This coastline was unlike anything Amal had seen on the myriad of maps shown in the bazaars. Or was it? He vaguely recalled something akin to this place, roughly, but he was so battle fueled and blue balled that he couldn't think straight. He took deep breathes and calmed himself, but still it didn't come to him. "If there are not, at least there will be shelter," He said. Most people might think that questionable, but three walls and a roof was a luxury for him back in Araby. 

He memorized the closest pyramid-settlement, and where they likely were roughly considering the lines that indicated from the ship not half a mile away. "There could be more ratmen between us and the city, not to mention in the city. But it's worth a look." Briefly he wondered about going in alone, since he was used to moving silently. But the jungle was new terrain for him, and he couldn't risk leaving Emmaline here alone. Feelings were so very limiting sometimes, but he found he wouldn't have it another way. 

He found her looking flustered and understandably scared at the notion. She had many strengths he wish he had, but when it came to dangerous situations like this, peril was an old friend to Amal. The thief took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand, lifting it up to kiss it. "You will be safe." He told her, and she calmed with an uneasy smile. "Very soon, we'll make it back to where we came from. We'll have food, wine, riches, and I'll fuck you on silk sheets." 

The pleasant thoughts coupled with her serpent coiling about her arm and solidifying in a golden arm ring gave her new strength. The carpet now rolled within the rucksack, the two rogues entered the jungle proper. Less than a minute of bumbling through leaves passed, and Amal asked for the short sword so he could better chop through the vines. Even at the edge of it, the jungle was impossibly thick and teeming with noises from all around. Chirps and chitters were backdrop noises to hisses and ribbits all around them. It was so dark in there it felt like they had been thrown underwater again, but their eyes adjusted just well enough to see without bumping into [i]most[/i] roots and critters.  

The trees were strange in texture and differed every few feet, from palm trees to jungled trees with strange leaves of all different sizes. The humidity was still a new experience for the Arabyan, and he could only imagine it in the daytime. Something sinuous and snake-like but furred slid passed his foot, scuttling away as soon as he touched it. He cursed in Arabyan and chopped through another collection of vines, causing a bird to screech like a dying woman and fly away. 

Amal held his hand back, bumping Emmaline's breasts. He steeled his mind from the thought of them and whispered. "Hold." to her, and both stopped for a moment, having realized the jungle's noises had died down save for a familiar noise that began to spread to all around them. A rat-like tittering that filled the jungle, and the smell returned ten fold. Immediately Amal looked for a tree to climb, grabbing Emmaline's waist only for another noise to sound in the jungle. It was a guttural and brutish `rup-rup-rup-rup` followed by an increasing amount of growls and roars. The trees around them seemed a flimsy wall from the noises that erupted just meters away from them, roars and terrified squeaks and cries of near human-like terror. Amal couldn't see anything, but he could smell blood in the air and he knew even without that terrible violence was being wrought for an agonizing amount of time. 

After one last screech, the noises ceased utterly. Amal held Emmaline close, not daring to breath. Suddenly, a light materialized before their eyes, shadows dancing off the face that held it in its massive jaws. Even Amal was frightened when he saw the hulking creature, nearly twice the height of a man with a crocidilian head that could snap a tree in half, with thick limbs that could break stone walls with ease. Soon smaller reptilian's appeared, though they were still head and shoulders taller than men, deadly in appearance and baring fangs and claws that could rend stone and pierce mail. They held strange bronze and black steeled weapons, coated with blood and matted fur from slaying ratmen. Finally, a multitude of smaller lizardmen stood between and beside them, the size of the ratmen with large eyes and frills along their arms and heads. There had to have been three dozen of them, the majority comprised of the smaller creatures. 

"Do you have a plan?" Amal and Emmaline asked one another simultaneously. 

A diminutive smaller lizardman, with a headdress that looked just as extravagant as Emmaline's pocketed plumed tricone, only with even more feathers strode forth. It opened its mouth and hissed, splaying its arms as wide as it could. In the darkness it would hard to see its tiny teeth were it not for the light right upon him. It tilted its head and regarded Emmaline, before pointing at her. 

"Sotek." Was all it said.