Walking off, Scarlet heard a soft snicker behind her, coming from one of the people washing in the river. She ignored it, knowing that there was no point, she had ground to cover before it got dark. Staying too close to town was not on her list to do. Before she entered the forest, she noticed that there were two males standing guard, looking outwards to the forest and having their hands on belt-pouches. Once she was on the clear area between the fields and the forest, she pulled Cyca’s crystal, letting it drop and her cat bounce out, allowing her to roam a little. Scarlet knew that she’d have to push herself if she wanted a permanent monster out and protection during her sleep-cycle was even harder but compared to staying in town, she felt safer out in the wild.

In town, she couldn’t ever be sure of the others intentions, the Aida’s strange behaviour had driven that home. There had been some sort of agenda in introducing her to Butch, what agenda that was, she didn’t know, but now that she was thinking about it, it was a little strange that Aida had taken the time to introduce her, even if it was quite obvious that she hadn’t done so with Keera or one of the guys, just judging from the timing. She would have to find out what was going on there, but she doubted it would give her a real advantage.

Entering the forest, she let herself relax and spread her mind, scanning her surroundings and hiding her presence. The itching feeling between her shoulders slowly receded, allowing her to breathe freely. Even her connection with Cyca feeled easier, taking less power to keep her under control, maybe because there was no other human in the area. Staying near the water, Scarlet decided that speed was more important than stealth, at least for now, trusting her power to keep her safe if a crystal monster attacked her. This close to town, there shouldn’t be any powerful monsters.

In a light jog, Cyca and Scarlet headed south, keeping their senses open and ready to fight. They continued on, until they reached another, smaller, stream that joined together with the Alb from the east, cutting off her path. Above the joining, the Alb was quite wide, almost thirty meters, wider than at any point Scarlet had seen before, giving her an idea.

Softly speaking to herself and Cyca, she weighted her options.

“You know, I think we should move to the other side of the Alb. I’ll get wet anyway and I think it would be good. I’d love to move to the higher ground there.” she muttered.

Cyca gave a clearly disproving hiss, so Scarlet continued.

“Don’t worry, you won’t get wet. You can either ride on my shoulder, or, maybe better, retreat into your crystal and Crysna can join me. He likes the water, unlike you.” she told her cat with a grin. Cyca seemed not too happy about that and jumped into her arms. Scarlet gave her scritches to placate the cat, causing happy purrs to come out. After a minute or five, she finally decided that she wanted to move on, so she pressed a soft kiss onto Cyca’s head and gently pushed her back into her crystal. She dissolved and Scarlet placed the crystal back into her pouch, pulling Crysna out.

Her snake-companion came out a meter away from her, after she gently tossed the crystal and the first thing she felt was a difference in resistance. Crysna was far less agitated about her mental domination, as if he was allowing it. She had grown more accustomed to him and he to her, but still, the difference was palpable.

“So, Crysna, have you settled in?” she asked, not quite expecting an answer. The snake slithered towards her and used her leg to climb up her body, placing his head onto her shoulder and looking into her eyes. There seemed to be something akin to acceptance but it might have just been her projection. Nonetheless, she softly let her fingers run down his scales, feeling the smooth coolness of them under her fingertips.

“Crysna, could you find out how deep the water is?” Scarlet asked, while adding a mental directive, ordering her snake to go swimming. She wanted to know if she could wade through the river or if it was too deep to do that.

He let his tongue slip out for a second, as if sticking it out at her, before letting himself drop down, quickly slithering over the ground and into the water. Scarlet was able to follow his advance thanks to their mental connection and only moments later, she was able to see that the water was neither too deep nor too turbulent, making it easy to cross. She would get wet, that was for certain, but she felt it wasn’t a problem.

She started stripping off and let Crysna have a little more freedom, allowing him to do as he pleased, as long as he didn’t move too far away. She kept a mental eye on him and had to giggle at his antics. He was chasing the various animals a little, not maliciously, not even trying to hurt them, but he seemed to delight moving stealthily next to the fish that were idling in the water, only to suddenly poke them into the side, startling them into frenzied action. It was then that Scarlet understood why in his part of the river had been no fish, who would want to live next to a mischievous snake?

She wrapped her clothes together and put them into her backpack, placing it on top of her hand and holding it with one hand there, while carefully stepping down into the water. It wasn’t cold, more a cool, pleasantly chilling sensation after her quick jog away from town. She called Crysna to her side, hoping to use the water-dwelling monster to her advantage, if she lost her footing. It would be rather annoying if her pack would fall and get wet, so she carefully placed one foot after the other, as she made her way across. There were a few rocks that shifted a little, but altogether, the crossing was easy.

When she got to the other side, she decided to wash herself, taking advantage of the fact that she was already in the water and needed to dry off anyway. After tossing her pack out, she went under, feeling Crysna swim circles around her giving off a feeling of happyness to have her in his element. She let herself relax, playing with him a little, he darting around her, and she bopping him on the nose when he darted at her. It was fun, not wondering who would stick a knife into her back the moment it was turned. A small part of her mind called it an illusion, that, if her control ever faltered, Crysna would happily take her down but she ignored that part. She was having fun, she could laugh without being judged, she didn’t need to fulfill anyone’s expectations. The only thing she needed to do was find food, which shouldn’t be a problem and even if she didn’t she had her ration bars. Not that she fancied them, but she had them, if needed.

Her revelry was suddenly ended when she felt a psionic scan barely wash over her, coming from the south-east. She was quite sure that the scanning psion was still some distance away but it meant that she might have been found, or possibly Crysna. She doubted that anyone would let a crystal monster in the area get away, so she quickly left the water, calling Crysna after her.

Cloaking herself as best as she could, she ordered Crysna back into his crystal, using a little more force than with Cyca before, grabbed the crystal in one hand and her pack in the other and took off, moving deeper into the woods, using them to hide herself.

The bushes scratched her naked body and the uneven ground hurt her feet but she wanted to get some distance between herself and the other humans. There were more scanning pulses now, coming every minute or so, driving her onwards. She was reasonably certain that they were unable to get a clear reading, not with the powerlevel she was feeling, the distance she was estimating and her cloaking in place. It was only the first pulse that made her wonder, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She had run for maybe ten minutes when she stumbled into a clearing. Her feet were telling her to stop for a bit, put on shoes and clothes, before continuing in another direction. It was a good idea, so she wrung out her hair and started to pull on her clothes, her run having shaken off most of the water. There were a few bleeding scratches but they were only superficial, so she simply ignored them.

As soon as she had her shoes on, she turned south, continuing onwards, hopefully passing the scanning psion without them getting curious and crossing the Alb. She debated to send out a pulse herself but decided not to. The Doctor had said that humans avoided one another but if they had detected her with the first pulse, pulsing now, as if to acknowledge might be seen as weakness. So, she kept cloaking and hiding herself as she moved further south.