Rin was a bit startled by everything the Tengu said, And the fact that it thought the mail was for him... And maybe it was. Yes, she did rudely wake him up, but no need for the hissing. "Are you going too?" Rin asked before he could do anything. But before he could respond... "Akane!!! no rats, please!!" Rin yelled at him. "You know rats have diseases! we don't want that. leave it alone."

Rin then turned her attention to the Tengu again. "I don't have fleas, if I did I would pick them off." she added, looking at some of the scars on her skin from picking off fleas and ticks after being a cat. And she cut her hair off once or twice every week. Being a cat, it grew back fast. "B-but you are going, aren't you?? and if you aren't, you have to know about it, you are a tengu. And I hear word travels fast for tengus."

He scrutinized the girl with what seemed an annoyed expression - though facial expressions were very subtle on his avian visage. "Going where?" He retorted with the same impatience as before, beginning to deftly tear open the envelope with his beak. The harpy paused at spotting the cat's prize, however, and with a swift snap of his jaws forward, snatched the rat, throwing his head back to drop the rodent down his throat, swallowing it whole in seconds. He then resumed tearing open the envelope.

Tatsuo could have easily eaten the cat, too, but he decided to only do that if its youkai friend annoyed him enough. "I don't know what you're talk- I am not a tengu," he seethed at once, his feathers all bristling angrily, making him appear almost twice his already formidable size. The envelope, already wrinkled in the hold of his claws, was smushed under his foot as he set both feet back down on his perch to stand towering over the cat girl. "You're unfathomably fortunate I haven't made a meal of you and your little hairball," the harpy made a brisk nod of his head toward the girl's feline companion. "But that can quickly change if you don't explain what the hell you're talking about." Tatsuo was more of a scavenger than a predator, and his threat was, at the least, half empty. Humans and animals were one thing, but youkai put up much more of a fight; truly, he would prefer not to have to wrestle with the cat youkai to drop her from a great height, even if it meant smashing her open and eating her. All of that was a lot of work... for what looked like relatively little meat.

It seemed the contents of the envelope were going to wait - whatever this 'flea-infested' mammal was rambling on about was more pressing, considering she had woken him up in the middle of the day to pester him about it.

Rin was more shocked by his rudeness than ever. "There is a meeting at Youkai Mountian. And i am very sorry, I-I though you were a tengu. Maybe that's what the envelope has in it. Maybe it's about the meeting." Rin was hesitant, if he started to get hostile enough, she would grab Akane and the basket and run. She was a fast runner. Out ran the slowest tengu. But this was NOT a Tengu. She had no idea what he was, or how fast. Then she noted a bunch of rabbit holes just out of the forest. If she was going to go cat, she would be forced to leave the basket, and Akane might not catch on very quickly. Should she have even bothered this youkai? maybe not.

"So you aren't a Tengu... and I don't mean to be rude any more than I have already, its just my schooling is not very well... What are you excactly then?" Rin slowly asked, all the color drained from her face. She feared more for her cat's life than her own. She loved Akane more than anything, because after her cabin burned down with her parents, Akane came to her out of the bright red flames, Hence his name. "Just don't hurt Akane" she quietly pleaded to the large bird.

Reika was somewhat intrigued by how insistent the girl was. Reika felt that it was good practice to remain humble, but her mother would probably have told her not to refuse the offers of others, if she were there, that was.

"Well, if that is the case," Reika asked, "could you possibly direct me to where the stage for Noh theater is?" Reika had forgotten exactly what directions she took to get to where she was now and was somewhat hazy on how she had to get back. A lot of things were on her mind, but Reika couldn't entirely pick them out individually. One thing that did come to mind, however, was the time. Reika glanced toward the sun, which was getting lower in the sky. Her Kagura performance would be occurring soon, and she had to get back to her family and prepare. Another thought did come to mind when she remembered that.

"And on that subject," Reika added, "In about half an hour, there will be a performance there in which I will be participating. I ask humbly that you consider staying to watch it.

The girl's posture appeared to shrink, her face growing more timid and fearful. That was better. Tatsuo's feathers settled, and he shifted his wings back into a comfortable resting position, clicking his beak once in satisfaction. "None of your business, that's what," the harpy retorted with what sounded like a snide smile in his tone, though again, not much expression was reflected in his face.

"A meeting, hm..?" He parroted belatedly, gazing down at the envelope. He picked the message up in his claw to resume opening it carefully - with the note in his beak, he discarded the envelope and then switched the note to his claws, exercising what was clearly a practiced amount of force so as not to pierce the paper with his talons.

Tatsuo wasn't invited to meetings very often at all. Many local youkai of Gensokyo still considered him somewhat of a foreigner, since he had come from another region of Japan. "It must be pretty important." With a drowsy sigh, he reared up again - but not in a show of size this time, extending his huge wingspan only to stretch before shaking himself, discarding the note, and folding his wings once more.

The basket caught his eye next. He tilted his head to peer down at the container. "What's in the basket, cat?" He asked of the smaller youkai. Already, a scheme was stirring in his mind about the easiest way to obtain whatever food might be in the basket. Of course, assuming it held food was wishful thinking on the harpy's part.

When the bird asked what was in the basket, Rin was still scared cold. "Bread. Bread for the meeting, my way of saying 'Thank you' when someone invites me some were, Especially their house or meeting."
She looked at Akane. "And sometimes Akane is in there as well." Now Rin wonders if she should have left Akane at home, and sent him to the town afterwards... No. She couldn't possibly leave Akane behind. Never unless it risked his life like right now, 'Ugh, it's so confusing!' Rin thought to herself. 'Maybe I should have just left this bird alone... Yea...but too late now. I, a tiny Nekomata, could never control time.' All this is in her head as the bird stared at her and her basket.

Kiyoko packed the rice ball that Chou gave her, and a lot of meat, vegetables and bowls, along with a pair of Chopsticks. She made a few extra runes, and left the messed up/broken runes at home. They packed a few cloths and planned a route: 'The easiest, fastest, and most hidden route' is what they wanted. They ended up taking the longest one, but because it was so much longer it was rarely used, and had a lot of undergrowth and bushes to go into and use air rune to spy on anyone that comes across their path. They went to get blessings and also decided to eat a little before they went, so the minute they got on the mountian they wouldn't need to eat.

"It is a very long journey, are you sure you are up to the task?" the herbalist asked her when she stopped by to get medicines, creams and bandages. "I am very sure. This is an important mission for me right now." Kiyoko assured her boss/caretaker. "I promised Chiyoko Hakurei i would at least get the information needed." The herbalist sighed "Well in that case, Take care of yourself and be careful. You have a good plan and a bit of food?" "yes," Kiyoko told him, "I also have a few more cloths, and my very best runes, With backup. We will not attack unless it is in self defense. We are taking the longest route, and that is because very few are likely to come up that way." Kiyoko smiled. "We've got it all figured out. It may be the worst path to follow, but it is the safest."

After saying their farewells to the town, The Shrine maidens, And cleaning up their house, making sure they remembered everything, Kiyoko and Dream set off to Youkai Mountian. This will be one journey for them to remember for the rest of their lives... that is if they make it out alive...

The woman seemed to be surprised at the way Marran had greeted her, similarly her rather jovial response seemed to indicate that she wasn't hostile, at least not overtly so, besides which it would be pretty impossible to get him more lost than he currently was so it seemed unlikely she was an enemy. Still Marran was nothing if not cautious so he considered his response before he spoke.

"By help you mean finding the exit to this forest? I'm afraid I'm not a local so the layout of this wood has confused me but your assistance would be most welcome."

The stranger did not seem likely to be a villager so he judged she might not have a negative response to him not being from the area, besides which his attire would would make such a fact obvious. And even then if she viewed foreigners with suspicion her wariness might make her more cooperative or at least make her reconsider any hostile thoughts should she harbor them.

As he spoke Marran took the opportunity to examine the woman more closely, her strange hair and red eyes seemed most likely to be natural though not common in the humans he'd met. On the other hand her behavior and looks didn't seem to quite match up with his mental impression of what spirits and gods looked like either. Then again he had a frustrating lack of information about the local spirits, which the villagers referred to as "Youkai". Their information seemed to be either entirely fantastical, garbled, second hand or tinged with hysteria; but Youkai, human or something else entirely was fine by him as long as they could help him out of this forest.

"By help you mean finding the exit to this forest? I'm afraid I'm not a local so the layout of this wood has confused me but your assistance would be most welcome." The lost stranger responded politely to Mokou.

So she assumed correctly that he was not from around here. Now extremely curious where he came from, Mokou decided she could ask him about that later. One of the things she enjoyed escorting lost humans was making conversation with new faces since Kaguya and her subjects were really the only beings she saw on a regular basis.

"Well, I guess you could say its my part time job taking care of humans who get lost in these woods, such as yourself. So I'll be more than happy to." Mokou turned and motioned for the stranger to follow her. "By the way, we're going to have to make a slight detour to my place if you don't mind but then we will be on our way and I'll have you back at the human village before nightfall."

Mokou was glad she had found this man before any youkai gave him trouble. At the moment she could feel the eyes of many dangerous beings glaring at her from out of the darkness hoping for a chance to snag the foreign human from under her nose. But Mokou was ready to incinerate anything that jumped out from the mysterious forest and now that she had finally found the lost human, he was completely safe from any harm. Though Mokou couldn't help but notice that the youkai were much more daring this evening. Usually they would never get this close to her that she could make out their faint figures dashing back and forth through the bamboo stalks. They were getting much more aggressive lately but Mokou could not put her finger on the reason why. No matter. No matter how daring or aggressive they got, they stood no chance against the immortal girl.

"My name is Fujiwara no Mokou by the way. You can call me Mokou if you like." Mokou began to head through the trees towards her small home. "Stay close to me. We'll be there in a couple minutes."

"Well, if that is the case," The Hakurei shrine maiden asked, "could you possibly direct me to where the stage for Noh theater is?" Kioku blinked, somewhat surprised that the miko does not know the village's layout like everyone else, especially considering the fact that said miko lived so close to the village her entire life. However, she shrugged it off as stress getting to the shrine maiden. After all, how stressful must it be to be a shrine maiden, solving incidents with youkai and humans? Especially when the latest incident involved the shrine maiden's sister-in-law. "And on that subject, in about half an hour, there will be a performance there in which I will be participating. I ask humbly that you consider staying to watch it."

"I would be honored to guide you to the theater, Miss Hakurei!" Kioku excitedly stated. "I was going to go over there to watch you and your family perform!" She smiled brightly at the shrine maiden. Now was her chance to do something for the shrine maiden! It was good that her memory was perfect! Only.... it sometimes isn't.

"The theater is over there, so..." Kioku paused, looking down at the ground to concentrate at remembering where she was and where the theater would be. "Uh...." The silverette scratched her head, her mind not being able to figure out a route. Eh?! Where was the theater again?! Kioku gulped, unable to remember where the theater was. In fact, her mind can't even draw where SHE was in the village!

"Aah..." Kioku placed a hand on her forehead. "It happened again... I completely forgot, Miss Hakurei..." She sighed, her first opportunity to help the shrine maiden completely failing because of her poor memory skills. "I'm sorry...."

Marran immediately fell into step behind Mokou, the fact that she had a house in these woods perplexed him. If this place was truly magical then she would require an enormous amount of power to bend the pathways to her whim, either that or she had some kind of subtle connection to this place. If It really was her job to guide out lost humans then perhaps she also acted as a guardian for the forest and it gave her free travel in return. The idea of being able to make such a deal was exceedingly intriguing for Marran but he reigned his curiosity in, most likely he would get more answers at her house.

"I call myself Marran and you have my gratitude for acting as a guide, I had not expected this forest to be quite so wily.

However Marran was still paranoid about the possibility of a trap, then again from what he had gathered the people of this land set great store by politeness and attacking someone you had offered hospitality to was most likely a very unethical act, perhaps the local spirits operated with similar rules. In any case his curiosity was getting the better of him so he decided to ask the question that was at the top of his mind.

"Please forgive me if this is an impertinent question but are you what the villagers refer to as Youkai? I have had few encounters with them myself and they appear far removed from the spirits and avatars of my own land."

Bread was far from his favorite, but it was still food. And the girl still looked frightened enough that perhaps this could be even easier than he had initially anticipated. Already, he had formulated a plan A, B, and C.

Tatsuo gave another interested tilt of his head. "Oh? And do you offer bread as a way of saying 'thanks' when someone spares your life?" He questioned lightly, in a mocking tone that clearly suggested he was expecting to receive the bread - presumably in return for not eating the cat girl or her cat.

Marran..... So that was his name. Mokou had never heard of a name like that before. Though living for centuries now, she had never really set foot out of Japan and since she lived a few centuries in isolation from any human contact, she never really met anyone who wasn't Japanese before. Where did he come from and why was he even here in Gensokyo of all places? Many questions about this strange man ran through Mokou's mind as she led him towards her home. More so, why did he end up in the Bamboo Forest? Mokou decided that all her questions could be asked later. They still had a ways to go before they left for the Human Village anyways. Mokou led Marran through the forest without saying anything for quite awhile. Though she loved listening to the stories of the humans that got lost here, she never really spoke of herself openly unless asked questions. In her mind, any story she would have to tell would be way to long for anyone to hear for the short time it took to bring them back to the human village and she decided it would be best to just answer simple questions than to elaborate on her very extensive past.

Though after a few minutes of silence, Marran spoke up and asked Mokou, ""Please forgive me if this is an impertinent question but are you what the villagers refer to as Youkai? I have had few encounters with them myself and they appear far removed from the spirits and avatars of my own land."

Mokou had to chuckle at the question. According to official definition of a "youkai" that the humans had made over the years, Mokou could officially be considered a youkai. She definitely was not a human but yet she was not fully youkai. What was she really? Mokou never really pondered that question and the thought puzzled her.

"A youkai? I'm not to sure if you would call me a youkai but I definitely am not human."

Just to make her point Mokou opened her hand and a small ball of flame ignited right above her palm.

As they continued to push through the bamboo on the way to Mokou's house Marran began to tune up his senses, trying to detect any hint of ruins or abandoned places; but he found nothing. It was certainly strange that a forest this close to the village appeared to have been left alone for so long, it could meant that perhaps this place had been enchanted for longer than the village had been there? It was certainly an intriguing mystery, this entire area certainly seemed to be teeming with spirits and other magical creatures. Perhaps there was a source to it all, some kind of magical wellspring that meant the abundance of such creatures, it was certainly a compelling thought.

Mokou replied to his question and as if to illustrate her point she conjured a flame above her palm. Marran examined it for a moment, either the flame was entirely magical or she had used magic to conjure and sustain a flame, the second one was by and large easier but it was close enough to burn her, so perhaps she had some kind of natural fireproofing?

"I personally would not judge a persons humanity on such things."

Marran held up his right hand a small disk of sand began to form, spinning gently for a moment before snaking it way through his fingers and falling to the ground.

Akane was yowling about a rodent of some sort. Apparently it went under a tree and he could not reach it. This went on for a few minutes and was painfully loud to Rin. The pink-haired Nekomata was unsure if it bugged the bird at all. She was still wondering what he was. Finally Akane stopped his noise as he ran up another tree after what looked like a squirel.

All this time Rin was lost in thought, Dazed. Confused. When she came to, she climbed out of the tree, Got the basket and took out four slices of bread, brought them up the tree and presented three them in front of the bird. She split the fourth piece in half and threw the other on the ground, Either to be eaten by the cat waiting below or used as rodent bait for hunting, However Akane saw it fit. Rin started eating her half of sliced bread.
( All the bread is white bread And Pain. :3)

Tatsuo continued to watch the cat girl expectantly, though she stared in silence with a dumb look on her face for what must have been at least a full minute. The cat was making noise in the meantime - some disagreeable, yowling sound. Just as it began to get on Tatsuo's nerves, however, the girl finally moved to retrieve the basket compliantly.

There turned out to be a lot of bread. Tatsuo didn't even want all of it; bread weighed heavily in his digestion, hence it not being his favorite. But he carefully took and then gobbled down one piece, then another, but left the third and allowed the cat girl to keep the two halves she had split between her and her cat.

A long, thin, pointed tongue picked at some of the bits of bread that had gotten caught in his teeth, but after that was finished, the harpy stretched and shifted his wings again. That had been surprisingly easy. He glanced up through the forest canopy at where scattered speckles of sunlight reached through the leaves. It looked bright out… Tatsuo was accustomed to cloudy climates and didn't like bright sunshine.

"Hmmmn." He made a thoughtful sound, shifting around his wings some more in what seemed a contemplative gesture. "I could fly you to the mountain. But you'll owe me a favor. How's that?" He offered, albeit in no warmer a tone than before, looking to the cat girl again with another tilt of his head.

Reika pursed her lips. It was nice of the girl to try to assist her, but she seemed to be unable to remember the location of the stage, and appeared rather troubled by it. Was it due to stress, perhaps?

"No, that's fine," Reika assured her, "You tried to help. That's quite alright with me." Reika glanced around a bit. Somehow, she seemed to remember where the stage was precisely, and how to get back to where she was. Was she merely distracted until now? Or did the memories just somehow pop up? Reika paid no mind to it. "Although," Reika added, "I believe I'll be able to find my own way back. Please excuse me." Reika gave a curt bow, before walking off.

Thankfully, Reika's mother and daughter were just where she left them. It seemed as if they had already finished their snacks (seemingly all of them, as Reika's was nowhere to be found) and where waiting patiently for Reika's return. Chiyoko was seated, but Chou was walking about and had quickly spotted her, running up to her.

"Mom," Chou asked, walking alongside Reika as they approached Chiyoko, "what took you so long? You didn't get lost, did you?" Reika shook her head. "Hardly," she answered, "Mom was just busy resolving an incident." Chou replied, "An incident?" She sounded rather interested. The world 'incident' held a special sort of meaning within Gensokyo. Youkai were well known for causing 'incidents', which ranged anywhere from creating simple mischief to great calamities of meteorological scale. Naturally, it was the duty of the Hakurei shrine maiden, or whomever else was capable, to resolve these 'incidents' and return balance and order. Incidents worthy of the name have been recorded throughout both history and folklore, but in Gensokyo, these were a fact of life. That said, the last huge incident worthy of recording had occurred under a decade age, yet overall, incidents were much less common during Reika's time than they were during her mother's. Perhaps it was evidence that the humans were finally driving the Youkai back.

"The incident was resolved," Chiyoko inquired, "correct?" Reika nodded. "Good," Chiyoko responded, "you can explain it later. Come, sit. Something has come to our attention." Reika complied, sitting on her legs to face Chiyoko. Chiyoko proceeded to explain to Reika what she was told before by the living god, Kiyoko. Reika listened attentively. Chou listened as well, but only partially, standing and walking about the two.

"So the Youkai are gathering tonight, for a meeting," Reika responded. Chiyoko nodded. Reika closed her eyes to consider it. She scratched at her callused fingers with her thumbs. Reika tended to pick at her scars when she was anxious. "We must declare a state of emergency," she declared, clenching her fists.

"Hush, Reika," Chiyoko responded, "we mustn't be reckless about this. For now, we must simply wait for the arahitogami to tell us what they are doing, and what they are planning. If we were to raise an alarm under the wrong circumstances, the mountain Youkai may take it as an act of aggression. Naturally, it would be far to reckless to simply barge up there ourselves, which I imagine would be one of your ideas. Patience is key... And besides, Youkai hardly get along with each other well enough to work in masses like that, discounting Fairies and Tengu." Reika frowned and scratched a pink scratch on her wrist.

"Quit that," Chiyoko quipped, smacking Reika's hand. Reika recoiled, placing her hands back on her thighs. "Come," Chiyoko told her, "we're running out of time. We must get ready for our performance. We've only fifteen minutes."

"I personally would not judge a persons humanity on such things."

Mokou watched as Marran displayed his own form of sand sorcery. Interesting, so he wasn't as helpless as she thought. No matter. These forests were merciless. Even if you were able to fend for yourself against the dangerous youkai wandering here one would no doubt die from exhaustion or starvation before they manage to find their way out of the bamboo forest.

Mokou shrugged. "I guess in a place like this you'd expect humans to have some sort of knowledge of magic. You'll get a lot of that around here." She turned away from him and stared into the dense forest. "Though we have to get moving. The evening is drawing to a close and we don't want to stay out after nightfall. We're already very close to my home so it won't be long before-...."

Mokou stopped mid sentence as she sensed movement behind her. It couldn't be. Before she knew it, a dark figure had lunged out of the darkness towards Marran who had his back turned. Without any sort of warning Mokou threw out her hand and the small ball of flame that was still resting in the center of her palm exploded into a pillar of fire which she aimed straight at the creature that had jumped out at Marran. Her flames barely missed the top of his head as their attacker was incinerated in mid jump right above Marran.

"Tch...." Mokou was confused. Right before the creature had been blown away by her attack she caught a glimpse of what it was. It wasn't even a youkai that had attacked them. It was a normal wolf who had tried to make a meal out of her companion. Mokou knew that the animals here were aggressive but even then none had dared to attack her so randomly. Her eyes shifted to another movement to her right. Again? This time Mokou took action before anything could jump out and sent another blazing inferno into the forest. A loud cry of pain shot out but was instantly cut short as another wolf fell victim to Mokou's flames. What was going on here? One she could understand, but another attacking right after?

"We have to keep moving. There's something wrong with this picture. Stay close."

And with that, Mokou took off running as fast as she could into the forest towards their destination. Well.... As fast as her clothing would allow her to. Again she cursed the restricting kimono she wore. Under normal circumstances she would have simply stayed to kill anything that jumped out at them from the darkness but this time was different. She had no clue what possessed these two to attack but whatever it was, she didn't want to take any chances with Marran here.

Marran whipped his head around as something leapt for it and was just as quickly swatted by a fireball. It happened quickly enough that he didn't have time to judge whether the thing that had tried to attack him was Youkai or an animal however given the urgency in his companions voice it didn't seem to matter either way and he began to run, drawing level with her. He guessed that she could run faster than this but her clothing seemed to hampering her, in any case if these things could be hurt by fire then sand should also suffice. As he ran Marran splayed his palms and begin to fill the air behind them with a haze of dust. While it wouldn't physically stop anything getting a load of sand straight in the eyes and mouth was certainly going to slow down, disorientate or choke anything stupid enough to attack from behind and with enough time he could thicken it enough stop any overzealous attackers.

As they ran Marran kept a close watch on the woods ahead of them, attempting to work out the location of her home but either the bamboo stems were too thick or the house was not lit because he couldn't make out anything up ahead aside from more bamboo, but he trusted Mokou to at least know the location of her own home and so asked the second question at the top of his mind.

"I didn't see what attacked us, Youkai of some kind?"

He'd encountered violent spirits before but they'd tended to shy away from those with the power to fight back. It could be some kind of animal but it would have to be exceedingly vicious to keep up the chase after having two of their number burned alive.

Mokou sprinted as fast as she could through the dense bamboo stalks with Marran close behind. Though they had dealt with two of the wolves already, Mokou could sense their numbers growing as they ran. This definitely was not right. Mokou had never seen a normal wolf pack attack her out of the blue before. Her presence alone was enough to keep the wild beasts at bay but this was totally different. It was almost as if they were being controlled.....

"I didn't see what attacked us, Youkai of some kind?" Marran's voice interrupted her train of thought.

"You could say that."

Mokou was to focused to give an explanation but now she believed she had her culprit. After a few more minutes of sprinting, Mokou noticed that the bamboo was thinning. They were coming close to the clearing where her house was located. She needed to get out of these woods and out into the open if she was going to do any fighting. Without warning the two burst through the bamboo and sure enough they now found themselves in an open area of dirt and soft grass. Quite a ways away was Mokou's house made from wood and clay resembling a traditional Japanese home.

"There.... We need to get inside before-...."

"Ahhh so this is where you live? Unfortunately for you, I'm not about to let our two tasty treats escape. That would not be good at all. Not... At... All....."

Once again, Mokou was interrupted but not by Marran this time. There standing in front of them was someone Mokou did not recognize. She was a small girl, looking to be no older than ten years old with extremely long pitch black hair that barely grazed the ground behind her ankles. Her most distinguishing features though were the two dark grey wolf like ears sprouting from the top of her head as well as the long grey tail that swung back and forth behind her knees. Mokou stared in disbelief. Was THIS the youkai that had been the cause of all this? By the looks of it, this youkai had only turned into one quite recently or else she definitely would've have at least recognized Mokou who had been a resident of the Bamboo Forest probably for much longer than any of the others who lived here.

Mokou chuckled and eyed the young wolf youkai. "You actually had me thinking that you were something A LOT more.... menacing, I have to give you that. But you really should run along now. It would be unwise to mess with strangers you don't know in this forest."

The small girl blinked and cocked her head sideways in confusion. "Do you not see the situation your in right now? I don't think you should be talking so high and mighty considering your about to die, human." And just to make her point, the wolf youkai leaned her head back, took a big breath (and huffed and puffed and blew Mokou's house down - JUST KIDDING XD) and let out a loud howl that reverberated through the dense bamboo forest.

"Tch...." Mokou covered her ears and winced. It was unbearably loud and she felt as if her head was splitting. How could such a little girl make so much noise?

Though after a few seconds, she finished and turned her eyes toward Marran and Mokou once again with a menacing grin spread across her face. "I'll make you regret what you said, Human. Oh, don't worry I won't kill you that quickly. I like to play with my food."

From all sides of the clearing Mokou could see numerous shadow appearing from the forest. First there were twenty. Then forty. Then sixty wolves that began spewing out into the large clearing. Slowly they came. Calmly and composed as if they had been tamed for years. All this for two humans? It wasn't just about catching a mid day snack anymore. This little youkai was simply showing off. Though as many as there were, Mokou still had to laugh. This was a joke. They were still normal wolves and even in numbers like these they had no chance against her. She even had Marran to back her up. She did not know the extent of his abilities but he definitely knew how to fend for himself. But as Mokou was working up a plan on how they should go about this she realized she herself could take care of this in an instant. Turning to Marran, Mokou asked, "Hey... Can that sand of yours protect you from my flames? Its going to get a bit hot here in a second."