Slee vanished into the undergrowth an instant after the tree exploded next to her with a crack like thunder. Above her, the trees were filled with the panic cries of monkeys and birds, fleeing from the horrid noise just as she was doing, chattering amongst themselves as to what it could have been.

She leaned against the back of a tree and took a deep breath, clutching her hand to her chest. She had seen storms before, of course - many times in her life she had sat on the beach and watched distant lightning illuminate the horizon, splitting the world with noise and fire. The Senneli told her that lightning storms were the arguments of sky-gods, scattered weapons dropped from their home amongst the clouds. Once, they had even shown her a tree on her island that had been struck by lightning long ago - she saw how it was split down the middle, warped and black, almost more like a stone than a living thing.

One of those creatures had thunder in a tube.

Slee brushed a few splinters off her shoulder idly, biting her lip. Through the trees, she heard a shout, harsh and guttural - one of the thunderer-voices. She crouched down to all fours and began crawling through the undergrowth towards the noise, slow and certain, like a cat. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but her curiosity had once again gotten the better of her, and besides; she could move quietly when she needed to.

Peering through the bushes, she caught a glimpse of the three thunderers. They were big and hairy, like all of them were, dressed in some ragged material and burned from exposure to the sun. The one with the thunder-tube was still waving it around, peering into the forest like he was looking for something else to annihilate. Another one had some wooden thing carried on his shoulders, like an enormous basket, and on his shoulders were slung several long, shiny spears with a wicked, barbed tip. Slee swallowed sharply at the sight of it - it looked just like the tool she had made herself that even now was slung on her back in just the same way, and the comparison was not a comfortable one.

"We got meat to catch," the one with the basket grumbled. "Black Eyes, where'd you see that lizard-thing?"

"You got the harpoons?" asked the third one as he stalked off into the woods. Slee wasn't close enough to tell if his eyes really were black, but that seemed to be his name. The first one followed him, and Slee realized with a jolt of panic that they were headed for her cove - her home. She had never seen them this far in the island before... were they looking for her? She didn't feel like a lizard-thing, but then, she had no idea how these things thought.

The last one, the one with the thunder-tube, just stayed in place, still peering into the jungle. [i]Whatever these things are, they're dangerous.[/i] Whatever happened, she couldn't let them find her home - the Senneli would be there soon, and she doubted even they could stand up to creatures that had bottled the fury of sky-gods. Slee backed away, still crawling on all fours. If she could distract them, lead them away... it just had to be for a little while. Her family would know what to do.

She was so occupied with trying to come up with a plan that she almost ran into the fourth one. Tall, scarred, with teeth like a shark, he had his back pressed to a tree - hiding from the thunderer. Immediately, she sprang back, rising to her feet and pulling the crude spear off her back, leveling it at him with shaking hands. [color=8dc73f]"This place isn't yours!" [/color]she screamed lamely, hoping her voice hadn't cracked too much to be intimidating.