Sayuri's body pressed flat against the rough tree. She peered carefully at the strange creature, then ducked back to her hiding spot and scrambled up into the limbs. She'd spotted what appeared to be a young man only a few minutes ago and had immediately set about tracking him. He had to be monstrous, she reasoned, for everything that at first resembled a human male that she'd encountered in the past four years had turned out to be another monster plying some simple disguise. Yet, for all of his obvious nature, he seemed both oblivious to her presence and at the same time devoid of the stink that pervaded the beasts. The only ones that hadn't stunk had been sneaky, clever things that stalked her, not the other way around.

Her bare, blistered feet left a faint ruffle of leaves as she leapt into the next tree along the path to catch up with this strange quarry with a soft flap of her tattered cloak. She dropped low into another crouch, deep in the shadowy boughs of the foliage, and tested the air again in case she'd missed him before. She had, truly, but the faint scent of cologne was not the dread-inspiring harbinger she'd grown accustomed to finding in her nostrils. Her dark hair pressed close to the thick collar of fabric now around her face to blend her better into the shadows, and her eyes sought for his shadow through the leaves. This was doubly, triply confusing. Never had one of the things actually smelled pleasant. A riddle, a mystery, that she had to puzzle out. One that drew her full focus as she continued her pausing, lurching path through the limbs above after its source.

"Ahhh, nice breeze."

she muttered to herself brushing a hand through her hair as she glanced to the canopies of the trees about her hearing a soft rustle not too far away. she shrugged assuming it to be nothing but the very breeze she was enjoying. A soft laugh in the same masculine voice she was so skilled at using and she'd end up sitting against a tree that was all alone in a clearing. It was a relaxing breezy spot, almost perfect for clearing one's head and that was exactly what darwin felt she needed right now. the mention Kanoe made of monsters bothered her greatly. She wasn't that insane seeming a person so her word was more hitting than something someone else might have said.

"Was she trying to mess with me or something?"

a hand holding over her currently white hair

Of course, when it came to stealth and tracking...humans were unskilled compared to some.

Dendrite's natural grayish-green coloring, while initially evolved in the ocean, blended into the forest foliage well. And the creature was more experienced at creeping stealthily in pursuit of quarry than Sayuri was. Obviously the second girl was chasing the first girl...and there was something unusual about the first girl. While Dendrite's long experience with human females afforded confidence in the idea that Darwin was a girl, the creature didn't quite know about the concept of "drag".

Which all added up to some intriguing mysteries--What was up with that first girl? Why was the second girl brachiating after her? Even if the explanations turned out to be simple, Dendrite was sure the two human females would offer pleasant experiences of their own...

He was strange, strange, strange, Sayuri decided. He had to be a threat, but she couldn't tell how, and the fact that he muttered such plain things to himself made no sense. The crouched woman shuffled loose a crude dagger, balanced for throwing, and turned it over slowly in her palm. If he was just a weak thing, she could take the element of surprise and try to bring him low in a single stroke. That wasn't right, though. She'd never actually killed one of the things. It had to be some sort of trap. He knew she was there and he was toying with her, waiting for the strike that would come back at her, and then it would be the same fare as before.

The wind shifted slightly, leaving him downwind of her, and her focus and instinct turned down her sense of smell. With the other thing still creeping, far more silently than she, behind the both of them, this was a fatal error in judgement. Her mind settled fully on watching the white-haired young man below, seeking some indication of his true nature, and thus missed the building odor of the true threat.

Darwin sighed blissfully unaware of her two stalkers she brushed a strand of hair from her face and closed her eyes for a moment as she sat against the tree calmly muttering nothings to herself. A strange thing to do but, it relaxed her when she was bugged by something and for now the thought of the island being covered in monster rapists was on the forefront of her mind, right next to the growing burning in her leg. A burning that didn't do much to comfort her.

"It burns so often... what the hell does it mean?"

she asked herself as she ran her hand over her entire leg through the leg of her slacks still wondering what she should do about this.

Dendrite shivered a little and then settled itself, watching the pair. The alien was getting restless, but held itself back, watching. Was that one girl actually thinking of attacking the other? That could be...messy. But she smelled uncertain. Just one reason to pounce, and the alien would spring...

He was wounded! This was perfect. She could strike and bring him down. No, she had a better handle on this. She could subdue him first and make him describe himself to her. If he was another human, death would be out of the question for either reason. Sayuri nodded imperceptibly to herself and fell forward from the branches in a controled dive. She curled and twisted at the last moment to land in a furrow of cloak as her hand snapped forward, bearing the crude blade towards Darwin's throat. Unless she misjudged her attacker as she'd been misjudged, the rough edge would hang in the air half an inch from the soft skin of her neck. Brown eyes, already masked in the shadows of her hair, narrowed to cautious slits.