"This bamboo forest is a maze," Ashia explains to Jay, "planted long ago to help protect an area of Zhong. There are four entrances and more twists and turns than I like." Catching Hazel's glances, "Do any of you see Brandon? Do I need to go and find him?"

"If you want I'll go; you need to all the time you can get to beat the Conquerors to the talisman. Also did anyone see those Greencloaks who were suppose to help us?"

(Who is speaking in the second paragraph? Is it still Ashia or did it switch to Justin?)

Jay listens to Ashia with interest. He liked learning new facts - for the most part. "That sounds cool." He admits, though he puts on an air of indifference. "But it definitely wouldn't be a place I'd like to get lost in." Jay glances around shortly after Ashia asks if he could see the Greencloaks and Brandon.
"No, I do not see Brandon or the Greencloaks." Jay says. At first, he is a bit amused that the Greencloaks aren't present and then grows a bit more upset when he recognizes that Brandon isn't there either. "I hope they didn't run into any trouble."

Hazel looks reluctant to allow someone other than herself to go in search for her brother. She doesn't know the town they had been in well enough to be of any help, however, and she knew this. So, she is incredibly grateful for the offer to help. "If it wouldn't be a pain, I would want help finding my brother since I don't know this area well. We'll try our hardest to get to the talisman first. Let's hope we're not too late already." She gets ready to enter the maze, placing her books in her bag so they would not be in the way in case trouble arose in the maze of bamboo.

Brandon takes in short gasps of air, pinned in his corner by the people in front of him. He sinks further into the shadows of the nook he had found, trying to clear his head of the sense of doom that comes with being the center attention of even one person he does not know well. He tears his gaze away from the group in front of him and looks around for a quick way to escape. His skin tingles as it would with the threat of lightning.

(Justin sorry I should have made that clear)

"Alright Justin go find Brandon just remember to keep your head low. The maze is used to protect the area that we're going to but I've recently heard reports of the maze beginning to flower. Before you say 'how pretty' it means the maze is dying which means the Conquerors will be able to get to the area a lot faster. Remember the rules and stay close. Greencloaks will be Greencloaks."

"That and hope your map is accurate since we can't get a look from above," Justin adds getting ready to back track and find Brandon.

"What makes you say that," Ashia asks.

"You didn't see that someone in the maze just shot down a bird," Justin responds as he quickly follows his trail. He just hoped Brandon would be able to hold out until he got there.

(It's alright.)

Jay, who had been just about to say 'how pretty', lowers his head and turns his gaze. "How sad." He chirps instead. "It's a good thing it has been around for this long, though, even if it's dying. If they can get there faster, shouldn't we be able to do so as well? What are we doing waiting around here for? Let's move!" He bouncing on his toes for a second before he falls still. It's easy to tell he is still a tad bit impatient now that they have a clear goal and path in mind.

Hazel glances up to the sky with Justin's remark and shudders slightly. She then turns to Ashia, clearly expecting her to lead the way.

There is a flash as Matamba appears in front of him. She gives a chatter and her fur stands on end as she gets ready to defend Brandon. Brandon's eyes widen. He had not meant to release his spirit animal from her dormant state and he puts his arms around her to try and pull her back with him. He did not want her to be in the reach of what seems to be a hostile group of strangers.

Ashia takes off at a run towards the maze. She knew she could maintain this pace for most of the day and hoped the others could do the same. It would take a couple of days at this pace for them to get to the bamboo forest.


Justin quickly back tracks and after a bit finds Brandon's trail. He quickly follows it seeing the hostiles. Justin carefully grabs his sling out from his bag and loads it aiming at one of the hostiles.

Jay starts after her, easily keeping pace. He would probably run out of energy after five miles. He wasn't exactly the best long distance runner to bring along since the most he would run at his top speed would be for less than half a mile and at a steady pace would only go so long before crashing and having to stock up on energy again. Like a little child, Jay can gain energy again pretty quickly. Hopefully it wouldn't mess up the schedule too badly.

Hazel loved to run. She could probably keep this pace for as long as needed.


Brandon spots Justin and instinctively makes a move towards him. Then he pulls back once more, realizing his mistake as it happened. Of the hostile people, one reaches for Brandon when the kid moves towards Justin and manages to grasp the child's shirt. Brandon simply wriggles out of his shirt and pushes backwards, shoving Matamba before him to make sure she didn't get hurt. The hostile person who now had an extra shirt tried to grab at him again but missed.

Two others in the group turn towards Justin with Brandon's accidental cue. One starts forward to stop Justin from intervening. The other takes out her own weapon and aims at Justin.

A few other hostiles were unsure on how exactly to continue.

Justin takes out his sword looking at the hostiles, "I'll give you one chance to let the boy go." He glares at them with his most fierce glare. Justin knows how to wield a sword and would not give up easily. If this turned into a battle he would most likely try to end the battle quickly and grab Brandon and Mutumba.


Ashia keeps up the pace until Jay needs a brief rest before beginning the pace again. She hopes to get to the bamboo maze and the talisman before the Conquerors.

The hostiles look amongst themselves and then between Brandon, Matamba, and Justin. "Sure. The boy goes. The animal stays." The hostiles make a way for Brandon to get to Justin. Brandon shakes his head slightly and holds tightly onto Matamba. He closes his eyes and tries to call Matamba back into passive state.

Jay is thankful for the break and nods to Ashia in recognition. He hopes the same and feels guilty about slowing the group down.
Hazel, whether it was a run or a walk, kept moving. For her, stopping and starting up again was hard. She'd rather keep moving than stop.

"I mean let them both go," Justin responds, "I'm aware of who you people are. And I can tell you this your practice of wearing a spirit animal's pelt does not give you their powers. Unless you want to fight with me let them both go." Justin's eyes are bright with a hidden fire and his tone was firm, unrelenting.



"Jay just try to keep up okay," Ashia responds, "this stopping and starting again is bad for all of us and gives the Conquerors more time to get to the talisman." She paces slightly trying not to stop either.

"Why should we fear you? And how would you know that wearing them doesn't give you power? You don't wear any pelt and it doesn't sound like you have either." The one who appears to be the leader of the band grins. They was wearing boots of snake hide but that appeared to be the only animal skin on them and the others.

Jay nods, slouching when it was admitted that he was holding the group back. He steels himself and nods again. "Alright. If I am holding you back, though I promise not to stop, keep going without me. We don't want the Conquerors to have such an advantage over us."