fandomhighdorms | The Preserve, Sundown and just after

Where was he? He could have sworn the path had not veered, nor had he gone onto a different path. And yet the creek was not where it should have been.
He wasn't an experienced outdoorsman, so he'd been keeping carefull to not stray from the path. But he'd gotten the distinct impression that the path had strayed from him.

Earlier
the sound of water flowing over rocks reached him from not far ahead. And soon he could catch glimpses of the stream through the trees, and a new sound reached his ears. Someone, sounding like a little girl, giggling. And splashing.

But when he reached the stream, nothing. No sound reached his ears, and his admittedly untrained eye could find no sign of anyone having been here in a while.

Spooky.

The path led along the bank for a bit, and tim paused before following it back into the woods. His watch alarm beeped letting him know he should turn back to get back before nightfall.

now

Something was moving in the growing shadows. To his right, no, now to his left. Twigs snapped, and something like stones rapping together. it got no closer. Not yet.

then something caught his eye. Out in the trees, faint, then brighter and distinct. a light. green, torchlike, it drifted through the trees, just at the edge of his sight. As if beckoning to him.

"Yeah right." he muttered. "Sorry Willa' The Wisp. I'm not ignorant enought to follow you."

help! or if not I'll get myself out of this

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"Hello?" Fry called. He'd been trying to get to the beach, but got lost. "Anyone? Maybe I should call 911. If I had a cell phone. Damn. HELLO?"

~~HA!~~

Tim didn't recognize the voice. "who is that?" he asked, seeing someone approach along the path.

"Uh, it's Fry. You're not a ghost or gremlin, are you? Don't eat my brain!"

"...I'm pretty sure neither of those eat brains. But no I'm not either one of those things. I'm Tim." when the guy came into view, Tim realized he'd seen him around. "You lost?"

mun must to bed, to continue tomorrow

"Maybe," Fry said. "But I'm glad you're not one of those things. You can never be too careful with brain-eating stuff. Human brains are delicacies to some things, ya know. "Are you lost too? Not that I'm lost. Except maybe I am. I haven't decided."

Gwynn had been ~~sleeping in a tree~~ ~~thinking~~ wandering around quite happily in the woods when she thought she heard voices. Curious, she made her way in that direction. She smiled in pleasure when she saw Tim and then another person that she didn't know.

"Are you guys exploring, too?"

[[OOC: If the guys want to deal with the woods alone, I can remove Dwynn. :)]]

"I'm not quite lost per se." tim said. "The forest decided to play a trick on me." And yes, he meant that literaly. "It switched the path around on me."

Tim smiled at the approach of Gwynn. Maybe she'd be able to defeat the evil wandering path. "Hi Gwynn." he said. "Yep, exploring. And discovering interesting, slightly disturbing things."

No, that was not a blush of pleasure to see Tim, nope, not at all.

"Disturbing?" She asked him in slight concern.

"I think something's playing tricks on me." he said. He pointed off into the woods, where the green light could still faintly be seen. "Possibly that, but I don't know if it's just that."

Gwynn frowned and then looked down at the ground. Seeing a short branch that if it were thicker would make a nice practice sword, she bent and picked it up.

"Shall we go and investigate it?"

"What that?" tim asked, pointing again. "No that's just what it wants us to do. We'll never get any closer, and get hopelessly lost. It's a Willow-the-Wisp. Kinda hovers on the border between Faerie and Ghost."

Gwynn watched it for a moment. "You mean it does that on purpose?"

"It's, what they do. It looks fainter than before, maybe it's disappointed that I didn't fall for it."
The noises to either side of him had stopped, and faintly he thought he could hear the creek again.

To be honest, Gwynn didn't like the idea of something messing with Tim -- especially something she couldn't fight, but she didn't say this out loud.

"Why?"

"Why is it disapointed or why didn't I fall for it?"

"Both and why does it try to lure you?"

"Well I didn't fall for it because I knew what it was." tim said. "And I'm not sure as to the motives behind it, according to some stories they're malevolent spirits that lure you into bogs to sink in, and in others they're just mischievous things that like to get mortals lost. then some people think they're just swamp gas."

the wisp flared indignantly.

Gwynn glared angrily at the Wisp and her protective instincts kicked into high gear. She didn't think that Tim would be happy if she tried to urge him back to camp and away from the confusing and disturbing light.

"You knew what it is... there may be others at the camp that do not and they could be harmed."

Tim nodded. "When you were exploring did you hear a creek back that way?" he asked, pointing to where he knew the creek should have been, and by the sound of it, was again.

"Forests can do that?" Fry rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I came from that way."

"Not in most places I don't think." tim said. "but it did this time." That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

"Did you stray from the path at all?"

"Only a couple of times," Fry replied.

Great. Well that didn't help any. "Hmmm. We could climb a tree to get the lay of the land?" he suggested. The noises in the woods were still going on. Quite spooky.

"Sure. Uh, are you any good at tree climbing?"

"Little bit." tim said. When he was a kid he'd climbed a few trees in central park, but that had been a long time ago. During the day.

"I'm more of a feet-on-the-ground-unless-it's-outer-space kind of guy. But I can offer moral support. I'm good at that."

By now, Tim had his feet off the ground as he was dangling from a low branch, attempting to climb onto it. He glanced at Fry. "Outer space?"

(ooc: no problem, I'm good with slowply

"Yeah, I used to work for Planet Express. It's an interplanetary delivery company. Family business." Fry went to help Tim get up the tree.

With the boost, Tim was able to get up into the tree. "That's really cool." he said. As he climbed higher, he tried to ignore the sounds of movement. "Uhm, Fry? While I'm up here don't go following any lights okay?"

"Sure," Fry replied. He was just glad to be the one that wasn't climbing the tree. "Can you see anything?"

Tim looked around. He thought he could see the lights from the town, but they look farther away than he thought they should be. And trees were rocking back and forth a short ways away as if in a strong wind. Yeah He didn't want to see what was doing that. the Will o' The Wisp was bad enough, a Wendigo would really suck.
"Uhm, I think if we head down the way you came from we should get back, sooner or later."

The Preserve, Sundown and just after

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