Alejandro nodded with a smile when Asta seemingly started to understand, even sharing words for the different genders, if Alejandro was not mistaken. Good, she was smart and quick to catch up what he meant, so perhaps this could be easier than thought, so the shorter the embarrassment the better. His gestures became more effusive, more expressive as he seemed to be getting to the point with ease. Alejandro wondered how the cute girl would react when she finally understood what it was for, would she nonchalantly laugh and lighten the mood? Or would she be embarrassed and join Alejandro in his blushing? Giulia came next, the amused look on her face wasn't making Alejandro's task any easier, but he wasn't going to stop what he was doing. If he just fell silent, how would she understand that he meant no ill? So he pressed on with his explanation.<br/><br/>When Asta realized what the object meant, or so Alejandro thought, her reaction was as nothing he would have expected. Dropping it to the ground like it was a rattlesnake, she voiced something with a strange pitch in her voice and bolted into the jungle. "Asta! Espera!" Alejandro managed to shout, but it was no use. "Pero qué demonios? Igual la he asustado..." he mumbled, feeling bad for her. He was baffled and looked at Giulia, who reacted faster and bolted after Asta without a second thought. "No se que ha pasado... no quería hacer nada malo..." Alejandro muttered to Kim-Ly and Aerin, one with her usual no nonsense approach and calm had brought fruit for the group, while the barely dressed tattooed man ran in Giulia's pursuit. "Me cago en la puta, menuda banda. Y yo el primero por meterme donde no me llamaban, pobre cría. Es tan fuerte y tan libre que... hostia, no se por que cojones sigo aquí" Alejandro was ranting, almost if he chastised himself. "Espera" he made a gesture with both hands to Kim-Ly to stay in camp, someone had to and the woman looked tired. Having reacted so late and spent time lamenting himself, there was no use on trying to go fast and try to outrun the other three that had a head start on him. What he could do, even if he was far from being an expert, was using his little mountaineering experience of youth to try and follow the mess the other three had left in their run.<br/><br/>At the beginning it was easy to tell apart the footprints of Asta's recently acquired tennis sneakers from Giulia's and Aerin's barefoot ones, but a few steps into the thick and it was already impossible to distinguish, he could just follow a trail of messed foliage and broken twigs. Deeper inside the jungle, Alejandro noticed something odd. How far in would Asta go? Even if she was disgruntled, angry, scared, embarrassed or whatever the hell went through her head to bolt off like that, she seemed smarter than to just delve too deep, so maybe he missed on something and so did the others. The rough trail of messed up foliage went on, and Alejandro's hopes were for naught as his eyes rested on something white, only to notice that it was Aerin's towel hanging from a branch. The Spanish man stopped, it was no use to follow on his comrade's footsteps. If they managed to find Asta, they would bring her back so he wasn't of no help there, and if they had lost her track, following them would do no good.<br/><br/>As he stopped and tried to think, Alejandro stopped and tried to listen. The roar of the sea seemed a distant mumble now, far on his back, the last clue to find his way back. Breathing deeply, he could swear he heard a similar sound up front, roughly in the way Aerin had seemingly gone after Giulia. Perhaps there was a stream of water there? That would be amazing, and he didn't know of any other thing that could make such a sound. Above all that, a small squeak sounded in a different way that Aerin had followed after Giulia, a not too far off high pitched sound alerted him. He couldn't identify it, but the fear for Asta's well being made him think it could be her, either screaming or crying, and it would be his fault for being such a brick head. The sound faded, but Alejandro tried to go through the jungle in that direction, trying to keep the sense of where was he headed to as it was terribly easy to get lost in there.<br/><br/>Alejandro's steps took him to a small clearing a bit further than he would have expected, finding a quite odd sight in it. Crumbled and rotten pieces of wood were on the ground, seemingly part of some kind of construction of old. The vision that had impressed him, something that he would take as a message if he was more religious, was a wooden cross still managing to stay uptight, even if crooked. Somebody had been there before them, decades, perhaps even centuries ago, what was that place? Who had they been? Alejandro's awe and curiosity soon stepped aside, as he heard that high pitched sound, that squak once again, but now it sounded so close that he noticed how wrong had he been. That sound was no cry, no scream, at least not coming from a human, even less the one he was looking for. Black eyes like ink stared at him at the edge of the clearing, soon deciding he was an intruder, an enemy. Alejandro was no man of action, but even he managed to pull his knife out of the pocket, holding it against the charging beast as well as he could, his world turning around as the sheer velocity of the impact took him to the ground.<br/><br/>Alejandro had felt resistance against his right hand, the liquid warmth of blood around his hand telling that he had indeed landed a blow, even if clumsy. The beast was over him, crooked teeth threatening to chew his face, his neck off. It was as black as the night, not exactly a boar as in his desperate defense he could see no prominent tusks, but something more similar to a black pig from his own country. Alejandro was too busy keeping the beast's stinking mouth away from biting him as to make guesses, as the impact had made him lose his knife somewhere. He wouldn't last long, seeing the cross against the sky as if mocking him why that hellish beast tried to kill him. Tempted to pray, he focused on defending himself, growing weaker and weaker on his fight as the weight of the pig made him short on breath. When he thought all was lost, a flash of white, a bright blur appeared between the animal and the cross. "Asta?" he gasped, wondering, hopeful.