[Kylo]

After he was assigned a team Rod had taken Sam with him as they went out to the edge of the forest with the rest of the team. As it was a cooperative group effort he would have to make sure to not let himself go off on his on his to hunt the beast. While he knew how to work with a team he had not done so in a very long time. "Is everyone here? Good. Before we head out I'd like to discuss a strategy for hunting this creature. We were not given much information on it's appearance or it's habits so we will have to be on guard at all times. Now before we discuss strategy would everyone please introduce themselves? I am Rod and my partner here is Sam. If you have any questions for me or Sam do not hesitate to ask." He looked around at his group as he waited to find out their names. Hopefully everything would go smoothly and everyone would get along. The last thing anyone needed was for a fight to break out between hunters.

Sam listened to Rod boredly as he looked around more at the plant life that grew around them. He honestly was not interested in any of Rod's plans. He just wanted to take care of the beast quickly so he could go home and watch over his pumpkin patch once again. That and he found Rod to be boring normally anyway. He watched several leaves fall from the trees as he half listened to the rest of the group speak. He supposed he might as well know their names at the very least, though he didn't much care about anything else about them. "Like Rod said, I'm Sam," he stated quietly after a while.

[1/5][1/5]

[SpringsSong]

After the teams had been assigned, Mariko followed closely behind the rest of their team, while Kouki and Akio were content to stay as far back as they dared.  After all, they had little to no desire to be there in the first place.  A swift one-eyed glare from Mariko, however, was enough to get them to follow a little closer than they had been before.

"Sam, Rod.  It is an honor to make your acquaintence," Mariko said, while her brothers both scoffed slightly.  Another one-eyed glare from Mariko silenced them before she added, "I'm Mariko, and the two sticks in the mud who don't want to take this mission seriously are my brothers, Kouki and Akio.  They... regret that I pointed out this mission to our sensei, and that she agreed to send us out here."

"You're just Syarri-sensei's favorite!" Akio snapped.

"Mother's favorite.  You can refer to her as she is, Akio," Kouki said darkly.

"Stop, both of you.  You're both just as guilty of calling Mother 'Syarri-sensei' instead of 'Mother'..." Mariko said in response, growling beneath her breath as she rubbed the side of her face that was not covered.

[kabuto_rocks]

Huh, teamwork. Kainda hadn't really thought about what it would be like working in a team. If this hunt wasn't so tempting she might have walked away right then. Then again, perhaps her curiousity would have made her stay. She wasn't the type to give in easily after all.

Still, she had lingered behind somewhat as the rest of the group moved on. Bane had been content to go ahead, eager to befriend everyone else as soon as possible. Admittedly he felt nervous being around what were no doubt skilled hunters, but he believed this whole process would be a lot easier if people got along.

When the introductions began Kainda moved closer to him, although she wasn't entirely sure why herself. After all, she didn't particularly know Bane all that well. But he seemed nice enough and he was less of a stranger than everyone else. She stood silently as each person said their name, watching as Bane nodded his head in greeting at each speaker in turn. When everyone else was done the male stepped forward, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Hi everyone. It's nice to meet you, even if the circumstances are perhaps not ideal. Erm, I'm Bane by the way." He gave a half-hearted wave before hastily shoving his hands in his pockets. Perhaps not the best first impression but he wasn't really sure how to appear tough. In all honesty he wasn't tough-he was strong however, and he had his own reasons for wanting to look for the monster.

Realizing she was the last one left, Kainda cleared her throat and tried to look unconcerned.
"I'm Kainda. I think having a strategy sorted is a good idea. Although it will be tricky since we don't really know what we're hunting." She smiled slightly, nerves getting the better of her. She hated feeling this uncertain. Once the hunting began she would feel better. When she was hunting she knew what she was doing

{1/5, 1}{3/5, 12}

[Kylo]

"Alright now that that is out of the way, who here is is good at tracking? Or at least at identifying the tracks of native wildlife of this area?" Rod himself did not want to admit it, but he still did not know of every species here on Evelon being a Gaia native. "If we can rule out the tracks of what is known then whatever remains has a high chance of being the monsters."

Sam nodded at what Rod said, thinking that the human was saying something intelligent for once. "I think I can help with that, though I'd still appreciate if someone else could help me as well." He already knew nearly every creatures tracks by now after years of chasing things away from his plants. "Anyone else have any ideas or should we just go into the woods already?"
[2/5][2/5]

[SpringsSong]

The three ninja stood for a moment, thinking before any of them spoke.  Finally, it was Kouki who spoke, stepping forward as he brushed his hair out of the way.

"I and my squad know the lay of the land well enough, although I am the better of the three in determining such things," he said, and Akio and Mariko nodded.

"Yeah, Mariko's not so good with tracking with her eye covered.  I don't even understand how she--" Akio started, but the flash of a kunai knife flashing past him with a thin string attached to it caused him to fall silent.

"How many times have I told you about not bringing my eye into this?" Mariko asked darkly.

[kabuto_rocks]

The production of a weapon had alarmed Bane somewhat. He was even more alarmed when Kainda began to laugh, a gleam of amusement in her eye.
"We probably shouldn't start cutting each other up yet," she smiled at the ninjas. Oddly enough the event had relaxed her. She turned back to Rod, her voice more confident, "I don't know this area well but I should be able to track the monster once we find something which belongs to it. My eyesight isn't great but I have a strong sense of smell."

"It is amazing," Bane nodded, giving her a small smile. That was how the two of them had met as a matter of fact. She had been following him for days without him realizing. His back still stung a little from when she had ambushed him, "I know this area fairly well so I should be able to help with the tracks. I hunt some of the creatures here sometimes." Subconsciously he fingered the object in his pocket, a small hunting knife. It wasn't terribly impressive but it got the job done. He had also concealed an axe in his backpack, a last minute attempt to grab something with a bit more power. He was beginning to regret it actually-he could feel the blade weighing him down with every step

{2/5, 2}{4/5, 14}

[Kylo]

Rod sighed and rolled his eyes at the quarreling ninjas and muttered something under his breath about the old days of war between Shinra and Wutai. Whatever it was, it sounded very close to an insult. Nodding at the other members of the team and he grinned and withdrew his electro-magnetic rod. "Alright now that we got our trackers together let's head off. For now I suggest we stick together as we do not yet know the strength of our prey. If we determine it to be weaker we may separate into smaller groups to fan out and search the general area." With a cocky grin he started off into the woods making sure that the others followed.

Sam had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the group who were bickering over a lost eye. It seemed like a strange thing to fight over to him. He then turned to Kainda and smiled. "Your sense of smell will be of great help once we discover the beast's tracks as there will surely be something of it left behind to pick up its scent with. Kouki please stick by me and help me with traversing the landscape. You may catch something that I have missed in my search." He looked up as Rod began to head off and sighed moving to get in front of him and start studying the ground for signs of previous movement. After all Rod's foot prints would only ruin anything that was already there.

((Hey guys I hope I'm not overstepping by letting Rod act as leader. I can have him back down if you want. I just didn't know what to do so I went with what I had. Also we need to figure out who has the communicator given to them by Z and Toxic, as that may be important later on.))
[3/5][3/5]

[SpringsSong]

Kouki bowed slightly.  "As you wish," he said simply, while Mariko flicked the kunai knife back with the string, lowering her head slightly in response to her sudden snap.  Akio shook his head after a moment as he frowned.

"I agree that sticking together would be best, until we know the strength of our enemy.  Our squad are trained to handle missions as a team to cover the others' weaknesses, but we rarely ever separate," he said, and Mariko nodded.

"So, who wants this communicator?" she asked as she held up the box.  "I am not really familiar with any sort of technology, so... someone other than my brothers and I should take it."

[ToxicShadow]

Suddenly, a little boy came running toward the motley group of monster hunters, clinging onto the one that seemed to be leading them - Rod. "E-Excuse me, Sir," the boy began, voice shaking in both fear and excitement. "I... I wanted to tell you what I know about the monster." If anything, the boy was much braver than most of the villagers, nearly everyone refusing to even leave their homes now. "It came near my house the other night, and I heard the sound of something... metal. And my friend Lola, well, she says her mommy actually saw the beast. Lola said that she said it reminded her of... a cat or... was it a wolf? Maybe a cow. Um, yeah, I'm not too sure... But I shouldn't really be out here long."

While the little boy spoke, something unusual happened. A bright light appeared around Kainda and Bane, alike. Shortly after, the two vanished into the thin air, being dropped off somewhere entirely else within the Whisper Forest.

+

Two members on your team, Talcen and Fire, have rolled clues. However, Kabuto, you are a random participant in a random event: Team Switch. You have been moved to team two and may begin posting there immediately. In their place, Shadow has been moved here and may begin posting immediately.

[ShadowStitches]

Niner


Sierra


Niner felt a sort of weird, tickling sensation when the bright light surrounded him, transporting him close to the other team in a matter of a second. Bereft of his sense of balance, he almost tumbled over, but caught himself.He looked around wildly, obviously the situation was a bit over his head. "What?..." was all he could whisper for now, before Sierra awoke from her shock induced trance.

her flight instinct kicking in, she tried to take of, but got held back by one hand of her partner, who held her in place. Flapping and hissing loudly, she put on quite a struggle, too panicked to think clearly. "Sierra stop it!" the tall man with the Mask snarled, trying to keep her from taking off, while looking around to examine his location. not only was he in a completely different location (tho still in whisper forest it seemed), no, there was a group of six people relatively close to him.

He almost followed his first impuls to get out a gun, but held on in the last second. these people where...well.No monsters obviously, and he recognized them from the tavern, at least 5 of them. one seemed to be a little boy. He stood where he was, happy that his mask hid his impression, because he most likely looked quite flustered. "I erm...don't assume that any of you know what the hell just happened?" he asked, hoping that his voice was not sounding too shaky. What a poor introduction....but formalities could be exchanged later. He was a little surprised himself, but unlike Sierra, who calmed down by now and sat shaking on his shoulder, he at least did not suffer an almost-nervous breakdown.

A small part of him was also worried about the others. they heard a loud roar back there a few seconds ago, after all... And, and that was worrying him even more, either the monster or this place itself seemed to have psychic powers. that, or he had gone completely insane.

[Kylo]

"I'll take the communicator then." He turned to talk to Bane and Kainda when suddenly without warning a child was clinging to him and telling him about the monster. He smiled slightly at the child and patted his head. "Thank you, that will help us greatly with our search. Now run back home where you'll be safe." Just as he looked back up two of his team disappeared and suddenly two entirely different people took their place. "Well it seems we have a far bigger problem facing us now besides finding this thing. Unless if it's common on this world for people to teloport I'm going to take a wild guess and say that our prey can use magic. In other words, does anyone here know how to use spells or materia?"

Sam watched the child that showed up for a moment before turning towards a bright light and hissing. Magic, and pretty strong magic at that was at use. He wasn't terribly surprised when two of his team poofed only to be replaced with a man and a bird. "You were just transported by magic, and by the feel of it from the beast as I have yet to feel that sort of energy come from a human. I am Sam, that is Rod. You're name please since we're obviously on the same side?" He turned to Rod and sighed. "There is no materia here, Evelon does not have such objects."
[4/5][4/5]

[SpringsSong]

"I've heard of some people being able to use magic," Mariko said quietly.  "However, I've never seen it before myself.  I always assumed it was just fairy tales and the like.  You know, the things that parents tell their children at bedtime."

"Well, obviously the children that you talked to were not raised by a jonin who could easily be a sannin!" Kouki snapped as he looked at the child who had clung to Rod's leg.  Listening to the clues, he slowly nodded, but his face was otherwise blank and at a loss.

"That is a curious combination of things," Akio commented.  "However, it still leaves a lot to figure out...

[ShadowStitches]

He looked at his new group...at least, what was his new group for now. it would not surprise him that much if something like this would happen again. Niner nodded slightly at the introduction. "My name is Niner. this is Sierra" he pointed at the Fowlbine, who still seemed a bit flustered. "and no,I sadly do not know how to use spells." he said in a apologetic tone. Watching the three silbings, and then turning his attention back to Rod and Sam.

"I do however have a vague idea where the Creature could be located. Before I got here, me and the rest of my former team where inspecting a big hole in the fence at the fields. it seems it was where it got from the forest into the town. just before I was...brought here, we heard a roar." he tried to make out anything familiar to serve as a guide in the mist. "I believe the fields to  be west from us, and the roar seemed to come from the woods relatively close to that. If we proceed into the woods and keep west, i believe that we would at least be able to find out something more." he enden, hoping that the information he gave would help them

[Kylo]

"Well Sam it looks like you'll have to be in charge of using magic around here to defend us since you seem to be the expert on it." Rod then turned to Niner and smiled. "Alright, thanks for the heads up Niner. Come on everyone, you heard him. Let's head west!" Rod began to head off into the woods turning his head back to look and make sure everyone else was following him. He wanted to hurry and get going in order to get to where the beast last was before it moved on to somewhere else.

Sam nodded at what Rod said and quickly followed close behind him. he didn't want to get left behind and seemingly being the only magic user there he knew he would be needed for the coming battle once they found the beast. Hopefully it wouldn't be too hard for them to track it down now that they had a clue to its location from Niner.

[1][1]

[SpringsSong]

All three siblings snapped to attention as Rod called for them to start moving.  Kouki took his place beside Sam, his eyes trained on the scenery around him as he tried to keep an eye out for anything that might appear to be out of the ordinary.  Mariko and Akio, however, kept closer to the others in their group.

"Well, away we go," Mariko said blankly as she moved closer to where Niner and Sierra were.  "Hopefully it's nothing like the demons that Mother mentioned having to fight before..."

"Syarri-sensei was born in a land different from this one, Mariko," Akio said with a sigh.  "The demons in this land are a fair bit different from the ones that she ever faced..."