So the plan was laid by their blonde haired leader. Go to the trees where the ghost had found perhaps a nest. It was enough of a lead, but the news about this silent place still crawled its way up the spines of the two sailors accompanying the travelers. Especially Tav, who knew less about this wilderness than he did about the ones surrounding his home. Now with Madeira’s pack making his movements more bulky and less fluid, he had to be careful with how he moved. Careful that he always remained at attention with his bow at the ready in his hands, prepared to pull an arrow back at any time. To protect himself and those he was with.
The group moved as one semi-functional unit through the jungle wilds. Following a ghost of a life once lived. Ironic almost that they were following the dead so that they might live. Enda tried not to think about it too much as he illuminated the situation with the torch in his hand and pushed aside the foliage with the staff in his opposite hand. It was hard giving up that control, hard following one who knew nothing, who might take them to their deaths. But he had to trust that something would guide her true. This was the game they were told to play and the hand they had been dealt. Time to win.
They reached the place where the jungle was silent as the grave. All things that went bump in the night were distant, their calls seemingly miles away. Here the world was trapped in a sort of globe that could not be penetrated. An eerie sort of air filling the immediate area. As well as a stench that was subtle enough to not have been picked up farther away but so close was clear. Rot and decay that bubbled in a place where a predator lurked.
Tav and Enda heeded Jomi’s warning immediately. Tension bunching down the muscles of their bodies. Steps back taken and Mad’s pack secured tightly before the Inarta shifted to draw back an arrow in preparation. He was tempted to drop the thing altogether, but if they had to make a run for it that would leave it behind. He would not do that to her, if it could be helped. Perhaps being in the outside world had been good for him, grown in him a respect for others, or at least their belongings. A grunt was sent towards Enda, confirmation that Tav was in place. The Svefra had less weaponry, just his machete in his hand now that Allister had taken the staff, and still clutched onto the torch.
“Be ready,” the Svefra warned further, looking to Tav and then to Madeira, the naked hyena earning a passing glance. “Could be anything.”
Anything. Nothing. The only thing immediately clear as Jomi reached that tangle of foliage was that it was no bird. No, a bird would have been a welcomed sight -even one that was not what they sought- in comparison to this. The creature was not so big to be considered full grown, rather juvenile actually but they would not know that, especially not as it went for the attack. Aggressive, angry, and territorial it jumped from its nest of bones from its long dead prey and used its wings to propel it forward towards its foes. Claws out, compound eyes bright, and mouth wide; it went for Jomi first only to fall through the ghost and head straight for the ground.
A cry of aggression was let out as this larger than life insect went for the first obstacle it saw. Perhaps that was Madeira with her glowing green light, but Allister was in the way so he was targeted. The quick moving predator lurched itself towards the male. Claws sharpened for tearing into flesh outstretched and ready to dig into the hyena’s chest. A challenge, a race, who would be faster? And what would the others be able to do to help?