The forest was quiet. Too quiet. Not a Duck Hunt dog around for miles.

Amelia shielded her eyes as she surveyed from the backside of the delivery van. She was seated by the back bumper, doors to the back end of the van flung open, legs dangling over the license plate.

Yup, definitely too quiet.

Maybe it'd be more noisy if they actually left the parking lot and left Aurum to his own devices in the national forest? Perhaps. He'd certainly earned some alone-time, hadn't he? What? That had been at least 5 hours of driving? Maybe more...

"Gina," Amelia broke the no-Duck-Hunt-Dog silence. "I think we should hike out and see if we can find any wildlife to provoke."

Aurum didn't say anything. He knew she was kidding. Probably. All the same... fine. He said something. "Keep her away from any pointed sticks."

The ride over had seriously sucked. Gina hated vans. But, at least it had been a van, and not a sedan. At least there'd been some room for her to squeeze into the back, given her wings. She was relieved to be out in the open air, thus stood and inhaled deeply, relishing the feel of the forest around her. It was so tranquil and yet untamed. She loved the woods, missed them, even. It reminded her of home. Of Mendocino. The forest had been worth suffering through a long, claustrophobic car ride.

>> "Gina, I think we should hike out and see if we can find any wildlife to provoke."

Ami's announcement snapped Gina out of her reverie, and the trusty sidekick grinned at Ami's announcement.

"Sounds dangerous," Gina said jokingly, "Let's jet."

Of course, in her mind's eye, provoking wildlife meant yelling at squirrels and/or small, innocent creatures and chasing them. Gina wouldn't cross anything dangerous. She turned to follow Ami, but was stopped by her older brother. Quiet older brother. What's-his-face. He had an odd name.

> "Keep her away from any pointed sticks."

Ah, Aurum, that's right.

"There are... a lot of sticks in a forest," Gina observed, rolling her lips together contemplatively, "I'll keep an eye out, though. For anything."

Yes, it was like asking the blind to lead the blind-- Gina felt as if she and Ami had the capacity to be two peas in a pod, and here Ami's brother was, telling Gina to watch-out for a girl who was just like her. That... was bound for disaster.

>>"Sounds dangerous," Gina said jokingly, "Let's jet."

In the illustrious words of Darkwing Duck, character her brother had bugged her with via countless VHS and DVDs, to paraphrase... it was time to get reckless.

Jet, they did. But not fast enough.

Sticks, really? She stopped, turned to eye her brother, then grinned at Gina's comment. The girl rolled her lips. Aurum's eyes did some rolling of their own.

"Stay safe." He said.

Amelia offered her arm to Gina for the classic two-peas-in-a-pod,-arms-linked-traipsing-off-into-the-forest pose and said "We'll try." Try being the key word here. And accented as such.

>> "Stay safe."

Was the brotherly word of caution. And,

>> "We'll try."

Was the sisterly retort. Gina offered a more reassuring, "Don't worry."

He really should have thought of that before unleashing two teenage girls upon a poor, inncoent forest. Gina linked arms with Ami, and the two of them ventured off. The forest was lush, with towering redwoods and sunlight filtering through the evergreen bows. It was peaceful, and quiet, just like home. Not like the constant pulsating roar of New York City's noise.

Gina inhaled and exhaled deeply, and sighed, "Smells like home."

That sentiment made, Gina asked, "So where to first, Captain?"

It was Ami's project, so it only made sense that she was in charge of their expedition.

>>"Don't worry."

He worried.

And then they left.

~*~

It was wonderful. Nature was grand. A smile spread across Amelia's face not entirely unlike the one on Gina's. Gina sighed.

>>"Smells like home."

She'd lived in forests? Amelia took note. She'd only really ever been a city girl. It really was nice, though.

Where first? Amelia led.

"Straight ahead, I suppose. Until we run into something. Hm..." She paused, and eyed the arm candy. The arm candy with wings. "Or maybe you could fly up and check out to see what you can see? Or are those just for show?"

>> "Straight ahead, I suppose. Until we run into something. Hm... Or maybe you could fly up and check out to see what you can see? Or are those just for show?"

Gina gave a short laugh, and the response of, “No, I can fly.”

She unhooked herself from Ami’s arm, gaze tilting towards the canopies of the trees in search of an opening big enough for a gargoyle to fly up. It was pretty densely forested, but there seemed to be an opening just up ahead, and to the right, “What sort of something am I looking for?”

Her wings fluttered with the anticipation of taking-off. Gina continued walking, face pointed skyward as she picked blindly along the ground. Finally, she found a sufficient opening in the foliage, and looked towards Ami.

So flying, check.

What was she looking for?

Um, damn. "Mooses. Meeses. Something big and with horns." That was what they were here for, right? "Feel free to go all Bilbo Baggins on me and talk about how massive and magnificent the tree tops over the forest are, and how you can see for miles, though." She smiled. "I eat that stuff up."

Mooses, meeses, something big and with horns—Gina made a mental list as Ami rattled off things for her to look for. And, with a wry mental air, she added on—how far the eye can see, and how awesome the trees are.

“Can do, boss,” Gina said with a chuckle. Her eyes tilted skyward again, mapping out where she could latch onto a tree. Her knees bent, wings spread, and with a mighty push off of the ground, Gina beat her wings beneath her, taking to the air. With a few, strong beats of her wings, the gargoyle soon found herself gradually going towards the tree tops.

It was kind-of like showing off, and yet Gina felt like something of a spectacle. Had she ever taken-off like that in front of someone? Now that she thought about it, probably not. Gina gravitated towards one tree, landing a branch that was thick enough to perch on, at a place where the trunk proved a decent anchor. It was difficult, being so dense and trying to land in trees that got so skinny towards the top.

“Um…” she shouted back down. How the heck was she supposed to see meese at this angle? It had to be nearly impossible… Gina thinned her eyes, looking through gaps in the trees. From here, all she could see was trees and only that. Though not too far off, there was a break in them, consistently, in something of a jagged line. Maybe a river?

“I don’t see any… meeses, but… I do see a river,” Gina hollered, “There are lots of animals by the river, right?”

Man, flying. It sure was cool. Standing there on the forest floor, Amelia could only watch, impressed, as Gina defied gravity, wishing she could join her. Why couldn't she have gotten a power like that? ... But then again, she liked her own power just fine.

Amelia spent a moment letting her mind drift off on a tangent regarding powers...

She was brought back by Gina's call. She shook her head and dismissed thoughts about Gawain.

Meeses. River. Animals. Right.

Amelia opened her mouth to shout out a response, but closed it. Even from where she was standing, she could hear the brush moving. Somewhere in the forest, something big was ripping through trees.

Gina heard the thunderous sound as well, and her tail curled around the branch upon which she was perched. What on Earth was that? Would it be better to stay in the tree, or to jump down and investigate? Gina looked down… well, Ami was still down there. It’d be wiser to rejoin her. This was her project.

Gina unhooked her tail, and jumped, wings catching air as she descended. She occasionally beat her wings, slowing her descent so that the landing would be more fluid, and her feet soon meant the ground.

“That sounds ominous,” Gina commented, “And promising.”

Gina looked towards her cohort. They should either go investigate or run away.

Run? Yeah right.

"We should check it out," she nodded. "Who knows. It might be the scientific community's next ground-breaking discovery."

Ground-breaking was right. A tree toppled and sent a ripple of force through the forest. She could literally feel the vibrations from where they were.

On second thought, maybe facing that thing head-on was a horrifically bad idea.

The girl looked to Gina. "Brave Sir Robin scenario?" She quested.

Gina nodded hesitantly. Well, if that were the case, Gina was checking it out from the air. No thank you, she did not feel like getting trampled upon that day. As if on cue, as Ami said something about a groundbreaking discovery, a tree was toppled over. Dear God, was the world’s tallest bulldozer cutting through the trees?

Amelia proposed a different course of action, an offer at which Gina readily jumped.

“Yeah, let’s at least get to higher ground,” Gina agreed with a grin at the reference.

Brave Sir Robin ran away—

“Like a boulder or something,” Gina added on. She gestured to Ami as she turned and started to retreat.

Bravely ran away-- When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled.--

And Gina had no qualms about doing this.

Nor did Amelia. It was, after all, a logical course of action, and quite strategic! Why, what could there possibly have been to be ashamed about? In fact! She needed to do this more often. Like right now! Why hadn't her feet moved yet? She amended that.

Amelia snagged Gina's hand as she passed it. "To the van, to the van, to the van, van, van!" She sang, to the tune of some horsey song.

The cause of the disturbance did not follow... it did not really have an interest in them, whatsoever. It just turned away, and chewed on some plants. Psychic Meese was not impressed. But they didn't know that.

As Ami began to ran, she took Gina’s hand and pulled her along, and Gina readily followed, stumbling at first before following in-stride with her. Ami was singing about how they should retreat to the van, and Gina wordlessly agreed. She wasn’t too ready to return to the confines of the van, but anything was better than being exposed to the… whatever it was that was chasing them.

Whatever it was that was pursuing them came to a stop, and yet the girls kept running. Something needled at Gina’s brain, and told her to stop running, but Gina wasn’t listening. It was like playing tag with kids—even after promising that you wouldn’t tag them, they kept running.

“That sounded really big,” Gina commented to Ami, reflecting upon the immensity of the noise that was following them, but no longer seemed to be doing so.

Aurum's eyes widened as he glanced up from his magazine in the front seat of the van and saw the girls approaching at breakneck speeds.

"Big. Yeah." Amelia agreed, between breaths. "There's the van."

And suddenly, they were there. The doors slid open quick as a snap, then slammed shut.

"DRIVE!!!"

Aurum spun on them, yelling "What the hell?!"

"Just. DRIVE!" Amelia shouted back. She shot him the most angriest look on the planet. The man was not one to argue with that look. As he pulled away from the parking spot, a tree fell somewhere in the forest and made a sound. He didn't ask.

"Whew." Amelia flopped down in a chair and rested her heavy arms on the arm rests.