Lilac

Beast Boy awoke to the smell of soy bacon and eggs. He slowly opened one eye, then the other blinking away the bright light coming from the window. He sat up, yawned, and stretched before peering over the couch to see who was cooking in the kitchen. Starfire and Raven sat at the table while Cyborg was making breakfast, with several skillets sizzling on the stove. Beast Boy crawled off the couch and slowly made his way to the kitchen table. Almost as soon as he seated himself, a plate was placed in front of him. He looked at his vegetarian meal and back up at the metal man, confusion etched across his features.

"I think we can go one day without a vegetarian vs. meat battle don't you think?" Beast Boy gave a small smile, nodded, and dug into his plate.

After he was done, Beast Boy noticed Robin's absence. "Hey, where did Bird Boy go?"

Hearing this, the rest of the team seemed to relax. Beast Boy was back his old, jokester self.

"Oh! Boyfriend Robin has already had the break of fast and has gone to talk to Dr. Rogan before we leave." answered Starfire.

"When do we leave?" questioned Beast Boy.

"At 8:30, so in about twenty minutes." answered Cyborg.

Beast Boy's stomach did a flip. He didn't think they would be leaving so soon. He felt anxious and unprepared for what laid ahead.

Twenty minutes later, they were walking with Dr. Rogan over to the outskirts of the facility, where the paved roads ended and the trees began. Before leaving, we all packed the basic necessities into our backpacks, preparing for whatever lies before us. Ahead of us, about fifteen feet away, there was an area of trees that were demolished. The pavement leading up to the area was covered in small, deep cuts.

"What the hell happened here?" said Cyborg.

"Dude! The trees look as if a monster truck drove through them!" said Beast Boy as he ran the last few feet to the disaster site. Not only were the front trees destroyed, but a tunnel of trees, continuing on as far as the eye could see. "I mean, it just keeps going!"

"This is where the experiment made its escape from the facility." said Dr. Rogan. "Our men tried to contain it, but their attempts were futile."

Looking down, the pavement was filled with tiny indents made from bullets. A few shell casings still remained from the incident. If the bullets even damaged it at all, the rain has already washed away any evidence of blood.

"Hey Beast Boy, Dr. Rogan has something that may have the experiment's scent. Maybe you could use it to track it?" said Robin as he took a small worn blanket and handed it to Beast Boy. The blanket was ripped in many places and was a dirty brown color. It might have once been white, but that was a long time ago. He looked at it in disgust. This looks more like a rag than a blanket. He reluctantly brought it to his nose and was surprised by how it smelled. Instead of the revolting smell he was expecting, the smell of lilac wafted through his nostrils. He gave the others a confused look before trying to see if the smell remained in the mass of torn up trees. Sure enough, a very faint hint of lilac remained. He carefully folded up the blanket and put it into his backpack before nodding to his friends. The five nodded back, said their goodbyes to Dr. Rogan, and began their trek, following the creature's path of destruction.

About a half an hour into the jungle, the path tapered off until there was no telling where the creature had gone. Beast Boy took out the blanket, smelled it, and changed into a dog searching for the aroma of lilacs. Once he located it, he barked at his friends and took off in the direction the creature had taken.

When nightfall came, the teens settled down near a stream for the night. They made a small fire and made some soup before taking out some blankets and resting till early morning. They did this for three more days, the team following Beast Boy through the woods, and camping out at night.

On the fifth night, they found a beautiful waterfall. It towered over them about thirty feet in the air and fed into a sparkling pool of water and a large stream. It was sitting in a small clearing.

"Wow this is most beautiful friends! On Tameran, one would not see a sight as beautiful as the falling of water!"

"It's called a waterfall Star, and yes it is beautiful." said Robin who staring lovingly as his girlfriend. She blushed. "May we sleep here tonight?" she asked. Robin nodded and the team began unpacking. As they began getting out the food for supper, they realized just how low their rations had gotten. They had enough food for two more meals, maybe three if they ate small portions. They decided that they would search for more food in the morning. If they were unsuccessful, they may be forced to end the search early and return the next day.

It was Beast Boy's turn to search for firewood as he took off from the clearing and into the dark woods. During the day, it isn't so scary. The birds are chirping, the weather is warm, and the sun is shining bright, but at night it's a different story. He was cold, trudging through the quiet darkness. It was almost totally silent, except for the occasional chirp of a bug or something scurrying through the trees above. That was what scared him most, the silence. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and he became jumpy at the slightest sound, even the sound of a twig snapping beneath his own feet. Shaking the feeling off, he began his search for dry wood. Being that they were in a rainforest, dry wood was hard to find. However he was able to get a small armful, enough to last them a few hours. He turned around and followed the scent of water but before he cook take a step, a loud rustling sounded in the trees above him. Startling him he accidently dropped his pile of tree limbs. Looking up he saw… nothing. Just the tops of trees and patches of the black, starless sky above. He shrugged and picked up a few branches before hearing the sound again. He stood up and became worried. Whatever it was, it was too big to be bird or a small mammal. No, it sounded as big as a jaguar. But, jaguars wouldn't be up in trees as high as these... Then the smell hit him, lilac. His eyes widened as he dropped his remaining sticks and ran back to the others, tripping over the bushes and vines in his hurry.

"Guys! GUYS! It's here! It's in the woods over there!" He pointed back while running up to them. Jumping to their feet they ran in the direction Beast Boy had been pointing. He led them up to where his pile of sticks lay, but by the time they got there the smell was only faintly there. It had begun to rain, washing away the evidence of the creature's arrival and ruining their firewood. They made their way back to the campsite and decided to give up on any chance of having dinner. Placing their blankets into the trees adjacent to the rock wall of the waterfall, they fell into a fitful sleep.