[center][h3][color=8dc73f]Scott[/color][/h3][/center][h3]The night Scott left...[/h3][hr]Scott sat down next to the slowly dying embers - little more than a few glowing ashes, at this point. Ash was practicing her newly acquired spells, over and over, analyzing them. Colchain had curled up, settling down for the night. Naji, Reoth, Danny... who knows what they were doing.

[color=8dc73f]“What did you get yourself into, Scott?”[/color] he whispered to himself. [color=8dc73f]“You’re not cut out for stuff like this.”[/color]

He blinked, his vision a little blurry, and he rubbed at the corner of his eye. It came away wet… of course he was crying. Weakling.

The pixie looked around at the group again. Most of them were asleep at this point. Danny was nowhere in sight - flitted off somewhere. Just Ash left awake. Minor Heal. Lesser Force. Mana Orb. She was entirely consumed by her work. She had a much clearer idea of what she wanted to do in this world... Scott didn’t want anything to do with this place. He was… grateful, he supposed, for this second chance. That was the obvious response, right? To be grateful? He took in a deep breath. No, he wasn’t. He should have died, and that should have been the end of it. Maybe he was dying, and this really [i]was[/i] all some sort of messed up dream.

But on the off chance it wasn’t... he should leave. Scott couldn’t fight back against monsters… he barely knew how to throw a punch. He was dead weight, barely worth dragging along. Anyone he got involved with would have to watch his back as well as their own. And that could get them hurt.

The pixie stood up, brushing the various bits of grit and ash off his legs. He glanced towards Ash once again, before taking a tentative step away. She didn’t even look at him. And that was all the proof he needed. Quietly, quickly, he padded away into the cave. Scott wasn’t going to saddle someone else with the burden of him.[hr][h3]The End of Day 3[/h3]
Scott woke up. His body hurt. His stomach hurt. His head hurt. And all the while, there was that horrible, horrible feeling. The air he breathed felt heavier, and there was this tense feeling coiled in his gut. Something wasn’t right.

He looked at the entrance to his little nook. So easy for him to leave through. And yet, after he had left Ash and the others... all his confidence had fled. He had planned to start doing something. Scavenging, maybe. He had become good at that. Instead, he had hidden in here, curled up into a ball, and continued to cry, angry at himself. Some things, not even resurrection changed, it seemed. He had shut down within himself, not really awake, but not asleep… though at some point, it seemed he had indeed begun to doze. 

Scott stood up, and staggered from the unfamiliar weight of his body. Setting a hand and then his back against the wall, he let out a soft sigh. What had he been thinking? He might be a capable fighter, but… but he could heal. He might not be able to protect others by fighting for them, but he could give them a shield with which to fight. That was worth something… right? It had to be.

That settled it. Scott stood up straight and began heading for the crevice opening. He was nowhere near ready to see the others again, but he had to try. He looked out and- oh.

So that was different.

He didn’t know [i]quite[/i] what he was looking at, but as it picked its way across the cave floor, he could see its eyes - cold, glowing eyes. Something else shifted in the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to look at it. Nothing there. Not unsettling at all.[hr][h3]Day 5 - present day[/h3]Scott pressed himself down into the earth, hoping the tangle of weeds and mushrooms would conceal him even if the roots of the tree they sprouted from didn’t. Of course, it wasn’t the best hiding spot. But spending time [i]looking[/i] for the best hiding spot would leave him out in the open for too long - letting whatever predator he was hiding [i]from[/i] catch sight of him. They didn’t always look in every place; for the same reason that he couldn’t waste time hiding, they couldn’t waste time searching - or else something bigger or more dangerous could come along.

Of course, really that didn’t apply in this situation. As far as he knew, goblins were the apex predators around here. They were bigger than most, and though it wasn’t much, they also had more intelligence than most. Which meant that he was in a lot more danger than was desirable.

There were a few things Scott had discovered since he looked out of his hollow gap in the cave wall. One was that the cave wasn’t… quite a cave anymore. There was something oppressive in the atmosphere, one that made the pixie feel uncomfortable in a way that he just couldn’t bear. And the new creatures that had appeared… the rattling bones… the ones that flitted at the edges of his vision but never entered it… the glowing eyes… no, it was not the cave from the day before.

Another was that Ash and the others had basically abandoned the cave. Well, it seemed like it. He hadn’t seen anyone around that he remembered seeing before. And given that the goblins blocking the way out of the cave were in a deep, deep sleep, they probably had all scattered to the four winds. Scott decided to follow their example… though his heart nearly gave out when he tiptoed past the slumbering goblins.

And the third was that he couldn’t fly. Well… maybe the correct word would be ‘wouldn’t’. Upon getting out of the cave, he had looked around, and known that just striking off in a random direction would be useless. Like as not, he’d never find anyone. He’d thought to fly up into the air, to try and get a better viewpoint on landmarks and pathways - but he hadn’t gotten more than ten feet off the ground before he looked down, and his wings locked up. He’d managed to heal the damage he’d taken, but the fact remained; when he took flight, his mind went back to the last time he had fallen… and he panicked. It was irrational, his fear. He shouldn’t have anything [i]to[/i] fear. Wings were made to defy gravity; he could [i]fly[/i]. But his heart pounding like a bird was trapped in his chest, Scott knew that unless both his feet were solidly on the ground, he was going to remember again. It was no great loss, really. He hadn’t been able to fly in his previous life; he didn’t need to now.

But that short-lived debacle had led to his fourth discovery. A plume of smoke on the horizon. It wasn’t easy to see, not from this distance, but he had seen it. And fire meant one of two things; either a forest fire, or people… and that had decided Scott’s course of action. Even if he didn’t find Ash or Danny, or [i]someone[/i] like him, then he’d rather take his chances with humans than goblins. Or elves or dwarves, who knows if they existed, too. So, on foot, darting from shadow to shadow as quickly and quietly as he could, he began to make his way.

And that had been his journey for the past day and a half. Maybe longer. Probably longer. He hadn’t any way to tell the time, only the sun in the sky. He’d hidden a bit, but mostly he’d walked and walked until his feet were sore. His mouth got dryer and dryer, and he hadn’t eaten much at all - any berry could be poisonous, any mushroom the end of him. His only hope was that smoke - and he had gotten turned around at one point, during the night, where he had tried to continue, but there was nothing to see.

This morning, though, had just barely started and here he was. He was dizzy, hungry, probably dehydrated, and he hadn’t exactly slept well or for long. But he’d kept going, and going - and just barely heard them in time. Goblins. Three of them. That’s what led back to now. With Scott face down in the soil, trying to make himself as small as possible. A crack of breaking wood told him that one of the three was [i]just[/i] to his right. This wasn’t good for him. His chances of getting out unscathed were dwindling, and fast.

One of the goblins turned his way.

He let out an audible gasp.

The goblin paused.

[b]Just then, a mountain exploded.[/b]

The goblins spun around, and Scott, who couldn’t see a thing, only hesitated for a moment before he took his chance. Scrambling to his feet, he ran. He could see the smoke again, running towards it as fast as his feet would carry him. He couldn’t even tell if he had pursuers, but he [i]also[/i] didn’t want to stick around to find out. He glanced back over his shoulder, trying to see what might have caused the blast. The pixie didn’t see the tree root, and tripped, a sharp flare of pain running through his ankle, but he kept going, stifling a shout. He could heal it later. He was so [i]close[/i], close enough that he thought he could see stone bricks.

And then he ran smack dab into a human and a goblin.
[hr][hider=Please note]
The goblins Scott saw are not from Orchid's tribe, just so we're clear.
[/hider]