Acquila went over his choices quickly. He could leave Kaoru here, set her up in and tree and let her sleep, while he went look for Tuan, or he could take Kaoru with him and try to find Tuan, which may slow him down.
The protective side of him wanted to take Kaoru with him. Leaving her alone could be risky, who knows what may come after her. However, the side of him that had brains realized that bringing her with him could potentially be putting her in more danger. Someone probably kidnapped Tuan and is using him as bait to get Kaoru closer to them.
He nodded to himself. He was going to have to move Kaoru off of the trail they were taking and put her up on a high branch. Camouflaging her with a few leaves would have to take care of protecting her.
As soon as he was satisfied that no one could see Kaoru from the ground and that no one was around a short perimeter, he went back to the trail and marked the spot with a small foot print. He had to retrace their steps for quite a while before he found any evidence of a struggle. A few of the bushes around the area were bent out of shape and there was a disturbance in the Earth that showed that they were rolling around in dirt for a while.
"How is it possible that I didn't hear anything?" Acquila muttered to himself as he inspected the area. A part of him wondered if Tuan had stayed silent on purpose to protect Kaoru. He probably thought that if he made any kind of noises other people would've woken up and came looking, or that Acquila would've tried to fight back. Both situations would've put Kaoru in danger. Does that mean Tuan would want him to take Kaoru and go on without him?
Acquila shook his head. He couldn't do that. Tuan had been with him since they found Kaoru. They had become close friends, and frankly, Acquila couldn't picture taking care of Kaoru without Tuan around. They sort of balanced each other out.
The best thing for him to do would be to go after Tuan... And hope Kaoru didn't wake up and leave her spot in the tree in the meantime. He'd have to arrive prepared and act as fast as he possibly could.
Following the trail turned out to be a whole lot easier than Acquila thought it would be. When he arrived on the scene Tuan was tied to a tree, and even though he didn't have a gag in his mouth, he wasn't talking or screaming for help.
"I'm only going to ask this one more time," Peaches hissed. "Where. Are. You. Taking. Her."
Tuan's eyes were pointed upward. He seemed to be searching for help in the sky.
"You're spies aren't you? The whole lot of you? You and Acquila probably arranged for that mangy little hair to get dropped off in our forest. You arrange for her to be found and out of "the kindness of your hearts" you took her in and raised her! And now the three of you are on your way out so you can bring in your reinforcements so you can take over the garden!"
Acquila wanted to laugh. He couldn't believe that Peaches was really this paranoid. He bit his lip to hold back the laughter. They were in a dangerous situation and he couldn't afford to give himself away.
"And Falon, too, right? Falon was there right along with you! The way he hovered around the brat as much as possible. It's so obvious to me now! All of you want the chao gardens to become extinct. Ha! And everyone trusted Falon so much!"
Acquila was becoming very nervous. Peaches was being too loud and they were way too close to the chao garden. If anyone else were to wake up they would be in deep trouble. There had to be a way to quiet him down.
"If I'm the one to bring this whole thing to light... I could be, like, king of the chao!"
"Falon was not in on anything," Tuan mumbled.
"So you admit that there was something!" Peaches face lit up now that Tuan was finally talking.
"I did not say that," Tuan said quietly.
"Then why would you say only Falon's name?" Peaches hissed. "Why wouldn't you say 'We weren't in on anything.'?"
Tuan chuckled lightly. "I don't know, Peaches. Maybe it's the same reason you took me instead of taking all of us. Tell me, Peaches. If you thought we were all spies trying to take over or destroy the Chao garden, why would you only take me? Why wouldn't you have back up so you could take all of us?" Tuan shook his head. "No one believes you, anymore, do they? You told them about us being spies and they believed you, but then you brought Falon into it and you lost all of their trust. You did all of this so you could become this so called "King of the Chao," a title that doesn't even exist, and now no one would believe you unless you had someone confess. You're alone."
"If you go missing," Peaches hissed, "no one will know. I will tell them all you escaped with the other two, and everyone will believe me. And the other two, they'll think you abandoned them. No one will miss you. And it'll only prove to the garden that I was right."
Acquila was about to jump forward and tell Peaches that his plan had been foiled, but from behind him and clear as day he heard, "Twan?"
