The tank-like rover dodged the widely-gapped trees with ease, going at a steady pace over the leafy ground. Breaks in the foliage of the branches and leaves above let in scattered rays of light that decorated the forest in a haze of light beams, highlighting the tiny particles that floated through the air in lazy disregard.

Mashira took in a deep breath, enjoying the clean, sweet air and actually beginning to appreciate being stuck out on top of the rover. It was cool within the forest in sharp contrast to the blazing desert that they'd left behind only a few hours ago. Mashira could hear the sounds of birds singing as they flitted from one branch to another, each wonder of nature full of life and luster and joy.

Inside, mostly everyone had become too bored for any more conversation. Kyle and Benge involved themselves in a game of Connect Four set up over some of Carmila's folds, just one of the board games that Benge had packed away in case of just such a situation. Caroline had fallen asleep against Nolt, her beautiful face peaceful and serene while Nolt's was stoically apprehensive. Grove watched the view that managed to be avoided by Mashira's backside sitting over half of the hole, and Carmila kept herself busy by filing her nails. Meier and Charlotte were dozing together in the back, and D was lost in deep meditation.

Nobody noticed the whispering being swapped back and forth between Borgoff and Leila up front---his words stubborn and tight while hers were worried and apprehensive.

"We're lost, Borgoff," Leila whispered again as she watched the scenery spread out in front of them. "I know I saw that tree before."

"Hell you did," Borgoff muttered. "You can't recognize one tree from another in this place. You're just making it up, Leila. It's all in your head."

Leila could feel her face tighten into an irritated frown. "You know me better than that, Borgoff, and you know that when I say something, I never make it up. I know I saw that tree before. It's bent at a deeper angle than any of the others."

"Look, I know where we're going."

"So do I. Everybody here knows where we're going."

"I meant that I know where we are so that we can get to where we're going."

Leila snorted. "And I know that we're lost . . . c'mon, Borgoff. We've been running around in this forest for hours. It doesn't take this long to get to the resort from here. I told you not to get off the road."

"This was a short cut," Borgoff said defensively. "I had a plan."

"Right," Leila smirked. "And that plan's gotten us lost. We'll find ourselves in a ditch first before we get to the resort."

"Shaddup."

"What you just say?"

"Hey," Kyle's voice suddenly broke in. Borgoff and Leila both ducked their heads, afraid that they were overheard. "What're you two talking about over there?" Kyle asked, his voice flat with boredom. Leila slowly turned her head around so that she could look back over her shoulder. Benge and Kyle were both staring at her and Borgoff, their eyes droopy but watchful. If any of the other passengers were paying attention to Kyle's question, they weren't showing it.

"We're just admiring the scenery," Leila answered with a casual lilt, but she knew that the excuse sounded lame the moment she said it. Kyle cocked a single eyebrow, his bland expression otherwise unmoved.

"You sure that that's it?" he asked informally, but his tone sounded slightly skeptical. Benge only snorted and resumed his turn in the game, having lost all interest, and continued studying the yellow frame with concentrated intensity as he tried to spot a good opening to stick his piece into. Borgoff coughed, drawing Kyle's attention away from Leila.

"We're sure," Borgoff said huskily. "Now get back to your game, Kyle."

"Hmph," Kyle grunted, one eye twitching. "You two are always talking and leaving me and Nolt out of it . . . is there something going on between the two of you?"

"What?" Leila said, slightly taken aback by the implication---then quickly snapping out of it with a flash of put-out anger. "Kyle, do what Borgoff says and get back to your game. Whatever me and Borgoff talk about in private is none of your damn business."

"Fine," Kyle said with casual flick of his wrist as he turned back to the game. "But you know that it'll all come back to haunt you guys later . . . hey! Benge, I know you've been cheating! Those two pieces weren't there just a minute ago!"

"Yes, they were!" Benge shot back with an air of indignant bravado. "I don't know what you're talking about, Kyle. Seems to me that you're just trying to win a game by default."

Leila, newly fueled by the outrage that Kyle had extracted from her, whipped her head back to Borgoff and laid a heavy hand against his shoulder. She pressed her fingers against his flesh, keeping the touch soft enough not to cause pain but strong enough to let him know that that could all change.

"We're lost, Borgoff," she hissed into his ear, "and if you don't start following the map right now, I'm going to tell the others and you can be the one to straighten out the mess that's going to cause . . . do you got me?" She could feel Borgoff's shoulder stiffen beneath her hand with each word and continue to tense even after she finished talking. His muscle almost rippled with infuriation and, just when she thought he was going to explode, his body suddenly deflated.

"Fine," he muttered, defeated. "Where's the damn map?"

"That's a good boy."

Just then, D's eyes suddenly flew open, alert and sharp. He quickly reached for the sword strapped to his back as he shot up from his seat, surprising everyone.

"Hit the deck!" the hand cried out, sensing the same thing that had knocked D from his meditative state. But no one had time to react.

The rover was suddenly hit with a force that knocked it from its wheels, shooting it high into the sky and then over a mass of forest area. Mashira had been cast away immediately by the impact, tossed almost precariously into an abundance of overgrowth that hid the forest floor by a cluster of trees. A good distance away from him, the rover landed unceremoniously among another cluster of trees, snapping branches and shoots as it crushed down with its weight. It teetered a couple of times before it finally settled on all of its wheels, making metallic creaking noise as if to complain at having been thrown around. Inside, there was a moment of shocked silence . . .

"What the hell just happened!" Carmila roared from beneath the folds of her gown, working furiously to find her way back out into open air. Everyone else laid in tangles around her, some hopelessly trapped within her gown while others just lay on top of one another.

"Damn it!" Borgoff shouted, banging the wheel with an angry fist. "What the hell's everyone's problem today?! Is everyone out to get my rover?"

"Grove, are you okay?" Leila's voice called out from somewhere beneath more folds.

"Fine," everyone heard him sigh off to the right. "Damn, I'm tired of this."

"How's everyone else?" Leila asked as she managed to find freedom. There were murmurs to acknowledge her call for roll---some confused, all angry. Leila did a silent toll in her head, counting off each voice as she heard them. There was three that she didn't hear at all.

"D? Meier? Charlotte?"

Silence.

Leila looked around desperately, fearing the worst . . . but they were nowhere to be found.

Outside, D stood placidly about ten feet away from the left side of the rover, his back turned to it as he faced the one responsible for the attack. His sword was completely drawn now, the length of the silvery blade still gleaming even beneath the shaded canopy of the forest. Hovering overhead, Meier watched the scene unfolding below, his precious Charlotte cradled tightly in his arms as she, too, looked on in bewildered shock.

D was aware of how quiet it had suddenly become in the forest. Even the air seemed to still itself in apprehension of the current moment, calm and unmoving. The sound of the birds had completely disappeared, almost as though they had been swallowed by an abyss of nothingness.

Nothing shifted . . .

Nothing stirred . . .

Whooooosh-cachank!!

"D! WHERE THE HELL ARE---oh."

Behind him, Leila blinked in confusion from within the open hatchway of the rover, slightly abashed at finding D standing in perfect condition only a few feet away from her. He hadn't even turned around to acknowledge her, his attention raptly focused on something in front of him that she couldn't see because he was standing in her direct line of vision.

Then she noticed his drawn sword and quickly drew out her own blaster.

Making a barely audible grunt as she leaped from the rover, Leila lithely strode over to D's right-hand side so that she could get a good look at who had attacked them---then recoiled in shock when her eyes feel on the one responsible.

"What the---" Her words caught in her throat, her disbelief completely taking over.

"Oh, HEEELLLLL, no!" Caroline's voice suddenly cracked through the air from behind them both. She was now kneeled down where Leila had been standing only a moment before, bristling at the feel of the familiar presence that she had known for years. Benge was standing over her, his own hands clenched into tight fists of outrage as he sensed the same thing.

A loud, cackling laugh resounded throughout the forest. It echoed and vibrated against every surface, making Kyle and Nolt moan simultaneously in disgust as they both recognized the horrible sound, even though they were still lost in Carmilla's gown.

"Not him," Nolt groaned. "Anyone but him."

But it was. The spokes of the wheel gleamed almost as brilliantly as D's sword, supporting the light weight of a single old man. He continued to cackle in pleasure, enjoying the small victory of surprise that he had managed to take full advantage of. His amusement was clear in his stony, gray eyes, large and almost pupil-less coins set into a drooping brow of age.

"Old Leader of the Barbarois," Meier called from above. His voice was calm and smooth. "What is the meaning of this?" The old man's laughter stopped abruptly, his mocking eyes suddenly full of rage and fury.

"What is the meaning of this?!" the old man repeated in outrage, his amusement quickly replaced by bitter resentment. He pointed a long, bony finger up at him, and then swept it at length around at the rest of the group as they all piled out of the rover one at a time.

"You left a poor old man behind is 'what is the meaning of this!'" he shouted. "I indeed delighted at the idea of being able to soothe my tired old muscles---yes---but turn I did to find that I have been discarded!"

"How did you find out that we were going to a hot spring resort?" Leila asked as she replaced her blaster.

"That matters not," the old barbaroi said haughtily as he turned up his nose and folded his hands back into the sleeves of his coat. "The point still remains that you were with knowledge and purposely withheld it from me. What a cruel thing to do to a poor old man . . ."

"Poor old man, my ass," Caroline huffed, stepping up in front of everyone---including D. She pointed a slender finger of her own. "You're a perverted lech, old man, and nobody---nobody---would have been safe from you once we got there."

"Oh, Caroline," the old barbaroi said slyly in mock hurt. "Surely you don't believe that of me? Come, child, I have been nothing but candid in all of my undertakings."

"Yeah, just like that petty little attack of yours just a minute ago, right?"

"I cannot be blamed for that trifle, Caroline. It is you and the rest of you ingrates that have wronged me, not I you."

"What a load of bull," Kyle sniffed as he flexed an arm. Then he suddenly smiled. "You did catch us by surprise, old man, I'll give you that," he continued almost admirably. "Can't say that I'm bored anymore."

"Kyle, why the hell are you praising this old goat?" Caroline fumed. She darted around D and grabbed Kyle by his cuffs, pushing her face into his. "Don't you know what kind of trouble he can cause us, you idiot?"

"Yeah, he's nothing but trouble," Benge muttered in agreement as he glared forward.

"Is that any way for the two of you to speak of your leader?" the old man asked with scandalized boastfulness.

"We're on vacation," Caroline piped over her shoulder. "While on vacation, there is no leader."

"Old man," Carmila suddenly interjected, gracefully stepping forward from the rover. "If there has been any damage done to my gown, you can expect a bill for its full restoration later."

"My apologies, m' lady," the old man said with a hint of reverence, slightly bowing his head in respect, "and 'tis a pity that I must involve you in the squabble at hand." Slowly, he straightened himself up from his unicycle and raised his right hand up over his head. A ball of energy gradually appeared and began to grow in his outstretched palm, balanced over his hand as he gazed at all of them with evil intent glinting in his pale eyes. Everybody tensed and set themselves into fighting stances with only D, Meier, and Carmila remaining calm and unmoved by the old man's display of violence.

"You will all pay for leaving me behind," the old man said loudly with affronted pride. "Prepare to die!---w-what?"

The old man was suddenly lifted into the air by his outstretched arm, leaving the unicycle unmanned and abandoned. It fell over with an empty thud against the soft ground, useless without its rider.

"Let me go, you beast!" the old man cried out indignantly, fighting hard to break free of Mashira's grasp on his wrist. The wolfish barbaroi had managed to sneak up behind the old man unnoticed, even by the rest of the group with the exception of D and the other vampires. He held on to the old man with ease, his arm barely moving despite all of his leader(?)'s struggling.

"You're not so tough without your wheel to help you, now are you, old man?" Mashira asked with a smirk.

"Wheel?" Leila said dubiously.

"The old man's source of power," Benge explained with an air of resigned boredom. "Without it, he's harmless."

A sudden bellow coming from behind the rover made everyone turn as one to look back to find its source.

"What I tell ya'?" Borgoff exclaimed again, his happy pride resonating in his voice. "See, Leila? I told you that I'd find that damned resort on my own without that stupid map!"

"What? Borgoff, what're yo---" Leila stopped as she stepped around the rover to its other side, noticing for the first time the edge of a cliff breaking away from the forest floor a few feet from the rover. It was well hidden by a cluster of trees, an easy thing to miss unless you were paying close attention. Sitting like a dream straight out from a painting, the resort was planted at the bottom of the cliff just a little ways out from its base, a picturesque setting surrounding all four of its sides.

A beautiful rainbow arched high over the entire place.