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Catching a break from being a peace maker, Alaparos took up a position at the back, knowing that being at the front would only slow others down. They truly were quite the rag tag group weren't they. While he couldn't bring himself to fully trust any of them yet, he at least hoped that they would all at least get along. Whatever they were called together for seemed dire if the snakefolk's recitation of the dream was anything to go by. The others seemed to all be quite strong in terms of physical and magical strength so while he didn't doubt that they could all hold their own in a confrontation, he worried about their teamwork. It would probably be a job that fell to him then, to connect everyone and ensure that they could work together. If that was the case, then keeping up his current appearance would be for the better, not only to appear more approachable but to also facilitate the other's growths without them worrying too much about him.

Reaching around the back of his wheelchair, Alaparos unzipped his bag before fishing out his wallet. From there he tossed out a Leatherman Wingman Multi Tool. It was slightly battered and obviously well used from its appearance as Alaparos slipped his wallet back into his bag. Unlocking the tool, he carefully extracted the knife before laying it on his lap. It could at least be used to score marks on the trees so that they could find their way back at a later time if Eyre ever got tired. "That's a wonderful idea. Would you like to take this as well if you ever get tired of stripping off the bark?" He offered, gently making sure that the blade was still sharp enough by pressing a thumb against the flat of the blade. A small bead of blood welled up and the cut seemed clean enough so he nodded satisfied. Despite appearances, he didn't actually use the knife all that much and it was the bottle opener and the inlaid compass that saw the most use. It was more of a safety measure more than anything, a means of deterring anyone who decided that a visibly disabled person would be an easy target.

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Vale viewed the knife with an odd look of boredom. "Or I could just snap the tree and tear it down... It would be more visible than scoring the bark." He suggested it as if it were no large thing to tear down a tree, and the way he said it implied he'd done the act before. "Besides, if you're going to attack a tree, you might as well finish it off." The serpent yawned again, his white fangs contrasting his pale red mouth with a cold feeling, as if his breath were winter and his eyes were the falling snow. Even his voice carried the cold on it, though he seemed to be faking the harsh voice more than it looked he was. His voice had been slipping ever so slightly whilst he spoke, though a careful ear would have easily picked up the differences. If anything, it would be known as a normal fluctuation of a voice to any usual listener, though his secret was easily revealed by sharper ears and deeper silence.

Eyre took the knife in her hands, muttering a thank you as she put the knife in the same hand as the journal. She didn't know if she'd really need it, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

Eyre faigned a neutral expression when the serpent expressed his opinion. "You know, sometimes it's better to leave things alive." There was a bite to Eyre's words, her true feelings bleeding out from her mouth. "And I trust that everyone is at least a little perceptive to notice a distinct lack of bark off of a few of the trees, especially since it would be at eye level for a lot of us."

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"Think about it this way, perhaps. Would you rather I skin you or simply take a scale off your body?" Alaparos offered, wincing at the unnecessarily brutish metaphor. But it was a fairly accurate one as far as he was concerned. "As our friend said, it's much better to leave things alive. If we don't need to kill to survive then it is a blessing that we should take gratefully." Running a hand over the bark, Alaparos did his best to keep a straight face but still the tips of his ears flared red at declaring something so embarrassing. But other than that, he had a sneaking feeling that the snakefolk beside him wasn't as cold as his voice urged others to perceive him as. After all, he too was called for whatever odd reason so he couldn't be a terrible creature, at least not intentionally. His own initial impressions had clouded his normally sharp senses, yet as he gently rolled alongside the two, he was now certain. Neither of them held any oppressive malice, not enough to set him on edge.

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Finch tucked her hands into her poncho and twisted her head to look behind her. “Why’re we discussing killing stuff?” She piped up suddenly in a neutral tone, playfully bouncing from boot to boot as she waddled forwards. Her button eyes had a sort of far-off look in them as she held eye contact, though it wasn’t an unsettling look, more.. different. She could quote easily appear unsettling, however it wouldn’t be surprising if she was even aware of that. Nonetheless, she eyed the group with an innocent, curious yet clueless expression.

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Just merely imagining such a scenario made Hokori shiver. "Sheesh,so...vulgar. In front of a child too." he chuckled. "But,it did get the point across as intended,so...I'm not complaining." After a bit of walking and admiring nature he quietly spoke. "Since we're here,we have fulfilled our part,is not 'Oneiros'' time to guide us, now that we have gathered in the forest he called us to?"

"Maybe something or someone is missing?" Eyre speculated. "I'm not sure about everyone else, but Oneiros has only talked to me as I slept. So maybe we need to take a nap or something." She stripped parts of the bark on the trees using a combination of her magic and horns. She'd freeze up some of the water in the bark to give her an area to easily grip and strip the bark with the hook of her horn. Eyre took care to make the end of the strip pointed, so she knew which way they were headed if they got lost or wanted to go back. Although the process was a little complicated, she had done similar magical procedures many, many times. At this point it was as natural as breathing.

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The first thought that crossed Alaparos' mind when the suggestion was brought up was to simply knock someone unconscious. Such a method was much more reliable than casting a sleep spell which could be finicky at best. But as quickly as the thought came it too went away with a wry quirk of his lips. Bashing an ally's head in for the sole purpose of knocking them unconscious wasn't a very good start to what would hopefully be a mutually beneficial relationship. Instead, he simply tapped absently on the rim of his wheels thinking. "If that is what you remember, it could certainly be something we could try. Shall we entertain searching the forest before taking a break for a mid-day nap?" He suggested, not wanting to eliminate any possibility. This early in the search, it would be foolish to throw away any possible leads that they had pertaining to this mystery.

"Anyhow, I highly doubt that we're missing anyone. This is already quite the adventuring party and if there were to be more, then it would be cause for worry. I already had my concerns with your presence, Hokori. Why would an elf of all races be called? Is it not common knowledge that the elves are proud creatures of immense power? Why then would one such as yourself be summoned if not to fix a dire problem? And the rest of us. A dire-wolf, sepant-folk, sea-goat, sentient puppet, and myself all called to a forest. It could well be a set up to a horrendous joke yet the punchline very well could be our lives. Any more and I would begin to wonder if we were called to save the world or something of that magnitude." The last sentence was almost sarcastic, and true enough if an avid reader was to take one look at their odd party, a fantastical story of magic and adventures on the world saving scale would begin to write itself.

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Alaparos' words were music to Hokori's ears,almost to the point where he didn't want him to stop talking. "My...someone's knowledgeable. As a matter of fact yes, we are indeed a proud race. Were I an elf of an older generation I would have simply ignored Oneiros' cry for help as if it was nothing. Perhaps Oneiros is aware of our potential." he confirmed,wearing a blissful and ecstatic expression.

"That may very well be the case...I suggest we carefully investigate our surroundings and after we've ensured that it's safe, we could attempt to fall asleep again." Though he wasn't really fond of the idea,simply because of how absurd yet logical it sounded,they didn't have many other options to begin with. "...or one of us could volunteer to sleep while others stood watch."

Vale froze, his head tilting as his hood blossomed out with a sudden sound of scales on scales, like sanding a piece of wood. He seemed to be listening, and very carefully. To his own sharp ears, bellowing could be heard, as well as the sound of cracking branches and rustling leaves. "Stay here." With that, he vanished into the branches of the trees. Soon enough, what seemed to be a panicked boy flew overhead, a pair of transparent wings carrying him at a fast speed. Shortly after, an enraged bellow could be heard from where the fairy had been escaping from.


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Another enraged roar tore from Derek's throat, his massive blade slashing at the receding form of a fairy that had dared to challenge him before leading him to the forest. There, the fae boy had attempted to rob him of several personal belongings. That had made him enraged, causing him to grow extremely aggressive and violent. As he tore through the underbrush, two fox heads poked out of his backpack, the only things that head been in the knapsack when he picked it up. Tabbethuh and Gerrin, his loyal friends. As they leapt down, the black and white foxes sniffed the air before zipping through the bushes and trees, passing under Vale without him noticing. Derek watched them go, his own progress slow due to the small amount of space his armor allowed for movement. However, he was soon met with a reptilian set of eyes staring into his. They both froze, attempting to force the other into cowering away. The most movement they made was a slight movement of the head, hardly a millimeter in any direction.

Eyre did stop, but more out of confusion than obedience. She stood there for a few moments, simply letting the various stimuli process and settle in her head. "Soo..." Eyre eyed the way the serpentine man went. "You guys wanna go follow?" she stretched her neck while asking, gently pushing her neck muscles to their limit before letting them rest. She had already noticed that her neck was beginning to protest about its sudden use, so she was attempting to soothe its woes.

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Finch twisted her head around to look at where the snakefolk had gone, before turning back to Eyre. “I mean, if we didn't, we’d be stupid,” The scarecrow retorted simply. She dusted off her poncho and looked into the dark of the forest, button eyes squashing and stretching as she strained her eyes. It was only then that she looked back towards the group. “I-I mean, only if all of us want to.” She added in a stammer, her tone almost desperate as she grinned nervously.

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"It goes without saying that we must follow him." Hokori said in a monotone fashion,puffing out his chest. "No matter what he found or sniffed out,we're now a group,therefore we now have to look out for each other whether we like it or not. Other than that,he has a higher chance of survival with our combined power,is that not one of the many reasons Oneiros reached out to many individuals and not just one person?" He started looking at the general direction Vale went off to,trying to see where he went. Did the snakefold find a stray rodent to eat? What other reason does he have to wander off?

Ducking at the complement, he rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "Ah, I'm simply a scholar, such knowledge is only expected of someone in my profession." He deflected, mind attempting to focus back on the trouble at hand. The sudden outburst of sound had Alaparos flinching away in surprise and snapping his careful concentration, caught off guard by the sudden display of violence. He almost nearly shot a spell at the nimble figure that darted over head but barely held himself back. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger, at least not that he could see, but that roar had worried him and the serpantfolk had seemed to notice it before any of them had. Was Vale somehow connected to the forest in a way that any of them were? It made sense, since he didn't seem to be a casual civilian and there were high chances that he lived within the forest proper. Storing that theory in the back of his head, he briskly nodded. "Hokori is correct. We should all go, there's safety within numbers and splitting up now would only be the catalyst for a headache at the very least."

Rolling forward, Alaparos closed his eyes as he let his ears see what his eyes couldn't, using whatever sound that reverberated around the dense forest guide him. It seemed eerily quiet now, as if whatever had caused the noise had mysteriously disappeared. It was chilling to say the least as he was unable to even hear Vale's slithering. The forest had simply froze the second after the loud roar had faded, leaving everything stagnant. Cold sweat broke out on his brow and he was confronted with the fact that his mind was wavering between directly confronting whatever lay ahead or turning tail and running in order to formulate a better strategy. Whatever was happening it was far out of his human hands at this moment and Alaparos valued his mundane life as a supposed human too much to shed his restricting corpse to properly fight or flee. As if sensing his faltering will (of course it did. It was a magical item after all, closely connected to their owner) his tag sparked with vibrant magic before Alaparos quickly snatched it with one hand, closed fist hiding the errant magic that was charged and ready to fight at a moment's notice.

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Finch looked up at Hokori with a more confident grin. “You’re wise beyond your splendour, sir elf.” She put on a mockingly fancy tone, sneering lightheartedly. The scarecrow had a playful glint to her button eyes as she put a hand on her back and bowed low enough to get the tall, forest grass in her face, raising her head to face Hokori again. Finch wasn’t very wise, thus, she had no clue of the immediate danger any of them might be in. She wasn’t prepared to fight at all, in fact, she’d even left her farming scythe at home. A very unwise decision, she might find.

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Eyre cracked a small smile at the scarecrow's actions, but quickly returned to a neutral expression. "Splitting up the group..." she mumbled to herself. "Do you guys know how to use telepathy?" she asked, raising her voice so she would be heard. "It would make situations like these a little less annoying if we were able to communicate at far distances," she clarified. Eyre wasn't sure how common it was for terrestrial creatures to understand and use telepathy well, but everyone here probably had some magical training , so it wasn't that far out of the question to assume at least one other person learned it.

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Had somebody stumbled upon the scene made by Vale and Derek, they would have been confused at best. The minor movements of their heads wouldn't be understandable to any being lacking a bit of primal instinct or animalistic habits. This was a faceoff, each one attempting to find out the other's weakness.


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Gerrin and Tabbethuh soon found their ways to the assembled group, their wet noses twitching with curiosity as they inhaled the scents of each being.

Hokori perked up upon hearing Eyre's question. "I wasn't very keen on it back when I was studying in Vortum nor was it a course I followed,but I did kind of read the basics of it." he assuringly nodded. "I may be of assistance,though I have almost no experience with telepathy whatsoever." he paused for a bit. "Perhaps someone else in this group has expretise in that kind of magic."

In contrast to Hokori, Alaparos seemed to curl in on himself at the mention of magic. Despite relying on it on a daily basis, he wasn't very skilled in that particular area. He was officially listed as a medium under his university records, yes, but it wasn't like communing with the dead needed any real training. Magic was always inferior to simply brute forcing solutions with his fists, the stubborn and rugged nature of his magic lending itself to hands on solutions rather than magical ones. His biomorphing spell was one he had perfected after 5 years of practice and was honestly the only spell he actually sat down to try and learn, the rest coming more or less naturally to him despite their volatility. Besides, telling others than he could transform into different living species would only place even more suspicion on him and he preferred the others see him as a harmless human. But something that Hokori said caught his attention and he sat up straighter immediately, facing the elf with an glimmer in his eyes. A theory was already forming in his mind, taking into account everything that he knew. Taking stock of everyone gathered, he could begin to find evidence for his hypothesis. Everyone appeared to be of age to attend university aside from Finch and Azure but those two could be easily hand-waved due to their inhuman appearances. The only anomaly seemed to be Vale as he didn't seem to be a university alumni but that could simply be Alaparos' bias talking.

Tucking away his observation into a corner of his mind to bring up at a later date, Alaparos quickly answered Eyre's question as to throw suspicion off himself as soon as he could. "I've always been more interested in magical theory than in magical application. I do know how to use telepathy but asking me to do it is an entirely different question that would require a separate answer." He admitted, flashing an apologetic smile at the group.

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Hokori,understanding what Alaparos meant,nodded. Though seeing him in thought piqued Hokori's curiosity "Fret not. I doubt we'll have to use telepathy to communicate or separate again. Now if you'll excuse me..." After carefully choosing his next few words,he stepped forward.

"What's the meaning of this,snakefolk?!? Is this why you wandered off away from the group? To settle a personal score?" he shouted as he took out his wand,just in case. The elves of older generations were right to call them primitive,barbarian and even brutal but Hokori grew up to cast aside such selfishness. Even though he himself was quite intimidated at the creature standing in front of Vale,he had to overwhelm at least his own fears. The least thing he wanted was to already lose a person Oneiros called.