Professor Kane was overjoyed to have finally arrived. He didn’t even stop to help as his friend attempted to pull the boat out of the water and up the ledge onto shore. The irwinian had hurried over to the nearest small plant. It grew plentiful on the edges of the sparse dark forest, soaking in the filtered sunlight of the edges. He was chuckling as he drew out one of his books and began to examine the dimensions of the small bush as he flicked through the pages of the book. At times he was measuring the size or shape of the leaves, counting their support structures or how many leaves were supported by each branch. At other times he was measuring the plant’s overall height or the shape and number of its nut-like fruits. “Heart shaped fruits. Leaves that are symbols of larger trees. And three main types of branches; leaves, fruiting, and flowering. Oh it’s medicinal. Very medicinal!” he voice rose excitedly as he plucked several of the seeds and a bunch of the almost dandelion-like flowers and stuffed the mass into a pocket in his bag.
“Help!” A distant voice cried out from the darkness. Garrett’s head rose to look into the forest. A sparse collection of tall trees, their branches interwoven in a thick canopy. The trunks were quite consistent in thickness, with very few stray branches beneath canopy level. Had he imagined the voice? It sounded like it another irwinian. Had someone else arrived before them? “Help!” The voice cried out again, distant and pained. He could feel their panic and took a second to glance back at the others. His two companions were busy at the coast attempting to lift the boat from the water. Surely they could keep sight of him, the forest was sparse and it would be easy to see any predators moving about, that person needed his help. As the irwinian’s foot moved to begin his stride into the shadowy underbrush, he froze in place. Garretts eyes widened momentarily as he traced the sequence of his thoughts backward. Why would he assume they’d watch him if he didn’t say anything? Why didn’t they react as if they heard something? Samen at the least should have. The irwinian stood there, unmoving for almost a whole minute, his skin crawling with the unsettling sensation as he heard the voice cry out again, pained and screaming for help.
Slowly, he craned his head upward to more intently look at the leaves of the tree. The branches swayed gently in the light seabreeze, branch decorated by masses of needlelike leaves. “Pine’s” he whispered, stepping back as the voice ringed in his ears again. “I know your tricks.” The irwinian didn’t look away from the forest as he walked backward away from it. Suddenly he felt a rush of air. He was falling backward, someone caught his ankle in time to swing him away from the water surface. His back and head slammed hard into the small ledge of rock before falling properly into a small heap in the boat.
“What in Bellors name are you doing?” Mr Howell shouted down at him. “There are things in the water remember, not a time for a swim.” The irwinian shook his head after a second, stunned and slightly dazed from his fall. “Here, get up and help us” Garrett nodded, taking the offered arm and allowing himself to be pulled back onto the land. When his feet settled onto the earth again, his eyes found themselves lingering on the darkness of the forest as the pained elven voice specifically called his name.
Breaking eye contact with the forest, the long limbed irwinian reached down and hooked the small boat. Together, the three explorers slowly managed to pull the boat ashore. For the briefest moment, the thought crossed his mind that they should simply jump back into the boat and try to reach the ship. But he was the one who wanted to come. He asked for this, knowing the island was dangerous. They only had a couple weeks, surely they could survive that long. He looked at Wulfric’s bird friend Samen. What if she lost control and went feral? He had to find some way to keep her sane. Meanwhile; Wulfric was turning the boat over and arranging stones around the edge. “There” the human smiled, stepping back to admire his handiwork. “It shouldn’t blow away and hopefully nothing thinks it’d make a good home while we’re gone.” The blacksmith then looked at the other two before picking up his bag and heading toward the treeline.
“Mr. Howell” Kane spoke up just before the human crossed the threshold into the woods. “Shouldn’t we follow the coast? We might get lost in there, and settlements tend to be built near the shore for water.” Wulfric looked back and then into the forest again. “It all looks the same in there, it would be easy to get lost.” The human shrugged, trotting back over to the others as they picked up their own supplies. Walking right along the coast wouldn’t find them anything, it was the side ships could always see and no-one ever reported seeing a settlement. So the irwinian set off left, to loop around the coast and find something no-one had ever seen on or of Einode island before.
As they walked, the professor noticed the bird woman staring intently at him several times. Each time he looked however, she turned away. At one point, she grabbed his wrist. He almost jumped, it was as if he had been attacked by some wild animal. But her grip seemed to be simply to get his attention. “I thought you wanted to follow the coast?” her voice had this harsh melody to it, as if she was scolding him by song. The irwinian looked at her and then to Mr Howell. The human was standing nearby, hands on the straps of his bag and simply watching the situation with an eyebrow slightly raised. Only upon seeing his friends expression did Garrett Kane finally look at the direction of his own movement. He had broken from the group’s stride and was drifting to turn into the forest.
The irwinian stepped back, rubbing his eyes before falling into step between the other two. His eyes scanned the treeline ahead, watching as eventually the pine forest gave way to an assortment of smaller trees packed slightly sparser. Beyond that the woods did end, giving way to a field that spread for a good length of coast. It wasn’t far before he could simply calm down. Still, he occassionally found his feet turning midstep, or his attention swaying toward the darkness beside them. But he wouldn’t let it get the upper hand on him again.
When finally they passed the first of the non-pine trees, the irwinian breathed a long sigh of relief. The forest beside them transitioned from a sadistic darkness, to a vibrant woodland green. They could start to hear the chirp of birds and the rustling of plants nearby. They could easily see berries on several plants in the forest. It was still dark, but the darkness didn’t press on your mind like before. It seemed more inviting at least.
“It looks like the animals feel the same way you do about that forest, Garrett.” Mr Howell said, peering into the more colourful woods. “At least we know there’s probably edible food on the island, It’s not all pine forest.” Garrett shuddered at the thought that the entire island could have been a pine forest. Part of him was still nervous that this was some kind of trick, that the forest was just waiting for them to enter. The blacksmith lowered his bag to the ground in order to kneel by a tree and examine the trunk and part of the dirt surrounding the roots. “You’re certain this island is abandoned?” the human whispered loud enough for his companions to hear but not loud enough for the volume to carry too far. Professor Kane’s eyebrows furrowed, there shouldn’t be anyone else on the island, no ships went missing recently. As if to validate his own question, the human pointed out a rope trailing up the side of the tree, and a small loop of it hidden among the dirt and undergrowth near the roots. “We need to pay very close attention.”
“What about this?” Their avian companion was crouched low to get a better look at something hiding in a nearby bush. As Wulfric followed suit, so did Garrett. The creature looked almost feline, with strangely thick spikes protruding from its back and scales similar to those of the Nelcatra, though they did not overlap each other. “It doesn’t look scared.” The small creature’s eyes were wide and its head turned slowly to look at each of them in turn. If the irwinian was partial to wide eyed creatures, he might have been as fascinated as his companions. As it was, he was more interested in the strange creature’s anatomy; why was something like this scaled? What are the purpose of those spikes?
Knowing that eventually someone would end up doing it anyway, the irwinian reached in and gripped the creature by the back of the neck. It hissed slightly, little paw swiping at his arm, but it couldn’t reach with the angle he held it. Slowly, he pulled it out from under the bush in order for the group to better look at it. “Perhaps this is what the trap is for” He wondered aloud as he inspected the strange animal. The bird woman seemed to cringe or at least recoil at the sounds the animal was making; pained, frightened screams and yowls as he turned it over to examine its belly scales and the spikes. The spikes did not connect to the scales, in fact, around their base was the only fur on the creature, with the scales stopping in a strange perimeter around the patch of spikes. “It is strange to evolve both scales and fur. It looks almost like some kind of fusion.- What?” Wulfric had seized his wrist causing the irwinian to finally look away from the small creature and then follow the terrified human’s eyes into the woods.
It was at that moment he realised what he was holding. Not the species, but the age. The irwinian had seized and was perhaps, as far as the creature was concerned, torturing a baby. And the mother was not happy. The adult was half as tall off the back as the irwinian was when standing, it was also covered in strange scales that it looked like it was capable of moving like one makes facial expression, and its fur was standing on edge like a mat of needles with quills extending seemingly at random from it.
“Kane Professor.” Ms Crista’s voice spoke up after a protracted silence. All three were now watching the parent while the irwinian held the baby by the back of its neck. “Put it down” She continued. She was right, maybe if he just put it back on the ground, they might be let leave unharmed. The creature was snarling, it’s front end lowered slightly and fur on end as he slowly bent his knees to lower to baby to the ground. He almost jumped at the volume and tone when Mr Howell spoke up.
While not the tallest, Wulfric was the physically largest of their group. His eyes flicked from the parent, to Garrett, to the way the child was acting. “Don’t!” He yelled with an aggressive tone, almost as if barking or snarling at the irwinian. The irwinian flinched at the sound but immediately froze where he was. He didn’t have to look at the human to realise the man had actually taken his eyes off the creature. How stupid was he? But the creature didn’t attack him, it was focusing on the bird and the irwinian. What was going on? “I don’t mean this” the human’s tone was almost a growl, but he was quite loud and very clear as he said it. “If this works, we have more to worry about than this thing.” Professor Kane felt the blacksmith’s large hand around his throat, slowly pulling him to standing without making him break eye contact with the creature watching them from the woods. “Get ready to break eye contact when I look at it.” Once Garrett was standing, Wulfric’s hand moved to grasp the very quiet infant by the neck. The irwinian’s hand released when the human grabbed hold.
A lot of small things happened when Wulfric turned to look at the parent; Samen and Garrett followed his ‘order’ and broke eye contact, the irwinian only looking away enough to still be able to see the events, Wulfric stretched his back and flexed his shoulders to make himself as large as possible and actually took two steps toward the adult creature. The baby was simply hanging there, front paws extended and back legs tucked up to keep their feet close to their body. His arm was outstretched, holding the baby as far from his own body as he could without looking strange. The parent slowly moved closer, not breaking eye contact with the human even as its mouth moved toward his outstretched hand. “Professor, I hope you have that repelling spell ready.” The humans voice was suddenly calm and at first it sounded almost apologetic in tone.
The irwinian almost looked at the creature when he noticed that his friend had broken eye contact. But as the creature turned and walked away, he kept quiet until Wulfric spoke again. “We’re okay for now. But we have a bigger problem.” Garrett was about to concur, though the human cut him off unknowingly. “That thing recognised pack dynamics, but nothing else was watching us. There’s a pack predator species in this place.”
“How did you know to do that Wlfrc?” the birdwoman spoke up after the three had recovered their dropped things and began walking again.
“I’ve had to deliver things to the ‘bad’ part of town. Stray dogs are common and band together. I’m more concerned that it actually worked.” For a concerned person, the blacksmith wasn’t looking around much, instead keeping his head down and watching the feet of the person in front of him. The group continued in a strange silence for several minutes, Garrett only walking beside the Avianosi woman because Wulfric had fallen into step behind both of them.
“It is getting late.” Samen finally spoke up after a couple more hours walking along the coast. The group was nearing the end of the forest, and could even see a beach in the distance, but nowhere that they could take shelter. “Kane Professor. Can you create a building for us?” He looked at the bird. Theoretically yes, he could design a spell to gather natural materials and assemble a structure. Or pull the stone out of the very ground. But he would need to know all the materials in question. What if he reached into the ground and pulled out the stone, only to reveal the cave of a great beast? What if he ripped wood from a faehaven or, more terrifyingly, from the pine forest. So despite that he could do such a thing, the irwinian slowly shook his head. Construction was an exceptionally dangerous use of Arcane magic, in which he only dabbled.
“Samen, could you climb this tree and see if there are any buildings near us but breaking the treeline?” The blacksmith asked, standing beneath the tallest tree near them. Both his hands sat on the trunk as he peered upward through its branches.
“What kind of tree is it?” The irwinian asked, not realising he was speaking over the bird woman’s agreement to Wulfric’s idea. Neither answered him at first. In fact it wasn’t until he reiterated as the avianosi began climbing that the human responded.
“I’m not sure. It’s sturdy and has strong looking branches. Does it matter?” One of Wulfric’s eyebrows was raised as the bird scampered up through the branches. He must have thought Garrett had snapped. Everything the irwinian had done since they arrived. He must look crazy. They hadn’t even been here for a whole day and already he was regretting pressing for this. All the signs pointed to the idea that they were going to die on this island. And it was going to be his fault.
“Probably not” He sighed, glancing out at the endless, islandless ocean as seen from this side of the island.
“I’m here.” Called the distant voice of the librarian from somewhere far above them. At first he was hit with a wave of jealousy; his people came from trees, why wasn’t he asked to climb? Probably because he’s acting like a crazy person, frightened of trees but swinging around the cub of some random predator he knew nothing about. “I can see a lot of buildings!” her voice resiezed his attention. “A bunch of stone ones that way-” They couldn’t see where she was pointing, she’d have to reiterate when she returned to the ground. Stupid bird. “- And some wooden ones over there.” And she’s apparently going crazy as well. Einode has been abandoned for centuries, perhaps millennia. There’s no way wooden buildings would survive that long.
As she slowly made her way back down, the tree swayed in some undetectable breeze. So thick was the trunk that the wind must have been immense so far above them. But that question was discarded before it formed. Garrett watched as the shape of Samen Crista plummeted from above the mess of branches he could easily see through. He heard her scream, watched as the shape seemed to deflect from several branches, and fall silent as she collided into the blacksmith’s waiting arms. She was moving. He could hear her wince through some breaths as the human adjusted himself to sit with her in his arms. “I think you just hit your legs. It should be okay. You’ll be okay.”