doesn't play with her wind powers at the same time as being a cat.

--

@arowne97
So he seemed to not know either, though Luna got the impression he was hiding something. "I suppose that would explain why the forest feels so creepy. Maybe it's the trees themselves? Maybe we should see if there are others in this forest as well?"

@Ninkitty

"I'm willing to bet a load of money that he'll get freaked out by a black cat." He thought.

@mmarage

"I'll stay out of sight, but close enough to restrain him." At that moment he accidentally released a small blast of light energy that illuminated the area. This angered the trees, who were sleeping, thus sending them into an unconditional rage, attacking everyone and everything nearby.

"Woops."

@Letmehaveone2

Jyden was about to respond when he felt the tree he was sitting move and quickly jumped off it before turning around to look back at the tree. "And I was sitting on that one." He moved away from said tree.

---

@arockysmith
Arin stopped a bit to let her know he wasn't a threat or anything. "I'm Arin and no I don't carry anything like that."