After making Ciel I sorta changed my plan and decided to make an entirely different storyline from the first attempts I had at writing to better suit the character than the oddball titan story thing (it was wierd alright!)... Please feel free to criticize and bludgeon me with heavy objects if needed to help me improve, that aside I hope that you enjoy it somewhat!



The Chidokai Forest, a very serene and beautiful place especially after the uncommon lull of constant raining as the drops of rain made the forest seem to glitter. The band of humans armed with basic rifles and packs of hunting equipment were not concerned with the scenery though as the forest had grown quiet around them and slowly moved through the somewhat swampy ground scanning the forest around them; even the jaykay birds had ceased their chattering and hid among the trees. The giant figure high above them stayed absolutely still on her branch watching them at a distance; making sure to leap to the next tree branch high above before they got close enough to see her movements. It wasn’t often Ciel got to practice this method of hunting with the usual heavy rains and floods closer to the ground.

“More trappers and poachers…this should be easy enough again,” she silently whispered to herself high up in the canopies again after surveying her latest prey. Ciel kept ahead of them making sure the forest stayed eerily quiet in her presence to lure the poachers in; the humans kept following the path of silence in hopes of a large catch as she lured them closer to her trap. This is going almost too perfectly! She thought to herself smiling above the array of thin webs she had spun near the forest floor; they weren’t nearly as thick or strong as the ones she normally used but were really good at causing a sticky mess after fumbling through a lot of them and the mud only helped to snare her prey.

“C’mon just a little closer…” she whispered slightly louder, excited that this trap was actually going to work for once, as the humans were less than a minute away; or would have rather if not for the bane of her existence had decided to show himself at this very moment: Jerry the Jaykay bird.

“RAWK! JUST A LITTLE CLOSER!” the evil bird yelled right next to her as she turned around furiously and shot some web narrowly missing Jerry as he flew away. Soon enough all the other jaykays in the area were all screeching it as well being thrown into excitement and very clearly ruining her carefully laid trap as they ran back where they came from realizing the ambush and started yelling.
“DAMN THAT BIRD! Why does that stupid bird have to yell even when I whisper…I swear if it wasn’t for lunch getting away you’d be dead now!” she yelled at the brightly colored bird flying off before jumping after the humans through the trees. She still didn’t want to risk landing in front of them now that they were on alert and drew out some silk preparing to catch them from above.

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“Damn it where the hell is it!?!” one of the newer recruits yelled looking behind trying to find the predator on their tails.

“Doesn’t matter. Keep running like hell and get to the river, we can take of the bloody beast there,” the squad’s leader growled ahead of the rest of them. He was annoyed with the group he had been given command of and gripped his katana tighter in frustration. This batch of recruits had to be one of the worst yet he thought to himself; he might be better off without some of them.

SPLAT! As if on command a glob of web slammed into the ground behind him instantly taking the recruit it landed on as well as the one directly behind him who ran straight into it back up to the canopies as it was pulled back up. Shortly after another pair of the hunters turned and fired up in the trees against their unseen attacker in panic. He contemplated yelling at them to run but grinned thinking how they would probably serve better just acting to slow the predator down instead. They had served their purpose of planting a beacon when the birds gave away the ambush.
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Ciel quickly picked the two humans off her web and stuffed them in a pocket of leather bag while they were still disoriented. She still had more to catch before they got away and lifted her webbing again as she heard the humans firing their rifles wildly in her direction; a few bullets caught her in the chest before she jumped to the next tree covering her face with her other free hand. The leather vest she wore was as tough skinned as most other predators, including herself, and could provide enough protection against most of their fire but she still did not want to risk any shots hitting elsewhere. Once she was far enough way she picked off the remaining two one-by-one taking her time to aim as they frantically shot at her old location.

After storing the four in her bag she made sure to lightly slap it hard enough to knock them out; she couldn’t eat them just yet with the few remaining runners and couldn’t risk them giving away her location in the forest. All this trouble because of that stupid bird…now I have to cut them off before they can reach the river. I swear I’m going to just cover the forest in webs if I have to, to catch that stupid bird, she thought as she traveled west jumping through the canopy and catching up with the other hunters. They had gotten farther than she hoped with the river in sight; forced with no other choice she leapt down with an annoyed sigh from the trees in front of them and swung the line of web over her head to throw the sticky glob at the rest of them.

The man with the katana grinned, he had gotten as far as he needed to, and even better the predator had put itself in plain view. “Alright now fire!” he yelled pointing his blade at her and the remaining two hunters he had with him unloaded, with the shots pelting her chest and hand protecting her face again. One of the shots aimed near her head also went wild and hit the line of web sending the stickier glob of web sailing into the nearby forest they came from before Ciel could fling it at them. After they had fully wasted their ammunition Ciel removed her hand revealing her very annoyed face staring daggers at them to the very dumbstruck looking leader. “What the hell is wrong with you! I SAID FIRE!” he yelled at his men again. With nothing further happening she jumped and picked up the two soldiers in each hand and pinned the leader down with one of her legs as she placed them in the bag as well.

“Is that it? Cause I’m really not in the mood right now to mess around and I have a bird I REALLY need to kill. Having to chase down hunters for the past few weeks is getting really old and it just ends the same way every time and-HEY!” she yelled as the man started trying to slash wildly with his sword on her leg. Ciel quickly yanked him up all the while he was feebly trying to hit her hand with his sword on the whole way up.

“ARGH put me down you god damn freak! All your kind are good for are their god damn skins- hey wait that’s mine!” he yelled as she plucked the sword from him with her other hand.

“You have got to be kidding me…sometimes you humans amaze me at how stupid you can be. Everyone else in your group used a gun…you chose a toothpick,” she said tossing the blade away ignoring his ranting. Not even wanting to know why he carried it, she quickly tossed him into her mouth and swallowed him before he could talk. She sighed opening her bag as she found the rest of her captives still unconscious from being knocked around so much and removed their weapons just in case. Now that her hunt was over she took her time with the next few savoring and rolling them about in her mouth trying to ease her annoyance, and resulting in a very rude wakeup for the unfortunate hunters she did choose.

“Wonderful, these hunters didn’t even have any good bait on them this time. I guess I can just use what I have left today since I’m here anyways; nothing is ever easy is it,” she complained to herself getting the last of the bait she took from another batch of poachers she caught along the river a week ago. She wasn’t entirely sure what the stuff was but it worked really well; she smiled remembering how great a catch that was not only getting that poaching party but their mermaid catch as well! Climbing up into a nearby tree she cast a thin line of silk with the bait onto the end preparing to relax the rest of the day away fishing.

“This must belong to you I’m guessing then huh, spider butt?” came a voice from below just as Ciel cast her line into the river. Ciel looked down to find the source of the insult and found an annoyed mantoid below the tree holding a ball of web in one hand with some strands still sticking to her face and long dark brown hair. She was a little larger than Ciel and had three small boney spines sticking out of the light brown skin on her arms.

The mantoid had been waiting still against one of the trees deeper in the forest hiding among the foliage to ambush her next victim. This of course had been interrupted when she had heard gunfire and as she was about to set off after the source, a glob of web had landed directly on her face.

“It doesn’t matter I guess. I was wondering who it was hunting in my territory all this time and it’s not often I get visitors from the dinner forest,” she said before Ciel had a chance to speak, grinning to reveal her sharp set of fangs. In a movement almost faster than she could register the mantoid drew out a sharp spine in each of her wrists and slashed the fishing line before beginning to climb up the tree.

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“Sir, it appears a mantoid is the other predator of this region and is approaching the confirmed dridder; do you still want us to attack when they are in clear view?” another hunter whispered into his radio under a tarp by the shore.

“Negative, this could work to our advantage- hold off and let the two of them deal with each other; from the limited success and failures of the other scouting parties these two don’t seem to know each other. Standby and prepare to attack when one of them has fallen; there is sure to be some conflict between predator and prey here. We’ll prepare a boat just in case, so don’t get reckless,” came the voice back from the radio.




(You didn't really think Katana Guy with evil personality was gonna be the big bad villain did you ? I also have to give credit to Kikijonson for the dinner forest line from Hitomi!)

Done with the second story... it's more of an fight scene really though and as I have never actually written one too big that I can think of and I am not so sure how it turned out myself but I leave that to you to judge. More of her personality will develop in the next story though when she's not so busy trying to fight for her life! Once again I fully welcome any criticisms if any would want to submit them...as another teaser there is more in store from these mysterious hunters so far than just killing random wildlife for profit if you are wondering that and it sets you off for a lame villain thing currently. Hope you enjoy.






Ciel wasted no time jumping up higher in the tree she had been fishing from and further out onto a long branch; having seen how fast the mantoid could move compared to climb she wanted to make as much distance as possible from her. She didn’t know who this mantoid was or how she had even snuck up on her but after such a bad day, Ciel was a little grateful for something to fight even if it wasn’t that blasted jaykay bird. The fact this mantoid had just cost her the last of her fishing bait and wanted to kill her also helped somewhat. After making enough distance from the mantoid she reached into her leather bag and began to quickly tie a large metal ball onto the end of a thick strand of silk.

“You’re only wearing yourself out dear, there’s only so much tree you can climb before- OW!” the mantoid yelled being interrupted by the metal sphere just barely whizzing by her as she dodged to the right, and nicked one of her arm spines nearly snapping one off. Before she could react further, Ciel yanked up on the line of web as the ball slammed into the trunk of the tree; aiming the bounce back to at least hit her head to knock her out. The shot missed her mark though and glanced the mantoid’s shoulder as it sailed back up to her, nearly knocking the mantoid out of the tree.

“You could really hurt someone like that you know!” the mantoid shouted angrily up at Ciel, having to jump off the trunk of the tree back onto another lower branch; avoiding another blow in the process as the metal ball slammed into the tree trunk her torso had been in front of moments before. Her shoulders and arm were throbbing even if those were just glancing blows; the speed of that ball was doing some heavy damage that she couldn’t avoid up there.

“That would be the point now wouldn’t it!” she said aiming another shot down at the mantoid. Halfway on the way down to what seemed to be a direct hit the mantoid quickly skittered well out of the way as it sailed by harmlessly. Hoping to catch her off guard again she tugged the silk to have the ball slam her in the back but she dodged again in another quick dash along the branch.

“You aren’t going to hit me like that- or that, you’re only going to get tired and make it that much worse later,” the mantoid mocked while ducking under a sweeping arc of the ball trying to cover a large length of the branch. She smiled to herself while dodging more the throws, confident that eventually the dridder would wear herself out if she just focused on watching how she was throwing and avoided the attacks easily enough.

Ciel angrily began to believe she might be right as she threw the ball again to keep her down on the branch away from her, now that the mantoid was focused on solely evading all of her attacks none of them were even getting close. As one of her strikes crashed into the edge of the branch she grinned getting an idea to take advantage again. Quickly jerking the ball back up, she twirled it over head once building momentum before launching it one more time at the mantoid bracing for another attack below.

The mantoid sighed seeing the predictable attack coming again, she must be getting desperate, she thought to herself, skittering away from the trunk of the tree as the blow missed her. The attack however had found its real mark, the middle of the branch she was standing on before and instantly smashing through it sending splinters flying. The mantoid, now missing a branch to stand on, plummeted down after trying to make a jump for the tree trunk a second too late. Ciel grinned releasing another attack at the falling mantoid as she couldn’t avoid it; the attack landed with a satisfying thud on her mantis abdomen before she hit the tree hard and a few thicker branches on the way down, finally landing on a giant upraised root of the tree.

The mantoid groaned in pain from the unexpected attack but picked herself up and moved as fast as she could to another root, putting the trunk in between them before she could be hit again to get some time to think. She was aching all over from falling out of the tree, but eyed Ciel jumping onto lower branches to get back in range of her.

“Not going to hit you huh? That looked like a good shot to me!” Ciel called down, mocking the mantoid with a grin for teasing her before.

“Ugh don’t get too happy; that was clever but more of a lucky shot than anything- you won’t get another hit like that in again!” she said scowling up at the dridder; she wasn’t going to be beaten out of her hunting grounds without a fight, especially from one of her food items!

Her plan to bait another attack out of Ciel worked as the ball flew down again at her; confident the mantoid was too hurt to avoid it Ciel had aimed for a direct shot at her torso again. The mantoid focused her will into ignoring the pain and dodged it, and then cutting through the web before Ciel could yank it back up with one of her longer wrist spines, sending it off into the mud. Not wasting any more time she pushed through the pain and climbed the tree again cursing herself for not getting rid of the weapon in the first place like that and playing with her food. As she reached the branch Ciel was up on she found her tying another new metal ball to her silk.

“Oh no, once is enough!” she growled rushing the dridder before she could finish tying it on completely.

Ciel was shocked to find the mantoid had gotten up so fast and tried to gain distance again with another jump up higher in the tree. It was too late though as the mantoid caught her before she got off the branch, sending the spine in her right wrist into the left side of her belly with a jab. The blow didn’t go too deep, having caught her as she was moving away and first going through the leather vest but it was enough to make her miss her mark and she hit the branch she jumped for; falling out of the tree and crashing into the mud below. Ciel clutched her side as the mantoid jumped down landing in front of her again, not giving her the chance to recover.

“I hope you at least taste good for all the trouble you put me through,” she said grinning halfway in pain and in satisfaction at Ciel to show her set of fangs again.

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“The dridder is down sir- the mantoid got a solid hit in the stomach with one of the spines, it won’t be getting up,” Turin reported back into the radio putting down his binoculars, anxiously waiting for the attack order to come. His men worried about staying this close to the predators and the tarp would only keep them hidden from their keen senses for so long.

“Good, use the scintilla rockets and finish the mantoid. The Predator will be along in moments to pick you up before the fire attracts any other attention,” calmly came the reply.

Wasting no time the leader gave the signal to attack, revealing the small squad of hunters wearing dark suits covered with several pockets and the few larger turrets around them as they threw off their cover taking aim at the pair of giant predators from the safe distance by the beach. In moments they unleashed a salvo of rockets at the forest line near the two predators as the mantoid turned towards the source of the sound in alarm and out of instinct raised her spine covered arms to try to protect her body.

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Ciel was stunned by the sudden turn of events as the rockets flew at the mantoid; some of the blasts near her head knocked her out along with all the other damage from before catching up to her. As the small rockets exploded around them and the tree they were next to, they showered the area in shrapnel of small yellow gems. Ciel was shocked as the gems embedded into her and the mantoid quickly released small flames over the two and the tree.

Ciel yelped in pain as the fires set to work and watched as the mantoid collapsed in the mud extinguishing the fires on her; seeing the effect she also dropped in the mud to put her own out fast. Now with a quick second to figure out what was going on she turned on the humans and froze realizing they were more hunters from the way they were dressed, and apparently far more prepared as a large ship began to come into view as well with a few cannons along its sides and a large open area running down the middle. These new weapons were unlike anything she had seen before and she was hurt enough as is from the mantoid- Ciel had to make a run for it deeper into the jungle away from that ship.

“Damnit,” she muttered looking at the collapsed mantoid and grabbed her, dragging her along deeper into the jungle away from the fires with herself. She couldn’t move nearly as fast with her, especially after being hurt so much, and tried haphazardly covering as much of the area behind in webs to slow down the humans as another salvo tore into the forest around them. Ciel began to panic and quickened her pace dragging the mantoid; if she didn’t get deep enough in the forest soon the fires would dry up the mud and then the fire would do some heavier damage.

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“Sir, the dridder is taking the mantoid with her back into the tree line, we are preparing to pursue now,” the Turin reported back on the radio as they loaded more of the special ammunition and dismantled the turrets into mobile launchers.

“No, get your men on the Predator and regroup back at base,” the voice harshly came back over the radio in a clearly annoyed tone.

“But sir, they’re both wounded and with the Predator to give cover-“ he tried reasoning before being cut off.

“You have your orders now follow them through; you underestimated the dridder and we have lost enough scouting parties,” the voice commanded sternly, “You should know by now a wounded animal is the most dangerous, especially on Felarya. As for the dridder, we know where she lives now with beacon and can finish this later; having both of the predators in one spot will make clearing this section easier.”

“Fine…everyone back to the Predator, Silas’ orders to let them go for now,” Turin barked the command to the rest the squad grudgingly. How could Silas hope to clear out the predators here if he wouldn’t take advantage of such situations as this; he was always too cautious Turin thought to himself as he loaded the weapons back onto the freighter.

Third part of the story- dialogue is definitely not a strongpoint for me it seems, so it took me longer than usual to get through this one and hope it turned out ok. Standard "please bludgeon me with heavy objects" of criticism apply if I am doing something wrong here. Hope you enjoy.



Deep in the Chidokai Forest, a mantoid covered in several bruises and a few burn marks began to stir next to an upraised root of a large willow tree as the rain began to fall on her body; slowly rising up on her green legs before falling down again from the exhaustion and pain from earlier. Uncertain and unable to do anything else she began to worriedly began to look around her surroundings with her antennae waving about as she looked, noticing that it was not raining everywhere but only under the few willow trees in the grove she was in. The sun was just beginning to set, casting an orange-yellowish glow throughout the grove.

“What happened…the last thing I remember was finally catching that dridder and then…so much fire,” she whispered to herself drawing out her wrist spines again, this time out of worry. Wherever she was, it was not at the river and she didn’t remember coming here on her own- something had brought her here. The whole situation was alien and made her feel helpless; especially in her weakened condition as it was and only made her frustrated and embarrassed at the whole thing- she was a grown predator damn it, and someone else had to save her in her own territory! Before she could think anymore on the situation her belly let out a low rumble interrupting her chain of thought as she realized she hadn’t eaten for most of the day now.

As soon as her stomach growled, she turned towards the newly heard muffled screams of what appeared to be a human webbed onto the root next to her staring wide eyed with fear; along with another casting a glare at her companion and another human sized cocoon with a large rat tail sticking out of the bottom. As annoyed as she was to rely on someone’s help, she was in no condition to complain and pulled them down, swallowing them with the webbing still on to not have to deal with the begging, content to just have a free meal after a long day. She quickly glanced up into the tree’s canopy and noticed the leaves rustle above her, confirming her guess at who had brought her here.

“All right spider butt, you can come down now…I know you brought me here and left me the snacks, I’m not gonna hurt you,” she said with a defeated sigh drawing her wrist spines back in.

After a few moments the shadow up in the canopy began to crawl down slowly into the sunlight; revealing the green haired dridder still clutching the side she had been stabbed on as she slowly made her way down. Some patches of hair on her spider abdomen had been burned off and the vest she wore was tattered with some burn marks and the gashing hole where she was cut before. Ciel stopped up on a nearby branch in plain view of the mantoid, still not willing to risk her chances entirely getting close to her despite how badly injured she seemed.

“I guess I shouldn’t have moved when you looked up…” she said reprimanding herself. “How did you know I was still here though; I thought I was doing a good job of staying hidden up there. You’re still badly hurt it looks like; try drinking some of the water from this rain willow.”

“Don’t be hard on yourself about it, you were hiding fairly well I think. I’m just used to tracking down dridders is all and I got lucky with a guess. Oh don’t be scared, that’s just the truth of the matter, I’m still not going to hurt you,” she said with a chuckle after finishing her drink, as the dridder began to back away further on the branch she was on, a bit concerned of this news.

“Anyways, I hate being in debt to someone and you still haven’t even gotten my name, I’m Liora,” she said introducing herself. “I don’t suppose you would mind letting me know who you are and what exactly happened back there would you? All I remember was a lot of fire and then now I’m here. You can stay up there if you think it’s safer still,” she said smiling and trying to hide her fangs to not upset the dridder.

“Well…I’m Ciel, but I don’t think you would believe me if I told you,” she said a bit nervous of the mantoid still and trying to believe herself at what had happened. “After our, umm fight, some hunters I was chasing before must have been waiting for me I think at the river. Those two humans I left for you were part of the group anyway. Before I ran into you I just finished hunting that small group of them but they didn’t seem as prepared as this batch…I don’t know why they mostly aimed at you and they had weird weapons I’ve never seen before setting fire everywhere. Then there was a giant ship coming up the river… I just ran as fast as I could dragging us away from there but I don’t think they followed me far. Ever since we got here you’ve been out for the whole day; I did manage to find some muris as well in the tree for us.”

Liora couldn’t help but laugh at the whole situation before being interrupted by the pain in her sides again and confusing Ciel. “What a day…first I nearly get clobbered by what was supposed to be my meal…then humans ambush ME and to top it all off I get saved by my meal. I won’t hear the end of this from grandpa if he ever finds out,” she thought aloud as she considered the story and Ciel looked at her concerned whether she believed the story. Only one thing really didn’t make much sense to the mantoid.

“Look, I do believe you as I’ve had to deal with more hunters lately too but…what made you save me? I was, after all, trying to kill you back there before,” Liora asked, genuinely confused why she went through the trouble of saving her.

“You just didn’t deserve to die like that…that’s all. Those hunters would have butchered either of us just for sport if they had half the chance… those cowards were sacrificing their own people to find me and attacking only after we already had such a close fight,” Ciel said with scorn at the humans’ actions.

“Ahhh, aren’t you the noble little dridder to risk your life like that for me! I’ll never understand you warrior types and these ‘codes of honor’ or whatever… don’t get me wrong though, of course I’m grateful you did help me,” Liora quickly added with a smile after Ciel scowled at her teasing. “It just seems to make everything too complicated, risking your life for more than you need to just because you had a good fight with me or someone else. You’re gonna get yourself killed one day if you try to protect every little thing you think is ‘honorable’.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time you need some help then,” she dismissively grumbled at the mantoid’s lecturing to her. She was almost beginning to regret dragging her away from those hunters. Ciel froze though as she noticed a small green bird with red wings and blue feathered head with one antenna fly under their tree and perched itself on one of Liora’s arm spines.

Liora smiled at the small green bird and lightly pet it with a finger as it began to lightly peck her arm, grooming some of her skin. “Awww you’re a sweet little guy now aren’t you! I wonder what I should call you…you’re so pretty!”

“His name is Jerry; just keep him busy like that would you? I’ve been trying to kill that blasted bird for a week now for all the trouble he’s been causing me!” Ciel whispered loudly as she tried to climb down the tree as fast as she could without startling him. Jerry however merely just looked up and cocked his head to the side at Ciel before returning to preening his feathers on Liora’s arms.

“WHAT!? Why would you ever want to hurt such a friendly little bird…and why do you call him Jerry?” Liora said backing away as she could with him. Sensing some of the tension the bird flew up higher onto Liora’s shoulders and shuffled around as she moved. As Ciel got closer it paced faster and looked up to Liora before flapping its wings and squawking “Rawk, you’re so pretty!”

“Can it you little suck up! That damn thing lives to ruin my day, spoiling all of my hunts following me and screeching at the worst times! As for the name it just seems to know that one…the stupid thing was just cheering ‘Jerry! Jerry!’ over and over the first time it ruined my hunt.”

“Oh leave the little guy alone! He’s just trying to be friendly that’s all, aren’t you sweetie? I bet grandpa would love your company when I’m away,” she said petting the bird some more as it calmed down some. “Why don’t I take you both to visit grandpa, I think it would do you some good to know who else lives in this territory so you don’t bash anymore heads with that junk. I still owe you for what you have done, so I won’t take no for an answer!”

Ciel only groaned at the thought of having to trek through jungle with the annoying bird and a lecturing mantoid, but after such a long day she just wanted to rest and forget it all as it was beginning to get darker.

“Alright fine… but right now let’s get some sleep, I don’t think either of us are in a good condition for a journey and as long as you keep that stupid bird silent I won’t kill it! I still swear that thing is evil,” she said grumbled climbing further up the tree to sleep away from the pest.

“Good night then Ciel, do you wanna say good night too Jerry?” Liora called up to her as she found a softer patch of earth near the roots of the tree to sleep on.

“Swear that thing is evil, RAWK!” the bird yelled up to her as a small ball of web knocked it clean off Liora’s shoulder and stuck it to the tree. Ciel went to sleep that night with a smug grin of satisfaction as Liora tried to free the bird stuck against the tree covered in webs.

Skipping a few chapters ahead cause they're on DA anyways and the other forum which didn't get much attention but meh they're still over there anyways... Here is the latest chapter that took me way longer to write than I had hoped. Ya know the usual in regards to what I say before posting stuff! Enjoy!



A pair of figures swung through the canopy high up in the trees using their grappling hooks to cover the distance between each jump. Elsie had divided her team up, as usual, into four groups of two that each kept track of another at a distance to cover and spot for one another. Her team had made good time by her standards traversing through the treetops to the northern section of the Chidokai; having encountered no problems they couldn’t avoid using the Isolon fragment to detect any potential danger along their journey. The small crystal didn’t hold a candle compared to the more famous Isolon Eye but was enough to unsettle other predators and cloud their senses slightly, which was enough for Elsie and her team to catch them off guard and evade them.

As she waited up on the branch with Seren, her fellow pathfinder and one of the few human members of her squad, she inspected her rifle for any damage from the environment out of habit as the other groups caught up to report in. She knew she could rely on any of Silas’ inventions to be durable and effective enough. The unique guns were a mix between something of a sniper and assault rifle; having exceptionally good range and accuracy, as well as being able to fire multiple types of special ammunition Silas had developed. It was his devices after all that had saved them many times before when they hunted treasures in the mysterious ruins found throughout Felarya. Being the only other remaining member of their original group Silas often entrusted her with the more difficult duties, confident in her abilities to fulfill them. The other members had long ago either gotten the riches they sought and sensibly left Felarya for their home worlds or had been lost on one of their previous expeditions.

She noticed the lights on her radio flickered on, signaling a message from Raea and Teus reporting in and picked it up. “Commander, we’ve spotted some movement approximately a couple hundred feet ahead of our position. It should be slightly east of you in the canopy, awaiting confirmation,” the neko responded in a hushed voice to her.

Elsie raised her rifle and located the other team reporting in with her scope and followed the direction of their gaze. She scanned the trees for a few moments not seeing anything until something stirred, and sure enough it was the dridder they were looking for. The Isolon fragment had unsettled the giant predator just enough to give away its position. She was even more relieved to see the dridder had not noticed them at all and seemed fixated on watching her webs below her; probably hunting something else she guessed. “Target confirmed, fall back and set up the beacon. All other teams maintain your distance and keep clear sights on each other and the target,” she quietly ordered back. The first task was over finding the dridder; now came the hard part of stalking her without being discovered while Turin’s forces had the all clear to advance knowing her position.

It was an uneventful few hours of watching the dridder sometimes move off into other trees to check on her other webs as they continued to shadow her. Elsie couldn’t hope for this operation to go any smoother just waiting until the beacon team got the reply signal for the all clear to leave.

“Hey Ciel, where are you spider butt? Get down here and help me clean off some of these webs I ran into on the way here! I swear you must be the messiest dridder laying all these webs everywhere,” the formerly unnoticed mantoid called up to the trees while trying to remove some webs from her hair.

Elsie was startled that none of her teams had seen the mantoid approaching but luckily were not found out either, all of them too focused on the dridder or gotten careless she guessed. If the mantoid is here the operation is in danger; the others will run into more danger wandering the jungle searching for nothing, she quickly realized. “All teams fall back and get back in radio range of the base. Relay that the mantoid is here now and await further orders,” she ordered whispering into the radio.

---

“Hey wait! Watch it; you’re going to run into another one!” Ciel yelled as she climbed down the tree to Liora who froze in her tracks. “I warned you before this place is where I set up a lot of webs. At least it’s easy to tell if it’s you coming- no one else plows through all of them as fast as you do. It’s going to take a few hours to fix all those webs. Just what are you doing here anyways? I thought you were only going to come early or later on to avoid this,” she sighed joining Liora further down the tree to clean up the mess she had made.

“I thought we could go hunting together for a change! If I came later on you would already be gone. We can probably catch lunch a lot faster than if you just sat here waiting here all the time anyways! Oh and I brought Jerry with me; grandpa says he taught him a few tricks you might like. Now where’d he go…he was here just a second ago,” Liora wondered as they finished getting all the webs out of her hair.

“Hopefully he got lost and won’t come back,” Ciel snickered.

“Pretty girl! Pretty girl!” Jerry replied no sooner than after she had finished with his all too familiar squawking and whistling off a little further away.

“Ugh, it was too much to hope for. I don’t get a say in you joining me today either do I?” she groaned.

“Not after I came all the way out here!” Liora quickly replied.

“That’s what I thought… well guess we better get moving then. You can go find that flying pest while I clean up some here first. I’ll catch up,” Ciel said with a shrug.

---

“Can’t I just shoot the stupid bird!? Now it won’t shut up!” Seren whispered as loud as he could to Elsie.

“Do that and you’ll be certain to draw those two over; even if the rifles have a silencer. You know better than that. Just feed it or something and shoo it away if it’s bothering you that much,” she answered absentmindedly. It was still a long ways off, maybe a day’s worth of travel tops, she guessed before they could get back in range of radio contact beyond being able to transmit a locator beacon. The large jaykay bird that seemed intent on following them didn’t bother her too much; it actually helped to have one of the admittedly annoying birds nearby making noise to help cover their presence.

“Aw c’mon, you know I was just joking! I think the bird might have a better sense of humor than you,” Seren replied digging through his pack.

Her radio signaled on again and she picked it up as Seren quieted the squawking bird with a snack. “Commander, the mantoid is approaching the southern team! The dridder is a short distance behind it, perhaps a few minutes of time. We need to get out of here now!” the rushed report came from the lookout team she had positioned.

“Load up on tranquilizers and fire to cover- slow her down if any team is spotted and focus your shots on the mantoid first. Avoid them entirely if possible above all else,” Elsie ordered. She knew if they were found it would get ugly. They had to be careful getting here to maintain enough ammunition in the event they were found to be able to tranquilize the dridder with enough rounds. She hoped in this case if they could at least stop one the other would also stop to check on its fallen companion. It was a better chance than running for their lives to all be eventually caught anyways.
They held their breath as the mantoid came into view below, praying that the bird would stay occupied munching on its treats. The bird tilted its head when it saw her and Seren quickly offered it some more crackers before it flew off or started squawking to buy some more time. Elsie let out a small sigh of relief when she passed by, thankfully not noticing them, and now just had to hope the others could remain undetected as well.

Unfortunately, within moments the red light on her radio lit up signaling that another pair was in trouble. They quickly prepared to swing after the mantoid to join the endangered team and Elsie hoped her plan would work. Shortly after the two began to swing after the mantoid to get a clear line of sight she heard its voice loudly call out. “Now where did Jerry- ooh! Hey, Ciel! I think I found some more of those hunter people! Looks like we get an early lunch!”

They arrived in time to see the mantoid making her way up the tree as it was Raea’s team in danger, quickly preparing to escape as fast as they could with their grappling hooks. Seren and Elsie began to take aim knowing it would only be a few more moments until she reached them and another team nearby was already firing off a stream rounds into the mantoid’s side without much effect yet. Raea was able secure her line and swing off the large tree branch as the mantoid made it up, but Teus’ hook missed its mark and found himself stranded against the giant. Having no escape he took out his rifle and began firing as many rounds as he could before being caught up by the predator. As much as it pained Elsie to watch, she couldn’t look away from the mantoid quickly shaking his weapon away and swallowing him as it pursued after Raea. She made sure not to miss her mark as Seren and she joined in firing on the predator.

---

“Gah! There’s a bunch of them over here and they’re easing pickings! Better hurry before they’re all gone slow poke, you’re missing all the hunt!” Liora called out again, preparing to jump after the neko who swung away. She didn’t understand why they kept firing when it was clear she wasn’t being hurt but were just annoying; even the other guns she had encountered before stung more than these things.

“Just be careful, I’m coming! Remember Goro warned us to watch out for them!” she heard Ciel’s voice call back, just a little further away in the forest.

Liora grinned ignoring her warning; she was confident that these hunters wouldn’t be too much trouble like all the many other times she had hunted them. The little things were only sneaky like any other small creature, but as she got closer to the neko she was chasing, it seemed to be getting faster swinging between the branches with that small rope thing she carried. After a few jumps she caught up to her and quickly ate her and shook her head trying to regain her focus. She tried to remember where the other shots were coming from when she first stumbled on the hunters, but got too caught up chasing the neko to remember where they were hiding. “Ugh, must be the rain. Guess I’ll do it the hard way,” she mumbled to herself and looked around, trying to concentrate on where the shots were coming from hitting her.

---

Elsie watched as the mantoid seemed to hesitate, seemingly somewhat dazed from the effect the tranquilizers were having on her. She knew it would only be a few more minutes and she would likely have passed out from all the shots, but it would also take too long before the dridder caught up with them she guessed.

“Seren; time for a change of plan. Radio the other groups to hold their fire for now- then I need you to get her attention focused here. She seems very reckless chasing directly after us; once she catches up we’ll knock her off the branch with some boralite grenades. If the fall doesn’t knock her out I want everyone to fire until she’s out cold. We leave regardless if the dridder gets here.” He nodded at her command, taking the radio, while she placed what boralite grenades she brought along the wide branch. She turned a few parts of the devices before setting them; checking that they were on a remote detonation to work properly for her trap.

“Alright she’s heading this way. Anymore crazy ideas or can we run away now? I’m sure the others are happy to know WE’RE the ones being chased now instead of them again!” Seren shouted back to her as he took a break from firing to reload. Elsie turned her attention to the approaching mantoid again, making certain that she was still taking a direct path to them.

“Only because you asked so nicely- we’ll wait back here for her,” she said securing her line to the trunk and swung around to another branch behind them.

“Figures, now she’s sarcastic,” he mumbled following her.

---

Liora stifled a yawn as she made her way jumping between the branches towards the next two hunters she had found, feeling increasingly tired. It was taking most of her focus now to just be able to jump from branch to branch and she had nearly lost her balance once already after chasing after this next pair. She was definitely going to take a nap after this; Ciel could have the rest of them if she wanted, she thought to herself. It was too much of a hassle chasing after all of them. She smiled seeing that the two she was after were just ahead, having landed on a branch another couple of jumps away in the tree.

“Finally got ya! Now just wait- woah, watch it!” she yelped out as they started firing again and barely raised an arm in time to cover her eyes. She tilted her arm to get a good view for her next jump, hoping to quickly close the distance before they could swing away again. As she leapt off towards them, she was shocked to see the branch in front of her was instantly covered in a cloud of white vapor enveloping where she was going to land on. She was relieved though when the cloud vanished again before she had landed, and in its place seemed to be some clear sheet that made the rest of the branch appear shiny. She braced herself, hoping to stop the moment she made contact with whatever it was and grab onto the tree trunk instead.

Ciel arrived in time to see just how big of a mistake this turned out to be, getting a clear view of Liora slipping completely off the branch and go crashing into a few more branches below before getting a hold of another rather large one.

“Liora! Are you alright?” she called as she made her way down to her. She caught a glance of two other people up in the tree swinging away, the hunters she guessed. Ciel found Liora finishing climbing up onto the branch and laid down, noticing she had a ton of little darts sticking out of her skin on her back and sides. “So much for hunting together, you should have waited for me to catch up. I tried to warn you about them. What are these things?” she said plucking a few of the darts out and looked at them with a frown. Liora shrugged, still sedated from all the shots to feel any sting from their removal.

“I’m ok, but it looks like we’re gonna have to put that hunt on hold. Shame too, I was hoping to show you some neat tricks! Sneaky little things got lucky with whatever that was. I’m just really getting tired of being knocked out of trees. I think I’ll stick to solid ground for a while,” Liora said with a wince of pain trying to yawn. “I think there’s a few groups of them out there still if you want them. I’m just gonna take a nap here for a little.”

A sudden thought came over Ciel as Liora fell asleep on the branch- poison. After the other weird weapons the hunters had used before it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think they might have more like that. She got up to chase after the hunters she had seen leave; if Liora was poisoned, she had to know what they had used on her to be able to try to find a cure. She had to track them down quickly.

Just curious, by other forum, I'm assuming you mean the one that is now overrun with spambots?

Either way, you could put links to the intervening chapters here.

Good point...that poor forum is overrun >.>, and I should kick myself for holding off on working more on this stuff for so long heh. Linkage time then to the stories in between just so it isn't a flood of posts of the story. They are in order from where the gap began (story post before the latest one).

Great Grandpa Goro
Silas

And the side story on the treant:

Chidokai Expedition

I know Chidokai Expedition was just a side story for Goro, but I do hope we get to see more of him in the future.

His antics with the explorers were hilarious.

One other thing, Eliana has to be one of the very few mappers ever to have survived through a Felarya story. Of course, she burned her map in the end, so maybe that was the trick.