With Akutan and Kyra trailing behind her, Vienna headed into the forest.  The trees weren't very thick, but they created enough of a visual barrier that Vienna heard the growls before she saw anything.  The sound echoed over the rushing water of the waterfall that poured down the side of the trail.  Here, a few boulders had been worn into large, flat steps, upon which the trail snaked upwards towards the river that fed into Moonstone Lake.  At the top, both sides of the river were at equal height.  From their position, the "low road" party would not yet have Kastra and the "high road" party.

Meanwhile, as Kastra was making his way around the lake, he was climbing a less sharp incline.  Here the ground sloped gently to another beach, before becoming more rocky as they approached the waterfall.  Kastra and Kodiak also heard the growls, and as they climbed.  Then, a scent upon the breeze. Bear.  For the moment, it appeared that the expedition was downwind.  They had a moment to plan, and they would need to consider their next step carefully.

Shimmah was continuing her spelunking adventure.  She walked passed an opening back out into the forest, beginning to turn down another of the darker tunnels.  From the opening, she could catch the scents of Kodiak and Kastra as they passed close by, then Aylie's scent as she followed along behind them.

Tallulah walked among the pines, her quiet steps muffled even further by a blanket of pine needles.  Even the birds here were quiet, as though a permanent hush dwelled here. Then there was a tree with a stone marker at its base; A moon and well worn runes scratched upon its surface.  A few feet away, another.  There, a pair of sticks fashioned together with a bit of sinew, human trinkets dangling from it.  No breeze blew, and the stillness was omnipotent.

Red Events are dangers to your characters.  They can take various forms, including enemies to fight, or negative effects on your characters.  Red events cannot be avoided, but how your characters handle them may change their outcomes.  A Character triggers an event when they touch it with their Area of Effect.  If an event lasts for multiple rounds, characters may join as soon as their area touches the event.  A character must complete a red event before they can continue. A movement restriction is placed upon characters in range of the event, while they are free to adjust their position around the marker, characters cannot move so that the marker goes  outside their AoE.

---

Movement: Red Event Effect: Kastra's movement is restricted until the event is cleared

Movement: Red Event Effect: Kodiak's movement is restricted until the event is cleared

Movement: Red Event Effect: Vienna's movement is restricted until the event is cleared

---

Akutan rushed the bear, leading the charge against the threat Vienna and the others had come across.  With not so much as a token shout to the Nardirians on the other side, he engaged the ursine.  At first, the bear was surprised, jerking it's head up out of the water where it had been attempting to fish. Akutan's charged the young grizzly, who was barely more than a cub.  The first strike was clean, Akutan's fangs burring deep into the bear's thick ruff.  It roared at the Son of the X Clan, rearing up as it focused entirely on it's attacker. At it's height, it easily brought the Ursa Major off his feet, and with a downward swat, made to dislodge him.  Seeing this first attack, Akutan let go, dropping from the bear's shoulder to avoid the claws.

With a splash, he landed in the river, and slipped between the upraised paw and out to the side of the bear.  He pivoted, going in for another strike higher up on the descended bear's neck.  But now the bear was focused on him, and it turned into his attack.  Wolf and bear tumbled together into the shallows, rolling through the water.  The bear raised it's paw again, going for a sideswipe that would have torn it's way all the way down Akutan's side.  The Black and Silver patriarch saw the blow coming, and intended a similar maneuver to dodge this new threat.  The river had other ideas.  As he dropped, Akutan's foreleg slipped on one of the river rocks, slick with silt and algae.  He found himself off balance, falling into the water and nearly submerging his head.  The awkward angle did not allow for escape, but kept Akutan's head from getting knocked off.  Instead, five white hot razors ripped through his left hip and thigh, leaving deep red ribbons of peeling flesh.  The blow took Akutan's legs from under him.  The bear swiped again, backhanding the male and sending him flying.  He hit the bank, and there was a crack as his head hit a stone.  He didn't rise, and didn't move.  The bear began to advance.

---

Movement:   Red Event Effect: Kastra's movement is restricted until the event is cleared

Movement: Red Event Effect: Kodiak's movement is restricted until the event is cleared

Movement: Red Event Effect: Kyra's movement is restricted until the event is cleared

Movement: Red Event Effect: Vienna's movement is restricted until the event is cleared

Movement: Red Event Effect: KO'd Akutan is knocked out! He returns to the Castle to heal.

---

As Akutan and Kastra tackled the bear Kyra nipped at its heels but pulled back as she heard her lover hit the water.

"Aku!" She called and snarled at the bear trying to steer it away from Akutan. She hung back for a moment and pulled Akutan out of harms way, her legs shaking from weakness and adrenaline. Once he was clear of the water she went back to try and bite the bears rump to get it to run off.

ooc