Taking the Initiative [Dark]

[Bee]

Mnem stared upwards, in the direction that Minh was looking. At the top of the hill-like crevice they had managed to find themselves in was the path. The blessed, blessed path that Mnem had not seen for what felt like ages, and she would have cried had she thought she was actually capable of producing tears.

As it was, she merely leapt to her feet in an excited bound, and started making her way quickly to the path. She would feel so much better when she was standing on, when there was a clear way through this godawful mess of trees, when they had direction again.

And it did feel better. Monty has at her heels, bouncing about and nipping at things, and apparently the effect of the mushrooms had worn off on hir as well, though actually there didn't seem to be an immense difference between Monty completely whacked out on forest shrooms and Monty in hir normal state.

"Minh!" she called. "Get up here and look at your compass! We need to make sure we're going the right direction, and then get the hell back on way to the Marsh."

[Dark]

[:And now, having finally discovered the path, our intrepid heroes promptly set forth towards their destination...:]

Now that they were finally back to the steady, monotonous trudge that was following the path, Minh wasn't sure how she felt. The experience was certainly less exciting now that they were heading in the right direction along the relative safety of the path. But then, on the bright side, they weren't almost running into horrific obstacles and almost dieing every five minutes. Too bad there wasn't some sort of happy medium.

[:All was not as simple as it seemed, however, and unfold dangers awaited them just around the next bend. Little did they know--:]

"Mnem...do you hear something?"

[:Maybe it was something left over from the mushrooms. Maybe she had finally lost her mind. The truth, however, was much more frightening.:]

"Mneeeeem," an outright wail. Something--some sort of voice--was talking in surround sound, though no one was along the path, and Minh hoped to god she wasn't having a mushroom relapse.

[Bee]

"Shut up, twit," Mnem hissed impatiently, for she heard the voice as well. Even Monty seemed to hear it. The little bander was jerking hir head back and forth, trying to pinpoint the direction from which the sound was coming, probably to attack it. But it didn't seem to be coming from anywhere, really. It was just there. Everywhere.

She didn't like it at all. They were finally back on the path; they didn't need any kind of foul trickery sending them off their way again. Maybe they should rest some more. Maybe the mushrooms hadn't completely worn off. It was the only logical explanation. Or they were insane, but she didn't want to consider that option.

[:Our caustic heroine is leaden with doubt, even about her own sanity, but soon she shall realize the truth, when a gallant--:]

"Shut up," she hissed at the--at the whatever, because telling the Perky Faerie Voice to can it had seemed to work. The whatever--the Narrator, it seemed like--huffed.

[:Acerbic indeed is Mnem, but a humble pie will be served to her and her crazy companion when they run across a hyper-intelligent race of bedside lamps.:]

"You're full of shit," she told the Narrator.

[:You're a bitch. Let me work. And so our heroes pressed on down the path, faithful bandersnatch at their side, totally unaware of the upcoming ninja attack.:]

[Dark]

Ninja attack!?

Minh looked about the area immediately surrounding the path, scanning the tree line for the concealed presence of insane, judo and chakra wielding assassins. She didn't see anything, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

It occurred then, when she didn't see any suspicious stirring of the trees limbs or tangled undergrowth, that maybe she shouldn't really believe the voice so readily. It had , after all, just stated that they were going to be attacked by sentient lamps.

[:Torn by doubt, Minh continued forward. It was her inability to trust that would cost her, in the end.:]

Walking under a particularly laden tree, she gave a snarl as an acorn hit her square on top of her noise and looked up into glowing yellow eyes.

Holy fuck.

"Ninja!"

[:The creature wasn't a ninja, however. Just a harmless, innocent woodland creature that they should stop bothering and move along.:]

Minh eyed the tree speculatively, and shot Mnem an inquisitive glance.

[Bee]

At the Narrator's words and Minh's curious glance, Mnem looked up to the trees. They were filled with owls, brown and white with spots, and they all had wide, bright yellow eyes. They were staring down at them, their shining eyes filled with what Mnem could only describe as unspeakable malice. Owls shouldn't be out at this time of the day. And if they were, they should be doing something owlish, like hunting mice or flying gracefully or hooting or something. They shouldn't be...looking at them like that.

"I don't think those are harmless woodland creatures."

[:And once again Mnem shall pay the price for her lack of faith. For at that moment, the ninja owls, with eyes as bright and yellow as lamps, attacked.:]

The owls flew out of the trees.

"Run!"

She began taking off down the path. The Narrator laughed.

[Dark]

Minh did what any other wise person would do when being dive-bombed by ninja owls--she let out an ungodly shriek, and ducked. At the same time, almost unconsciously, she drew on the grass around her to swell up and create a buffer. The owls impacted like swallows on glass. Feathers wafted up. Monty paced back and forth behind the relative safety of the barricade and waited for the attack to end.

One final thud and a new bloom of feathers. Minh focused on creating a tiny viewing slot in the grass to peer up at the enemy's base of operation. The tree looked vacant.

[:The ninja owls were fierce, but with her impressing mastery of...grass...Minh managed to defeat the enemy forces. Dusting themselves off, our heroes continued of their journey.:]

Minh, Mnem, and Monty locked eyes. Bullshit.

Time to investigate.

Monty crept around the perimeter and darted into the bushes, more than likely to cut their prey off from behind. Minh scrambled to gain her feet and follow adopted a frontal approach.

[:They continued on their way!:]

[Bee]

Mnem had stopped her running when the Narrator told them to keep going on their way, not once but twice. There was something terribly wrong with that. The Narrator didn't want them to look in the tree. The hell they were going to continue on their way. The owls must have been guarding something.

They needed to get into the tree and see what was lurking in the branches. Mnem floated up while Minh climbed, adopting a different, higher angle just in case whatever was inside could fly and tried to escape upwards. She wondered if it were the Narrator itself. She hoped so. She wanted to grab it by the neck--if indeed it had one--and choke it until it was dead.

They saw the beast in the tree. A very small tree frog. A mutant tree frog, with eerie fuschia skin and angry red eyes.

"Oh, for the love of God," said Mnem.

[Dark]

Minh only almost fell to an unfortunate and messy demise a total of twice in her attempt to climb the tree, though she did have quite a few more 'moments' that could have gone either way. As a feline, she really should have possessed better tree-climbing abilities, but it had apparently skipped a generation. She blamed her brother.

She reached the limb closest to where Mnem was hovering, hauling herself up and over, and blinked.

"A frog...?"

[:I prefer Hyla cinerea. Sounds much classier, don't you think?:]

"Shut up--a fucking frog is behind all the eerie voices and ninja owls and--and--general crazy!?"

It just wasn't right. They deserved a break, after everything they had gone through. But luck and chance seemed to all together abandoned them. Minh couldn't decide whether to cry, or go crazier.

She peered down at the frog speculatively, "So now what?"

[Bee]

The frog stared back up at Minh and Mnem, red eyes narrowed and wicked.

[:What happens now is that I dispatch you, graceless feline. Then I shall leap from your bloating corpse and tear the face off your flying companion.:]

The frog hunched like it was about to pounce, but before it could move, Monty came barreling up the tree at a furious pace, claws flying and face wildly determined, and before one little frog foot could leave the branch, Monty leapt from another branch and devored it, landing gracefully on another part of the tree. S/he chewed madly for a moment, face twisted now in slight disgust, like a small child on something gummy and very hard to break apart and also virulently nasty, and then s/he swallowed.

Monty belched, content, and then she flung herself at Mnem, who carried hir back down to the ground. Mnem wasn't quite sure how Minh was going to get down. Likely it wouldn't be pretty.

[Dark]

Minh balanced precariously on her perch, eyes glancing towards the ground as she swayed. She really didn't know how to get back down without falling, and she had a feeling, from the height she'd achieved, that it would be an entirely unpleasant experience.

Determined, she clung to the branch with her front limbs and let her back legs slip off, probing the air below for a stable enough purchase. The pads of her feet scraped bark, and she slowly lowered her weight.

The limb creaked ominously and CRACK.

Doh. Son of a--Ack. Ow.

The way down was one full of pain and twigs in uncomfortable places and bark-scraps, as she bounced off of one limb to the next, gravity pulling her down and into the next obstacle.

She hit the ground in relatively good shape, and hauled herself laboriously to her feet. She shook the twigs and leaves from her coat, and tried to look nonchalant.

"Shall we be going, then?"