Belle was quiet for a moment. "It has been quieter than normal," she agreed slowly. "You think there could be something going on?"

"I dunno," Andy admitted. "But it just seems kinda weird, and now with the shiny glitch..." She shook her head a bit. "Maybe I'm just paranoid after last time."

"Paranoid isn't always a bad thing," Belle reminded her. "We should keep our eyes open. You guys too, okay?"

Eclipse glanced at her before he nodded. Andy was right; things had been a little too quiet.

Sesshoumaru nodded as well; if whatever it was was enough to put Andy on edge, he would keep an eye out and make sure to get rid of the threat.

Andy nodded, and turned her attention to the surrounding area again. Once camp was set up, it would be time to wander around and see what there was to trip over. Or who there was to trip over.

Belle got everything set up the way she wanted it and got a fire going so some of the guys could stay and keep track of the camp. Then she looked over at Andy.

"You ready to go?"

Andy made sure she had everything, and then nodded.

"Let's see how well this goes," she said. She grinned. "Can't track anyone down with a radio here. Gotta do it the old-fashioned way."

Belle snickered. "Yeah, but we also have two big cats and a dog. That all have a better sense of smell than we do. We can probably at least tell when we're crossing someone's path."

"This is true," Andy conceded. She grinned. "Although it might be fun once in a while to go about it like newbies. We can't stumble around completely blind, of course, since we know what we're doing, but searching without fun advantages is sometimes fun."

"Also true." Belle chuckled quietly. "Sometimes it works even better than searching with advantages."

Point in case: Thomas and Mouse.

"Sometimes," Andy agreed. She glanced at the trees every so often when she caught movement in her peripheral vision, but she was never able to pin it down. "I know they're there!" she said after a few moments. "I keep seeing them, but then they're gone again. Tricksy hobbitses," she grumbled.

Belle snickered. "I know," she said quietly. "That's okay. Just makes the hunt more interesting." She grinned at that, looking forward to finding the bishis.

"Yeah," Andy said. "Makes it fun." She paused for a moment, blinking and snickering at a sudden thought, then shaking her head. No, wouldn't work. But still damn amusing.

Belle looked over at her curiously, blinking. But she didn't ask just yet, since she saw the flashes of bishis in the trees, too.

Andy just shook her head.

"Tell you later," she said. She glanced over when she saw more movement in the trees. She snorted slightly. "Well that's not fair... I bet half of them out there can smell us. I suddenly understand how it feels for them when we use our groups to their fullest advantage."

"Yeah, I know." Belle huffed a sigh. "Half of them can smell us, and the other half is just awesome enough to know we're here anyway." She rolled her eyes.

She was quiet for a few moments, trying to figure out where they might be hiding.

Andy nodded in agreement.

"Which means we'd be completely screwed, if we didn't know what we were doing," she said. She grinned. "Not a territory for newbies, at any rate."

"Not unless you're a really, really lucky newbie." Belle grinned briefly.

"Okay, I'm going that way, you go that way. Whoever catches someone first messages the other. Sound good?"

Andy grinned and nodded, pulling an empty bishi ball from her belt.

"Sounds good to me," she said.

Belle grinned and headed off in her direction, looking around as she walked. She was really hoping she ran into one of the brothers, at least.

Andy went off in the other direction, keeping her eyes open. She wasn't sure how much luck she would have, but one of them was bound to trip over someone, so she just kept an eye out.

It took Belle a good twenty minutes to get close enough to a bishi to catch it, and then she grinned.

I caught a Niko! She sent the message to Andy instead of calling her, in case Andy was in the middle of hunting still.

Andy glanced at the message and smothered a snicker. Well, then... one down, one to go. And Andy wasn't entirely sure that she'd been left with the easy one to catch. Okay, think like Cal, think like Cal... Running on that train of thought, started really searching.

A while later, though, her search hadn't come up with anything, which was kind of disappointing. But it was getting dark, which she knew for a fact wasn't safe in this territory. So she messaged Belle back.

Nothing. Back to camp for the night?

Sounds good. Belle headed back to camp, keeping her eyes open for any more bishis that might be wandering around.

She got back first and let Niko out. He looked around slowly, clearly assessing everyone, before he turned his attention to Belle again.

"Don't worry, everyone's relatively safe. Just try not to piss off anyone and you're good." She grinned at him. "Oh, and fair warning, there's a couple of giant cats, a big dog, and a few dragons around. Just an FYI."

Niko blinked at that but didn't let his surprise show otherwise.

Andy got back to camp a few minutes later, barely blinking at the new face.

"I'll keep looking in the morning," she said to Belle. Stretching a bit, she settled in near the fire and pulled out her book again. She was pretty close to finishing it.

"You might have better luck in the morning," Belle agreed. "And if not, well, I'm not averse to staying here a few days."