Within Earshot

Sonya walked beside Thet, keeping an eye on the natives as they wound their way through the twists and turns of the forest. There was no debate, no questioning on where to go as they were led down several paths, branching off onto forks. "Don't resist them, whatever they do short of killing us. They may not be violent, but we are something they haven't seen before." She said in an undertone to him, keeping an eye on the guard next to them as she spoke. "Don't worry about Robin, I told her to stay back."

Robin sighed as Sonya and Theta walked out of view - and immediately regretted it. Her eyes widened as she noticed one of the natives look her way. Luckily it was just a little boy - but she backed out of the bush nonetheless. Gosh, staying quiet is harder than I thought... She leaned her back against a tree near the entrance and closed her eyes, trying to quiet her breathing. When she opened her eyes, the little boy was standing in front of her. Oh great... "It's okay, just go back inside, okay? Go find your parents or something? Yeah?" She whispered, trying to get him to leave her alone. It wouldn't take long before one of the adults found her. "Go on, go home." She coaxed, but he simply stood there, looking at her with confusion.

Sonya let out a small sigh, she had lost track of how long they had been walking through the dark. Turning her head from side to side, she studied the area with a small surprised blink. It was getting brighter, as if they were walking out into a sunny area. Reaching over, she grabbed Thet's hand should they try to separate them once they reached the settlement. Turning to Sonya, one of the guards motioned for them to follow him as he passed through the arch of trees.

Squinting her eyes slightly, Sonya studied the interlocking tree branches overhead, the light coming from hundreds if not thousands of of the little light creatures that they had met earlier. All scurrying through the leaves, casting brightly lit colorful patterns onto the ground below. "Oh wow..."

((Oh and I wasn't allowed to come see that, was I? xP ))

Robin sighed with relief as the little boy began to walk back inside to the others. She thought she might have been safe. And then the boy came back out with what was probably his father. Even if he wasn't, she was a goner. As soon as the older man caught sight of her, a spear was aimed at her throat. This is just great... She stood up slowly, raising her hands above her head. Offering a weak smile, she spoke calmly, "Um... hi?" The man motioned for the way he came, and her smile fell into a slight frown. With a sigh, she began walking into the entryway - the man eyeing her cautiously.

Theta stared open mouthed at the beautiful sight, eyes shining with wonder, forgetting that they were captured by natives for the moment being. The glasses no longer gave off a green tint now that there was so much light, allowing him to see all the color in the trees. It was like a night full of fireflies on steroids. There were a multitude of colors, most red, but there were plenty of oranges, greens, blues, purples, and any other color you could imagine. On the planet with no sun, this was the daytime, surrounded by the little glow-y plant creatures (he really needed to figure out what they were called). This was what the entire planet ran on; a bunch of carefree creatures that were the colors of their emotions. It was poetic, really. Theta spoke for the first time after meeting the natives.

"This is amazing...you think you've seen it all when you see things like the Medusa Cascade, but then you find things like this. Wow, just...wow"

Sonya's hand tightened around Thet's in response as she stared in amazement above them until the guard turned to face them, making a slight growling noise to get their attention. Ripping her eyes away from the lights above, she looked at the man as he gestured to a small hut. "Thet, look. They've taken the branches and wove them into a building, while they're still attached to the trees." She said excitedly, pointing at the way the branches were tied to the ground so the building would stay anchored. "They need the leaves like walls, mortar of sorts." Smiling brightly, she ducked inside, pulling him along behind her as she settled herself onto the floor with a cheery wave at the guard. Casting them another confused look, he turned around and stood in front of the opening, his arms crossed while keeping watch.

Looking up, Sonya pointed at the small opening in the ceiling just as a small light creature poked it's head through and looked down at them. Just as she was about to call out, he vanished for a few minutes only to return with a couple of his friends, all of them crawling down inside and climbing up into Sonya's and Thet's laps happily, humming in excitement as their vine hands wrapped around the both of them in hugs. "Oh... You must be the ones we saw in the meadow." She said brightly, holding one of them up and watching in amusement as it's color changed from purple to red in pleasure. "Oh I am so glad to see you."

Robin looked around the area, seeing a bunch of the natives turn to look her way. "Uh.. hi?" She smiled and waved a little, just to have the spear pointed closer to her neck. The little boy tugged on his father's clothes a bit to get his attention. He leaned down, careful to keep the spear in place, and listened to the boy as he whispered in his ear. Grunting, he shook off his remark and stood to threaten Robin some more. "My friends kinda came this way and uh.." She trailed off, not liking the fowl expression on the man's face. This is not good. This is very not good at all.

Theta laughed as the three ones that had taken a liking to him winded their little vine-like arms around him in a hug. He lightly hugged them back, causing them to turn bright red.

"Nice to see you too"

They started chattering wildly, making gestures to the door and to the ceiling and other things that Theta didn't understand. Huh, the TARDIS translation circuits weren't working for some reason; either they had no true language or it was just unknown to the Timelords. But as he watched, he began to piece it together. He looked outside at the single guard. Then at the hole in the ceiling.

Oh.

Sonya winked at Thet before picking up one of the creatures and holding it in front of her face until it stopped wiggling and gave her it's whole attention. "I'm going to give you a note. I need you to take it to our friend, the girl that was with us earlier?" She said softly to it, her eyes darting to the door at the guard then back at the light as it nodded it's little head in a small nod. "Good, now hang on." She set him aside and pulled out a small pad of paper, scribbling a quick note on it before folding it up and holding it out to the light. "Take it too her, she's on the pathway towards this place. If she's with someone, distract them after giving her the note, yeah?" Once the light took the note and gripped it in it's mouth, it held a vine up and placed it on her forehead gently for a moment then scurried up the side of the hut and out the hole. "There... Now we just have to figure out how to climb up ourselves." She announced to Thet cheerfully, standing up as the lights dropped to the floor and began pushing her and Thet towards one of the walls where the larger branches were.

Robin backed up to the wall of trees, hands still above her head, spear still aimed at her throat. She gulped, seeing no way out of this. A light caught in the corner of her eye and she looked down to see one of the creatures from earlier with a little piece of paper hiding in the bush. She immediately looked back to the man with the dangerous pointy thing - not wanting him to have a reason to use it. The light flickered off in the corner of her vision - either it left or turned out its light. She was hoping for the latter, since that paper was probably important.

Thet eyed the branches, scratching at his stubble then looking back out to where the guard stood, faced away. He returned his gaze to the wall. His eyes were calculating, as if he were actually working out equations on the strength of the branches.

"It looks stable..."

The 60 year old jumped up onto the branch, closing his eyes, waiting for it to break or bend or something. But no; it stood stable. He opened them again and looked down at Sonya, giving her a bright grin.

"It's good!"

He grasped the next branch above him, and almost effortlessly climbed his way to the top where the hole was. Sparing one more look to the oblivious guard outside, Theta swung up and out with the agility of a monkey. After many years of having to climb things, he'd finally gotten better at it. The skill had saved his life many times in the past.

As soon as he was outside, the Timelord crouched, sliding down a wall to the forest side of the hut. He retreated into the trees, hiding in the think foliage of bushes and large leaves, watching the hole and waiting for Sonya to climb out. Beside him, some of the light creatures from the meadow winded their vines around his feet, their eyes also trained on the hut. They glowed a worried purple.

Sonya cast a glance at the guard then grabbed the branches in front of her and climbed up to the hole effortlessly, along with several of the lights clinging onto her arms, legs and neck for the ride. Leaning her head in, she eyed the guard for a moment then thought of an idea. Crouching down, she plucked two of the lights from her legs and whispered to them. After a moment, they glowed bright pink in amusement before clambering down into the hut again, assuming the positions Sonya and Thet had while sitting in there. Sliding down quickly, she ducked into the trees and joined him, her eyes trained on the small village as each member moved around, doing their assigned task. "We can't move too far from here. I told Robin that she had to follow the path then wait just on the edge of the trees." She whispered softly before moving off into a circle that wound around the village. "I want to find the man in charge here. I'm sure he'll have some answers, I'm also sure that he won't talk to us since we just escaped... I'm hoping that with these little guys clinging to us, they'll back off. They're important to them, I doubt they would risk endangering them."

Robin yelped as the spear dropped to the floor. She couldn't help but laugh as the little plant creature jumped onto the man's face. Looking over at it, she reached over quickly to take the paper from it. Follow the path. Find the village. Hide in the trees. She shoved the paper in her pocket and took off in the direction she saw them take Theta and Sonya - hoping it was the right path she was talking about. She looked behind her and saw the man getting the creature off of him, so she turned back and ran faster. It didn't take long until she reached what was probably the village. Taking an immediate left, she darted into the trees and waited, hoping that the guard didn't follow her back here.

Theta peeked out from the leaves, seeing Robin in the group of trees across from them. He sucked in a breath. Ooh, how to get back over there without alerting the natives? He figured they could just follow the forest till they reached her, but that might take long, and they might make too much noise doing so. He retreated back into the foliage, turning to Sonya.

"Robin made it; what now, since you're the woman with the plan?"

Sonya grinned at him with a wink before putting her fingers to her lips and blowing a piercing whistle that caused their guard to startle and turn around in surprise. They couldn't see his face from where they stood, but she could only imagine what it was. Giggling under her breath, she started walking in a circle around the village again, watching as the villagers all rushed over to peer into their would-be prison at the lights inside. "Oh they will be telling stories of this day for years to come. How two prisoners turned into lights and escaped in one night." She whispered to Thet, picking her way through the branches until they reached Robin.

Reaching out, she lightly touched the girl's shoulder, turning her around to face them with a finger to her lips should she cry out from being startled. "It's only us. Shh. Come on, we have to find the leader of this place or we will never find out what's going on here."

Robin almost yelped - and then she saw Sonya. She nodded, looking over her shoulder to see the guard was gone. Well where ever he went... Tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, she turned back to face the others and whispered, "How are we gonna do that? These people aren't exactly nice - not anyone who could actually help." She looked behind her again - still not seeing the guard. Where'd he go? With a quiet sigh, she turned back to Theta and Sonya and waited for the plan - assuming they had one.

Theta laughed silently, following Sonya. He listened to the villagers in the background, yelling out surprised and panicked, and sometimes he even got a glimpse of the chaos; they were running around like headless chickens, it took a lot in him to not just burst out laughing.

"S-so the leader's hut will be the biggest one, yeah? I think I saw it at the other side of the village before they led us into the hut"

"I did too, but there's bound to be guards there." Sonya whispered in thought, her eyes studying the village as the people ran around, yelling at each other in what vaguely sounded like English, very bad English, but still understandable. Looking over at Robin and Thet, she caught sight of several of the lights climbing up into the trees around them when it clicked. Distraction. Grinning brightly, she leaned over to her friends and explained her plan in an undertone. "Get the little lights to swarm the village floor. I'm sure they mostly stick to the branches, so everyone would be confused. And in that confusion, we run to the elder's hut and duck inside before anyone notices us. The ones inside won't know what to do, we'll keep a couple of these little guys on us. Like I explained before, Thet, they are important to them, I doubt they will hurt the lights, even if we have them in our arms." Looking over her shoulder, she smiled slightly, imagining how the small village would look with dozens if not hundreds of the lights were running ramped through it.

Robin giggled at the thought of all the light creatures running around the village and nodded to the plan. "For all these little guys are doing for us, we are definitely giving them a treat or something before we leave." She looked over into the village and almost burst out laughing. "Oh gosh, what did you guys do in there?" After all the ruckus they were causing today, she was going to feel bad for them a little. Only a little.

Theta grinned impishly.

"We may have...traded places with a few of the lights. Now c'mon, we need to get these guys rounded up"

Theta walked over to a tree that had a particularly large amount of lights in it. Hoping they'd understand him, he pointed to the ground of the village, where the two pink lights were running around, causing mass panic in the village. Luckily, most understood; the tree lit up with pink and they all clambered out of the branches, rampaging into the village. The few confused ones in the tree quickly caught on, and joined their brothers and sisters.

They weren't the only ones to catch on. In all the trees around that one, the other lights imitated. It was like dominoes; more and more lights piled out of trees and into the village. It was a full out panic now, and the villagers were screaming out prayers to whatever gods they had. I was a LOT of pink. Thet laughed.

"Woo! That was easier than expected" he glanced out of the trees, eyes set on the largest hut, then back to the girls.

"ready?"

"Always." Sonya grinned at Thet then ducked into the village, weaving between the people as they ran around in confusion and made her way towards the largest hut. Stopping just outside the door, she spotted two guards standing just on either side of the leafy building, staring out at the pink lights as they swarmed across the ground. "Oi! Get in there, they need help getting the little guys back in place!" She shouted, pointing at the crowd of people trying to herd the lights back towards the trees. They shot a look at her quickly then nodded and took off into the panic, trying to help get their source of light back above them rather than on the ground. Blinking her eyes, she looked back at Thet and Robin in complete surprise. " I had no idea that would even work. Glad it did, lucky it did really. Anyway, in we go." She said cheerfully, smiling widely just before ducking down and slipping into the Elder's house.

Robin followed behind the others, trying her best to hold back a snicker at the commotion. She kind of wondered what happened to taking a few lights with them for security, but oh well - it probably wasn't that important. The grin on her face wasn't even a conscious decision anymore - these were probably the only people she'd ever meet to come up with such a good plan that involved adorable forest creatures. Taking one more look at the villagers, she ducked into the Elder's hut after Sonya, a little giggle escaping her lips at last.

Theta followed the other two into the hut, snickering at how easy it was to get past the guards.

The inside of the hut was very similar to the one they were in, just bigger and more filled. There was a fire pit in the middle, filled with charred logs and ashes. On the opposite side of the room from the entrance, three natives were discussing in what seemed like very serious tones. One held a huge staff, topped with a variety of different items, including some light leaves, a flower, and a few wolf teeth. They didn't notice the trio come in.

"I'm telling you, it's an act of the gods! The prisoners had not left the hut, nor did any lights enter; they transformed! Then all the lights coming out of the trees...!"

"Enough!" the elder snapped "I will have enough of this foolish talk! Prisoners don't just turn into lights..." he finally noticed the three standing at the entrance. His nostrils flared up and his forehead creased in anger "How did you get in?!?"

"Um... We walked inside." Sonya stated matter-of-factly, planting her hands on her hips as she stared at the three villagers staring at them. "Pretty easy considering your hut has a large hole cut in it..." She gestured over her shoulder at the opening then looked over at Thet and Robin with a small shrug. "Right, anyway, we wanted to ask a few questions is all. Like, what are those lights called? Just... Lights? That's a bit boring isn't it? Just a little, and why were we greeted with spears when we did absolutely nothing at all besides walk around?"

Robin took a look around at the furnishings in the hut, then at the staff of the elder. I wonder if he got that stuff as a gift or if he earned it.. Looking up, she smiled at one of the light creatures hanging out on the ceiling on a branch. It seemed like it noticed her as it climbed over her and jumped down onto her head. She giggled and looked up at it as it looked down at her. Picking it up, she held it in her arms as it clung onto her neck and glowed red. Her smile faded a bit as she looked back to the Elder, seeing an annoyed and possibly angry look on his face.