Door 4 - The Forest Green Forest

[Venom3001]

"I'm... pretty sure there are betters ways to go about this," Mason commented, awkwardly cross his arms by shifting the golem arm's mass to the shoulder.  

[NativeForeigner]

"The Majesty." Shepard corrected, "The Majesty of Colours. They won't be able to get you out of here, but they can tell you what's happening, what has happened."

Ro began to stir as Gwen examined him. She found no blood and his pupils seemed fine, he just had a bump on his head from where Henry had hit him. Ro moaned without opening his eyes, "Where am I?" he mumbled.

Cindy was standing and stretching, not doing much else until her attention drifted to the same sound that Juliet was hearing. "What the hell?" she whispered, "That sounds a little like..."

"Smith!" Shepard finished, "What the hell is he doing here? Doesn't he have a team to take care of? You guys get ready, I'll be back in a bit." he instructed as he hopped from the treehouse to the ground and took off towards the direction of the sound.  

[Elesariin]

Gwen breathed a sigh of relief. They'd be able to move him without any negative side effects; his neck seemed alright, as well. She started a bit when he groaned and spoke (she hadn't realized that he was so close to waking up), but tried to sound as reassuring as she answered him. "You're in a treehouse through one of the doors." Realizing that this probably wouldn't mean much, she hurriedly added, "You're safe. With the Workmen." She still wasn't sure how she felt about being added to that side of the war, but it had to be better than being on the other side. Anyway, she had to check on Juliet's father. "Try to relax. You took quite a hit to the head."  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Shepard sprinted down the path, making little noise but not as silent as Carpenter could be if he tried. Soon enough, he could see the two other Workmen standing at a crossroad, looking lost.

"SMIIIIIIIIIIITH!" Shepard roared as he closed on them rapidly. "CLENCH THOSE TEEEEEEEEEEEETH!" When he was close enough, he launched himself into the air and shot a hard jab forward, straight into Mason's jaw and sending him sprawling from the force. Mason flew a good ten feet and Shepard skidded to a halt not far away. The huge Workman forced himself up, cracking his jaw.

"Shepard!" he said. "What the hell, man!" He checked to see if his lip was bleeding; it wasn't.

"My bad," Shepard sniffed with fake dismissal. "I can't tell you giant dudes apart most days." He broke into a smile and punched Mason lightly on the shoulder as he got up. "Anyway, let's get to the Treehouse. We're about to leave to see the Majesty. Hurry up."

He led the way back.  

[Venom3001]

Mason tapped Shephard's shoulder and punched him in the torso lightly (for him), sending Shephard flying into a tree. Smiling, he replied, "Now we're even. Let's go."  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Such a baby," Shepard chuckled as he dusted himself off. Unfazed? Completely.  

[SirBayer]

"Possibly," Smith acknowledged before Shepard came flying in. In preparation to receive the blow, he had gone for his ROUS, but finding it unnecessary, had stowed it back away.

"Yay!" he declared. "We're all badasses." He followed, whistling a tune that no one quite recognized.  

[Miss Aeriya]

"So, uh, seriously," Juliet asked, turning back to her father. "Is he... going to wake up any time soon? How long has he been out of it?"  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell started going down the ladder of the tree house. They were going to leave soon anyway. I'd like a little time away from the others. It wasn't that she didn't like the others, but she was stressed. Being around people would only irritate her more. It's not their fault that I'm in this mess. The only one to blame was herself...and Alex. It's not his fault. But a tiny voice in her head reminded her that HE was the one to run away. HE was the one that had to explore the mansion. HE was the one that ignored her suggestions of leaving the mansion earlier on.

Then let's blame his mother for contacting me. Or myself for not dragging the boy out. The zombies for attacking. The Blame Game was not going to help anyone out. She knew this. With a tiny sigh, she pushed her resentful feelings towards the back of her mind.

Something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. "What the...?"

It was a mass pile of bugs. All sorts were gathered around a little ways from the tree house. Curiosity got the better of Ton'yell, so she walked closer to the bugs. At the furthest edge was a cricket and holding up some sort of black square. Ton'yell would never understand what was going on, but she found the whole thing strange.
-----

Pierre, on the other hand, knew exactly what was going on. If he had human hands, he'd have face palmed at the sight. The bugs were selling of pieces of Ton'yell's hair in the form of blankets and capes. The cricket was getting good business from the hair as well. It's her fault for cutting off her hair. Hopefully none of the bugs would get the idea to climb up his Lady - he'd shoot acid at them in a millisecond. She was too precious for the likes of their grubby legs to climb; and she was still getting used to the love of his fellow bugs. Best not to overwhelm our Lady with our enthusiasm.

He wished that they'd made a Napoleonic hat out of the hair. He'd have gone up to the cricket and paid whatever price to get that hat. Alas, he'd have to wait until the spider's (she'd been stitching up the hair from beside the cricket) abilities improved before he could get his hat.  

[NativeForeigner]

Ro winced, made a groaning noise, and rolled over planting his face into the blankets of the bed.
"So what's happened?" he finally asked to no one in particular, his voice muffled by the covers.

After several minutes of walking, Shepard, Smith, and Mason came to the sudden realization that they had gone the wrong way. Oops.  

[SiberDrac]

Alex decided to slip out quietly after Ton'yell. He wasn't comfortable in the tree house. Too many strange people, even if Jesse had no problems with them in the least.

After climbing carefully down the ladder, the boy quietly stood next to Ton'yell, eyes agape at the mass of insects. "Miss Jordan..." he said softly, "what's going on?" That was... just strange, and the fact that they were all the same as the tiny, agitated creature on her shoulder only confused him further.

Alex realized that he hadn't drunk anything while in the treehouse, suddenly. His throat was parched, but he looked back up at the house and realized he didn't want to have to climb all the way up there. A feeling like that of a trickle of water rolling down his skin started along the boy's arms, and he looked one, wondering what could have hit him. There was nothing there, it just made him want to move his arm some way. It felt silly, but he eventually gave in, cupping both hands in front of him as though asking for a cookie at communion.

The air shimmered, and dried out around his face, and then there in his hands was crystal-clear water. Shocked at the sudden wetness, he dropped the stuff with a yelp of surprise, splashing his feet and Ton'yell's. "What...?"

You should... try it.

And if it kills me?

You... won't be thirsty anymore?

...true.

Tentatively, Alex brought his hand to his lips and licked it, getting a little of the residual liquid. As far as he could tell, it was water. Good water, too.

A sudden, quiet excitement took hold of the boy, and he ignored Ton'yell for the next minute, while he took conscious hold of this new power, guiding it to his command, gently, like giving a pat on the cheek to an elephant, or enticing a squirrel with a candy bar. After those few minutes, he again had his hands full of water, and drank deeply of it, grinning to himself as he did, and then looking around the clearing with bright eyes. This was perhaps not such a bad place after all.  

[NativeForeigner]

"I don't know about any of you" Cindy began, "But I'm starting to feel a little hungry. Anyone up for getting some food and water with me?"  

[Isa-sama]

((THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR - GO GO GO!))

Ton'yell's attention quickly returned to Alex after feeling something wet hit her shoes. How's he making the water? She watched as he drew more water into his palms and drank the liquid. Okay. So Alex can make water. And then there was that lightning thing. Sure. That's relatively normal for this place. "I wish we didn't have to wait on them to meet the Majesty of Colors." The others were taking quite a while to get down and move.

All of a sudden, the wriggling bugs froze. Then slowly turned around. I have the strangest feeling that they're looking at me. It was creepy to say the least.

If Pierre had hair, he'd have tried pulling it out. This was not good. They had heard his Lady speak! PRETTY (for a human)!!! The group of bugs started scurrying over to the two humans and orange beetle. Well, we're screwed. He didn't have enough acid to kill all the bugs.

Ton'yell started to back away. There was a bit of chirping and the bug swarm kept getting closer. "S-stay back!" Why the hell am I speaking to bugs? Normally she'd have smacked herself for doing something so foolish, but miraculously, the bugs listened. Huh?!

"You...can understand me?" The bugs did nothing. Why are they listening to me? "Um, would you please stay back there?" It felt weird to have insects obeying her. They hesitated (am I starting to understand them too?), and then slowly crawled towards Ton'yell again.

Pierre huffed in annoyance and crawled down Ton'yell's arm. She automatically brought her hand up so that Pierre wouldn't fall off. A platform is perfect for this. Now if only I had that hat. Standing proudly in Ton'yell's palm, Pierre screeched at the group of bugs. MY FELLOW BUGS! Listen to our Lady! She is weary, afraid, and still doesn't understand us. I am her guardian and I insist that you. All. Back. Off.

A few seconds passed by before Pierre heard the sounds of disgruntled bugs. There. Now our Lady shouldn't be scared.

And indeed, Ton'yell relaxed. Pierre must have said something to get them to stop moving closer to her. Would a screech constitute as a string of curses? Do bugs even curse? She turned to look at Alex. "Did you see a group of bugs listen to me within the past minute?"

Alex nodded. "Good," she replied. Not crazy yet.

Wait. They understand me. They know this forest. They likely know all the people that live here. "Excuse me, do you know the way to the Majesty of Colors?" The bugs started to chirp excitedly again before making an arrow pointing in a certain direction. Again. I'm taking advice from a bug again. "Thank you."

The bugs went back to their original spot and returned to their weird little auction.  

[NativeForeigner]

"I'm getting food..." Ro mumbled as he pushed himself to his feet and stumbled his way down to the ladder and climbed to the ground. Cindy was quick to follow.

"Keep an eye out for any brown beetles or blue ones." Cindy informed him. She twisted to face the treehouse and cupped her hand by her mouth, "We have to get going, everyone. We'll be fine without the Workmen and they'll be fine without us. I know the way and we'll meet Carpenter there."

With that, Cindy began going towards the direction that bugs (unknown to her) had pointed out to Ton'yell. Ro shuffled along a short distance behind her.

"Food..." he mumbled almost incomprehensibly as he rubbed his eyes. He held them shut for a moment before opening them wide and blinking rapidly. He glanced about the forest whilst following Cindy. To his right, he saw a vague, yellow-brownish outline glowing through the trees. He squinted before rubbing his eyes again.

"Food?" he repeated, trailing off towards the outlines. As he drew near, the sound of a trickling creek grew louder and several light blue outlines began to show through.

He pushed through the foliage and came across a clearing with small creek, about three feet across, running through it, intersecting Cindy's path. Upon stumbling across the creek, Ro also discover several beetles of an unknown kind inhabiting it.

Amongst the trees and grass were a number of large brown beetles with large mandibles. In comparison to the previously-known orange beetles, these brown beetles were a little less than three times the size.

Within the creek and along the bank were some beetles with a light-blue tinge to their shells. They were the same size as an orange beetle and blended in well with the water.

Cindy came along the bank of the creek wielding a knife and headed for the nearest brown beetle. Without hesitation she stabbed it, removed her knife, and headed for the next.

After the second was killed, the others began to scatter. Cindy simply drew her handgun and, with seven well-placed shots, killed seven more for a total of nine.

"Good find, Ro!"

"Food?"

"Of course! Tastes just like beef jerky. You don't have to cook it, either."

She holstered her weapon and began to strip her kills of their shells and separated the meat from the apparently non-edible portions of the beetle. After which she handed the load to Ro and began gathering up blue beetles without killing them. They seemed rather docile.

Ro managed to maneuver a piece of flesh into his mouth and began to chew. It tasted like moist beef jerky.

"Wha ah dose for?" he asked, his mouth full.

"Water." she answered, standing up with her bounty of beetles. Several tried to escape and many succeeded, but she managed to hand on to several. "Let's get back to the others, we've all wasted enough time.

By this time, everyone had climbed down from the treehouse and were following behind Ton'yell. Ro and Cindy emerged from the forest and onto the path just in time to intercept them.

Upon entering Ton'yell's presence, the blue beetles in Cindy's arms suddenly livened up and managed to escape from Cindy and made their way quickly to Ton'yell. Wary of Pierre, they held their ground at Ton'yell's feet.  

[Elesariin]

Gwen's first instinct had been to trail after Cindy, but instead she stuck behind and checked up on Juliet's dad. Funnily enough, she couldn't find anything wrong with him. Nothing. Not even a bump on the head, like the boy from her school. Pushing her glasses back into place, she shook her head. "I think... It's just exhaustion. He should be okay to move, but he should start forcing fluids as soon as he wakes up."