Among the Trees (Peregrine x Nivansrywyllian)

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The members of the caravan moved away with the efficiency born form working together on the same tasks every night. They rotated tasks so that no one was left doing a job they didn't like for very long, and the camp began to form around them with all haste.

Marzia sat down at the base of the giant tree, tucking her body back into one of the folds of bark. Despite the fact that she had easily matched pace with the pack animals over the course of the journey she was barely winded, and was able to catch her breath again after only a minute of steady, deep breaths. She watched the various members of the caravan, studying each of their movements with the critical eye of a hunter, assessing them all for strengths and weaknesses.

She did it more out of habit than because she expected the group to attack her. That wasn't to say she trusted them, she most certainly didn't, but they seemed like a far more reasonable bunch than most of the other people she had met in the past fifteen years. She wasn't particularly looking forward to having to spend the evening with them, they were far too interested in talking to her and to each other for her tastes. She couldn't help but feel that she would get along best with Kinn. The quiet forest man didn't seem like the kind to bother anyone unnecessarily.

Wren was the first to finish his task, followed closely by Fina. She scurried over to the fire as soon as it was done, flipping her way acrobatically over the glowing log that was substituting as a corral for the evening. She sat down next to the flames, rubbing her hands in the heat, and squinting her eyes against the true light of the fire. It was almost disorienting after having only been exposed to the bioluminescence of the ground plants all day. It would undoubtedly draw the attention of many animals out in the forest, but they would be more intimidated by it than intrigued by it. Any creature that didn't care enough about the fire to approach would find them and approach anyways.

All the same, Marzia maintained her distance as first Cronen and then Kinnon drew close to the heat. Fire was a fickle friend at the best of times, and a terrifying enemy at the worst.
 
Jack for his part, had one of the longest jobs, and one of the most dangerous. He liked it the best of them though. Most often he or Fina took to tree-duty, when it was to be had, due to their inclination for ascension, although occasionally one of the other three would offer to fill in. It didn't take Jack and his mount long to begin scaling the trees, boots doffed, claws bared, and grip sure on the trunk of the great oak. It wasn't long 'til the pair were circling the tree like a pair of squirrels, and it would be some minutes still before they reached the lowest branches.

On the ground level, Wren finished quickly with the small fire. He'd cleared all dead, or dry foliage, and he'd pulled together a ring of mossy stones to contain the fire somewhat. There wasn't time or need to build a firewall, and so the small, hot flame burned with somewhat less focus, but no less brightly. It killed the low-light vision that the team had been using on the trip, but it allowed for cooking, and water sterilization. Wren rose as his brother, and Kinnon approached. "I'll take first watch. Call me back after you've been fed, and we'll swap out." Said the hairless, leaner brother.

Cronen gave his sibling a grunt, and a half-grin, and a dismissive wave. "I'll throw together a soup. You won't go hungry, even if our guest eats as much as you do."

His dark, merry eyes turned on Sarafina, "Hey, d'you still have some of those carrots?"
 
"Why couldn't you have asked for those ten minutes ago, instead of telling that ridiculous story about that woman and the leaf? Before I packed them all away?"

"That story was great, and you know it!"

"Dream on, Cronen. The only one who might want to listen to that is Wren, and that's only because he's your brother."

For all her complaining Fina got quickly to her feet, bounding her way over to the corral. She pulled on a rope, slowly lowering the heavy, suspended bag of food from its position around a tree branch that would protect it from most scavenging animals over the course of the night. Despite her small size, Fina was strong, and it didn't take her long to wrestle the bag to the ground and dig up some carrots.

"Are you going to want anything else from this pack, before I hoist it all the way back up again? I'm not bringing it back down again, if you change your mind."

Wren was quick to list off a wide variety of various fresh and dried items, including several types of herbs, and pieces of dried meat that had likely come from some deer or other herbivorous animal the party had come across in their travels.

Wren threw the food into the pot of simmering water with little delicacy, allowing them to stew together into what would wind up being a rather watery but ultimately flavorful dish. He covered it, and allowed it to stew, before going to help Fina hoist the bag of food the rest of the way up so that it was once more suspended in the air.

Rubbing his hands together, Cronen looked up towards the tree. "You almost done up there, Jack? Does Sarafina need to go fetch your ass?"
 
Jack -who had not been seen, nor heard from in several long minutes- was busy. He had parted from his mount, who was searching the far side of the tree for danger. He'd reached the lowest of the branches, nearly as wide as a small road, and he'd stood atop it. His eyes had adjusted to the gloom slowly once again, and the glow from the small fire below wasn't enough to ruin his vision.

There were disturbing claw-patterns on the bole next to the branch he was on, and by the look of them, they were fresh. An itching between his shoulders told him that he wasn't alone in the tree, not that he suspected he'd be. His eyes scanned first the end of the branch farthest from him. It was long enough that anything lurking in the leaves would not be an immediate threat. Back to the bole he turned, following the trails of something else's ascent with his eyes.

The trail stopped halfway up to another branch. Squinting in the gloom, Jack canted his head, and dug his clawed toes into the branch. Up came his boxy little subgun. There was a hollow in the tree, though the angle at which he was looking at it disguised it from casual observance.

A call came from below. Cronen. There was some motion in the hollow, although the angle of view was too shallow still for Jack to make anything particular out. He blew a short, whistled message. Three notes that meant he'd found something within threatening range, and had not yet identified it as benign.

The motion in the hollow increased, and a long, spindly arm swept from within the tree. It looked as long as a man, and gracefully narrow. Jack's eyes narrowed, as another limb exited the tree. And another. And another. He'd found a giant spider.

His mouth went dry, and he licked his lips, to blow another staccato whistle. Danger, be prepared.

This particular whistle drew the attention of the spider, whose body had begun to follow it's limbs out of the hole in the tree. It was bigger than his Strider, and dark green. It turned towards Jack, who began to slowly level his firearm.

The call had also alerted Willow, who was stalking around the far side of the bole cautiously to find it's rider.
 
At the echoing sound of the whistle everyone in the camp froze, and their eyes turned towards the tree that Jack had climbed up as they tried to pinpoint his location.

"I guess I do need to go fetch his ass," Fina muttered quietly.

Marzia, who had been comfortably lazing against the tree in the quiet, trance-like state that mostly substituted for sleep, and into which she could enter and exit at a moment's notice, was immediately disturbed by the tension radiating through the camp. She was on her feet in a moment, prepared to fight against whatever had triggered her sixth sense, before her eyes followed the look of the rest.

She was the first one to spot Jack, and, more importantly, the giant spider that was near him. Marzia growled. Spiders were far from her favorite thing, because there was nothing good to eat on them, and one solid bite, and the venom that went along with it, could leave her nearly incapacitated for many hours, if not half a day. In a life where movement was essential to survival, such weakness could be a death sentence. Normally she would just run from the things, but her strange, new companions seemed set on staying in the same place the whole night, and fighting anything that drew close rather than running.

Wren was the next to spot Jack, although he missed the shadowy figure of the spider lurking above him. He quickly pointed out their leader, and Fina and Kinnon, the most comfortable in the trees aside from Jack himself, were quick to move forwards and race up towards him. Marzia, after a moment's hesitation followed after them.

What with the height of the tree, they would not be able to make it up before the spider attacked Jack. But this wasn't his first rodeo, and they would be able to get there in time to save his life and kill the thing, if the spider did somehow manage to stun him.
 
Jack didn't want to shoot it, if he had a choice in the matter. The big ones weren't the issue. They were easy enough to kill. Bullets were small, but they pierced the chitin without too much effort. No, the issue with the big ones were that -occasionally- they were female. And occasionally, those females carried babies with them on their backs. While the babes were smaller, and with weaker -and sometimes undeveloped- venom, they were also much more numerous, and harder to hit as a result of their size.

Jack didn't see any eggsacks, but he also didn't know how deep into the tree the hole ran, or if there were more spiders carrying a deadly swarm of eggs. Unfortunately, combat was going to be an eventuality with at least this one particular spider. He prayed to whatever god was left that the region wasn't swarming with them.

The thing's legs flexed, and he knew he couldn't hesitate. In one smooth motion, he pulled the trigger. Muzzle flashes killed his night-vision, but his aim was true, and he was rewarded with the wet noises of spider ichor splattering the trunk of the great tree, as the thing retreated from the hot death pouring from his firearm. The spider half-finished the launch it had been beginning, and passed beneath the branch upon which Jack stood, tumbling through the air toward the ground, it's legs curling towards it's center as it shuddered it's last.

Night blind, Jack narrowed his eyes, trying to spot motion from the bole. Flecks of light, and the phantom image of gunflare danced in his vision, making it nearly impossible to tell in the low light if anything within moved. "Spiders!" He shouted a warning to the teammates he knew would be ascending the bole.

Now Jack knew that there were some weaknesses to using firearms under the Allsky. The gunflare blinded, the shots deafened, and the ammunition was scarce and precious. That said, it had a serious amount of stopping power, even matched against some of the creatures with the more freakishly effective evolutions.

Stepping closer to the bole, he kept his weapon up, screwing his eyes into squints to regain his night-sight more quickly. What he didn't see, was another, smaller spider creeping along the underside of the branch from the leaves, some hundred yards away.
 
Marzia stiffened at the sound of the gunshot, and a faint snarl slipped from between her lips. The sound was foreign and unnatural, something that the forest was not used to hearing, and it would draw the attention of everything in the area. Not that many would come to investigate, and under normal circumstances Marzia herself would have been fleeing. Guns meant people, and people meant bad things. But now was not the time for her to be worrying about such things. Sarafina had sped up at the noise, and her lithe figure was starting to pull ahead of the wild woman. Marzia, in turn, refocused on the task of climbing, as hard as it was with half of her hand missing. She would not be left behind.

Fina was the first one to make it up to Jack's branch, but she was followed closely by Marzia. Kinnon was a little ways behind them, although he had gotten a later start in climing than the two women. Fina quickly raced over to Jack's side, pulling a dagger from who knew where on her skin-tight uniform. Marzia, however, was far less interested in getting close to Jack and offering him backup. She was far more interested in finding the spiders. Many were loners, but usually those were only the biggest of the species. From what she could tell of the crumpled form that had passed her by, there would be others in the area. Perhaps even a whole nest of the things.

Her suspicions were proven true a moment later, as an eight legged shadow crawled its way around from the underside of the tree. Marzia hissed at the thing, trying to drive it away, but the spider only hissed back at her, making a strange, rasping noise, before it spat a stream of venom at her head. She twisted to the side, barely dodging the stuff, and a few of the drops hit her forearm and legs, burning like acid. Marzia screeched at the spider, furious that it would dare hurt her, before she threw herself at the thing. It tried to dodge as well, but, like Marzia, it was not entirely successful. Her whole hand closed around one of the spiders legs and she tugged viciously, ripping the limb right out from the spider's body. Wounded and unable to properly move, the spider quickly began to retreat. However, the fight was far from over.
 
With the cavalry having arrived, Jack grimaced as the lets of the next spider came up over the underside of the great branch. He should have considered that the things could move in ways that he couldn't even with his mutations. To his surprise though, their companion had also ascended the tree to engage the beasts.

Unfortunately, that meant he couldn't open up with his subgun again without risking firing on the woman. Instead, he let his toes dig into the bark of the tree to launch himself towards the remaining spider, while yet another one was crawling out of the hole in the tree. This one turned off to engage Kinnon, and 'Fina.

On the ground of course, Wren and his brother ware on the lookout for any incoming threats to the campsite although the fight overhead took some of their attention. It was nervewracking to be left on the ground when fighting was going on overhead, never knowing what was going to fall out of the sky and into your camp.

For Jack's part he got in next to Marzia, and pulled a short-sword from a sheathe at his hip, although the spider seemed to be retreating. Unwilling to leave the thing to descend on the camp overnight to pick off whomever they left on guard, Jack gave chase. Even wounded, the spider was quick to turn on him once it was clear that he wasn't going to let it retreat to the webbing it had placed at the end of the branch. Trying to parry the seven remaining legs that flailed, trying to catch him up and crush him, or bring him to the fuzzy mandibles to deliver what could very well be a fatal bite was... Challenging. He hacked at limbs with abandon, using claws and teeth when blade was occupied.
 
When another figure suddenly appeared next to her, Marzia almost lunged at it, before distinguishing the figure as Jack. Even still, it took her a moment to catch herself, and remind herself that attacking the one person in the whole world who really wanted her around (who knew why) probably wasn't the best bet. She wasn't used to having allies. Normally her fight was her fight, and anything that moved was another potential threat. It was a complicated change, and she didn't know how she was going to be able to deal with it. Or if she would be able to deal with it.

For now, though, Jack lunged after the spider. Marzia, who didn't believe in fighting any more than was strictly necessary at any given moment stared after him in confusion, before resigning herself to the fact that his and her definitions of "necessary" must be very different. Perhaps it had something to do with the whole "group" thing. When you weren't always in a position to be responsible for yourself, it paid to take extra precautions.

Behind Marzia, Fina had been fighting another one of the eight-legged monstrosities, only to have another one drop down from above. She let out a small, surprised noise, before flipping over the spider, bouncing off the massive trunk of the tree, and landing on the far side of both spiders. They gave their strange, gurgling hiss again, before moving towards her in tandem. Well, it was time to give this group thing a try. Marzia moved forwards, settling herself next to Fina. The petite woman glanced over in surprise, before quickly turning her attention back to the spiders. As soon as they were in range they moved together, slipping between the two, and pushing both spiders towards the edge of the branch. One of them was taken by surprise and fell off the edge of the branch, spinning wildly through the air before coming to a quick, messy end on the ground far below. The other one managed to grab onto the branch, before scuttling underneath it. Fina grimaced, before jumping off the edge of the branch after it. She spread her arms and legs wide, and quickly caught the air as her fall slowed to a glide.

"Jack!" she cried, her voice almost swallowed up by air. "There's one coming for you from underneath." She glided back over to the trunk of the tree before latching on, and quickly beginning to climb back up.

Marzia hesitated, glancing at Jack. Should she try and help him, or make sure there were no more spiders in the area?
 
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