Space!! Adventure!!

[Arashi_kuriyami]

Prologue

       Lights slowly winked to life as the ship slowly began to wake. The soft hum of power echoing throughout the sleepy little ship.  Yet it's occupants remained in frozen sleep. Packed tight, Except for one.  Slowly the waking process began as machines began to whiz and oxygen pumped into the tiny cryo-chamber. A thick hiss  escaped the chamber hatch, expelling Cold smoke.
   A figure emerged from the chamber, His body pushing and pulling against the mesh of wire that connected to his body.  The man pulled the mask from his face taking a deep breath of air. Sudden awaking often do that. He staid still for a long moment his mind racing. There was no alarm going, So no emergency? There was only two reason's why he, the ship's captain would be awaken in this manner.
A thick hiss came as a voice on a speaker spoke.
   "Captain Briggs, I'm sorry to wake you early. However the ship woke me. We have a situation I think you should see this sir"
A little hiss of relief escaped his lips, It was his co-pilot . His hand ran along his face and through his hair. He took another shaky breath as he stood up  grabbing his jump suit. "Allright  Casey, I'm heading to the cockpit.  Brief me as I head up".

Casey paused for a moment.  "Sir, we are still about 6 light years from out destination. However passive scanners woke me up. Our data indicates a planet that was missed. It's uncharted as well.  Scanners read an atmosphere and water as well as life. It's oxygen levels are about the same as earth's as well.  It looked much more promising then the one we are heading to. There's no notes in our data base for this one. There also seems to be no large deposit of Current either. I don't think this planet is inhabited. "
The door to the cockpit slid open as Briggs stepped in.   He took his seat and checked the data, His hands flipping through switches, pressing on screens.
  "Good job Casey.  I'm Sending a probe"
     "Aye Sir, One three"
  "Firing on three, probe away".
        It only took moments before data was being sent.  Gravity was by far less on this planet.  It was an ideal planet for transforming.
  "Casey, Log the data.  Send it back to base. The next one will get it"
  "Aye si-"
     The ship gave a violent shudder, The sound of crunching steel could be heard echoing through the silent ship.
   "What the fuck"?
  "Captain we're loosing cabin pressure in the lower docking bays. Sealing off air chambers".
  Again the ship shuddered, the cockpit began to be assaulted siren's and alarms as things began to fail."
    "Casey I need engine power"
    "Aye Sir".
  Within moments the engine kicked to life.  Briggs turned the ship angling  it towards the planet.
      "On three eject the cryo chambers,  Set them for atmospheric  re-entry and emergency wake up"
"Aye sir".
  "One...Twoo...THRREE".
   The ship shuddered again. The sound of steel could be heard  as one of the engines gave way. Sending the ship into a spin.
  "Casey, prepare the ship for atmospheric re-entry"
"....Aye Sir".

[Arashi_kuriyami]

 His pod hurtled like a meteorite towards the the unknown planet.  Barely slowing as it hit the atmosphere.  At these speeds it didn't take long before the pod crashed through tree's  that are least  a mile or more high. The pod itself tumbled before crashing into the earth. Sending sprays of dirt and mud everywhere.
  A thick hiss could be heard as the pod slowly began to cool.  The sensor's themselves scanned the area for dangers. A standard procedure for emergency ejection.  The pod hissed as it let out its cold vapors stirring the contents to life.  The Hatch curled upwards as a figure pushed itself out.  A thick tangle of cords  and monitors pulled at the creature as he pushed his way out of the pod. Tearing off the mask he gasped for air.  The creature was groggy from his long slumber,  in no way did he even remotely looked human.  He was a MPGMAS (*Mass Produced Geniticall Mutated Animal soldier).  A cross between a panther and a human. 
  A thick growl escaped the soldiers lips. His head  looked like a panther's, and yet his  body was something similar to a human.  A perfect splicing between human and animal. The perfect disposable soldier.  He knew he should have not awakened from the ground. Hell he didn't even know where he was.  This place... smelled funny.  The creatures eyes closed as he focused on scents, Everything here was foreign.. Unknown.
  Not a single familiar smell, no humans, no metal besides his pod... nothing.  His fingers curled into his dog tags. Heading back to his pod.  If he made it, then perhaps the rest of his company had as well. There where thousands of them on the ship... there had to be more survivors. His cat like eyes looked up, trying to see pass the canopy.  The foliage made that incredibly difficult.
  The pod! He turned around quickly heading back to his pod, Poking at the screen. Searching for a signal from ship,  Yet nothing responded. no signal...Nothing, His ears folded close to his head He took a deep breath.  His fingers wrapped around his dog tags. It was after all his oldest possession he could remember.  He slid them across the reader, a moment later  a compartment opened.
  Arashi, kuriyami.
A mechanized  voice echoed into the clearing. It was the pods computer booting up.
     Command?
Arashi didn't look up as he put on clothing,  doing up his toe less boots he spoke.
   "Send emergency distress signal.  Set beacon and scan for other pods"
  Accepted....Processing...
     It was only a moment more, his fingers did the snaps on his chest piece.  Connecting a throat mic, His head tilted side to side as he slid his survival weapons into place.  A machete lay parallel with his hip. A knife on his shoulder, A torque bow plus a bandolier of clips for it.  A few day's worth of food and water, plus the essential survival shelter and gear.
  At the moment he wished he had more, A fine gravity sword would have been nice. Sniper rifle, gods! He'd kill to have one right now.   He took a deep breath loading a clip into his torque bow,  mentally he prepared himself. Twelve shots a clip, Ten clips. 120 shots... that was all he had.  Who knows how long he'd be here..
   His hand ran  across his face as he sighed, no use thinking to hard about it. Still he did notice that he felt, light for the lack of a better word. In fact his gear felt light too. 
  Scan complete, Pod detected.
"Connect  to radio, broadcast out."  Arashi checked the map. The pod wasn't to far. If he didn't   walk he'd be there in 20 minutes. By what he could tell the pod had landed not to long ago, He'd put money it's occupants where awake by now.
Arashi pressed the button on his throat,  turning he dashed into what felt like a jungle.
             "Can anybody hear me.. Please respond...This is Arashi Kuriyami.. please respond."

[Mikkaddo]

The trip to the new world was said to be 157 weeks. A few years in space, frozen in hyper sleep to make sure they survived without age or trouble. That's a long time to be in hyper sleep, a long time for something to go wrong, which is why they had rotating shifts working the ship to make sure. Except for the troops, they were special . . . scouts sent out on new worlds to make sure they were safe.

They say in Hyper Sleep all of your brain is put down, well, almost all of it . . . all but the primitive side, the animal side . . . no wonder Mikkaddo was still awake. Even before he'd been altered he'd never fully gone out from Hyper Sleep, he kind of liked it actually. It made him feel . . . special, invincible in a way, hell he'd have gone for the shift willingly if he'd had the choice. He tried to grin against the mask that covered his face in the Hyper Sleep chamber, impossible though, his body was frozen stiff, just his mind was going, at full speed as far as he knew.

He could hear something, on the edge of his world, echoing, waves of something, colors that weren't there changed and went back to normal. The shifts must be changing, the ship must be going fine. Then nothing . . . a long stretch of nothing. Then noise, he could hear it this time, like it was in the pod with him, he tried to open his eyes but it didn't work, his body was still frozen and if he tried hard enough to make it work, his eyes would probably shatter. Oh well.

Then he saw something, almost clear, color piercing through the infinite blackness . . . red . . . deep, bright, red. Something must have gone wrong, he wanted to grin once more, but it still wouldn't work. That's when he finally heard it clearly, an alert going off in the pod. He could almost make out the words.

Code *%f-ZZZTTZZZZT Emergen-chhhh All Pods ***%$#$@ ALERT!

There was something wrong . . . definitely. He almost started to get excited, maybe they'd been boarded, pirates were known to roam in fleets in some of the uncharted expansion areas, or bounty hunters who's moral compass was long broken. He couldn't wait to find out. Not too long after he got an answer, his entire world seemed to shift and turn, a distant sound like metal against metal, wrenching and ripping and creaking, and then everything started shaking and turning, he couldn't see anything but the red, but he could feel it.

Lots of noise, beeping, alarms, some distant rumbling sound, and suddenly a hard smack that seemed to come from miles away followed by a long silence. He was about to start wondering what was really going on when he started to feel warmth from all around him, slow but steady, he knew what was happening. The pod had ejected for some reason, and was burning up in the atmosphere, it wasn't unheard of, but it was his end . . . or was it? Suddenly he heard more noises, beeps and alarms and a metallic voice saying "System booting, user waking process 58% complete, heart rate rising, temperature rising, blood pressure rising." This went on for some time and then he finally felt the mask moving away from his face, the pod must be preparing to open. Suddenly a hiss filled his ears and the mask all but flew off of him as the pod opened and the restraints that kept him in place started to release.

He shook off the weight of Hyper Sleep, it took a long time, longer than he'd admit to anyone, assuming anyone else survived, and pushed out of the pod. What the hell was this place? he was told he was headed to a desert planet, this was a forest . . . a massive one by the looks of it. Oh well, he shook his head to try and get his head to sit straight again and activated the computer on the pod.

"Computer, connect to Vessel . . . contact the Captain."

A moment passed with nothing, and then the voice came. "Connection unsuccessful, timed out due to unknown error." Lost all contact, damn . . . well, hopefully they gave him supplies . . .

He moved around to the back of the pod, opening the compartments and found a full set of gear to wear, it didn't take long to dress, he'd gotten used to it in previous missions. Took out the large blade they gave him, thermal activators and all, solar charging pack that practically guaranteed it'd never run out, some smaller knifes as well for last second defense. A few grenades he'd bribed someone to sneak in and . . . there they were, his knifes. Not the military grade daggers that were standard issue, these were special . . . his paint brushes. He found the pack filled with food, some fuel for starting fires etc. a standard med kit and a special kit to fight the side effects of the shift. They'd gotten rid of the problems in the second generation on, but for his generation it was still necessary, it turned out splicing a man's genes with that of a wolf had it's own set of new mutations and problems, problems he could already feel coming back to him.

He grabbed the syringe out of the kit and hit himself in the neck, a rush came through him that knocked him off his feet and made the world look as distant as it felt. This made him almost not hear the alert coming from the pod.  "Can anybody hear me.. Please respond...This is Arashi Kuriyami.. please respond."

He looked up, a sick grin on his face, his head bent at an odd angle, and the pod's computer said "send response?" to him he nodded, then realized it couldn't see him and said. "yeaaaah . . . suuuure . . . hey there . . . all good over here, who's that?" He hadn't registered the name that he heard due to the meds.

[Arashi_kuriyami]

  That voice made him pause for a long moment. His ears standing straight up. He didn't recognize the voice.  However that wasn't surprising.  His ship did contain many units. Do to travel and cryo sleep it wasn't  unusual.
He peered into the thick forest, It  was slow going...
He cleared his throat.  "Arashi, kuriyami.  I'm with  U P (United Planet) Ranger Division. 936th Battalion, 75th regiment."
He began to climb the tree, Did he really just state he was with the UP? A thick sigh escaped his lips. He was nervous after all, and god damn! These tree's are huge. He stood on a limb above the canopy. The branches are definitely thick and wide enough to travel on. As well as giving a clear view of the night sky. His eye's fallowed little trails of other incoming pods. Like hundreds of meteorites entering the atmosphere, scattered about the planet.
   "I can see the rest of us entering the atmosphere. ..Wait." His eyes narrowed as he tried to see further. "I think I see the ship...I can't tell what kind of shape it's in but it's entering the atmosphere." He paused, watching it pass his line of sight. Memorizing where it went.
  "Any idea what's going on? And who the hell am I talking to?".

[Mikkaddo]

He stayed there, leaned against the pod. The Utopia was in full effect, shapes and colors and images rushing around the peripheries of his vision. He knew they weren't there but he couldn't help seeing them, it almost looked like stars were coming down. Oh, wait, those must be the other pods, like the man on the comms was saying. Arashi Kuriyami . . . he knew that name. Suddenly a vision came to him. He's back on the ground, in the base before he was sent to that ship.

A tall officer in all black military garb was staring deadly at him. Mikkaddo thought it was thoroughly amusing since he stood head and shoulders over the man. But he had a dark stoneyness to his features that made it clear how serious the situation was. "Your orders are clear, VERY simple. You are to show up at the pre-determined location, you will be put in a Hyper-sleep pod, frozen, you will arrive with the other . . . "Scouts." The man said the word with a level of menace Mikkaddo had become accustomed to hearing when people spoke of him, but not the mutants. Not yet anyway. The man then continued, after what seemed like a disgusting breath was taken in by the man. "Then, once you are on the planet you will start your mission, this world is completely new, unlike most worlds it was "discovered" by a probe from a Terra-forming corp. That is beyond sketchy on it's own, but even worse they're in talks to have exclusive rights to all contracts involving the planet, including the colonization. This sounds like a scam at best, and illegal R&D at worst. You're going to make sure it's not the second, and if it is . . . that it's not successful."

Mikkaddo opened his mouth to respond to the man, but was cut off by his continuing his monologue. "There's also a very good chance that terrorist or cult groups have infiltrated the set, lots of contracts rushing around, and Corporate Scouting missions always go for the lowest bidder . . . that's why we want YOU there. You're their favorite kind of man . . . perverse." There it was. That word that people kept using around him. Back before the shift, in his court procession days, he heard it a lot. It became like a title to him "Mikkaddo, the Perverse!" he could almost hear people screaming. He came to admire it actually.

Then, he came back, instantly to the moment, he could see the lines of smoke through the holes in the canopy, and from the hole in the canopy the Pod made as it came down. He looked at a digital read out, it'd been another hour or so, he was disappointed it, a vision stole his high. He could feel himself becoming lucid, the pain was gone, the stiffness was gone too, and still would be for at least a few hours. He stood up and made sure he was properly geared. Then, he took a better look around him, huge, thick trees . . . green ones, somehow they were green, green bark . . . it didn't make sense. But this couldn't be the place they were supposed to be, hell the crashing ship and the emergency beacons from before the pod landed was red flag enough . . . it didn't change his orders though.

He activated his comms, connecting to the guy that had called him earlier, as he climbed a tree. "The name's Mikkaddo, though you might remember me as "Smiling Jack" but that was a long time ago. Any idea where the hell we are? gods forbid we be trapped on a completely unknown rock with a bunch of fucking psychos . . . ever heard of Hyper-Sickness? pretty cool actually, the Hyper-Sleep fucks with their heads, some of them go feral, others just go mad, make cults start thinking the pods are gods or some shit . . . better be careful." He grinned silently as he got to a high branch, watching for more pods and looking for where the ship was going. "Looks like the ship'll be in the atmo a while, we've got time to find a nice safe cave before the earthquakes start, head southeast and you'll find my pod." He grinned again "be patient or find me first and you'll know where I am."

He couldn't wait to find out about this mysterious voice . . . who knows? maybe the man it was attached to would be worth keeping alive.

[Arashi_kuriyami]

He listened to his comm and the strange voice as he moved,  His sharp hooked claws made easy work of moving up the tree.   Until he stood up on a large enough branch. It's limb the size of a small tree.  Mikkaddo? Smiling jack? No those names didn't sound familiar at all.  He almost knew all the guys from his *batch.  By the sound of the voice he couldn't quite tell what generation he must have been.
Arashi's hand pressed against his throat mic. "Your guess is as good as mine. "
  His tail lashed to and fro as he took a running start, It felt good moving branch to branch. Leaping and climbing as he made his way to Mikkaddo.
   " As far as I know we where heading towards  planet Alpha, Zeta 11,33,492. But that's a desert planet isn't it?" Arashi spoke as he moved through the tree's . Finding it so much easier than beating a path through the ground.



gods forbid we be trapped on a completely unknown rock with a bunch of fucking psychos . . . ever heard of Hyper-Sickness? pretty cool actually, the Hyper-Sleep fucks with their heads, some of them go feral, others just go mad, make cults start thinking the pods are gods or some shit . . . better be careful."
Arashi paused for a moment. Pretty cool? It made him wonder about the mikk and his sanity. There was nothing good about going feral.   He had heard rumors of what happened to those who loose it, what they are capable off.  Mindless dangerous things... Even resulting to cannibalism.
   "That's gotta be rumor, The UP probably had that dealt with by now. " All those years of training and all those years of drilling. They wouldn't waste money like that? Would they? He shook those questions from his head. They never did tell him what happened when they are to old enough to fight.
"Looks like the ship'll be in the atmo a while, we've got time to find a nice safe cave before the earthquakes start, head southeast and you'll find my pod." He grinned again "be patient or find me first and you'll know where I am."
    Arashi didn't have a choice in this matter, they wouldn't keep a unstable soldier right?  Least that's what he told himself. War and death did strange things to Soldiers.  He checked his compass on his wrist. The needle didn't even react, There was no telling which was north or south.  From his vantage point he  couldn't see where the ship was going. He cleared his throat.
  "Jungles pretty thick. There seems to be a hill to your right, probably the best shelter we are able to get. I'm still about 3 clicks from your location. I'll see you when I can".

[Mikkaddo]

"Rumors . . . yeah, I'm sure the worked the kinks out by now." He grinned silently, waiting for the man, feeling the Utopia wear off completely, the pain and stiffness were held at bay but the joy was gone. He looked around again, thick ancient trees, massive vines and foliage. He found a nice thick one that didn't have too much moss or mold on the outside and started climbing.

After about a half hour of climbing, twisted branches, clogging vines, more than a few suspicious plants that were likely poisonous. He got to a sort of mini canopy, there was a wide break around him and he could see the trees ahead shaking every so often. "Honesty time Greeny . . . do you see me right now? I'm the only thing that looks like a person up here, if not . . . either another Pod Spawn like us is following your plan without comms, or we've got company, and whatever it is, is probably hungry." He moved a hand to one of the daggers that were attached to strategic places on his armor, readying to throw it if the situation turned dangerous.

[Arashi_kuriyami]

Greeny? He rolled his eyes.
  His ears perked as he went down on all fours. The branch he was on was particularly springy.  His claws dug into wood as he crept forward, the branch lowering enough to clear his view of Mikkaddo's pod.  He cleared his throat before he spoke in a quite almost whisper.
"I see your pod Gramps, but I don't see you."  Arashi leaned just a bit farther peering down.  "Wait.. I see something.." His eyes squinted as he peered down.  Those steely slits of his spreading wide taking in the forest light.  He watched quietly as two something slithered through the thick grass. Pushing it's way stealthily in the under growth.
   "You seeing this"?
    It was only from there vantage point from above that made the movement noticeable. It slithered closer to the pod.  Arashi's head cocked to the side.  The only sign of trouble was the forest got quiet..
   No birds chirped, no howls of wild animals and what ever lurked in the jungle like forest.
What the fuck was that....thing?
  Arashi watched the grass circle around the pod, he didn't realize he was holding his breath.  The only hint a thick low menacing growl from the thick underbrush. What ever it was still in the jungle?  His ears perked up as he listened, trying to pick out where it was coming from.  What happened next made him grip the branch so tight it splintered the wood.
A sudden CRASH! The pod yanked hard, smashing into the tree with a loud crunch and shriek of metal tearing on wood.  It clung there a minute, tearing against the tree, as if holding on for dear life, before it was flung into the deeper darkness.  The tree's seemed to vibrate as the pod crashed deeper into the jungle, the sound of something large running through  it, leaving a trail of destruction that went deep into the jungle.
   Slowly he let out a breath, reaching for his Torque bow Arashi fingers resting on the trigger.  Pulling back a collapsible arrow hissed into length  His finger resting on the torqueing Mechanism.  He forced himself to breath slow, He could almost hear his own heartbeat, beating against his chest.  Was Mikkaddo in the pod? Was he even alive.
"Pops,... You still with me"?  He listened to his radio, hoping he didn't have to face whatever the hell that was alone. It wasn't long until the sound of the jungle like forest returned. ..whatever it was it was gone now.

[Mikkaddo]

The show had him all but stopped cold, watching in shock more than anything, and staying dead silent and stone still until he was certain it was over. He responded to the Comm transmission in a whispered voice. "No need to yell, I can still hear after all . . ." He sat on the branch, still watching the area. "Stay out of the Pod's space for now, whatever that was . . . the pod was in it's territory . . . I'm heading west at the moment, I suggest we BOTH stay off of the ground for now. Meet up with me soon, I'll . . . I dunno, cut branches down as I go or something. You have a compass right?"

He smiled, he knew the man would have  a compass, for as long as anyone could remember that was standard issue equipment, the only problem with words like this one was that nothing made sense, they had suns that would rise north to south, magnetic interference from supermoons, orbits that made any attempt at divining direction by sun, stars, or magnets impossible. But there was always the chance. It wasn't untill nearly an hour later that he looked down at his own and noticed it was spinning wildly and refused to stop. Useless on this world, he could only wonder what kind of radiation they were being exposed to, or the creatures on the floor.

[Arashi_kuriyami]

A little tingle of fear played down his back as the radio was silent,  when mikk's voice came through the line a little relieved sigh escaping his lips.  Slowly he let go of the arrow, watching it spin quietly as he listened.
"Yes sir, I've got a compass. Little good it's doing me" Tree branches? It didn't occur to him that someone else would be among the tree's . His eyes scanned the tree line. His body low against the branch when he saw it. A little waver in the branches, A lone figure with...was that a sword?
"I see you pops,  I'm at your 7:30" Reaching into his pouch he pulled a flash light. His fingers pressed the trigger sending out 6 quick pulses.  It's light nearly invisible in human spectrum,  Yet clearly visible in their own.  There was no easy way to get to him either.
So close and yet so far.
"There's another trail, I'll parallel you for a while."  With that he moved off.
As evening turned into late night the air grew colder, Yet despite the cold, the air was by far warmer underneath the canopy. It started with a few drops here and there, steadily turning into a cold drizzle making everything miserable and slippery. Yet the fallen rain beating against leafs and branches with  hard little droplets could not hide the strange sounds of this jungle.
Arashi paused for a moment, keeping an eye on trails of broken branches  that was his only tell tale clew and occasional view of the wolf making his way through the thick tree's.  he kept his radio chatter to an absolute minimum. Unsure  if anything was listening. He stopped for a long minute, wiping the water from his face.  His breath leaving wisp's of steam every time he took a breath.
Moving the best he could he focused on nothing at the moment, learning the environment and sound.  He took extra caution moving tree to tree,  his ears constantly on end as he picked his way across thick moss covered branches and leafy foliage. He stopped for a moment letting his branch sway.  His tail moving to counter balance the momentum of the swaying branch.
"I see you mikk, I'm intersecting your path now."
Arashi moved back getting a running start, his claws finding perchase as he hurdled himself  forward, throwing himself across the way.  He was alive in that moment as the intense  feeling of free falling,  his fingers  grasping the branch,  his claws digging into the branch feeling it bend under his wieght.
SNAP!
  Was certainly not the sound he expected to hear, the branch snapping  underneath his weight.  Sending a shower of rain drops and leafs underneath him.
Oh SHIT!..
His body swung towards the tree, his hand automatically reaching for the tree.  His claws digging intot he thick moss that  made each tree treacherous to climb. His body bounced once,
"Oooph.."
The air from his lungs escaping his chest  as the rest of his claws found purchase, sliding a bit before he finally stopped.  Quietly he climbed  down to a more thicker branch.  He crouched there a moment, looking at mikk.  It was after all the first time they had finally met up.  Arashi shrugged.
"Well...that was fun". He  could still feel the adrenaline pumping through his chest.  Definitely not one of his better landings.
He looked over mikk's rig of gear. A unit's gear speaks a lot about the unit itself. Sword, daggers, pack...was that a grenade? Arashi leaned forward a little sniffing.  He had heard of many wolf units, prized for their smelling capabilities and raw skill alone.

[Mikkaddo]

He was well aware of the Panther's youth, and the unique properties Wolf units were said to have, most of them were true, intense scent capabilities, high speed, excellent hearing but not much better than most other units, and the ability to intuit the needs and information of other wolf units, making them perfect in pairs or more for scouting and recon.

Mikkaddo was standing still on the branch when Arashi came down, his arms crossed over his chest, water dripping off of him. He stared the Panther down, fighting back to not grin. He could feel the chill in the air, as the night was wearing on it was getting even colder, little bits of ice on the edges of his fur. He simply breathed.

In, then out . . . again and again, letting the make take a moment to grasp what he was looking at. "Yes it is a grenade . . . I can see the look in your eyes. You never know when you might need one, and yes, it is a sword . . . I'd ask if you want to try holding it but I'd rather not have to chase it down from this height . . . now let's keep heading toward the craft, if we're lucky we'll get there before the hard freeze I feel coming . . ." He turned toward the direction the wreck was in, then started moving toward it, no running start, no bounding off of trunks to other ones, he just bent down and then launched, the branch shaking in his wake.

He bounded from branch to branch, his claws grabbing the wood and leaving obvious scars in them. Then, suddenly and without warning he stopped, standing up again and holding an arm out near where he knew the Panther would stop. His fur was visibly on end, his tail suddenly more than twice it's normal size. He lifted his muzzle into the air sniffing, turning in different directions and then stopping and standing stock still.

Soon a whisper came from his lips. "We're the prey .  . . whatever it is, it's hungry, and it thinks it has us in it's jaw . . . climb. now. I'll take care of this . . ." His hand very slowly moving to the hilt of his sword, gripping it tightly.

[Arashi_kuriyami]

His head turned as he looked about, searching the jungle for anything. his keen eye's picking up nothing.
Arashi didn't hesitate, didn't even ask. instead he climbed his tree, sharp claws digging into soft wood and thick moss. 30 feet later he crouched on a thick branch. Pulling out his torque bow he pulled out a little lever and began to crank away. His head turning this way and that as he kept watch for the wolf.
   Only when he was satisfied that he had built enough charge he readied himself. There was not much he could do but trust the wolf and his prowess.

[Mikkaddo]

Mikkaddo sniffed the air again, and grinned. He lived for this, the thrill of the hunt, of BEING hunted, only to turn and take his hunter down. He could feel it getting closer, whatever it was it must be big. His ears twisted as he stood stone still, not even taking in or letting out a breath, this was the moment, the only moment, the most important instant of life . . . when the strike happens.

He spun on his heel as he heard the tiny sound of a single snap and a squeak and brought down the terrible weight of his blade at a black shape that was heading toward him. He was not in the mood to play, not this time, so he brought down the edge to the thing, cutting it nearly in half, the top half of it's body hung down and snapped, falling down to the dark ground below JUST before he could grab it. The back half looked odd though, it was leathery and reptilian skin, long bone like talons on the feet, but the shape was all wrong, a long slender tail and haunches that looked . . . feline.

He looked up to where the newby was and opened his mouth to ask if he knew what it was when he was suddenly struck with the feeling of being a child, a fool, a moron . . . he screamed in agony as a second creature took it's jaws to his shoulder, talons digging into his back. He fell down, one hand gripping the sword as hard as he could, the other clawing at the branch for dear life.