[SUMMER]Jungle- De Most Oddest of Tings (Zecora & Enki)[Fin]

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

"Nah just haven't been in a real bed in a long time." Enki let out a chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head. He slowly got up and let out a yawn, stretching his arms out. How long had he been sleeping in trees? Too long. Simply thinking about something as simple as a bed made him miss his family. It seemed like forever since he had last seen them. Perhaps it was. After all this he would have to travel back home. Though that was for later. "Could have used a little longer in bed though. After yesterday it's nice just to relax."  

[Wolfs Heart]

Zecora looked at him sadly, for most pae this was supposed to be a vacation. It never had been for her, it had been for educational purposes, to gather more resources under the guides who were native to this jungle, though she hadn't expected something like this to happen. Now... it was a vacation for no one. It would have been nice to relax, but they couldn't waste time sleeping the day away now. Ironic that Zecora thought that considering she now wanted to 'waste time' looking around the village. But only for a little while before searching for home again.

"Mayhaps, if we climb to the tippy most top of the tree we will be able to see the great tree and that will help guide us home, no?" Zecora thought out loud. It wasn't an idea that occurred to her the night before, it would have been too dark anyways. Of course... by 'we climb' she meant Enki climb, there was no way she could climb to the top.  

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

"Only if you come to the top with me." The male replied with another stretch and flutter of his wing. He clearly wasn't as worried about their situation like he had been yesterday. "There's a creek near the foot of this tree right? You found it yesterday...Or heard it. Water always flows downstream. So if we follow it we'll either end up at Tuatha'ri Lake or at the ocean. Either way, Laisidhiel will be easier to fine." He slowly walked over to her. He knew she was worried but there was no need. Not anymore at least. Sure, the monkeys stunk and everything was broken, but they were safe. Wasn't that the most important thing?

He put his hand on her shoulder and smiled to her. "Come on, let's see if we can't find a bit more about this place huh?" He was hoping his words would just help her relax. He was after all.  

[Wolfs Heart]

She blinked for a moment, stunned that he would even suggest that she climb to the top of the tree, he knew she wasn't comfortable with it. Zecora was a bit surprised by his relaxed demeanor. In truth, Zecora should have known that her worry would only cloud her ability to see the truth and that had proved to be true. "The creek... yes..." Zecora released a deep breath that she had been apparently holding this whole time.

"Are you sure you are ready to go lazy-bones?" Zecora teased him, a bit more light-hearted after his attempt at calming her.  

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

Enki smiled and laughed lightly, wrapping an arm around her. "Also long as you're the leading I'm always ready to go." He was happy to see her relax. They could stay here as long as they wanted to. Heck, he wanted to stay here longer. There was so much to do, so much to see. Home would always be there, but if they left, would they find this place again? He wasn't too sure. He'd talk about that to Zecora later.

The sun was barely over the top of the trees as the two stepped out into the light. Enki scanned the trees, trying to count how many of this old building were out there. Bridges spanned the gaps between the trees. There were so many it seemed like this was more then just one hut. A village. Who lived up here? Why? His eyes fell onto a...Glowing light? "Zecora...What's that?" He pointed to the odd white light coming from a hut not too long away.  

[Wolfs Heart]

Zecora shook her head, "I do not know..." she said thoughtfully as she stared in the direction Enki was looking. It did not take her long to spot it with the flashing light. She was peering over at the light when all of a sudden she felt something hit her shoulder, and then another one on her back, and finally one struck her head. "What in..." Zecora whirled around to see a group of monkey tossing tree-nuts towards them. "Quick, let us go to that hut." Zecora said, she was curious, but it was clear they couldn't be out in the open long without being harassed by the monkeys.

Twitchapher the 3rd

 

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

The trees around them seemed to erupt in hoots and hollers as their monkey host seemed to have noticed them. Enki looked over his shoulder at the group and glared at them. Throwing nuts at a lady was never nice. After getting pelted in the forehead with a stray nut he grumbled and moved behind Zecora. He carefully wrapped his arms around her before reaching up for the tips off his wings. "Here, hold these and just keep moving." What seemed to be a confusing move on his part at first turned clearly into the fact he had become a Pae shield for her. He wasn't about to let some stinking monkey hurt Zecora while he was around!  

[Wolfs Heart]

Twitchapher the 3rd

"You want me to hold... your wings?!" Zecora questioned him, slightly shouting over the loud noise of the monkey. She was deeply confused by his proposal. Whatever, she wasn't going to argue with him and spend even more time in the line of fire. The faster they got to protection, the faster Enki could stop being her shield. She headed straight towards the hut that had the strange glowing as fast as she could. Of course, being in a tree village, it wasn't a direct path, they had to take several bridges in a zig zag in order to find the path that led to that particular tree.  

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

Wolfs Heart

"To protect you're head." He managed to reply as they hurried along a bridge. "Don't want you to get hurt." Enki grunted as a nut hit his cheek. As long as she wasn't hurt, that's all that really mattered after all.

As they hurried into the glowing hut Enki was not expecting what he saw. He slowly let Zecora go as he watched the vision unfold. Faerie Pae'il around a table as tempers flared. The six looked like they were shouting and pointing fingers at each other, but no words were spoken. Silence seemed to fill the air as even the monkeys were silent for the moment. No words, but a smell. A beautiful fragrant from a candle. How was this possible? Enki just watched, stunned. He had never seen anything like this. What were they saying? He was dieing to know. The fighting seemed to be interrupted by a candle falling over and the Faeries scrambling to save the maps. He couldn't quiet make out what was on those maps, but they seemed important for these Fae to stop whatever they were fighting about and save them.

Enki blinked as the Fae started to run, and just like that it was over. Enki turned but there was nothing behind them. Where did they go?

"What...What just happened?" Enki finally managed to say after the room fell dark once again, the decay and abandonment filling the room around them. He had never experienced anything like this before, the male had no clue what they just saw, or why. All he was left with was questions, and nothin but silence for answers.  

[Wolfs Heart]

Twitchapher the 3rd

Zecora paused as they stood in the doorway, but the fae inside seemed to take no notice that they were being intruded upon. Despite the questions that filled her mind, everything seemed quiet as she observed the events unfolding before her. When at last the fae ran through her body, Zecora ran her hands over herself... an illusion. "You saw dis too... no?" Zecora wandered over to the table... that much had been real, though it looked much more aged then it did in the illusion. Zecora ran her fingers over the map... "Dis... must have been very important... yet not so important to remember to take it wit dem... I wonder what happened..." Zecora said thoughtfull, her voice at a whispered level.  

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

Wolfs Heart

Enki hadn't a single clue of what just happened, only he didn't want to be here anymore...More he didn't want Zecora here anymore. The faster they got out of here, the better.

He watched her touch the map and moved over beside her, looking the map over. The corner was burnt but a good bit of it was still ok. His eyes looked over the area that was dust free. "Someone else was here...: He said out loud, his finger ran over the dust free area. He couldn't tell when they were here but, there was something missing. His eyes caught onto a glimmer of copper. What? He slowly picked up what looked like two copper coins. Where did these come from? They didn't look dangerous...He flipped one over and looked to the strange marking on it. He didn't understand it but he looked to Zecora and smiled. "Looks like they left gifts though." He held up a coin. "There's two here, one for each of us. Might as well take the map too. Can't hurt." he shrugged to her. "Come on, this place is giving me the hebbie gibbies. Let's get out of here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day continued more or less, uneventful. Hut after hut had already been raided by their noisy neighbors. Besides the coins and the map, there wasn't much else to look at. By mid day Enki had begun to travel up and down the tree to the ground, gathering supplies. He used Zecora's copper pot to bring water up to her, the rest of his time was spent exploring around the trees for food. He had almost forgot he could fly. He had just been so grounded around Zecora, not that he minded. She was his friend after all. While mulling around the tree tops he managed to spot a mango tree. FOOD! Between them and the free nuts the monkeys kept donating to them, they would be find for however long they were in the area, and that was a huge relief to him.

By the time the stars started to dance in the sky Enki had assembled a small army of mangoes at the first hut they found themselves in the night before. He had also brought up some rocks to use to smash the nuts open. Their little hut was at least starting to shape up!

Enki found himself relaxing out on the side of the hut, watching the stars slowly fill the sky once again. Finally he could relax for a bit. Mango in his hand, star light on his skin, life, for the moment, was good.  

[Wolfs Heart]

Twitchapher the 3rd

Zecora had grabbed the map and rolled it up very carefully, and then pulled the bandana that was in her pack and wrapped the rolled map in that, for a little extra protection, and to keep it from unrolling in her bag. Hopefully she could give the map a good look later and maybe it would help them find their way home. Strange looking tokens that had been left behind... Zecora wasn't sure how comfortable she felt taking them... what were they for? She was still trying to make sense of the vision they had. Had it been something that had really happened? It seemed that way based on the fact that they found the candle laying just as it had been spilled. How long ago? She mindlessly followed Enki out of the hut, too busy thinking about what they had just seen.

As they traveled through some of the other huts, Zecora found herself slightly disappointed. She didn't really know what she had been expecting, except maybe more answers, but the huts were empty of anything, more similar to the first hut they had stayed in, most specific evidence gone or destroyed. Zecora started throwing the nuts that were being tossed at them into her basket, though she and Enki were now covered in a variety of welts and bruises. Those monkey really didn't want them there, but she would rather face them then the creature she had faced on the ground.

After giving up on the huts, Zecora finally settled down to relax. While Enki was outside she was sitting in the hut with the lit lantern showing over the map. Nothing specifically stuck out to her, and she was pouring over every detail that wasn't charred. What had been so important to the fae? That wasn't even her number one question though, she just wanted to find where they were on the map, and look for any familiar landmark that would take them home. She rolled the map back up.

"It was not much help..." Zecora told Enki as she joined him outside.  

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

Wolfs Heart

"I don't even know how to read a map." He chuckled at the simple failure of himself. He sat up slightly and motioned for Zecora to join him, picking up a mango for her. "We have nothing but time really, I'm in no rush really. Despite the monkeys, this place isn't THAT bad...You always seem to have something on your mind...Take a mintue, eat a mango, and for now, just let it all go. This hasn't been a real vacation after all, but you should at least try to relax a bit." He waved the mango in her face and smiled to her.  

[Wolfs Heart]

Twitchapher the 3rd

"I must admit, I do not have de most experience in map reading, but I thought perhaps I would be able to recognize an illustration of dis place or perhaps de great tree..." She had no such luck though. Zecora took a deep breath. "You are right we are okay, dere is just so much..." It wasn't that she was really afraid even, just busy trying to make sense of the bits of information they had gotten. This puzzle was clearly much bigger then anything she could put together. Zecora's hand darted out to take the mango he was waving in front of her, and smiled at him before eating it.

In between bites, she spoke to him. "What brought you on dis trip. It almost seems like fate brought us to-get-her once again. I did not even know you were on the hike, if I am honest." Zecora stared off into the sky, a mystical look on her face.  

[Twitchapher the 3rd]

Wolfs Heart

"There is a lot." He said looking to his own fruit. "I just...Don't have a clue of what to make of it. So I'm not going to go grey worrying about it. If we are to learn more, we will be shown more. That's how the spirits work after all." He smiled to himself a little before looking up to the stars. "I was thinking about heading home when I heard about it. Figured it wouldn't hurt, I could get some stuff for home. And well, I got afraid of those crazy fairies with those machetes. I kept near the back so I wouldn't get cut up." He couldn't help but shutter a little, flapping his wings slightly.