The Great Unknown.

Ryla hauled herself onto the branch, scrunching up on its length, coiling the rest of her tail around it. Ten thin spines simultaniously extended from her waist, anchoring it into the bark behind. She slowly inched forward, drooling openly.

"I win, hun." She leaned in, closer to his face.
"So pay up. What's the name of the great and terrible Ryla's next meal?"

He was trapped and she had won. She approached almost like a cat cornering a mouse, he knew his limits; he was without defense, a mode of escape or even a friendly face. He stared at her and weighed his options. In defeat, he hung his head.

"I'm James Patterson, though my friends just call me Jim," he said somewhat melancholy.

His options didn't seem good, fall to the ground and he might live with only a broken leg at the least or let the giant snake woman have him. His power wasn't useful here and he knew it, as each idea came to mind he shook it down. His mind raced over the amount of hemoglobin he had used just doing that pillar. He would be committing suicide just trying that stunt again. He probably only had enough for one more burst before he passed out.

It was then his eyes widened, he had a plan but was it crazy enough to work?

"Patterson..." Ryla trailed off for a moment. "Where have I heard that name before?" She pressed a finger to her lip in pondering.
"Oh yeah! Guy who filmed Bigfoot." She smiled innocenly, pleased with herself. She normally had very little capacity for thought this time of day.

"So, Jim," she tilted her head in wonder, "Now if I swallow you, you're not gonna cut up my throat, are you?"

He gave a slight chuckle, "If I were to try, I'd die for sure." He said pointing to the large pile of white dust on the ground. "Those crystals are as hard as diamonds but," he said raising his finger to illustrate a point, "they don't last forever. Their held together by... uh... what's a better way to say this?"

He seemed to ponder for a second, "My blood is what holds them together and it takes a toll on me every time I use them." He was sweating hard, he couldn't really do anything, much as he wanted to pin himself in her throat or mouth preferably it would be deadly either way.

"The best I'd be able to do is a quick stab before the crystal fractures and breaks."

He took this time to look around her head, looking at the very odd looking protrusions from her waist. "Wow, so I'm not the only one with things coming out of him huh?"

Ryla raised an eyebrow.
"You're not that bright are you?" She propped her elbow on the bark and rest her head on her palm. "See now, I wouldn't have told me that. I'd have made up some crap about them being poisonous or something. Or at the very least I wouldn't have mentioned how I couldn't use them again. Knowing me, I'd probably have believed me."

She turned her head back to her tail, eying the ten sharp spines that dug into the bark behind her.
"Those are always there. They're leg remnants. Not great for locomotion, but they're a great alternative to cleats."
As she spoke, her tail snaked around behind, slithering slowly beneath the branch the two were standing on. It made its way to the end and coiled around the branch behind him, creating a fleshy wall. She wasn't planning on doing anything, but she enjoyed psyching people out by bringing her tail so close.

"So, Jim," she turned back to face him, "are you actually going to try and convince me not to eat you? Because honestly, I was kinda hoping I'd get to get into that argument today."

Jim smiled, "I'm not a scholar, nor am I a liar... well maybe on occasion I'm a liar but not often." He shrugged. "I'm a fighter not an intellect, debates like that are better left to the eggheads in my oppinion," he stated bluntly.

"The way I see it in life it's kill or be killed. I don't like the idea of dying, do you? Were you in my shoes would be any less inclined to get away, to survive?" He asked, knowing she might just answer yes.

Ryla thought for a moment.

"You know honestly, Kid, I'd probably be putting a lot more effort into trying to get away. And if that didn't work, I'd try beating me up. And I'd probably try that first, too."

She crept closer, more to get comfortable, than to intimidate him.
"I dunno why you keep starting with that philosophical 'prey has a right to live' stuff. I'm not that sort, kid. I have a right to eat you, you have a right to try and keep me from eating you through whatever means are neceserry. And right now, talking me out of it's probably the only shot you've got. So either you can entertain me, or you can take a bath in hydrochloric acid, as well as several unnamed biological compounds."

She licked her lips, revealing her very purple tongue.
"Cause ya know, I'm good with either."

Systath observes the interaction between the reptile woman and the crystal boy and notices that the situation isn't getting any better. He thinks, "Aww hell! He's losin' her! To hell with this observational crap! I think it's about time for some action!" The horned alien grins a wicked grin baring his sharp teeth in the process and snickers to himself as he squeezes the trigger of his sniper five times unloading five high-caliber rounds into the arm supporting the head of the snake-woman.

Ryla eagerly awaited her new 'friend''s reply, when suddenly her world was rocked by a blast of intense pain. Violet blood splashed into the air as her shoulder was torn wide open by a blast from an unknown source.

"AARRGGGHHH!!!" Ryla cried out, jolting upright. She opened her mouth wide, revealing not one but two rows of razor-like teeth! She roared an animalistic cry that shook the branches around her. Jim nearly fell as Ryla cried out.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" She snarled, glaring into the jungle ahead. She scanned back and forth, her antennae flailing. A number of bodies became present. But which one was it?

She looked down to Jim.
"My friend, I must leave you for a moment." Without waiting for a response, she scooped him up in her clawed hand and dropped like a rock. It took longer than one might expect, as gravity carried her monstrous bulk to the ground with a loud crash. She kneeled for a moment, letting a very dazed Jim down onto the dirt, before turning to the jungle with a snarl.

"Come out and I promise I won't totally pulverize you!"

"...I'm bored..." Danny complained to himself, he'd been walking for a while now and from what his (rather slow) mind could gather he had been wandering around in a complete cirlce for the past hour. However he did hear something rather powerful stirring with in the wilderness. So seeing nothing else better to do, the oblivious Ox-Demon attempts to track the soucre of the sound(s), who knows maybe he'll find a person who knows a way outta this freaky place...

Systath couldn't help but grin at the results of his strike. "Well that went better than expected.", he thought. It was then that he noticed that she had put the boy down in the dirt. He quickly and as quietly as he could opened his auxiliary weapon case and swaped his currently overheated sniper for a trusty shotgun just in case. Putting his new firearm on his back he took one more look at the situation then touched his shoulder activating his cloaking device. Using his stealthiest tactics, he crept over to the boy on the ground and attempted to carry him away from harm.

Jim staggered a bit, knowing only that he had heard a large caliber rifle go off. "Save your strength," he said while stabilizing himself. "That wasn't an ordinary pistol. I'd say a sniper rifle if I'm not mistaken." He looked up at Ryla, seeing the violet blood trickle down her arm, "Whoever fired that, did so at a 'safe' distance away."

He looked up at the branch he was on before, the wounds on Ryla's arm and began working his brain around the sound. "I'd say about a mile and a half in that direction," he said indicating the direction with his index finger. 'Wait why am I helping her,' he thought. 'She just tried to eat me a second ago and now I'm helping her! Man this is messed up. Still, she said there are creatures like herself out here, I'll have to make as many friends as I can if I'm going to survive,' he mused as he looked up to see how she'd react.

Ryla spun around, still snarling. She looked down to Jim, tilting her head in confusion. She shook it off, however, and glared down at an approaching concentration of electrons. Her eye was built for a low-light environment, but her antennae could see the approaching body, plain as day.

"I see you." She grinned, and scooped Jim up in her hand, holding him at shoulder-level, out of reach. Though she couldn't see the approaching form, she could sense it as though she were looking right at it.

"Whoa!" Jim yelped as he tried to balance himself on Ryla's large reptilian hand.

Systath's head dropped. "Son of a-... figures." He turns off his cloaking and emerges from invisiblity aiming his shotgun at the snake-woman. Staring right into her eyes he says sternly, "Let him down."

Ryla closed her eyes and smiled sweetly.
"No."

Systath maintained his gaze even when her eyes were closed. "Would it help at all if I said I have an explosive slug with your name on it if you decide not to cooperate?"

"Honey, I've eaten things with more kick than one of those pixies." She glanced at the small wound on her arm.
"I reckon one of those will rip off some skin. I also reckon a piledriver on my part will more or less paste you.
Besides, you don't even know what my name is!"
She smiled at Jim.

"Maybe I'll keep you around a spot longer."

'What is that thing,' Jim thought. A creature with weapons similar to those used in his world but a completely different appearance than he'd ever seen. "Man, you really don't get the concept of 'high-ground advantage do you?"

His reaction was smug but he couldn't just sit by and let this guy go and put holes in his new "friend." "Just to let you know Ryla," he said glancing over his shoulder to the massive face next to him, "I did have one last burst left in me before I gave out."

"In all fairness," Ryla said to Jim, "I think he is trying to save you. Besides, no sense beating yourself up when I've got several hundred tons of raw muscle right here."

She looked back down to the stranger, then back up to Jim.
"Tell you what, if I recieve compensation of roughly your size, I probably won't eat you."
She grinned back down to the mildly(in her view) odd-looking newcommer.

Systath lowers his weapon. "Heh, it's just as well, I was bluffing anyhow." He wasn't but he wanted to buy as much time as he could to formulate a new plan, he wasn't about to leave this human to his death. It was then that he remembered the antenae that were going crazy when she was enraged, they had looked rather.... delicate. He had an idea. Ignoring the comments they had made he stared at the ground for a second and cracked his knuckles. Then he unsheathed his warblade from its scabbard on his back. It was then that he tore off his mask, looked straight into her eyes, took a deep breath and bellowed the loudest warcry that his Argen lungs could possibly muster. Small birds and critters in the distance became startled and eratic by the noise.

((OOC: I actually gotta' go now I'll be back tomarrow afternoon through the evening.))

((Just as well. Tis a school night for me anyway.))

Ryla clenched her ears shut and gritted her teeth, clearly discomforted by the loud noise. A low, animalistic snarl escaped her lips as she glared back at the tiny figure.

"Bring it."
She brought her free hand up, letting her six-foot talons glint in the sunlight.

The sounds were getting closer now, but now there was the sound of a gun going off and some peircingly loud warcry...maybe the folks here aren't as hospitable as Danny 1st thought...but still he had to find somebody to ask for directions. He rounds the next tree and the 1st thing he sees before he even opens his mouth to state his business is an epic fight about to unfold..."What The-?! What the heck's goin on here?"

By now, Wes'li had picked up the pace to as much as his form could handle. Minor obstacles were smashed aside (Or in some cases, stuck to the clay) as he moved through the muddy terrain in what he hoped would lead furthest away from the confrontation.

Getting caught between a prey and a predator would be one thing; being caught between what may have been a magic user and a predator would be a completely different thing. In a hunt, he could easily logic his way out. During a duel, however, things could easily turn messy. Worse, they were making a great deal of noise in the process. They'd attract predators and carrion birds from quite a distance if they kept things up.

Systath had to think fast. His race was incapable of expirencing the emotion fear, the closest one that they could was nervousness and he was feeling pretty damn nervous right now. His eyes darted from her raised hand to his blade. "Useless at this point.", he thought. He quickly sheathed his blade and pulled out his two pistols. He then fired as many rounds as he could at her hand before it had a chance to come down on him.