Mitch hyperventilated quietly, staring in horror at the skulls and ribs and-

*crack crack crack*

The bluish cracks spread quickly, like ripples in water, down to his shoulders and back. Taking deep breaths, Mitch calmed himself enough to stop the branching, then carefully eased his way around the pile.

The beast- Jerome?- must be near.

And that was the next thing Mitch nearly tripped over.

The beast turned over, onto its back, snorting as if sneezing. Mitch looked down at it, ready to flee, when he realized it was sleeping. It was a fitful sleep, but still, sleep.

He quietly sat next to it, watching it. Even in sleep, it looked fierce, without peace. . . In pain.

"Poor thing," he murmured.

It kind of looked like a dog.

Mitch thought, even though he didn't remember, that he loved dogs. He cautiously stretched out a hand, brushing it down the beast's chest and belly. It twitched, then seemed to relax, its legs stretched out, arms over its chest.

Mitch giggled in a totally manly way, and began to scratch vigorously, the beast's leg thumping.

He got so absorbed in petting it, he didn't realize when the leg stopped thumping.

+GROOOOWL+

Mitch froze, looking into the beast's glowing grey eyes.

"H-h-hi?"

They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Then, the beast- Jerome- took Mitch's shirt in its teeth and dragged him into its grasp.

"...ㄕ∑Ꮏ."

It fell asleep again, and Mitch wondered if it had never woken up.

Afraid to anger it, he began to pet it, and kept petting until he, as well, fell asleep.

~~+~~+~~+~~+~~
He was still very torn over what the boys had said, really concerned for their minds. Are they deranged? Or are they serious? Probably seriously deranged. They had stuck to him for a while, not letting him go anywhere alone.

The boys were asleep, so as quietly as he could, Lachlan got up, and escaped down corridors. He knew they couldn't follow him, and he was relieved when no one showed up.

Sighing, he continued on to not get caught or trapped by others. Lachlan was not in the mood to be confronted.

His hand had a very tight grip on his ax. There was the slowly rationalizing fear that something- or someone- was about to show up around here.

And he was right. A heat signature- smaller than his own- showed up coming around the corridor. One Lachlan recognized easily.

"Why did you leave?" The sleepy voice asked.

Lachlan turned to face the one boy, Josh. Josh looked a little upset, as well as being overwhelmingly tired.

"I can't be dragged around by you. I can't risk one of you get hurt because of my actions."

"But... We can fight! We have stuff to fight!"

"But you're still young. I don't want you-"

"You just don't like us. Do you?"

"I do! I just can't risk it. Don't take it the wrong way."

One of the others showed up. Thinking hard, Lachlan could barely remember his name. Simon.

Simon asked, "Is it because we're loud?"

Lachlan sighed, exasperated. "Yes. It is. The louder you are, the further the sound travels, the more people you alert. It can get all of you killed. You aren't careful enough."

"Oh..."

"By the way, how did you find me?"

"Tobi saw you leave. We followed you."

"All of you?"

"No, just us. Everyone else is right where you left them. Still asleep, I guess."

Lachlan looked at their sad, sleepy faces.

"Guys, I'm really sorry. But I don't want you getting hurt because of me. You'll have to find another way to track your Vikk.

"But-"

"But nothing! I can't stay with you guys. It's eventually either gonna kill you, me, or all of us. I can't let that happen. Now go back to your friends."

"But you're the only one Vikk constantly follows. If you leave, we'll never see him."

"And also if you leave, we won't have a direction to go. We're little, remember?"

"Gah! Fine. But not for much longer. I'm gonna warn you now."

"Yay!"

"Thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."