"Well, here we are." Ricca says as they stand in front of one of the most ominous-looking forests they have ever seen. "C'mon, let's move."
"Are you kidding?!" Miro says. "It's evening! We're not going there in the evening, are we?"
"What's wrong with that?" Ricca asks.
"The EVENING part!" Miro yells. "Evening leads to night, night leads to... nocturnal predators feasting on our innards!"
"Don't be stupid, Miro." Kate says. "This map was used by Anna's dad, so anything that can eat us is probably too old to chase us very far."
"And besides, we're top-notch specialists in getting ourselves out of bad situations." Matthew says. "I'm sure we'll be fine."
"...I'm trusting you." Miro says, and finally they walk into the woods.
-
"There he is!" Elli says, running up to where she sees Cliff lying down on the tracks. The rest of the group runs after her, and stops behind her, looking at Cliff.
"Oooooooh..." Jack says, squinting. "That ain't good. Nami, is there any more room in that bag?"
"Yes, but... I'll have to clean it out afterward..." Nami says.
"Do you think you can heal him?" Gray asks. Elli blinks, looking like she was in a bit of shock.
"Well... I... I think. That is, if I can remember where everything goes..."
"Wow, I've never seen that many things in such bad angles!" Ann says. "He looks like a spider who met the wrong end of a hammer!"
Slowly, Cliff's eyes open. He sees the other people standing above him.
"You're alive!" Elli says happily. "What happened to you, honey?"
"Train... I... fell under... train..." Cliff says, sounding a bit delirious. "Girl... yelled... made... me fall..."
"That must be Kate." Nami says. "She does that, or at least that's what Miro complains about."
"Well..." Elli says, trying to think of what part of Cliff she should fix up first. "Let's... just put him in a body cast, we're burning daylight."
"Wait, but th-that's your husband!" Jack says, openly shocked by this.
"Don't worry, Jack." Nami reassures him. "If it was you there, lying on the ground, looking like you just got out of the blender, I would do the same, too."
"G...b... What?! But that's not a nice thing! That dosen't help matters! GAAAH!" Jack yells, too confused and disturbed to go on. He unzips Nami's travel bag and hastily jumps in. The others hear voices coming from inside the bag.
"Hey, what're you doing in here?" Kai asks.
"Being safe." Jack replies. "I don't want to be thrown into a body cast and dragged along if I get crushed by a train!"
"...Huh?"
"Didn't you hear about Cliff?"
"No, I was too busy."
"Busy?"
"Yeah, I got lost in here. Look, there's a bunch of different things in here..."
"Hey, wow, chocolate!"
"That's nothing, look at this!"
"WOW! A resturant! With a play area!"
Nami zips the bag shut and sighs.
"Great, we'll never get them out of the ball pit." She says.
-
Evening was reaching it's low point, and everything within the forest was shaded and ominous. The stars hadn't yet come out, and any sunlight remaining was blocked out by the old, twisted trees. The group was having a difficult time moving.
"Oww! That was my foot!" Matthew says.
"Oww! That was my shin!" Kate complains.
"OWW! ...You don't even want to know what that was!" Miro says.
"Shh." Ricca says. "How long have we been walking?"
"About two hours." Miro says. "Why?"
"Well, do you think it's a sign of bad stealth that we've already gotten something's attention?!" Ricca whispers angrily.
"W...what?!" Anna says. "We can't even see it! Oh, wait, I know." The sound of Anna rummaging through her backpack is heard. "Ah, here we are! My flashlight!"
"NO!" Everyone yells, but it's too late. Anna turns the light on with a 'click'.
The rest of the group waits for something horrible to happen, but eventually they notice that nothing was. They look around, aided now by the flashlight, but it seems like there was nothing but trees around.
"...Ricca..." Miro begins. "you said that there was something following us, yes?"
"Yes." Ricca replies. "And... It was pretty big. I don't get it, how could it vanish like that?"
"Miro," Kate says. "Haven't you trained yourself to be able to hear tiny little noises?"
"Yeah, so?" Miro questions.
"Could you try to hear whatever Ricca heard?" Kate continues.
"Umm... Sure." Miro says. Breathing in, he closes his eyes in focus and tries to pick up any small sounds that he could. He was in a trance-like state, and Kate had to use quite a bit of willpower to not yell in his ear for her enjoyment. The forest sounded strange to Miro, it was almost total silence, minus a few light breezes and...
Miro opens his eyes slowly, speaking in a calm, quiet voice.
"I can hear... something shuffling against the wind's direction." He says.
"What is it?" Anna asks.
"It's quite strange..." Miro says. "It's close, but... it should be in sight. Easily, by the size of it."
The rest of the group is silent for a long time, either out of nervousness or trying to hear it for themselves. Anna quietly fiddles through the things in her backpack.
"Let's keep walking." Ricca finally says. They all agree and begin slowly stepping away.
Suddenly, a loud creaking and groaning sound is heard. This makes most of them jump and yell. Two of the nearby trees suddenly begin pulling themselves out of the ground.
"Oh crap..." Matthew says as the trees free themselves completely and begin slowly walking towards them. "Uhh... do we have anything for this?"
"Yes we do." Anna says. The rest of them look at her, waiting for whatever she had in mind. From her backpack, Anna pulled out two chainsaws, which surprised everyone greatly and gave Miro and Matthew the confidence they needed.
Snatching both of them up, Miro and Matthew turned to the walking trees.
"Now we're talking!" Miro says.
"Oh, yeah." Matthew agrees. They both yank at the cords of the chainsaws.
Nothing.
Not giving up, the two pulled at the cords multiple times, every time receiving little more than a sputter.
"Annaaaaaa..." They whine, turning to her. "The chainsaws are broken."
"Let me see." Anna says, her and Kate taking a chainsaw. With one pull, they start them up in full force, handing them back over to the guys with smirks on their faces.
Undeterred, but slightly embarassed, they turn back to the trees, which were still making their slow way towards them.
"Okay, let's do this." Miro says, Matthew nodding. Charging at them, they slice into the trees and, in less than a minute, had reduced them to poorly-stacked firewood.
They turned their weapons off and looked back to the others, gleaming with triumph. However, the expressions of those that they were looking at were less than proud. They were completely still, most had their eyes wide open, and were looking slightly above the two.
"Huh?" Miro says in confusion.
"What's the matter, what are you looking at?" Matthew asks.
"Be...hind... you..." The three say slowly through clenched teeth.
Matthew and Miro turn around slowly, gulping down all of the saliva in their throats.
In front of them was a massive, living tree, at least fourty feet tall and extremely thick. It's massive, lumbering... lumber, towered over them.
"...Allow me to repeat myself, OH CRAP!" Matthew yells.
"Okay, what's the plan?" Ricca says.
"RUN!" Everyone else yells.
And so they do, zooming ito the forest at a speed that would startle a drag racer. Once they slowed down for a rest, about half an hour later, all of them but Ricca collapse to the ground.
"Did we... lose it...?" Kate asks, pulling her face up and looking around.
"Yes." Ricca says. "I doubt if it can move very far, it's probably long since gave up."
"Heh... well, that's the first good thing to happen to us today." Miro says. He suddenly hears a very swift rustling, sleekly moving through the forest towards them.
"...Aaand I'm guessing it'll be the last." He finishes. "There's something coming!"
Everyone on the ground gets up, looking in the direction Miro turns his head.
"What? Where is it?" Matthew asks.
"...In the trees." Ricca says calmly. Everyone looks up, spotting two strange shadows leaping from tree to tree with amazing speed and agility.
"Oh, great, it's those things that snatched Matthew!" Miro says. He was the only one to have actually seen the things previously, since Matthew was unconscious, Kate wasn't in the group at the time and Anna and Ricca were busy drawing out the map.
"They're carrying something!" Anna says. "It's... Who is that?"
"Lumina!" Kate and Miro exclaim.
"We have to help her!" Kate says.
"They're getting away! Let's go!" Miro says. The group begin to persue the things, but quickly found that they were moving far too quickly for them to keep up.
Suddenly, one of them notices the group and quickly jumps down, directly in front of Miro. They all stop, Miro staring at it. He could see it's form in the dim light.
"What?! You're-"
But before he could finish, it strikes Miro and sends him into a tree. Quickly, it jumps up and rejoins it's partner, vanishing from sight, along with Lumina.
"...Why... always... me?" Miro says, falling from the tree trunk to the ground.
"Because you always run in front." Ricca explains. "You wouldn't be hurt as often if you weren't in the front lines."
"Point taken..." Miro says, slowly standing up and feeling his face.
"Wow, you're up?!" Matthew says. "How could you stand after a punch like that?"
"It... wasn't a punch..." Miro says slowly. He lowers his hand, revealing a concealled portion of his face.
A claw mark had been cut across it.