Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tam flashes him a tired smile. "Might be better if ye did a little scouting around. Something is in the air today. Makes me skin crawl it does. And Bez is so jumpy ye'd think he's going to wind up standing beside himelf."

At the far side of the isalnd are five outrigger canoes, beached high above the tide line. There are signs of their occupants everywhere, smouldering fires, half erected or struck down tents (hard to tell it they were going up or down at this distance), and a large pole buried upright in the sand. There is a pair of manacles hanging from the pole. Whoever they were meant for could not have been overly tall.

Nothing right now. Though the whole area reeks of man, blood, and fear. A careful inspection of the outskirts of the camp shows that all the inhabitants had run off towards the forest, snatching up their weapons as they ran, but not their armor, or rather not all their armor. It is hard to tell at first whether they were chasing something or being chased, then near the area they entered the woods, he finds signs of someone moving stealthily, as if to avoid detection, someone small, someone injured.

After some careful investigation, Kerobian can tell only that a large group of men seem to be after someone or something that doesn't quite smell human. Their prey seems to be capable of avoiding detection to some extent, for it has stopped several times, to tend its injuries from the look of things, only to sighted and forced to move on. It is slowly moving in the direction of Bez and Ai's cave though and that doesn't bode well in Kerobian's book.

Finally he finds it, a boy, barely an adolescent, but unlike any boy he has ever seen. His skin is black and pebbled as if scaled and his hair snow white, hacked off at the shoulder and tied back with a stip of cloth. He has no nose of which to speak, just two small slits with a third slit for a mouth. But his eyes are the most impressive, Kero has ever seen, faceted like an insect's and more beautiful than the finest sapphire. It is unclothes save for another scrap of cloth tied about it's waist. Other scraps are tied about it's wrists, saturated with blood. Suddenly it opens it's mouth and a thin forked tongue slips forth as if to test the air.

The child takes one look at him, panics and darts back the way he came, only to be cut off by a pack of men, who chortle at their luck. The leader snatches at him and grins evilly. With a silent cry of despair, heard only on the psychic level, the child struggles desperately to get free. Looking up the man points at Kerobian and barks an order to his men, who begin to advance, weapons at ready.

Bez runs forth, spear at ready. "What the hell." he cries staggering to a halt.

The boy looks at him and tries to run away.

"What on earth is going on out here?" asks Tam coming forth, carrying Argeeis. He looks at the child and takes a step backwards. "What is he doing here?" he asks worriedly.