aterat | audio

With what happened last time there were explosions and shit like this, now may be as good as time as any to share some information. Maybe it'll be helpful to you investigation types.

[ There's a brief pause while Shalimar tries to collect exactly what she wants to say. There's a lot of shit she still isn't comfortable letting people here know about her. Trust has never been her strong suit. ]

I've got a talent for finding things and deep in the forest, well, we definitely found some shit. There are other people here, kind of like us. One of them spoke to us. He didn't seem to thrilled to be doing it, but he was more tolerant of my questions that I expected. His name is Lessch, but if I were you I wouldn't go looking for him or his people. Don't think they really want to be bothered by us. [ She's pretty sure they don't even really like the people here. ]

If you do find him or any of his people out there be polite, be respectful, and try not to freak out over how they look. [ A beat ] They're lizardmen. [ Animal people are perfectly normal okay. ] From what we could understand based on what he was telling us, their world was destroyed and they came here a long time ago the same way we did. Not really sure if I'm a fan of the implications that may have. [ And she couldn't deny she was worried there. ]

He said something about there being a bridge, I'm guessing he meant between worlds? I don't know, this is beyond even the weird shit in my life. Evidently the bridge stringed worlds together, it had a power source that leashed it, but now the leash is gone and anything can travel through. Guess our hosts had a little accident.

[ Another beat ] Besides that he warned us not to go too deep into the forest. Guess there are trees in there that don't like us outlanders and might eat you. [ And that's where she just ends things. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So...it's better for friends to find out you've died later than to keep it from happening?

I wouldn't have ended up dead. You're overreacting.

You don't know that. That forest is huge and I'm pretty sure the lizardmen aren't the only things out there.

People. The only people out there.

Nice correction. [ And save from making her offended. ] There's a lot more out there. I found something pretty interesting actually. [ She's just going to ignore his concern and hope he moves on. Maybe it'll work. Never did with Brennan. ]

[He breaths a sigh.]

Fine. What did you find?

Oh, now you want to know?

[He frowns at that and answers through a forced smile.]Yes. Please.

You said the magic word, how could I hold out on you now? [ She chuckled. ]

There's a fork in the forest where one direction leads to silence. Complete silence. For some reason even the local wildlife won't go down that path. [ Did she try to go down it? Is she that stupid? Tune in to find out. ]

[He pauses.]

Now I'm no hunter or anything, but that sounds like a major predator.

[Except that he is a hunter, and that's exactly what it sounds like.]