Chapter 183

As Taylor's group was descending down the mountainside they were being watched. Up In the treetops at the base of the mountain is a series of faint shimmers standing among the tree branches. They were crossing through the territory of the Kaumera, and as Taylor's group pushed forward a few of the shimmers gave chase along the tree line. Slowly on the tree branch, two warriors began to manifest.

They had thin reptilian tails that curled at the end, smooth scales covering their neck, and shoulders. The shimmer faded as the colors slowly returned to their bodies. The two standing in the tree has light brown skin, with sky blue scales, and orange eyes. Both of them were wielding spears of jade in their hands and wearing tribal garbs around their waist.

"Are they planning to attack?"

"No, they are moving away from our village. It must be an emergency migration since they have quite a few wounded among them. Escort them out of the territory, and then return immediately. We need to be prepared for when they start attacking."

Taylor's group was coming into a clearing in the jungle with a large pond, and given their lack of water, they needed to make camp. Their observers were a little upset to see them stopping within their borders but seeing the scared children they decided to show leniency. While they were boiling water everyone was taking a chance to catch their breath. Denam was sitting on a nearby rock staring down at his pendant while when Brian approached.

"Thanks for the save yesterday. I meant to say something, but once it got back up it slipped my mind." Brian said while taking pictures of the surroundings.

"I still can't believe it got back up," Denam replied as he stashed his locket.

"What's worse is that sound it made," Zess said while filling gourds.

"How are you feeling?" Taylor asked Brian trying to reach for his shirt.

Brian backed up and smiled as if everything was okay.

"It's a little sore when I walk, but that's all," Brian replied as he turned to take more pictures.

While preparing to take his picture Brian was zooming in for focus, and noticed movement along the branches, but couldn't see what it was. After adjusting it more his hand shook, and he quickly grabbed a clip of it, and slowly turned around acting as if nothing happened. The Kaumera saw Brian staring in their direction, but they were unaware of how extensive his zoom feature was. The others standing around the fire noticed how quickly Brian's face went pale.

"You really should let me look at it," Taylor told Brian.

"Come here casually, and look at this," Brian replied.

Taylor was unsure about his motive, but after glancing at the camera she still had no idea. Brian had to slow the clip down frame by frame to see vines draping across a body. She looked towards Miguel nodding for him to come over.

Taylor took his gun and looked down the sights switching to the thermal. Using it during the day would make it difficult to read, but she was simply looking for movement. Given their cold-blooded nature, Taylor could see five lizard humanoids moving through the trees. She was unsure about saying anything to the others, but seeing Demitri off at a distance she wanted a few fighters aware.

"There are five creatures watching us," Taylor said in a low tone.

"Where?" Denam asked glancing around.

"They're camouflaged in the trees," Brian replied.

'Like the predator?' Miguel glanced up in the trees with fear.

"What do they look like?" Wesley asked with curiosity.

"It's hard to tell from so far, but they seemed to have a thin curled tail. Given their body temperature, it's a reptile of some sort." Taylor replied.

"Chameleons are found in environments like this," Jeremy stated.

"We would get all sorts of stories sent to us by people swearing lizard people were real. I guess they weren't as crazy as I thought." Brian replied.

"What should we do about them?" Miguel asked as he took his gun back.

People began debating whether or not they should engage them first. Wesley argued that they were left alone while moving through the forest, and that was a sign of them being reasonable. Given the experience with Venus yesterday they know appearances are misleading in this world. Seeing the debate being held Marc stepped forward, and showed them pictures from this morning.

"She's really cute," Wesley said as he glanced back up into the trees.

Wesley was preparing to head towards the treeline, but Taylor grabbed him.

"We can't take the chance that they're bad. They could just be waiting for us to be closer to the trees." Taylor suggested.

"We should get going before they decide to take action," Miguel said while extinguishing the fire.

With enough water gathered they pushed forward, but once they were under the tree cover again they watched their backs cautiously. The warriors watching them could tell their presence was detected, but couldn't tell how.

Once they passed a large fruit tree they stopped to gather food, and the warriors fell back. After they had enough Miguel checked to see if their stalkers were still in attendance. Seeing them leaving everyone was sighing in relief to be out of danger.

"I wonder when we will find someone who can understand one of us," Jeremy stated.

"If it's truly another world there probably isn't anyone," Brian replied.

"They mentioned seeing a tribe resembling Maori warriors so there have to be some similarities to our world," Wesley said as they worked through the forest.

"It would just be nice to see another human's face in general," Taylor said while scanning the forest.

"I'm sure we will have a better chance once we get outside of the jungle," Wesley replied.

Everyone was eager to get out of the jungle, but they didn't know how dangerous it would be. Their distance to the grasslands was only two more miles, but it's all open territory with plenty of feral species roaming the area.