[Azura Rayume]

Archie followed quickly behind Pip and Aisha, surprisingly eager to get out into the middle of things. He was never this excited to jump into this kind of work, not after that one time that Altair had convinced him to come along on one of those crazy alien chases he always went on. This was just, well, energizing, the idea of helping these people out of such a difficult spot with more than just intel.

The mist had certainly rolled in since he had arrived, though that was to be expected with the setting of the sun. That didn't stop it from adding an eerie feel to the air, a cold that even his leather coat couldn't keep out. Before, while they were still inside and talking, everything seemed almost surreal. Now, well, the reality of it all was setting in just as fast as the chill of evening.

"Now I know why the communicators were necessary," he commented idly, gaze straying across the faint horizon line he could still make out. He just hoped no one got lost in this fog. "Fields. Yes." He turned towards were Pip was pointing. "Yes, that seems right. Everyone stay close on the way over, yeah? Don't want anyone getting lost out here."

[ShadowStitches]

The fog was making him nervous. of course he knew what he was getting into when the 'job description' said that it would be in the whisper forest. Still, a part of him had hoped that it would not be that dense. a foolish part, apparently. He followed closely behind the others, taking in what little one could make out through the fog. yes, without the communicators they surely would have a problem. He could not help but think that this would make a fantastic setting for some sort of horror flick. Sierra, tho eager to take flight, also
seemed a little uneasd by the fog. She would not go unless Niner told her so, anyway. But navigating through that mist,  let alone spot something? that could get interesting

He kept silent for the moment, only listening to what the others had to say. his senses where focused on anything suspicious or...well...anything that could help, really. An other side effect of the fog was that
it had the bad habit of muffeling noises. at least those that came from far away. This really was less then ideal.Following the path closely together, they soon reached the fields. Big, rather flat patches of land. obscured by the fog. the bordering woods towered darkly over them, not making the scenario any more pleasant. After giving the ground area around them a quick check, without finding anything special, he spoke up. "I suggest we should stay relatively close to the forest border, as long as we're on the field. I know that the forest is dangerous, but it also provides Cover. if we walk just about on the field, we will be completely without shelter, should something happen. Also, if the creature indeed came from the woods, there are bound to be relatively visibly trails and signs where it came through."

[Mousen]

Pip nodded at what Niner was saying before realizing that it was a pointless gesture while the fog was so thick. He pulled the collar of his coat closer around his neck, in the mist, the navy blue actually blended in quite well. Then again, most things blended in well. A duffle coat wasn't perhaps the most practical of things to wear, but it was the warmest thing he had. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan." Pip replied, heading towards the fields.

The fields appeared to be on the edge of the village, with forest surrounding them. Even from this distance, Pip could begin to make out where some fences had been smashed and where the steady rows of plants within the fields appeared to have been disrupted. He started to walk along one the edge of the field, up towards where the break in the fence was.

Aisha looked around, as though any moment expecting some sort of creature to descend upon them. Keeping her  ears pricked, she'd decided to try and rely upon her hearing, unlike sight, her hearing wasn't impaired by the mist around them.

"... Do you think that's where the creature has been?" Pip asked, gesturing towards the broken fence. For all he knew, it could have been some another animal or something to do with one of the villagers.

[Azura Rayume]

Archie flipped his goggles down onto his face, peering through the gloom from behind the lenses. They made it a bit better; the clarifying chemicals in the glass were still doing their job. The track in the field was relatively easy to find, being one of the only ways through the crops without furthering any damage. It seemed to have been worn down over many a trip, some of the plants broken in several places from multiple instances of being stepped on.

Once Pip mentioned the fence, his attention focused on that, striding through the broken stalks to the shattered pieces of the barrier. "This certainly wasn't done by the villagers," he said, picking up one of the splintered sections on the ground. "I believe it is safe to assume that the monster we're looking for is fairly large and definitely strong, since this fence has been broken inward from the forest side. That-" He gestured to the downed vegetation. "-would probably be the track into town, making the reverse lead back to the forest in the direction it often comes."

[ShadowStitches]

(sorry you guys, very tired, so just a short and uninspired one :/

aaalso  I have a question: how exactly does toxic give us clues, when she starts to do that/rolls for it?
via pm or in this rp? I just wanted to ask ^^')

Niner followed them, surveying the scene. The path that was leading back towards the woods from where the
beast asumingly came from was easily detected. he nodded slightly, while letting is gaze drift from the trail over to the broken fence. "It certainly is strong, the splinters of the fence flew quite a way from what I can see...and I could imagine that it broke through at the first try too." he looked at the others. "I do think that it was not too overly big tho. maybe as big as a man, or even  a little larger, but nothing much more. It would have most likely stepped on the fence otherwise, not run through it. also, I think there would be more detectable footprints." he kind of hoped that he could ease their minds a little, but felt the urge to add "at least that's what i see."he shrugged "and well...I guess we have a pretty clear track to follow, as Archie said...hold on tho..." He took a closer look at the fence, scanning it for any trace of edvidence. if that thing ran through here, and had fur, some of it most likely got stuck on the broken parts of the fence. if not...well, then they could be relatively sure that it was no mammal like creature. this might seemed unimportant, but it was information, and could paint at least a small bit of a clearer picture to them.    
(again, sorry :/)

[Mousen]

((I don't know, I was just about to ask that. owo; Short post for me too. ))

"If that is the case, I may be of some practical use in defeating this monster." Aisha said, examining the break in the fence. "Of course, if it was a monster of some intelligent it may have smashed the fence intentionally. Alternatively, it may be much larger than a man and just have short legs, though in the case of the latter you'd expect it to have left deeper tracks, though we don't know how old these tracks are. They might have faded slightly." Like Niner, Aisha tried to have a look through the splinters to see if she could see any fur or anything, though after a moment she gave it up as a lost cause. For all she knew, there may have been fur caught on the fence but the creature had been damaging fields for awhile now and they had no way of knowing how old the break in the fence was.

Pip sighed, standing on the edge of the group. "I knew I should have stuck with alchemy, I'm sure I read about a tracking... talisman or something. Still, bygones and all that." he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

[ToxicShadow]

The village and forest seemed quiet still, despite the great number of hunters on the case. It seemed like it was even going to remain that way until, without warning, a beastly roar shattered the stillness. Presumably, it belonged to the monster that everyone was hunting. The closest was, inevitably, the members that made up team two, though it was still some ways away. If anything, it was definitely, a clue to the current direction of the monster if they were brave enough to take it.

Unfortunately, as the sound distracted the team, a strange light surrounded both Niner and his companion, Sierra. Within moments, the two had vanished, landing themselves into a different area of the Whisper Forest.

+

Simple and short, one of your team members, Mousen, rolled a clue. However, Shadow, you rolled a random event: Team Switch. You have been moved to team three, where you can post immediately, and Kabuto has been switched here. Again, they can post immediately.

[kabuto_rocks]

Well that was unexpected.

Kainda wasn't too sure whether she'd felt the light or seen it first, burning through the dim cloud of her vision. Either way, her reactions had been far too slow. Neither she nor Bane had had the chance to move, and now both of them had been deposited somewhere completely new.

"Ouch..." Bane hit the ground clumsily. He had no clue what had just happened but the bright glow of the light had given him a headache. While he was attempting to get to his feet Kainda had already jumped to hers, pulling out the small knife she carried. Her first instinct was always to assume danger, especially when something unexpected happened. She hesitated a little when she saw that instead of being face to face with a monster, she was in fact surrounded by three people. The doubt wasn't big enough for her to drop her knife though.

"Who are you?" She demanded, her tone more vicious than usual. She hated to be startled. When Bane realized what she was doing he rushed forward, grabbing her wrist quickly.
No, don't! I recognize them from the tavern. You're hunting for the monster too right?" That last question was aimed at the group. Kainda struggled against him, but to her surprise his grip held her wrist firm. Unable to move she settled for glaring furiously at him. No one grabbed her

{3/5, 3}{5/5, 15}

[Azura Rayume]

((Well, I guess that's how Toxic is gonna interact with us. ^^))

The roar in the distance bought his gaze from the fence to the forest, a shiver running down his spine at the sound. Whatever they were hunting certainly was big, possibly bigger than he had anticipated. Part of him was absolutely terrified to find out what that was, but part of him just wanted to tear into the woods after the beast. Perhaps that was the so-called "thrill of the hunt" that he had not felt before.

A flash of light quickly illuminated the fence around Archie, snapping him out of his thrall with the forest. He turmed to find out what exactly had caused it. Two new people were now standing on the edge of the forest with them, a young man and woman from what he could tell through mist. And Niner seemed to have vanished along with his bird.

"Oh, uh... Hello?" he said, standing and brushing some dirt from his knees. He moved closer to the new pair, looking them over and trying to figure out if he knew who they were. He had seen them before in the tavern but failed to catch their names before. "Yes, we were there, and we're out her looking for the monster. I'm Archie, by the way. And you would be..?" He was still concerned as to where Niner had vanished to, but he had a feeling that had something to do with the appearance of these two. Besides, if they were going to be part of the group, he might as well try to be friendly and get them up to speed on what they were doing.

[Mousen]

Aisha froze when she heard the roar shatter the relative silence of the forest. Her expression didn't say much, but she did look slightly alarmed. What kind of creature could make a noise like that? Whatever it was, it sounded big. If nothing else, this would give them a general direction to go in.

That was when the light appeared, and this time the young woman was really caught off guard, she gasped in surprise and took a few steps backwards. Meanwhile, Pip seemed to be frozen to the spot, too surprised to react. What was even more surprising was the appearance of two strangers, and the disappearance of Niner and Sierra.

"We're hunting the monster too." Pip interjected in his usual cheery tone. It was difficult to believe the man was actually in his late twenties. "I'm Phineas but everyone calls me Pip." He glanced towards Aisha, one of the few people that insisted upon calling him Phineas, she gave a slight shrug. She didn't understand what was going on either.

"I'm Aisha. We mean no harm."

"Except to in the case of monsters, we mean harm then."

"Yes," Aisha agreed in what was a slightly exasperated tone. "Except in the case of monsters."

[kabuto_rocks]

Kainda relaxed a little when they introduced themselves. After all, experience told her that threats didn't usually announce their names. When Bane released her wrist she put her knife away, glancing around at her surroundings as if they might give her some kind of clue as to what had just happened. Bane was similarly confused but he decided the most important things were the people in front of him.

"I'm Bane," He offered up, running a hand through his sandy hair, "Sorry, we're a little disorientated. I don't know what just happened but it seems like we were transported. Erm, is it okay if we stick around with you for a while? We're trying to hunt the monster too and I don't think it's a good idea for us to go off alone if we can help it." He smiled hopefully, praying they would say yes. Admittedly their ultimate goal was to find the monster of course, but he couldn't help thinking it would be better to tackle the beast in a large group rather than as a duo. They didn't even know what they were dealing with after all.

Kainda crossed her arms unhappily. She didn't like this one bit. She'd lost all her bearings now. Still, at least they hadn't been transported too far away from the looks of things. And these strangers didn't seem too bad. Sighing, she decided she might as well make the best of what she'd got.
"I'm not in the habit of teaming up with strangers but I suppose in this case I can make an exception, considering we both want the same thing. My name is Kainda by the way." When she was done introducing herself she sniffed the area, trying to see if she could detect anything off. There was a strange smell, probably a leftover from that weird beam of light. Though she was almost blind her eyes still darted about, as if she expected the light to reappear at any moment and whisk them away again

{4/5, 4}{1/5, 16}

[Azura Rayume]

"Of course you can come along with us," Archie said, practically beaming at the idea. "We happened to have lost a couple of our own teammates right about when you showed up, actually. Maybe whatever caused them to vanish made you appear?" He had his own nagging suspicions that things like that were going to start happening a lot more often once they actually got into the forest.

He glanced back to the trees, slightly worried about whatever strange things might happen to them once they crossed over the border. He had heard rumors of the mists being magic but had blown them off as old wives tales until this. Now, he was forced to reconsider the local superstitions as possibly more that just that. Combined with the monster, this was getting a little out there, even for him.

"We were, ah, just checking out this fence. It seems as if the monster has broken through here and uses this as its entrance into town from the woods. That roar didn't sound like any animal I've ever heard, either, so I think it's safe to rule out local wildlife as the cause as well. We were about to follow this trail into the woods; we would be more than happy if you agreed to come along." He hoped he wasn't speaking out of turn, making decisions for the others, or even too much, seeing as how he had been told that he had a habit of being long winded. "If everyone is ready, I propose we get going before something else happens."

[Mousen]

"It's nice to meet you both." Pip said, trying his best to be friendly. "And, yeah, it would make sense for us to travel together. The forest seems to be really dense, not to mention the mist. We need all the help we can get."

To be entirely honest, now that the hunt was really starting, Aisha was beginning to worry about Pip. It wasn't that he couldn't take care of himself, he had run an apothecary on the bad side of town for the past... however many years. He'd coped with werewolves and djinn and all kinds of awful creatures without so much as flinching, Aisha wasn't sure how he managed it, but he wasn't dead yet. But this, this was completely different, you couldn't stop a monster from tearing you apart with a friendly smile, a slightly threatening-looking sweeping brush and a 10% off aconite flowers coupon. Still, if any of their team got injured, it'd be all for the better that Pip had turned up.

She just hoped that herself and Pip didn't get split up for whatever reason. "I agree. There's no point in dawdling here, we should head into the forest itself." Aisha replied. [b]"Let's try to stay close, the last thing we need is someone getting split from the group."[/b] With that, she took a tentative step towards the edge of the forest, hoping to find that there was some sort of path that she could follow.

((Fail, sorry guys. I've got a bit of writer's block for some reason. Ehe. X3; ))

[kabuto_rocks]

Bane let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness they'd ended up with friendly people. He didn't like to admit to being scared but the thought of being out in the forest almost alone when there was a monster was a little daunting.

"Thanks," he smiled back at the group. It was interesting to know that others had vanished too. Had it been a sort of switch then? Whatever it was, it was odd to say the least. Wandering over to the broken fence, he examined it himself, "That seems like a good plan. I hunt here sometimes and I don't think many things living here would break the fence like that."

"I wish I'd heard the roar," Kainda sighed. Any noise had been blocked out by the flash of light and that awful sick feeling she had experienced, "I'm quite good at identifying creatures by sound. Scent is better but that can't be helped." She looked down at the ground wistfully, as if expecting some object of the creature's to suddenly appear. Getting back to his feet, Bane brushed down his trousers and glanced at the path.

"I agree that we should probably get moving. A creature which can destroy a fence like that is no doubt pretty fast as well."

{5/5, 5}{2/5, 17}

{Just to let you know, I'm going away now until Thursday. I might have internet access there but I don't know yet, so if I stop posting for a few days then that's the reason why. I'm really sorry-feel free to carry on posting without me, you can just assume my characters agree with whatever your plans are}

[Azura Rayume]

Part of him wanted to charge right in, but Aisha's caution about not getting separated curbed that impulse. Now that they knew the creature was close, and that they were going to be venturing into what could accurately be described as its territory, staying together was more important than ever. People always told stories of travelers lost in Whisper, and he did not want to add his own tale to the list. He was simply tired of dawdling.

As the group began to move toward the forest edge, he could only describe himself as apprehensively excited. This must be the thrill of the hunt he often heard tell of, though the thought of chasing after some great beast in the fog without knowing what it was chilled his stomach with dread. There was no turning back now, though, here on the edge of the forest with his adrenaline pumping. He stepped forward, gaze searching the trees and ground for some sort of trace of the creature beyond the path it had left through the understory. He wanted to know what he was up against.

((Terribly sorry. Entirely uninspired at the moment because of all the stress and crap I'm having to deal with at school. Hopefully that will all be getting better soon, though, and I can devote a bit more time to RPs.))