Adapting to radically different sensory input was an interesting experience. It was simultaneously jarring and yet not, as whatever Aegis did to integrate new abilities and effects from feats made it all second nature. It made his previous memories feel a bit off and his expectations didn't quite align with reality anymore. The weirdness settled fairly quickly, although some things brought it back in random spurts for the rest of the evening.

He was treated to a few new things that evening though, chief amongst them being the homebrew drink the natives gave him called masato. It was both sweet and a bit bitter at the same time, but more importantly it was alcoholic. He hadn't realized how much he needed a drink until he got one. He also got to try monkey. It was delicious. He should probably feel bad for eating one, but he hated them and didn't care if his hatred of them was blown out of proportion by a single inciting incident.

If anything he felt a bit uncomfortable eating something so close to a person in shape. He got over it pretty quickly though, choosing a full belly over a moral quandary. After they ate and drank, he sat and watched Rose work for a bit. The girl had been tirelessly singing at the trees, and had a rather spacious treehouse close to completion by the time night fell. Close to being safe for people to sleep in at least. There weren't any amenities or furnishings. It was just an empty room with a thick beam in the middle for support.

Almost as though someone blew a bubble in the trunk of a tree, but left the core in place to keep it from collapsing. He bet the trees themselves decided the amount of support they needed, since he doubted the fifteen year old girl doing the shaping knew much about structural design or engineering.

It was a bit crowded, but they all slept there for the night. Except for the guard rotation. When monsters are real and you're lost in a jungle infested with them, the smart people set a watch. Or so Leo claimed. Bernard hadn't had any trouble sleeping unmolested in the forest so far.

The next morning brought more survivors into the fold and, to Bernard's great relief, none of them were children. He managed to pull Leo aside when he felt them enter his range. "Hey we got more people coming in, want to go check things out with me? You can stay hidden and help me out if things go bad."

"Sure, I guess. Are you expecting things to go badly?" Leo's voice had a dubious note to it.

"I hope not, but this is technically the apocalypse and people can be stupid." Leo followed him from a good distance to make sure he wasn't spotted.

Bernard met the newcomers as they entered the Zone. "Hello there!" He greeted them cheerfully.

A heavily scarred brute of a man pointed an honest-to-goodness sword at him. "What do you want?" He growled at Bernard, clearly about as friendly as a rabid coyote.

Bernard scanned the group. They were all a bit worse for wear, and not one of them wasn't eyeing him with a great deal of suspicion and either fingering a weapon or outright holding one. "I heard you coming and decided to come over to say hi before the natives threaten everyone with poison arrows and darts. I'm trying to get them to stop doing that, but it's an uphill battle."

He held his arms out to the side in a non-threatening gesture, Thistle was wrapped around his arm with the spiked head by his shoulder. It was interesting how adaptable his gear was, he had thought about how much of a pain it was to always have a hand occupied with Thistle after it increased in size, and it readily attached itself to his arm instead. He barely even noticed the reduced range of movement since he was wearing plate armor that already hindered him a bit.

His helmet was open, so they should be able to see that he was human, and with any luck they wouldn't be stupid enough to default to 'movie-apocalypse, every-man-for-himself' nonsense. His hopes were dashed a bit when he heard them muttering to each other. They obviously thought they were far enough away and that he couldn't hear them, and the day before they would have been right.

"We can't trust him! He's half plant for Christ's sake!" A woman whispered harshly.

"We have to trust someone," a man with a scar across his brow whispered back, "we won't survive much longer like this, and he looks like he has been doing just fine! We should get his help!"

"What part of half plant did you not understand?! He's clearly a monster trying to trick us!" The woman practically growled at scarface.

"He also just threatened us with poison arrows." The large swordsman barely even tried to whisper, clearly intending for Bernard to hear him.

The last member of their group, a thin, pale man finally spoke up. "Y'all can do what you want, I refuse to let all this insanity change me into an untrusting sod. I ain't about to start fighting someone that walked up and said 'hello' all friendly-like. That ain't proper behavior. The proper thing to do is this." He walked straight up to Bernard and stuck his hand out. "Name's Trevor. Weird couple a'days it's been, eh?"

Bernard grinned and shook his hand. "I want to say 'you have no idea' but I'm betting you do. I'm Bernard."

"Don't mind them, they're just a mite jumpy after a few close calls we had. Lost a couple good folk here and there, it gets to ya, you know?"

"I can imagine. Making sure you guys weren't all Crazy Max style crazies was part of why I came out to meet you halfway. We've got a couple kids with us and kids fighting monsters is bad enough, I don't want to see what fighting a human monster would do to a twelve year old."

"Well what's your verdict on us then?" Trevor asked with a bit of a grin.

"Two for four so far, depends on if those friends of yours are set on the whole 'half-plant' idea. I don't want to fight anyone, but I have no problem defending myself. To be fair though, their overly suspicious ways are probably better for your life expectancy." Bernard said with a tilt of his head and a shrug.

Trevor winced a bit. "Heard that, did you? My apologies, like I said, we've seen some real crazy stuff the last couple days. A cannibal tree man trying to kill us would be par for the course."

Bernard nodded. "We have too. The boy's mom died right in front of him. Nothing we could do. The guy that got here yesterday didn't get moved like the rest of us, but lost his whole survey team and picked up a girl that popped out of thin air at the start of it all."

The others had moved closer by this point, and were listening curiously despite their still-apparent suspicions. "How do we know we can trust you?" The woman demanded.

At the same time Scarface asked his own question. "Do you have anything to eat?"

Bernard shook his head at the woman. "You don't." He told her matter-of-factly. "We all just met. We're all strangers, and your first instinct when you saw me was that you needed to attack and kill me on the off chance that I was a monster." She looked like she was about to interrupt. "No, let me finish. I don't trust you, not really, and while I don't intend you any harm, the opposite in fact, doesn't mean I'm not just as wary about meeting new people as you are."

He turned to the scarred man. "We do have food, and I'm sure there'll be something ready by the time we get back to camp."

"We're not following you anywhere!" The woman shouted. "You just said we can't trust you!"

Bernard shook his head. "No, I said you don't know that you can trust me, not that you couldn't, and that I don't trust you." He turned his gaze to the big man. "What do you think…"

The big man let the silence stretch for a second or two before offering his name. "Hank."

Bernard dipped his head in acknowledgment. "Alright, what do you think, Hank, think you can trust me enough to eat some of my food? Oh, and did you get your sword from the Aegis Store? I got my armor and weapon from it, but my stuff is kind of weird and your's is the first I've seen of any kind of adventurer style gear."

They all seemed to relax considerably when he mentioned the store. "Yeah," Hank said with a nod, pulling it partway free of its sheath. "I should have gone with something easier to use though, I didn't know how to use a sword at first and it got people hurt." He grit his teeth toward the end. "I've gotten better at it though." He added a bit threateningly.

"Well, let's go see what there is to eat for breakfast, shall we?" Bernard asked, looking around at the newcomers. "You can come out Leo, I think things will be fine!" He called over his shoulder. When everyone else jerked back he quirked an eyebrow at them. "I did say that I was also wary about meeting others, didn't I? I would have brought some of the hunters too if I wasn't worried they would shoot someone. They're a bit skittish around outsiders."

"Then how did you end up working with them?" Trevor asked curiously.

Bernard sighed and thumped his breastplate. "They think I'm some sort of forest spirit and refuse to believe me when I say otherwise."

"Did your armor always look like that?" Hank asked after Leo joined them and introductions were made. Janet and Barry were the two Bernard hadn't gotten yet.

"What do you mean? It was always wooden if that's what you're asking."

"All scarred up and cracked."

Ah. Bernard realized Hank was fishing for information, probably trying to figure out how dangerous he was. "No, as Henry, the boy I found, is fond of saying; things like to chew on me. Big cats, a caiman, a huge centipede, some snake-monkeys, a swarm of giant spiders, and… honestly I'm losing track. I have to assume I'm absolutely delicious though." He grinned at them. "Still alive and kicking though!"

To his surprise not one of the natives batted an eye at the arrival of newcomers. They just accepted the fact that he brought more people as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Who were they to question the forest spirits. Bernard thought wryly as he dug into his breakfast with gusto. It was something similar to tamales but wrapped a bit different and flavored with unfamiliar spices.

They were also delicious and he was suddenly starving when he smelled them. His injuries were still healing, and he suspected that whatever was letting him heal faster had an effect on his appetite. Actually, what is making me heal faster? Is it one of my feats? None of the feats he could remember had anything to do with healing, but it was pretty obvious which one it was when he pulled up a list. Regeneration. He didn't remember taking it. Didn't remember seeing it as an option. The only explanation was that he took it that day he woke up covered in dead cat chunks.

He shuddered at the memory. "I'm an idiot." He muttered. "What kind of moron makes major decisions while heavily concussed?"