Fauns, Foxes, and Freerunners

[Leona Stevvains]

Leona Stevvains walked carefully through the trees of Concordia Forest. The prophet knew that one wrong step would be the difference in her making it out of the place unscathed, and her being mugged for her possessions. The Berevar Witch knew that even though the large environment had dropped crime rates since Ixian Knight occupation, that said crime still existed here. Those who managed to avoid the ever watchful eye of the IK were more than a force to be reckoned with.

With each step, the fallen leaves crunched underfoot. The birds sang mating calls to the opposite sex in hopes of attention by night’s fall. Leona’s eyes shifted overhead, cautious to make sure she was not being eyed for her goods. She clung the soccer ball under her left arm a little tighter, her right hand placed upon the deck of tarot cards beneath her cowl. If either of these things were taken from her, she knew she would become distraught.

She treaded carefully through the foliage, ungraceful snaps every time one foot lead another. She was almost to Akashima, almost to where the cards were guiding her. She could see the suns rays as they expanded out of the autumn terrain and into the open travel roads of Corone. She was so close to being out in the open again, so close to safety.

The crunch of another gave her movements pause, and the sound of someone sniffing the air caused her head to turn. Her eyes met with a brown animal fur, the rough shape of a human being, and a pair of the strangest horns she had ever seen.

“Is...is that a goat-man” Leona said with a crack in her voice. She looked down, her right hand growing warm from the faint blue aura emanating from the tarots. She had found another chosen one, but was it really this half-man, half-beast?

Before she could approach the creature, a quick blur whizzed past the form of Leona, and she very quickly realized her left arm was now completely at her side. Her ball had disappeared. She frantically turned left and right in an attempt to find the culprit, and only caught a tuft of emerald green hair as it rounded a large family of oaks.

“HEY!” Leona shouted and gave chase, “THAT’S MINE, GIVE IT BACK!”

(Closed to Fox and Leaf)

[Leaf]

An idle stroll.

That was all it had been.

One, long, beautiful idle stroll, through the woods of Concordia forest. Leaves of varying green hues, from emerald to lime to forest to mantis, rebounded the light around their company. When seen through Cookie's eyes the shades of the colours simply became more vivid, their differences vibrant and pungent.

"Oh my dears," Leaf murmured as he gazed around them, lost in the simply beauty that was nature. "Is there anything so magical?"

A clear image of the three pigs, all in piglet form, was shoved in Leaf's mind. He blinked, then sighed.

"Yes, thank you. Yes, you are all magical of course."

There was a collective oink of agreement, and a sense of final satisfaction. The faun could not help but smile. Despite these matters, and the short tempers that sometimes frayed, their comapny truly was a marvellous one. It was peaceful. The day was peaceful, the world was peaceful.

Why then did fate seem it so necessary to interrupt the perfect wonder?

There was a yell, a scream.

"HEY THERE. GIVE IT BACK!"

At once every pig was on high alert. Leaf was thrown out of his glorious paradise. Being him he did not get angry. He controlled that part himself that created temper and settled for mildly annoyed. Instead he turned, staring in the direction of the shout as Thor and Cookie began to get riled up. They heard a rustling of leaves to the left; Thor being the largest immediately dispatched himself, snorting like a wild warthog and disappearing into the foliage. Cookie sauntered forwards on his tender trotters, then squealed high as if to say, "Hey, who are you?" Leaf just blinked, bent down to gather into his arms the startled remainder - gentle-hearted Popsy - and strode forwards on his hooves to see what all the commotion was about.

"Hello?" he asked, peering into the greeness surrounding them. "Hello, are you alright?"

[Fox Owen Xavier]

“HEY! THAT’S MINE, GIVE IT BACK!” came the shout echoing throughout the forest catching a certain kitsune up in the tree off guard. The words poured into the fox-man’s sensitive ears, stunning him, and causing him to lose his footing from high up a giant oak tree.

“DAMN IT!” was the herb collector’s answering scream as he regained a bit of his senses and felt the air rapidly moving around him. It might have been the poor merchant’s death but fate had it otherwise as his landing was softened by landing on another unfortunate person.

“Ouch! Who was that damn person who nearly killed me???” Fox tried to shout as he tried to rise amidst the stars that flew across his vision. However, the impact was apparently a bit too much to simply get up and the kitsune ended up doing a very ungraceful backflip as he landed hard on his back. If the other victim was still there, the merchant knew not. All he could do was try and keep himself from screaming as the full extent of the pain hit him.

Very sorry for taking so long. Just been lazy and tired lately. Hopeful I'll be able to be a lot more active in the near future and get over this 'writer's block'.

[Leona Stevvains]

Her eyes moved to the being before her. Most people would be more than a little freaked out to see a half-boy, half-goat stand before them holding piglets; others might have chalked it up to a bad trip. Leona reached to her side for a moment to reach for an item not there. Once it was confirmed she did not weild a flask and was therefore not drinking, she responded to her would-be savior.

"I'm fine, but that guy stole something very important to me!," She explained and pointed in the direction of the culprit. The area at the end of the girl's finger now bared nothing but falling leaves and crunched footprints in the ground. She growled and started to run in the direction the nimble crook went, but gave a brief pause. Visions instantly flooded her mind of the faun that asked of her safety. One line of fate saw him as King of Concordia, another dead at the end of his sister's blade. It was a thing that typically happened when Leona did not do prior research on people; she gathered all of their possible futures at one time.

She fell onto her bottom for just a moment, her head dizzy from the information absorption. She could hear the gentle crunch of leaves come up behind her; a piglet no doubt. She reached back and patted the animal on its head to hear an excited squeal in return. Interacting with the animal reminded the girl just how much she missed bacon back on Earth. Not that Althanas did not have decent bacon, but the quality was always questionable when most homes didn't even have the luxury of an electric stove.

She got up quickly at the sound of someone talking. While the voice was muffled, she knew that such speech was spoken low enough to not be far. She took off in the direction of the voice, her training as a former futbol player aiding her in closing the gap to her target. She didn't know if faun-boy was following, but something told her that if he was not, he probably would soon. Most Chosen ones seemed very inclined to follow the Judgement Card.

She arrived just in time to see her assailant rise, their face cloaked in a wrapped up black shirt. The mysterious figure looked to Leona, and the two locked eyes. As the athlete stared, she couldn't help but feel entranced by the emeralds that seemed outright installed into the crook's face. The rest of the thief's body was covered in all black, save the hair and ears, the latter of which were pointed upwards. Elf, she thought, freaking great.

The being ducked between the trees once more and Leona looked to his latest victim. The cards glowed again at her side as if to inform her another Chosen was selected. She noticed the fur like hair that caressed this man, and once again reached down to check for a flask. Upon once again being ensured that no liquor existed on her being, she spoke to the poor sod. "Hey, what were those herbs that guy just had?"

[Leaf]

Leaf turned his head to the side, finding this very curious. The human girl continued on, just smiling as if it was all normal and she had expected to see a faun and his three pig companions in the wood. Popsy seemed infatuated with her and followed her closely, ever since she had been singled out to have her head patted. Like she was a dog. Like she was some stupid pet.

How many times would Leaf need to tell people that they were not animals - they were his family?

Popsy tottled forwards, before the rest of the company, on her edgy trotters. Through her bright sense of hearing, so delicate, there was a shuffling of leaves, a sprinkling of more shouts. More disturbances, more thinks to upset the wonder of this magical day. Apparently this human was alright, but clearly there was another in the vacinty who had suffered. Broken twigs, calls of hate, a set of rushing footsteps with the whisk of a cloak. By a root Thor and Cookie were snorting, looking for some form of tubers, but when these sounds were communicated, they looked up. Straight to where their sister and the human had gone.

Of course, Leaf was immediately hesitant, but Cookie was desperate to run in and save Popsy. Before the faun farmer could say anything the two boars had picked up their trotters and charged straight ahead. They snorted, roared, loud and rearing, declaring a challenge to be answered.

In a shake of their curly tails they disappeared into the foliage, leaving Leaf all alone. For a moment he stood there, alone, confused. Then he sighed and walked forwards, only a few metres and found where the human blonde had stopped. Beside her feet Popsy was sitting, oinking happily up and begging for another pat. Another man, now, had joined her, looking frightfully more ginger than was normal. The boys had continued on, clambering after the apparent enemy, away into the dead of the wood. With a twinge of concentration Leaf could see they were headed after the whisk of cloak, a stranger in ... black.

Leaf just blinked, then gently leaned down to pick Popsy up. She let out a light squeal but did not struggle. As he did he addressed the two beings with him now.

"Cookie and Thor have gone after the being. Now who are you again?"

[Fox Owen Xavier]

Fox looked at his two new companions that had just arrive through his hazy vision of pain. One seemed to be a female human while the other was a farmer with pigs? There was definitely something strange about this farmer other than the pigs but Fox had other issues that he needed to sort out first…

“The name’s Fox,” wheezed the kitsune as he tried to get the air flowing naturally into his lungs again. “I’m a potion crafter and herbalist.”

Reaching down to his side for proof of the later and for a remedy for his wounds, Fox realized his was lacking something very important, namely his herb pouch. Apparently the thief had taken the opportunity to grab the pouch probably thinking it had money or something valuable. Well, too bad for him, it was just a bunch of smelly leaves, roots, and fungus. On the other hand it was valuable to Fox…

“Damn it! That thief stole something valuable from me. ” Fox finally got to his feet. “Are those… pigs going to be able to catch him? I can help find that robber if you need help following but I’m not as gifted in fighting.”

[Leona Stevvains]

“No offense Mister Fox,” Leona spoke while her mind reflected on the ironic name, “but none of us seem too terribly suited for combat. I mean, maybe with our powers combined…” the prophet resisted the urge for a Captain Planet reference, as neither of these creatures would get it. She turned her attention back to the faun who seemed very confident in his pigs.

“Last I checked, piglets were not exactly known for their speed,” she commented, and bit her lower lip, “if I could have a moments of silence please.”

She closed her eyes and concentrated, even under duress, the Berevar witch could still use her precognitive abilities with enough focus. Now that she had seen the culprit that stole their goods, she knew she could see all the timelines involving the would-be thief. It was just a matter of statistics as to which way the crook would take and where their end game would be. The leaves on the ground seemed to gently rise ever so slightly off the ground, only to fall when Leona opened her eyes.

“Mister Fox, I need you to head eastward and don’t stop. Mister Leaf, I need you to head North. Don’t ask me why, I just need the two of you to trust me.” She hoped that her sudden knowledge of Leaf’s name would not raise even more questions from the faun. Time was, after all, not on their side, and if the criminal made it to his or her destination, there would be no hope for regaining her pilfered items.

[Leaf]

Leaf's face went glum. In his arms Popsy stopped struggling, though she let out a squeak every so often to show her unamusement at being held so. His brows furrowed, he tilted his head a little, looking at the human blonde girl and opened his mouth to ask her the one question in his mind.

"Why do you want me to head North? Cookie and Thor will catch the culprit."

He did not ask why she knew his name. In his mind he assumed she had met Philomel before, or something, and heard about the truffle farmer with the three little pigs. Leaf was not a name someone would forget, and the faun man was quite used to being known because of his sister. Somehow she had already displayed her beauty to Radasanth in her years of being a whore, and in that same time all the brothels and pubs had some sort of recollection of her. Being connected to her had its faults, but also its benefits. He had a good place to stay because of her allies and relatively the pigs and him were not bullied anymore by any men of larger standing.

His absolute trust in the abilities of the two male pigs was shown on his face. He let his lips curl up into a smile and he stood with a straight back, nodding an extra ounce of determination. His mind briefly connected with the two, and found them to be snuffling a way that was due north-east, between the directions this human was wanting the two of them to go in.

"I can see where they are going," he annouced to the one who smelt of fox and the woman who smelt of ... fate. "In my mind." He sniffed loudly, shifted his hold on the sow so that she might be more comfortable. He also made no move to go where she asked him. "Why do you want me to go north?" he asked again.

[Fox Owen Xavier]

“Sorry, but I do not trust you madam. How do I know you aren’t working with the thief and trying to send us away so you can look over the stolen goods?” Fox replied now that his brain was finally working again. He didn’t sense any ill intent from the woman but she was definitely hiding something. He knew that she had used some kind of magic. There was also the fact she smelled like she didn’t belong here which was even more apparent by her outlandish clothes.

While waiting for an answer, the merchant quickly looked over the farmer and the surrounding area. The kitsune had heard of fauns before but this was his first time actually seeing one. Half beast, half man. Similar yet different than his race. “Wonder if Fauns can transform to fully human or beast? Or is their race inferior to ours in that respect?” Fox idly wondered.

As for the surroundings, they were at the trunk of that large tree he had fallen out of. Given how tall it was, the ground was relatively clear due to the lack of light. However, the way eastward was a different matter. It was a tangled mess of overgrown bushes, vines, and weeds. If Fox turned into his smaller form, it probably wouldn't be too troublesome to rush through other than all the scratches and cuts. As for the faun-man and strange woman, he could see them having a bit of an issue.

[Leona Stevvains]

The woman brought her hand up to her face, and rubbed the bridge of her nose tightly between her thumb and her forefinger. She hated when people questioned her; she knew more than they did and knew how the future would turn out if they would just listen. Of course, rather than be competent, the two of them decided to doubt the soccer player’s abilities and not take the paths she deemed for them.

“Fine,” Leona said exasperated, knowing she did not have time to sit down and explain things and knowing that Leaf’s pigs would never be able to catch up to the nimble crook, “Don’t go the directions I sent you. We would have cornered the thief between the three of us and the piglets had you listened, but since you took this route, we’ve missed the opportunity. You may as well follow me now, but you should know that you’re not only put us in more danger than what was necessary, but now it’s a race to save the lives of ‘Cookie’ and ‘Thor’.”

The sound of thunder began to roar in the distance. She could hear rain droplets as they tore through leaves both in the tree and upon the ground. The sheer sound of the torrent would be enough to mask their culprit even further. She gasped and ran towards the south, away from the approaching tempest as fast as possible. She no longer cared if her two companions followed her; she would return their items to them once she caught the thief.

She just hoped she would be able to avoid all the dormant traps still left by the Bandit Brotherhood in her rush.

((Alright guys, your choice; follow Leona or just go in another direction. A storm is a brewin really fast towards us though so time is of the essence. Either way, now that you guys decided to ask Leona to explain after she just specifically told you she did not have the time to explain, we’re going to have to do a 500m dash loaded with booby traps now. If you guys need to create some traps as you follow to add meat to your posts, be my guest.))

[Leaf]

He could not help but sigh. This woman certainly was not polite. The longer he spent his time away from Paradisia, he was realising, the more he was experiencing people, and a sense of life, that had no basis in peace or rationality.

Turning his eyes to the other being that was not a mad blonde-head, he blinked, smiled a little. As he phased out her mad ranting he let his eyes wander over this person, who like him seemed not human. Sniffing the air Leaf sensed some beast within the redness of the locks. Something about him, in his awareness and vivacity reminded the faun, somehow, of his sister's Earth Spirit companion, but that was merely a feeling. An emotion. Somewhere in the distance the woman raged, and somewhere beyond the trees Thor was losing the trail of the thief, yet Cookie was keeping up with his heightened speed. Keeping up, to an extent.

After the pause, and after communicating with Popsy and discovering she had similar feelings towards this man as Leaf did, Leaf looked back up. He saw the crazy woman running away, having finished her speech. Her final words had been the names of his two male associates, so they had struck his mind, but the rest he had not listened to. And now she was running, having not usefully explained herself and ranting like any young silly girl did. He let out another exasperated sigh, and felt the first cold drip of rain on his head.

Moving, he stepped under the cover of a tree, and turned to the other person. He called to Cookie and Thor in his mind, knowing that they would hear him across the face of the earth.

Head back towards me, dears, he said, Let justice lie today.

Thor, exhausted, oinked and began rounding off to race backwards - Cookie, however, decided his speed was necessarily fast. In his proud beligerence, he continued on.

In any case, of course he was not going to randomly trust someone who just ran into his and his precious pigs casual stroll in the woods. Rude interrupter who just liked to get angry at him.

"Do you have any idea which direction is North?" he asked the red-haired man, taking a first hoofstep towards where Leona had gone. "Do you think we should actually follow her? I fear she may be mad."


It came out pretty rude, sorry >_< but yes. Leaf is going to follow in the direction where Leona went, a bit confused about the whole thing. Note: Cookie does have 2x speed so could maybe catch up with the brigand?

[Fox Owen Xavier]

“Seriously? Even if you know better than us (which you haven’t proven), you still could be respectful and not act like a complete ‘jerk’ like the majority of your race,” Fox let out a sigh of frustration as he watched the haughty woman start running towards the south.

“North is the opposite direction that ‘female’ is running,” the potion crafter answered the more reasonable sounding person. “As for following her, I’m uncertain if that is wise or not. She could be working with the thief and trying to lead us into a trap. However, if she is working with the thief, she could also be trying to lose us to make off with their profits. On the other hand, maybe her ‘mad rants’ actually contain some truth in them.”

Well, if nothing else, the mad lady could at least figure out that a storm was coming. Then again, even a fool should be able to tell from the dark billowing clouds, gusts of wind, lightning flashes, and of course, the rain. The kitsune had sensed the storm of course like the rest of the forest animals but hadn’t realized the extent or quickness of its arrival.

“I have a feeling this storm is going to be big… No, I mean giant, monstrous… You seem a bit more sensible than a certain other person. Do want to go take shelter and wait out this storm or follow that crazy human? I’m not going to follow her myself since if she turns on us or is with the thief, then I’m probably not going to fare too well. But if you want to try to track her before the storm erases her presence then I’ll accompany you,” the wet merchant spoke to his companion.

Leaf, I'll let you decide if you want to follow the 'crazy woman'.

[Leona Stevvains]

She grumbled to herself as she forced her way through underbrush. Her pace slowed once she began to grow into the thick of Concordia. If the fools had just listened to her seemingly mad ramblings, they would have scared off a family of bears that would have in essence trampled through all the bushes and debris of the old Bandit Brotherhood hideout and laid the perfect groundwork for Leona to just traipse through.

But of course, they had to be stupid and just had to ask questions.

Leona Stevvains hated question like most people hated getting stung by a swarm of hornets with buzz saws for stingers while being forced to gargle acid as though it were mouthwash. Trust was a hard thing to come by on Earth, let alone on an unknown planet where everything seemed to be out to kill everything out. She could sympathize with the fools that were to be members of her Hierarchy because of this, she knew that in their shoes she would not have trusted the crazy lady that told her to go in one direction and then go the other.

But the lives of the three of them were at stake, not to mention Leona’s personal keepsake, the only thing she really had left to remind her of home. That single soccer ball kept the former goalie sane in times where she would have went crazy. The sport was the only thing that kept her mind wandering back to the bottle day in and day out. That inflated mass was just a child’s plaything to some, but to Leona, it was her strength, it was her entire being.

She yelped as she was pricked by the thorns of an overgrown rosebush, a thick stream of blood visible on the back of her hand. The former hideout was once something straight out of a Robin Hood style storybook, wooden cabins and treehouses fit for humans to live in, cages filled with carrier pigeons to deliver messages to and fro, and even archery stands with bows and pristine arrows at the ready for training purposes. However, time was not kind to the power group that once reigned supreme over the land, and it was obvious from the condition of their former headquarters.

Plants overtook many of the houses, door busted down in favor of lush greens. The smell of those unfortunate enough to remain and die here permeated the area. In the pigeon cages, the skeletons of deceased avian laid in a mass of their own fecal matter and half-torn wire. There was an eerie silence as Leona took in all in; seeing it in the future was one thing but to behold the grotesque majesty of it all was another. She walked through what was one big enough to be a full village with careful steps, the Brotherhood were masters of traps and deceptions.

It was not long before Leona heard a squeal, and she turned to the source and kneeled down. She reached into her pocket and pulled from it a truffle as she awaited one of Leaf’s pigs to join her. The future breakfast darted through the underbrush with purpose, as though it thought it was still chasing its target.

The piglet ran right towards Leona and paused once it saw the truffle. It sniffed at the delicacy before it quickly gobbled the treat up.

“Now do you believe me, Mr. Leaf?” Leona asked as she already knew the pig farmer could see her. She only hoped he could also hear her. “Also, watch out for the traps hidden in the thick of the underbrush. Those spring loaded arrows are quite difficult to get around.

[Leaf]

Leaf looked at the red-haired man, and found himself gently smiling. Here, he realised, was a man he perhaps could have as a friend. By no means he was as crazy as the big beefy girl, who strangely was starting to remind Leaf of his sister, Philomel. He had a head, that was clear, and in a metaphorical sense as well as a physical sense. This Fox-man addressed Leaf with politeness, which was satisfying to find in this wood, in this time, and so the faun decided that he would trust him, and perhaps not for now the mad female who apparently was running "south".

"Maybe we should follow her," he said in gentle tones, placing Popsy on the ground. "If indeed you say this storm," - he looked up, saw the dark clouds gathering as fast as storms should never gather - "is so dangerous, then perhaps she is-"

He stopped, suddenly. Blinking, the faun-man, the truffle-farmer and pig-father, turned straight to the south, eyes un-focusing for a moment. His stomach twisted and his mind was seized, as painfully as a stab to the groin. Sickeningly, it twisted, and he found himself gasping - gasping before realising that this was Thor, the greatest boar of the three, calling out to him to such an extent that it was now causing Leaf pain.

What the ...

Traps. Storm is dangerous. Smell of truffles. YUM. Leaf-daddy, YUM, its-! FOLLOW

Leaf gulped. Twisting around, he stared Fox straight in the eyes.

"We follow her," he declared. "We have to."

[Fox Owen Xavier]

Fox was a bit curious why his new companion had suddenly stopped with a pained expression. Was it a disease? Curse? Drugs? Well, it didn’t matter as long as it wasn’t contagious. After all, Fox’s life was the first priority. However, before herbalist had a chance to ask if the farmer was okay, the pain seemed to flow out and was replaced with a determined look.

“So be it. Let’s just hope we can find that ‘woman’ without killing ourselves. It’s going to be hard to catch up in this weather. And if she was telling the truth, there are traps ahead.” Fox muttered half to himself in response. “It’s always humans that cause me the most problems…”

Starting to run south after the lady, Fox kept a sharp eye out for any old traps although at their pace he was quite doubtful that he could warn the faun in time.

[Leona Stevvains]

Leona scooped the piglet up in her arm, a smile still upon her face as she waited for the her two new companions. The crack of the Thaynes whip alerted her to how close the storm was, and she quickly walked towards one of the huts the Bandit Brotherhood created during their reign over Althanas. She stepped upon the termite ridden oak stairs, careful not to offset the weak wood with her own weight, and approached a half-open door.

She kicked the door open and ducked against the wall beside it. Several arrows shot outwards from the entrance, and she could hear a jar shatter just from inside the house. Thor squealed for a moment but was quickly alleviated from his fears with another truffle. She stepped through the door and over the small vat of acid that now ate away at the wood and bug alike. "I will say this about the Bandit Brotherhood, they were quite adept at keeping their treasures safe."

She looked down at the pig, her eyes matched up with the black marbles that were the young animal's irises. "You may wish to tell Mister Fox to watch out for that trip wire he's about to run through. It will cause several trees to fall and have an eighty percent chance of crushing the two of you. Just a fair warning, Mister Leaf."

[Leaf]

Just as the message came, Leaf swung into a leap. In his arms Popsy let out a squeal at the suddness of the movment, and Leaf found himself shouting back to the foxy man.

"Sssstttooopp!" he yelled.

And all movement ceased.

A horrid roll of thunder sounded in the distance, but in that moment the faun was more curious with the trap that the crazy woman had somehow helped them to dodge. She was with Thor, that was obvious, and was feeding him truffles. Truffles, and not just any normal truffles but a blooming trifola d'Alba Madonna, the legendary white truffle that is as rare as diamonds in this part of the world and worth its weight in gold.

He gritted his teeth in anger, thinking of how much seasoning and garnishing that single ball of fungus the truffle could do, and shifted Popsy into one arm, her being small and light enough to do so. With his other hand he pulled out his sickle, the farmer's tool turned weapon, and paused before acting.

With a nod to the foxy man, who was called Fox, Leaf bend down and scratced his blade along the dirt he had just jumped over. There was a ping, a clunk and out of nowhere a huge doubled-headed axe, as big as a man, swung down from the trees to cleave whatever poor soul who would have sprung the trap in two.

If it was not enough many trees then fell, in a cacophany of dead choruses. They were somewhat dead branches and trunks, tied to other living organisms to make them seem part of the tree, ready to come down when the wire was triggered. They smashed down with the axe, part of the act to squish party members along with slicing and dicing them. Leaf was lucky enough to just need to take a stop back to avoid the end of a log.

He waited, and the chaos came to a quiet standstill. The axe, hanging from the tree by woven rope and vines, swung for a moment in a precarious way, before Leaf nodded. Calmly, despite the oncoming unfruitful weather, he smiled, and gestured onwards.

"This way," he annouced, "And look out for any more of these traps."

And you, he told Thor firmly, No eating any more of those truffles. I need you fit and healthy.

Thor grumbled, took a step back from his current precious meal, but then oinked and went to munch the rest anyway.

[Fox Owen Xavier]

Sorry for the delay. Also, trying to get the story moving along again with everyone, I hope no one minds me kind of bunnying Leaf and getting everyone in the same place. If you guys would like me to change anything, please just let me know and I'll be happy to change stuff

“Looks like the pig farmer has better eyes than I thought,” Fox stopped before the glimmering wire he was about to call out. “Still, even though I’m in my hybrid form, I’m a bit surprised he was able to catch sight of it so easily.”

Smiling slightly to his companion, Fox took a few steps back as the reaper sliced open the trap. As the instrument ripped the ground apart, he couldn’t help but feel gratitude to the faun as he heard the faintest second ‘ping’ from a secondary wire that had been cleverly been hiding in the shadow of the first. “Wow, that faun must have extremely good eyes since I already can see about twice as far as one of those humans in this form and yet I failed to notice.”

Watching hell break loose in front of the pair, Fox began to realize just how dangerous the territory in front of them was. Whoever had lived here had obviously not wanted visitors. “Thank you for saving my life Mr. Faun. It appears you have better senses than me.”

Turning back to the path, the kitsune decided to be more careful by withdrawing the Delyn weapon and using its whip like form to safely set off any future traps from a distance. Even with the advance notice, the pair still had some close calls from arrows shooting out from the brush, pitfall traps with very nasty looking spikes at the bottom, and falling trees. Finally, they arrived at the huts where Leona had arrived previously just in time to escape the rainstorm from drenching them to the bone.