[IC] The Midnight Train to Nowhere

[Kimchi]

Looking up at him like a lost puppy with some puke spit trailing down her chin, she cringed and shrunk away from him as he tossed his head back and began to scream. Observing him in fear, she couldn't help but jump a little when he abruptly stopped and gave her a death stare. She honestly couldn't blame him and was relieved when Ace came and helped her get cleaned up. 'It was his fault to begin with. Asking all those weird questions...' The albino was trying to justify why she had ended up doing that. It wasn't like she could help it in anyway, plus she had no control over Lesley's hand, so why didn't he just move it? But to no avail, she still felt very guilty for doing that and decided to apologize to him until the dragons announced that they were going to receive blessings.

Taking her spot in the forming human crowd, she was about to open her mouth and say sorry when Lesley neared her, but he just gave her a smug look and stomped off. She couldn't blame him really. Even she would feel the same way if someone threw up on her. Once the clouds were lifted and the healings were received, she finally had the chance to feel somewhat happy again. Taking a quick glance at Inadi's arm, she was pleased to find that it was all fixed up and healthy again. But her pleasant feelings were cut short when the Grandma dragon started to yell at her. Backing away for her own sake, she held her breath the entire span of the scolding and was thankful towards the other two dragon couple for stopping her.

The dragons went on to explain how hard it would be to actually eliminate the witches and Harper decided he would openly throw everyone into the bloodbath. Jasper felt like she was going to collapse right there. They got the Dragon's Laugh alright, but what was the use if they were just going to die on the next mission. It was obvious how powerful the witches were. Even dragons were no match for them. The Living List stated it and there was no returning to Earth if it wasn't complete, so this was it. The start of another journey.

---

Time resting in Sol was more saddening than fulfilling. There they found out what had become of Vince and during the funeral, Jasper basically zoned out and wasn't willing to mentally accept any more human fatalities. Not that they were close in anyway, just the fact the people just kept dying. Coming and going. She thought, 'When is my time to go? Could it be during this quest?'

---

Aimlessly walking through an eerie forest where most just disappeared forever wasn't exactly the most enjoyable thing. Their compass had also stopped working and their map had been swept away, never to be found again. Jasper didn't dare trail along the back, she made sure she was fully surrounded at all times, mostly near the guides who were far more skilled than the others. Someone had also mentioned to them that Songbird and Avian had been to the dark side before so she took some comfort from that. The creepiness doubled when everyone realized that they were all basically wandering around in circles. This was starting to really give her an unsettling feeling. What made it even more irky was that Ace was skipping along happily in front chanting some children's Halloween song making this the perfect setting for a horror movie.

Hakuren suggested her as possible sacrifice and she didn't even bother objecting. Right now, death sounded better than continuing to go on this ridiculous quests, continually putting her life on the line for a shot at getting home. "Marking the path sounds good.." she agreed in a whisper, like unwanted listeners were eavesdropping on them. The forest was so dreary, yet alive. Scuttling here and there. Shadows dashing among the trees every now and then, making her yelp and latch herself onto Songbird's sleeve. Usually she would hate to make physical contact, but in times of intense fear, it didn't really matter. And he probably had way more experience in this part of Nowhere more than anyone else besides Avian.

In any other setting, she would have suggested splitting up and seeing where each one would end up, then call on the others if one found a different path, but that plan was just not the most ideal thing to do and would put every pair in grave danger. Upon seeing a sharp stone on the ground, she picked it up and offered it to Ace, "You can use this to mark the tree bark."

[Orpheus]

A few hours after the company returned to Sol the prince launched into yet another risky proposition; this time he wanted to accompany the humans on their quest into the Dark Side. Of course everyone was completely against that idea, most especially the royal dragoons, and eventually Avian Rider was the sacrificial lamb who took the young monarch's place. It shouldn't be a trice since the elite guards used to venture in the Dark Side, but they did so in large numbers and never alone. Victoria was understandably upset about the whole deal but manpower was spread thin, not to mention that she was also wounded (her ankle worsened up to the point a cleric declared she had to stay off her feet), so she had no choice but to let her husband leave.

"I would suggest the stars but we can't see them," Avian replied with a sigh. Unlike a lot of the Lost Souls and the guides he wasn't nervous, mostly because he could take care of himself, but was driven to hypersensitivity thanks to all the mysterious sounds and rustles that sprung from the shadows. He turned around and glared at a suspicious-looking bush- he swore he heard something from it- before dismissing it as normal. "I know having a one-man guard is hardly inspiring of confidence, and I'm sorry. Just so you know, if anything happens I'll give my life to protect any of you," The soldier respectfully bowed his head at Harper before moving off to the other side of the formation where Lesley was. He had been doing this ever since they've crossed the border and while it unnerved a few, they slowly got used to it since it was for their safety.

"Seen anything?" He asked the pink-haired Lost Soul. Avian briefly had the time to wonder whether this certain human was a girl or a boy, but unlike in the mortal realm, gender was not an issue here in Nowhere and he couldn't care less. Lesley was Lesley and as such one of the people he was supposed to protect on this trip, so he should get along with him/her too.

"Agh, human! Stop asking me questions and look where you're going! You're about to trip, see- Gwaaah!" Songbird was fending off Riley's rapidfire questions when Jasper suddenly pulled at his sleeve, which made the item hunter yelp in surprise. "Holy gold marshmallow," Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and the white-haired nobody seemed even more tense than all the other Lost Souls combined. He had a very unfortunate accident in this place, after all....

The dragoon overheard Hakuren's jape and frowned at the ice mage. "That's not very funny, human. How about we sacrifice you instead?" Avian said calmly and without a hint of humor, but something popped out of the nearby hedges and ran in front of the group. It was a black ferret with two heads and five legs. The creature hissed before scurrying away from them and the humans continued walking.

"That's a good idea, Jasper," Songbird told the girl when she suggested marking the trees. He should've thought of that, but he was panicking too much to make sense of his surroundings. Her actions jarred him from the anxiety spell and the item hunter glanced around all of a sudden with eyes narrowed to slits.

"I'd bet my hat that tree wasn't there earlier," His eyes were on a conspicuous tree that looked exactly like all the other shady trees in this forest. He seemed dead serious, though.

[Crescendo]

Zephy had opted to stay behind in Sol this time with Tobias to both supervise repairs of the building and to make sure the young prince wasn’t overwhelmed, so instead this time it was Brandy and Martini who tagged along with their ragtag group.

The mermaid was sticking close to the group, looking around nervously at their dark surroundings. She was clutching the trident that she had gotten from the Shakespearean tightly in her hands. She had brought the weapon along despite never having been much of a fighter, but in the dark part of Nowhere it was always crucial tp have some way of protecting oneself. Brandy, who was walking behind poor Song, had a hand on his tome, warily looking at the surrounding trees and ready to blast any monsters with magic if needed.

Martini meeped as a nearby bush rustled, edging closer to Lesley when she swore she spotted a few pairs of glowing eyes looking out at her from inside the leaves. She had gotten closer to the new humans when they returned to Sol, and she especially delighted in the pink-haired human and Leon’s company. Leon had the best fashion sense out of all the humans’, and perhaps most of the Nobodies she’s met while Lesley was an adorable human- especially pertaining to his concern of a certain Inadi. Perhaps she would ask them to model for her- If they made it out of here alive. A loud screech from above made her jump, edging even closer to the nearest person to her.

A bright flash briefly illuminated the area, causing the ragged looking three-eyes owl in the trees to give out a pained shriek before flapping away. The light quickly faded as Brandy extinguished the magic from his palm. He was versed in simple magics- Small tricks that could keep weaker critters away but would ultimately be useless against witches. Personally he thought that this mission was a foolish one- The heart of a witch? How were they going to defeat a witch with a few magical humans, three guides and one dragoon?

"I'd bet my hat that tree wasn't there earlier,"

The bunny looked to Song. The items-hunter was more familiar with the dark side than he was- perhaps the most familiar besides Avian, not to mention that Song was rarely ever wrong when it came to recalling memory of places or items.

“So in other words, either a tree upped and moved, or we’re in a different part of the forest.”

As it was the Forest of the Ancients, both scenarios were both just as likely- in fact, the first was actually more so. If that was the case then they could only hope it was an actual tree and not a tree like monster.

“No loose dirt at the roots, or fang like protrusions from hollows…” Brandy mumbled to himself, walking up to beside the nervous looking Song and sizing up the suspicious looking tree. It wasn’t a monster then. “Could the forest be shifting around us? Marking the trees would prove useless then- not to mention we might end up angering them.”

[MUG]

Inadi watched as the cloud covered his arm and he felt a great surge of energy and relaxation go over him. What a strange thing this was as he felt his previous pains and spasms all but dissipate into memory for him. As the clouds left he looked at the arm and saw the wounds had gone and he let out a smile. He turned to Harper and held his arm out at the young man. “I guess you can say it's better than ever now to answer your question. And good timing too.” He told him as he noticed Jasper also coming over to check on it. Though he had to say there was a suddenly rough smell that developed around him. He rolled his eyes in his skull adjusting to it and tried his best not to breath it in. It smelled like someone had gotten sick recently to be honest. He waved it off though, thinking it was more than likely some random soldier finally settling down a little too much.

The dragons continued their discussion and Inadi began listening with a scowl on his face as he took a seat nearby Harper. Here these giant and great beasts were arguing and bickering it seemed like some pissed off attendant in an apartment complex because the neighbors upstairs were playing their music too loud. It was starting to give him a headache to be honest. That headache though went away as soon as Harper seemed to throw out the group as volunteers to go and defeat the witches. At first Inadi wanted to shoot out and protest, but then he saw that the boy was shaking again and realized this was him trying to be brave for not only himself, but the group. Inadi instead stood up slowly and threw his spear on his shoulder while taking a spot next to Harper. Without saying a word he was showing he would provide whatever help he could to keep Harper's promise to these dragons. He gave him a quick smile and nod as he waited for the dragon's to finish their speech to them. It seemed like they didn't trust human's to hold their oaths that often. Considering how fantasy novels painted the relationship between humans and dragons, Inadi wasn't too surprised by that wariness.

All of a sudden a paper shot out of Harper's bag and made Inadi step back. He had yet to see the living list in person and the idea of a scroll just shooting out in front of the group was still a bit alien to him. Although a lot of things in Nowhere were alien to him to be honest. When the words “witch's heart” finally finished writing itself on the paper, Inadi had to pinch the bridge of his nose. Talk about a tough task stacked onto another. But instead of showing frustration or fear, he knew he needed to give Harper some sign of support. He slammed the heel of his spear to the ground. “Well I guess that means we got some old crones to put down now.” Inadi said giving a confident look to Harper and others that were around to see the scroll's writings. In his mind, he was petrified. Outside, he was showing a warrior's confidence. One of his greater acting jobs since coming to Nowhere to be sure.

---

The funeral for Vincent was a hard one for Inadi to take. He stayed for only a short time and didn't say any words at the service mainly due to the fact that he was realizing just how serious it had become now. Someone he knew was dead here. They had died and there was no coming back. And of all things they became a statue! Regardless of how painless the guides had described it being, it didn't change the fact how unnatural it was. He stayed to himself when they were in Sol and he had actually found a sharpening device for his spear since he had mentioned to a soldier he needed to repair it. After getting a lesson on how to use the device, Inadi spent most of his time repairing his weapon rather than sleep or think about the witches themselves.

Luckily the steel was still good enough to use and the wheel of stone did a great job of restoring the point of the weapon. However, Inadi began expanding on it and sharpened the section directly beneath the hook on the spear as well, something that had remained dull since he had received it. Now suddenly it wasn't just a jabbing weapon, but also a slashing one. Almost a halberd to be honest, and while maintaining the hook that was there the thing Inadi could now use against his enemies were going to be cut, stabbed or eviscerated now it would seem. The thought made Inadi cringe a bit but it wasn't as bad as the first time he thought of the damage the weapon could do back in the Chocobo pen. Once he had finished, he began practicing some motions with the halberd to see what all he could do with the blade. He hardly slept much, but then again not a lot of people in the group did either.

---

Inadi stayed near Harper while watching Ace continue to try and lighten the mood it seemed by singing a classic little tune in a terrible looking place that surprisingly fit the mood. Though to be honest Inadi at this point wasn't sure if Ace had taken the job of morale booster or if she was just always this cheery for no real reason. He chuckled lightly to himself fearing just how much of a morning person she might be back home. Probably would drive him mad personally. The song continued for a while and Inadi eventually found himself humming along with her. Once she stopped singing he picked it up himself, whispering another verse without even realizing what he had done.

“In this town, we call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song.....dammit. Remind me to get mad at Ace for getting that damn song stuck in my head now.” Inadi joked as he continued to whisper at Harper, mainly keeping quiet due to how uncomfortable he felt in the forest. It was dark, filled with trees that look a hundred years past dead and echoed with sounds he had only heard in the worst parts of parks late at night. Definitely not his preferred place for a Sunday stroll. Harper eventually pointed out a tree and to his despair it did in fact look familiar. “Yeah I think I recall this one. Had the really ugly looking batch of leaves on the third branch from the right I think. This whole forest is a damned maze to be honest.”

Everyone began discussing how the compass worked a minute ago and now seemed busted. Just a shame there were no owls in the trees. At least with that Inadi would have some idea of how to get through the bloody forest without much hassle. Thinking about the game where that trick came from, he caught a few words of Hakuren's suggestion to sacrifice someone in the group, though he didn't see who he pointed out. He turned slowly and pointed the steel side of his spear at the ice mage and gave a very agitated look.

His brow furrowed as he took a few steps towards the man, but still keeping a good distance between them. Inadi's arm was still exposed as he had refused to repair his robe back in Sol, and gave a quick look at Avian who bashed Haku for his comment. “Or perhaps we can just provide the witches with a statue of a man made of ice, since they were so kind to give us one made of stone just a few days ago.” Inadi said coldy, knowing the only way to affect Haku was to approach him with the same kind of attitude as he showed constantly. He turned his attention away from the others and went back to lean against a tree that was nearby and somewhat close to where Riley was as well. The two of them had joined up with Vincent as well as Lesley, and it still bothered Inadi that he was gone.

He gave her a quick look and smiled at her. “So you think you got enough fire magic in those hands of yours to go one on one with a witch? Cause I don't think they are limited to how much juice is in a necklace like we are,” The frame wearing man said as he reached up to his neck to pull out his necklace, still full and reflecting what little light there was in the forest. “Plus they probably have a better understanding on how to use their stuff. I mean, you would think if they dedicated their whole life to the 'boil-boil-toil-and-trouble lifestyle that is.” Inadi laughed as he let go of his necklace and watched as the others began working out Jasper's plan to mark the trees to show what path they had been going on. Now with the sudden news that the forest could be moving around them it forced the lightening mage to let out a long sigh. Could things just stay normal just long enough to just get some progress in this journey for one damned day. It was a hopeless request, but one that Inadi felt had to be said in his mind so at least he could hear someone say it.

[John]

“...eh?”

Confused, Leila took several steps back as masses of billowing clouds accumulated around her as the dragon exhaled. The puffy chunks of white encircled the area she was standing in, temporarily blocking her sight. Instinctively, she waved her hands around in hope of spreading the clouds away and clearing her sight, while she stumbled backwards in the same attempt only to realize immediately that the stumble was a great mistake. Reminded by the feel in her right foot the moment it came into contact with the ground, she closed her eyes and held her breath and expected the wrenching pain that was bound to be shooting up from the ankle -

- yet nothing happened. Her foot supported her weight just fine. More than fine, actually. Instead, at the moment she felt very comfortable - calm, relaxed, and relieved of the crippling pain that once occupied most of her body. She inhaled and did not feel the ache in her ribs that had been present ever since the battle back in the caves. In those few seconds the many injuries sustained over this journey seemed to not be there anymore.

The clouds around her dissipated, leaving her standing there, still not fully comprehending what just happened. She looked down at her body and her hands - the clothing was still ragged and dirty, yet her body felt much better. The damp bloods of blood on her clothes remained, but they no longer felt like they stuck to the damaged tissue underneath it. The various cuts and bruises on her skin seem to have simply … vanished.

As if she wasn’t used to being in this state just yet, Leila let out a couple of coughs, and it looked like a few tiny puffs of dragon breath were propelled into the air.

“Ha, unlike those who reside in Nowhere, humans do not fully...”

She looked up to see the dragons, and turned around to look at her fellow lost souls. They, too, seemed to have experienced the healing effects of this cloud the dragons exhaled. Most notably Inadi’s arm, which Leila remembered being hurt severely earlier and - she’d admit - was a bit worried about.

Leila did not resist the urge to hop up and down slightly, landing on her once injured toes and heels, just for the weird, sort of ironic devilment of it.

The pair of dragons seemed to be rather content with this scene. The other one, seemingly not as much. The tension in this scene did seem to have lessened considerably though. Ace even came forward and joined her there, patting the nose of another dragon.

And then, as if she suddenly remembered something, Leila stopped in her bouncing acts and looked at the dragons again. She decided that the dragons probably didn’t like having to bend the necks down to the ground to talk with humans, and so this time, when she spoke, she took advantage of the fact that the loudest she could manage to usher was restricted no longer by that now-gone injury in the chest.

”...thank you!”

* * * *

So Vince is gone.

Vince’s funeral wasn’t the first one Leila attended, and certainly not the first one of a person that she didn’t know well.

It felt a bit different from the other ones though. She didn’t know why. She eventually settled on attributing that to its being held in a realm different than the one she was familiar with, although she knew that it was not the correct reason.

She almost hoped she got to know this person better before he went away.

* * * *

Angry trees.

Leila stayed quiet for most of the first part of their trip into Nowhere’s dark side. It wasn’t the normal calm, composed silence that was often seen from her, however; as her brows remained furrowed most of the time. The dark was never something she enjoyed, while this realm seemed to be themed around it. Her eyes eventually got accustomed to the low levels of signals in form of light, but being aware of everything happening in an environment like this proved to not be much better than having no clue whatsoever.

They kept the amulets the queen lent them. Leila still wore hers around her neck, dangling inside her renewed outfit she obtained from her later stay in Sol. The green glow probably was actually much fainter than it seemed, taking into account the increased sensitivity towards light her eyes were now tuned to. She pondered whether it would be a good thing if the light had been actually bright enough to illuminate the surroundings and not just the little area on her shirt. An illumination green in hue applied to this scene would probably have done the opposite of making it less unsettling, though.

Is that tree moving? What is in the leaves? What is that faint light in the distance? Are those falling leaves, and if so, why are they falling upwards? Sometimes she thought she’d seen wrong, sometimes it turns out to just be their shadows. Other times there really was no explanation for what was happening.

Her awareness was cranked to high levels as she took caution in every step she took, to the point of nearly not placing her foot anywhere not previously visited by the steps of someone else in front in their group. The guides were leading their path, although even they didn’t seem absolutely certain where they were headed. Had they a destination? Or were they just exploring aimlessly? Were they exploring but instead with the intention of finding something? Were they going in a straight line - everything in this forest looks so alike - or were they just walking around in circles?

The group paused to inspect a particular scene. Leila was almost certain when she agreed that it was one that they had once encountered - she would have been completely certain, if not that demanded her explain how that one tree somehow had materialized in a previously empty space within this time.

A straight line was just a circle of infinite radius, after all.

Leila mind would have wandered off to think about inversive geometry if it had been another day. Yet now, in this bizarre forest of crooked woods and twisted creatures, fear overrode the temptation of distraction.

Leila followed Jasper, Haku, and Inadi; staying near the centre of the group, where she felt more safe.

Some of the other lost souls were also conversing with one another. Most notably, the suggestion of “sacrificing” one of them in the case of danger, and who that sacrifice ought to be. Leila wasn’t sure what to feel about it, if anything - and she also couldn’t decide whether that by the fact that she would indeed prefer someone else to die instead of herself, she actually was agreeing with that notion.

Thoughts about Vince emerged and Leila decided she didn’t want to think about that anymore.

The sounds of conversation covered off most of what would have otherwise be heard from the distance depths of the forest, and Leila found it to be at least better than having to guess what the other sounds were. For a moment, though, the talking stopped, and things fell eerily silent. Refusing to change the state of ignorance towards whatever fearsome implications the environment might bring, Leila made her own attempts at covering out those signals - with the only thing she happened to be capable of coming up at the moment: incidentally: Ace’s “This is Halloween”.

Curious how Leila actually found that song to be somewhat familiar, although not remembering where exactly she heard it before. Perhaps it was sung in a way too different to bring up exact memories. Perhaps she had not heard of the song at all. She decided anyways that it sounded nice.

She started humming, in a faint voice just loud enough to distract herself and hopefully not anything else possibly lurking nearby, the tune to the song.

She didn’t know the lyrics, though.

na na na na na, na na na...

[Anonymous]

The physical renewal during they're stay in Sol was well appreciated by all, but especially by one whiny brat in particular, Lesley. Even on their way down the mountain, he was cursing to himself and making fake crying noises as he stumbled along like he had lost the ability to walk upright. As soon as they were lead into their own separate rooms, he trudged in like a lifeless ghost and passed out before the maid even closed the door. A knock woke him up the following afternoon, his energy had been refueled from the day long rest he was able to get. The humans had been gathered up for a funeral and as soon as he found out who had died, Lesley couldn't help but break into tears, clutching onto Riley who remained motionless with a far away look in her eyes.

The following rest days were made much more sorrowful because of the loss and before he knew it, they were packing up to go the Forest of the Ancients.

---

The hue of the sky was as dark as the rest of the forest. If one didn't look hard enough, it would seem that everything was the exact same color. Thank the Lord for these flashlights. The trees resembled mangled arms and hands, its branches posing as the pointed fingers, looking like it would crackle to life the moment you turned your back to it. Everyone seemed to be on there toes at every audible noise and rustle that made itself heard. Normally they'd be walking a good arms length away from one another, but the eerie atmosphere seemed to have placed a magnetic pull on the humans and guides, bringing them all together in a much tighter bundle.

Hugging his abdomen as they made their way along, two extremely creepy scenarios took place. First, a phantom gust tore their only map out of the guide's hand and blew it into the shadows. Second, their compass began to malfunction then stopped working altogether. It was like some sinister force was purposely causing them to get lost. Goosebumps sprouted up all over his arms from the chilly night air and the stress he was feeling from reacting to every little sound and movement the forest used to spook them. Beside him, he could tell Martini wasn't doing so well either. Her knuckles were white from clutching her weapon so hard. He was given the chance to interact with her during his time in Sol and he must say, he adored her so. She was a complete definition of 'fabulous'. A freak animal of some sort made a shrill growl at them atop one of the higher branches causing him to yelp and grab Martini's arm as she too inched closer to him.

"Omgee gurlll. I'm so scared ε=ε=(っ*´□`)っ. You better know how to use that giant fork of yours..." he said to her with a shaky voice, his head still frantically turning from side to side on the look out for any more suspicious activity.

Avian: "Seen anything?"

"No, not yet and I'm hoping I never will (⁽⁽ ⁰ ⁾⁾ Д ⁽⁽ ⁰ ⁾⁾)," he replied to the question before yanking the dragoon into his and Martini's protective huddle. With one arm hooked with Martini and Avian trudging along side him, Lesley was able to to feel a lot more comfortable than he previously was. Scary things were never his forte and if he ever happened to watch a horror film, you could bet he was going to have a nightmare that same night.

Meanwhile, Hakuren decided he was going to make some jokes while everyone was already on the edge. It was obviously not being tolerated by anyone right now as Avian snapped at him rather seriously, throwing the ice mage's comment right back at him. As of right now, they were definitely lost and even the guides had no idea where they were. It seemed as if they continually passed the exact same scenery every couple of minutes, but it was hard to tell since everything basically looked similar to the next.

Ace, who was oddly trotting at the front whilst singing a song, suggested that they mark where they've already gone and Jasper reached out to offer her a sharp rock to engrave the trees. Pausing on his own to inspect the current surroundings from where they stood, he asked Martini politely for her trident and also made an offering to Ace in an attempt to compete with Jasper's puny little rock. "Here, this should make a much more distinguishable scratch on the bark." He sounded confident, holding the three-pronged spear up to Ace, urging her to choose it over Jasper's dumb stone.

Suddenly, a pair of red eyes darted open on the trunk of the tree behind Ace at the suggestion of it being cut. Lesley shrieked as he dashed off, letting the trident clatter to the ground in front of Ace. \(￣д￣;)\=3=3=3

[Fox of Spades]

Please make way for a very special guy. Our man Jack is king of the pumpkin patch.

The Nightmare before Christmas? Harper shuddered. It wasn't a bad movie, in fact, he remembered watching it with his sister back in the day. However, singing an eerie song in a cursed forest filled with witches didn't exactly sound like the best idea out there.

The jittery boy trudged onward, flashlight raised and eyes wide. He shone it down the dirt road that seemed to lead deeper into the forest. They had been following this road ever since they reached the border. People said it would get them to the Sacrificial Stone, one of the witches' more famous haunts but so far they had seen nothing but trees, rocks, bushes, and even more trees. The deeper into the forest they went, the more frightening things became.

Avian snapped the boy out of his thoughts and he gave the guide a nervous smile. "Thank you very much, we'll do our best to help you out." He shone his flashlight at a bunch of trees only to have a batfrog swoop down at them. The boy could have sworn he was going to have a heart attack and he took a step back towards the middle of the group. Haku could stay in front for all he cared, Harper had enough of this forest! He fell into step with Inadi then nodded his head.

He hadn't known Inadi for as long as some of the others, but he considered the man his friend. He was dependable and kind and back during that mushroom fight he had shown just how determined he could be. If he ever needed any help, Harper would have his back.

The others had began to scold Haku but the ice mage simply grinned. Heh, it was Avian's job to protect them yes? So he doubted the man would even go through with his words, he was just bluffing. However, he didn't want everyone to be upset, so he quieted down and basked in their annoyance. Seeing them upset over such a petty thing was so amusing. The young gave Leon a smile then watched as Songbird and Brandy stepped forward to inspect a tree.

He guessed it looked a little different...

Brandy suggested the forest was shifting and Harper frowned. If that was the case, then finding the Sacrificial Stone would be harder than it already was. He looked at the guides with creased eyebrows. He could hear the others talking about marking the trees but Brandy had already said it wouldn't be a good idea. "Is there any way to tell if the forest has been shifting, maybe a landmark or through magic?"



Whatever Ace was singing, it sounded familiar and was rather catchy as well.

The group came to a stop while some of the guides inspected a tree, and Inadi appeared beside her with a question. Riley responded with a grin then laughed. "Nah, even I'm not that reckless. The dragons said they were tough and dragon fire is way hotter than any flames Ace or I can come up with." She shrugged a little, her grin turning into a less cheery but determined expression. "Doesn't mean I won't give them hell though. They're going down for Sol, for the dragons," there was a slight pause, "for Vinvin too." The thought of him just dying like that wasn't exactly pleasant and for a moment, she wondered how his family or the people he knew back home would take it.

There wouldn't even be a body to bury. He had simply vanished without a trace or explanation and they would never see him again, ever. Period. This was the end of him. It was almost like some omnipotent being had taken an eraser and erased his very existence.

She imagined dying in Nowhere. Riley wasn't exactly close with her parents, they were a total pain in the butt, but bringing them that kind of pain and filling their heads with questions that could never be answered, she never wanted that to happen. The girl wondered if they were doing well, if they were still panicking over her disappearance. How long had it been anyway? None of them had any way of telling.

"Huh? Oh, well there's something we have that they don't." She slammed a fist into her open palm. "We've all got each other and we've got a goal we're working towards. A bunch of wrinkly old hags." Riley made a silly face, "there's no way they're stopping us." She jabbed Inadi playfully on the shoulder, brightening up in the process. "You better make sure you give them a piece of your mind too. Give them an electrifying show that'll shock 'em dead."

A faint humming sound filled the air and Riley blinked. It was coming from behind them?

Harper had spun around as soon as he had heard the whispery voice. In fact, he had jerked his arm back and wound up hitting Leon in the face with his flashlight. He had muttered a quick apology before he stared at the people behind him.

Riley looked left and right then broke into a laugh when she noticed it was Leila. "Relax Harper, it isn't a ghost." Riley made her way towards the humming girl then popped up beside her. Come to think of it, she had never really heard Leila speak but the quiet girl sure was something. First, she hugged a dragon and now she was humming eerily in a forest that was most likely cursed. Man, she had guts of steel. "So dragon tamer," Riley grinned from ear to ear, shoving thoughts of Vincent's funeral and the witches into the back of her head. "What was it like hugging a dragon?" She placed a hand on Leila's shoulder. "Because seeing you rush up to it was just amazing."

The humans had began to talk, some about trivial things and others about carving up trees.

The trees didn't mind the former, but the latter idea was very upsetting. The pink-haired man had even suggested using a pointy fork to mark them. How dare he. The tree stared with red, glowing eyes but closed them.

"We shouldn't stay idle for long. If we don't keep moving bad things could happen." Songbird narrowed his eyes at the tree once more before motioning for the humans to follow. The group began to move again.

However, little did they know, something was following behind them.

Lesley would feel something hover around his shoulder but whenever he turned around nothing would be there, and at one point he even felt something wrap around his waist. It felt sharp and cold.

Jasper felt the same thing on her neck. There would be a prickling sensation but nothing would be there. Whenever the humans turned to look behind them, the same tree would always be there. Even Songbird and Brandy would occasionally feel a tap on their shoulders.

Hakuren shrugged still looking rather gleeful. "It wasn't me, I think we might actually have a playful spirit with us--"

There was the sound of creaking wood and when they spun around it was the same tree, but then again almost all the trees looked the same.

[AkiBlue]

She looked as Jasper gave her a sharp stone to mark the paths with. "Oh, this could work! Thanks!" She stopped at the nearest tree and carved out three diagnol lines. "We'll start here!" Hopefully, her little thought of creatures using them to find the most souls didn't come true. That would spell trouble for the lot of them. She listened to their talk of sacrifice, cutting various trees with three diagnol marks. And paused when she heard the sounds of the others signing along to her tune. "Eheh, Aren't you scared? Well, that's just fine! ~"

It occured to her later that the rabbit, Brandy was it? advised them not to mark the trees. But it was a little more than five trees too late for that. "Hmph, well that plan apparently isn't going to work. Sorry Jasper. But I thought it was a good plan." She shrugged and then tossed the rock ahead of her, as far as she could, which was a pretty good distance. It was of no use to her, but if they needed it, it was right up ahead. Instead of hearing a faint thump against a tree or the ground- or nothing at all for that matter, she heard the screech and hiss of something that must've gotten hit. "Hehe, I have good aim."

The thing that ran past was quick, but Ace caught sight of its form, only to realize it was just a cat with rather large fangs.

Something in the dark

"That was all? Sheesh, that wasn't so scary." Ace laughed lightly. Just as the cat appeared, it disappeared into the darkness. This was also around the time Lesley decided to offer her a trident. Well Brandy's advi e went out the window.

"Sweeeet!"

Before she could pick it up, Lesley squealed and ran off. She picked up the trident and looked back, seeing nothing there. "Relax Lesley. There's nothing there...?" An eerie feeling settled in her and she narrowed her eyes, looking around. "Maybe there is something here~" She whistled and it echoed out. The trident was still tight in her hand and she tapped one of the trees with it before she began to make three incisions like before.

From the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw red eyes. But when she turned away, they were gone. "This place is freaky." Ace slowed her steps, being closer to the group, although still ahead. The spooky songs would be enough to get her a tad jumpy so she quit on those too. "So, nothing too scary around here... Just some trees." Seeing Harper hit Inadi on accident, she giggled lightly. "Calm down you two, we can't turn on each other at a time like this." She teased, and walked a few paces ahead when everyone else paused.

When they were moving again, Ace followed poking at near by trees. "Hehe, thanks by the way Lesley." Ace admired the weapon in hand and pursued to poke at the creepy trees. It felt as if something was following them. But she saw nothing move, so she continued venturing forwad. The rabbit guide seemed to know some information about the place so she glanced over to get his attention. "Um,  rabbit? Do you happen to know how long this walk will be, till we reach something other than trees?"

[Kimchi]

Glad to hear everyone approving of the marking plan, Ace happily accepted the stone that she offered. As they went along, the red head would stop every so often and put three diagonal scratches on the trees, but upon Brandy suggesting that it would be of no use, Ace chucked the rock a few feet away. Well that really sucked. The best they could do is to keep walking and home that they hit something that looks different.

Lesley must've not heard the memo because he came up to Ace a little after and gave her a trident before scuttling off for some unknown reason. His scream was enough to get her gripping Songbird's arm even tighter. "S-so, how was it the last time you were here?" She asked him as she tried to get her attention off of their whole situation.

Meanwhile, she started to feel like someone was following them. Huddling even closer to the white-haired guide, she shrunk herself against his arm like a little girl walking through a fake haunted house with her dad. Suddenly, she felt a cold breeze against the back of her neck, almost like a freezing hand swiped at her, but ran away. "AH!" Her surprised shout was shrill and her hands automatically grabbed the back of her neck. She scrunched her face at Hakuren who noticed her expression and explained it wasn't him. "Yeah right!" She pouted with a grouchy expression. Behind him, she noticed a tree with three gashes on it, but it was directly on the path. "Uh-umm guys? Tell me that tree was there before.." Asking this, she never remembered a tree being there, especially one with three gash marks.

As everyone was inspecting the mysterious tree, a rustle behind them caught her attention. Squinting a bit at the bush, she was about to ignore it when the same cat that ran past Ace popped out and bared its fangs at her. This was her last straw, her heart stopped for a millisecond before she ran farther up the path, getting stopped by a dozen hands that grabbed at her arms and legs, halting her from moving. Eyes closed, the let out an ear-shattering scream, tears beginning to well up. Little did she know, she just stumbled into an area full of dark vines and webs.

[MUG]

Inadi stared at Riley with a very annoyed stare. Did she really just use those puns in the same sentence. He let out a sigh and gave her a quick grin. “Are you proud of the sentence you just made? Cause I wouldn't be.” He joked with her as suddenly Harper began throwing himself around in fear and actually hit Leon square in the nose with his flashlight. Almost purely out of reaction, Inadi pointed his spear out to where Harper was staring and began looking around the group to see exactly what was going on. Harper wasn't one to over react or imagine things for as long as Inadi had known him. When there was reason for him to freak out, it meant something was close by.

As the guides began instructing the group as to what they should be doing in the forest, remaining in motion and refraining from marking the trees with the stones Jasper had picked up, Inadi felt a strange feeling of being watched. He couldn't see it or pinpoint where it was coming from, but there almost felt like some kind of movement going on constantly around him and the rest of the group. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, but this felt very different. Like a moth stuck in a web, just waiting for the spider to come and finish the job. The man hate feeling so helpless that there was nothing he could do but hold his weapon out in preparation for some kind of an attack.

A quick screech made Inadi jump and point his spear out again towards the sound. Apparently this time it was Ace showing that maybe that baseball cap wasn't just for show, as she seemed to nail a cat from a pretty good distance and in the dark too. Inadi relaxed himself and rested the spear on his shoulder as he walked up next to her and pretended to strain his eyes to get a better look at the cat. He tried to keep his smile off his face and while he thought he did well enough, a small smirk did show up on it. “Not a bad throw. Not center fielder material but I think you'd make a good defender at third in my opinion.” He joked with her as he gave her a quick pat on the back as he continued walking with the rest of the group.

Again, she was always being so happy and when the trident dropped in front of her he looked back and gave a bit of a nervous look at her. “And here I thought just giving you the fire spells was a dangerous suggestion. Now all of a sudden you have that thing,” He pointed to the trident with a chuckle. Holding out his own weapon, a similar build to the trident, Inadi smiled and pointed at his spear. “They aren't that easy to get a grip on. I'm still working on getting this thing to work well.” He told her as he tried catch back up with some of the others he had been walking with prior.

As Hakuren began suggesting there was a playful spirit with them, Inadi felt an even greater pain in his stomach then before. While others reacted harshly to Haku's joking manner, the frame wearing boy didn't even seem to acknowledge it. He was focused on the concept of whatever it was that seemed to be following them. Lesley began jumping out of fear as was Jasper suddenly. This thing was becoming more bold and actually coming into contact with members of the group. It was only a matter of time until something bad happened that the group would not be prepared for.

Just as he thought that, it seemed that Jasper had seen enough of the forest and began running up past the rest of the group. Without even giving it a second thought, Inadi chased after her and began catching up with the girl. She had surprising speed when she was scared, a trait that considering all she had been through had probably come in handy after a while. However something suddenly halted her progress and she was caught up in something in the forest. Inadi saw her fighting against the vines and webs that had caught her and began looking at places he could cut through to set her free. The scream she let out didn't even register in his ear as he got to work and began cutting with the new sharpened edge of his spear. He mentally praised himself for the fact that he had spent all those nights fixing the weapon, otherwise he would have had to rip the vines with his bare hands.

Finally getting a last good cut he dropped his spear and quickly wrapped his arms around Jasper and pulled her out of the tangled mess. Yet with Jasper struggling the way she was, the thrashing forced Inadi to pull a little harder and the two ended up on the ground with her on top of him, both staring up at the sky. The boy banged his head on a root that just so happened to be shooting out from the ground as he let out a small groan. Waiting until Jasper finally relaxed and stopped squirming, he let her go and looked at her from over her shoulder. His eyes were still a little dazed from the sudden impact with the ground, but he could at least make out the white face of the healer he had helped out. “I know it's scary out here Jasper, but you have to stay calm. Next time it may not just be vines that catch you. And I may not be fast enough to follow you,” He told her as he let his arms rest on the ground and he let out a groan as he rubbed the back of his head. “I can only help so many people at once here.” He told her as he suddenly realized the whole situation the two were in.

Here she was, laying on top of him, in a dark forest and with their friends more than likely still able to see them. Quickly, but not with much force so as not to give the poor girl whiplash, Inadi picked her up from underneath her and set her on the ground next to him. He quickly shot up off the ground and picked up his spear that was laying nearby. He looked back at Jasper and tried his best to turn his head so she nor anyone else could see his blush on his face. Inadi began looking ahead on the path to see what else was there. Seemed like more vines and barriers had grown further down. Now they were getting into the thick of the forest. A place perfect for an ambush. A nervous sweat began building on the boy's brow, hoping he was wrong about what he thought was coming.

[Crescendo]

Brandy’s ears twitched as a soft humming echoed the song that the humans had been singing, a creepy tune that made a shiver run down his spine as he looked around, only to realize the sound was emanating from Leila. She was one of the humans that he didn’t mind too much- rather quiet and calm, and much less screechy and easily panicked as most of the others were. Still, humans were humans, he supposed. The only ones who could bother singing creepy songs in the dark woods where creatures that could kill them all with a swipe lurked unseen.

Meanwhile, Martini had returned to clinging to Lesley, her only form of defense having been taken to mark trees with. Perhaps it had been a bad idea for her to come along after all- What was she going to when they finally faced the witches? Blow bubbles at them?

One of the trees that Ace marked had let out a rather angry sounding creak, and the mermaid only meeped and shrank back further. Perhaps they should have listened to Brandy and Song and left the trees alone after all. Brandy certainly seemed to think so, letting out a drawn out sigh as Ace scratched lines on more trees.

“If the trees start attacking, darling, you’re going to have to fight for us both,” Martini whispered nervously.

As the group continued on, it became rather obvious to the guides that something was going on. Brandy felt various taps on his shoulders only to turn around to face nothing but the usual gnarled trees, while Marti could swear that something was trying to pop her bubble that she was floating on.

"Um, rabbit? Do you happen to know how long this walk will be, till we reach something other than trees?"

“At this rate, we’ll be walking forever.” Brandy sighed, frowning up at the trees. “Maybe you should stop marking them, you’re only making the trees angry and less willing to let us out. Perhaps an apology is in order as well, girl.”

A loud shriek pierced the air, causing both Brandy and Martini to jump as Jasper shot past, only to run headfirst into a tangle of vines and spiderwebs. Luckily Inadi came to her rescue which seemed to tick off a certain pink haired human who had to be held back by Martini while Brandy moved over to Songbird, a worried frown marring his face.
“I don’t suppose you’ll know a path around all of this, Song?” He eyes the thickening brambles and vines in their path. It would be all too easy for someone to get tangled up and become easy prey. “Could we possibly ask the trees for help? Not that they’d be very willing after…” He gave a disgruntled glance towards Ace.

[Anonymous]

"Relax Lesley. There's nothing there." Ace said after happily accepting the trident he had competitively put forth. "Hehe, thanks by the way."

Lesley was already back with the Mermaid, the two gripping securely onto one another as if the branches were ready to tear them apart at any second.

“If the trees start attacking, darling, you’re going to have to fight for us both," Martini said in a hushed manner like the trees were listening in on their comments.

"Don't worry baby gurl, I got chu (｡･ω･｡)" he responded, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze as they proceeded to wander deeper and deeper into the woods. But something was even more prominent than before. The gut sensation that someone or something was trailing after them was noticeably stronger this time around. Here and there, he could have sworn that he felt a being-like friction rushing over his shoulder. Not minding it any panic the first time it happened, it was starting to really give him the creeps after he felt it thrice more. "Martini, are you touching my shoulder?" he asked her, but she just shook her head. "Ok, just making sure you aren't playing games with me because I keep feeling someone faintly tapping it (╹д╹;)." If it wasn't Martini and all the others weren't near enough to do that, then it could only mean that someone from the forest was doing it.

Jasper reacted as if she were feeling the same touches too. "Uh-umm guys? Tell me that tree was there before.."

Rotating on his heels with much hesitation, he recognized that it wasn't there before since they had just recently crossed that area. "Holy cow Martini, that tree is following us (*/⌓＼*)," he murmured, his heart skipping a couple of beats as an eerie tension settled over him. While everyone's attention was on the tree, a sudden cry for help rang out from behind them. All heads swiveled swiftly around to see a pale girl running towards the darkness. For a second there, he almost freaked out and thought it was 'The White Lady', but Inadi raced into action after the ghost, which was supposedly a panic stricken Jasper.

Once everyone caught up, their flashlights shone farther ahead and was able to give Lesley a full view of Jasper comfortably seated atop Inadi. Immediately acting up on instinct, he let out an offended gasp and was ready to break into an offensive run, but Martini caught him by the arms just in time to hold him back as he tried to forcefully claw his way towards her. "Let me at her! MEOWMEOWNEEOWWW!! HISS!(ノ=^ಠ益ಠ^=)ノ"His rather long nails were already in scratching position to deal some damage and he was flailing the "weapons" in front of him while the worried mermaid guide struggled to keep him in check.

Calming down a bit after he watched Inadi take her off of him and hurriedly gathered his spear, he saw this as a sign that Inadi wasn't into Jasper and purely did that just to save her from some inanimate trap that she stupidly charged into. Since he was in such a rush to get her off, he was most likely not enjoying the current position they had been in which brought comfort to the hopeful Lesley. Too bad he didn't notice the framed man's beet red face which was turned away, not allowing him to see Inadi's true response.

Brandy:“Could we possibly ask the trees for help? Not that they’d be very willing after…”

Irritation was getting the best of him and they'd been walking in this scary forestry for sometime now. Although asking trees for directions sounded pretty dumb if he thought about it in earthly knowledge, it did make sense here in Nowhere. Turning around to the tree that had been tailgating them earlier, he recalled that it was probably the same one that had been behind Ace. The cuts were clean from when she began to use the trident instead of the sharp rock. Biting his nails nervously, he still dragged Martini along with him just in case. Who knew if this tree feared bubbles or not? Exactly, nobody knows.

Giving Martini a reluctant frown, she returned his expression with an encouraging one so he carried on and knocked lightly on the tree's trunk. To his surprise, a pair of red eyes which looked oddly familiar flashed open, but they didn't looked very pleased to see Lesley's face. In fact, it looked like the tree was furrowing its brows at him.

"Uhm, sorry about scratching you earlier... sir. We were just wondering if you knew where the witches hide out is?" he inquired, trying hard to sound as respectful and formal as he possibly could. The tree kept staring at him with a stern look and Lesley pushed his bottom lip out in a failed attempt to make a puppy face. The tree just wasn't having it. Remembering the most naturally puppy-faced member of the group, he turned around to grab Leila and plopped her in front of the elderly timber.

[Orpheus]

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! Most especially not some celerydang treeant or ghost!“GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!” He jumped up and roared. The ethereal disturbances stopped soon after.

"S-so, how was it the last time you were here?"

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.

"Let me at her! MEOWMEOWNEEOWWW!! HISS!(ノ=^ಠ益ಠ^=)ノ"

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 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’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 Ancients, after all. He just didn’t bother to know which ancients they were talking about.

“Everyone, I think we’re better off navigating through 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.

[Kimchi]

Wildly wriggling and squirming, it seemed like the more effort she put into freeing herself, the tighter the grip of the hands had on her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she continued to thrash like an animal being brought to slaughter. Though she couldn't see a thing, her imagination came up with the most horrid of scenes to scare her even more. Eventually it felt as if the hold the forest had on her was giving way and she began to shake with even more determination. By the time the hands finally let go, she was bawling and out of breath. Then there was a groan.

She lay as still as she could, hiccupping from how terrified she had been and her inhales and exhales were extremely jagged as she fought to regain a balanced breathing from how hard she had cried. Jasper seriously thought she was going to die and get dragged away into the dark unknown of the ancient forest. Beneath her, she could feel the quickened rising and falling of someones chest and stomach.

“I know it's scary out here Jasper, but you have to stay calm. Next time it may not just be vines that catch you. And I may not be fast enough to follow you. I can only help so many people at once here.”

Recognizing the voice almost straight away, she didn't have the correct state of mind to feel embarrassed. Instead, she turned over on top of him and wrapped the framed face man in a thankful embrace. Burying her face into his chest, she unknowingly used his shirt to wipe the remaining tears on her face. He then scooped her up with much haste and got her back up on two feet before standing up and approaching the oncoming group.

Embarrassment truly hit her when their flashlights shone upon the many tangles of vines and webs that she had rammed into all on her own. It made her feel really dumb and she got everyone all worried for no good reason.

“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…”

Lesley complied with the suggested task and went up to the tree that had been following them for the past half an hour and asked. The tree looked quite unresponsive so Lesley hurried back to the group only to snatch Leila as a sacrifice?

“Everyone, I think we’re better off navigating through 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!”

Since the tree didn't look like it would give in anytime soon and they soon found out that it didn't even have a mouth, Lesley's plan was bound to fail and the group trekked on into the heavily cluttered path. This time she stuck close to Inadi, now feeling a little more attached to him since he had saved her earlier. Every little vine and twig that touched her made her twitch as she'd check her arms and legs where it had made contact just to make sure she was alright.

[John]

"What was it like hugging a dragon?"

“Eh-?”

Leila turned around at the question, to see Riley and placing a hand on her shoulder, gleaming.

"Because seeing you rush up to it was just amazing."

...amazing?

Leila raised her eyebrows, half in surprise and half in confusion, at the notion. It was quite a while since the last time anyone considered anything she did worthy of being describe as such. In fact, it was a scenario that never even crossed her mind to try imagining.

And such she lacked a fitting response to such a statement.

”Ah, um...thank you? I...um...”

And there she trailed off, not sure what to fill into the conversation next. Should she go ahead with some more thanks? Return compliments, as people sometimes do? Should she describe her encounter with the dragon - what if Riley wasn’t actually intending to ask about it in the first place? Should she mention how the dragon scales were to the touch? Or how dragon breath smelt like a mixture of charcoal, rust, and coconut? Should...

...Reminder to self: never start a sentence before you have an idea of how you are going to finish it.

Leila eventually gave up trying, and simply allowed her voice to trail off as she forced a rather apologetic smile, saying nothing.

* * * *

The people in the group started talking again, and so Leila saw no reason to resume the humming.

Later in their trek through the woods, Leila was distracted by the sudden burst of action, a figure of white rushing past them, through the group, and into the dark woods in front of them only to end up stranded in a tangled mess of vines and twigs. Leila paused as Inadi was observed to have rushed forward subsequently, apparently intending to rescue Jasper.

Before she saw what became of Inadi as he rushed into the depths of the woods, however, Leila’s attention was again captured by something else.

She turned around sharply to identify that ‘something’, only to see the members of the backmost part of the group equally confused.

Then what was brushing against the back of her neck?

She frowned a bit, turned back around, and straightened her collar and tidied her hair, thinking that it was possibly-

-what was it?

The same tickle on the same place. It pretty well wasn’t her own hair or hands because she felt it on her hands too. What was i-

-...Lesley?

Leila felt her weight being shifted away from the feet and to where the pair of large hands were now wrapped around her upper arms. Her feet were nearly swept clean off the ground when Lesley, in an act that was less dragging her along and more lifting her up and dropping her off somewhere else, swung her around himself and eventually plopped her back onto the ground somewhere she could only assume to be somewhere at the back of the group.

As the pink-haired man stood behind her in anticipation, Leila recovered from her stagger and straightened up her stance to see clearly what stood in front of her.

She found her face inches away from a gleaming circle of blood-red between two pieces of wooden eyelids.

Leila gasped in shock and instinctively shot backwards in unsteady steps, only to stumble right back into Lesley, who she managed to almost knock over, despite the difference in their height. The impact, however, propelled her back forward, into the trunk of the gnarling tree.

umph.

The bark was rough, thick, cracked and layered in places, where various other forms of more primitive plant and fungi life made their residence. It was moist and cool to the touch. Leila could feel some bits of moss scraped off and accumulated at the tips of her fingernails, as part of the result of her failed attempt to prevent her face and body from slamming into the tree. Her left index finger came dangerously close to poking the tree in the eye. She tucked her head down as a last resort and saved herself from ending up with a painful nose and a mouthful of bark. and that probably resulting in her having to take some time plucking leaves and pieces of moss out of her hair.

Her feet found no firm hold among the slippery, intertwined roots on the floor the forest, and she ended up falling over, plopping backwards into the ground, ending in a sitting position at Lesley’s feet as she looked upwards again to see the still glaring red eye of the living tree. With her hands on the ground for support behind her and out of her sight, only moments later did Leila noticed something stuck between her fingers that was a segment of a snapped twig.

[Fox of Spades]

It felt like they were being followed, and occasionally Harper would spin around and shine his flashlight down the dirt road. There was nothing behind them except an unnerving tree, so they trudged forward only to hear a loud hissing sound. Something pounced out of the bushes and the boy staggered back as a blur of white flashed by him. For a moment, he thought it had been a ghost. His mind went into overdrive, only to realize moments later that it had been Jasper who had rushed past him and not some cursed spirit.

No, no, no, they couldn't split up. Not in a place like this. If one of them were to go missing, it'd be almost impossible to regroup.

Thankfully, Inadi rushed towards the girl's rescue and eventually Avian went off to help. As soon as they had returned Harper approached the both of them and placed a hand on both their shoulders. "Jasper, Inadi, are you guys okay?" He waited for an answer, "we'll need to stay in a group, alright? Getting separated here would be very bad news." He gave the girl a comforting smile then tapped Inadi one the back.

This forest was messing with them and everyone felt jittery, even Hakuren had felt a chill rush down his spine, though he would rather die than admit that. "Bear," he gave Jasper a smile. "Remember, those who rush off in horror movies always get eaten first."

Harper sighed, "that's why we're sticking together, safety in numbers."

While Harper had pushed himself towards the front of the group, Riley lingered near the back. The girl watched as Lesley and Martini clung to each other like a pack of sardines and slowly made their way behind them, "don't worry, we're all together." However, instead of getting a response, Lesley mentioned a tree behind them and sure enough the girl turned around to see a tree, smack dab in the middle of the trail.

"Uh, that wasn't there before." She muttered before Brandy suggested they apologize. Well, that sounded easy enough. In fact, it sounded normal. To be honest, she thought he would suggest they make a sacrifice to the tree gods or something. "Go on Lesley," she nudged him forward flashing a grin and giving the pink-haired man two energetic thumbs ups.

Lesley began to apologize, only to plop Leila down in front of the tree halfway through.

Riley arched an eyebrow wondering what the dragon tamer would do next. The girl fell back, snapping one of the trees' branches in the process. The others had already made their way towards the path, but the tree wasn't just going to let them leave now.

Suddenly, it grew a mouth. A wooden scowl appearing on its bark. "What are you staring at you good for nothing whippersnapper! Just because I'm old doesn't mean you can disrespect me and vandalize me!" His eyes shone an even darker red as he shook his branches in anger.

"Whoa Leila," Riley reached out to grab the girl by the hand. "You got it to talk, good job!"

"SHUT UP!" The tree eyed the redhead with distaste before straight at the pink haired man. "AND YOU, WHAT THE HELL KIND OF APOLOGY IS THAT?" He jabbed one of his branches into Lesley's chest and continued to yell all sorts of profanities. "Bubble gum head!" The tree swiped another branch at the man's head, messing up his fabulous pink locks. His eyes landed on Martini and Ace. "What are you looking at? SUSHI! FLAME HEAD!" He began spitting what looked like moss at them, obviously very, very upset.

At the sound of the new voice, Harper and the others who were up ahead turned around.

"So you're looking for the witch, aye? Answer me when I'm talking to you pinky!" His eyes fell on the trident in Ace's hands and they could have sworn smoke came shooting right out of his new found nostrils. "Stone of sacrifice? What do you even want with those creeps?" The tree shuddered. "They turned one of my closest friends into moss juice, it wasn't a pretty process. So witches, yeah?"

Riley bobbed her head up and down. "That's right."

"Well, do you want a piece of advice?" The tree grinned before motioning for the humans to come closer. "Lean in, that's right, this is super secret advice, y'know." As soon as they were close enough the tree cackled and in his loudest voice declared. "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE NUMSKULLS."

Riley flinched at the intensity of his voice. "Aren't you a jerk? Guys, maybe we should just get off oldie's lawn."

"Oi, oi! Don't you dare walk away from me! I'm just telling you the truth." Riley was already stomping off towards the blocked path Jasper and a few of the others had decided to take.

"Even the midnight man, the greatest witch hunter alive eventually died here!" The tree snickered. "Good luck, hoomans."

The tree's eyes vanished and so did his mouth. There was a flash of lightning and suddenly it began to pour buckets. "Snap," Riley lit a fire in the palm of her hands planning to burn through the vines that were blocking the way. "Mind helping me out Ace?" Songbird muttered something about not burning the path and she dropped her hands to her side. "Oh, I was planning as using it as a lamp...that's all."

Harper unsheathed his sword and began hacking away at the vines. The blocked path was darker but they had two fire mages to help light the way and they managed. Eventually it led them to another part of the forest. There were less trees but more stones now and in the distance one could see the vague outline of a mansion.

Lightning tore through the sky and rain thundered down even harder. The Lost souls were cold and tired.

Harper turned to look at them, some of the others were practically dragging their feet behind them now. He focused on the house in the distance, maybe a short break would be a good idea. It wouldn't be any use if they fought the witches in this condition. "Maybe we can rest there for a little while? We're all tired and fighting the witches in this condition won't do us any good." He gave the others a hesitant smile. "What do you guys say? We can settle our nerves, dry ourselves off and maybe fill up our stomachs too."

[AkiBlue]

“Not a bad throw. Not center fielder material but I think you'd make a good defender at third in my opinion.”

Ace laughed, thinking about trying it again to prove him wrong, but she let the thought go only moments later. She watched the chain events from Jasper freaking out to Lesley...well, she didn't exactly know what Lesley was doing. Seeing Jasper panic and get entangled by the branches made her step forward. The trident was fairly sharp, so it could help out. But Inadi had rushed to her aid and they ended up having one of those 'awkward moments' Jasper seemed to get herself into with the guys. This time, there just wasn't a kiss at the end of this moment. Instead, it ended with the two being well, awkward. Hence why it was an 'awkward moment'. "How cute." Ace teased lightly and then smirked. "It seems like Jasper has a few knights in shining armor for her." But when Lesley hooded and scratched out, even she couldn't figure out the meaning for that.

Ace was going to continue creating masks on the trees until it seemed that finally, they had all come to an agreement on her stopping. "Hey, I was given stuff to use so I thought it was okay..." She spoke defensively as the rabbit frowned at her. "Apologize to the trees?" She looked around, noticing the one with her markings on them and...red eyes. "Oh good, I'm not crazy. I did see red eyed trees before."

"Uhm, sorry about scratching you earlier... sir. We were just wondering if you knew where the witches hide out is?"

Well, Lesley apologized for her. Ace was going to apologize but, the pink haired person beat her to the catch. That seemed fair enough. At least there was an apology, right?

“Hey redhead, mind stepping back from the trees? I don’t think they’d like to see you right now."

Ace whistled lightly and casually stepped back. "Whoops...?" She was only trying to help. But obviously that wasn't working in her favor. "Well..." She handed the mermaid back her trident, and took to standing back as she was told. Ace stood with her hands behind her back and looked around the forest, staying quiet and out of the way. No need to get them into more trouble, right? And she kind of wanted to see if that cat was around.

Out of nowhere, the tree began yelling at them. Even Ace jumped at the unexpected yelling. She listened to the grumpy tree, and every time it glared at her, she put her hands up in surrender, showing that she returned the trident. "Chill out tree, I'm not going to do it again." Ace didn't think being called flame head was much of an insult, so she merely shrugged it off. "I agree with Riley. Let’s get out of here before he starts spewing more moss..."

“Everyone, I think we’re better off navigating through 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!”

"I wasn't going to." Ace mumbled towards the burning things down comment. She wasn't insane. Why would she start a forest fire abs kill everything? That would have been a dumb idea. Ace followed the guides through the blocked paths. It was a treacherous feat if one wasn't careful. Twice had the tree branches smacked her, once on her arm, leaving a red mark and another on her rear. The second caused a more noticeable 'ow', though it was out of surprise and not really pain- not saying it didn't hurt. Was the dose to be karma because a tree was upset? She merely huffed, as she had a difficult time getting through the branches without tearing them apart. To make matters worse, it started to rain.

Luckily, Harper became her saving grace and cut through the branches. She followed behind him until they were in a clear enough area to see a house. As Harper suggested going to the random house in the middle of the forest, Ace laughed. "Random house in the middle of the dark forest? That doesn't sound very off putting at all. Tch, but I'm not staying in the rain so, might as well!" So, without further questioning she walked toward the house. She could only imagine what was in the house. It even made her pause for a second. She may have been slightly crazy, overly optimistic, and maybe a little reckless, but she wasn't that dense.

"Hmm, dark creepy house... Now, I'm not so sure. Up close, it's kind of creepy. Just a tad. . ." She crossed her arms and eyed the house, waiting for everyone else to catch up. She wasn't about to run in by herself and possibly get killed. She was still young. She had a life to live still.

[MUG]

Inadi wasn't sure what was causing him to be more confused after he stood up from the position he and Jasper were in just a few moments prior. The fact that Jasper had hugged him so tightly on the ground or how Lesley seemed to approach them after he saw what they were doing. To be honest he was more intimidated than anything simply because Les seemed to be trying to rip into something there for a moment. His memory immediately shot back to the mushroom man he had fought back in Sol as they made their way to the cave to find the baby dragon. He brushed it aside however. Sure it was intimidating, but Inadi just assumed it was because Lesley was prepared to fight whatever may have grabbed Jasper. The two seemed to be getting along quite well back when they were conversing with the dragon as the two seemed to talk for a good while back there. He smiled and gave Lesley a salute in thanks as Harper gave him a pat on the back.

Turning to the boy he returned the gesture with a quick and friendly smack to the chest. “No problem there captain. Especially with how thick the rest of the forest is coming up,” Inadi told him as he pointed up towards the rest of the path. “It could take us a while to navigate through this whole shrub infested wood. Might have been better off taking the long way round if we could.” Inadi told him as he looked at the end of his spear and noticed some of the vines he had cut down were still on it. He began picking them off as the rest of the group began to trudge forward. Haku naturally threw out some stupid quip towards Jasper that he didn't appreciate, but he decided to leave it be.

Following Harper and the rest of the group, he noticed that Martini and Lesley seemed to be almost attached at the hip through the brush. Granted it was a scary place but there was no need to over do it. The more they got scared of what wasn't around them, the longer the trudge was going to be. And the same went for Jasper who seemed to be following him like a kindergartner follows her classmates on a field trip. She was so jumpy at all the little twigs and leaves that were around Inadi couldn't help but give a quick chuckle. Turning his head towards her while keeping up with the group, he gave her a smile to try and brighten her spirits. “Come now Jasper, it's just some twigs and leaves. Nothing to get to antsy over. But if you need to I can carry you piggy back style through the thick part if that will make it any better,” He joked as he turned his head further back towards where Lesley was in relation to the group. “I know Lesley wouldn't mind getting carried again. Seems like something you'd enjoy considering our last trek up that mountain a few days ago.” He said in a bit of a louder voice as he smiled back at him.

Turning his eyes back to Jasper he gave her a quick look of confidence and nodded at her. “As long as you're nearby we won't let anything happen to you. I promise I'll do whatever I can to help.” The framed man said as he continued forward, now throwing his spear out just a bit further ahead now so that the vines overhead wouldn't spook the albino girl behind him or the resident pink-haired wonder that was Lesley as well.

After a few more steps Riley had mentioned that there was now a new tree right in the middle of the trail behind them. Inadi began getting worried again as he gripped his spear a little tighter and looked around him. He remembered people mentioning red eyes in the woods earlier in the trek and now was beginning to think this was some kind of trap someone was setting. As Brandy began suggesting that they apologize to the trees Inadi rolled his eyes and sighed. These were trees, not some kind of creature that could be spoken to. Sure there were dragons, he'd give them that, but talking trees....

Inadi quickly showed a scowl of frustration, yet also there was a sign of mental defeat as the trees suddenly began to talk to them and had a voice similar to the old folks that lived in the apartment next door to him. Talking about vandalizing it and disrespecting it for snapping a branch that Leila had stepped on earlier. Silently wishing he could get an apology from the trees for leaving a root exposed that left him wondering how big the welt on the back of his head was going to grow, he decided against it as the tree seemed to get much more pissed off than it was already. Yep, now it was definitely like his old neighbors back home.

When the trees began giving their 'advice' for the witches, that was when Inadi decided this was the best time to simply forget that these things had even decided to make themselves seen. Following Riley and Jasper, Inadi threw his spear over his shoulders and gave a quick wave to those who were still behind him. “If you guys want to knew where we will be, just head up the trail. Hopefully those old petrified pieces of book shelves don't keep you too long.” He yelled back with a laugh as he picked up his speed to catch up with the others.

Inadi decided to let Harper handle the vines for the most part since he had cut Jasper out earlier, and besides his weapon wasn't really meant for the whole clearly a path thing, even with the new sharpened edge. The hook would maybe get caught in a branch and a whole new set of old crones made of wood would start yelling at them again. They eventually found their way out in front of a mansion that looked very.....welcoming he supposed. A lot more welcoming than the rest of the forest, though that wasn't saying much. Inadi's sleeveless arm was beginning to show signs of exposure as the color began shifting to a blueish tint. He was getting cold and he was getting cold quick because of the rain.

Walking now with Ace up to the front of the house he seemed to agree with each word she exclaimed about it. Dark. Creepy. Maybe even a bit haunted by the look of it. In his mind he already knew, sleep would not come easy in this place. Turning towards Ace he gave her a quick shrug. “Oh well, any port in a storm I suppose. Better just go in and pick the least dusty part of the place first if you can,” Inadi said as he looked back towards Lesley and Martini. “Hopefully it isn't too dull of a place for you two. Personally it seems a bit homely at first, but I'm sure inside you two will do just fine,” He told them with a laugh as he started his next sentence directed to the group as a hull, though he didn't sell it that way as he kept staring towards the direction of the two he had just referenced. “Again, it's better that we stick together so we should probably stay as close as possible if we can.” He announced as he began noticing Lesley walking a little bit faster towards him. A nervous face and blush came upon him as he began dreading the next move by Lesley.

[Anonymous]

Upon placing her before the glaring tree, the girl stumbled back into him, but the collision only served to propel her forward again as he was sent wobbling a couple steps. Once he regained his balance, he was surprised to find Leila falling down towards him and she ended up landing with a light thud on his feet. Hooking his arms underneath her armpits, he hauled her back up to an upright position before noticing what was in her hands. 'Ugh! That better not be from the tree.'

Grumpy Pants: "What are you staring at you good for nothing whippersnapper! Just because I'm old doesn't mean you can disrespect me and vandalize me!" The tree barked at them with an elderly voice, whilst shaking its branches at them in anger.

Riley congratulated Leila's success with drawing a reaction from the grump, but the old man yelled at her to shut her trap before confronting him about his shortened sorry. The angered seniority even had a large branch firmly poke him in the chest which made him lose his balance a little. He stood there with an annoyed and shocked expression.

"Bubble gum head!" the senile tree continued his rant then reached out and screwed up his perfect hair-do. Lesley inhaled a sharp gasp, his mouth agape as he fixed his tangled hair and de-mossed it. "Oh no you didn't!" he muttered with a mean pout plastered to his lips.

Grouchy Tree: "So you're looking for the witch, aye? Answer me when I'm talking to you pinky!"

"Uh yeah... duhhh. Why would we want to stand here and get beat on by some grouchy old man for any other reason?" he said the last part through gritted teeth and at a much quieter tone. The tree then beckoned them to come in a little closer and allowed for a few seconds of anticipation before blaring into their ears, "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE NUMSKULLS."

Lesley staggered back, yanking at his earlobes to regain his hearing.

Riley: "Aren't you a jerk? Guys, maybe we should just get off oldie's lawn."

Ace: "I agree with Riley. Let’s get out of here before he starts spewing more moss..."

The pink-haired male was already stomping towards the jumble of vines where part of the group had already begun to get a head start on.

Evil Tree: "Even the midnight man, the greatest witch hunter alive eventually died here! Good luck, hoomans."

He didn't even turn around to acknowledge the old stump. All he saw was a flash of light ahead of him as the thing departed and left them with a down pour of ice cold rain. "Well this is just great!" he whined, throwing two hands in the air, his pink locks could no longer bounce since they were eagerly soaking up the water descending from the sky above. Luckily, he was trailing somewhere behind the group so the path he was taking had already been pre-cleared by Harper before he got onto it making his walk a whole lot easier.

Inadi: “Come now Jasper, it's just some twigs and leaves. Nothing to get to antsy over. But if you need to I can carry you piggy back style through the thick part if that will make it any better.”

The androgynous man scrunched up his nose, but right now wasn't the best time to attack Jasper. Terrain conditions wouldn't even allow him to break into a run, it would probably cause his feet to sink ankle deep instead.

Inadi: I know Lesley wouldn't mind getting carried again. Seems like something you'd enjoy considering our last trek up that mountain a few days ago."

'He's teasing me now isn't he? Well we'll find out who's the real tease pretty soon' he thought with a devilish grin, streaks of white from the lighting flashed his insidious smirk into full view for a mere haunting second before disappearing. He made sure Inadi saw that as a response to the frame-faced man's comment and taunting smile.

As they trudged along in the miserable weather conditions, even the ground was starting to become muddy and almost impossible to travel on. Holding Martini's hand tightly, the people at the front had spotted a rest stop it seemed since they suggested that they all take a break.

Harper: "Maybe we can rest there for a little while? We're all tired and fighting the witches in this condition won't do us any good. What do you guys say? We can settle our nerves, dry ourselves off and maybe fill up our stomachs too."

It took a few more minutes till they finally made it into the clearing that surrounded the mansion. It was the most picturesque haunted house ever. Right out of Scooby-Doo. It was black in color, looked like it could collapse on itself at any given moment. The sky was bawling above them and lighting and thunder was crackling behind their view of the creaky overnight stay.

Ace: "Hmm, dark creepy house... Now, I'm not so sure. Up close, it's kind of creepy. Just a tad. . ."

"Just a tad? It looks like it could swallow us whole. Like that animated Halloween movie. What was it called again?" He scratched his chin, "Oh yeah. Monster House. Hopefully it doesn't have a dead woman buried in the basement..." Chills crawled up his spine as the plot of the story gave him the creeps.

Inadi: “Hopefully it isn't too dull of a place for you two. Personally it seems a bit homely at first, but I'm sure inside you two will do just fine.”

Lesley unclasped Martini's hand and leaned in close to her ear, "Take care of the ladies will you hun? It's time for me to tame this boy. (｡･｀ω´･｡)ψ" He then proceeded to walk towards his target, posture was straight, hips swaying from side to side, pink, soaking locks waving in tune to his rotating waist.

Inadi: “Again, it's better that we stick together so we should probably stay as close as possible if we can.”

It seemed that he had caught the male's attention as his face noticeably flushed into a full tomato. Lesley paused in his gait and turned to the others, "I completely agree," he swung around and looked Inadi straight in the eyes and in a husky tone, he closed the final step between them "Like you said 'as close as possible if we ~can~.'" The last word in his sentence was said right into the hollows of Inadi's ear, enough so his hot breath warmed the boy's moistened neck.

The pink-haired tease then backed his head away and cocked his head to one side with a playful grin before interlocking his arm with Inadi's. "What do you say pumpkin? Don't you think we'd make great roommates for the night? I know a good way that we can both warm up. Funny thing is, we don't need to light a candle for what I had in mind. (-‿◦☀)" He suggested, but was not at all waiting for an answer as he lead the man towards the entrance to the mansion. Unlocking the door, it swung open with a light tap and creaked the entire way until it hit the wall.

What I had in mind for the mansion, but a dark colors instead of white

The entry hall was circular in shape and at its sides were lined with two grand staircases that met at the top to an upstairs. If they continued to walk forward, it led to another room, but Lesley couldn't quite make out what. He did notice a clutter of books at the opening though. The only light source he was using to figure out the details was the momentary flashes of light from outside which would cast an eerie glow to the entryway every now and then through the clear glass ceiling above. Lesley imagined that this place might've been rather fabulous at one point in time, until it was abandoned?

Continuing his way in with Inadi still in tow, a puddle was forming underneath them since they were all literally drenched from head to toe. Letting go of his victim for a few moments, he approached a short cabinet near the curve of the staircase and rummaged until he found what looked like a box of matches. But upon reading the the outside, he could only comprehend a picture of a beetle. There was also tons of jars inside the drawer with bugs in it. Tapping the glass jugs a bit, the bugs within lit up all sorts of colors and they increased in light every second. Lesley thought they were dead at first, but now these little critters were crawling around in side their enclosures, charging up fluorescence for them. "Look!" he ran towards Inadi and the others with a glass jar in hand.

[Crescendo]

SUPER DUPER COLLAB HELLA YEA



"Sushi!?"

Martini huffed at the gnarled tree. And to think it had the audacity to call them rude! What a hypocrite. She floated over to Leila as the group moved on, giving the girl a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

"Don't you worry about that ancient piece of wood, darling. Trees are known for being cranky after all, much like our very own grouchy bunny over there-"

"I heard that, Martini."

"Heehee, whoops~"

Rain had never bothered the mermaid much, but the sudden downpour was very much unwelcome. The leaf litter underfoot quickly became slippery, and the sudden decrease in visibilty had Martini worrying about floating too close to a branch and popping her bubble as she prodded at a branch that had gotten a little too close with her newly returned trident. The trees were doing a poor job of keeping out the rain, perhaps due to the fact that the news about their little group had already spread through the forest.





"Song, have you heard of the Midnight Man?"

Brandy carefully tread over a jumble of vines, following behind Harper who was slashing away a path towards the mansion in the distance. The bunny's hair and ears were plastered to his head while his robes had been soaked almost immediately after the rain started.

He extended a hand to help the item-hunter over a particularly slippery log, trying to remember exactly where he had heard of this witch hunter that the tree had mentioned.

Songbird tripped over his own feet just as he was about to climb over the log and he clung on to the hand Brandy had so graciously offered, cursing the rain, the grouchy tree, the humans and well... Practically everything. "Why can't they let- Huh?" The item hunter tipped his hat up with his free hand as they resumed walking. Water poured down in a stream. So that's why his head was so heavy...

If Brandy didn't seem so serious Song would have chosen this moment to giggle at how flat the bunny looked, but he chose to answer the question instead. "It's like old mosspants over there said, I think the Midnight Man was a hunter. A witch hunter, specifically. I've never met him though," He replied before wiping water off his cheek. "He disappeared long before I was created, I think?"

However, Songbird was distracted when the humans chose to go inside the mansion without so much as peering through the windows to see if something was inside. Dangers lurked in the shadows and the lot of them were like "wow a mansion, okay let's waltz in" after Lesley opened the doors. He felt the blood rush to his head and gripped Brandy's hand even tighter as if to restrain himself from throwing a fit.

Brandy gave Song's hand a reassuring squeeze before entering after a suspiciously giggly Martini who was mumbling something about ships and emanating heart shaped bubbles. Once they were inside, the rabbit let go of the white-haired nobody's hand to attempt to wring out his hair and clothes to the best of his abilities in a corner.

Martini, meanwhile, had floated over to observe the glowing jars that Lesley had found.

"I've never seen crawlies like these," she peered through the glass at the bugs, before lifting another one off the shelf and smiling in delight when it lit up with a soft pink glow. She twirled around, less creeped out by the murky surroundings now that she had someone else to focus her attention on.

Coming face to face with the tall white-haired hummon, she all but shoved the jar in her face.

"Look! Aren't they pretty? Do you think they'd look good on a dress?"



While Songbird busied himself with shaking the living spirit out of the poor bugs in his newly-acquired glow jar, Avian had walked up to the foot of the stairs. This mansion... It felt wrong for some reason, and when a place feels wrong for a soldier that's usually because something is wrong.

"Let's split up and scour the rooms. You can go alone or with a partner of your choice. Check for supplies and most importantly clues. Who knows, we may find a map leading to the Stone if we search hard enough," The royal dragon caught everyone's attention with his authoritative tone. Soon, Avian had equipped everyone with a glow jar and the bugs shone brightly enough to function as a source of light should the flashlights they all brought along stop working.

He waited patiently in case a human came up to ask him a question or ask for him to be company.