Now that night had fallen and encased the kingdom in darkness, the forrest had gotten even more stuffy. Jungles are one of the only places where the temperature does not drop at night, and the unexplored part of the massive Emerald Forrest was no exception.
The giant trees had grown extremely close together, blocking the wind or light from entering at any possible angle, resulting in a sweaty group of people trudging through it in complete darkness, only able to see the faint glow of their eyes. Monstrous tree trunks jutted out of the sloshy mud and threatened to trip any explorers, and if that wasn't enough, mysterious sounds of all kind echoed creepily though the air, sometimes at the same time. Joey thought he hear a soft whisper of his name at one time, then a slow scratching, like a powerful and deadly claw being scraped across a brick wall, then a long ghostly howl. It sent a chill up his spine, and goosebumps along his armoured skin,
and most of all, creeped him the f*ck out.
"AGH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" He had clutched his head in frustration, almost crying, which is something that surprised even him.
"Who's the damsel in distress now?" The misty blue eyes of Weiss taunted, but Blake whispered in a slow and very serious voice " The forrest plays with your mind, makes you hear and see things that are not there, and sends the weak minded insane."
"I don't like this place at all," said the bright grey eyes of Ruby in a low tone, as if trying not to alert the inhabitants of the evil place of their presence. " It's all icky, and gooey, what about you, sis?
Yang eyes seemed to be jumping all over the place, blurring at the speed, wide and jittery.
"Yang?" asked Ruby carefully "Don't scare me, you know i don't like you teasing me…"
The whole group has paused to stare at Yang's eyes wave about.
"Something's wrong," muttered Bob " Stay down kids."
"Huh?" Jeff said, trying but failing to swat 5 inch flies out his face.
Yang's purple eyes where wide with shock, and seemed to be spasming out uncontrollably.
"Do something!" Ruby cried " Something is wrong!"
"Shush up and stay down!" Bob cried, aiming his boxy gun at the shuddering eyes "I got this."
Ignoring the voices of the people around him, Bob fired a jet of blue light that burst forth from his gun with a loud bang, that rang out into the darkness.
The blue light seemed to be a sort of mist, with a neon glow that spun towards it's target. Sparks twirling from the main bolt and crackling on the leaf covered ground.
It impacted just below the lilac eyes, exploding and engulfing the surrounding area with sparks and steam that continued to circle around Yang in a column of glowing blue smoke.
Her companions watched in horror and amazement as the pillar of smoke exploded with a cloud of light, illuminating a dazed Yang Xiao Long lying sprawled on the ground, coated with a green sticky slime.
Her slime covered eyelids fluttered open. " Agh…what the hell just happened?"
Bob settled his steaming gun on the floor and bent down to examine the slime on her " Seems like you got caught by a Vale Land Squid. "
"A what?!"
"Vale Land Squid. A squid that lives on the forrest floor and latches onto a victim and tries to control it's mind by squeezing its tentacles though the ears into the brain. You where lucky i was there."
A metre long centipede crowd past them, attracting her attention. "Whats that?"
Bob flippantly dropped his gun on its head, crushing it. "Thats a Emerald Forrest Centipede."
The same long and ghostly howl that Joey and Jeff heard before could be heard again, chilling the bones of the group.
Yang wiped the slime out of her golden silky hair. "Whats that?"
Bob took up his gun and stood up and looked into the distance. "Something we don't wanna meet."
Joey patted his friend on the back "We need to get to the point before sunrise. We need to hurry up. NOW."