"Oh yes. A skeleton that pops up when kids pass by." Mira cackled. "It'll be great!"

"And I'll find some dry ice, and do that smoking cauldron thing from last year," Terra said. "Dress up like a witch, and hand out those gummies shaped like body parts out of the cauldron." She grinned.

Mira snickered. "Ah yes. We'll be one of the scariest houses on the block. Again." She shook her head, amused.

She did sit up part-way when she heard the clock from inside chime midnight.

Terra sat up a bit as well.

"And now it's officially not October anymore," she said.

"Yup." Mira sighed, and then paused when she saw an odd sort of ripple across the sky. "Did you see that?" Her voice lowered, although she wasn't entirely sure why.

The ripple had caught Terra's attention, as well, and she nodded.

"Yeah," she replied. "What was it?"

"I don't know." Mira sat up more to frown up at the sky. The ripple shimmered down their way until it engulfed the two girls, and Mira's wordless yelp was lost.

Terra didn't even have the chance to yelp; she had barely sat up before the ripple enveloped her completely and the world around her disappeared.

Mira sat up slowly, groaning quietly and putting a hand to her head, cracking her eyes open to look around. And then she froze. Not only was it much, much darker than it should be in the city, she didn't see anything familiar. That more than anything freaked her out, and she scrambled to her feet.

Lucius paused when he heard something else moving near them. It was larger than any of the game his son was hunting, certainly, and for a few moments he strained to hear more. It could be as harmless as a deer... then again, it could be another youkai, and there was no guarantee another youkai would be friendly. Baring his teeth briefly, he slipped after his son to collect the boy. Just in case.

Terra blinked slowly as she sat up. The thought quickly processed that no, the middle of some forest was NOT home, and she scrambled to her feet. Her breathing sped up as she realized that something was very, very wrong.

Dominic slipped through the woods, keeping to a calm and easy pace. He didn't have to go hunting, really... But he liked to, it kept his skills sharp and gave him something to do. He paused when he came across an unfamiliar scent in the trees and his wariness spiked. Humans had no place in these woods. So where had this one come from?

After picking up his squirming kitten, Lucius made his way back towards the sound. He approached cautiously, his eyes gleaming faintly in the darkness. Once he got close enough, he realized he was smelling a human. His wariness didn't abate, however. A group of humans could still be dangerous to a youkai.

Mira started looking around, desperate to find out what was going on. She couldn't see Terra, which terrified her almost as much as being in the middle of a forest.

Terra looked around quickly, squinting in the darkness for Mira. Her terror spiked when she realized her friend wasn't there, but she was too scared to call out to her. What if there was something waiting out in the woods that could (and likely would) try to kill her? She didn't want to draw attention to herself. She wrapped her arms around herself, trembling and trying to figure out what to do.

Dominic finally found where the scent of human was coming from, and stayed in the trees for a few moments to observe. It was a human girl, who seemed to be barely into adulthood, and wearing the strangest garments on her person. In addition to that, she was alone, which seemed even more unusual.

Lucius approached cautiously, keeping a safe distance back and looking at the human through the trees. He was confident he could run faster, although he knew admittedly little about humans. But there seemed to be just the one, a female, who looked barely old enough to be married. He blinked. Twice.

Mira tried to take deep breaths and calm down. There had to be a way back home. Whatever happened, however she got there, there had to be a way back home.

Then she heard something rustling in the trees and clapped a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't scream.

Terra jumped and looked around at every little sound, one hand over her mouth to keep from making any sound. There had to be something out there, and the combination of that and being alone in the woods at night was enough to scare her senseless.

Dominic just watched the human girl for a little while. He wanted to be sure there were no others coming for her before he did anything.

Lucius kept a hold on his son, keeping his attention half-focused on the girl and half-focused around them. He wanted to be sure there weren't any others around, and that a new human settlement hadn't started out here.

Mira gulped, trying to gather her courage, and slowly started to make her way through the trees. Very slowly. She couldn't see the trees until she was very close to them, so she was definitely taking her time.

After a few more moments of stunned terror, Terra cautiously started to walk through the trees. Maybe she could find her way out of them and back into civilization. And maybe hell would freeze over, but still.

Dominic kept watching the girl. She didn't seem to have any sort of destination as she wandered, nor did she look like she had any sort of protection. As the moments passed, be became more and more certain that she was alone.

Lucius watched her, hissing softly at his kit when the little boy started squirming to be put down.

"Quiet, Aidan," he murmured, too quietly for the human to hear. "Not now."

Aidan pouted but didn't say anything else, wiggling a bit until his father flicked one ear to make him stop.

Mira kept stumbling around, managing not to run headlong into any trees. She did, however, trip over roots more than once, and she hissed quietly when she scraped her palms. Great. Now she'd probably get some weird infection from being in the middle of nowhere.

Terra wasn't all that adventurous in her wanderings; she kept to as straight a line as she could, and did her best not to walk into any trees. Every little sound startled her, and her breathing was still fast and kind of shallow. She yelped when she tripped over a dip in the ground and landed hard on her side.

Dominic watched for a few moments longer before he slowly approached the human girl. Once he was close enough for her to hear him, he began to let his footsteps make noise.

"Are you lost?" he asked as he came through the trees.

Lucius followed her carefully, keeping his distance. She didn't look very confident, and he could smell her fear. He blinked once. That was... not what he was expecting. Perhaps she was alone?

Then he hissed as Aidan slipped out of his grasp, trotting away from him and over to the human.

"Are you lost?" Aidan blinked as he approached the human.

Mira just barely stifled her shriek, whirling around to look at him and almost falling over again. She caught herself against a tree, looking at him with huge eyes.

"Yeah," she said slowly. "I am. Do you know the area?"

Terra jumped and muffled a shriek when the boy came out of nowhere, and she scrambled back to her feet. Or tried to, at least; pain shot out from her left ankle when she put her weight on it, making her lean against a nearby tree.

"Where did you come from?" she finally asked, watching the child.

Dominic nodded once.

"I know it," he responded carefully. "How did you get lost here?"

"I'm out with my papa!" Aidan grinned, showing one missing front tooth.

Lucius stalked over and scooped up his son again. "My apologies," he said quietly. "My son meant no harm."

Mira was quiet for a few moments. "I'm... not sure," she said quietly. "I don't know how I got here." She looked around, clearly bewildered.

"N-no," Terra said, "it's okay... I think I tripped on something." She looked around for a moment, but she couldn't see much of anything in the dark. She looked back at them. "I have no idea where I am..."

"You're quite a ways into the forest," Dominic said. "Where did you come from? Are you alone?"

Lucius frowned. It was impossible for a human to get lost in the forest without knowing she'd gone into the forest. "You're in the forest," he said, quirking an eyebrow at her. "The nearest human settlement is nearly a day's walk from here."

Mira shook her head, still looking confused. "I don't know," she said quietly. "I was at home, with my friend... and then I was here. I don't... I don't know what happened. And I don't know where she is."

Terra blinked as her brain worked frantically to process that information. Forest? A days' walk? Human settlement?

"I don't understand," she said faintly. "Where am I?"

"A friend?" Dominic asked. He shook his head a bit. "I have not seen any others. Only you. Are you sure you don't know how you got here? You are quite a ways from the nearest human village."

Lucius sighed. Great. Of course he managed to stumble across the one human who had no idea what was going on. Rolling his eyes, he looked down at her, tilting his head a little so his pointed ears were visible.

"I've told you where you are," he said with a little rumble. "I don't understand your confusion."

"No, I have no... idea..." Mira slowed and then blinked, his last few words actually processing in her brain. "Wait. Wait. Human village? What do you mean by that?" Her eyes were comically wide as she tried desperately to come to some sort of rational conclusion.