HAUNTED GARDEN: East Gate {5/5}

The path got darker the further they moved from the safety of the man-made meeting grounds. There was organization back there but the forest that the five apprentices walked into was wild save for the sliver of trail beaten out by countless footprints from centuries of visitors.

The wind rattled the tree branches like how bones rattles when clanged together. Their movement made the trees more prone to to grab on to the five late night visitors who were trespassing on their land. Case in point, Heng, whom hair and height seems to be MADE to catch on to branches, leaves, insects, innocent flying birds...

As Heng stopped, from behind them, where they just walked passed, a large something darted across the trail into the bushes. A loud cacophony of rustling leaves can be heard as the thing ran through the bushes...and then it stopped. It was too dark to make out what it was...or who it was.
Then again, this time ahead of them, another shadow darted across the trail, into the bushes off in the side, too dark to make out other than it was big. The creatures form seemed familiar...maybe a dog? ...the darkness hided the details.
Then silence save for the raspy whispers of the wind once again.

What do you do?

Joakim half-turned his body to look at the others, particularly at Winona, "I have no clue what half of the words you said meant but if it means we get to scare the shit out of people, I'm in." He raised a brow when Winona stated her name and profession, "A singer eh? That's interesting-- for fuck's sake man did you kill a forest dweller when you were alive or something? Geez everything's out to get you."

His attention was promptly turned to Heng, who was busy untangling himself(or rather his hair) from the clutches of mother nature's spooky kids thrice removed(or something like that), though he couldn't help but laugh at the Chinese man's annoyance. Striding over, the viking snapped the smaller twigs and managed to free Heng's hair from the branches, flicking a bug or two off of his head while he was at it.

"You were a soldier? Here's hoping you didn't go scouting enemy camps much, god knows how long you'd spent wrestling trees instead of gathering information." with a mischievous smirk and tugging a twig out of Heng's hair which he threw down to the ground, Joakim stepped away.

Only to frown, his eyes widening at the large figure that shot past the back of their group. It darted out of the bushes, right into the ones across of it and to Joakim's surprise, it wasn't something he could identify. He hunted game for food plenty in his days and Joakim prided himself on being able to identify any forest creature he came across, but that, coupled with Esther's question, made Joakim shake his head.

"...No fucking clue." The sounds had completely disappeared. If that creature continued to run, Joakim would have wanted to pursue it, the rustling would have given him a good enough lead, but seeing as it vanished into thin air so suddenly, Joakim's instincts immediately told him to give up on it. To not pursue it. He wasn't aware of the other shadow, so when he turned around, he walked down the path where the other shadow was.

"Let's just keep moving. Watch your backs, maybe it's just some stray dog chasing something. Or... something." he pat the pouch on his belt, noting that he still had his carving knife even if he didn't have his threadcutter and made sure he wasn't walking too far ahead as he waited for the others to follow.

Heng stilled when Joakim came to uh... assist him, saying a quick "Much appreciated," when he finished. Heng smoothed down his hair, undoing the bun then tying his hair back up into a low pony tail. There. Take that branches. 

Just as he finished, something darted from the bushes, across the path and vanished again with a rustling. He didn't say anything when Esther asked, just kept looking at the spot where the shadow had darted to. 

Animals typically didn't run straight through a small crowd of people, did they? He reached back for his Ji (which he did in fact bring this time because of the supposed Hunter threat). 

"...Where exactly are we going?" Heng asked after a long silence (say for the crickets and occasional owl hoots). 

Joakim had to laugh at Winona's snark, "Would've made a shitload more sense if you told me 'de fordømte tåber er beruset', Wisecrack McSass-nona. English isn't my first language, would've thought my accent made that obvious." He walked a few paces before adding, almost as an afterthought, "Haven't heard people speak english like you do in forever anyway. Do people even talk like you anymore?"

Responding to Winona made him forget what they all saw and felt for a moment. Lincoln's mention of a raccoon or badger made him muse out loud, "That's a damn big raccoon. Or badger." While Winona's mention of the bastard child of a lion eloping and getting busy with a badger (according to Winona) made Joakim pull a face at her. Girls were so gross sometimes.

He did consider what Heng said though. The viking shrugged, "No clue. The rumors weren't very specific with directions and I'm just going with my gut right now. If you guys wanna split up, be my guest. Just watch yourselves. And if anyone's too scared to keep going..." he shot a mischievous grin in Winona's direction, "Use the 'mum and... how do you say it...? Skedaddle?"

With a laugh, the redhead looked ready to go on ahead on his own, but he remained with the group a little longer, if only because he hadn't heard any confirmation from them yet with regards to splitting up.

The viking nodded, returning the salute in Lincoln's direction, "See ya when we see ya, Lincoln." It was nice to see someone adventurous in this day and age, someone who wouldn't be opposed to walking his own path, that is. Turning back to the path he was following, Joakim started walking. If anyone followed him, he'll find out who it was later.

For now, he wondered if he should try taking a path that wasn't already on the trail... He stopped where the figure he didn't see passed by several minutes ago, feeling an odd draft in the air. Looking into the darkness past the bushes, Joakim squinted. His eyes may have been accustomed to the dark, but the area he was looking into seemed... almost ominous.

So he parted the bushes with one hand and made to walk through it, unaware of what had transpired earlier on.

LINCOLN
Soon the din of conversation from the other apprentices was behind him and the forest path got darker. Thankfully the moon was still overhead, giving some light, thought the light was briefly cut every so often by a scattering of dark clouds. The hoots and cries of birds cut through the air from time to time. The sound of rustling leaves accompanied Lincoln through out. From ahead, the rooftop that was seen before in the meeting ground got clearer. It seemed to be a glass dome with a small white spiral on top of it.

Soon, Lincoln came to a fork in the trail with a wooden sign in the middle. To the right, it said "To Arboretum". There was another sign under it that said "CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION". Yet the pathway was unobstructed. Though the trees blocked some view, one could see this leads to the building with the glass domed roof.

To the left the sign read "To Waterfalls" and lead deeper into the woods.

Where to?

JOAKIM, WINONA, HEUG, ESTHER
There was a small, polite, sign next to the bush (that Joakim parted and walked into) that said "Please help protect the fragility of nature by not crushing our plants. Please stay on the paths."
But it was rather dark, wasn't it? And it doesn't look like there is anyone here that would stop them. And you don't hear the bush complaining about being crushed under Joakim's giant feet. If the sign had feelings though, it would have been terribly hurt to have been ignored.

Joakim was greeted beyond the bush by the density of nature; Plants, trees, branches, shrubs. It was definitely darker this way too, the trees block a lot of the overhead light from the moon. This was a path few treaded.

But very clearly (at least from as far as you can see in this darkness) there are indentations where a something crossed. Broken twigs, pushed-out stems of plants. The ground was covered in leaves so footprints would be hard to find. If one knows what they are looking for though, perhaps more clues could be found. However, nothing is stopping you from continuing through the forest this way.

((ACTION: Roll dice (using the build-in dice in this forum) and add WIS to the roll to search the ground OR track the something. If not, continue on.))

When Joakim responded, Winona just had to chuckle. Any other time she’d probably feel a little bad assuming he spoke perfect English, but she didn’t owe this white boy anything. Hm, must be why he could only express his feelings using two tasteless swears. She decided against giving him the satisfaction of an offended response, and simply added, “At least I can speak without sounding like an inebriated sap, you pill.” And left it at that. Hm, this trip was becoming even less enjoyable—as if that were possible.



She smiled back at Heng, seemingly the only guy worth talking to. “I’m sure that dragons exist—or did in the past, at least. The possibility of many different cultures making up stories about the same creatures seems unlikely.” She said, deciding to lay off the slang. Before she could add another comment about legends and myths, Joakim and Lincoln started their idiotic proposals to just split up.

“Hah, you guys want to be the horror movie stereotype so bad,” She said rather bluntly, crossing her arms. Unless this was—what was that show?—Scooby Doo, splitting up was the screwiest idea these guys could think of. But, that didn’t make her standing much better, being the one black person in the group…


--But why was she already getting worried? There was really no reason to be scared, right? It wasn’t a movie. And if Lincoln and Joakim wanted to make it harder to reach their end destination, so be it.



She decided not to comment again, and just followed Esther and Heng. Though the area they landed in was…well, not ideal. Very little light, incredibly dense—except for where the brush had been pushed and crushed to the ground. Very likely to just be dogs…right? Or…hunters. She didn’t want to stay here.


But curiosity towards what had passed through this area began to gnaw at her. Just if to prove that they should leave. So, she crouched to the ground, straining her eyes to see if she could identify any tracks—which was something she wasn’t quite skilled with.

xovAKeUl+2=7 ((I hope I did this right!))