After circling the pool of water and scratching his chin for the sixth time while mumbling to himself, Isak’s friends were now convinced that he was undertaking some strange human ritual that would reveal any traps. It had offered him time enough to glance around in what he hoped was not a suspicious manner, trying to figure out what plan he might come up with on the spot to detect an invisible stalker.

The ground wasn’t particularly muddy, but footprints might show up if they were being careless. A splash of water might work if the mystery individual was close enough, which couldn’t be counted on. Out lines in smoke? As unlikely as setting up any snare or other trap that would somehow go unnoticed by the invisible stalker.

Zyn walked closer with folded arms and spoke in a low voice. “So…are we committing to some roles here that we have to publicly show until this weirdness is over or did we just want to go back to normal once we’re done with this uh…short term plan?”

“That–” The human stopped his pacing as he cast a glance over his shoulder just enough so that his friends could hear his whispered muttering. “Is a great question. Uhhh…keep it simple. No lies that we’ll be living until we find our stalker.”

Everyone flashed a quick thumbs up as that final detail of their plan was thrown into the mix with as much care as all other parts. Citlali’s eyes darted to each side before she gave a nervous laugh. “H-heh, don’t be afraid to wade in! You’ll smell better then!”

Isak was not adept at lizardfolk lip reading, but the pleading look in her eyes and wringing hands told him that whatever she was mouthing to him was probably along the lines of “I’m so sorry!”

Even so, the human froze as he tried to very casually deeply inhale to see if all the running and fighting had made him just that intolerable to smell. He brought a closed hand up to his mouth as he cleared his throat and whispered to Tonauac. “Is that…is that a thing? Am I…do I…”

“Don’t worry about it!” Tonauac chuckled and waved off his concern while flicking out his tongue to show how little he was concerned with this. “I’ve already gotten used to the smell-taste of all my mammal friends, you included! Plus, if she started breathing heavily I would know what Citlali had for lunch. So don’t mind her.”

“That is not–” Isak had been shaking his head and holding up a hand in frustration as he stopped, his eyes going wide a moment later before whispering another illusion spell at the lizardlad. “Ah whatever.”

Is what he said aloud, what Tonauac’s eyes darted about to read in spectral text was to see if he could ‘smell-taste’ this someone else that was watching, and that he now had a plan to try and make that easier for him and Citlali to do so. With that taken care of he kicked off his boots, storing his socks inside, set his backpack down and waded into the pond.

Commanding the rock man to lead the way into the pool of water, Isak followed closely behind through waist high water flowing gently around a small rocky island in the center. As long as he kept moving, his feet had little trouble avoiding sinking into the muck, and each labored step brought him closer to the island. Fish, frogs, and bugs alike darted out of his way and a tiny little totem on the island grew clearer.

He had spotted it from the shore, and wanted to be certain that there was no additional ‘final test’ in obtaining it aside from wading through a jungle pond. Vidal’s weight kept him sinking down into the muck, and yet his strength meant that he had no problems trudging along and leading the way until they had both reached the small rocky island. And now all that remained was to retrieve a small metal disk that should be contained within.

“You can do it, Isak!” Xoco called out to the submerged human. “Show those who would doubt you the proof of your expertise! But also please be careful.”

Isak felt his face redden while he tried to remember if they had in fact agreed on not trying to put on some act for their pursuer. Or was it that they had agreed to the act not lasting too long and being ‘reset’ soon? Was that an act? Was that true? Because if it was true then obviously she was just being polite and-

The human sank down to his shoulders in the muck with a wayward step into the mud of the pond. Vidal’s hand was on his upper arm not even a second later, preventing him from sinking further and lifting him up and out of the water to set the boy on the small rocky island.

“Aha!” Isak said with a muddy hand raised to the sky while scrambling to his feet and trying not to slip on the mud he was now covered in. “See? Mud trap!”

“Curse you, Isak!” Citlali shook her scaled fist back at the human with an exaggerated snarl on her face. “Always being right about these things- is he always right about these things?”

Tonauac, Zyn, and Xoco scratched their heads and shrugged to one another.

“I think this is….the second time? How are we defining these things?” The lizardlad wondered aloud with a shrug.

Zyn held a wordless consul with Ozzy, who gave a small cephalopodal shrug. “At least twice. Depending on how we define things.”

“Three, if you count the whole Jearx and Tikonel incident.” Xoco said as he counted off to three on her clawed fingers while contemplation played out on their faces to debate the inclusion of that incident.

“That one was honestly a group effort!” Isak himself called out from the island while wiping away mud and gunk. “And not really being right so much as reacting in time. Which we all did. Also if we’re being completely honest that first time…you know, the one that started this mess, well that could still turn out to be nothi-”

“CURSE YOU ISAK!” Citlali shouted once more with an even grander wave of her fist. “AND YOUR HUMILITY!....does that mean you’re still offering to help me complete my own hunt?”

“Well I didn’t try to take the offer back, so…” Isak shrugged while still raising his voice enough to be heard, trying to make it obvious that his little band of odd friends shouldn’t be taken seriously. All in accordance with the plan he had just come up with to justify their nonsense rather than admit that they were in over their heads.

With enough distractions under way, Isak looked down to the small totem of wood and aged copper. On four carved wooden legs sat a wooden bowl with tangled roots forming a cover to prevent its contents from being spied from too far away. The entire object was largely unremarkable until one got close enough, and through the opening in the roots Isak spied a shiny bit of metal.

Isak looked back at Vidal, giving him a firm nod and the instruction to pull him back if he screamed. He withdrew a short stick from his backpack to poke inside, and after nothing had been snapped in half or set aflame he shook his head and reached in to withdraw a small steel disk with unknown glyphs on it. Holding it aloft after inspecting it for a moment, cheers followed from his friends.

He waded back across the pond faster this time, silt and muck being kicked up to cloud the water that flowed downstream. As he climbed back onto shore he stood to the side and instructed Vidal to help him wash all the mud and filth off. The rock man obliged and used a low pressure wash to spare Isak having to spend the rest of this venture caked in stinking pond scum.

“I can summon Nelli back here.” Xoco offered as she handed Isak his boots. “If you need help drying off.”

The human forgot how his hands worked only for a moment, before he mentally collected himself. He only almost fumbled his boot and instead just dropped it to start putting it on as he laughed it off and ignored any blush that might betray him. “No no the magical water from Vidal should have washed off the normal water…I think…so it should do the whole vanishing into nothing thing, but thank you!”

“No trouble at all– ISAK!” The human had only a moment to wonder if everyone shouting his name was going to become a recurring thing, before Xoco lifted him up to address him eye to eye. “LOOK AT THE SUN! We’re running out of time!”

Isak was held towards the sun but found it hard to focus from the rush of being whisked off his feet again. By Xoco. But the sudden surge of adrenaline was probably just from being lifted so quickly, and the revelation that time was starting to run low before sunset. It had absolutely nothing to do with it being Xoco to lift him off his feet and how effortlessly she did that and–

“I understand if you can’t help me out…” Citlali’s eyes fell shut as she bowed to the others and picked up her raptor. “Really, it’s no–”

“It’s fine! At least three of us can provide some light!” The other lizardfolk insisted as he cast a light spell to form a beam of light from his claw-tip, his smile suspiciously large. “And Zyn can see in the dark so-”

Zyn grunted his disagreement and shook his head after stealing a glance at the sun. “Even if we can see, we’re gonna need to hurry. We are not going to be late to stargazing.”

“Then we will have to hurry!” Xoco said as she spun Isak around, her frown and furrowed brow both told a serious story until the quick wink and the whisper that followed clued the human in. “Tonauac told us the plan while you were sinking into the mud. We have to make it convincing, right?”

“ye– Ahem, I mean yes! We need to hurry!” The jungle troll set him down on unsteady legs, though Vidal immediately held out a hand to steady the wobbling human who pointed to the horizon. “We’ll follow the edge of the jungle, I believe our next destination is overlooking the sea! Think about it! View of the sea, jungle, mountains. I would put it there!”

Citlali clapped a hand onto his shoulder, pointing towards the spot Isak had mentioned. “Forgive me for doubting you, let us be off!”

They all agreed, and shared a final hesitant glance and not between one another to silently confirm that their ‘plan’ was still underway. Isak set the pace as they took off into a jog along the jungle’s edge. Though there was still a good amount of light to light up the grassy area filled with small shrubs, the problem came in making it back to the start in good enough time once it was finally time to return.

Hence the convenient urgency that just so happened to be a convenient excuse to try and get their invisible stalker to exert themselves.

Vidal having no problem keeping up with him was not concerning, Xoco having little problem was slightly more concerning. Which of course had Isak starting to doubt every bit of this plan. Had they been too obvious and would their stalker even pursue? Maybe they would have a long enough stride that they wouldn’t exert themselves enough to be sensed by the lizardfolk. Maybe they were in good enough shape that even a sprint wasn’t going to be enough to work up a sweat. Maybe they were of a species that didn’t even sweat and they also skipped breakfast to be less detectable?

Isak’s solution was to speed up and hope for the best as he navigated around waist plants that were thankfully not carnivorous unlike some of the other jungles he had read about. Just as he was starting to hear the heavier breathing of his companions, Xoco sped up to speak to him whilst jogging.

“Nelli spotted some old stone structure up ahead!” Xoco announced between breaths.

“Patli can see the shoreline!” Tonauac added between panting. “ So maybe…?”

“Call Nelli back to us and have her lead us there. Patli too!” Isak commanded as the troll girl slowed slightly to focus on that thought to her feathered serpent. “No time to lose!”

Maybe if they knew that there weren’t two flying familiars up there keeping an eye on everything this invisible stalker might get sloppier, Isak reasoned to himself. Grass crunched underfoot and he hoped that whatever their goal was didn’t involve waiting until the best opportunity to strike. Xoco reached up an arm to the sky mid-stride and a multicolor flash flew into her arms before nestling on her neck once more.

If this was her mysterious pursuer, were they more or less likely to use violence than Isak’s? The little bit of sun still peeking over the treetops warmed his skin even as that thought put ice in his veins.