"She won't follow," he mouthed in answer, "I have ways to ensure it." That said, he offered Feng a rare smirk. He wasn't so reckless he'd endanger a child. No good Hunter worth anything ever harmed a child.

Their arrival at the hotel seemed to surprise the little girl's uncle, but pleasantly as he greeted them with a smile and rose from the chair where he read in the lobby. It was a small building, but kept clean, and someone there knew the art of making it seem more spacious by arranging the furniture with care.

A few white chrysanthemums decorated a green-and-white-swirled vase on the check-in counter. Drake raised an eyebrow as he looked around. It was a nice-looking place. "We need place to spend a few nights. There's two of us now, and we're... expecting a possible third."

"Young lady with a red wrap on her head?"

"Ah, yes. That's right." Drake frowned. "Is she here already?"

"Yes," the man nodded, "She arrived a day ago and made arrangements, and then left, saying she was going to explore the city."

"I see. Thank you." Drake nodded, then waited.

"Here, I'll show you to your rooms. Drake and Feng, correct?"

Another nod from Drake, and the man led the way to a room, then scolded his niece away from them. Once she was gone, Drake looked toward the Noa's uncle. "Could Feng and I speak to you a few minutes in private? I have a few questions about the... gasants. Specifically the effects of their poison."

The man nodded, then led Drake into the three-bed room. The beds weren't very large, but they had thick and fluffy blankets, similar pillows, and there were tasteful decorations that included two layers of curtains: one light to reduce the light from outside, and one black to block out all light. Other decorations included a vase of white mums and a few paintings of what looked like warm places, though none included the ocean.

"You're here after the gasants, huh?" The man frowned. "The poison's deadly. People die from one lungful of the stuff. Long-term effects if you only get a little aren't... too bad, but it builds up."

"Blindness?"

"Eventually, we assume."

"Hair loss?"

"Yes."

"Anything else?"

"Muscles get tired more easily. We... don't know what'll happen beyond a few months, though."

Drake nodded. "And you don't have a way to escape?"

"No. Nothing reliable. Gasants aren't the only problem, just the biggest."
 
Hearing that the annoying woman already was there made Feng groan a bit louder than he probably should have to hide it from the others. Suddenly he wanted to get back to HQ even if it meant dealing with all those stupid rumors, or even better, getting back to his earth and get killed by the villagers.

Feng half listened to the conversation, not too interested in what was going on. They didn't even have any reliable escape route. How hard was it to fix an escape route if you had one enemy? Well, that thought disappeared rather fast.

"What's the other problems?" Feng immediately and suddenly asked the man. "No matter how unrelated or small of a problem it seems to be, tell us anyways. One problem can be a direct cause of another without anyone realizing it." He might not care about the people or about getting rid of the gasants, but Feng did like puzzles and riddles. Doing a bit of investigation to figure out why things were as they were could be quite exciting.

First then he caught himself thinking that. Exciting? Since when did he think of anything as exciting? That was a far gone version of him. Was memories of past emotions coming back because of the situation?
 
The man blinked, and Drake nodded to him, gaze attentive.

"Where to start? Longest-standing issue has been raiders. They've been around for years. We think they might be felons from some bigger city, but we can't be sure. They don't care to leave alive anyone they know of when they take out a carrier. We wouldn't have realized they weren't the Terrgonas if a few survivors of their initial strikes hadn't been very, very good at hiding."

"Terragonas?" Drake prompted after a moment.

"Giant winged things. They look like pteradons, but a lot larger. There's a mated pair nearby. Normally, we could avoid them by rerouting, but those raiders really like the other route large enough to send the carriers."

"What other routes do you have that are large enough?"

The man just looked at Drake a moment, then reached for a remote on a small table beside one of the beds. He flicked his fingers across it. "Here, this Guest Databank has information like that, including a map, which might be better than just hearing."

Drake nodded, then watched as the man's tapping on the buttonless remote turned the full and singular empty wall in the room into a map, and then zoomed it out until the city changed into a stylized icon with the name across it, roughly the size of Drake's open hand. He walked to the screen and then glanced back. "Could you highlight the routes?"

A few movements on the remote brought up a series of glowing lines that cut through the terrain. Drake inspected them, then looked back. A finger touched one of the lines. "Terro Way?"

"Terragonas. Named the way after them because they took it over."

"Which is the raiders' favorite?"

The man approached the wall and swept his hand along one of the routes, leaving only four left.

"And each of these?"

"This one was under construction, but workers kept disappearing. This one, Goldpath, is the safest, but not large enough for a Carrier. Single-family transports will go through fine, if the driver's confident and careful. It's also the longest route. Patience is golden, they say." That left two routes. "These last two, nobody's used as long as I can remember. They've been blocked by the state for centuries."

"Hm."

Drake looked toward Feng, one brow raised to hear his take. Hearing someone else's conclusions always helped him think and refine his own.

He didn't think the lack of ways out was due to the gasants, but he wanted to stay and fix those while he was here. Killing the giants could only delay annhilation if another threat came and the ways out were still so limited.
 
The raiders were probably not involved, except if they somehow had lured the gasants to town. That theory was too doubtful to even be brought up at this stage. There really was no reason for them to do so, except if they just wanted to watch the world burn. Not a complete impossibility of course.

"I doubt the raiders have anything to do with the gasants if they were here years beforehand." Feng started as he thought through all the options.

"Has anyone done any attempts to open up the two routes that were closed? The state might have closed them for a good reason, but in such a dire situation centuries later, wouldn't sending some people to check if they're usable be the best option?" Compared to the option of letting your citizens die slowly or quickly depending on how lucky you were.

"Or what about sending a smaller team through the goldpath? Let them search up another town that might be willing to send people to fight the raiders to open up the main road again." Some more thinking and Feng realized there might be another question needed about the gasants.

"Also, has there come any new animals to the area or has anything changed in the environment that might have caused the gasants to stay here? Any change that occurred just a few years to a few months before they got here. If they found a good food source nearby, that might be the cause, assuming humans aren't their main source of food."

Even if they got rid of the gasants now, the people still had no escape route and that was the main problem. Having a good escape route was important if enemies you couldn't take on attacked.

"For now, I'm a bit curious about that path." Feng mentioned, pointing at the one where people had been disappearing. "You'll need some safe route to take eventually, otherwise you'll just be sitting ducks even if the gasants disappears. Clearing one major road will be of the essence. If you can't get the raiders to disappear, finishing that road or opening up one of the other two would be the best options, but first we'd need to figure out what's over there." Feng would probably never admit it, but maybe he did care a little bit about the fate of these people.

"Of course making sure the gasants can't attack again would have to be the first priority, but after that I'd say we should check out the roads, if you don't have any objectives of course. I just tagged along as an observer, so I can't really call the shots here." He finally directed his attention to Drake, making sure they were on the same page. After all, it wasn't his mission, nor would he try to get overly involved on the physical level. It was probably better to let the pros do the work anyways.
 
Drake nodded as Feng looked toward him. They seemed to have similar thoughts. "We seem to be of one mind in this. Gasants, then securing roads. If possible, I want to clear all of them. A city this size won't survive past a few generations if it's this isolated."

Especially since there wasn't any visible farmland.

"What's the food situation?"

"We have an underground level where we grow food. We normally suppliment it with trade, but..."

Drake nodded. "All the more reason to clear the roads." He rested his hand over his chin as he looked back to the map on the wall. "If you can, see about arranging transportation along the Gold Road for the children, and make sure you can call them back, if you believe the gasants will attack within the next..." he paused, then nodded, "Two days."

"The amount of fuel and vehicles—"

"Restrictive, I imagine. Arrange for just the children and elderly, and some able-bodied people who can drive safely and protect them. Nobody is going to want the helpless to suffer the effects of the poison any further, I'm sure. Plan is, send them to... this part of the road seems sheltered. Call them back once it's safe."

The man walked closer to the map for a better grasp of location and distance. "We might be able to manage that much, but only once."

This man, who just ran a small hotel, seemed incredibly knowledgable. Unusually so, especially about the capabilities of the city.

"Attend a lot of town hall meetings?"

"I'm on the city council."

That explained it. Drake was thankful at least one person on there wasn't some rich politician, or at least was humble enough to run such a small hotel. He nodded, then looked toward Feng, thoughtful.

"When's the next attack expected?"

"Tomorrow, around noon."

Drake nodded and then looked back toward the map. "First, evacuation. Second, deal with the gasants. Third, roads."

The man watched Drake for several moments, then looked toward Feng, and then back at Drake. "If you need to learn more about the gasants, your best bet is the city's defensive force. They have a station just a little up the road, and have been experimenting with different tactics to try to deal with the issue."

"If you can deal with the evacuation, I can head there to find out more."

Drake finally addressed Feng. "Any assistance would be appreciated." He didn't tell Feng how to help, nor did he ask—the statement was exactly what he meant. If Feng helped on any front, Drake would be thankful for it. In Drake's mind, it was obvious that Feng wasn't limited to just evacuation or learning more.
 
Feng studied the map as the two men continued to speak. It wasn't necessary for both of them to go get the information about the gasants, and the town should be able to arrange the evacuation on their own. "How long would it take me to get to this route?" Feng asked as he motioned his hand over the path that had been under construction until people started disappearing.

"If there's enough time, I'll get in and out before noon tomorrow. If you happen to have a horse to spare it would make things easier, otherwise, I'll just make sure to be quick on my feet. Can as well check out if there are any clues to the disappearances while waiting. No reason for all of us to be on the same case. Too many cooks does not make a better soup." The worst that could happen from his little research trip was that he'd die and then wake up a few minutes later. This was probably the best he could do for now, nature was his right element, and tracking was his forte. If there were any clues up there, he'd notice them and they would have one less thing to do after the gasants were dealt with.
 
Drake nodded. "Good idea," he praised.

The local man sighed. "I'll do what I can about evacuating, but I can't make promises. If nothing else, we can put them into the farm and seal it so it's recycling air only, and not taking from above. It's what we've been doing, but they're still affected..."

"Whatever keeps them from getting killed," Drake urged. "Children are the future." The corny line, spoken so seriously by a guy who looked like an old-timey vampire, might have been more ridiculous at any other time. He inwardly cringed at himself regardless.

"As for checking that route, it's actually pretty near to us right now." He tapped the location of the hotel and held his finger there a moment. A circle appeared. He dragged his finger, and traced a path to the route. When he lifted his finger, a circle appeared at the destination. The path evened itself out and made corrections to accomodate for damage on the roads, and labels with instructions appeared at changes in direction.

Drake snorted and bit both his lips, eyebrows raised as he bit back his smile.

"It looks like you're going out through the same gate we came in, Feng."

The hotel owner frowned. "Which way did you come in?"

Right.

Drake coughed. "We didn't know about the routes. Just went through the woods with a compass."

"That sounds... unsafe..."

"Danger keeps us fit."

'Danger keeps us fit,' oh, he felt so full of shit.
 
Drake wasn't the only one cringing at how sappy he was. Children were the future? Danger keeps us fit? Feng rolled his eyes. Stop sounding older than me, Feng thought to himself. It was the first time in a long time he hadn't accidentally said something out loud when he thought it.

Feng looked quickly at the route the map showed him. Thanks to his little one year trip it would be easy to memories, especially when he continuously thought about it.

"Correction, danger keeps him fit, I work out as a normal person." Feng said. "I've memorized the map, I'll try to be back as early as possible as long as I don't drown, get eaten alive or get kidnapped." Most other scenarios would mean he would soon wake up, but drowning didn't stop before he got out of the water, a kidnapping wasn't a scenario he wanted to repeat, but would probably be unavoidable if a group decided to do it for some reason, being eaten alive meant he needed to get through the system before he could start regenerate, probably would die in the stomach after his skin would start to melt from the stomach acids. It wasn't something he had imagined before, but with giants around, there was a possibility.

"If worse comes to worse, I'll just try to get killed quickly so I might get back before it's time. Would be a pity missing out on the fun part." The fun part was of course his little poison test that he was so curious about. One could only imagine how confused that poor uncle was over Feng's talk about getting killed and coming back.

"I'll take off immediately then, better not waste the daylight." He said, already having turned to leave.
 
"What's your name, by the way?" Drake asked the man as he prepared to leave. "In case we need to find you later."

"Jian Sarin." He paused. "Your friend is...?"

"He has a strange sense of humor. Don't mind it." Drake nodded. "I'll be going. Thank you, Mr. Sarin."

Jian nodded slowly, and Drake departed as well. After a few moments, Jian left to go see what he could do about evacuations.

⋯﴾﴿⋯

The kids were playing again, and didn't pay much notice to Feng as he passed except to look up. At the gate, the same people were present.

"If you're heading out, best to return before it gets dark," the woman from earlier warned. "Don't lost track of time."
 
Luckily for Feng, the kids didn't seem to care for him at all. Good, he didn't want any burdens to follow him around. At the gate, the same people from earlier were still present. Nothing weird there, they hadn't been gone for long.

"To be honest, me and time have a pretty complicated relationship." Feng chuckled at the woman's comment, not bothered at all by the warning. "I'm actually intending to stay out most of the night. Can't figure out what's out there without taking some risks. I'm expecting at least half of you to start betting on if I'll come back alive or not. I bet I'll die at least once. See you at sunrise." He started to walk, not caring if his dark jokes that they couldn't fully comprehend with their limited knowledge of him left them confused, worried or wondering.

Soon he was on the road, following the map that was clear as day in his mind. He kept a good tempo, jogging most of the way, with the occasional running when the road went more downwards. Sooner rather than later, he arrived at the road of the disappeared people. "Let's see what we can find." He said to himself as he stated his investigation.
 
The woman frowned, but let him pass without issue. Her job, as her husband reminded her many times before she left the house, was only to raise the alarm if something unwelcome approached. Her job didn't entail stopping crazies, and Feng wasn't the first.

Once he arrived at the road, there was still plenty of daylight left: several hours of it. Concrete barriers painted with red stripes marked where construction ended on the perfectly-flat stripe of land. At roughly forty-five meters wide, the flat surface was partly paved, but not with cement or concrete or anything that would become stiff and stone-like. Instead, it looked like thick cloth, and had a subtle bounciness that made walking easier as it helped propel Feng forward.

It was not decorated, but gutters at he edges allowed for liquid to escape and prevent puddles and flooding.

As he explored further on, he came to where the supports were visible. Made of a variety of materials, but arranged with their strengths and weaknesses in mind, the road seemed like it was intended to last an incredibly long time.

Construction stopped at the edge of a deep gouge in the earth. Uneven and overgrown, it would have been easy to fall into, except for how it was marked off with bright-colored chains, and a net was secured over it to help prevent falls.

Hidden among the overgrowth, a hole in the far side of the gap seemed dark, like it went deep. There were smaller holes, but they weren't as dark, so presumably shallower. Beyond the gap, a single shovel stuck up out of the dirt, and a glove laid roughly a foot away.

(ENJOY THE MIXED UNITS LAWL)
 
"Oddest road I've ever seen." Feng mumbled as he started walking on the unfinished road. At least it was easy on the feet.

"Seems like they took precautions at least." He looked at the net and chains. Did people sneak up there often or something? Or had they just not bothered taking it down once they decided to stop the construction?

Looking down the crack, he noticed some holes, dark and probably deep. Did they lead to a cavesystem? That could explain the disappearances. If some nocturnal animal lived down there it might only get up to hunt, and if humans happens to work right at their door, of course they'd be eaten.

"Okay, let's try not to break any bones today shall we?" Feng started climbing, which was fairly easy with the vegetation being in such an awful state. Even with his untrained body, he was able to get to the other side fairly quickly, even with his little accidental slip. Luckily the grass had such stable roots that it could hold his weight when he grabbed a hold of some with both his hands. The bruise on his leg healed within seconds.


"A torch would have been nice, but I guess I'll just have to deal." He mumbled as he disappeared into one of the dark holes. Hopefully he wouldn't get stuck in there.
 
The crack was thankfully only three meters deep, and the largest hole was about three-fifths of a meter in height, and one and a half wide.

He made it a short distance in before he suddenly fell. The fall wasn't far—maybe the length of his arm, and he could feel a smooth surface beneath, marked in a grid by rough, depressed lines.

When his eyes adjusted, he could still barely see. The light that made it in despite the grass and the hole was dim, and he could make out only vague outlines in his periphery.

From below him, he could hear a quiet sound like hissing, but not quite. It slowly came closer, and then the sound continued, coming from someplace below him.

Something blunt suddenly touched his arm, tracing down and around—feeling it.

Despite any attempts to push it away, it simply returned. Attempts to grab it found something firm and worm-like, about two fingers wide, with a squishy, domed tip. It was dry and had a waxy texture.
 
The hole was big enough for him to get through without getting stuck. Good, he wouldn't want to be stuck down there without having any way of contacting anyone. Though he guessed it would be easy for Drake to find him if he were to get stuck, as he knew exactly on which route Feng had gone to. The holes weren't really invisible, so he would only need half a brain to figure out that the guy might be down there.

Suddenly Feng lost his grip and fell down. It was too short of a fall for it to actually do him any harm, but it did hurt a little bit for a minute. He rubbed his lower back as he got up and tried to look around. It was too dark to see anything even with the slight like coming through the opening.

Now he wished he had a torch, but then he would probably accidentally set fire to something. Quite frankly it wouldn't be the first time he did that in a closed space. A slight bit of panic grabbed him as he started to feel slightly claustrophobic. Damn, he had been fine for hundreds of years without getting panic attacks, but since the kidnapping, everything seemed to be coming back. Wonderful. Though it could also be because of the memory trip.

A hissing sound could be heard.

"Great, snakes. I love snakes." He said sarcastically. Then something touched him. Feng jumped as far to the side as he could. "What the heck was that?" Once again it returned to touch him and he tried to push it away. Touching it again he felt something... Disgusting. "Get off me you parasite." Once he pushed it away for probably the fifth time, he tried to climb up the hole again. A great ordeal as he barely could see anything at all and had no idea where he could put his hands and if there was anything to grab onto at all.
 
Whatever the thing was, it began to wrap slowly around his leg, squeezing and coiling upward. Another thing, much like the first, snaked up his opposite leg under the pant and gripped him around the calf as it wound slowly higher until the end gripped his knee.

The texture of the strange thing further from its 'head' felt segmented and firm, with chitinous plates that dug against Feng's bare skin where the second thing touched him.

And then slowly and firmly, both began to pull. As the chitin-plates rubbed the ground, the hissing increased.

The powerful appendages offered no break, and soon had Feng yanked from where he'd just gotten his hand out of the hole.

His head slammed the ledge he'd fallen from before, and then another ledge, and then the true floor. The limbs dragged him across the smooth tile and rough plaster, slow and steady.
 
"Yeah, I'll go check out the mysterious place where people disappears all on my own. No problems. What could ever go wrong?" Feng mumbled to himself as he tried to get himself out of there. It didn't turn out as he had hoped. The thing followed him and wrapped itself around his legs. Feng kicked and stomped to make it let go, but nothing helped. Then suddenly, both his legs were being pulled back.

Not fast mind you, it went slowly giving Feng many opportunities to try to get free. Too bad he didn't have any weapons on him, and his kicking and eventually hitting didn't seem to help any. The man was slowly being pulled back into the darkness. "Holy shit." He tried to hold himself in place, but his hands didn't get a good enough grip anywhere to even attempt to stay in one place.

Then he fell. Fell back onto the ground in the cave. "Ouch." He grabbed the back of his head as the pain from the ledge hit rushed through him. Another hit. At least this time his hands protected him. "Oh please, whatever happens, don't swallow me whole, or chew me while I'm alive. Kill me quickly you disgusting snake thing." Not much he could do at this point other than going along with it. The worst that could happen was that he died. If he was lucky he could escape once he regenerated.
 
They dragged him deeper, further from that small spot of dim light and into the full darkness of the cold and slowly-moistening cave.

Time became harder to count as the ground grew more uneven. Cracks in the tile scraped at his stomach and chest and whatever of his face and arms he allowed to rest on the ground. The speed of his journey gradually grew, and the cracked tiles became ramps, bouncing him along.

CRACK! He hit the roof of the cave, then a wall, then floor, and a crack on the floor sent him bouncing again as the things wound around his legs dragged him along faster and faster.

The maddening ride ended suddenly at a shout from ahead.

"Glk'ss! Putha dah!"

Feng, hanging in the air by the tentacles, fell suddenly.

"Gothu ram!"

Rapid hissing grew distant, and footsteps approached Feng.
 
How long were those things gonna drag him around? It started to become annoying, and his stomach and arms were being cut from the uneven ground. The thing started to go much faster, making it impossible for Feng to control where he put the pressure of his body to limit the damage. Bouncing around like a rag doll, the immortal was in a truly helpless situation.

Then suddenly, everything stopped as he was hanging upside down in the air. "Oh joy." He mumbled as the creatures started to make sounds, and so he was dropped down on the ground. "OW." Luckily he had been able to turn enough so he didn't land on his head, or maybe that was the bad news as that would have broken his neck and he could have passed out and just not cared what happened to him.

Footsteps could be heard approaching him. A human? It was at the very least not the same kind of creature as he just had met. Sitting up, he could feel his back ache from the fall. Did he break something? If not the pain should already have been gone. "Who's there?" He asked, not seeing much in the dark. "If you're gonna kill me, could you just do it quickly? All this pain is so uncomfortable. Just hurry up already." The faster he died, the faster he would come back to life and get out of there. What time was it now anyways?
 
Whoever approached stopped near Feng. A moment passed in the darkness, and then a rough hand gripped Feng by the chin and lifted his head. "Ain't you a sorry sort," a man grumbled. "Lil banged up, yeah, but nuffin too bad."

The voice of the stranger in the dark sounded half-croak and just short of monotone.

"Not to fret, ain't gonna kill ya, less my pet managed to cause harm on you where it'd be more mercy ferit."

He let go of Feng's chin, then hauled the immortal to his feet and held him while he let Feng find his balance.

"Spose yer blind, though. Can't be 'elped. Darker'n a gant's assole in 'ere."
 
Nuffin too bad when you could heal almost instantly at least. All cuts were already gone and his back felt much better.

"Great, I stumbled upon the merciful caveman instead of the homicidal one." That thing was his pet? Did that mean his pet was responsible for all those disappearances? But if he didn't kill them, then why hadn't they come back? This was one odd situation. Straight forward as he was, Feng didn't bother with any small talk before getting to the point.

"Did your pet have anything to do with the disappearances of the villagers who worked on the bridge around the cave opening, or might there be other creatures in these caves that could have been responsible?" Didn't even bother to ask how he had gotten down there or why he stayed, cause that wasn't important to the case nor was he interested. Well, it wasn't important for as long as he wasn't the one ordering his pet to drag people down there. If he was the reason for the disappearances, then it would be time to look a bit deeper into him.