Good day! Sorry it took me so long to post this next chapter. I lost my tablet for a while, then i didn't have the cord to charge it... I was having technical issues...But it's all over now! Working on getting back on track now. As I mentioned the first chapters will be a little more fast paste, just enough to establish the background of my OC. I'm super stoked to hear that you like this story. I really have fun writing it, and you give me the motivation to keep at it! So thank you kindly. Please enjoy.

Chapter 2- Untimely Visitors

So, the plan was to leave early, get a great head start, and enjoy a wonderful vacation therev on the beach and a camping trip away for a little while. However, Lonnie's mother fell ill, and so plans re-directed towards the aid of hisn mother. Lonnie took her to the large colorfully painted building of many floors. Inside they were greeted by the local healers and found out it was a fever and headache she had. Herbal painkillers were given to her before she was taken to a Frequency room for her fever while other healers prepared some herbs to bring it down.
The frequency rooms were very comfortable rooms painted in colors that promoted relaxation and peace. The patient would get comfortable on a bed or chair while musicians played certian beats on a very low frequency, (some were even recorded on music box tubes so that a healer only had to turn the wheel) and the tunes had healing effects on their patients. The patient is told to think of only happy thoughts and drink lots of water all the while. The four friends waited patiently bfr her to feel better. they too decided to take advantage of the situation and going into other meditation rooms for different frequencies. There were some that promoted better flow of energy, some for better sleep or altother healing of the body. Aicia convinced Lonnie to at least listen to one for calm. He and his mother had always been close and it made him worry whenever she fell ill.
Alicia though, was having trouble pulling together the song tubes. Lonnie hovered by looking down his nose at her with his usual smirk. "Whiiiiiiiiimp."
"Don't worry I'll get it open."
"Whimp."
"I just have to unhook the metal peice."
"Whimp."
"Almost got it."
"Whimp."
The both of them snickered at eachotehrs' lame but silly joke until she huffed and gave up for him to get it. Which, much to Alicia chagrin, he did so with ease.
"On the bright side, your futility is making me relax more." Lonnie snickered.
Alicia snorted in bemusment.
After the next three days, his mother had made a full recovery. She was released home with a few extra medicinal needs just in case.
That just meant they had to re-schedule their holiday trip. " No matter, we'll just go next month." Michelle said as they ate lunch together.
Since then, Jeremy had his duties in the military, office work and coast gaurd. Michelle, only had a part time job in a restauraunt and stayed at home with Jeremy. Lonnie worked at a catering service, one of the only two on that side of the island, so he was nearly always busy on the job. Alicia worked at a large book store that kept her busy.
They used the time to work extra hours for more money and made doubly sure everything was squared away for the anticipated vacation.
" You kids be careful out there." kathrine, Lonnie's mother warned. "I know you all know better than to go too far in the wilds but.. you still can't be too careful."
"We'll watch each others' back." Michelle promised.
Lonnie simply offered a carefree shrug like he always did in response.
"Don't worry, we'll tell each otgher the best scary stories" Michelle half joked.
"And then we'll crowd around Lonnie fo extra warmth." Alicia joked at Lonnie's bigger size.
The eldest friend made a mock offended look that quickly broke into his usual smile. "Go jump in the ocean." he retorted.
Kathrine only partly shared in the joke. " it's funny now, but I am serious. Camping is a great way for people to go missing. " She wagged her finger at them to accentuate her point.
Jeremy rolled his eyes in good humor. " I promise I will keep an eye on the monkies."
Lonnie's mother gave her warm smile at the reassurance. " I know ya'll will. Go have fun tomorrow."

The next day Lonnie had secured a boat they could rent to sail to the neighboring isle that was often like a tourist attraction. The waterfalls on it were beautiful array of blues and greens. They emptied out into small indentions of the ground that looked like four to eight foot ponds until they all poured out into the sea. The beach, forest and meadows in the center provided lots of possible camping grounds. They met up, geared up, packed up and sailed off.
Making it ashore was the easy part, but finding a camp spot that everyone had agreed on and unloading everything was the hard part for them. It took nearly all day, so needless to say the first day was the friends unpacking and finding a campsite and setting it up, then just relaxing.
Lonnie was first on campfire duty. Unfortunately for him and to his friends' great amusement, his fire making skills were horrible. He was lucky to get a spark.
After that, his efforts in anything else hardly happened.
Michelle enjoyed drawing down beautiful scenic pictures or birds she might have seen. Jeremy and Alicia were probably the ones who did the most work in securing ntheir camp.
They explored what the beautiful veiws had to offer, ate meals and/or played games that they brought or fishing. It was all around a lazy day that day and the next.
Lonnie, being the guy who favored laziness the most, always wanted a break every hour. Alicia got tired of his complaining and snuck into his tent to leave a fake snake in there.
He didn't notice it at first, but when he did the whole tent threatened to come down on him with his wrestling and his screaming.
Jeremy had many colorful empty threats of his own too. " Lonnie if you don't come help with something I'm goign to string you up like a puppet and make you dance the grass skirt dance for the sharks and if you're still alive after that I'm going to give you to the monkies if I find any!"
Lonnie finally, with no small amount of grunting and groaning, did he finally get up to help cook meals. It still did nothing to stop Lonnie's harsh jibes and jokes at everyone.
Michelle had gathred a few bamboo for a small project of her own and did not see Alicia standing near her before she swung the limbs around to slap her in the gut.
On the eve of the third day though, the normal chorus of the neighboring animals had ceased to an errie silence. The place seemed abandoned almost and even the birds were chirping too much or flying away in large flocks. No one paid too much attnetion to it as it seemed just the slight change in wheather of colder stronger winds blowing about.
Jeremy had stepped into the woods for a little bit, wanting some peasce to hiumself as he usually did. Being a trained soldier he knew not to venture too far from the camp. Quietly he walked, enjoying the silence. Instead of the errie feeling of being watched, Jeremy actually took comfort in complete quiet. It was almost theraputic to him. His dreads swayed with gentle rythm to his strides. His gold eyes nearly glowed in the pale light of the moon. Jeremy tilted his head back to look at the stars winking in and out behind the canopies of the inhaled deeply the smell of lush plants and sea salt. Stepping further inland, his aromatherapy was disrupted by another foreign smell. One that he couldn't identify, but that didn't mean to say it smelled good. Maybe some rotted fruit or dead animal was in the area. Still he was about to walk on until he heard odd screeches and hisses. Immediately he ducked behind a tree for cover, one hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword. That did not sound like any normal animal. Catiously he peeked around the limbs and brush. In the dark he could not see clearly what the sources were until they moved like sentient shadows, independant of any other species. They were bipedllers, gangly arms swaying sporadically.
People (if that's what they were), clad in dark metals and smelly leathers with wicked jagged weapons had come stalking into the woods. They made awful noises and gurgling sounds and spoke in a rough language he did not recognize. The nasty stench that wafted from the figures as they came closer made him realize they were the source. Jeremy ducked behind the tree, staying still and silent until he knew for certain that they had left the area. With a second glance over his shoulder, he wasted no more time.
Swiftly he ran back to the camp. " Get your things! we gotta go!"
He urged. His dreads flopping behind him as he hustled.
"What's happening?" Michelle answered. She was kneely by the fire to stoke it until Jeremyt kicked it out. " Hey!"
"No time to explain. There are some dangerus people on here and we need to move." Jeremy repeated. As if on cue, a screeching howl echoed from somewhere into the forest of the mountain. All four had frozen from the abnormal outcry until Lonnie snapped them out of it.
"Move." Lonnie commanded and grabbed his weapons. The others followed suit. They grabbed only the important things then ran as fast as they could back to the boat. Michelle had suddenly pulled up short with a fearful face. She pointed ahead of them. " Look! They're ahead of us!"
Sure enuogh, black humanoid figures moved ahead.
"We can't stay here. Let's go the other way and find someplace safer." Jeremy ushered them all the other way, which led to more beach and woods.
Still they tried to manuever around, searching for a place to hide and muffling their sounds as best as possible. Suddenly, three of the black creatures had popped out, causing them to brace or flinch back at the sudden attack. They scrambled to get away from the creatures and pull out their weapons to engage in defense. Metal clashed around them and finally they could se their attackers clearly. The most grotesque things they'd ever laid eyes on. Large pointed and crooked ears, horrific peircings and rotted jagged teeth with beedy black eyes and greasy black, greenish or greyish skin. Like something out of a nightmare they behaved. The four friends had no choice but to scatter temporarily and reunite after they dealt with their sickening opposers.
Alicia grimaced at the smell, doing her best to ignore it as they quickly bolted through the woods. No questions were asked, thre was no time to answer. Another group of the odd monsters had found them.
The four friends pulled out their weapons, serious frowns on their faces as they launched into attack. They spun, swung, jabbed and even fought dirty to get away.
They tried to run and stick together, but the wild and unpredictable creatures found a way to wedge them apart.
The black, green and pale creatures came dashing out this way and that, forcing her and her friends to keep moving, yet through it all they had seperated. The face of one such creature jumped in her way, she pulled up short nearly running into him and backpedaled.
It's grotesue features and protruding teeth leered at her with a dark smile as it girked and hissed a dark laugh. It tried to grab her, but she would not let it come too close. It lunged at her and she attacked wildly, slamming her body weight into it to throw it off balance, usign cheap and dirty tricks to break the nose, stick out the eyes, punch the throat, anything she could do to get the upper hand. It shrieked and fought back, landing a punch across her face which knocked her aside nearly senseless. Tears stung her eyes from the pain, she rolled with it and jumped at it with a hard kick to the gut, and another barrage at its head till he went down, falling on its own crudely made knife.( Not that Alicia was any kind of blacksmith, thats just how obviously bad the knife was crafted.) No dead animal in the world could compare to the stench that came from this horrid creature. Its balck eyes, jagged pointed ears and odd gait, was like a reminder of dark creatures she had once read about in scary novels. Alicia huffed to regain some oxygen and kept giong at a slower pace to look for her friends.
Her mind raced attrying to think of what the next step should be. Fear gripped hre along with the adrenaline as she heard the echoes of the horrid monsters further into the forest they were at. SH ehad to stay clear of them and find her friends, that much her thoughts were clear on, but which way to go? She peered this way and that down each direction, trying to keep her heart steady. Jeremy as the one with the miliery training, not her. SHe was already getting winded from the running now. Perhaps when she got home she ought to look into a personal trainer for sprint running.
In a fast walk, she went left. Judging by the location of the moon, that should be the general direction back to the water. If her companions were smart, they'd also try and navigate that way too. The woman constantly looked over her shoulder, strained her ears for any sound and most importantly, kept moving.
Her palms were wet with a cold sweat at not being able to see as well in the dark. Even as her eyes adjusted to it, she couldn't make out the farther details of things and for that, she envied racoons for once. Well, now she knew she'd also be eating a ton of bilberries and carrots when she got home too.
Finally though, the moon's light seeped through the trees more and more as she made her way back to the edge of the forest. Rough gargley voices met her as she came closer. Alicia stopped in the cover of the shadows and spied on the owners of the voices. Sure enough, ot was more orcs. They ambled about or listend to one much taller orc in the middle with a strange helmet and mantle of red and black feathers. No doubt he must be a leader of some kind. He called out in his native tongue ordering commands at the others. Alicia didn't want to stick around, and so she picked out another route and tip-toed her way around, sticking to the shadows and the quietest dirt paths. If she could make it to the bridge, or stay out of sight till these guys left the area, then things will have a turn for the better for her.
The girl heard a twig snap behind her, instinctively she did turn to make sure no one was following her. The coast was clear. The woman took two more steps and was suddenly grabbed roughly by her neck, swung around to topple to the ground. Stunned, she merely grunted and tried to regain enuogh control to move, but her attacker was on her. It laughed and ripped her weapons from her. The two wrestled on the ground as she tried to fight back until a hard blow connected with the side of her head. The attacker, another orc, tied up her hands and flung her on his shoulder, a cruel smile of jagged teeth on his blackened lips.
"We gots one!" He shouted gleefully. His dirty hand gripped her jaw to force her to look at him as he gazed back. " Human female." she fought as she tried to get free of him, her head throbbing with pain.
The grotesue creature had her though. She couldn't beat him with strength. She couldn't cut her way free or squirm out of his tight grasp. She could only try and will away the headache she had.
The monster carried her to where the leader was. " Caught one!" he called out. Some other creatures pawed at her body until the one holding her snarled in his language and brandished his crooked sword at them as he passed. So un unified were these walking nightmares, it was hard to focus on just one. They all clambored, beat or screamed at each other. Mix matche or completely defective metal strapped on their bodies in some semblence of armor. Some had swollen faces that puckered with blisters, or gaunt faces that was bone wrapped skin. Despite all their garish looks, the stench and the screams in her sensative ears were the most painful. With a putrid oder like that, the metal weapons seemed for of a decorum'. Further in the overwhelming crowd was she carried by her captures untiln they reached the middle where a much taller and more formiddable creatures stood. He stared down at them with sickly yellow eyes. a headdress of horns and feathers blowing in the sea breeze. Tusks jutted from his mouth, making it impossible to completely close his mouth. No doubt this one was their coordinater.
The leader grinned down at her with his own ugly smile. " One is still better than nothing. We could raise the price on her. She looks different, smells different. We'll call her one of the rarities." The Leader said.
'One is better than nothing. That means they haven't cuaght her friends! Yet...'
The leader stomped up to her, grabbinger her by her hair. " Anymore of ya out here?"
She didn't answer, only gazed at him stupidly.
"Answer." The orc commanded gripping her tighter. She winced at the new pain. Words came out of her mouth in such a jumble she didn't even know what she was saying.
The leader let go and huffed. " Bah! Can't speak common." He grumbled. " No matter. We can still get a good price from her with other men
' A good price? Oh no.. she was going to get sold into prostituion or some kind of slavery!
The orc called out again in his language, then came back around to deliver another hard blow to her head. She was aware of nothing more than black after that.

0_o Oh No! Spoooooky! I can't seem to help myself... I know... horror/drama stuff AGAIN...Bear with me, I do want to expand my horizons. Thank you again for reading and reviewing. As in all my stories, always appreciate hearing your thoughts. (^_^)