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[@NaraK] [@Plank Sinatra] [@Kaithas][/center]

[color=00aeef]"Depends on how lonely they are, Lauren. Watch out for the pines. Monsters 'round here never had dark meat before."[/color]

Ben couldn't actually keep the grin off his face, but as long as he kept facing forward then Lauren couldn't see it. He clapped Jan lightly on the shoulder, satisfied that the other Hunter was on board. Not much too soon, either. The group was coming up on the clearing. 

Out in the woods, you learned to trust your gut. Humanity survived against the Grimm, without the technology, equipment, or training that they all had now for generations. Thousands of years of survival instinct go into what people called their gut, and those instincts are right more than they're wrong. [i]Especially[/i] in the woods. In the wilderness, where society has yet to encroach, if you feel like you're being watched... You probably are. You're not paranoid. You just don't have the words to describe why you feel what you're feeling.

The clearing made the hairs on Ben's neck stand on end. 

The building looked old. Ben was no expert on Atlesian architecture, but... Atlas would've known about it, if it was recent. His team wouldn't be walking in blind. And the Grimm? A half hour hike through the woods, [i]these[/i] woods, with no sign? 

Something was very, very wrong.

He shrugged Joyous Guard off of his back in a fluid motion and slipped it onto his forearm. The mass, more than the absence of its weight, was a comfort. Everything he had, his resolve, he'd forged into that shield. It wouldn't waver, not against anything this place had. Not so long as it stood between him and his team. 

[color=00aeef]"Well,"[/color] He began, drawing out the word a little. With a practiced flick, he rotated the shield until it locked parallel to his arm. Perfect orientation to be a nice, weighty battering ram. [color=00aeef]"Amy, unless you've got something to report, I'm gonna break down that door. Quicker we find out what's up, quicker we go home. Everyone ready to rock?"[/color]