As Soul Reaver and Asaki come closer to the camp clearing, she feels the hair on her tail stand on end. She glances around at the forest, eyes and sounds chiming out in unison. She stays near Soul Reaver then abruptly turns towards some rustling nearby. Her animal-like vision manages to catch a glimpse of a dark figure running away. She stares blankly at the spot where it once was for a while before continuing the trail back to the campsite.
When they return, Asaki looks around at the warriors.
"Hey, guys! We're back! And it looks like everyone's awake."
Asaki steps up closer to the fire as Soul Reaver places the freshly killed game on the ground and makes his announcement. "It seems we will eat well tonight - Asaki has also brought us some food. I will prepare the meat for eating. It should be ready in an hour or two."
The teenager smiles and comes up from behind Soul Reaver, carefully setting the sash and branch on a rock protruding from the ground.
She opens the corners of the sash to reveal the numerous, plump, dark berries.
"Here ya go! You can start on these now if you're really hungry."
She then hears that Stavarus is absent, and she begins to look around.
"Maybe nature was screaming, you know," when she notices the confused look on her companions' faces she shrugs and adds. "When you gotta go, you gotta go."
After a few tense seconds, she clears her throat and climbs up into the tree once more.
She straddles the large branch and watches the others until Kasei comes over, hovering beside her.
Kasei: You're here! You know I was going to go look for you.
"I'm not talkin' to you."
The teenager crosses her arms and turns away from the fire rod.
Kasei: What? I was.
Suddenly, they hear a rustling in the branches above them. They turn and spot two dark black eyes, shimmering with the fire light. The furry creature shuffles on a tree branch and takes a peek at the fascinating warriors. Asaki's face lights up.
"Hey, it's a little burglar."
Kasei: It's a raccoon.
"I know it's a raccoon, moron!"
The teenager turns around completely and carefully extends a hand towards the fuzzy creature. In it's curiousity, it comes closer and begins to sniff at the girl's hand. After a few seconds, the nocturnal animal proceeds to lick the sticky berry juice from her fingers. She laughs, then carefully begins to pet the raccoon, gaining it's confidence. Soon, it allows itself to get picked up. Asaki smiles.
"I did it."
Kasei: Hmph. Animal magnetism. One animal can sense another.
Asaki frowns and Kasei floats away near the others.
The teenager looks at the raccoon and smiles again.
"You must be hungry."
She motions with her left hand towards the ground and a few berries levitate up into the tree. Asaki takes them in her hand and begins to feed them to the raccoon and strokes it's fur with her other hand.
"Hey, Sensei? Can I keep it," she asks jokingly.
|With chaos as my guide, I walk the plains in search of a worthy battle....|