[Kazuma]

After a solid period of silence, Kazuma asked his COM, “Excuse me, but might I guess that you have the Griffin Weekly conveniently in your hands as we speak?”

““...and might I guess that you have a smile on your face as we speak?””

Kazuma let out a hearty laugh at Vera's response although it was a little difficult to perform with his fangs on the way. After noon passed, the vampire set off from a settled deal in Corantha to meet with a new business partner who wanted to meet him in some village he'd never even heard of (except that it was somewhere near Serendipity?) by way of a hired coach. He was reading up on a few documents the man had sent to him when his COM rang and he'd been on it since he left the walls of the inner city, greeting the voice, of course, with a joyous, "Vera!"

Vera wasn't very pleased, though, or at least not as delighted as he was. She snarled behind the speaker and said in Japanese, ““Kazu, you are not taking this seriously.””

“I am.”

““I don't believe you.””

“You never did.”

““You never gave me a reason to.””

Kazuma fell silent after those words, the creaks of the wheels and the chugs of rocks the only sounds of the moment.

“You mean I never gave you a reason to trust me,” Kazuma said gently. “Not since...not ever.”

““Kazu,”” Vera sighed. ““I didn't mean to put it that way. But it's just that...Kazu, you know it never does us any good, meddling with these matters. Not us, especially.””

“If I'd known it was going to end up that way, you know I would have avoided Celene altogether.” The coach made a jump. “But what could I do? Circumstances have placed me on that situation and I could have only done the best that I could -- which was to leave before any of the mentioned fighting took place. I assure you, though, I don't know who that woman was. We never introduced ourselves to each other.”

““Did she--””

“No, she didn't.”

Vera remained quiet.

“Trust me, Vera.” Kazuma said with a small smirk. “Even just this once.”

““No matter how many times you've told me that same line, correct?””

“Correct,” Kazuma chuckled. “Come now, Vera, didn't I manage to survive this long without entirely relying on you?”

““I find myself left with no other options but to sigh and concede.””

Kazuma smiled.

““Most especially as my guest has finally arrived. Well, I will call you in the evening.””

“Tell me how it goes?”

““I expect the same from you, Kazu. Be more careful this time.””

“I shall do my very best,” Kazuma said to her, and then hung up after. He gazed at the screen of his COM for a moment, and then with a smile on his cheeks, he asked the driver, “Man, how much longer do we have to travel--”

The coach gave a jolt, and with a cry from the young man behind the reins and a neigh from the horses, the ride lurched forward. Kazuma spat out a curse word from the depths of his breath, hands flying forward to protect his face from smacking against the wall ahead of him. Something snapped at his left side and the coach tipped dangerously to that same direction and would have toppled over if the vampire hadn't forced his weight over to the other side and forced balance within the unstable vehicle.

With luck (and Xanth's mercy, according to the driver), the coach finally reached a stop and only the frantic horse threatened to break its rest. The young man in front leaped instantly to its aide while Kazuma heaved the door open and left it to swing wildly and slam against the wall, leaving a mark, while he climbed out and stumbled onto the grasses, gasping and sighing as he hastily dusted his suit and his slacks of anything that might have soiled it. After a few quick breaths, he turned around, raked his fingers through his layered locks and stepped towards the frantic equine and its worried owner. “Is everything all right?” he asked as he surveyed the ride. One look was all he needed to figure out the lack of a wheel; the coach stood lopsidedly to the left.

“Xanthella may have torn a muscle,” the man said worriedly, hands combing his animal's hair lovingly and petting her by her polished hide. “At this rate--”

“We don't have to go on,” Kazuma assured him instantly as he laid a cold hand on the horse's neck only to yank it away at the animal's cry, as though the fur had burned it. Clearly, now was not the time to offer his kind sympathy. He frowned at the scene in front of him, then looked around him. “But for now, where do we go...”

“There's a town close by, Sir,” the driver offered as he forced his animal to calm down. “If we walk to that direction, all the way to your back, we should be able to make it to Serendipity.”

“Serendipity,” Kazuma repeated, looking at his feet. “Yes, I've heard of that town. Never been to it, though.” He looked up to the wrinkled face ahead of him. “Are you sure it's just behind me?”

“Yes, Sir,” he nodded, “I was born there.”

“What are you called?”

“Jason Fuhrman,” the driver answered. “M, my aunt and cousins still live there. Her name is Angela Furhman.”

“Stay here, then, and I shall fetch help,” Kazuma advised him as he started to Serendipity's direction. “Take some of my water and food if you must. But I shall be back as soon as I can.”

And he was off, hurrying -- as gracefully as he could -- towards the settlement not far behind.

[Kiel]

“Hey, hey, man, that's totally finger, okay? You can't eat that.” Giggling because Shane's miniaturised tongue wrapped around his fingers tickled, Kiel almost tripped over a fallen log. The shadowkin, little more than a bulge in his left thigh pocket 'cause the sun was too high for her to handle now they were out in the open, had assumed the form of a black cheefle and curled up to nom on his snacks, but still purred when he reached in there to pet her.

“Like, sorry, man. I know it's dangerous being out in the sun, you know, but, like, I woulda gotten lonely without you.” He faked a sniffle and was rewarded by re-enthused licking, but what he said was totally true. Zeph had been too busy to come out with him this time but since he'd promised to bring back some bits the hairball could use with his weapons, he'd let him take a few days off. Marty was a whole 'nother story, but the guy had threatened to fire Kiel so many times by now he figured it was all just some kind of bluster and said he was due a few days' holiday anyway.

And, like, even though the jungle was hotter than even the desert (or, like, wetter, anyhow), the treetops seived most of the light out before it hit the floor so he'd figured Shane would be safe anyhow. Besides, it would be way too dangerous to traipse through the jungle alone, everyone in his COM had either been totally uninterested or way too busy with work to go looking for stuff for potions.

“Dude, man, my backpack weighs a ton, you know? I can't wait 'til we hit Serendipity. Nice tall glass of -- ooh, hey, hey, wassat? Hey, hey!” he yelled, having burst out of the jungle close enough to the road to spot a lone figure walking away from what looked like a carriage in the distance. He could just make out the vague outline of the town in the opposite direction, too, nestled in against the jungle, and figured that's where the figure was headed. So he raised an arm and waved frantically, then dashed the twenty or so yards separating them to yell, “Hey, hey, man, can I walk with you?”

He totally hadn't seen who the dude was yet, though.

[Kazuma]

The time could not be any worse for Kazuma who was not very fond of the summer heat. Already, he could feel beads of sweat across his hairline and he let out a puff of breath as he paused in his steps and looked back, gauging his progress between his current spot and that one he had started from. He looked ahead of him after, noting how much closer the structures are now and with another breath, he moved on.

His handkerchief was out and he was drying his sweat by them when a voice from the distance called and he turned to see a figure flailing at him from the edge of a jungle. “Hey, hey, man, can I walk with you?” the voice had asked him and his brows wrinkled together as his lips parted open. “Walk?” he muttered to himself. What was this mad man talking about?

“Kiel?!” he exclaimed after. What luck! “Kiel, is that you?”

[Kiel]

“Dude, no way!” Kiel exclaimed as he stumbled to a halt for a second to peer at Kazuma from a distance, and then dashed the remaining the distance with a grin. “Dude, like, no way, man! Like, what're you doing out here, you know? It's hot, it's hot!” Giving Kazu-man a manly pound to the back of his shoulder, Kiel giggled.

“Hahahaha, I'm only here 'cause the guy who owns the farm behind my house, right, his kids are sick, right, and the healer said he needs, like, stuff, and stuff, you know? Hahaha, poor kids, poor kids, they're miserable, you know?” And as if it completely followed on from what he'd been saying, he tacked on, “I came this close -” He held up his thumb and finger to indicate bare inches. “- to being hydra food! Hydra! There's a hydra in there, man, we saw its nest!” But not the beast itself, so for all Kiel knew it had already migrated south...

“Like, but how come you're walking, man? Don't tell me the hydra ate your wheels!”

[Kazuma]

“It...may as well have,” Kazuma said with a bit of a sigh as he proceeded towards the town that was ahead of him. He counted on Kiel to walk with him, knowing him to be that type of person, if his previous experience with him was any indication. “I am,” was? “supposedly on my way to the village of Loja by way of a coach but, as it is, bad luck found us faster than our destination and one of the wheels broke and may have injured the horse drawing us.” He paused midway at what he'd said, and turned to Kiel in an instant, asking him, “You wouldn't, by any chance, know anyone who might care for a horse, would you?”

[Kiel]

“Loja?” Kiel blinked, his head tipping back as he looked skyward for answers to his unvoiced questions: Where the heck is that? If it was a village, he'd probably never heard of it. Like, he only really paid attention to the big places.

Hearing about the poor horse, though, he could only “Wah, wah! That sucks, man, for sers. Poor horsie, but, like, you don't wanna get too close to the jungle line, okay, 'cause there's beasties and plants in there!” For Kiel, the "carnivorous" part didn't need saying, he just took it for granted that people would know anyway. “Like, I think the dudes that made this track -” And it really was more of a dirt track, worn down by years of carriage and cart use, than a paved road like you might find in Espur or Alexandria, but Kazuma had to be used to that since he must travel a lot beyond the city's borders. “- was a bit addled in the head, right, 'cause who in their right mind would park so close to that?” And he emphasised by pointing to the treeline that towered over them and the riverbed only a few feet away from their shoes.

Patting Shane through the fabric of his pocket, Kiel hopped along beside Kazu-man and spoke as if he'd only just been asked the question. “I dunno, man, like, there's a bunch of stables in Alexandria that I deliver to and my family owns a taroch farm but they're in Dardanos. It sucks, it sucks,” he lamented, his shoulders drooping even as his eyes sparkled with the excitement of bumping into a buddy. “I totally know where Serendipity is, though, they're bound to have horses or, like, something there, right? Hahahaha, maybe you can hire a couple of dashiri to come out and haul the lot back, hahaha.”

[Kazuma]

“I would think that a dashiri would be too much for my simple burden, albeit inconvenient nevertheless,” Kazuma sighed under the glare of the sun. “Just the same,” he squinted towards Kiel. “So you know Serendipity? By any chance, are you headed to the same direction?”

Kazuma knew that the question was unnecessary but it was just polite to assume that he didn't know the answer, he understood. As expected of the Dracovari -- who spent most of his time utterly busy with his pocket -- he had only been too willing to assist Kazuma in his journey and was even so kind as to decorate it with his past week. How Shane had chased around a bee one morning (a sweetheart, Kazuma assumed), how he wanted to go to the sea, how deep the sea was, how Shane liked stepping on his toes or something just as ridiculous...if Kazuma could, he would have summarized the entire one-sided conversation in one word: Me.

Serendipity couldn't have come any sooner. Under the pretext that Jason needed urgent help, Kazuma began to move faster, away from Kiel as he approached the first man he found and asked him about the whereabouts of the Fuhrmans.

[Kiel]

The second they hit town, Kazu-man raced to get away and Kiel's shoulders slumped. Like, he was starting to think the dude didn't like him, you know, but when he said his buddy needed urgent help Kiel figured that meant two bodies were better than one and raced to catch up.

Shane didn't like the bouncing, but it was still late afternoon so he didn't want to chance letting her out. Which was a shame, really, 'cause she was pretty heavy, you know?

“Hey, hey, wait up, man, I'll help, I'll help!” Maybe he could hitch a ride on the way back or something, too.

The first guy Kazu-man asked didn't have a clue, probably a tourist or something like them, but on the third try they were directed north-west "past Pins & Needles" where they'd find Furhmans' stables near the riverbank. “Best hurry, though,” the silk-clad fire-dancer chuckled. “Most of his stock's out already for the parade later.”

“Wah, dude, did you hear that, Kazu-man? Like, there's some kinda parade later. We should totally stay for it, okay, like, once we've rescued your dude in distress, hahahaha.” He wanted to stay and watch the dancing too, but even Kiel could stay on task when lives were at stake (and, like, as far as Kiel was concerned, Kazuma's buddy was in terrible danger, all because the vampire had said "urgent". And because the guy was stranded wayyyy to close to a man-eating jungle, but mostly because of the "urgent").

“Lessgo lessgo!”

[Kazuma]

Kazuma had only vaguely remembered a mention of a parade by his new business colleague down in Loja and that would have been a nice thing to see, he thought, except he was really more worried about Jason and his friend in Loja and really could not spare a moment of thought for it as he thanked their informant and hurried to the direction that he had been pointed to.

The Furhmans' Stable, much to his relief, was a rather sizable one in the context of Serendipity's size. There was a lone horse standing by the low fence and a boy on a set of steps stroking its hide with a thick brush and when Kazuma stumbled on his way, the boy turned to look at them and froze -- as though because of a sudden cold draft -- at the sight of the two strangers.

Kazuma let out a sigh as he dusted himself, straightening up as he approached the boy and smiled to him vaguely in spite of his pallid features. “Good day, young one. By any chance, would you be familiar with a...an Angela Fuhrman?”

“She's my grandmother,” the boy said warily, placing his eyes first on Kazuma, then on Kiel, then on Kazuma. “W, what is it?”

“We're friends,” Kazuma said to him, forcing his shoulders squarer. “We managed to get here with the help of Jason Furhman.”

“Uncle Sonny is here?!”

“Yes, but he's outside,” Kazuma paused. “He's waiting for help, the coach's wheel broke--”

“Right...right...” the boy was instantly off to a run, yelling, “Gramma, Gramma, Uncle Sonny's in trouble!”

OOC: NPCs are GMable.

[Kiel]

((Sorry, Livvy! This thread got lost in the active list so I forgot I hadn't posted. ))

Kiel chattered the whole way. Mostly just to fill the silence 'cause Kazu-man wasn't very talkative, you know (which, like, totally had nothing to do with the fact that Kiel wasn't really giving him chance).

He didn't just talk about his own exploits, but mentioned things like how well Zeph's business was doing lately, how great Phenny was doing with her dancing, how awesome Lazuli's skills as an artist were, and so on and so on and so on. He only shut up when they reached their destination and the kid looked wary enough to run all the way to Alexandria if they made one false move. Which, like, you know, would have sucked, 'cause Kiel liked to think he was pretty good with kids, you know?

When Kazuma told the kid they were friends, Kiel nodded and shot him a friendly, if goofy, smile. And when the vampire started to explain about the broken wheel, Kiel lifted an arm to point vaguely in the direction they'd come, except the kid cut him off mid-sentence, and Kiel's arm was only halfway up. So when the kid ran off yelling for his grandmother, Kiel paused with his arm still in mid-air and said, “Um.

Dude, you scared him! Hahahaha, you're scary, you're scary.” But rather than hang out here waiting for an old lady to come meet them, Kiel jerked his head in the direction the kid had run off to and followed him at, like, a totally slower pace than he was used to, just to be polite to both Kazuma and the Fuhrmans. “Hey, hey, do you think they're called Fuhrman 'cause they're Therians? Like, Furh, furry? Haha. That'd be cool. But, like, how many guys do you need to help with the coach, man? 'cause I can totally come with you to help lift it and, like, stuff.” 'cause, like, didn't it normally take a couple of guys to lift even empty carts for a wheel change? And if he'd understood properly, then Kazu-man had been carting goodies with him, so, like, yeah.

[Kazuma]

Had Kazuma had his way, though, he would have reached out and grabbed Kiel and yanked him back over the bench to leave the child alone to seek for his grandmother inside their house. But before the thought had even occurred to him, Kiel was already five paces beyond the fence and he reached out too late, a great insult to what he knew was supposed to be sleek, fast reflexes. He let out a sigh after, shook his head and dabbed his handkerchief over his forehead to wipe the sweat away.

A little later, he looked up and said, “Kiel, come back here, that's trespassing!” but he figured he might as well have asked the horse to dance.

He left them on their own as soon as he heard a woman's shrill voice ringing from within the walls, announcing an urgent intention to help, and he turned to prop a leg over a stump of the fence and dipped his head so that he pressed his forehead against a fist, closed his eyes away from the brightness. He could feel his head throb, his lips dry and the weight of his fangs baring down from his upper gum. What time is it, he wondered?

It was only when he thought back to his day's history that he realized...that it had been a little longer before he last received his regular intake of blood.

[Kiel]

Kiel hadn't thought of it as "trespassing" or hindering. He'd only shot forward to meet the kid's "Gramma" so he could save her legs. It was odd for a 'Varian to even think about a person aging, because his own grandparents were still fit as a fiddle and running around hunting massive beasties, but his mom had drilled manners into all her kids from the day they were born.

Well, like, that's what RayRay and Laces said, anyhow, and he'd seen her do it with ChloChlo for himself, so he had to figure she'd done it with the rest of them too, you know?

As it turned out, she wasn't as old and decrepit as he'd imagined, but she was definitely getting there. Human, maybe, or, like, a Nymph or something. Kiel couldn't tell, but she still totally swatted him away when he tried to help her along. “Wah, that's mean, that's mean!” he cried out as she smacked his backside, jumping away from her and then giggling.

It was only when the kid, who she was letting help her and was tucked under her shoulder on the other side, pointed in Kazu-man's direction that Kiel turned around and realised the dude hadn't been following like he'd thought.

Racing back, he danced a little bit on the spot at Kazuma's side, fidgeting. “Hey, hey, like, dude. Are you okay, man?”

[Kazuma]

The boy's shock hadn't quite alerted Kazuma of the incoming company just yet but when Kiel had exploded (and he winced at the volume that went straight into his ear), he felt his shoulders jump and he turned slowly towards Kiel's form which shone brightly under the sun's cast. He sighed quietly to himself and he stretched his pale lips to a smile as he said to the Dracovarian, “Oh yes. I'm quite all right. It might...just be the heat.” he decided belatedly, kindly. “I've never quite been comfortable under the sun...”

“You do look quite pale!” the woman, Angela Fuhrman, said in a gasp of breath as she skidded to a stop. “Are you the one Ernest told me about? Sonny's friend?”

“Yes,” Kazuma grunted as he stood up -- slowly lest his world spin before his eyes -- and turned to face the tubby woman with her grayish brown hair successfully escaping her loose bun at the back of her head. “He was my driver. We were heading for the village of Loja when the wheel of our coach broke. I came here to ask for your help.”

“The way this looks like, you need some help yourself! You're dehydrated,” she fussed, and muttered something about city men lacking good ol' common sense. “Why don't you stay here while we go and send Sonny help ourselves?”

“I do believe I must come,” Kazuma protested, feeling light-headed. “I was the one who brought--”

“I'm not about to care for two babies just now!” Angela cut him off and waved for Ernest to escort him back to the house. “And give him something to drink!”

Kazuma stared, but made no further protestations. He knew that tone of voice very well -- anyone who was ever raised in his family would have it drilled to their eardrums. He muttered his gratitude as he shuffled behind the young boy leading him wordlessly back into the cool shade of their house.

As for Kiel, Angela slapped him up his buttocks again and demanded, “Come, let's go! Standing around here all day...” the rest fell into mutterings.

[Kiel]

Kiel's “Wah! Wah!” was becoming a litany, man, for sers. Like, first, it kinda looked like Kazu-man was about to keel over any second, and Angela only made him fear that even more with her take-charge no-nonsense do-as-I-say-or-be-very-very-sorry attitude. And second, she totally kept hitting on him, man! Like, wah!

Okay, well, like, his own grandparents did that sometimes with his little cousins, like, mostly just 'cause they knew it annoyed them, but it was totally weird for a total stranger to be doing it. Weird, it was weird!

And so he told her as much. “Wah, it's weird, it's weird!” And she just laughed, and so he giggled, and then realised that her grandson had already stole Kazuma away and he was being directed towards the stables where "there are some big strapping lads and horses to help out". And, like, “How come Kazu-man gets to stay and chill out while I'm rescuing him, anyhow?” But even though he was complaining, Kiel was worried about the dude. Vamps only looked that pale and keel-over-y when they were, like, attack-everything-red-in-sight hungry, like, right?

[NPC]

OOC: Liv here.

Angela Fuhrman may or may not have let out a gasp.

“Utter selfishness!” she huffed and paid Kiel's lack of social concern with a healthy dose of daggers from her eyes. “You expect that man to come down with use and die halfway, don't you? I'm surprised you hadn't even seen how he looks so much like a vampire now!” she huffed again and shook her head. City people, really. “Unless of course, you feel it's quite appropriate to leave me to fetch poor Sonny and whathavehe all in my lonesome! A fine plan, if you ask me, a mighty fine plan.” she groaned to punctuate her people. “Youth these days!”

She led most of the way down from the front of her house to the entrance of the town, looking almost as though she would come rolling down any minute but it was clear with her swagger that she had the surest footing anyone in the place could ever find. She called to her nephew as soon as she was exposed to the wilder fields and commanded Kiel to do the same.

A few minutes later, the coach would finally be found sitting on its spot.

But that was all there was to it: a coach. No driver, no horse -- nothing other than the unlucky coach.

[Kiel]

Kiel flinched back, giggling, because Angela Furhman's reaction was kind of the one he'd expected. Like, she was a lot like his mom and Grams, you know, with that whole "I know what's best and don't you dare argue" attitude and the butt-swatting. Well, like, his mom was as likely to clip him 'round the ear as the butt, but, like, you know.

“I'm surprised you hadn't even seen how he looks so much like a vampire now!”

Kiel shook his head, and laughed. “Like, but vamps are supposed to look like vamps, you know?” And then paused, wide-eyed, and gulped a little bit. Like, oops?

A quick glance ahead to where Kazuma seemed to be leaning more and more on the kid showed he didn't seem to have heard Kiel give his identity away and, after a briefly severe look from Angela, it didn't seem she was about to run screaming to the Guard. Like, maybe Serendipity was a bit more open-minded than the cities, or, like, too backwoodsy to have heard all the bad stuff coming out of Alexshire since that whole Marshall fiasco thing, or maybe they were just lucky the Furhmans weren't that bothered, you know, but Kiel was kinda relieved. He didn't normally pay attention to racism and stuff like it, but even he'd become aware of the problems between vamps and, like, basically everyone else since Layla Oisin's murder. Like, probably 'cause he'd been directly involved.

“If I were you, I wouldn't go shouting that around here. Folks don't take too kind to having fangs in their midst.” It was the only thing she said about it, though, just before telling him to hop up onto one of the horses, and Kiel kinda felt like she was way more dangerous than she seemed.

But all that was totally forgotten as they raced the horses back to where Kazuma said he'd left his broken carriage, Kiel whooping and cheering the whole way 'cause they were going so fast and he got to ride a horse and Shane was bouncing in his pocket and she loved it as much as he did (although, like, not the bouncing part, maybe, but the going fast part). By now, it was probably, like, late afternoon so it wouldn't be long before he could let Shane out anyhow, but when they arrived at the coach and found it driverless, the whole afternoon went south.

“Like, dude, man, where'd he go?” Furhman had to have known better than to wander off, like, right? And they hadn't met him on the way here, so where under Hel was he? “Like. Dude.”

Utterly confused, Kiel helped the others fix the wheel and hitch up their own horses to steer it back to town, the whole time his eyes on the jungle scouring for signs that Furhman had gone in there -- or, like, been dragged or something. Nobody was saying anything, but they were all kinda thinking it. Breaking down this close to Yondallar was a crazy bad idea, but it wasn't like there was any blood or anything.

“Like, hey, hey, man, I'm gonna stay and poke around, okay?” he told the others, already back-stepping toward the jungle line. He could let Shane out in there, and she could totally sniff out the other guy -- assuming he was in there. So he waved them off as Angela clucked her tongue and sent the carriage off toward town, the leftover horses trailing behind 'cause no way she was leaving them out here to be eaten while he was in the jungle.

[Kazuma]

While the helpers and Angela Fuhrman (and Kiel) were baffled by the absence of Jason and his horse, Kazuma was luxuriously bathed in silence and the shelter of the house. Ernest had been kind enough to serve him refreshments while he occupied one of their fine seats and rested his throbbing head on the cushion of the couch, eyes closed. Just a few minutes ago, he'd called up his colleague to inform him that something had come up and he would be late for their meeting which eventually was postponed altogether as his friend had a commitment after the wasted appointment. Just as well, he thought. Right now, Kazuma could think of nothing but the sweetness of warm blood, his bed, and his book about four Therian brothers, their friendship and betrayal.

His trance would be interrupted by the sound of Angela's voice ringing into her house with two more strangers and he opened his eyes and sat upright, wishing to look more presentable to his good hostess and the poor driver he had left with his horse. With a hidden sigh, he got to his feet and he turned to smile pleasantly at the marching woman.

“He's not there.”

Kazuma's smile fell. “I'm sorry?”

“He isn't there! Jason isn't there,” Angela repeated, cheeks flushed as she talked to the vampire, herself flanked by a younger male and someone old enough to be his father. “We saw your coach but he isn't there!”

“That's impossible, I told him to stay with the coach!” Kazuma protested, nausea and anemia forgotten as he took a step forward and hesitated. “M, may I--”

“Oh go, go, go ahead! No need to act courteously, my nephew is missing!”

If Angela was worried about his absence, it didn't show in her movements. But her words cleaved at Kazuma much harder than she might expect it to so he took off to the burning day outside and hurried towards the carriage he had once seated in surrounded by three more men and Ernest.

“They said Uncle Sonny isn't here--”

“I know, they told me,” Kazuma said as he stumbled towards the open door and peered inside as if all this while, Jason was hiding inside it. The insides were a mess, his things, his food and his water having been scattered by the impact of the accident and so were Jason's and a few items for the horse but beyond that, there was not much else to see. “Are you sure you didn't find him?”

“I told you we didn't--”

“Any hoof marks?” Kazuma turned to Angela and found her glaring at him in silence.

“No hoof marks,” one of the men finally said and Kazuma turned to the burly one who spoke it. “No footsteps, no hoof marks whatsoever. We're uhh...we're guessing that they disappeared into the for--”

“No, he didn't!”

“Well, how do you explain that man heading to the forest to look for him!” said another man.

“That's right,” Kazuma said out of the blue as he looked over the heads that surrounded him, “Kiel isn't here...”

No one spoke for a solid second.

“He must have known about the disappearances in the forest.”

“Disappearances?” Kazuma repeated, turning to Ernest beside him.

“People have been disappearing for no apparent reason this late,” and the boy's voice was quieter as he said this, as though something would eat him alive if he spoke any louder. “And at night...at night something howls.”

Kazuma's brows furrowed and his lips flattened to a tight line.

Whipping his head to the burly man, he said, “I'll need a horse if that's all right.”

[Kiel]

As the Furhmans conferred with Kazuma back on the road and told him, “Not much point in taking a horse in there, mate. You'd not get twenty yards before the trees'd be too thick for a horse to get through, and they spook easy in there. Easy to get lost, too, so best take ol' Tony here with you, he's the best tracker we got this side of the Cora,” Kiel was already following Shane's nose.

“Like, dude, man, how can you lose a scent? You're shadowkin, shadowkin!” He laughed and ruffled the fur on top of Shane's head, but he was a bit worried, you know? Like, for a start, he was in the jungle all alone again (Shane not included) and he hadn't really liked it the first time. And, like, for another, scent trails didn't just disappear. Shane was a feline, you know, she was normally pretty good at following them. Otherwise he'd have totally gotten lost in the jungle earlier, 'cause it was way too easy to get turned around with the trees all being so close together and the humidity and the sheer amount of greenery just, like, overwhelming his sense of direction. So, like, “What the heck, man.”

Shane's pride was on the line too, you know? She didn't normally lose like this, and her Chosen was meant to be praising her not laughing at her, so she was totally not happy -- and the swipe of her paw (claws thankfully sheathed) to his shin said plenty.

“Awwww, it's okay, it's okay,” he told the 'kin, hunkering down to hug her head to him. “You're still crazy awesome, okay, but, like, this dude's probably being eaten right now or something, okay, so we gotta hurry, okay?”

[Kazuma]

“Kiel!!” It was easy to find him.

The shade of the trees were a god-sent to Kazuma in spite of the fact that he'd nearly tripped in one of the tree roots. He counted on the Dracovarian to stop in his steps as he turned and held out a cold hand to the human Tony although it appeared to only be a mere gesture as the stocky, bulky man clearly knew how to go around his playground. Tony gestured to the man ahead of them. “Right there, he is.”

“Kiel!” Kazuma called again and hurried his careful way towards the man and a vague figure standing close to him. His head was still feeling light and he labored in breathing but he pushed them aside -- for now, he had to find the man he had sent to danger. After all, anything, his weaknesses heightened his senses...for mortal life.

“Have you found anything?” Kazuma asked the first man as soon as he'd reached him, regulating his breath even if he hunched a little, doing his best to keep his tiredness a secret.

[Kiel]

At Kazuma's yell, Kiel “Wah!”'d and fell over backwards from where he'd been on his haunches petting Shane.

He'd swear Shane was laughing at him now. “Like, dude! Way to scare the next fifty years outta me, man!” Like, did the dude not realise they were in the middle of a jungle where the plants were just as likely to eat you as the critters? Wah, wah, Kiel was freaking himself out even more just thinking about it now that they'd lost the driver's scent.

“Dude, that guy just, like, disappeared, man, for sers. You sure he even existed?” 'Cause, you know, thinking Kazu-man had hallucinated the guy was easier to swallow than thinking the dude had been eaten or something, and that was the only other reason he could think of for Shane losing the scent. You know, 'cause the guy just didn't exist any more...

Shane had gone back to trying to sniff out the driver again when Kiel continued: “Hey, hey, but, like, are you okay, man? The heat getting to you or something? Hahahahaha, I'm tough, I'm tough! Dardanos is totally hot too, although, like, not like this, you know?”