[Moofius]

The dappled sunlight danced over head as they went. led didn't seem phased by the singing, just keeping her head low as she dodged around thicker underbrush and kept to whatever course Moofius was leading her on. She didn't have much time for music, it seemed. She was more interested in the sounds around her, the sounds of potential prey... or hunters.
This was fine by Moofius as she would rather relax then have to be looking out for threats. Though she was always checking back on Slithian. Force of habit now then a real concern for her safety. She was checking on him when he asked for another song.

"Oh? Er... Well... Do you have any song in mind? I wouldn't know what to sing, I mean, I take requests but I usually just sing whatever comes to mind. Do you want something fast, or slow? What songs do you know?"
The cow anthro seemed genuinely interested in the subject of music. Obviously she was a fan of sorts if she was singing songs. Even while she waited for a reply she was humming a tune, something soft and slow, soothing. Like... a lullaby? Best not think on it too long, or even ask. Secretive little thing that Moofius was.

Led suddenly stopped, chirping and bobbing her head, pointing towards something above the trees. The sun was high over head, making it hard to see whatever it was Led had seen. Using one hand the girl covered her eyes and leaned back, looking up and forward.
"What is it, Led? I don't... Ah! There!" She pointed, further off, in the path of the sun. A think spindle of something man made shot up out of the forest.
"Hmm... We're closer, but still a ways off..."

[Moofius]

"He doesn't allow..." Moofius trailed off, tilting her head back and starring up into the clear sky.
"He doesn't... allow.... heh." A small smile crossed her face, the stretched and grew as did her laugh until she was forced to fold forward to keep from falling off of Led.
Led continued to walk, only looking back once when Moofius had suddenly shifted her weight as she leaned forward. Otherwise the gallizar was more interested in getting to their destination. Though she did slow down, Moofius lack of balance told her that slowing down would be wise.

"Your master sucks butt my friend. You should join the Orignal Thought," she winked, covering Led's hearing holes (I am SO scientific, makes your brain asplode). The over grown lizard looked around a little frantically before ducking her head down, so Moofius wouldn't have to stretch. She was so obedient.
"We're a lot more lax about that kind of stuff. You'd work up here and have a lot of freedom until we need you for this or that. We could find your strength and put you to work in that, you know?"
Moofius was a bit of a recruiter. Maybe Slithian wasn't a Chaos, but not all members were. The lessser, pawn, members could be human or whatever else.
Well, now they had something to talk about on the walk, right?

[Moofius]

"I can wait to talk about it... I wasn't really sent out to recruit anyway, my speech to convince you would be very unorganized," she laughed, letting Leds head go. The gallizar seemed grateful, stretching her neck out of Moofius' range. Annoying girl that she was the gallizar was glad to be left out of her business. There had been a few rumors about Moofius, what with her always being absent from home and fighting with Isaku. There was always tension when she returned home...
"All the time in the world, Slithian. Doesn't matter to me, if it's not you it's somebody else. Maybe Led?" she laughed, patting the gallizars side.

The sun was streaking across the sky, the damp air heating up. Moofius stopped to refill her water often and Led guzzled down the water on these breaks, snapping up a few of the smaller fish that were drawn in by her bright colours. Fish were pretty stupid.
On one of these stops Moofius found a shaded spot, under a tree by the river.
"I need to cool down..." Her face was flushed and she was breathing hard, "I love the tengel, I do... But... I'm so not use to this heat... Tengel summers are the worse..."

(( Oh my gawd fear the crappy post. oDo;; ))

[Moofius]

Led seperated herself from the group, slipping into the strong waters of the Tengel. Her loyalty was to Moofius but she cared very little for Moofius as a person. Led realized and accepted Moofius as a master but otherwise she wasn't a huge fan. As for Slithian she hoped the overgrown throw rug would die (which she made clear with angry glares).

The glares went unnoticed by an overheated Moofius who was pretty convinced that if she rung out her shirt sweat would drip out. How gross.
"Hmm... Lets hope for the better... Or if it is going to go down hill, lets hope the world throws that at us when it's cooler and I can think properly..." she said, looking really tired, sleepy. Her eyes weren't even on Slithian as she spoke. No, her attention was on the river. She wished she could go in there but... If she got caught by a current or anything...? She would be head, you see Moofius couldn't swim.
"What's it like in the water? Swimming, I mean... You seem to enjoy it quite a lot."

[Moofius]

He really liked water, no doubt. The way he spoke of the river and it's water was almost poetic; cheesily so. But that's okay, it was cute. Did sound kind of nice, but being unable to swim was... embarrassing. besides, it was a weakness. She ran a hand through her hair, feeling the sweat that was making her hair nearly stringy. Down side to adventuring, being clean was tough; especially in the hot, wet weather of the Tengel.

Led watched the two from the other side of the river, side stepping when the overgrown snake flipped into the water, larger water droplets falling on her head, water washing over her back. She hissed, prowling further down the river to escape the two of them, if only for a short time.

"EEK!" a squeal of surprise and fear, arms raised above her head. The river water was cold, refreshing. Moofius wasn't mad, no. And even if she had been mad there was no way she'd be mad enough to try and kill Slithian. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind as she walked towards the waters edge.
"If," she paused, thinking, "the water will soak through my clothes and they'll take forever to dry in this weather."
The air was hot but humid. Hot was handy, humid, not so much.
"... Well... I do have a change of clothes... So... it should be... okay..." she frowned. Should Moofius risk not having an extra pair of clothes, yes or no?

(( I know I never mentioned her having a bag but... She really should have one. =/; So she does now. Not with a whole lot of crap, but some stuff. ))

[Moofius]

Before wading out she crouched down, rolling up one of the her pant legs, then switching which knee she was kneeling on to roll up the other. The soft breeze (too small to notice usually) was nice against her exposed legs, the forest floor rather soft against her knee. The ground was even... cool. She wasn't even in the water and she felt better! Loose dirt brushed off her knee and she felt ready to venture into the water. Slithian didn't mean harm to her, she still had her sword if he did. One hoof in the shallow water on the bank.

She couldn't "test" the waters temperature, at least not to the extent others could. Hooves lacked the sensitivity that the human foot possessed. Sometimes she was at an advantage, tough terrain, when kicking people and other such instances. But when it came to something like this, well, she wished she was normal.
The sharp, clacking of hooves on the rocks of the river was slightly stunted by the rivers waters, the sound almost a gurgle. She laughed, stepping carefully. These rocks were rocked, worn by the force of the Tengel river for quite some time. She was ankle deep, arms out to keep her balance.
"Oh... This is... tough!" People would grip with their toes, right? She could feel her muscles flexing like that, but she couldn't actually steady herself like that. Hooves were a pain.
".... Ah! Eek!"

Her arms waved frantically when she miss stepped on a nearly perfectly spherical rock. Oh man she was going to fall!
"H-help..?"

Led watched from further down the river. Had she the right shape to her jaws, the right facial control she would have smiled. Pathetic. How had humans grown to be the dominant species?

[Moofius]

If anything was scarier then falling and drowning in a river it was being "saved" by a snake. This was no personal reflection on Slithian, heavens no. If anything Slithian was the best snake creature she'd ever met and usually she could handle the smaller, less harmful species of snakes. But Slithian was very big, powerful and... Not as big as her Uncle Think but... Close enough to have her face turn ghost white, her ears drooping, hiding in her hair. Her fingers tightened convulsively across his scales. She couldn't actually grab him, her hands weren't huge after all.

But back to the discomfort or rather unrelenting fear of being held by a snake. Think had always hurt her so the fear of the form itself was ingrained in her. The fear was as familiar as the back of her have, or her fathers face or her vivid dreams of one day growing up and being able to fight like the rest of her family, as a Chaos. To beable to hold her own against Think. Maybe once that was achieved the fear would all but disappear.
Sadly she was no where near that stage. She did, however, try to hide her fear. She failed miserably, on all accounts, but she tried.
"Pl-please... pu-put me down... I-I'll be fine... Just... I need to be down..."

Led clicked her tongue questioningly towards them, stalking back up stream towards the two. Something seemed... off. If it had been Slithian who was "off" she wouldn't have cared in the least, but Led had to watch out for her master and her master was "off".

[Moofius]

Led hissed, the naturally forming blades along her neck going up and down threateningly. But Moofius flapped her hand at the creature, dismissing her.
"Led, stop. I'm fine, really. Just a scare. Slithian saved me so cut it out." Her voice was leveling out now, returning to her normal calm and/or powerful sense. She wasn't scared or feeling weak now, at least in her voice. Moofius was still pale, a bit shaken but she was trying to calm herself down.

"We'll stay here a bit longer. I won't go out in the water but I'll enjoy it, anyway," she said, smiling up at him, "You didn't do anything wrong." trying to reassure him that this wasn't his fault. It wasn't. It wasn't his fault her uncle was a snake type Chaos, wasn't his fault her uncle had hurt her so much her whole life, it wasn't his fault her was born a carpetfang IE: an over grown snake.

The river flowed fast but usually there would be rocks or something sticking out, jutting out of the river. It didn't take the cow anthro long to find a rock that was wet from the spray of the river, but actually was out of the water. At least for now, anyway. She wasn't sure how the water levels of a river would or could adjust but for now it seemed safe enough. She stood and walked carefully (being more concious and careful then she had before) to the rock, sitting down. The water of the river flowed around her legs, her calves. It was so powerful and clean and wild.

"Water as an element... That'd be so cool..." she smiled, kicking her feet, feeling the power, feeling better. She would have a powerful element, such as water, and kick Thinks butt!
"I guess... We'll stay here a bit longer. Not too much..." She said, thinking just... going where ever her thoughts brought her until they stopped on something.
"You lived in your master, Daemons, place with treasure. How did you know you loved the water? When did you learn you loved the water? You seem pretty comfortable in it, after all."

Led, after being dismissed kept closer to the two but went straight back to ignoring them.

[Moofius]

Led, feeling a bit sleepy (cold blooded animal in a cold river equals sleepy) headed to the shallower end of the river, crouching down and watching the two with drooped eyes. Small fish crowded curiously around her body but she paid them no mind. She was full and they were doing her no harm. She left one eye open, watching Moofius kick her hooves against the water.

"I don't think we'll stay the rest of the day. Just... Maybe a little while longer," she said, relaxing. Remembering back to Fyurr, the ocean the... the crab. That stuck with her, that memory was a powerful one.
Oh! Right! Slithian!

She had to think hard about what he'd said, trying to remember it. Tunnels... Tunnels! Ha! That information, along with the location, was tucked away into her new file for Slithian. Any and all information was worth keeping.
"If... We stop now... Well the one thing I don't and never had would be food. Whether we get there today or tomorrow, makes no difference. We have time to set up camp and if we're not to close to the library hopefully the moonling will leave us be,"
Moonling they... Well they swarmed, that's what Hanone had said. Slithian was big, Led was pretty powerful and Moofius could hold her own. But all three would be a bit out of their own element. If they could avoid a fight, that would be for the best.
"So... We'll stay, I think..." She frowned, thinking.
"Er... But hey... I ask you so many questions. You don't ask me anything, nothing at all, really."

[Moofius]

She couldn't help but laugh, "Unless you have a milkshake for bribery or really good torture devices, you're not going to learn anything from or about me," she playfully splashed water towards the snake, tongue sticking out playfully. Actually, that was a bit of a lie. If she was in a chatty mood she could, well, chat. But then knowing that Slithian and his 'master' could pose as a possible threat... Well, she'd speak of herself more carefully.
"Alright, we'll camp here..." wiggling nervously she wondered if she should go and set up now, or remain in the cool river water... Yah, river for sure. It was so warm yet cool... It was perfect right here in the river. Too bad she couldn't sleep in the river.

Led  was napping in the river, a silvery flashing crowd of fish around her. She suddenly had one in her mouth, one quick twitch and the fish was dead. There was a frantic splashing around her as the silvery cloud of simple minded fish left the area.
The splashing was loud enough to draw Moofius attention, making her laugh. Obviously she was alright, at least for now.

((Slow. If you want to skip ahead someplace or... I dunno. yah. Open to stuff. XD;; ))

[Moofius]

It was good to relax and just... have fun. Led didn't see it that way, having left to hunt and stalk around their camp ground to check for threats. It was instinctual for her and being little more then an obedient killer she didn't seem much use interacting in the water and wasting energy by "splashing" and "swimming" and "playing". Led didn't have a maternal bone in her body, training, fighting, killing, dying. That's all she was, that's what she'd been bred to be, for the war.
She felt restless but without a way to convey this information she had to just do what she could do.

Moofius, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the day. She left the river soaked and still unable to swim, but soaked and happy. She had to change into something dry (which took a lot of prep time. She didn't want anybody seeing her naked) before getting to work on the camp. She went over the shelter when it was done. For dinner she tried to mix it up a bit with a particular orange fruit. It's skin was sharp, with spikes all over but once she'd gotten the skin off the fruit (which had a pale yellow citrus like fruit) she used it to cook with the fish. It made the meat sweet, but not in a bad way. It wasn't her most favorite way to have fish but it was different.

And they slept. Led was pretty restless when she was on watching, clicking and hissing quietly at the dark. Something was out there, unwilling to come into the light of the fire. She tried to keep it quiet but Moofius was a pretty light sleeper. When it was her turn to guard she hadn't slept much at all and wasn't the most... awake during her stay there.

Morning came on Slithians last watch, Moofius curled up tightly with Led around her. About as motherly as the gallizar got.
By morning, when the sun stretched it's warm light across the ground and the strange lurkers were nowhere to be seen or heard. Perhaps it had been there imagination?

-Post Count Recorded Up To This Point-

[Moofius]

"I'm doing fruit salad for myself," Moofius said with a yawn before stretching, "Uh! I'm way to tired to cook. I couldn't sleep a wink. Whatever was out there was being very obvious and Led, you're loud when you guard." To which the gallizar clicked, whistled and hissed out her reasons; sadly Moofius couldn't understand her so she just went about outside the camp, gathering fruit for herself.
"Led. Hunt for breakfast." Moofius added absently, dismissing the gallizar who quickly trotted off into the Tengel, the foliage so thick that her bright, vibrant colours were soon lost to the greenery.

"So, Slithian," the girl started, her words slightly garbled by the crunchy fruit in her mouth, "I'm thinking that those things around camp were moonling. Completely terrified and weakened by any light source. They can hide in shadows so they don't much like the light. That's why they went around the camp unseen, the fire kept them away. Once we go into the library it will be very dark, so we have to be ready to create light at... well, at anytime, really."
She spoke as she went about gathering her breakfast, eating as she went until she got... the hiccups.
"Aw! No! I don't-" hic "need this-" hic "right now!"

[Moofius]

"Nothing works for me but peanut butter or a long wait," Moofius said, still hiccuping, "But I'll try," getting up (still a hiccup fest) as she moved towards the river. She dipped her hands into her river, drinking it. Cold and pure. Gawd she loved the Tengel. Of all the places she'd been to, of all the things she'd seen the Tengel was her favorite. The raw, untamed beauty, it's mysteries. It was a lot like home in some ways...
She'd gone quiet, watching the river, head bowed as she thought, hands in the river as her fingers wiggled. She missed her dad...
Meanwhile her hiccups were gone.

Hssss...
The sound got even distant Moofius' attention, her ears swiveling back so they faced the camp.
"Led?"
A few panicky chirps and angry hisses seemed to confirm this before the mostly black and red mass crashed through the foliage.
"Led, what was... Led?" Moofius had been about to chew out the gallizar for worrying her, and pulling Moofius from her reveries when she saw the gallizar crouch low and turn her long, strong neck back to one leg which seemed the be bleeding. Leds tongue ran over the wounds which looked like small bite and claw marks. These marks seemed to be on both of her legs.
"Led, will you be alright?" The mount clicked and chirped, sounding annoyed.

Well, so much for relaxing. The cow anthro ran one hand through her thick, wavy hair.
"Alright... It wasn't a rodent or anything. Led is trained for war, even a swarm of rodents wouldn't get her that bad..."

[Moofius]

"Moonlings" Moofius confirmed, looking a bit grim. Attacking in the day time? They must be closer then she'd originally assumed. Led clicked and hissed, bobbing her head as if to confirm the assumption. Of course they could get no clear details of the attack from the mount.

"Slithian we should- !? What the hell are you doing?!" Moofius had turned to face him, now tipping her head waaay back to look up into the tree, one hand covering her eyes to save her from the sun. Okay, so he'd never left home and probably had never fought but... well this was ridiculous.

"First of all, they hide in shadow. What makes shade? Trees! Get down before the moonling get you! Just stay in the light, okay?" Moofius said, frowning up at him. led walked over to Moofius, walking around the girl before squatting and clicking up at Slithian mockingly.
"How pathetic" was the gallizars basic message. EThough Led had been temporarily surprised by the unexpected attack she was already good to go.

One quick smack to the shoulder and Moofius walked away from the gallizar, gathering up her things before walking back and climbing up.
"The library will be further into the Tengel, Slithian. There will be a lot of places for the moonling to hide. Just be on your toes. If we keep close we should be okay." She said this more to reassure him. Of course if he was a useless fighter she wouldn't waste her energy defending a baby. That wasn't the deal.

[Moofius]

"Kay" was the quick reply. She could have extended it but it'd look something like.
"What are ten Slithian combined, anyway? Like, three newborns?"

Now you understand why she didn't say more, right? Led had already made her own, similar comment in her head, laughing it up as Moofius jabbed her heels into the beasts sides to get this show on the road.

The sun rose, making the day unbearably hot, but they couldn't travel at night, not safely, not anymore. So they were stuck with traveling in the say, avoiding shade. If it wasn't Moonling it was the sun. Led didn't mind too too much, but upon request traveled in the shallower edges of the Tengel river. Moofius let her legs drag in the water as they traveled, taking in some feeling of relief from the sharp, wet sting of the cold water running over her ankles (hooves didn't get much out of this, after all).

"So... You haven't had any training in fighting? What about orientation? Map reading? Anything? Or did you just hang about in piles of treasure?"
The question came out of, literally, no where. Moofius was just checking to see where those tall spires had gone, if they were close and then she'd started... talking.
Led had been too intent on not slipping and falling into the river to be bothering Slithian, she was being a good girl.