Eco-Challenge FS (2)

"First?" said Kay. Then realizing they would be there all night if she waited to get up her nerve, she swallowed hard, and put on the climbing gloves, and locked the pully clip to herself and the rope. Then as Rae and Sun hold the rope, Kay starts sliding and climbing her way across. A few feat out, she made the mistake of looking down over her shoulder.

Kay keeps sliding across, and mumbling to herself. "I'm about to die, and I didn't even get to eat supper. Well, if I live through this, we ARE going to stop to eat. But, I probably won't live through this, so we should have eaten first. We are lost, and we are hungry and we are crosssing this huge canyon on a tiny little rope, and probably will die, and where are the others? WEll, I am sure they are not crossing canyons on tiny ropes. They are probably eating and sleeping like they are supposed to. Because they follow the rules. What the hezmana were we thinking.

And making pretty good time. Grack turned out to be a pretty darn good map reader and chose an easy to medium path that still lead pretty straight to the dark zone. Instead of walking in the dry riverbed, the team had walked for quite a distance next to it along some old animal paths and only went down through it once to get on the other side.

Team Deviants made the occasional stop to rest and drink water. "At this rate, we should get to the edge of the Dark Zone by nightfall," said Grack.

"Stability. The more different objects you have moving in different directions up there, the less stable the rope is, which would slow us down a lot more than crossing one at a time." Rae wraps her hands tightly around the harness and pushes off. "Now HOLD STILL!"

"Don't look down, don't look down... FRELL... frell... frell..." Rae continues muttering to herself as she slides over to where Kay is tangeled in the rope.

"Relax." Rae mutters. "I'm not going to let you get hurt. Look, it's going to be okay." She clicks her comm. "Sweetie, I need you to get out here and get something from my bag."

Sweetie quickly roots through her pack and locates an odd-looking harness. He pulls it out and drops it into Rae's lap. "This it?"

Rae nods sharply and makes a hand-gesture that seems to mean 'thankyou', then she grabs the harness, pulls Kay towards her and begins strapping her in.

"Get frelled." Rae grabs Kay and pulls her upwards. "Grab the rope, Kay. Good. This is going to be just like rowing. we need to pull at the same time, or we're only going to get fouled up worse. Ready?"

They quickly make it across the rope and to the other side. Kay starts to unbuckle the harness, but Rae pulls out her knife again and slices through it. Then she walks into the underbrush and throws up.

"Hmm... Well, I guess she's just being Rae." He paused. "We should leave as soon as I'm done with the dishes." He noticed Jila staring at him. "What?"

"And play every sport she can." Crais noted. "And do spinal adjustments. Of course." He winked at Jila. "You would not believe the knots her spine gets into sometimes..." He shook his head. "Velorek, since you've been the lazy one tonight, do you want to start the packing?"

"We'll help, we'll help." Crais sighed, packing the dishes away in a plastic case. "But we'd better get a move on. If I know Rae, she's not going to let her people sleep now that she's managed to circumvent the dark-zone."

According to the IQ120 handbook (Yes, there is a handbook..) there is only one efficient way to travel through the jungle without any technology. This method of travel is known as the "Tarzan Method."

Which is why, as soon as teams Slewfoot and RainbowMonkey entered the jungle, they both began climbing trees. A short time later several loud cries could be heard through out the jungle.

"eaeaeaeaeaeaeeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeae!!!" yelled #1 just before letting go of one grapevine and grabbing on to another. Within a relatively short time the two teams were competing for the lead, and were getting very close to passing through the dark zone.

fall on thier eemas..." Crais muttered with a sigh, peering down at Slewfoot and Rainbow Monkey from Geredan's back. He leaned back and added to Jila, "And of course it'll fall to US to get them out of the jungle in one piece..."

When night fell, Team Holy Roller was deep in the dark zone. They had scrambled up the very steep, overgrown hill and trekked off into the jungle once more. When it got dark, they turned their comm on just long enough to verrify their position with the race officials and then turned it back off. Raegun was busy warbling lullabies.

"More wine anybody?" Spyral asked, gesturing with a bottle of a delicious rare vintage. He had found a case of the stuff tucked away in his wing.

they quickly pulled the rope away, and stomachs growled as Rae cooked on the small fire. Tired and hungry, the four were also satisfied that they had pulled way ahead of the other teams. NOw, if only they can make up some more time before the others end their mandatory dark zone.

Rae advises as Sunny and Kay speak of ways to pull even farther ahead. She produces four plates and shovels food onto them. "Eat up."

Kay sprinkles one over her serving and takes a cautious bite. "My God, Rae!" she almost shouts in excitement, "It actually tastes like lobster!"

Rae winks at Kay. "Hey, only the best for my team. I've got a full variety of human delicacies as well as several flavors of bird-seed. And I've got cocoa-falvored ones for the protein shakes. Dig in, ladies."

Rae distributes flavor packs to everyone, then settles down to her own unflavored dinner. After decades of being a peace-keeper, she's actually come to ENJOY the cardboard...

The rest of the team made camp and dinner. Grack confirmed that they were within the Dark Zone and located their position on the map. "Dren, we're in last place."

Wiz had quickly eaten and fallen asleep. Grack looked over at him, "I wonder if we should go faster tomorrow. Wiz really seems beat."

Chryse looked at Wiz too. <sigh> "Maybe you're right, but he knew what he was getting himself into when he signed up for the race."

'ghost was out scouting for along time. She had come across the camps of the other teams but had stayed out of sight of them. Her team was last, but now she knew which paths not to take. checking her mental compass, 'ghost realized that she had passed right through the Dark Zone completely. Smiling, she made her way back to her team with the map in her head with the best route. She marked it on Grack's map as she hovered over her friends. she was worried aobut wiz too but she knew that the next day would be easier on him than today was.

along the edge of the Holy Rollers campsite, feeling full, tired (a GOOD kind of tired!), and staring out into the depths of the Dark Zone.

*This is definitely gonna be a trip to remember* he thought, moving his eyes to the stars glimmering above. As he did so, they seemed to catch a small movement in the distance. The angel tried to focus on the area in which he had seen the slight movement. As he did, after a couple of moments, Spyral was able to just discern the unmistakeable form of 'Ghost, moving lightly over the ground.

*Must be doing a little scouting ahead* he thought. *Good idea...* 'Ghost moved just out of sight as the angel felt a small flutter of wings by his ear, followed by a soft landing on his shoulder.

"Yeah........ I know," the angel sighed. "Guess it's just in my nature, you know? Like.....shopping is in other peoples natures?" the angel added.

Twig just stood, fingers laced before her, her head turned upward to the stars, whistling lightly to herself. After a moment, she looked to the angel. "Huh? Were you talking to me?" she asked in perfect innocence.

"Nothing." Sunny answered, turning her attention back to the cardboard dinner. Her dinner tasted like enchiladas, her favorite Human food.

"I might find it amusing, Sunny." Sweetiepie answered, from his perch above them. He was happily munching on some of the birdseed Rae had given him.

Sunny looked up at Sweetiepie, "Well, you might find it amusing...but you also have the luxuary of flying away, when these two get upset."

"This is what I was thinking when you two *cough*paniced*cough* on the rope. It's not the height that will kill you...it's that sudden stop at the bottom that will." Sunny said, trying not to laugh.

Mouse woke to feel a slight breeze on her cheek. She groggily waved at her face and woke up. The stars were out in full force and the night sounded alive. She sat up, and felt good, even though it had been a tough day yesterday. *Thank God and the lab for that leech-b-gone* she thought, although agreeing (silently, of course) with Spyral that she should have put some mosquito repellant in it too. Ah, well, live and learn.

Too awake now, she got out of her bag and wandered a bit from camp, and found a small grassy opening in the trees. The moonlight was so bright that it was easy to see and she found herself drawn to the area. She sat down, and suddenly saw Twig race by her. Mouse never really knew how to take the Whisp, so she just gave a friendly, "Hi" and Twig looked surprised.

"Oh. No, I didn't know. I just liked this place. It feels...alive somehow." Mouse looked around an saw some giant standing stones that were moss covered and not really visible in the moonlight. She had sat right in the middle of them. "Y'know, I've read about these circles... they're all sorts of stories about them. Energy circles, astronomical events, etc. What do you..." she trailed off as she noticed Twig had taken off again.

*Oh well, I guess that was a friendly attempt, but where'd she go? Maybe she's looking ahead. I hope she got a good trail for tomorrow. Maybe I'll tell the team about this place and we can store up some energy for tomorrow.* Mouse though as she got up and headed back to camp, feeling much better and more in tune with herself.

just looked at each other when Sunny made her joke. And, then very calmly, as if they were both on the same string, they got up, and took hold of her bowl of food, and dumped it on her head. And, then, they both broke out laughing.

"I lost it years ago!" Rae howls, laughing and pounding her fists against the ground. "Sudden... sudden... STOP! Oh my gods, Sunny! You... you..."

"Are too." Rae replies, sitting up. She grabs Sweetie and plants a kiss on his beak. As he flies away, squawking indignantly, Rae calls, "Enjoying yourself now?"

At the campsite of team Slewfoot, the IQs were sitting in a circle finishing dinner. After the main course #4 pulled out a bag with the word dessert written on it. Out of the bag he pulled four donuts.

on the far side of Adventure Land, Jila and the Mandroids have Raegun leave his comm link open so that they can keep an ear on the activities of the others. When the sounds of Team Slewfoot singing "Day old, daaaay old, day old donuts for $1.99" come over the comm, Jila nearly trips on her own feet in surprise and laughter. Crais, Velorek, and Larraq look at Jila thinking that she has lost it. Feeling that she is being watched, Jila looks first at Geradan (who is sleeping peacefully), and then at the Mandroids.

"It's the IQ's and that song!" Jila listens a little more and then squeals with laughter. "Don't you think that's funny?" She really had to talk to Rae about their humor program.

*Jila, I hear it too.* Geradan thoughts whisper in Jila's mind. Jila laughter slows to giggles, and then and occasional chuckle, but above that she can hear drums beating.

(btw IQ what Was that song you were refering to a few days ago. Nobody even tried to guess. I'd like to know what it is. And I Love this donut song! =D)

"Maybe you should contact each group,"suggested Raegun," and see who's background noise on the com comes through loudest with the drum beats. Then, we know who is closest to them, and they can keep an out out, or check it out."

"But," Kay said, "do you think they are friendly? I wonder why they are beating their drums at this time. You don't suppose it is a message about us, do you?"

Rae sighs, packing up the dinner plates and getting ready to walk on. She looks up at the sound of a small throat being cleared above. "Forward march, ladies and Sweetie." she sighs.

"You need to go on a birdy diet, my friend." Rae informs him, handing Kay the maps. "Okay, just so I have this straight... Magnetic?"

"Wow!" Rae laughs. "When I came here, they told me this planet would be backwards. It never occured to me to take them literally." She sniggers and eyeballs the maps in Kay's hand. "It's actually easier when they're up-side-down." she decides. "So, we are here."

Crais announces as the other teams and the backup crews confer via thier comms. Rae's team had made it another 100 yards or so before they too had picked up the drum-beats.

converse with their drums about the strangers in their territory. The Jaguar Tribe wants to exterminate the interlopers. The Monkey Tribe wants to contact the strangers and see what they have to trade. The Antelpoe Tribe wants to watch and see what happens. The various tribes agree to each try out their own strategies and tell the others how they work out...

The bulky old bathtub floated in the calm waters just off the Scifi channel. It was bad enough that they had been left behind but the dock help had had the nerve to take a broom to her bottom with a firm swat when she had asked, ever so nice, for the keys to the mansion's new speedboat. Hrump! See what trying it Artickat's way had accomplished! She should have just snurched it in the first place, but noooooo, Artickat kept lecturing her on becoming a proper young lady artickitten. Prrrwwtttt!!!! to that. The mighty pirate herself had been forced to set sail in this...this indignity.

Kitten turned on her perch atop the big sack of emergency Captain Cruch rations at the "bow" of the tub and flipped up her eyepatch to give the itchy skin benieth a good scratching. First mate Elvis looked like he actually expected an answer to that one. True the tide wouldn't carry them for long but couldn't he see she was thinking?

At the opposite end of the tub sat a nearly despondent Thor, the once proud and mightly T-rex still depressed that his beloved 6th had yet to return. In the middle of their craft sat the three stoogies otherwise known as Fidget, Mischief, and Trouble. Captain Kitten had shanghied them to fill out the crew. A Captain needed a crew afterall. Fidget playfully slapped Mishcief in the head who in turn bumped into Trouble. All three black kittens tumbled over in a playful struggle.

She looked back over the side. There must be some way to make this thing move. The rest of the Scoobies were bound to be far ahead by now. Artickat's liked to race...artickat's liked even more to win! Kitten wanted to win!

Thor snickered, mimicking Kitten's comment. He didn't know why he was even here....maybe there just wasn't anything else to do. Sigh...if only his queen 6th would return. Then life would be good again.

Kitten pondered....there were two basic ways to make things go. You either could push or you could pull. She looked over the "bow" pulling didn't seem very practicle. But how could they push it?

She eyed Elvis...naw he was her first mate and besides she liked him...the three stooges? Naw they were too small...Her eyes shifted to Thor....she began to smile.

If Thor could have smirked effectively he would have. Yeah right. He started to craft a denying reply but suddenly realized he was in motion. "Kittttteennnn!!!" was about all he could get out before before splashing face first in the water.

With a great splash the shrunken dinosaur bobbed to the surface and with his short front arms flailing managed to get his chin over the side.

My, what shiney teeth he had...and look at the way his eyes simmered...*Gee* Kitten thought. *It's not my fault he cann't swim.*

Kitten turned away with a 'so much for that idea' stance. Artic kittens became very focused when they were competing. Very focused indeed!

The ticklish dino chuckled and twitched uncontrollably again....again the tub lurched foreward. Kitten tried it again...again the same. In the water Thor's muscular tail twitched in time with the rest of his form.

Kitten grinned ,motioning for Trouble to come closer. Leaning down she whispered in his ear. The little buger had the nerve to wink at her. What a wonderful influence Kitten could be on young skulls full of mush.

Playfully, as if playing a game that only he knew the rules to, Trouble turned around and swished his own tail. The other two, not to be outdone scurried foreward to give it a try as well. The tickling began.

"Well, no, not really. I heard them late last night when I was scouting, but I couldn't find where they were coming from. It seemed to come from 3 different directions, at least." replied 'ghost.

"Ok, let's double time it. I don't like the sounds of those drums and the faster we get out of the Dark Zone, the better, " suggested Chryse.

The others agreed. They started walking even faster into the undergrowth. The drums didn't seem to be getting any louder or softer, but they decided to eat lunch without stopping.

The group immediately halted and went into a defensive posture. 'ghost had been more in front of the team and doubled back when she heard them shout in surprise at the appearance of the man.

The man saw 'ghost, shrieked in terror and quickly ran away. A few minutes later, the drums got louder. The Deviants looked at each and without a word, began running. They had no clue what had just happened, but they didn't want to stick around to find out!

In the Monkey tribe's village, the villagers were all excited and upset. The same man who had appeared to team Deviants was speaking rapidly about the scary ghost! The drums started to signal the Monkey tribe's intention to keep away from ALL the strangers. A shaman began preparing a ritual to purify the unfortunate man's soul. The ritual would take all day and night to complete and the whole village had to be involved. The drums beat for a little while longer asking for confimation that the other 2 tribes had gotten their message. The Jaguars and the Antelopes acknowledged and agreed to be more cautious when encountering the strangers.

A disheaveled Ragnar stumbled and tripped over the cloak he was was trying to untangle from the seabag's strap as he followed in the wake of the little oriental vet.

Not long ago he had been comfortably enjoying a lazy nap in the hammock, his dreams just getting to the juicy part, when a bouncing, cheerful, Mr. Lee had come gliding up the gangplank. With a uncerimonious thump ,the big bear of a viking had soon found himself face down on the deck, hammock overturned, with the kindly old gentleman explaining the bad habits that ensued with to much slothful behavior. Tsk tsk had gone the admonishment...well that and several other polite epitaths in a language he still hadn't quite gotten wrapped around his brain.

After that things were a bit of a blur. Shoved in the shower, shaved with a straight razor that looked more like a meat cleaver that close up to ones face, yet handled with adroit ease by Mr. Lee, he now followed in the small mans wake,beard nicely trimmed, smelling better than he had in days according to his ever so knowledgable self appointed guide,and with absolutly no idea as to what was up.

"What?" Ragnar whined, finally getting untangled. "I hadn't seen Sword or Leaped in a long time. What's wrong with having a couple drinks?" For that matter why didn't his head hurt a lot more?

"Yeah, yeah, but where?" It was kind of obvious they were going to the docks by the inland sea, and since Mr. Lee had insisted he bring his ready seabag they were obviously going somewhere but...where?

With that he smoothly turned and flowed off again. Ragnar, watching the small man's back a moment, straightened a bit himself. A boat Hmmmm....

Past the sailboats...okay he wasn't in the mood to sail anyway. Past the smaller personal craft...fine with him, to zippy and not suited for a trip. Past the fishing boat...okay so they weren't after cavier today...Next came...Ah now they were getting somewhere.

The next slip on the pier held the sleek form of the mansions newest speedboat. He'd been dying to try her out. With a whistle he plopped his seabag on the deck. "Now THAT Mr. Lee is what I call style. Good choice. I'm suprised you were able to get a slot for her so soon."

Mr. Lee was still moving. "Dock master very helpful. Fix Mr. Lee up as you say just as requested." He finally stopped. A little far to be getting aboard the speedboat.

Mr. Lee shook his head. "No. Mr. Lee prefer to ride in style. We take this one." With a wave of a hand he motioned for one that couldn't yet be seen. Seemed quite happy too.

Mr. Lee just smiled. With a gentle hand he reached over and patted Ragnar on the belly. "Yes, Mr. Lee find rowboat just in time. You need exercise. You row."

"I'mmm...toooo.....tired..." Thor managed to get out. Kitten was furiously wagging her tail under his chin but nothing was happening. She narrowed her eyes and frowned. The motor was out of gas.

Elvis stood at her side. Trouble and Fidget, long since loosing interest, were curled together catnapping. Mischief, seeing another chance to 'explore' while kitten's back was turned ,had snuck up atop the pile of bags that formed the Captain's perch.

Kitten sighed. They could always throw him out again after he'd rested. "Come on Elvis, give me a hand." Grabbing hold where she could she began tugging the dino back into the tub. The hounddog moved in to help, starting a little rocking motion.

Thor struggled for his part as well....up and up he inched. The little tub rocked even more. Finally he made it but the back and forth motion was getting serious.

Kittens eyes widened. Mischief wasn't an artickat. Likely she couldn't. Hastilly digging in her stuff she came up with a large rubber ducky and threw it over.

Mischief was too busy panicking. The ducky bobbed all around her but she couldn't get ahold. still struggling She dropped from site under the water.

Kitten was frantically looking and looking. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Artickat was gonna be pissed! She began shedding her gear. She of all the cats could at least swim.

On the opposite side of the tub a shape gently surfaced above the water, peering inside at the animals. "Now now dears. No need to worry." A gently intoxicating female voice waffed over them. A slender, shapely arm reached over and sat a thouroughy wet Mischief back in the tub.

The gang turned about. Kitten grabbed the little black cat in a hug then realized what she was doing. Dropping her back she quickly tried to cover her gesture. "You forgot my crunch!"

The woman chuckled. She had no problem at all understanding the animals. To her right, then left, other forms began to break the surface. A redhead, a brunettt, two blonds. Soon the little tub was surrounded by exquistly beautiful women, naked from the waist up, but long flowing fish tails from there down. Billows of hair draped around them all.

"Maybe he's never seen a member of the undead before." Rae snickers. "They'll be out of your hair for at least the next day." Rae informs them.

"Depends..." Rae informs him. She clicks her comm again. "Jila? How's it going with Crais? Tell me we're not going to have to repell an atack down here..."