Trek through the whispers

Khrixi fluttered down the slope, delighted to see two delicious girls apparently stuck in a patch of roots.

"Why hello there..." she said, giggling, taking a picture. "How about I get you out of there and we have some fun?"

Before she could react, Fenja had leapt from hiding, grabbing and twisting her wings and forcing her to the ground.

"Don't let the other one get away!" she said to Ha'dara.

Ha'dara smiled and jumped at the other one, forcing her to the ground and crushing her wings before Fenja finished the sentence. Just to be sure, he formed a blade of Ki again, this time holding it to her throat.

"Hello again!" he said, looking down at Clover "Where are they?"

"gah"Clover says looking to fenj and then at ha'dara "gah i...i'm not telling you besides have no clue who you are talking about!she says with a smirk she knew who the two of them were talking about but she wanted to be sure and maybe tease them both a little.

Cherry smiled she could hear famliar voices from outside khrixi's stomach and she had hope of a rescue.

"Oh" said Fenja pleasantly. "You don't know anything? Then you won't mind me doing...this." She said, moving behind Khrixi and shoving her fists into Khrixi's stomach, hitting it in the way she had learned with lots of force. Khrixi buckled over and gagged, a damp Cherry falling to the ground. Khrixi started to shrink herself as her magic drained. Fenja held her in her hand.

"Oh! I'm sure she was just in there by accident, right?"

Ha'dara just kept smiling and tipped his head to the side slightly "Any others you don't know about?"

"heh um yeah she was actually"Clover lies looking at the damp cherry a little worried if the human blabbed about what had happened to her but none the less clover's smile remained "well it was an acident and i'm pretty sure khrixi would have let her out eventualy"she paused "as fo others no i can't think of any"

Cherry looked up smiling as she shook her head "no that's not rightclover ate the elf shanna and khrixi i believe ate me due to something about the circle of life"she says looking hapy about not being in a stomach.

"Oh, is that so?" Ha'dara turned to Fenja "Do you want to try that trick again or shall I just cut her stomach open?"

“Ha'dara? Fenja? Oh, thank the guardians!,” Shanna said, laughing in her tremendous relief. One moment, she was resigning herself to death, the next, Ha’dara’s voice was nearby, threatening Clover and trying to find Shanna. Shanna decided to help Ha’dara out just a little bit. She got another one of her runes of light and activated it. She had to put a hand over her eyes to shield them from the bright light.

On the outside, it appeared that Clover’s stomach suddenly started glowing. A silhouette of Shanna's shadow could be seen waving.

"Sure looks like it." said Fenja. She gripped Clover and pushed her stomach hard. Shanna was soon laying damp on the grass. Clover's magic began to short out too and Fenja grabbed her.

"Circle of life? Yeah, that sounds about right." she said, smiling. She had swallowed the girl while she was waiting. She moved the fairies to one hand and discretly pocketed the two pieces of bait. Later.

"Now." she said, partly to the fairies and partly to Cherry and Shanna. "Think I should eat 'em? They'll probably keep coming back. And, as they've said, anythings fair game."

"aw no fair" Clover says annoyed as she struggled in fenja's grip "we had a good meal there you vcan't just come along and take food away from us you you big meanie"she says anoyd sticking her tongue out at fenja

"no"Cherry says lookig at the two fairies "no don't eat them it's not right not very fair eating them for just trying to survive"he says calmly turning away from the two fairies.

Shanna looked between the fairies and Fenja a couple times. She didn’t say anything for a long while as she thought. “Cherry, they had more reasons than survival for going after us. But I’ll go with your decision…” Shanna said. She turned her back to the fairies as well, and put an arm around Cherry’s shoulders. “Come on, let’s go find Grip and the pod. I’m pretty sure he was left there.”

"Well." said Fenja. "Are you sure? It's not so much that I want to punish them as that I'm pretty worried that they'll simply try it all over again when they're healed. They're fairies, they're stubborn and I may not be able to rescue you next time. Like you said, it's simply just trying to survive. If I eat them now it'll save you two a whole bunch of probable trouble later.

"positive"Cherry saysn though to be honest she wasn't too sure i she trusted the fairies or fenja for that matter she kneeled down infront of fenja "back on cha we had this rule"she says bowing her head "yu saved my life i am at your command until my debt is repaid"she says smiling a little uneasily.

“Yeah, Don’t eat them on my account,” Shanna said. “I’ll be better prepared for them next time anyway. Cherry, while you’re at that, I’ll look for Grip.” With that, Shanna left the group to return to the sphere. Jumping through the open hatch, Shanna looked around inside of the sphere for Grip.

“Hey, Grip? You here?” Shanna called, looking in every nook and cranny

As the fairy's magic wore off, Grip started to return to normal size. He banged his head on the underside of the desk and came out rubbing it. He saw Fenja through the window.

"Hey!" he said. "Next time you might want to check to see if the fairies shrunk me first!"

"Oops." said Fenja. She then looked at the fairies, still holding their wings. "Well...if I'm not gonna eat them, should I just go put them back where they came from?"

Ha'dara looked down at Clover, then to Fenja "Eat them and some others will probably try to get you for it. I say we just leave them in a small pile by the tree." he lifted Clover up and dumped her at the bottom of the tree.

“That’d be fine Ha’dara,” Shanna said, helping Grip to his feet. “I say we just get out of here,” Shanna added, flopping into the nearest seat in the sphere. She wiped a hand over her forehead. “I’m just glad that this whole situation is over. Fenja, Ha’dara, I really owe you two one. If there’s anything I can do to repay you, let me know. Grip? Got a shower or something I can use in here?”

Grip pointed to the glass fronted shower.

"That the shower I got in here. There's a basin in there as well. As long as Fenja remembered to refill the tanks..."

"I did." said Fenja.

"...Then it should work just fine." he finished. "And I agree with you. The forest of whispers is just a place where you can expect stuff like this to happen. We'd be better off elsewhere...."

Ha'dara smiled down at Shanna "Anytime." He looked around "Which way is the quickest way out of here? I wouldn't mind someplace a little quieter." He frowned "I can't even remember which way we came from?"

Cherry smiled stretching up she looked at fenja curiously "um well i'll just be off now"she says picking her camera up which khrixi had dropped she looked at a path in the forest and began to walk straight away from fenja and the others she took a glance back moving the sleeves n the elf clothes back from her arms as she walked.

Clover sighed "well i'll be ou of here too with my friend of course"she says smiling inside her head she had a cunning plan to get the human and elf without fenja and the naga interupting them clover smiled getting to her feet.

"Hey!" said Fenja to Cherry. "Are you sure you really want to be walking out there alone? You're already not on good terms with the fairies. I think we should all leave and we have the best chance of making that together..." She began to realized how difficult this would be, not having the best directional sense...

"And, for now." she said. "It's getting late. It's crazy to be walking around here alone - at night, that's suicidal."

"that would be your fault enja"Cherry says without looking she wasn't going to take advice from her even though she had saved her life cherry sighed she stopped glancing back at fenja but she just shrugged and continued walking away placing her camera around her neck using the strap she smiled looking at the floor as she walked she thought she heard the snap of a twig nearby but shrugged realising that she could have just stepped on a twig.

Ha'dara looked around, having heard that fairies can be tricky "Oi! I only see one fairy here!"

Cherry paused looking cautiously around when she heard that ha'dara could only see one fairy she turned and looked back at the group clover was there but were was the other one not taking any chances cherry's walk turned into a run.

Khrixi sat shrunken on the petals of a flower. She didn't want to make a move. She knew that Fenja might not be so forgiving next time. Still...she would keep watching to see what happened. And her plants would always be watching as well...