"Here, come on," Melanie replied, gritting her teeth. She did not like it, but the man obviously knew what he was doing. She probably could have just asked for the whistle, but he seemed set on going, even if the blow to his head messed with his ability to move. She trudged beside him, offering him her shoulder. "If need it, you can use me for support. But if we find this bug, I want you to just sit aside and blow your whistle. Even if it is real, it doesn't like a very pleasant creature."

"Agreed," not that he was given much of a choice at reduced capacity as he was. He did lean on her a few times before they made their way into the gloomy forest, his eyes scanning the terrain ahead of them as they moved on.

He was on the look out for the bug or any signs of it's passing. "Are there any caves here?"

"Um ..." Joan thought strarining to remember. She had no interest in spleunlking and paid it no attention but she had to think now about it. "I think so, Mel?"

"Yeah, there's a cove further down the beach. But that's about the only cave I know of on this side of the island." Melanie would have started at the word "cove," but this was a bit important. She was glad Joan was there though- even if this man attempted something... dubious, at least one of them would be able to run back to the school. Unless Melanie kicked his ass right there and then. She remained suspicious, her eyes flitting towards the man as she lead them towards the cave. "It's just beyond the forest."

"Then let's make haste."

Aegir knew that the presence of Joan was comforting and so included it. He was fully aware that he could easily handle two targets if it came down to it and so far it did unless something unexpected occurred. They pushed on, Vaughn's speed increasing a little to display his urgency and soon they pushed through the forest.

A slight breeze hit them as they emerged from it, eyes casting now upon the white sands of another beach. He glanced down it and walked along the beach towards a crate that was on the shore. Looking it over one could tell that there was a hole in the bottom corner of it where something possible gnawed it's way out of it/

There was straw inside it, wet straw that had the scent of salt. There was a stamp on the lid New York, New York indicating where it was going.

"Davy Jones locker ... that was the crate in which it was in before getting out ..."

"We should go back- maybe get a few weapons..." Melanie began， beginning to fear the situation. Now, she was with a strange guy, and there appeared to be a giant bug roaming about. She had every right to be afraid. If not for herself, then Joan. This was not a survival game- this was real. And there was a giant beetle... Melanie looked about, and spotted a few shells. These were the clam-like shells. She had often found these in shards, and had often formed makeshift weapons from them. The ones that Melanie spotted were abandoned, but still whole. She quickly a few, and broke them in half, fitting the shards in between her fingers.
"Or, we could run in now... I'll leave this to the guy with the whistle," she added, hoping a bit of levity would be appreciated.

He took off his necklace and looked down in the palm of his hand at the whistle then at Mel as he waited until she finished with her makeshift weapons. He debated on the options before him, and while he seemed displeased to turn back now he did consider it before pressing the whistle into Mel's palm.

"You got it now. Anyway it's probably best that we deal with it now. If it went back to the crate then it couldn't have gotten far. If we go back for help it could be long gone by the time we get back. Safer though ..."

He shook his head slightly then let loose a small sigh. "Let's do this before I change my mind."

"Ok, let's do this then..." Melanie's voice wavered as she considered the whistle. She pushed it back. [color=cyan]"I'm armed, and it'll most likely focus on me more. I'll distract- just be sure to blow the whistle before its too late. She walked to enter the cave, a bit frightened as a cold wind blew past her. She thought she heard the scurrying feet of an insect, but perhaps it was her imagination taking over.

This cove had been accessible by land, a sizeable hole existed in a wall allowing them to enter into it. The lightening her was dim and required a moment for there eyes to adjust to the gloom before they went on. Water from the tide lapping up against the shore here and while they were able to hear a slight scurrying sound further on in the cove they could also hear a snorting sound, far louder too.

It was a moment before their eyes adjusted enough to see a dark sharp on the sands as the source of the later noise. Slowly Mel could make out the prone figure of a man clutching his right leg in his hands, blood oozing out between his fingers, a whistle laying in sands near him.

"Quick! Joan! Do you have the first Aid kit?" Melanie shouted behind her, running straight to the man to inspect the injury. It seemed the man had been attacked, and that the beetle was indeed real. Melanie paused as she reached the man, fists tightening around the makeshift weapon. Her senses flared as she finally realized what she had walked into - a trap.

Nothing lashed out at her immediately as they rushed to the prone man. His leg had a severe gash that she could gauge needed stitches and she did not get a great look at the wound as it was mostly covered. It was more the copious amounts of blood that leaked through Mo's fingers.

Jo dropped the first aid kit on the sands, opened it and rummaged through it's contents before telling the man to move his hands so she could see what she was doing. She used a cloth to clean out the wound ... yes, definitely stitches would be needed as she saw muscle beneath the wound.

Jo did her best, however, to clean the wound then dress it with gauze bandages for the time being.

"Mo, are you alright?" Vaughn asked.

"Yeah, damn bug caught me unawares can't see shit here. Guess I startled it, it came from behind the rocks there, flew towards me and took a chunk out of me. I blew the whistle though, kept my wits about me and it flew off ... it use to stun it but not that long now. It paused for a moment then took off."

Melanie would have cursed, but she had a feeling that time was running a bit short. If the creature was relatively unaffected by the whistles, then Vaughn really was just a liability here. They needed to go back to the school. But, as Melanie thought about it, she began to wonder why she was in such a hurry.

"Hey Vaughn- you mentioned that we needed to capture the beetle before it breeds. How exactly would it breed on an island like this, where creatures like this would have too much of an impact on the ecology? I mean, it couldn't possibly find a suitable female, could it?"

When the other man, Mo, apparently, started talking, she asked where the beetle had flown off to.

"These things breed but incubate their eggs internally, they hatch inside the parent and eat their way out. If it mated before hand and is female then it could reproduce here. If not then it's a moot point since it cannot breed without a member of the opposite sex and there's only about a dozen or two of the beetles left in the wilds.

"It wouldn't go wild persae but could still reek havoc on this ecology if left alone. And since I'm not a bug guy I don't know how to distinguish between the sexes but I'd feel happier if it were caught or at worst killed before it spawns the next generation, a litter of dozens that will breed with each other and generate hundreds then thousands. Their life span being brief generations can melt past in a month or two so the island could get over run in a brief time. Hopefully it's male ..."

"Naw the science guy said it was female and that they thought of it as an endangered species and that they mated this one and wanted to export it to New York and breed them to get there numbers up. Leave it to scientists to screw things up. Anyway it flew off in that direction," Mo pointed further into the cove. "I think it was trying to get away from the light."

"Ok, does anybody have anything to make a torch? It's too dark in there to properly hunt down the bug, so I think we should just go back to the school, unless we can make one..." Melanie was a bit relieved when she learned that the bug wasn't too wild.
"Vaughn, stay here with Mo. Now that we know the whistle doesn't work anymore, I guess there's no reason for you to keep going straight into danger. I'll see what I can do about capturing the bug."

"There's some drift wood there," Mo pointed nearer the water given evidence to the fact that he had been aware of his surroundings. He had been here longer than they though and while most of the wood had washed in from the wreckage being no good given how damp it was from the salt water there had been branches from trees from the forest that had eventually fell into the ocean, braking off the trees during a storm and sent there.

They drifted up days and weeks ago having long enough to dry out and be suitable. They were still left with the fact that they needed some way to ignite torches and perhaps cloth to wrap about the ends of the branches to burn better and quicker.

Vaughn looked disgruntled too, he did not seem to want to admit that he was no good here but knew that he was now out of his element. He would have to let a girl do something that a man should handle, at least that was how he viewed matters.

"Alright ..." he murmured as he moved closer to Mo and Joan casting his eyes in the direction that Mo point in as if straining to see anything out of the ordinary.

If Melanie could read minds, then she would have certainly agreed with Vaughn's analysis of the situation. But, as she couldn't, she replied in the best manner she could. "I doubt that it'll be any good, unless its perfectly dry." Melanie's mind ran through options. She could have the others run back to the school and get help, but that certainly would not help. Melanie would be left alone to guard the mouth of the cave from a frantic giant beetle. What would she serve as? A snack?
"Ok, how about this? I go in there, but I'll keep calling back to see if you can still keep an eye on me. Perhaps the cave is smaller than it looks, and light is still getting in there. If not... hey, Joan? You know that compact mirror you had back at the beach? If you can find something like that and bounce the light into the cave, that would really help."
Melanie, however, did not wish waste time arguing. She adjusted her grip over the shards, and enterred the lair of the beast, fists raised, and andrenaline pumping.