Splintered Pride

Chapter Five

A/N: Full time-ish job, sick goat, cat needing meds and homework do not for good writing time make.

However, I'm still somehow making time so there :p

And continue on they did, venturing further and farther into the heart of the forest. After about three minutes, Lizz let out a groan, "Would anyone object if I started stripping?"

"I wouldn't," Morro and Kai chorused.

"Um, I would," Lloyd told her, glaring at the other two, "Why do you want to?"

Lizz quirked an eyebrow, "Sometimes I think you think I'm a hoe, Lloyd. I, at the moment, am very, very warm and am about four feet from keeling over from heat stroke and-or exhaustion."

Kai immediately stepped up to her side, making sure she was able to stay upright. Lloyd rolled his eyes, "Why are you so against heat?"

"Because, Lloyd," she leaned herself against a tree, "Unlike you, I was raised underground. Do you know how cold it is down there?" it was rhetorical, and Lizz answered herself anyway, "Very, alright? I had to adapt."

Morro piped up, raising his hand slightly, "I am very confused right now, can someone fill me in a bit?"

Cole hit Morro's shoulder, "You were in Lloyd's head, you should know everything about everything by now."

"The only thing he was thinking about other than world domination was-" Lloyd began bitterly.

Morro cut him off, "Hey, hey! You promised!"

Lloyd snorted, but fell silent and Jay, too, now, looked confused, "I'm not even going to ask, but does anyone know exactly why we're wandering around aimlessly in Hiroshi's Labyrinth?"

"We're looking for unusual activity," Zane clarified.

"Zane knows," Lizz jerked a thumb over in Zane's direction.

Kai was looking absolutely doubtful and opened his mouth to object to being in the Labyrinth at all, but his voice stalled in his throat when a cry sliced through the peaceful air. It sounded like a cry caught somewhere between human and animal, caught somewhere between anger and fear.

The group's demeanour changed from relaxed to tense, and Kai's brow furrowed, "You mean unusual like that?"

"Or unusual like that?" Jay pointed.

Everyone followed his point. A few feet away, in the middle of a small, slightly cleared area, was another tiger -- whether it was the same one or not, they couldn't tell. It was sat back on its haunches, like a dog might sit at one's feet, and it was watching the group intently, though no sign of anger came from it, "Unusual like that, yes," Zane nodded, "As well as that strange shout from before."

"Shoo," Morro waved his arms at the tiger, "Shoo! Get!" he recoiled when it bared its teeth at him, "Or not..."

"It's best to just let her be," Lloyd turned back to the way they were walking and paused mid step, "We're being watched."

Kai stepped up to Lloyd's side, looking where he was. Down the way, lounging casually in a tree, was a very built male jaguar. He had several noticeable scars, the most notable being the singular scratch through his right eye. He narrowed his eyes at the group, slowly got up and gently hopped from the tree, disappearing into the thicket. Kai blinked, "Hmm. I think we should go."

"Go where, exactly?" Lizz asked, "Further into the Labyrinth or turn around and go back home?"

"Both...?" Kai offered.

"It is unwise to split up while in the Labyrinth," Zane warned coolly, "Even if we part in pairs."

"There'd still be a group of three," Cole counted them quickly, "Zane, Jay, Kai, Lloyd, Lizz, Morro and me."

"I don't need a group," Morro began trudging his way through a tangle of knee-high ferns, "I'll survive on my own."

"Have fun with that, mate," Lizz gave his back a half-hearted salute, "Nice knowin' ya."

"Morro, come back here," Cole yelled, starting after him, "Or you'll fall in a pond or something!"

Morro snorted, continuing on his way, "Like you care about my well-being."

Lizz began waving her arm in the air, taking extra care to take high, slow steps as she began meandering after the two boys, "I care about your well-being, Morro-op!" she almost toppled over, but regained her balance just in time.

Kai looked a little put off and he followed after Lloyd, "Why does she care so much about Morro, again? If I remember correctly-"

Lloyd slapped a hand over Kai's mouth, "Yes, we know. I know. Just let her cope by her own methods, Kai. Let her alone."

As Lloyd pulled his hand away, Kai sighed, "What are we supposed to be looking for, again? I know Sensei isn't the face of intense detail and information, but this mission seems a bit ridiculous."

"For the four-hundredth and sixth time, Kai," Lloyd began, enunciating the words overly slowly and clearly, "We are looking for suspicious persons. There was strange activity going on close to the location of the Realm Crystal."

Kai's only response was a quirked eyebrow, "Did you just say persons?"

Lloyd wound back his arm and chucked a branch at Kai, who was walking a good ten feet away from him, off to the left. The branch hit the top of Kai's head and fell to the ground, "That's not the point, Kai! Do you see anything?" Lloyd was scanning the surrounding area, now.

Kai was, too, narrowing his eyes. It's times like this that his left eye really began to bother him, "No, I don't see anything but trees and green shrubbery."

"Good," Lloyd whispered, "That means there's nothing evil happening."

"Well, either that, or the forest is so dense that we just can't see what's happening," Kai corrected.

Lloyd sighed heavily, "Really? You had to ruin my false sense of security?"

Kai shrugged, kicking at the rocks under his feet, "Well, Morro and Lizz aren't around to do it, so I stepped up to fill the position."

Lloyd's voice was dry, "Yeah. Thanks."

Kai chuckled, "Yeah, no problem, kid."

Lloyd stepped onto a tree stump, bracing an arm against a near tree that was still standing as he scanned across the forest. After a moment, he bit the inside of his cheek and shook his head, "Nothin'. Though I do see Lizz, Morro and Cole over in the distance. They're headed over towards Zane and Jay."

Kai squinted in the direction of where Lloyd was looking and just gave up, glancing up at the blonde. If it weren't for his bright hair, Lloyd would've been completely camouflaged in the forest, "Should we go back, too?"

Lloyd hopped off the stump, leaves and fallen branches crunching under his feet, "Yeah, let's go see what they found."

"If anything."