Tamaraw Exodus

Chapter 25 - Rescue

Deep within the colourful world of the rainbow forest Adhika and her squad were making progress as they rapidly gain ground within the strange foliage of this odd world. As it had been a few days since they were within and already they had come to record and catalogue a whole lot of fauna and foliage to sell off to their patrons likely to cash it in for better equipment and privileges or finally a land to call their own. As Adhika had been cataloguing a curious creature they promptly named as the false bark a scavenger that made its home within the crevices of the massive trees and would prioritize getting out of fights then to stand and fight. 

As evident when she gotten close making it rush upwards only to be killed off by a swift arrow to the delight of Raya who was having fun with this as she pulled the thing off revealing an odd worm like creature that had a thick wooden like shell mimicking the tree's colourful visage as while it seems like a thick and tough creature to crack if one was able to hit its gaps within that it was rather easy to kill but, aside from its looks the creature itself was something that could be eaten as was shown by Maya as she stabbed the creature's hide to remove its exoskeleton before revealing a mushy interior one of which was a transparent purple body that seems to be feeding on the wood from how the mouth of the creature looked. 

"I'll be able to do something with this." She spoke as she started to crave out bits and pieces as she removed what seems to be edible and what seems to be poisonous at that. Thought she did seem to take out vast amounts of it as she went on to take the soft meaty exterior in return. All the while she took out a pan that she brought from the humans along with a lighter which was quite useful as she had come to love how easy it was to get a flame running. One of which she started by digging a small hole on which she would pour an assortment of flammable material ranging from twigs, dried leaves and more into the hole before placing a few stones on the sides as she placed her pan onto the makeshift stove. 

As she was quite happy to cook something after days of foraging and eating fruits to sustain themselves. "The trail has run cold." She muttered knowing that Raya and Adhika was still looking for them. "They seem to have camped nearby and sadly most of their tracks were trampled by something so that is going to be a problem." She spoke out which made Adhika sigh as she knew that such a thing was problematic while Raya was sharpening her arrows which had shown signs of dulling after using them to climb upwards. 

"Its a large group don't worry.. If something really happened we would have seen a grave or two." She replied as she started to clean the meat before she started to cut the meat into pieces that will fit into the pan itself while she made preparations to smoke the meat to make it last longer. "Yeah that is because they gotten into a lair... I can see the string.. They were chased.." She spoke out knowing that the ground was drilled with holes along with the fact that they had a series of webbing on top of them. " Spoke Raya as she surveyed the surrounding and saw that they were just on the edge of a territory and seeing how close it was to where the tracks died down that they had trouble with these things. 

"How many?" Asked Maya as she started to fry the meat. "Too many." She replied as she peeked into the tree line seeing a near endless number of the things. "How hard?" She added as moved and controlled the fire. "Hard to say but, there seem to be smart enough to have traps." She spoke out knowing that she saw a massive branch which seems to be floating up in the distance. "You think that they been eaten?" Asked Adhika knowing that this would be a devastating blow to Carl. "I hope not." Replied Raya as she looked on and stood vigilant to make sure that they weren't eaten as well. 

"I can see tracks in the distance but, it had plenty of holes with them so they woke them up but, good news is that they seem to have never stopped so that is something." She replied making Adhika jot it out on her tablet knowing that it was clear that observing these creatures are an priority as if they did devour the expedition then they would be a threat that needed to be destroyed in the future.