The plants of the jungle seemed to come to life.  Leaves rustled as if
dancing to a fast-paced song.  Grass swayed wildly as a sharp breeze shot
past.  Even sturdy trees hummed as their bark vibrated in the wind.
	Twilight ran through the forest as fast as she could, huffing and panting.
 Dodging jutting trees.  Evading weblike vines.  Hurdling stumbling bushes.
 All thoughts of stealth and caution thrown to the wind and rustling leaves
she kicked up.  All in an effort to keep up with the darting figure ahead
of her!  The wraith that always seemed to stay the same distance ahead of
her no matter how hard she ran!  The elusive form whose eratic flight
seemed a fit of fancy!  The moron who had carried her master through just
about every inch of jungle from the once-palace to their cottage!  Damn he
was fast!  Didn't he ever tire?!  Why couldn't he stop so they could all go
home!?!

		

	Leaves spouted into the air like a fountain as the forceful gust blew
past.  "WHERE IN THE SPIRIT'S LAND DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING!!!"  Doshin
flailed his arms in an attempt to hit or choke or stun or otherwise subdue
Reikiba, but his blows were weakened by the fact that branches and moss
were slamming into him at an alarming rate.  (NOTE: Imagine Ryouga plowwing
through the forest when he's trying to get to Tokyo.) (CHEF'S NOTE: Thank
you, I'd rather not.)
	Reikiba, gasping for air, tightened his grip on the man in his arms and
yelled, "Don't worry, Mr. Lee, I think I've almost caught up with your
daughter!" then plunged through a dense hoop of foliage between two trees
without slowwing.
	Doshin shrieked as a cluster of vines and moss tangled itself around his
head, almost pulling him from the samurai's grasp, but luckily, the vines
snapped.  Afraid they might crash at such a high velocity, he quickly
heaved the plants to the side and began flailing his arms once more.  "YOU
IDIOT!  MIKO AND RANMA ARE THAT WAY!"
	"Sorry!"  Reikiba quickly turned to the right--in the opposite direction
his charge pointed!  Doshin screamed and threw his arms in front of his
face when they almost skidded into a tree.  Leaves flew into the air and
sprinkled the jungle like rain.

		

	Twilight scittered around trees almost without touching the ground.  She
was gaining.  She'd bite the fang-toothed biped.  That's what she'd do.  To
hell with his aura!  Then the nightmare could end and they could go home!
She burst through a dense cropping of bushes.  She could see the samurai's
back, closer than ever, her master flailing madly in his grasp.  She picked
up speed for a mighty leap forward.
	Suddenly, a horrible, monsterous glob of vines and moss jumped from her
master's face to attack her.  In a split second, it had her and she was
blinded.
	After the vines ensnared the shimmercat, she tumbled across the ground and
through the tall grass like a large bowling ball, uprooting entire bushes
in her wake.  She began biting and clawing at the tangled mass that had her
trapped, her fiery battle aura begining to flare.
	It was several more seconds before she rolled to a stop in a small glade
with even more vines and moss clinging to her than before.  She roared and
disappeared in a fighting dustcloud, her aura shining brightly. (CUTE
VOICE: Sheesh.  It only moss.) A second later, the shredded remnants of the
creepers crumbled to cinders.
	Panting wildly, she sat up and spat out some dried moss trailing from her
jaws.  She squinted her eyes and swayed her head this way and that.  She
had left a wide trail through the jungle where she had passed, it seemed.
The jungle noises had ceased for several long moments, then started back up
again.  She could hear the rustling of leaves in the distance caused by
Reikiba's swift passage, but he was moving to fast, buzzing around the
jungle like a huge, annoying fly, and she couldn't get a lock on his
location.  The rustling was getting closer.  Twilight's eyes flew wide.
	"Don't worry, Mr. Lee, we're almost there!"  Reikiba burst out of one side
of the clearing and exitted through the other.  Twilight whipped her head
around, trying to follow the movement.
	"PUTMEDOWN!"  Reikiba burst through the bushes behind the shimmercat and
bounded over her to disappear in the trees ahead of her.  Twilight perked
her ears questionably.
	"I think she's over here!"  The samurai blur burst into the glade again,
her master shouting and flailing against trailing vines, and disappeared
just as quickly.  Twilight groaned and lazily fell to the ground, resting
her chin in the dirt.
	"PUTMEDOWN!"  The blur burst in from the west and exitted east.  "Just
alittle farther, I'm sure!"  The blur entered north and went south.
Twilight sighed heavily and watched the samurai fly into and out of the
glade as if she were watching a heated tennis match.  "THEY WENT THAT WAY!"
"Sorry!  Almost there!" "WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?!" *zoom zoom zoom* "Wow, Mr.
Lee, your cat sure is fast!"  Twilight groaned and shook her head. (CUTE
VOICE: *sigh* Can we go home now?) (CHEF'S NOTE: Uh, I second that motion.)

		

	Salon shook her head as she passed adeptly through the jungle, slashing a
trail through the choking brush with her staff, but otherwise paying little
heed to what was in front of her.  _That should keep those fools busy while
I attend to more important matters.  Yet, I wonder if giving them such
powerful talismans was such a good idea._  She shook her head and sneered
in disgust.  _It is not very likely that those dull-witted whores will find
anything useful anyway.  ....  If they do, I will... I will make them all
my apprentices._  She chuckled mockingly.  _I would be willing to dance
naked for them if one of them could get me that idol._ (OLD VOICE: Promise?
 I'll hold ya to it.) She shook her head again and spat, _But they will
probably just forget their mission altogether as soon as they find the next
person they can spread their legs to._ (CHEF'S NOTE: Ooooh, that was
cold!)(OLD VOICE: But not too far off the mark, I imagine.)
	Suddenly, Salon froze in her tracks, her eyes growing wide in horror.
_What if... now that they're free to rome... they won't limit their desires
to the human species!_  She cringed back, almost falling backwards, and her
face contorted with fear.  _And as long as they have those bracelets, I CAN
SEE EVERYTHING THEY SEE!!!_  Falling to her knees and tightening her hands
into fists, she threw her head back and howled, "WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!" (OLD
VOICE: At least that Komiki girl will have to take hers off first.) (CUTE
VOICE AND CHEF'S NOTE: EEEEEEEWWWWW!!!!!)
	Salon started to cry out again, to beseech the gods as to why she was
being treated so harshly (CUTE VOICE: Oh, please.), when she heard a twig
snap behind her.  She held her breath and listened.  She could hear nothing
but a typical chorus of insects and a duo of twittering birds, but she
could FEEL someone's (or something's) presence behind her.  Tightening the
grip on her staff, she quickly turned around.
	With a monsterous snarl that echoed throughout the jungle, some kind of
large animal slammed into her and cast her breathlessly to the ground, its
great weight bearing down hard against her stomach.  The witchwoman quickly
swept her staff under the beast, kicked awkwardly with her foot, and
launched the beast over her head.  She immediately rolled to her knees,
gasping for air, as she heard... whatever it was... scamper into the
protection of the trees.
	She scanned the jungle with narrowed eyes and held her staff ready.  There
was something... unnatural... about the creature that just attacked her.
Even though she didn't get a good look at it, she could tell that it was
something she had never encountered before--it sounded like some kind of
dog, but it was too big to be any dog she knew existed.
	Suddenly, she heard a sharp, low growl--it was behind her once more.  But
this time she was ready.  She swung around and yelled, "Fierce Hawk Talon",
sending her staff in a wide arc.  But half-way through the motion,
something heavy hit her hand and she could feel something like a blunt
knife slash her wrist, sending the staff out of her grasp.
	The witchwoman was thrown to a tree before she finally saw what her
attacker looked like.  "By the gods...," she gasped before she was again
batted aside by one of the creature's powerful forelegs.  She absorbed most
of the blow and forced herself to roll toward her fallen staff, whereupon
she scooped it up and held it defensively in front of herself.
	The creature menacingly crouching before her was huge--nearly twice as
massive as the shimmercat that was Doshin's familiar (and probably at least
twice as heavy).  It could have almost been called a wolf--it had thick,
gray fur, slender lupine legs, and a bushy tail. But its snout was too
short for a wolf, and its nose was upturned more like a pig's, and its paws
looked more like cloven hooves.  However, its most distinguishing
features--that Salon was extremely wary of--were the two ivory tusks
jutting from either side of its jowls, each extending to a point just
beyond its snout.  As Salon stared at it wide-eyed with amazement and a
little horror, she could have sworn that it was half wild boar.
	The wolf-boar stamped a hoof against the ground and snorted, waking Salon
from her curious daze.  It took a small step forward and grunted angrily,
then pawed the ground a few more times.  Salon, regaining her senses once
more, brought her staff around to swat the animal away, but as if intuiting
her move, the wolf-boar ducked the swing and deflected it to the side with
a tusk.  Salon looked both frightened and puzzled.  The beast just snorted
again, apparently angrier, but did not attack.  Salon got the impression it
was waiting for something.
	Salon slowly retracted her weapon, then sat and stared into the creature's
face--something about it--HIM--seemed familiar.  Another second and her
eyes snapped wide in recognition.  She drew back a bit, as if expecting a
blow, and stammered, "P-Pae-Kau!  Is that really you?  It's nice to see
that you are well!"
	The wolf-boar took a forceful step forward and swiped his tusks at her,
forcing her to fall on her back.  Her legs were now pinned under the
beast's belly.  She slowly curled her fingers firmly around her staff and
waited for an opening to strike.  She tried to smile.  "Pae-Kau.  I have
not seen you since yesterday.  Did you fall into another...."  The
wolf-boar swiped again at her face, but seemed to intentionally miss.
	Salon started to sweat. (CUTE VOICE: Ahem.  Perspire.) The beast put his
face so close to hers that she could feel the hot, not-all-to-pleasant
breath from its nostrils on her mouth.  She turned her face to the side to
keep from gagging--air wasn't the only thing coming from its nose. (CUTE
VOICE AND CHEF'S NOTE: EEEEEEEWWWW!!!) She gasped, "If this is about the
fur traders... I only meant that as a joke.  You can understand...."
	"Bwweeiiii!!"  Salon suddenly brought her staff around and hammered it
into the creature's side, slamming him into a tree, then she instantly
sprang to her feet and prepared to finish it off.  But to her surprise,
despite his great bulk, he jumped off of the tree as easily as a squirell
and landed in the same spot he was standing before, apparently unfazed by
the blow.  He pawed the ground and snorted/growled fiercely.
	The witchwoman hesitated, then brought her staff up to strike, but the
wolf-boar charged with amazing speed and she barely dodged, backing her
into a thick bush.  She needed more room--the jungle was too dense for a
decent fight (CHEF'S NOTE: You mean one you can actually win).  She took
another swipe at the creature, then ran into the thick of the jungle, not
waiting to see if the blow hit.
	She bounded through the foliage as as gracefully as a fawn, barely
upsetting the leaves as she passed, following an erratic path through the
maze of vines and trees that would confuse even the most skilled tracker.
At first, her flight was panicked, her breathing harsh, sweat flying from
her brow.  But she quickly slowed her pace when she imagined what she must
have looked like.  She scowled and berated herself--how people would laugh
if they saw a sage of her standing bolting though the jungle like a
frightened little girl.  She soon slowed to a halt next to a curtain of
hanging vines to look around and harden herself back to her normal self.
	Her eyes widened when she heard a faint but steady rustling of leaves far
ahead of her; it got louder, but still barely a whisper, then quickly
receeded.  _It is IMPOSSIBLE that he could be in front of me!_  She quickly
shook her head.  That wasn't possible.  _Pae-Kau would not make that much
noise on his worst days._  Someone else was in the jungle.  She narrowed
her eyes and headed along a perpendicular path.
	A few more steps and she reached what appeared to be a freshly-carved
trail--an unusual trail at that.  It appeared that a heavy object had
recently plowed through rather recklessly--for as far as she could see in
either direction along the narrow path, grass had been crushed into the
ground and larger plants had been uprooted.  She bent down curiously and
examined the ground--whatever it was was heading farther into the jungle.
She took a few steps in that direction to see if she could determine how
far the trail actually went.
	After a few steps, she winced when she heard a sharp growl behind her.
_Damn, that was fast!_  Not even bothering to turn around, she ran down the
trail.

		

	Twilight's ears perked when she heard someone scrambling up the cleared
trail behind her.  The noise would not have caught her attention if she was
not hearing someone rushing through the jungle toward her from the opposite
direction as well.  She did a quick doubletake in both directions, then
ducked, threw her paws over her head, and closed her eyes really tight.
	"WE'RE ALMOST THERE MR. LEE!"  "YOU IDIOT WE"VE ALREADY GONE THIS WAY!"
"CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT THIS PAE-KAU?!"  "GRRROOAAARRR *snort*!"  "Oops!"
!!CRASH!!  "AACK!!"
	Twilight slowly opened her eyes and looked around.  Her master was
sprawled on the ground in front of her, mumbling something to himself and
scratching his fingers in the dirt; the samurai was half-slumped against a
tree, moaning and rubbing his head (CHEF'S NOTE: Hoping to make a static
charge.).  Twilight's eyes widened when she looked behind her.  Staggering
from side to side was a massive creature that looked like a shaggy wild
boar--and it was bigger than she was; to its left, a woman wearing tiger
stripes crawled unsteadily to her hands and knees.
	The tigerstriped woman looked up at her with surprise, then looked at her
master and scowled.  The woman then boldly crawled over to the huge
creature and draped an arm over its neck to steady it; she whispered into
its ear--which Twilight could hear easily: "I propose we call a truce for
the time being."  The creature cleared its head and saw who else was in the
clearing with him, then nodded in agreement.
	Twilight immediately trotted to her master's side and demandingly nudged
him into coherence.  He quickly noticed the large beast and the witchwoman,
and his eyes flew wide.  He leaned forward and whispered into the
shimmercat's ear: "Go find Miko and make sure she is safe."  He glanced at
Reikiba and added, "Take him as well.  I will make sure they do not
follow."  Twilight stared suspiciously at the samurai, then nodded.  She
understood that he wanted go himself himself and leave the samurai behind,
but if anything bad happened to the moron, he would never forgive himself.
She didn't necessarily agree--but she understood.
	Twilight rushed to Reikiba's side just as the withwoman and the wild boar
thing started advancing.  Doshin reached for his bokken, but could not find
it--he must have lost it SOMEWHERE in the jungle.  He glanced at Twilight
and shouted, "Go!" then spang forward into the the two attackers.
Twilight, not waiting to see what happened, dragged the half-conscious
samurai out of the area by the collar of his shirt.