The Tropical Mystery

[Kirsui]

Tef simel to Pulsar from her tree.
"Don't go that way Pulsar!" she shouted.
"There's only water. Turn a bit left and you'll find some rocks pointing out from the water. You can step on them, but they might be a bit slippy!"

She then looked at Keplar.
"Hey Kep! You hear me?!" she asked.
"There's a small iland on your right. You should be able to see it. There's some trees growing in it."

[Deleted]

Misteeca smiled at Pulsar and tried not to let out a little laugh. She then followed him. She heard Tef's Directions and felt around for the first rock.
" Can you see them Pulse?" Misty said staring at the ground around her.

[Pulsar]

Pulsar felt along the ground “No I can’t feel anythiiiing! Wow! AHH!” Pulsar slipped on one of the stones and fell into the water. “PLach! Aww that stuff tastes nasty!” He said quickly paddling his way back to land and climbing out of the water. He began spitting. “Yuck, that taste is gonna be in my mouth for ages now…” He let out a sigh. “Well on the upside I found the rocks Tefnut was talking about…” He said smiling.

[Deleted]

Misty giggled.
" Yeah.. thats the good thing.."
" Do we keep walking straight on the rocks??" Misty yelled up to Tefnut.

[Kirsui]

Tef looked a bit foward for the oath of rocks.
"There's about ten rocks in line but then they go to right. You shouldn't have problems to follow them from the 11th one, the rocks turn nearly to a little path, they're so close to each other."
Then she looked around.
"I'll move to next tree for better view!" she shouted and started moving. She very carefully jumpped from her tree to the one next to it.
Right, she thought and turned to look to the others, here I see them a bit better.

[Prince of Pridelands]

Keplar could not see any of his comrades but he could hear their voices although he couldn't make out what they were saying. Their voices echoed all around the swamp making it hard to figure out their exact direction. He was about to respond when he saw a figure approaching him. It turned out to be a lioness. She looked to be a pridelander... and very beautiful. She approached close to Keplar making him nervous. She looked him over, smiled, and motioned for him to follow her. Keplar did so. She led him through difficult terrain and harsh vegetation to a somewhat secluded spot. She went and sat next to a carcass, facing Kepler. She had a sad expression this time. She looked at the carcass, then at Keplar, then lowered her head to the ground and started crying. Keplar examined the carcass. It belonged to a lioness. There was no flesh... possibly eaten away. Bones were visible and only some patches of her coat were left. The rest had decomposed. A look at the face surprised Keplar. The carcass's face and that of the sad lioness looked exactly identical! He thought it must have been her twin sister, but he was wrong. He went to comfort the depressed lioness, but when he attempted to pat her back, his paw went through her as if it touched nothing but air! Out of shock Keplar stood stone still, his eyes and mouth wide open.
"Please be careful." The lioness whispered in his ear and licked him softly. Then she vanished before his eyes. Dissolved into the very mist she came from. The carcass however, remained where it was. Keplar, spooked out of his skull, ran as far away from the site as possible. After regaining his senses he though about where to look for his friends.

[Kirsui]

Tef looked around. She saw Misty and Pulsar.
"Where's Kep?" she whispered and tried to look for him. Just a moment ago she had seen him standing in the fog but now he had vanished.
"Kep, where are you?!" she shouted.
"KEPLAR?!"

[Prince of Pridelands]

Keplar now truly had lost himself. He could still hear his friend's shouts but couldn't make out where they were coming from.
"Hey guys! Can you hear me?" he shouted back. He did not know whether they had heard him or not or whether they would be able to find him. He picked a random direction and walked hoping to run into his friends. He also prayed that he wouldn't run into any more spirits or the like.

[Deleted]

Misteeca started sprinting over the rocks. Her front paw slipped into the water at one stage but she kept running until she reached the other side of the water. Although she couldn't see where she was going.. she had made it.
" Pulse, come on..." Misty urged Pulsar to come across the stepping stones so they could set off on another adventure to find Keplar, hopefully without any Giant spiders this time.

[Kirsui]

Tefnut was worried. She moved to another tree and hoped she would see Keplar from there a bit better. All the time she made sure she could see Pulsar and Misteeca.
The trees became slippery. Tef had to stick to the tree with her claws and hope she wouldn't fall down.
"Keplar, can you hear me?!" she shouted again.
"Where are you Keplar?!"

[Pulsar]

Pulsar stood back a moment and took in a breath.
It’s only running across stone, nothing to difficult….. Hmmm but I don’t want to fall into the water, who knows what’s in it…
Pulsar took sprint and ran across the rocks, he was almost at Misteeca when he slipped on the last rock, thankfully and to much of Pulsar’s happiness, he landed not in the water, but fell forward onto the ground and slid along, coming to a stop in front of Misty. Opening his eyes he looked up and smiled at her, then he looked back at the water and let out a sigh of relief. Standing up slowly he looked at her.
“What?”
He said confused.
“I slipped that’s all…”
He said slightly embarrassed. Then he frowned as he realised that they had lost Keplar.
“Where is Keplar?”
He asked looking around.

[Prince of Pridelands]

Things were not going good for Keplar. The swamp was affecting him somehow. While walking he could see the silouhette of Misty.
"Hey Misty! There you are! I've been looking all over for..." but when he got closer it turned out to be a hallucination since there wasn't anything there. At one time he could have sworn he saw Pulsar.
"Pulsar? Is that you?" he called... alas, it was his eyes playing tricks on him again as he found out when he went a little closer.
"Why is this happening?" thought Keplar as he walked while looking behind to make sure nothing was following. When he looked forward he jumped a few feet in shock. There was a very muscular lion standing there looking menacingly at him.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" said the lion. His voice was very deep and in Keplar's opinion he looked and sounded much like the great king Mufasa who died some years ago.
"I... My name's Keplar. I'm really lost right now. I was looking for my friends who are near here."
"You must leave now! This is not a safe place!" he said in a tone that showed he meant business.
"But I must find my friends first! Could you help me find them?" asked Keplar hopefully. The bigger lion looked at Keplar for a while as if in deep thought... then finally he spoke:
"Very well... but when we find them, you will leave immediately!"
"So are you going to kill us if we don't leave?"
"Its not what I'm going to do... its what the jungle might do to you that I'm worried about." Keplar and the lion walked together in search of Misty, Pulsar and Tefnut.

[Kirsui]

Tef was getting worried. She couldn't see Keplar anywhere.
She changed her tree again. She looked around and kept closely eye on Misty and Pulsar. Then she suddenly heared a ckracking noise behing her. Scared she turned to look, but it was too late. The branch she was on broke and she fell to the water. As she came to surface she saw an iland not far from her. She quickly swam to it and shook the water away from her coat.
"Oh, great" she said annoyed. "Now I'm stuck in the middle of the fog!"
Then she heared talking. She headed to the direction of it and saw Keplar.
"Kep!" she shouted and ran to him. "You all right?"
Then she looked around a bit confused.
"Who were you talking to? I can't see anyone nearby..."

[Prince of Pridelands]

"Oh thank goodness!" Keplar sighed in relief.
"Hey Tef! I'm glad to see you here I thought I was lost. Yes I'm okay... thanks!". Then Tefnut commented on the talking.
"What do you mean who am I talking to? I was talking with...!!!". Keplar looked and pointed behind him... but Tefnut was right. The big lion wasn't there!
"... Oh no... another... ghost?!" Keplar said in a weak voice and fainted in front of Tefnut.

[Kirsui]

"Ghost?" Tef asked confused. Then she saw Keplar fainting.
"Kep!" she shouted out.
What is going on? she thought. Wha did he mean by a ghost?
Luckily the water was near by nd Tef splashed some of it to Keplar's face, hoping it would wake him up. She had an odd feeling about this place and she felt like someone was watching her.
I'm just imagining, she thought and tried to calm down. There's no such thing as a ghost...

[Prince of Pridelands]

"Cough cough!" Keplar woke up suddenly, still wearing an expression of fear.
"Tefnut do you know where the others are? We have to fetch them and get to the other side of the swamp quickly. I have a real bad feeling about this place." he said to Tefnut nervously.

[Kirsui]

Tef looked around. She couldn't see anything in the fog.
"I'm not sure where they are" she replied a bit worriedly. She tried to think the directions.
"I think they might be there" she said finally and pointed to the direction she thought Pulsar and Misty were.
"I'm not absolutely sure, but if I remember right I saw them there before I fell from the tree."

[Deleted]

Misteeca looked around. "Which way should we go??" She whispered to Pulsar.
She then heard talking and started running in the direction it came from.
"C'mon pulse!" She yelled behind her while still running.

(short T_T eekk)

[Pulsar]

Pulsar just looked at Misteeca and nodded. Then he ran after her as she chased the voice in the direction it seemed to be coming from.
I hope this is Keplar or Tef even. I had enough surprises from this infernal jungle for one day…
Pulsar thought as they raced towards the voices.
“Keplar! Tef! Is that you!?”
He shouted, hoping to get a positive response.

[Kirsui]

Tef heard shouting.
"Pulsar? Misteeca?" she shouted back.
"We're here! I'm with Keplar!"
She looked at the direction of the shouting and saw two figures approaching her and Keplar. She hoped they were Pulsar and Misty. This swamp was making her nervous and she wanted to get away from there.

[Deleted]

Misteeca heard Seleeter''s voice and skidded to a hault as she saw her figure.
She smiled as she looked at Seleeter who was know right infront of her.
Misty saw someone next to her and saw it was Keplar.
SHe hugged him then looked at him.
"Stop running off like that!!" Misty smiled at him.
"With all this rushing around.. i forgot why we wanted to find a swamp in the first place..?"
She laughed after that then looked at the others hoping they would remember.

[Kirsui]

Tef thought about that for a moment. She closed her eyes and tried to remember why they had come to the swamp.
"In the cave where the spiders lived..." she finally said. "There was this dead lioness who had swamp mud on her paws."
She opened her eyes and looked to the others.
"Then I said that there was only one swamp near by and we came here."
She sighed.
"So, what next?" she asked. "If we want to find your friends then where to continue searching?"

[Deleted]

Misteeca nodded. "yes that's right..." She said and looked around.
She took a step forward and sniffed the ground.
"Well, look for any sign of someone passing by.. and followe the trail?" Misty suggested.

[Prince of Pridelands]

Keplar heard Misty's call and before he could say anything Tefnut was on the move so Keplar followed closely. He saw Misty and Pulsar and Misty suddenlly hugged him. This surprised him but neverthless he returned the warm hug. He was just glad they were together once again.

"I'll try not to get lost again. Heh, sorry about that." He listened to Misty's suggestion of waiting for someone.

"I don't think so Misty. We should get out of here as soon as possible. Besides, there is zero chance anyone would be passing by anytime soon. We have to reach the other side of the swamp fast. And this time guys, lets try to stick together, ok?" He turned to face the direction they were supposed to go, where there lay a wide path that, presumably, led to the other side.

"Cmon guys, lets not stay here too long. Who knows what could happen next?" he said as he advanced forward on the path.

[Pulsar]

Pulsar paused.
“Wait Keplar…. Are you sure that way is the RIGHT way out of here?”
Pulsar asked concerned as he looked around. He had a funny feeling it might have been in another direction.
“Not that I’m questioning your navigation skills, it’s just, I’d rather not get any deeper into this swamp then we already are…”
He said as he looked back at Keplar.

[Prince of Pridelands]

He looked at Pulsar as he asked the question. "No I'm not sure if this is the right way but we haven't tried it yet. I can understand why you doubt me but if you have a better idea then lets hear it... if not then I suggest we move along." He said and slowly started walking the path, while keeping his ears open if anyone had any suggestions.

[Deleted]

"I have an idea..." Misteeca said.
"If Tef goes up in a tree and if she can see down.. maybe she can see the correct path..?" She stared at them all blankly.

[Prince of Pridelands]

Keplar looked around, then back at Misty.
"Nice idea Misty, but I dont see tall enough trees nearby. And besides, we'll need Tef with us in case anything happens."

He looked back towards the path again.
"well... I dunno about you guys but I'm moving on... lets go."

[Kirsui]

Tefnut smiled at Misty as she made the suggestion of her climbing up to the tree.
"Keplar's right, it will be better if I stayed with you guys" she said. "Besides, I already fell from there. I don't think it's safe to climb at the trees over here."
She still smiled at Misty as she started following Keplar.

[Prince of Pridelands]

The path, like the rest of the swamp, was foggy. The view being heavily obstructed forced the four to walk slowly. It was just too eerie... as if something would just hop out and kill them. More animal carcasses became visible on the shores of the path. They had been washed up by the water that was present on both sides of the path. Fortunately they were only of buffalo, antelope and the like. No lioness in them. But that didnt rule out the fact that there were other predators here. Now whether they were smaller or bigger than Keplar's group was unknown.