"No." It was final, a command, calling a puppy back from biting a porcupine. Alphonse marched after her, and as he went he tugged on a string that hung from a branch, which caused a clatter of shells and noise to crash to the ground. He scooped them up and carried them over his shoulder.

"I know for a fact it's not your business. It's [i]my[/i] business. [i]Literally.[/i] This is not a game! Hey! Get back here!" A part of him wanted to just let her decide her own fate -- but her sudden ambition to track down the monster on her own was more than alarming. She was [i]crazy[/i], surely. "You didn't know what it was [i]called[/i] a minute ago!"

This was getting nowhere. He followed her with a stormy look on his face, until he stopped beside a tree and looked up, calculating, as the groon turned around.

The monster had heard their shouting, and it turned around where it stood, squinting with dim off-eyes to find something to chase down and torture. It finally spotted Din; with a happy rope of drool dangling from its chin, the groon crashed toward her.

Alphonse watched carefully, and he curled his fingers around another string that hung from the branch of a tree.