The Unclaimed Jungles

Fang was fairly curious now. It was wrapping his mind. Who had hired them to do this? What was going on?

And now, there was this thing hunting them. Which Fang had yet to see, because there was a giant creature that pounced right on top of him and was trying to eat him. He put all his strength into it and pushed upwards. This caused the beast to fly upwards, before falling back all the way down to the ground. He heard that comment of a plan, and he simply replied "Keep running and killing is my fallback, in case I don't think of a plan".

Then he saw the woman, and asked as he put his blade into the neck of another beast. "Who are you?"

Bella found a baby beast and dug an arrow into his throat. "Before you have the size to do any damage" she muttered to the little beast. She sent an arrow over the womans head. "Just a warning arrow, you make the wrong move, the next one goes through your eye" she called, her next arrow already knocked.

The woman plucked Bella's arrow from the air, knocked it, angled her bow down to the Vrakonien, and loosed the bolt into one of its many eyes. The large creature screamed, its call shaking the leaves of the tree before it groaned, and then fell far to the forest floor. The motion was smooth, preternaturally swift, and done with such precision that the whole fluid movement seemed trivial for the woman. She then knocked one of her own arrows.

"Who?, she mimicked Fang's first word with some difficulty. Fang and Bella were speaking Vertigan. She then started to speak in a whisper. "An dtuigeann tú mé? Scitis me? Du forstår meg gjøre? M-ai înțeles? Do you understand me?" She did not understand Vertigan but the woman knew many other languages including the common language of Terra which was the last language she tried.

"Brasha. Hold Bells, this woman may be a trespasser, but she is unlike the others" he told her. Vertigan's spoke English mostly, though some words may have been added or changed slightly. Language evolves constantly, after all. Brasha was a term given to a seriously bad rash that was annoying during the early days. Now, it was generally just slang for something that is annoying. Some smaller clans also used other languages, like Chinese.

Notably, Fang had only told Bells to hold, not to point her bow elsewhere. "I don't recognize her speech minus the last few words, but it sounds intelligent. Also, she does not look like she came her with the others. She may just be a visitor who got lost. Either way, we should keep moving, more beasts will come". He also whispered under his breath "Damn tourists".

He jumped near Bells, and then added silently "And keep watch. She may be dangerous". To be honest, Fang was starting to be a bit suspcious of Bells himself, but that might just be natural Clan rivalry. Her appearance, along with this woman, was curious to him. He had yet to see a human survive alone in the woods, day or night. Not without help, or powers. Of course, she could also be Vertigan.

He focused on his senses, and glanced at her, to see if he could determine any other details, or if she was human, Vertigan, or even something else.

Bella still had her bow knocked, and arrow raised in the intruders direction, another arrow in between Bella's exceptionally pointed teeth. Her brows were furrowed, elbow pulled back, arrow at her chin, waiting for the intruder to make the wrong move. She didn't know why she was listening to Fang but she was doing it regardless.

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.