applesaucedream | Tender Lumplings Everywhere, Life's No Fun Without A Good Scare [Open to All]

The woods are dark and deep, but not particularly lovely. If anything, they feel dangerous, as if something terrible might come lurching out from behind any given tree and tear into the nearest warm body. What that terrible thing might be is anyone's guess. A cat with hands? Slenderman? Stegosaurus? Actual cannibal Shia LaBeouf? All of the above in a horrible mob? It's anyone's guess. But every dreamer will be absolutely convinced that there is something unspeakable out there, and that it's after them.

The dreamers have two things on their side. The first is that there is actually nothing dangerous lurking in these woods (with the possible exception of other dreamers). The pervasive terror the dreamers are feeling is just that: a rift-given feeling, nothing more and nothing less. That snapping twig or rustle in the undergrowth is almost certainly just a squirrel or something else equally harmless.

The second is that no dreamer is alone. They all will be reunited with - or introduced to - their dæmons, a source of comfort in this dark, intimidating wilderness. However frightened the dreamers might be, at least they have someone with them who definitely doesn't want them dead.

[OOC: as ever, any and all are welcome! You don't have to be in the game to join the fun. Dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the players' discretion. And the party only stops when you want it to; feel free to backtag forever.]

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Daine shakes her head. These woods feel far too unfriendly to be anyplace from her realm. There are some People here, but fewer than what she'd consider normal. She hasn't yet felt any definitive itch of a threatening immortal in her mind, either (though she fears she might; she doesn't have her bow).

"No immortals," Coromotto says, leaning against Nilakshi's leg. "Not very many of the People, either. We're glad we found you."

"It isn't mine, either," Peeta says. His hands are still on Daine's shoulders, and he gives one an absentminded rub as he glances around. There's a feeling of watchfulness from the darkness between the trees, but nothing to be seen.

"It feels bad," Nilakshi says, echoing Peeta's thoughts.

Well, that's some reassurance. She'd hate to think that they were in an arena - perhaps the first one Peeta had been thrown into. Then again, this means that none of them have any idea where they are.

At least they've found each other. Better to be with Peeta and Nilakshi than just the two of them. Daine leans forward a moment, just long enough to press her furry cheek to Peeta's smooth one. Then, she gets back down onto all fours.

"It does," Coromotto agrees. "But we haven't seen or smelled anything. That's the worst part." If there was some obvious threat, they'd be able to deal with it.

Despite his lingering unease, Peeta does feel better having Coromotto and Daine with them, and he smiles a little at Daine's gesture. He sobers quickly enough, though, as he ponders their situation.

"Do you think that maybe there isn't actually anything out there?" he asks. He thinks about the Jabberjays, and how they could make you hear things that weren't real. "Maybe there's just something making us feel this way?"

"… That would be a relief," Coromotto mutters as Daine scents the air again, this time with more purpose. She doesn't smell anything unusual, though - nothing that would make her worried under other circumstances. Now that she's really thinking about it, none of her senses are giving her any solid reason to be afraid. She just is, as if fear is as much a part of the wood as the trees are.

She lets out a little huff of consternation as Coromotto comes to stand beside her, shoulder to shoulder. "You may be right," he says, turning to look back at Peeta. "We can't find anything to be afraid of. We're all just scared for no reason."

"Perhaps we should explore?" Nilakshi offers, coming to stand by Peeta. "If there is nothing, we should be fine. If there is something, better to discover it and know what it is."

Peeta nods in agreement. For however much he's still wary of the woods, he does feel bolder now that there are more of them. "And if two wolves and an elephant can't scare off whatever might be out there, nothing would."

Daine wags her tail in agreement. What she and Coromotto had been doing was more akin to 'fleeing' than 'exploring.' It probably all boils down to wandering through the woods in the end, but at least they can do it in a group. A group that contains an elephant, no less. Peeta's right; they're an intimidating bunch.

"We came from that way," Coromotto says, nodding his head in a direction not so different from where Peeta and Nilakshi had been coming from, "so we probably wouldn't find anything there. Should we try…" he turns until he's facing a path that runs perpendicular to the one they'd been traveling before, "this way?" Or they could just continue in the same general direction they had been going, but a deliberate change of pace feels more, well, deliberate. If they're not being chased, they can decide just where they're headed.

"Sounds good," Peeta says with a nod. He sets out in the direction Coromotto indicated, Nilakshi at his side.

The woods have a strange uniformity to them, so the path they've chosen doesn't look much different from the one they walked before. Peeta can't tell if that's because the surroundings truly are that similar, or if it's because there's something making it seem that way. In either case, he can tell it would be very easy to get lost, were someone trying to get somewhere in particular.

The not-wolves trot through the trees in silence for a while, their focus on the woods up ahead and to either side. This is definitely preferable to the aimless wandering they'd been doing before, but it's proving to be every bit as uneventful in terms of actually finding anything. The trees creak and groan in the wind, and the low mist swirls and eddies into shapes that look as if they might be something, for an instant, before melting away. But that is all. They don't hear, see, or smell anything that would suggest the woods are full of monsters any larger than a squirrel.

"This is silly," Coromotto finally declares, coming to a halt alongside Daine. "There's nothing - not that we can hear or smell, anyway.

Tender Lumplings Everywhere, Life's No Fun Without A Good Scare [Open to All]

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