As Breaker became more familiar with the dark forest's sounds the strange noise he had heard off in the trees bothered him more. It did not fit with anything else he'd heard, and he sensed that the Fae had heard it as well. Ever since the strange scraping was heard her ears had been ever so slightly laid back. Josh had seen similar looks of caution adopted by the kitsunes that occupied Akashima.

"Over here, Milady." Josh said, striding quickly back to the water's edge and beckoning the Fae to join him, "my name is Joshua Cronen, by the way, but most folk in Corone call me Breaker." He waved his hands over the water and the ice floe that had served as his bridge to the shore became steam and twisted into a tall round table before freezing again. The table settled on the ground between the unlikely pair. "A surface for your reading," Josh offered with a sweep of his hand and a bow.

When heightened by close focus Breaker's senses were sharper than a wolf's, and the more he paid attention the more he heard from the darkness. There was movement in the trees, and in the underbrush a little further out. Something big was moving along the ground, still far enough away he could not tell what it was, but too close to his perceptive ears for silence. Whatever - or whomever - was moving through the trees had an aptitude for stealth, but there was only so much a climber could do to muffle the scrape and grind required to stay aloft.

Josh had drawn the Fae to the water's edge not for the sake of the ice table - he could have conjured that anywhere. He wanted to be close to the body of water in case he needed to defend against a sudden attack, and because Jake would be porting in to the same spot in a little less than an hour.

The scuffle of movement in the underbrush came closer, loud enough that the Fae's pointed ears might capture the echo. Josh leaned close to the blue-hued female and whispered.

"Do you have friends out in the forest?" For the sake of the lurkers, he hoped so. Although outwardly the warrior appeared calm, his mind was poised on a tightrope between stillness and action.