Isak gripped the branch as he scanned the jungle until his eyes fell on Tonauac running towards them, green and black face struck with panic as he himself searched around before his eyes found Isak and Xoco eagerly waiting for answers.

“Something big!” The lizardfolk whisper shouted once he was in range. “Big and on the hunt! Maybe more than one?”

Isak turned to the jungle troll. “You’re a fast climber, think you can get up there quickly and throw a rope down to us and help us up? Better than just rushing right into whatever’s out there.”

Xoco followed his pointing finger up to a dense tangle of branches and vines she quickly realized was meant to be a hiding spot. She returned her sight to Isak with a smile as she let Nelli down to dash ahead. “I’ll be up there in a flash! Don’t keep me waiting!”

“I’d never keep a lady waiting, now hurry!” He said with an encouraging grin as he watched her ascend the tree with equal strength and grace, shaking his head for a moment before scrambling down the tree to Tonauac and tripping over his feet just as he got down to ground level and the realization hit him.

The lizardlad caught him, finding Isak flushed and flustered as he wheezed out an entire sentence in one breath.

“ThatwasthesmoothestthingIhaveeversaidtoagirlinmyentirelife.”

Tonauac frowned and helped him back onto his feet before speaking in a low tone “I am very proud of you, now what’s the plan to deal with the big scary thing that’s on its way right now?”

“Oh yeah that.” He pointed up to the tangle of branches and vines that he had directed Xoco to. “We get vertical, nothing and no one ever looks up. We’ll figure it out from there.”

The end of a length of rope dangled down near them as Isak urged Tonauac to take it first, which the lizardlad met with an unsure look and a glance around them. “Where’s Zyn?”

“You were closer to him!”

“Yeah but you two were heading off to have a moment so I figured he would have followed you and spied on you!”

Isak held up a wagging finger and immediately fell silent, curling his finger back, and relented as he looked off into oblivion and nodded. “Okay...he would, but no he’s not here. I trust him to stay hidden though....hey where’s Patli?”

“Hiding on a high branch, keeping an eye out and...seeing more than one thing?” Tonauac asked himself rather than anyone present, glancing over his shoulder into the jungle at the sound of a loud snap and an indistinct yet angry sounding voice.

And then came another shout from the completely opposite direction to sandwich them in.

“I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE MORENO!”

Which was enough for the rope to jiggle in silent implied urgency.

“Heading up now! You’re next?”

Isak pursed his lips and held up a wavering hand. “Well...no. See I would love to hide but there is an issue I must deal with for someone who’s...not so easy to hide.”

Vidal had taken a ready stance at his mage’s side as the electricity crackled with a greater intensity and shone bright in the dark underbrush to pull all possible attention in the entire jungle directly to him.

Tonauac grit his teeth and grimaced. “And you’ve got a plan for that?”

“Kind of, now go! I’ll be back to the rope in no time.”

The lizardfolk took ahold of the rope and started climbing only for Xoco to start lifting him up as he looked back down with worry to Isak, who gave him a big smile and a thumbs up that held just long enough for him to ascend.

Isak looked at his very non-stealthy familiar, then back out into the jungle where he heard a voice shout out in anger.

“SHUT UP! No one else has a feathered serpent like that here and I know I saw it fly this way! And keep an eye out for the blood mage!”

Isak had a rapidly growing amount of questions that would have to wait as the human cast a quick storm spell with a focused rain to turn Vidal into his water form, figuring that the sound of running water would be far easier to hide than his previous form that was only slightly more stealthy than a burning inferno. That sound though did give him an idea, as the human sized him up and chewed at his lip as he glanced back and forth between Vidal, the approaching pursuers.

“Think you can fit in that stream back there?” Isak hooked a thumb over his shoulder.

“If I lay down, Master Isak.”

“Okay great! I’ll signal you once I think of a better plan! And don’t kill anyone!”

Vidal looked up to the canopy, seeing Tonauac finally pulled up into that tangle of branches as he heard the poor odds approaching.

“Hurry to the stream! I’m gonna need to find some place to hide down here-”

“No.” Vidal firmly stated in a lowered voice as he studied the tangle of branches and vines a final time before looking down to his mage. “Two hostile groups detected, risk of harm great with only non-lethal methods available. Calculating variables to achieve better odds.”

The rock man picked Isak up under his arms with no effort. “Wait...wait are you jumping us up there?”

“Negative, maximum weight capacity would likely be exceeded.”

“Uh…” Isak looked around him with growing nerves, the underbrush surrounding this clearing hiding all but the sounds snapping branches that had already scared the normal chorus of croaking frogs and chirping birds into silence. “You’re still going to hide, right?”

“Affirmative, as will you. For optimal trajectory, do not flail on your ascent.”

“Wha-”

Vidal didn’t let the boy have another word as he heaved him into the air towards the sighted hiding spot a half second before he himself weaved through the underbrush without effort before splashing into the stream to draw confused shouts.

Isak, through a combination of fear and trust locked his arms at his side as he sailed past branches and vines and no less than six large spiders in one blink of the eye before he found himself cresting at the height of that calculated arc just in time for him to land in Xoco and Tonauac’s arms.

“HEY!” Jearx’s voice rang out from somewhere below as the three froze in place and only barely dared to glance down. “What are you doing here, Tikonel?!?”

“Just a bit of sportly hunting, Jearx.” Another voice responded in a calmer voice, just as harshly as Tonauac and Isak shot eachother confused glances, then settled on the wide eyed and panic stricken Xoco who wasn’t letting go of the human. “Or at least we were until you had to go and scare off all the game…”

“Whatever, Tikonel. You didn’t see a human run through here did you?” Tonauac was silent as he poked at Xoco’s arm while she breathed faster and hugged Isak closer to her in her vacant eyed embrace. The human vigorously shook his head as he glowed bright red and Nelli nudged at the girl’s neck. “Has a stupid human face and a stupider bird nose?”

“No, you didn’t see a certain Jungle Princess run through?” Isak was growing dizzy from all of the blood rushing to his face before immediately vacating it to turn paper white as he fumbled a hand up to his nose and stared out into nothingness while Tonauac tried to rouse him from his own blank eyed reverie by poking him in the arm as well. “Far too tall and far too strong for a girl?”

There came a sound of annoying, nasally laughter followed by a chorus of laughter not wanting to be left out of the ‘joke’. “Hang on, I think a mutually beneficial arrangement is at hand!”

Xoco’s breathing had quickened as Nelli coiled just tight enough around her shoulders to mimic a hug, Isak followed along as he patted at her arms once he had broken from his own reeling feelings of his nose being taunted. Again. All while Tonauac was openly gritting his teeth and glancing all around the jungle for something and anything that would help.

“Hm, you may be right Jearx. She is hanging around with the peasant and the...what was it called again?”

“You mean the blood mage?” A third voice asked

“No that one makes sense, the other one.” The so far faceless student known as Tikonel responded as he still searched for an answer.

“YES. That’s the one I was talking about.” Jearx’s grit teeth could be heard grinding themselves into dust even from the trio’s hiding spot. “Human who thinks he’s an equal...”

“Yeah one of those. The one with the weird familiar.” Tonauac carefully tried prying Isak out of the still dazed Xoco’s embrace as they stood on the tangle of branches and vines, the returning cacophony of frogs and birds drowning out his grunts as he failed to extract his friend from the jungle troll’s arms, not at all helped by the human still pawing at his own nose rather than be useful. “Your shouting at your companions scared them off, but I believe you are correct in establishing a joint venture!”

“YOU’RE THE ONE RIDING AROUND ON A JUNGLE RHINO- Yes! An unconventional alliance of mining and agricultural business interests against mutually hostile competitors would be mutually beneficial!”

“Uh, boss you’re kinda overusing the word ‘mutually’-”

“I DID NOT ASK FOR INPUT! Apologies, good help is so hard to find.” How fast Jearx was able to flip from one tone to another was enough to make one’s blood crawl.

“Tell me about it. You know-”

Xoco’s eyes finally refocused just as Isak thought he was going to die from his blood attempting the impossible task of rushing to his face while completely draining from his face. She blinked and set him down in front of her, her brows were pressed together as she frowned and leaned down to whisper. “I told you there were some after me...let’s call them rivals to my family. I didn’t think they would be so bold out here...I will understand if after realizing what this entails that you would wish to renegotiate our prior agree-”

“I made a promise, that’s that.” Isak put a hand on her shoulder next to Nelli, who flicked her tongue out in approval. “Jearx doesn’t know the meaning of subtlety, so he’s not my mysterious stalker. Which means you’re still the one in the dark about what promise I roped you into. That guy down there? He-”

Isak saw the jungle troll boy on the back of a rust colored jungle rhino, still blathering along with Jearx who was on the back of his basilisk as their respective groups of three followers looked bored out of their minds from all the increasingly questionably accurate business speak.

“-well I’ve actually been up against worse odds! We also have our master blood mage with us!”

“I am morally obligated to inform you that I will be unable to handle all but minor injuries.” Tonauac whispered back as he shook his head. “Though I have improved my Light spell.”

“We can work with that!” Isak gave him a thumbs up and a grin before his eyes wandered off to a ways away where he spotted something...familiar? Xoco and Tonauac turned to follow his sight, searching and searching until Isak’s mouth hung open as he pointed to the sight in question.

There amongst the exposed roots of a downed tree that was being overtaken by the plants of the underbrush were a pair of familiar red eyes next to a pair of barely visible yet distinctive eyes with wave shaped pupils. Eyes that went wide upon seeing a familiar sight high in the trees that had only managed to stumble upon the tiny red dots in the wilderness out of some combination of luck and possibly impressive observational skill.

Isak cast a whispered Illusion spell to project words in front of Zyn’s eyes: Two blinks for yes, three for no. Big blinks. Understand?

Two blinks, as the two opposing parties below had decided to move onto the stream after a few of their subordinates had reminded them of the large splash they had heard not even a few minutes earlier.

Vidal in the stream, trying to plan an ambush.

Zyn rolled his eyes as he started blinking in a rapid yet possibly deliberate pattern of long and short blinks.

Xoco let out a happy gasp. “I know that! It’s dash-dot code! He says...Ozzy has one ink cloud in him...ready for ambush...one shot.”

Isak’s mind was racing as he tried to put together the least worst plan here as he listened in on the concluding conversation below.

“Alright, so we’ve decided on a few broken bones and threatened economic ruin if they squeal...but what ruin could the peasants really be threatened with?”

The human’s brows raised as he looked to his friends. “Wow, I don’t feel bad about this plan at all now.”

“They are very dumb.” Tonauac agreed with a nod

“Then I won’t feel bad about teaching them a lesson either.” Xoco’s determination was audible and impressive even at low volumes.

“Then listen close, we’ve only got one shot.” Isak said with his own smile and growing confidence.