[<u>The Ancestral Steppes - Everwood Border</u>]<br/><br/>As Kaze wove his way through the rocky half-jungle of the the border between the steppes and Everwood he began to hear the movements.  At first he could dismiss them as the trees and vines overhead rustling in the occasional winds but they came too irregularly, never quite in sync with their apparent cause.<br/><br/>No clear target presented itself though, even as Kaze warily delved deeper into the area.  A sudden crackle of branches and a shower of tumbling leaves in one place, a lithe figure moving in the shadows out of the corner of his eye, a blur of motion amidst the canopy overhead, glimpses here and there, but nothing concrete.<br/><br/>Silence...  For a long moment.<br/><br/>Then the lunge, giving Kaze his first good look at the monster girl as she swung in towards him.  Like most monster girls, she was largely humanoid, with patches of rusty orange-red fur decorating much of her body, though it did little to disguise taut muscles that moved beneath her skin or lend any modesty to her uncovered breasts.  Her fingers were tipped in viciously pointed claws, clearly demonstrating her monstrous nature, and her face was covered by what appeared to be a brightly coloured mask, with two massive yellow almost insectoid-looking eyes on it, while it concealed the rest of her face.<br/><br/>She flung herself at Kaze, swinging in from above and bringing both gravity and momentum to bear as she shot towards him, claws raised for a powerful slash!<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Ancestral Steppes - Step Cliffs</u>]<br/><br/>The cliffs that gave the steppes their name were a series of massive rises, much like stairs made for a being of unimaginable size.  Great walls led to long ledges that led to other great walls, slowly ascending the mountain in a series of relatively simple rock faces.  Or at least, they would be simple if so many monsters did not call the area their home.  Even the easiest climb could be made incredibly dangerous with the introduction of hostile wildlife...<br/><br/>Reaching the base of the cliff, Sonya could hear a low hum of massive insectoid wings overhead, and knew that the<a class="link link--external" href="http://i.imgur.com/sc9ehgk.png" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">Seltas</a>must be close.  The enormous bugs tended to stay relatively close to the ground to search for food with their massive compound eyes, which meant that the sound was probably coming from the next ledge up, or perhaps the one after that.  She would need to climb up and hope the Seltas would be looking the other way when she poked her head over, or she would need to hope the monster would come down here.  Perhaps she could draw it's attention somehow?<br/><br/><br/>[<u>Everwood</u>]<br/><br/>Alistair spent some time waiting and fortunately the Gendrome did not appear while he waited, but eventually he began to discern something resembling a way to sneak by.  The canopy of vines was utterly out of the question as several Genprey and Genprey girls lay atop it, apparently sunning themselves in the mid-afternoon warmth.  The heat would make them more lethargic given their reptilian nature, but there were close to a dozen up there at any one time, perhaps more, probably too many for him to evade them all, though there was a decent chance...<br/><br/>The second option was sticking to the cliff edge, where he had little-to-no cover from any eyes on the valley floor but could move most freely compared to the other options...<br/><br/>That left the valley floor, which had it's own dangers given that most of the caves opened into it.  The moss would muffle his footsteps and there was cover from sight in the form of fallen stones and trailing mounds of underbrush and vines.  It was a safer attempt, but it was also more dangerous, since if he was spotted, he would have the pack surrounding him not just from all potential sides on the ground but also able to descend upon him from above thanks to the canopy.<br/><br/>There were risks either way, but if Alistair was bound and determined to sneak through the valley, these were the only real options...