[Indigo]

Naole was not the sort of person to keep a carefully updated list of things which he did not like. But had he been that sort of person, at the top of the list would be traveling through rainforest.

Oh, it was very pretty, yes, and when they passed through the large clear areas made my decades of explorers he was able to appreciate that much. But it was so much work to get through, what with all the cutting and climbing and shoving and other thwarting of plant matter. It would have been nice to have Grelt along to trample the undergrowth and so on, but the wagon was full of valuable specimens and Naole wouldn't be able to feed them all if he had to drag them through rainforest. Haresh tried to help occasionally with her flames, but neither of them wanted to use too much fire in case they did serious damage, and half the time everything was too wet to burn.

They were here to look for snails.

He shouldn't think of it that way, of course. It was nowhere near so trivial as that. The Snicky was, after all, an extremely valuable snail, and this particular client was paying very well indeed for just one of the little creatures. But Naole couldn't help feeling that it was somehow demeaning to be trekking through this wilderness in search of a tiny spiked snail, especially when you could pick up one of the Peppermint subspecies from a few traders he'd seen around recently. But no matter. He would do it anyway.

Haresh lowered her head to try to burn through a thick clump of vegetation. There was a sad damp noise and a tiny plume of smoke. Naole sighed.

[Palenski]

Tristan had a bad habit of exploring. Well, it wasn't exactly a bad habit as much as it often led him into strange situations which may or may not be dangerous.

Currently, he was standing in the middle of a very wet family reunion. Or, at least, that was his first thought. "Friends!" he said, pleased, taking hold of various vines with gentle fingers. When there was no response, he nodded and said, "Oh, alright, you don't speak. That's fine."

He took in his surroundings, brushing his green hands off on his shirt. "Hello?" he called out, voice echoing around again before being swallowed up by the seemingly endless forest. Oh dear. He had popped to somewhere isolated, perhaps a jungle or rainforest of sorts. It would take a bit of time and effort to find his way out.

More time for exploring.

[Indigo]

"Did you hear that?" Naole's head whipped around at the sound of a voice echoing through the rainforest, pausing halfway through a futile attempt to cut apart a vine. He couldn't see Haresh from where he was standing, but he knew she would have the same mysterious smile she always had, never mind the possible danger. Damn sheep. Always so calm. When she didn't respond, he snapped, "Well, did you?"

"There is no need to worry, Naole," she said. She had a very even, calming tone, the kind grandmothers use to make crying children feel better. It annoyed the hell out of him. "We are not in any danger. We avoided the hungry Turkezillas a few miles back, and there has been nothing else since then."

"If you're so sure, then what was that noise?"

"A lost traveler, like ourselves."

"We're not lost!"

"Oh? I apologize," Haresh said. "I simply assumed because I myself do not know how our position relates to those of various significant landmarks. I will not do so again."

Argh! And she wasn't even being sarcastic! She actually meant it, or at least did such a good job of pretending she meant it that even he was fooled! It was infuriating! If only the damn sheep would just get angry once in a while, he would feel a lot better. He needed Grelt. Haresh's mystique was all right in small doses, but in larger quantities it had to be leavened with the Terratops's straightforward speech. Damn sheep.

[Palenski]

Tristan hummed a cheerful tune as he made his way in a random direction. There were many different types of plants and creatures in whatever place this was. He was really rather enjoying himself. A good stroll through the rainforest, y'know?

Color, life, things that go squelch. It was truly fantastic. Perhaps an early birthday gift from the universe? But when was his birthday...?

Oh, that didn't matter. He stopped to look at a particularly bright colored frog, which croaked at him in confusion before jumping away. He watched it go, and then plucked a berry off of a nearby bush to test and see if it was tasty, as well as whether or not it was poisonous.

It turned out to be both. He made a note to himself to remember to tell someone, and snatched up a small handful of them so that it could be documented. Didn't want any other travelers of sorts to eat those berries.

He resumed humming.

[Indigo]

There was a snap as one of the horrible thick vines broke. Finally, some progress. Not much, admittedly, but at this point anything would do. Naole's feathers were so saturated that rainwater slid right off him, and he was beginning to envy the gear in his pack, which was surrounded by waterproof cloth. He sighed and began sawing at the next creeper; who knew how long it would take them to get out of this particular clump? And then they'd probably stumble right into another one. Wonderful.

"It is beautiful out here, Naole," Haresh said from where she was trying to make a drenched thicket catch fire. "You do not feel that way now, but if we were not trapped and here merely for the enjoyment of it, you would agree with me. There are people around who do agree with me, though I do not know where."

"I wouldn't--people?" Naole twisted his head around, trying to catch a glimpse of someone. "Maybe they can help us out of this, then! Hello?" he called. "If there's anybody out there, could you bring a knife over or something?"

[Palenski]

Tristan's head shot up at the sound of a voice calling out. It was a male voice. He sounded frustrated, perhaps a little anxious. He was calling out for help, it sounded like. Wanted someone, "anyone," to bring him a knife.

Well. Tristan didn't have a knife. He paused for a moment, considering. Not having a knife handy was no excuse--this man, and anyone else who could be with him, were obviously in need of aid. Tristan guessed that they were probably stuck in the thick foliage; the vines in this area grew close together, and because of the general dampness of everything it was very easy for them to tangle together.

"Hello?" he called out, making sure it was in the right dialect. He started in the general direction of the voice. "Where are you?"

[Indigo]

"Over here!" Naole called.

"That is not a particularly useful instruction."

"Well, do you know exactly where we are in relation to him, then?"

"Yes," Haresh said, in what sounded an awful lot like a smug tone. "We are seventeen feet northeast of his position, in an unusually knotted clump of vines which surrounds a small clearing. That is, of course, the space we are standing in. We may also be identified by the smoke produced in my efforts to burn our way out, although I would prefer not to continue that attempt. It may be ecologically unsound."

Naole stared. Yes, he knew she could see into the present, but sometimes he forgot how well. "Um, good," he said, and then raised his voice. "Seventeen feet, ah, northeast of you! If that helps at all!"

[Palenski]

"Right!" Tristan called back. Seventeen feet, northeast. He turned a bit to the left and continued on at a somewhat faster pace. As he drew closer, he noticed the vines growing thicker together, sometimes in clumps, tangled and knotted and difficult to separate.

"Friends," he murmured quietly, pushing aside one long chain of them. "I must request your participation in this effort..."

But of course there was no response, because they are not the kind of plants that speak. It took several minutes, but with a bit of grumbling he managed to make it through the thick foliage.

"What do you need help with?" he said, trying to see whomever it was. It looked like there were two people. He was glad to be helping them; it would be terrible if something had happened to them due to being lost in a rainforest.

[Indigo]

"What do you need help with?"

You know, Naole thought, it would be nice if something good happened to them. Something good at the moment was defined as somebody who was willing to help them, preferably with a machete or garden shears or something along those lines, and who wasn't an idiot. That last was the sticking point. What did they need help with? Hmm, no idea. Couldn't possibly be this giant tangled mass of vines they were trapped in.

Calm down. The rain was making him miserable. Sometimes he wished he had some kind of massive empire, so he could send people to do this kind of thing for him. Although that wouldn't be as much fun.

"Can you help us get out of this--this?" He gestured at the tangle of greenery around them. Haresh smiled.

[Palenski]

Ah. It really was as simple as the vines. If only they were the kind of plants that talked, that would make all of this a whole lot easier. With a frown, Tristan gripped a couple of vines and tugged them away from each other, to no avail.

Ah. So simple force didn't work on simple vines. Not so simple vines? Complicatedly tangled, wet vines that could have been simple at one time or another but were not, at that moment, simple.

He was rambling internally. Right.

Brute force then.

"Just a moment," he said. He took a deep breath and gritted his teeth and pulled at the vines. They tore away from each other with a loud snap. His hands hurt, possibly from the somewhat abrasive texture that the vines had, but he readily gripped another pair and tore at them. He wasn't making the fastest progress ever, but it was something.

If only he had something else to cut them with. Something like a knife, or scissors, or--teeth!

The vines didn't taste very good. In fact, they were very bitter and left a very horrible aftertaste in his mouth. But that was okay, because he'd tasted worse before. His progress wasn't much faster, but he noticed a difference.

"You keep trying on your end, too," he said after spitting out one mouthful. "But don't use your teeth, these vines taste really awful."

[Indigo]

"I, um," said Naole. "I wasn't planning to use my teeth. They aren't really designed for plants, you know. But thanks for the tip, I guess." He would normally have tried to be nicer, but he wasn't in an especially good mood at the moment. And all because somebody was willing to pay him a large sum for a small spiked snail. Put that way, it didn't really seem worth it. He growled and slashed ineffectively at the creepers.

There was a sound of chewing from next to him. "I must respectfully disagree, child of the universe," Haresh said, her voice slightly muffled by the greenery in her mouth. "Your tastes may not run toward the vegetable kingdom, but in some places these vines are considered a delicacy. I do not mind them, myself."

Child of the universe? What was that supposed to mean?

[Palenski]

Tristan made a face and laughed around a mouthful of plant matter before spitting it out to the side. "Eat away, friend," he said brightly, pulling at a tight knot. "That way it won't be a waste."

He noticed, after a while, that the more progress he made the more the vines bunched and tangled together, damp and somewhat sticky, reluctant to budge from the knots that held them together. "You two must be really stuck," he said, voice strained ever so slightly from frustration.

[Indigo]

"Really," Naole said, but his heart wasn't in it. He was frustrated and wet and tired, and it was far too much effort to be annoyed by everything all the time. But he felt the need to make conversation, about anything--the weather, the state of politics around here (which he did not in fact know anything about)--anything to take his mind off the situation they were in. So he said, "So, Mr Whatever-Your-Name-Is, what brings you to this place, anyway?" He glanced at Haresh. "Or do you know the answer to that already?"

"I do not," Haresh said. "I know that he is very strange. His name is Tristan and he is from beyond the world. Beyond that I cannot tell you anything. My skill, as you know, is more honed toward the detection of threats to your person."

"Nice that he's not a threat, anyway." He turned back to Tristan. "So?"

[Palenski]

"Like she said," he replied. "My name is Tristan. I'm sort of human in a very not human kind of way, if that makes any sense." He tugged viciously at one particularly stubborn vine. "I'm here because I don't know why. I don't quite remember what I was doing before I arrived here."

Tear, snap, crack.

He felt that progress was not happening as quickly as he wanted it to. He was very good at being patient with other self-aware beings, but when it came to inanimate objects he could only last long. He let out a muted groan as his teeth tore into another vine.

"How are things going on your end?" he asked, attempting to find a distraction through dialog.

[Indigo]

Naole let the human thing pass. He didn't think it was what Tristan actually meant, but he'd met many people over the years who were human in a not-human kind of way. Some of them took human shape occasionally and some of them were...well, he hesitated to call them gods, because he was a bit shaky even on the Triumvirate and these guys claimed to be from other pantheons entirely. But they were very powerful beings, anyway. A guy who turned up in places without expecting to wasn't much by comparison.

Just as Tristan asked how things were going, a substantial clump of vines caught fire and dropped to the ground, where they burned merrily for a few seconds and were put out by the rain. Haresh looked even more smug than usual, something Naole had not previously thought possible. The two of them stepped out into a relatively open area.

"So," Naole said. "Seen any snails?"