"Strange." Ryn commented. "Once the rest of the camp is dismantled we can be on our way. As long as Lei is at the cave, I can track her to the cave." Ryn threw his backpack over his shoulder and kicked more dirt onto the smoldering coals, not satisfied in his previous attempts to hide them.

Lei shook her head. The black magic wasn't strong here at all, but it was still there a little. Exhausted, she plopped down at the mouth of the cave. "I cannot tell the nature of the magic, only that it's there and it doesn't like me much." Lei rubbed her eyes, but was nervous when her fingers came back black. She casually wiped it off on her pant leg. Slipping back into her mindsight she looked into the cave. "Clear. Nothing but bats and rats." Lei commented lightly. "I guess now we sit and wait."

After the twins were done, they quickly unduplicated themselves. They both nodded, statsified with their work. "All done!" Kyle called out to Ryn, even if they weren't to far from were he was standing. "Does this mean we get to go to the cave now?" Lexi asked.

(Sorry it's short. I have to go soon, but I wanted to post before I left XD)

Rose nodded and quickly went to work on the rest of the camp. She kept an ear turned out and her nose in the air though. It truely was strange that she could hear nothing. The insects had even left. When she was done hiding or packing everything she could she walked around the camp. You could still see traces that people had been here but when the others were done she planned on changing. She would walk around a bit and cover things and leave her prints. It would look like the humans had left a long time ago.

Amaki nodded and let the girl do as she please while they waited. If there were magical issues going on and it hindered her, the blue haired girl figured it best to keep the purple haired one out of view and out of danger. After all, if she said it was safe enough then that should be fine; all she would have to do is keep an eye on the cave itself. "Keep me updated if that changes," she told the girl before heading towards the cave opening.

By how the cave sat, the sun would rise from behind it so it left it rather dark, which Amaki was rather pleased about. "Ryn said that they would be about half an hour, so I shall keep watch for them." Was at the cave opening, she moved to the side in which they had come from and stood, in a rather solider-like position to watch out for her own group, as well as any others that may approach.

((Kind of waiting for Melik, but then the group can start moving towards the cave))

Lei looked up at the blue-haired girl. "You haven't been with Faction Nine for that long, but you seem to be very protective. Any particular reason?" Lei was more or less trying to make conversation to keep her mind off the black magic. Even though it was less intense, it was still there and still affecting her body. She held her hand up to her head, trying to relieve the headache. "Ryn can locate me because he has a tracker on me, but he may not be able to find the opening to the path there." Lei commented. Ryn and the others should be here soon. Lei wondered if Ryn had the same reaction to black magic as she did. It was the first time she'd encountered black magic since joining Faction Nine so she had no clue. She hoped silently Ryn had some medicine or way of relieving the pain. Ryn was really like an older brother to her as he was the only Psychic she'd ever met besides herself.

He really had no interest in paying any attention to the group. They were doing un-fun things that made the male sleepy. He was a thrill seeker and always looking for something silly to do. Like when the others were discussing what to do and where to go, he was busy trying to catch a frog.

With each bounce it took, Melik bounced right along behind. Splashing into puddles here and there, he eventually caught up to the little green beast. Tongue hanging from his mouth, Melik planned his last leap. If he miscalculated, the little critter would end up as flat as a pancake.

Pushing off with his toes, he lunged himself into a soggy plot of land. The flowers that once circled the area were flying into the air as were large chunks of fresh mud. Raining down on him, the male giggled happily. The dirt (and even mud) was his true love. Wrinkling his nose, he pushed it toward the little frog.

"Gilbert! That's your name!"

His little fingers twitched as he reached out to capture Gilbert. However, a screeching noise caused the frog to prematurely leap away from Melik and into a hole.

"Gilllllllbberrrrrrt! Come bacccckkk!"

Pouting, the mud covered male sat on his hides and looked about.

Eyes widening, Melik realized he had gotten himself lost.

"Oh poopy. AMAKI-KA-KA?!" His orange eyes shifted about the horizon. When only his echo returned, the male crouched down to cower. Melik was not a fan of being alone.

----------

[[Hope this works. I wasn't sure where to throw him in. I decided him getting lost would be wayyyy more entertaining. :3]]

((Indeed, very clever.))

Ryn inspected the site. Everything was ready to go. "Alright let's move." He spoke too quickly. There was Rose, and the twins, but where was Melik?"Oh no, did anyone see where Melik ran off to?" Ryn asked somewhat frantically.

The twins looked at eachother, then back to Ryn, "Nope haven't seen him." Kyle told him. "OH NO! What if he got abducted by aliens!!!!! They would brainwash him!!!" Lexi said worridly. "Oh no!! Not Aliens!!! On this one show, they ate the people's brains out!!!!" Kyle said, now both the twins scared. "WHAT IF THE ALIENS ARE AFTER US NOW!!!!!!!!!" Lexi panicked, now the twins were both running around in circles.

Ryn just stared at them incredulously. "The two of you, calm. Now." He approached them. "When you duplicate, do you require that the duplicates come back to you or will they simply fade after some time?" Ryn asked. "We need to find Melik, but we also need to move to the cave."

The twins stopped, before looking at Ryn, and tilting their heads. Not surprisingly, they weren't caught up with his idea. "They just fade away. Like, uhhhh, poo. Once you flush it down the toilet it just fades away where all the alligators are. I wanna fight an Alligator! I could soooo beat it! I would just punch it in the gut and make it throw up alot. Then it would get sick and die. Then I'd make boots for Lei, Lexi, Rose, and Amaki, and swords for us manly men! All out of Alligator fur...or was it Alligator feathers....I dun know......" Kyle said, getting off topic as he normally did.

Ryn looked at each of the twins. Send duplicates to find Melik, quickly now, we must be on our way. Ryn motioned to Rose before Ryn turned his eyes elsewhere. He closed his eyes briefly and saw the track on Lei. It moved a little, which was a good sign. It seemed they had made to the cave unharmed.

((I'm just gonna let you guys post a bit since there's not much for Lei and Amaki at the moment XD))

((Lei did ask Amaki a question, did you see that?))

The twins nodded at his order. Within a few seconds, their were two more of each of them, "Go find Melik." Lexi told them, before they were off. "Cave time! And we better hurry. Those aliens could be anywhere by now." Lexi said, and Kyle nodded in agreement.

Ryn nodded. "Right then, let's be off." Ryn slung his pack over his shoulder and headed into the direction he had seen Lei and Amaki go. Faction Nine was on the move, although Ryn had a sick feeling that something bad was about to happen.

Rose grabbed stuff to carry then turned to Ryn. "Not that I question your rule here but that was kind of pointless. Why look for anyone when I could sniff the person out?" She had been in this group for awhile now and the humans still confused her. They missed so much with their limited noses and eyes. Even though she had just gotten back from a run she wanted to be off again. She walked over to the edge of where their camp had been and dumped the stuff. "I'm going to sniff the camp out to make sure we didn't leave anything. I will sniff you out and catch up." Without waiting she pulled offer her dress and laid it on the ground then shifted. As soon as she walked on four legs she shook herself then ran over the old camp.

Ryn raised an eyebrow at Rose. "A duplicate, if found by the enemy is of no use to them and there is no risk of losing another member of Faction Nine. For all I know Melik could already have been captured, and as the smallest Faction in the Xenzales we need to stick together. I can't risk us all going and looking for Melik, and I can't risk one. Even in fox form, Facility soldiers might think you for a tasty meal and it's hard to out run an endless supply of bullets." Ryn paused. "Tarry no more than ten minutes. The sunrise is here and it's bound to bring us a new hell for the day." He continued on down the mountain pass. It was surprisingly easy to track where Amaki and Lei had been. In fact he was quite disappointed in them for leaving so many clues behind as to their trail. It wasn't long before he managed to find the edge of the cliff, and soon after the mouth of the cave.

Rose shook her fox head at the man's logic. In this form she could smell Melik from here. She would scent others if they were near. She was a fast runner and could go where humans could not while in this form but why would he think she would run. She had spent most of her life as a fox after all. This camp had many fox holes. She could easily get away in one of those.

But she got to business and started sniffing around. She found a few spots where their scent was to strong or where a clear foot print had been left and she covered them. She quickly went back to her stuff and shifted. She pulled on her clothes and gathered the stuff and started running towards the scent of Ryn. Even though she was in her human form this run was fun. Too soon she caught up with the scent and came to the cave.

Amaki just waited at the entrance of the cave, more-or-less expecting there just to be silence to keep her company, though the girl would not have minded that. That wasn't what happened though, but the blue haired girl was much more tolerant than the others probably expected. The purple haired girl's question washed over her for a moment, though she didn't need long to think about it. Her protectiveness was a part of her goal. "I lost people that were very important to me early in my life for wrong reasons and I don't want that to happen again." The girl replied calmly, her eyes searching the forest before her.

"I'm tired of people dieing for wrong reasons and I don't plan on people near me falling if I can prevent it." She wasn't too sure what else to say, that was really all there was to it. She didn't want people to die because of all the stupid stuff going on, especially those that associated themselves with her.

Not much longer after that, the blond haired male could be seen approaching. Stepping to the side she let him and the twins by, not the whole group. "Did you run into trouble?" She asked, her brows furrowing, blue eye and tone showing concern.

Lei listened quietly but didn't comment. Partially because the headache wouldn't allow her to think, and partially because she really just didn't know what to say. She rubbed her eyes again, more black. She crawled further into the cave a bit and curled up against the cave wall and a large rock and shut her eyes. She was so tired, and her head hurt. It was really only a few moments before she was out.

Ryn stepped into the mouth of the cave and let the twins pass and go into the cave. "Don't know yet. Rose shouldn't be too far behind us, but Melik wandered off. The twins sent doubles looking for him and I have a feeling Rose will go looking too, but she can follow our scent here most likely." Ryn looked fondly at Amaki. Despite her not having been with the group long, Ryn found her concern and attention to detail refreshing and quite helpful. "Was there any trouble on your end?"

[[I think Melik should be captured by aliens. Lol. Or maybe he's with a pack of... Frogs!!!!!]]

Amaki nodded slowly knowing that if the trio were not able to find him, or run into trouble, one would return to get the rest of them. She stood there for a moment longer though, just staring out into the forest before turning and following Ryn into the cave. As per his question the girl replied, "No troubles here. Lei is just warn out from black magic that she claimed to have sensed." Her eyes then roamed over the darkness of the cave before falling upon a small sleeping figure; that must have been her.

With the sun coming up behind them, they were going to be in pitch blackness, that is, unless they built a fire, but that would also put them at risk to being found out. At that point she wasn't sure the light and warmth would be worth it; though it would save them for possibly falling ill due to the cool, damp nature of the cave. Thoughts were whirling in her head trying to sort themselves out so she fell silent. Then again, that was probably typical of the blue haired girl.

It looked like no one in the cave had noticed her. Rose dropped the things she had been carrying and soon was out of her clothes too. She folded them up and placed them on the bags. She shifted once again and shook herself out. She sniffed the area to find Melik's scent. Finding the scent she ran towards it. The doubles would be out here somewhere but she could never scent them. When she reached the point that the scent was the strongest and newest she stopped. She started to change but realized that would leave her naked. If it had been a different member of the team she might have done it anyway but Melik was just too cute and almost naive. Instead she simply walked forward in her fox form. She found Melik sitting on the ground covered in mud. She walked forward then sat infront of him being careful not to sit in mud. She whined low in her throat.

((The alien idea is cute but not something that really fits into the roleplay))

Ryn was alarmed by the idea of black magic. "Wait what? How does she know how to sense black magic? Psychics and mages don't mix." He was confused by this development, although it didn't seem likely that Lei would lie. Ryn had noticed Rose come in and leave again, he assumed to look for Melik. He ignored the fact that she was indeed disobeying orders and focused on more important things. He walked farther into the cave and knelt by Lei who was sleeping. He put a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently, also saying her name to rouse her, but she didn't move. After two more failed tries Ryn picked Lei up and brought her to the mouth of the cave and laid her down on her back. "Amaki, help me out here, there's something wrong." Ryn looked at Lei, then noticed her eyelids were very dark. He lifted one to see her normally purple eyes black as night. Her skin was almost cold as well. Ryn yanked a blanket off of his pack and threw it over her. Ryn was still flustered. Magic was something Psychics could not take part in. He didn't sense it, why is it she could? Ryn sat Lei up and shook her again, but this time she stirred and let out a small moan.

Lei was awoken suddenly, and a sharp pain in her head hit her. She moaned in pain before opening her eyes a little wider. It was hard to see. "Ow... my head hurts..." she rubbed her head gently. It seemed Ryn had been panicking but was now calming down.

Kyle and Lexi sighed, boredly sitting in the cave. Unaware of the magic situation, they looked around, desparate for something to entertain them. The twins settled on a little worm they'd found on the ground. They'd cut it into thirds, watching it squirm, even when it was seperated.

Bored with the worm, the two decided to check how their duplicates were doing. THey'd always been able to track their duplicates, since they were a part of them after all. They were in the woods, and luckily hadn't faded away yet. They figured the duplicates still had a few good miles before they faded away, although it was exhausting to the real twins. It was as if the real ones were the ones doing all the work, and not the duplicates. They both blinked and yawned a few times, on the edge of falling alssep.