The Unclaimed Jungles

The woman crouched on the branch. "You understand? Good. I crashed here after my vessel was destroyed in combat." She glared at Bella with those iridescent eyes. "I have been here for many days and nights out in the wilderness. I would like to go home but to do that I need to transmit off planet. Will you help me?"

Her ship had engaged the Kraed on the outskirts of the system months ago and though they managed to neutralize the threat they crew had lost their ship. Out of the hundred or so on board only four had managed to make it to an escape pod and of those four only she had survived the crash landing after the damaged pod had entered the planet's gravity well. She had survived on Vertiga, making her way through the Unclaimed Jungles for months all alone.

Months? Months?! Months?!?!?!?!? Whoever she was, Fang knew for certain now that she was not normal. No normal human could survive that long out here. Hell, some Vertigans even couldn't go that long. Fang did not let his thoughts become known though. He had no clue how dangerous or powerful she was.

"This way. If we keep going, there is going to be a team that will meet up with us in a few hours. From there, we will be able to make it back to a transit station, and then to my Clan's lands soon enough. We may need to know some things though, like where you crashed. It could possibly affect certain creature migrations and what not, among other things" Fang told her in English, looking at the stars to make sure they were headed in the right direction.

There was a loud growl in the distance. Nowhere close, but it made Fang freeze for a moment. Because for a split second, he thought it was a Garrodon. But he shook his head. Those have long been extinct. He only knew of the growl thanks to audio records.

"Lets keep moving" he mentioned.

Bella stayed quiet the whole time. Her bow and arrow pointing in the trees, just in case something were to happen out of the ordinary. "Won't your clan try to kill me?" she asked, her brow raised, her body nor eyes leaving the direction of the trees.

It was quiet, oddly peaceful for a time. Hidden amongst the humid jungle were its various wildlife, both dangerous and otherwise. Hidden within that however was something else entirely; a woman wearing a pelt of a large cat which camouflaged her among the foliage.

Her name was Elizabeth, and she lived in the wilds her entire life. She stalked among the trees with a bow on her back and a small quiver of arrows on her side, both made by her. She kept her eyes on her quarry, a deer-like creature peacefully grazing the shrubs. She kept her eye trained on it, waiting for the right moment to strike as she nocked an arrow into her bow.

The sound of low branches cracking & disturbed vegetation came from not far east through the trees. A group of birds took frantic flight from there.

Elizabeth quickly took notice of the sound of the birds flying away, keenly aware of what this means. She abandoned her prey and sheathed her bow onto her back. In one clean motion she also took to a nearby tree, her cat pelt helping her blend in with the foliage in the tree.

She kept alert and on edge, watching toward the source of the sound.

A sapling shook violently and felled-a sound of a great mass making it's way relentlessly through the forest-loud snaps as it chomped at leafy chunks of vegetation on the way. The creature wasn't the fastest but it scooted along at an acceptable pace, trampling firmly anything in it's path. Slowly the creature turned it's head to focus on a squirrel that thought it was blending in. It's tail flicked out from a crop of wide leaves. For a long moment the beast stared at the clump of leaves. And then...

Chomp.

No more clump of leaves. A dribble of blood pooled in the corner of the creatures dry and scaley mouth. It sat and enjoyed the meat for a moment, hunkering down a bit to blend better with the forest. A massive shell on it's back, covered in moss and grime, did a good job obscuring it- that is, if you hadn't already seen it.

Tredo was hungry.
Tredo smelled something...filling.

Elizabeth kept her eyes trained on the massive turtle, growing majorly concerned with its act of predatory behavior. It could hide all it likes, she could smell it amongst the foliage. She prepared an arrow to fire, nocking it in place while she refeused to let Tredo out of her sight.

It was such a bizzare sight for her, a giant turtle eating meat? She kept low to the greenery of the trees, blending in to them.

Tredo lumbered along after the scent. He maneuvered at more of a sideways amble instead of going for the massive snack head on. The great creature paused to ingest a hearty branch when he noticed the thing's smell get smellier. Was it nervous?

Tredo disappeared into the wilderness.

Tredo vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.