If that fruit was poisonous, it sure didn't do much of anything except make the winged coyote's nose tingle with the smell of it for a bit – probably all that pollen that was dusting the fruits. The group's first night on Arcadia was uneventful for the most part, except for a light shower that drenched everything that wasn't waterproof, but by morning the sun came out and quickly dried everything.

As Tock, Matchstick, and Lochinvar bundle their supplies together for their first trek through the woods, their preparations are interrupted by several strange honking noises coming from the thick foliage of the forest.

Lochinvar looks up from his packing to determine where the noises are coming from, but just as quickly turns an eye to Tock, half expecting the raccoon to jump up after the noises in search of another 'sample'.

Sure enough, the raccoon lets an armful of ceramic cooking pans drop from his arms and onto the damp ground as he twists around in the direction of the noise. "Ohhh… natives!"

Matchstick groans and grabs a tent pole in his hands, holding it like a staff or a clumsy sword.

More honking noises issue forth from the trees, and finally a figure steps out…

It's the oddest critter Lochinvar has ever laid eyes upon. The hard looking skin of it suggests that it's some kind of bug, but it's awfully big for a bug. It pushes through the plants on two sturdy looking legs while smaller and more delicate arms curl in front of it. It has a large central egg-shaped body, a long tapering neck, and an odd funnel shaped head with the "mouth" permanently set into a gaping "O". Two bright yellow googly eyes blink at the three campers before the beast trots on through the clearing and towards the river.

The Hekoye is half on his way to stop Tock, when he notices the figure emerge. However, he still moves such that he's been Tock and the figure – just in case Tock gets too overzealous.

"Wow! Oh wow wow WOW!" The raccoon strains to see around the Hekoye but satisfies himself by peeking out from under one of his wings.

Another one of the critters emerges. Well, maybe it's a different species. It has the same shape of torso and head, but a stumpy neck, six legs, and a long whip-like tail broken into bony looking segments.

And another! This one's the biggest of all: four powerful looking legs, an elongated torso that actually looks like two smaller ones stuck together, and… two heads?

"Whonk!" "Honk!" "Hoot!" "Hoo-KAH!" the critters call to one another.

Lochinvar draws his wings in close, so as to let Tock get a better view, and at the same time not to look too threatening. He looks briefly at Matchstick, and asks, "Seen these before?"

"Only from a distance. Glot went chasing after them and never came back." The wolf rubs a hand across the back of his neck, smoothing down his hackles. "They didn't seem dangerous, but anything that could take down a Titanian… "

Five more of the creatures emerge from the woods, each of varying shapes and sizes. They sniff in the trio's direction curiously, but seem to lose interest. Three of them poke their goofy looking heads into the water and drink while the rest walk around the trees with their heads aimed at the forest floor.

*SHOOP!* Several leaves get sucked into one creature's mouth. It wags its tail happily.

"Then let's not give them any reason to 'take us down' also," the coyote replies. "Tock, that means no samples."

"Awww!" Tock pouts, folding his arms against his chest.

A glint of something shiny catches the Hekoye's eye as one of the creatures walks from the stream and focuses on the forest floor with his brethren.

Lochinvar turns his head instinctively away from the creatures and towards the stream. What was that?

The Hekoye's eyes are keen, keen as any Vartan's. It looks like a string of something shiny was dropped by one of the creatures while it was hunched down to drink at the stream. It glints like polished metal.

"Bwaaaa!" One of the creatures bleats out, rubbing against one of the trees. Its tone sounds almost like it's asking for something.

With one eye still on the 'shiny', Lochinvar says to Tock, "Go over and stand with Matchstick. I think I saw one of them by the stream, so I should check we're not being surrounded by them."

"Oh… all right." The raccoon huffs. "They don't look very dangerous. I don't see any sharp gnashy claws or teeth or anything like that." Despite his complaints, the raccoon shuffles over to stand behind the wolf.

Matchstick grips his tent pole tighter. "Hopefully the things'll move on soon."

Seeing Tock heading to over to the Jupani, Lochinvar slowly edges away towards the stream and the source of the glinting.

As he moves closer, the Hekoye gets a better focus on the thing. It's a necklace made of bent wire. It almost looks like a chain: various bits of wire that look like they were cut and bent into individual shapes and then linked to another shape. Most of the chain looks like it's made of iron, but one link is silver and another is gold. An odd treasure indeed.

One of the critters still drinking from the stream raises its muzzle out of the water and peers sideways at Lochinvar. "Hoot?"

The winged coyote pauses in his approach, not having noticed the creature there (due to other things on his mind). He tilts his head to one side a little, then resumes his course towards the necklace – maybe a little slower than before.

The individual links come into better focus. The silver one looks like a crudely rendered scene of a tower in a clearing. Another link looks like a path in the forest, and another looks like an oddly shaped tree.

The Hekoye can suddenly feel his fur get pulled gently in the direction of the creature drinking from the stream as it makes 'sniffing' sounds at him. Rather strong suction it has, although not really powerful enough to do more than ruffle his fur a little.

Lochinvar edges just a few feet closer until the necklace is within reach. Slowly he crouches down and feels out for the necklace, keeping an eye on the creature at the same time.

The necklace is big enough to be easily seen and grabbed. It looks rather big for a 'normal' necklace. Definitely not something a lady would wear.

"Behind you, Lochy!" Matchstick barks out.

The Hekoye's ears prick up at the warning, and he whirls his head around to look behind him.

Two more of the critters, one with four legs and the other with… three (?) are edging their way behind the Hekoye. "Hoo-kah?" "Whoot!"

"Whonk!" replies the one from the stream, turning around to face Lochinvar, but not moving any closer. It continues to sniff at him as do the two new arrivals.

The coyote remains perfectly still for the moment, arm still outstretched for the necklace, while he watches the creatures just sniff around. Sniffing, at the moment, is fine.

The one at the stream makes another horn-like bleat before it dips its head back into the stream and resumes drinking. The two standing behind the coyote meep quietly to one another as though having some kind of private conference.

Lochinvar uses that moment to get a grip on the necklace, and pull it back towards him.

"It's going to eat him! I KNOW IT! Ow!" the raccoon yelps out. Matchstick gives him a box on the top of his head, which instantly silences the Technopriest.

Finally the two creatures finish their conference. The three legged one hops away while the four-legged one starts to move towards the Hekoye. Whistling noises issue from the creature, like someone gently blowing across the top of a glass bottle.

Still keeping his movements deliberate and slow, the Hekoye moves from his almost kneeling position to that of a crouching position, as well as unfolding his wings just a little – just in case.

The creature continues moving forward until it's about a yard away from the Hekoye. It tilts its bony head at him while a foreleg paws at the ground. "Whoot?" it honks out. Sounds like it just asked a question.

Lochinvar glances over at his Jupani and Rath'ani companions, then looks at the creature with a confused expression. "Sorry, I have no idea what you want," he tells it.

"Blat!" it honks, sounding frustrated. It sits down and peers at the ground, its bony tail flicking back and forth in thought. Suddenly its head raises up and its eyes brighten. It holds up a front leg up at the Hekoye in a "wait a moment" gesture.

The coyote relaxes a little, but waits and watches the creature, head tilted just a little.

An instant later the thing suddenly falls apart! The limbs collapse into segments, the legs fall back on the torso and the neck crumbles into the rest of the pile of various bits of critter. Atop the whole thing, the head continues to peer at Lochinvar.

Lochinvar blinks at the creature, or what appears to be left of it, and looks around for anything that might have caused this creature to collapse like that.

Nothing, not even a breeze in the air. It's as though every joint of the creature just simply decided to let go of their linking segments.

The things starts to quiver and several bits of it shuffle around in the pile.

"It's going to explode! I just kno-mmmmpMMPh!" Matchstick grabs the raccoon by the collar and clamps a hand over his muzzle.

Pulling himself to his feet, the Hekoye stands, but keeps an eye on the pile – after shooting off a glare in the direction of Tock.

One by one the segments reform… into a much differently shaped creature. This one has two large legs much like a Vykarin's, and two much more delicate arms with three bony fingers that look like they might have once been part of that long tail. The newer tail is much thicker, to balance the thing out on its new legs. And to top it out, a long neck rises up from the central torso with that exact same googly looking head perched atop it. "Whonk!" it honks out, sounding much more pleased with itself.

Lochinvar looks over again to his companions with an expression that says, "there – it didn't explode after all," then he returns his gaze to the creature, and offers, "I still don't know what you want."

A bony hand taps a hollow sounding chest. "Hoo-kah!" it honks out. Then it points to Lochinvar. "Whoot?"

The Hekoye gradually gets an idea of what the creature is getting at now. He points to it, and asks (trying to approximate the sound as best possible), "Hoo-kah?"

"Hoo-KAH!!" It hops from foot to foot happily and claps its hands together. Then it again points to Lochinvar. "Whoot?"

Tock shouts out, "Tell it you taste terrible! And ask for a sample!" *whack* "Ow!"

Shaking his head at Tock's suggestion, the coyote looks at the creature and points to himself with both hands, saying, "Lochinvar."

"Ahrar," it honks, trying to mimic the noise with its oval mouth. Its head swivels around to look at the wolf and the part of raccoon that can be seen hiding behind the wolf, before looking back at the Hekoye. It points to the two. "Whoot?"

The raccoon looks about to shout something out but Matchstick manages to grab his muzzle before he gets a chance.

Lochinvar points over to the Rath'ani, and says, "Tock", then the Jupani, "Matchstick."

"Whock," Hoo-kah honks out. It makes a few garbled attempts at the wolf's name but doesn't even come remotely close. It seems satisfied and turns to join its companions sucking away at the forest floor.

The Hekoye watches it go, and then heads back to his companions – keeping a good hold on that necklace he found.

As suddenly as they came, the group of critters vanish through the thick foliage.

Tock yelps as Matchstick finally lets go of his mouth. "Ow. Are you quite finished trying to crack my head open?"

The wolf shakes his head and looks to Lochinvar. "Were they friendly?"

"Apparently," the winged coyote replies. "Seems like they just wanted to know who we are."

The raccoon stands on his toes and looks at the chain in the winged coyote's hands. "What did you find? Is it a sample?"

Relaxing a bit, the wolf resumes packing everything up for the day's venturing.

Lochinvar mmms? at Tock, then realizes that the raccoon is looking at the necklace. "This? Ah… no. I don't think so."

Tock pinches a dangling link between his fingers. "This looks like a picture of a tree, and this one here looks like a mountain. How strange."

The Hekoye pulls the necklace away from the raccoon. "Maybe, but this is mine now, all right?"

The raccoon's strength is no match for the Hekoye's and the chain gets wrenched from his fingers rather easily. Tock sucks on one of his fingers. "Er… yes… of course. Just, well… I'm wondering how it got here. I didn't see any of those honking things wearing much of anything, including jewelry."

Lochinvar shrugs instead of offering an answer, and puts the necklace into a pocket in his breeches for the moment.

Matchstick drops a backpack to the ground. "We're all set to move out, Lochy. Do you want to hoof it or scout ahead?"

Visibly drooping, the raccoon picks up the various bottles he's filled during the day and tucks them away in his satchel.

"I can do, if someone will hold onto my pack," Lochinvar replies.

"Not a problem." The Jupani grins. "Focus on the path to the north. We're supposed to focus on a mountain there that might be hospitable for a Temple outpost sometime in the future. There's a path that leads up through there which is the only way we can hope to reach it without being able to fly like yourself or hacking through the trees with machetes." He glances at one of the trees that had given Lochinvar the fruit earlier. "And I have the feeling that the trees wouldn't like that very much."

Nodding, the Hekoye says, "I have that feeling too."

"If you can see any signs of Glot, then be sure to let us know. We'll start down the north path, and you can double back and meet us up when you're done." The wolf grins. "Good luck. Times like this I wish I had wings."

"Wings probably itch." Tock scratches his shoulder for emphasis.

Lochinvar grins at the wolf, then unfolds his wings, flexing them a little to work out some of the initial stiffness in them, and leaps into the air, bringing his wings down at just the right moment to provide both the lift and momentum to get airborne.

There's a yelp from Tock as he's hit with a downblast of wind, but it fades out into the distance as the Hekoye shoots upwards. The air smells amazingly clear here, absolutely nothing like flying over Rephidim. Below, his eyes can trace a snakelike path through a forest that stretches outwards for what might be about five miles, before it fades into a meadow at the foot of a giant mountain with a snow capped peak. The river flows in a dizzying squiggle through the trees as it keeps the forest alive and refreshed.

Following over the path, Lochinvar is in no great hurry to rush his flight, mainly because after being cramped in airship, and not having flown since leaving Rephidim, he needs the time to loosen up.

A few more of those hobbling white things can be seen on the path, walking up and down it like insects on a trail. There's a point further up ahead that's marred with a black splotch in the middle of the path.

This catches the coyote's eye, and he flies a little lower to get an idea what it is.

The splotch looks like a black blob made of little wiggly things. The trees around it look brown and sickly. One of the little bone creatures looks to be trotting up the path right towards it.

Several shapes are seen lying around the thing. Lochinvar's keen eyes manage to make them out… They're parts of those strange white things, except they're scattered about and not moving. A head lies near the black creature's feet, its eyes empty and hollow.

Lochinvar loses a little more altitude, and circles around a little more so he can watch.

"BWAAAA!" comes a cry from the little white thing as it encounters the creature. The black thing crouches and looks like it's about to pounce, while the white fellow backs off warily.

The Hekoye continues his circling, keeping his eyes trained on the activity below.

Blackened tendrils shoot out of the creature and suddenly wrap around the white thing. The white creature howls out as though it were being burned, while the black creature slowly reels in its captive.

A smell rises up through the trees. It's like burning chitin and rotten garbage.

Grimacing as the smell gets up even this high, Lochinvar picks up a little more altitude, then continues flying above the path for a bit longer. Strike one against this route, he muses to himself.

There's one last screaming cry as the critter gets engulfed by the black predator, who then just hunches up into a ball to wait for the next fellow to come down the path. Luckily Lochinvar managed to get quite a ways down during his flight… far enough that Matchstick and Tock wouldn't have possibly gotten anywhere near here just yet.

With that last cry, the Hekoye thinks that maybe his exercise can wait, and he arcs around to fly back the way he came, scanning the path below for his companions. On his way, he ponders to himself, So much for the planet of 'life'.