Time For An Adventure!

     Maila rushed over to Orkijace's quivering body. "What's wrong Orkijace!" she yelped. "What happened?" Orkijace slowly glanced up to meet Maila's eyes.

"I- I just," she started. "I- just can't explain it, it got me." she said with her voice quiet and shaky. Maila looked up to see Airibone slowly walking to the forest again. I don't care right now, I can't. But, to Maila's relief, before she looked away, she saw Tarska hurrying after Airibone with a worried expression.

"We have to get Orkijace to Oouger's hut!" Obalie said as she appeared beside Maila. Together, they lifted Orkijace and dumped her onto their backs. How did this happen? She thought.

"We were so close!" Maila huffed in frustration. Obalie looked at her with a sympathetic expression on her face.

A minute later, Maila heard that weird giggle again as they were walking. No! Not now! Not again! She thought furiously. And soon enough, Tarska and Airibone both collapsed the same way as Orkijace did!

"NO!" Maila barked. "We're almost there!" she said through gritted teeth. Obalie looked at her again. But, as Maila looked into Obalie's eyes, she noticed that out of nowhere, they went blank and Obalie started to sprint away! "What!" Maila yelled as Orkijace slid off of her back. "Obalie!? You too!" All that she knew was get to the hut! Tell Oouger! Get to the hut! Tell Oouger! She felt bad leaving them all like this, but Oouger might know what to do!

While she was running, that giggle started to come back. NO! NO! NO! Maila started to run faster, and faster, and faster! She had to get away from that giggle thing! After she picked up speed, the voice began to yell.

"No! You get back here! I'm not fini-" it started, but the wind took the other words away. Maila was almost there now, she could start to see two more shapes beside the shape of the hut appear.

That must be either Oouger and his dad, or Oouger and Silvics! She thought. But, as she came closer, she saw that it was in fact, Oouger and Silvics. Good, she thought. More than one! It's still Silvics- but it's better than just Oouger! When she got close enough, she thought she might be in his ear range.

"Oouger!" she cried. "It's me, Maila!" she bellowed as she just missed running into Silvics. Oouger turned his head to look at her. A large smile flew across his face.

"Maila!" he howled. "You came to see us!" he walked over to her. When he spread his arms out for a hug, she pulled herself away from him.

"Ya! So did everyone over there too!" she said panting, as she pointed over at the heap of bodies, that were somehow her quivering friends.

Silvics gasped and tore her gaze back to Maila. "What happened to them?" she asked with a worried expression on her face. Maila backed up so she could see both of them.

"I don't know! There was some weird voice and-" she started but stopped as Oouger frowned and ran to his hut. "Oouger?" she interrupted herself. He ducked into the hut, and a few seconds later, he came out with something in his paws.

"I think I know what it is." he said. "How long has the been happening?" he asked.

"Well," Maila said. "About an hour ago, Airibone and Orkijace began to act a bit weird. But, I've only been hearing the voice for a few minutes." she answered. Oouger nodded and ran back into the hut. When he returned he had another thing in his hand, a book.

"This will tell you two anything you need to know." he spoke in a hurried way. "I'm going to go try and kill that possessor, who ever it is." he finished as he started to run towards thegroup. "They don't have much time left!" he called back to them. Maila decided it would be a good idea to go and bring her friends here, to the hut.

"Silvics, can you help me?" she said as she turned her gaze over to Silvics. She nodded, understanding what Maila meant. As they walked over, they started to hear that voice again,

"Oh, good. You came back for me . . . How nice!" Maila turned and saw a weird movement occur, mid-air.

"It's over here Oouger!" she called. Oouger spun around and began to run up to them.

"Tanks." he panted. Oouger took the thing that was in his paws before, and held it up towards the area she saw the movement in. "This will suck it in, and vaporize it." he said "I think my Dad said that one of them has been trying to get into our territory for a while. "

Maila and Silvics exchanged glances. they realized that they weren't doing what they planned. Together, the two of them continued to walk over to Orkijace, because she was the closest.

"Th-Thank You," Orkijace said a bit stronger. "Thank you a lot. A- a lot." Orkijace seemed to be recovering from collapsing. She closed her eyes and smiled.

                                                            * ~ * ~ *

After they brought everybody back to the hut, Oouger was still running around with the 'vaporizer'. I should go out and help him. She thought, Maila began to walk over to Oouger, but she was stopped.

"No, you can't help Maila." Tarska advised from behind her. "You don't know how. He needs to worry about the possessor, not you." She was right, Maila would just be making things worse. But, she didn't want to look silly.

"No- I know." she said. ""I, I was just going to go look for more berries. If you haven't noticed, we're running out of them." she argued.

"Uh," Tarska said sarcastically. "You should wait to tell Oouger, at least to see if it's ok."

Maila knew that! She wasn't stupid or anything. She was however, hungry. She'd only noticed when she mentioned in though. Maybe that's why she was so grumpy.

"It'll be fine," Maila said calmly. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "When he gets back back, you can simply just tell him where I went." she raised an eyebrow and strutted out of the hut. It seemed like Airibone had been eavesdropping, and chimed in to their conversation.

"Just remember to stay near us, I hear it's easy to get lost in a forest!" she peeped. Maila turned and smiled at her friend.

"Don't worry Airibone," she said as she walked over to her. Maila spread her arms and gave Airibone a hug. "I'll be right over there." Maila pointed over to a section of the forest that looked like there may be berries growing.

Maila walked over, across the blue, swaying grass to the edge of the forbidden forest. She looked up at the tall, towering tree that stood strong above her. The forbidden forest wasn't actually forbidden to enter, it was just advised to stay out of it.

Maila craned her neck to see, a small ways into the brush, a hint of round, bulbous fruit growing at the base of a stump. She took a frightening step into the dark, shady, terrifying, yet fairly bioluminescent forest. The ground felt moist and soft under her paw, as she realized that the light of day, was slipping into night. Oh no, she thought. That would cause a lot of unnecessary danger for her! But, the berries are right there! she taunted herself. Oh, I'll just run in and grab them!

Maila forced herself to sprint into the vast undergrowth. It was getting pretty dark in there.

But, just as Maila realized that, everything sprang into life, and lit up! It scared Maila so bad, she almost leaped out of her skin! She recovered quickly, and peered around at the still beauty that was now surrounding her.

"Wow." she couldn't tear her gaze away, it was amazing. It was like she clouds had just rained light on everything. Oh! she realized with a start. The berries! I forgot!

Where did they go? Maila thought they were right where she was standing. She quickly checked that she wasn't already holding them, (she has done that before!) but they weren't there. In confusion, she turned in circles looking, until she got dizzy.

"I guess they weren't berries." she said to herself with a shrug. Maila turned around, after deciding to go back to her friends but, couldn't seem to remember which way she had came! The glowing, beautiful, forest was so dense, that every way she turned, all that she could see was trees. A jolt of pure terror shot through her, oh no! No! n-n-n-n-no! This is not happening! It CAN'T be happening, No!

Maila could feel the sweat pouring down her forehead. She glanced around again. Maila's stomached twisted into a violent knot as she pounded the forest floor in frustration.

"Help! Airibone! Where are you?" Maila called. After an eternity of calling, a tear slid gently down her face, through the strands of fur resting on her cheek. Her eyes began to water, Maila walked over to a large tree hollow and curled up inside. She felt herself drift into a tired state, but she was terrified to let her guard down.

She was so sleepy, but she swore that every time she closed her eyes, a twig snapped close by. Then she heard it. Something was skippering outside of the tree.

Maila slowly stepped out of the tree hollow, snarling violently. Oh no, what if I die in here? She thought to herself.

"Hey!" Maila snarled. "Who goes there?!" Oh wow, how cheesy was that! Maila realized. "Uh, I mean," she corrected herself. "Show yourself!" Maila realized what she had just said. "O-or leave!" she demanded stuttering. Maila took another step towards the noise. She stomped down on the glowing grass, and it lit up brighter. She could see the creature now.

"Squeak, Squ-squeak!" it whimpered. Maila squinted to see the animal in front of her, it was quite small. Maila walked over, and picked it up by the tail. It had white-ish blue fur with blue/turquoise pads on the base of its paws, and four, long, droopy ears. It was holding something in its front paws. The fruit!

"You took it!" Maila roared. She was so upset she dropped the animal and it sprinted away. Maila didn't care, she ran after it! I don't need a hiding spot, right? All I need is my teeth and my claws. She thought to herself motivationaly. She lost track of the creature after a few minutes.

"Errah!" she belted in frustration. Another thing had left her. Well, this one escaped her. But, she had to chase it, it stole her berry, she risked her life for that berry! And her life was still at risk, in this deadly forest. She glanced around, one last time and decided to get some rest.

Maila trotted over to a dense tangle of vines, made sure nothing was in them, and jumped up into the deep, stringy, coziness they provided. As Maila drifted to sleep, she thought she saw something run past her. All she could think was, that must have been that frustrating, fruit stealing, stupid creature of some sort! As her brow lowered, attempting to snarl, so did her eyes, and she slipped into a deep slumber . . .