Cloud Elk; Cervus nubis A majestic creature inhabits the tundra and low mountain steppes of Samora. During winter, it sports a cloudy white coat which gradually grows darker as the season wanes into gray and then mottled browns during autumn. Hoof to shoulder it rivals even the largest mountain heavies, the horse breeds raised by hill giants; it is even rumored that the mountain giants, their cousins and the sylvani of frost, the Nyl who inhabit the lower reaches of the Samoran tundra keep them as their choice livestock. The cloud appellation of course, comes from its fluffy white coat which is a prized material that rivals down for beddings and winter clothing. More than that however, it seems to have aer affinity which manifests in the form of lightning on its branch-like antlers, also a very valuable crafting material. from Philiarz Warnerskemander’s Bestiary for Adventurers: ‘Exotic Beasties and Where To Find Them.’

“This is a joke right? We must be in some kind of reality TV show. I didn't sign up for this shit. Hey!!! There's been a mistake! I am not meant to be on set!” Such was the rambling of one of the passengers who found themselves stranded in old ruins, in the middle of nowhere.

Comparatively, their reaction was mild. In the furthest extreme end of the spectrum were those who threw a fit. On another side of the spectrum, was Samantha Tyrell.

Outwardly, she seemed calm as she rifled through the luggage that had appeared in this place with them. It had been a stroke of luck that she’d slept cradling her back otherwise most of her essentials would have gone missing. The amount of luggage in the room with them barely matched the number of people—there was a lot of unclaimed luggage.

Unbeknownst to those who saw her calm and collected countenance, Samantha was frantic and unsettled by the strange surroundings. They'd woken up in a tower of some kind rising up in the middle of verdant greenery. Vines crawled around the mossy masonry, which looked ready to give way under a sneeze. The tower looked in danger of coming down on their skulls; in fact it was listing against a tree. She needed to get out and she needed to find uncle Lucia...and Arthur that brother of hers wherever he might be.

Despite the humid weather bordering on tropical even, they were not in. The trees and the underbrush just looked a tad too fantastical to be real; like orchids that had petals whose colors shimmered from red to blue like some anamorphic art and a stinging nettle like plant crawling on the walls that had leaves that looked like tongues of fire at their apexes. And the trees; the trees were gigantic.

It reminded her of those pictures of the Amazon rain-forest. The air seemed like a palpable presence that was always on the forefront of her mind. It seemed to have an other-worldliness, not the rich scent of flowers, or the smell of dirt from the forest but the prickly feeling like a static crawling on her arm hairs. Even then Samantha had no reference to what she was feeling; no words could capture the likeness of it.

Not even her staunch following of NatGeo could help her get a bead on what period from whence the building came from. All she knew was that it was an absurdly tall tower with strange glyphs that were neither Mayan nor Egyptian. They were a series of nonsensical squiggles, wavy lines and zigzags and whatever else was legible or looked like lettering was too esoteric to tell. There were no weird eye or bird symbols so hieroglyphs were out of the question

“Hey, what are you doing?” A freckled and lean twenty something man asked looking over her shoulder. He had a soft chin, an almost boyish face and a pair of frameless glasses perched on his nose. Unperturbed, Samantha continued to ransack the luggage, mindful of the items that had their owners. She was very good at reading cues that clued her on what belonged to whom. It was easy to see, from the way their owner would stand with one their dominant side facing their possessions.

“What does it look like? I'm making a survival kit.”

“Ah―oh. you think we're in some sort of survival show like the other guy?”

“Maybe, maybe not; I dunno. You can't just kidnap people off a plane...with their seats, drop them in the middle of nowhere and call it a show.” She shrugged. “I am as lost as you are...but one thing is for sure though, we won't get much done by sitting on our asses."

“Eh...you seem like you know what you're doing...oh, uh—names George by the way...plant biologist.” he awkwardly extended his hand.

Samantha eyed him skeptically, before she gave him a tentative tap on his hand. It was sweaty; no way was she shaking it. Embarrassed, the man saw what his hands looked like and wiped them off on his khaki shorts. “Sorry,” he muttered.

The din in the background was building up in a crescendo among two dozen or so people. Tension was high and things just looked about to blow up like a powder keg.

“ I'm telling you we were abducted by aliens, look at the damn sky for Pete's sake, it's the wrong shade of blue!”

“That's preposterous man...maybe it's some sort of elaborate green screen.”

“Really? You're worse than the guy who said we were on a survival show. Open your eyes people!”

“And what would you have us do mister stargazer? Go traipsing around in some gods-forsaken jungle? We should wait for rescuers to come... they'll come I know it" said a female voice.

“How would you know that? Our cellphones have no bars...nothing. I'm not going to wait to starve here like the rest of you...we barely have enough food.” A male voice retorted.

Two camps were rapidly forming; those who wanted to stay and those who wanted to take their chances outside. With a single-minded focus Samantha had gotten everything she could carry, she even found a solar charging power bank in one of the suitcases. Also the ergonomic hiking backpack from some rich fellow who was not there with them was godsent; she needn’t not fear sore shoulders and a weary back.

Looking at the open air window at the position of the sun, she saw the short shadows indicate that it was close to afternoon by then which gave her several hours of daylight. She had a compass bezel on her watch; said watch looked out of sync. Added to that, with no map and GPS out of commission, she was out of luck

Samantha finished packing all the things she would need, including a torch, a couple of bedsheets and a waterproof puffer jacket and snacks—lots of them. She was not ready to go all Bear Grylls in the jungle if god forbid this was some sort of survival show; which she doubted it was.

Wary of indecision paralyzing her next course of action she wanted to get moving to de-clutter her mind and gather her bearings. Perhaps the first step would give her an idea of what to do next. She slotted in a Swiss Army knife in her boots; she never went anywhere without one. How she got it past airport security was something nobody needed to know.

When she stood up to stretch her back and survey her haul, there were two Georges standing behind her. At a glance however, one looked fitter than the other from the bulges of his biceps and the tightness of his polo shirt. There was a logo stitched into the breast of his shirt and it read Gaea Foundation.

“Uh, ..." She mumbled

“He's Irwin,” George smiled, adjusting the straps of his backpack.

“We figured we'd come along... can't let a lady traipse around in the jungle by herself." Irwin added grinning. The two could not have been so similar yet so different. It looked like someone had done a case study on the benefits of outdoor activity, only the control and the experiment were twins whose physique couldn’t have been more different.

“Eh... I'm not about to trust you just because you're all sciency types,” she sneered. While she held no illusions that she couldn't tough it out alone, these two were men...as in MEN! What gave them the idea that they could just walk up and—

“Thought that might happen, so I brought my girlfriend,” he grinned.

“ Mako, you ready?" Irwin called over his shoulder. Samantha narrowed her eyes as she saw an Asian girl with a bob cut. She had the body of a swimmer...toned and lean muscle. She was in calf length boots, a tank top that reached her mid-riff and continued to her waist in a mesh, her own backpack and a safari hat.

“ Eh, if I didn't know better I did think we're in a movie set after all... what's with the tomb raiding get up?” Samantha blurted before she could stop herself. Boy she had a mouth.

The Asian woman just chuckled, giving her a smile of her own that did not reach her eyes. " Got to fit in with the boys that's all,” she said. She seemed like the quiet type.

“Yo mates! Where are we going?!” Reality TV guy called out. Samantha wanted to roll her eyes; she did not feel like dragging along another one. Without further ado, she hefted the backpack over her shoulder and left the bickering throng behind with her impromptu hangers-on at her heels as they descended the spiral stairs.

The air was relatively tepid like the weather after a summer shower. The forest―no jungle was alive with the sounds of strange bird calls, strange insects and unfamiliar critters. Some of them did register as typical sounds you’d hear anywhere in a forest but most were alien. She kept trying to track whatever was making them if only to assuage her budding curiosity.

By and large, Samantha wasn't the only one who felt that way; standing with her at the last landing of the stairway were the trio also sporting bewildered expressions.George seemed the most visibly unsettled as his mouth was agape. He seemed to nervously wipe his glasses from time to time as if uncertain of what he was seeing. The plant biologist was stumped.

As Samantha peered from beneath the lintel post towards the ancient edifice, she saw it for what it was. It was an old tower whose bricks sagged, from a rent that ran in the middle of the arch. A particularly stubborn tree had grown to esconce the structure around two of its roots, like an octopus strangling its prey. And besides that the tree branches were more than Giant red wood levels of big with a canopy that beggared belief. Held aloft were leaves that had tinges of purple at the edges while the cracks in between its bark were just an unbelievable shade of red.

Before they reached the ground floor, they'd walked around five floors down, passing open rooms with rusted hinges. Where doors were long gone, they found ornate bracing resembling leafy branches made from unknown metal on the moss covered floor. Some rooms even had puddles of water where the rain had been blown in.

That the metal had survived rust that long had interested the older twin as he took off with the heftier pieces and saddled them on his backpack like a hiker's walking sticks. The last room before the spiral staircase also had signs of roots encroaching through aging mortar. Samantha shuddered seeing the size of the cracks in the brickwork.

“What is the plan?” The same voice from before the stairs echoed from the landing as the sound of footfalls carried through the archway. A ginger haired head emerged from the patchy illumination carrying a hefty backpack like the rest of the party. He looked from the fit Irwin to his lithe fiancé, to the booky twin and then the girl with a face that glared at him as if looking at a grub.

“Er name’s Benny, the slightly rotund man to round up this Jumanji-esque party?,” he grinned, trying to break the ice. Thick prescription lenses sat on his nose like oversized festival glasses. The frame had the pattern of a tiger print cowrie shell. “I assume we’re introducing ourselves?” he gulped, trying hard to look anywhere but Samantha’s face. “So, how do we find the quest markers?”

“You still going on about that?” Irwin shook his head.

“What?” the man said. “Sorry, didn’t catch your name mate…” he shifted from foot to foot like a clubber caught doing something unsavory by the bouncer.

“That’s the best explanation right? We have to find quest markers, complete the game before the rest and get a deluxe hamper for our Hawaiian vacation right?”

“We’re not in Hawaii,” George muttered, nudging his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he looked at the vine rigged canopy above. Diffuse beams of sunlight permeated the leaf cover but they diminished as the clearing around the tower stretched further into the forest proper.

“This forest looks too old, and the trees, though similar, are not the tropical type. My best inference is that we are in some type of equatorial rain-forest,” George said as he crouched on the ground. He jostled his backpack as he picked a bunch of soil. “The soil is still soaking in the rain after a dry season. In a tropical forest? We would have wet soil all around us,” he looked around and found that his audience had grown. The rest of the people upstairs had descended the tower, looking around like a bunch of goggle-eyed tourists.

“So, instead of Hawaii we're where…the Amazon?” Benny shuddered looking around as if a predator would spring from the trees. “Shouldn’t we be worried about giant snakes?”

A susurration of dismay went through the throng.

“Hey…hey hey. Loud mouth—” Samantha growled. “Stop stirring paranoia until we find our bearings.” Benny’s next words died in his throat as he quailed. She kneaded the bridge of her nose. ‘Idiot…you’ll induce panic.’ Wordlessly, she turned around and walked away after looking at her compass bezel―towards the North.

“Got a heading?” Irwin asked as the sounds of many footfalls and of leaves and branches crunching underneath filtered through a cacophony of conversations. Samantha ground her teeth at the noise that rent the air; people were being noisy willy nilly as if they were on a guided tour.

“ North…”she pointed to the forest ahead of them. “We’re seeking higher ground for a vantage point,” Samantha sighed wearily. “Your brother’s idea with the soil gave me an inkling of where the land slopes. It’s a shot in the dark but it's better than nothing,” she said.

“Ah, you’re welcome Miss…” George butted in. The group of five, Irwin, Mako, Samantha, Benny and George were at the head of the throng.

“Samantha,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “ Just don’t call me Sam.” She sighed. The others had already introduced themselves.

“Ahem,” she cleared her throat. “So as I was saying, you could see the way the water flowed after the rains. Assuming this type of forest is what George said it was, heavy rain should be enough to show where the land slopes from,”she added. “It’ll also help us find a river or something the higher we go.”

“Hmm, smart,” George commented. “A vantage point, a source of water and civilization,” Just then loud laughter broke through the air. Samantha froze and stopped, Benny ran into her backpack as she came to a dead stop.

“Huh? Why did we stop?”

They followed Samantha’s gaze through the small group which had, like a column of soldiers on the march, come to a halt as people looked at one another in confusion. “Hey, what’s the hold up?” someone shouted. It was the same male voice that had broken into a raucous laughter. An angry Samantha walked through the crowd, uncaring if she would bowl someone over. Everyone parted away from her, flinching from her glower; credits to her resting not so peachy expression. While walking she examined the composition of the group, ‘No children…good. Might as well dump these fools’.

The five foot eleven girl arrived at the back where she’d heard the ruckus and came face to face with a Caucasian male whose face she wanted to punch despite his good looks. He and his group of lackeys looked like a bunch of gym rats or lifeguards, squeezed into tees that were a size too small for them.

Surrounding the group was also a group of girls who eyed her with indignation as if she’d kicked someone’s cat. She squared off against the taller six foot something man, whose cheery expression had turned into something indiscernible, going from surprise, shock and then to a leery grin.

“So how's it going to be Sunshine?”

‘Yep―definitely want to punch him,’ Samantha thought. “Listen here you. We’re not in some safari or leisurely nature walk—” Her eyes cast about the people before settling back and boring into the man’s face. “We’re in uncharted territory, so keep it down or shut the—!”

“ Whoa there,” the man raised his hands in pacification. One of his lackeys, though, didn’t stand for it and stepped forward.

“And who the hell put you in charge huh?” the man grunted, getting in Samantha’s face. His hot breath reeked of alcohol and definitely some marijuana. She didn’t flinch back as she answered with a glare of her own

“Oi, simmer down dude, ” the first man grabbed his friend’s shoulder.

“Oh, is that so? I wonder who did too…” she pursed her lips as she looked at the forest canopy. “Seeing as you followed after us,” she threw her thumb behind her. However, frustrations had already mounted to a fever pitch as the bevy of girls behind the men sneered.

“Who does she think she is?”

“Yea, stuck up girl.”

“What a harpy!”

‘Uh is that so? Let’s see how fast you can keep up. I hope those leggings and runners are not just for show.’ She left that unsaid as she pivoted on her heel and mounted a brisk walk, past the gap in the group of people who were spectating the standoff as they whispered. She passed the group of five muttering, “Try to keep up, we’re burning daylight.” And they fell into step behind her already implicit to what she was trying to do, no questions asked.

As expected, the gap widened between the five and the rest of the group who reverted back to their rowdiness. The underbrush never impeded Samantha and group as she picked good footing, ducking under low lying branches and jumping over buttress roots; even the paunchy Benny kept up, albeit with a little struggle on account of his backpack. He knew better than to protest the pace at which Samantha was moving them.

“ I get why you’re so angry at them,” Benny gasped as he tried to keep up. He’d drunk up most of his water and was pouring some over his head as the temperature in the forest rose. “ But did you have to lump the rest with the pricks?”

“People only see the worth of something after its taken away from them.” The silent Mako said as she adjusted the straps of her pack. She was nimble in her walking and her shoes were almost silent that the Londonborn almost jumped when she spoke.

“ Word…” Benny said as the group settled into a companionable silence.

“ George…any ideas on what we can do for food? It's always good to have a plan just in case,” Samantha said from the front of the group.

“Ah… my field guide doesn’t say much. All the berries are as alien to me as they are to you,” The plant biologist said. “Though, we can always test if they’re poisonous if we know what to look for. I don’t think the plants hereabouts took another evolutionary path.”

“Right…” Samantha said. She glanced at the time and them at the intermittent flashes of the sun between the trees. ‘ Strange…the sun has been in that spot for a while…the equinox perhaps? He did say we’re in a rainforest though I was never one for the books and docus. I wish Artie were here…where’s a smart brother when you need one?’ she said internally.

“ Uh, guys…I don’t know how to phrase this…but. Shouldn’t we have heard bird calls or seen critters by now? We’ve been walking a while.” Benny whispered.

“Sshh!...quiet.” Samantha shushed.

“ Wha—” Benny started.

“Predator’s territory,” Irwin supplied in a low voice. Everyone stopped and looked around, straining their hearing to the utmost. The sounds of the jungle seemed to have been muted.

“Any idea what we should expect, bear...tigers?” Samantha whispered looking at the trees.

“No idea― but a predator marks their territory.” Irwin remarked, carefully walking close to a tree, he looked at the ground near the roots, sniffing at the air and wafting it with his hand.

“What are you looking for?” Benny mumbled, eyes wide with trepidation. His knuckles were white against the straps of his backpack.

“The smell of pee or claw marks,” George told him.

“Right…right,” Benny backed up right into a tree. He froze in alarm when he found one of his feet suddenly stuck.

“Ah guys, I think we found our marker,” Mako pointed out.

“There’s something behind me…right?” Benny mumbled. He watched the rest of the party follow the height of the tree, right above his head and a couple more metres. The tree was shrouded in webs. Not the gossamer creation they were used but one so thick you could have roped a hammock for a couple people. One could have imagined that, if their ordinary silken creations were already five times as strong as steel, then what they were seeing in front of them might have had enough strength to support a suspension bridge.

“That cannot be good.” George said.

“ Guys?” Benny’s voice quivered looking at them with dread. His face went white as a sheet as his eyes started darting everywhere else but the tree behind him

“ Benny, look at me okay?” Irwin said. “ Eyes on me―that’s it, good man. Now back out slowly,”

Still in shock, Benny forgot that one of his feet was stuck and his attempt made him stumble as he lost his balance. The heavy knapsack on his back overbalanced him towards the tree―flailing, he threw his hand out to catch himself in the very direction he’d been told to back from. Instead of sturdy support, his hands found a sticky snare that parted slightly, like pressing against gelatin and then ruptured.

A putrid smell literally exploded into the air, making them tear and hack. There was a squelching sound as something slopped from the rip made by the man’s hand. With morbid and fatalistic curiosity, the Londoner wiggled his now sticky hand and caught something coarse and hard. All it took to clue him on impending doom were the orifices and the curve of it. Benny’s skin crawled before he even knew what it was.

“Uh…” Benny gulped, choking on the stench and promptly disgorging everything in his stomach in a watery mess as he caught the puddle of muddy-colored rot and discolored patches of what had once been fur. Luckily he hadn’t eaten.

“By Jove,” he swore with a shudder, British accent punctuating his curse. “ I’ve gone and done it haven’t I?”