A fennec is walking along the bluffs. It is hard to tell his size, the ocean offers no perspective. The fennec walks slowly, and he carries a staff which he uses as a walking stick. He has dusty tan fur, with streaks of gray around the muzzle. The fur of his front, visible through the simple rawhide vest he wears, is cream colored. A rawhide pack rests over one of his shoulders.

The fennec's large ears pick up a distant sound … a low drone. And … was that a voice crying out?

Roho stops walking, and turns his head, swiveling his ears in the direction of the sound.

The wailing becomes a bit more distinct. There's the sound of much rustling and thrashing. Roho hears a rather high pitched voice shout "Get away fr'm me, ya big hairy… whatever you are!"

Roho blinks slowly, and starts to hurry in the direction of the voice. He runs in a low crouch, with his staff skimming over the ground in front of him. He calls out in a hoarse voice as he runs, "Who's there, and are you all right?"

The droning noise continues … whatever it is, it's moving back and forth, away and in again, circling the source of the voice, and occasionally thrusting at it.

"I won't be alright if this frazzin bug thing gets at me! HELP ME!!" The voice replies. Quickly followed by a loud yowl and another rustling sound.

Roho tries to judge the voice, whether it is within reach of being thrown his staff…

There is a *fssssht* sound from the direction of the droning.

Roho runs low towards the voice, "I can't see you… if I throw you my staff, can you catch it?"

the voice is almost screaming now, frantic and desperate. " Ohhhhh scrud! It's got me! It's got me!" There's a quick scrabbling noise, then. "I see you! I… I think I can catch it. Hurry!"

Suddenly, something the fennec steps in squishes. And when he lifts his foot again … it clings and stretches. He can still pull free, though, for this … stuff … was stuck to nothing other than loosely-packed dirt. But now he has something sticky and stringy dangling from one foot.

Roho hesitates for a moment, as the sound the creature makes seems familiar… but he shrugs off the feeling, and closes the distance between him and the unknown person. His nostrils flare as he sniffs frantically, and he tries to judge where to strike with his staff by the sound.

Roho shakes his foot, "What on… " He puts his foot back down, whatever it is can wait.

Roho suddenly flattens his ears back, as he realizes what this is. "Whoever you are, lie down now!" He swings his staff in a flat arc in the direction he best judges by the buzzing of the Horrib.

*thwack* *BZZZZZZ!* The creature immediately zips away, surprised by the attack from behind. But by the sound … it has not gone far.

There's a sharp yowling noise followed by the sound of tearing sod. Moments after Roho speaks there's a dull "thump *SQUISH*" noise.

Roho paws at the ground, trying to locate the victim. He hurries, as he hears the horrib starting to regroup. Once he finds the victim, he starts tearing at the ensnaring goo with tooth and nail; whoever it is can probably fight easier than he.

The goo stretches and sticks … but it has started to get a good amount of dirt in it from the victim's thrashing about, so some of its potency has been lost. Tearing at it with tooth, however, has some untasty results.

The creature quickly follows suit, trying to remove enough of the sticky stuff to be able to move, and hopefully run.

Roho goes into a low crouch as the victim starts to regain some mobility… his ears point forward, as he tries to listen for the buzzing. He holds his staff level out in front of him.

It's coming again. *bzzzzzZZZZZZZ*

"Ick, this'll take forever to grow back." Roho hears the voice say.

Roho swings frantically, blindly at the buzz, hoping it's within range. He growls down at the other victim, "If you can get free of the goo, now would be a good time… "

"I kin' run now, I think." The victim responds.

Roho rasps, "Great, you can run… but I'd rather you could help me fight. Unless you think you can run faster than this can fly."

The creature starts scrabbling around looking for rocks and tries lobbing them at the giant bug.

Roho crouches lower and raises his staff in both arms high, trying to ward off the blow.

"Get down!" The voice screeches!

The monster zips to one side, to dodge a flying rock, then darts back in again.

Roho drops down at the voice!

Something whisks just over the fennec's head.

"We've got t' run!" The voice yowls. "It looks like it's gonna try 'n poke us with some kinda needle thingamaknocker."

From over a dune, a voice shouts. "Nass! I knew I shouldn't try twaddling with the frisbee, it goes to full wonk."

Roho shakes his head, "It would just use the same goo at us again… there's no way we could outrun it! I can't see it… can you hit it if I give you my staff?"

Roho's ears raise at the new voice, "Who's there?"

The path of the droning thing seems to take it into a hover … and then suddenly it shoots off toward the new threat!

"Halp! Hey! There's a big momma hog of a bug back here!" Roho's companion shouts over the dune.

The second voice sounds closer now. "Zarkin' lethal!" Footsteps then start pounding away on the sand…

Roho rubs dirt into the goo on his companion, and tries to get the rest of it off…

The droning begins to get louder. The thing must have decided to … come back!

Roho growls low, and reaches out for the other's paw, trying to scramble towards the dune and the other voice before the insect can reach them.

The voice, a heavily accented one, calls "Stay icy, pos-ke-ros! The bakkie is on the ride!"

Furred hands push Roho away. "I'm fine. But we gotta' get outta here!"

Roho nods, "I agree… !"

The droning wavers. The creature must be zipping about indecisively – or perhaps defensively.

Roho starts to run towards the dune, staff held low. He keeps an ear on the buzz, in case it returns towards him…

"Rezzin great!" Roho's partner reaponds.

Wouldn't you know it? By the sound, it seems the big bug has decided to make a beeline for the running fennec. *Bzzzzzzzzz*

The accented voice calls, "Duck, guys!" A whoooshing sound is heard…

Roho drops to the ground again, getting a mouthful of dirt in the process.

*Bzzzzzz – thwap – ZZZT!* There's an angry buzzing noise coming from a much lower point now.

"Knarlin shot!" Comes the voice from behind Roho. "Ya bagged it!"

The accented voice is head, and its speaker scrambles down a dune "What a raze, pos-ke-ros, you were almost Gooshurm food! What the nass is that thing?"

Roho slowly gets up, dusting himself off, keeping a wary ear out both at the buzzing and at the new voices, "Can someone tell me what on earth is going on?!"

Roho rasps, "I've never run into one of those so close to the shore. It didn't just come out of nowhere. Did it?"

"Scattered if I know." Replies Roho's friend. His voice seems a bit softer now, and slowly seems to be sidestepping away from the rescuers.

The accented voice speaks, "I dunno, man, It was scokin' you when I rid in. Almost had you for brupper!"

There are some more footsteps that can be heard, and some scrabbling up the steep slope, coming from the beach below. There are various exclamations: "Yaz!" "Jappin whazzat?" "Dada!" "Ho! Meefii-Meizha!"

Roho turns towards the voice of the person he first ran into, "Umm… before you go, are you okay? I can check you if you'd like… " He looks confused.

"Fine as sand." The voice replies. "I… er… just shouldn't be danglin' here for too long. It's probably not very chilly for me to sponge around here for much longer."

Some of the voices start to sound a little agitated. "Ho! Bhuz! Skedat, you!" one yells.

"Burb, guys, the crew is vamalin' me!", says the accented voice. Footsteps are heard, pounding away…

Roho tilts his head to one side, "If I hadn't come when I had, these ones might have come too late. Do you think you could at least give me your name?"

The Accented voice can be heard, semi-arguiing with the other voices. "Zarkin' huge bug!" and "Dank, man, but cross the guy a bit?"

A furred hand shakes Roho's. "M' name's Bhuz. If yer scattin' to the village, I'm afraid I can't follow you. The others might not takes it very slippy."

Roho smiles, "Very well… can you at least tell me which direction the village is in?"

More footsteps are heard, and the Accented voice speaks again, very close. "Bhuz, you know you can't cement here, but they ain't gonna march ya out until yer icy. I 'loaded 'em on the bug-thing."

Roho moves back a step as the accent voice speaks to the victim. His ears swivel forward, and he listens with interest.

There's a small wooshing noise as Bhuz points, then a small giggle of inmarrasment as he realizes that Roho is blind. "Er… jus' over the dune. Y' can't miss it."

Roho nods, "Thank you… " He addresses the rescuers, "I'm in your debt. If there's anything I can do for you… ?"

There's a gentle taptaptap on Roho's shoulder. "Like, what should I be callin' you?" Bhuz asks.

"Dada! You think we could snarf this frisbee? Ho! It's still pumpin'!" There are several buzzing and whacking noises from the direction of the fallen bug-monster.

Roho introduces himself to Bhuz, "Roho. I'll probably be in the area for a little while, but I'll probably move on after a few days."

"No need, pos-ke-ros, I'm nirvin'.", says the accented voice. "And so I'm swervin'. Connect you later." his voice calls out. "My frisbee, jink! Skiv but don't snarf!"

"Gurg!" exclaims an unnamed voice over near the bug. "It gooshed me!"

Roho chuckles at the local slang, then turns back to Bhuz, "Where are you going now?"

"Roho? The healer Roho?" Bhuz' tone brightens a bit. "Nice ta grak ya, Roho-meizha!"

Roho smiles, "Just Roho, I think… "

"It ain't kayeffcee yet, man?" says the accented voice, further away, and to someone else. "Whamp it some more!"

"Dunno." Bhuz responds. "It's not too chilly fer me ta dangle here for too long. I'm sorta' bad wavin for everyone here."

Roho rasps, "What do you mean by too chilly, Bhuz?"

"Drowser, dada! I'm gonna need some new jams after gettin' gooshed like that," one of the far voices laments. The buzzing has ceased.

"You needed new jams anyway, fruser, the ones you have are debtro." the accented voice says. "C'mon, let's ride, get the net with yours-tru and we'll tote it."

Bhuz says, "Oh… jus' the others don think it's too windy for me to be sticking here."

Roho nods, "I see… " He looks thoughtful, "Could you use a travelling companion, Bhuz?"

"Sure, mehiza!" Bhuz responds happily. "That'd be planoformic!"

Roho smiles, and offers his paw for shaking to Bhuz, "Indeed… planoformic!"

Footsteps can be heard, and the accented voice grows weaker, off into the distance, until beyond the point of hearing.

Roho's offered hand is gleefully shaken. The fennec can feel Bhuz relax a great deal when the others leave.

The waves softly brush against the shore, occasionally quieting enough for the calls of seacreens to carry on the wind.

Roho picks up his walking stick from where he'd dropped it on the dune as he fell. He smiles, "Any preference for a path? I'm afraid it all looks the same to me… "