"
Carry your fat ass? I appreciate the admiration for my gains, but you're way over your head there."
Both appendages emerged as the robot posed for a quick five seconds to illustrate the joke. At least he wasn't one of these boring, purely factual companions in certain other medias. Hubert would be quick to focus toward the goal, however, as Kiera would soldier on at the direction of the target location. Back to the compact form, the drone would hover barely a meter over the lass, scanning the area as they ventured forward into the mysterious woods of NG-449.
The mud remained thick and viscous, but would lose the succion power it initially had as the trees would shield the earth from the merciless nature of the monsoon-level of rain crashing onto the land. They were still drenched, but mobility would not be as hindered compared to the clearing. Vines and trees littered the area, with medium sized grass caressing Kiera's knees was she'd walk through the conglomerate of wild vegetation.
"
Huh. What do we have here?"
Hubert's scanner would be directed toward an element that stood out from all the green and brown they had been going through the past few minutes. A bioluminescent, blue life form had been detected by the robot, though would have probably been noticed by Kiera just as quickly. Hubert did not hesitate to hover around the peculiar 'plant', taking his time to analyze some details before one of th appendages would extend toward it.
"
It seems ... It is a plant of sorts. But composed of something definitely not like any other plant here. One of the many oddities to be found in a mysterious and undiscovered plant, I would suppose. Would you take a sample?"
The drone questioned, leaving the choice to Kiera. Would she bother to take the time, or even the risk to gather a specimen, or would she soldier on and not let anything like this serve as obstacle? Hubert would not alert her of any danger, meaning he did not assess anything of the sort, though he did not say it was safe either. It was up to her in the end.
"
... Kiera."
With enough time to make up her mind, Hubert would eventually warn the lass of something else. The single, glowing red 'eye' of the assistant drone would peer at the direction that would be considered East if using their Northern target as a reference. Something was out there, and the change in tone from Hubert did not promise anything good.
A red, quadruped creature had its red, prolapsed eyes fixed onto the armored adventurer. It stood on a tree stump triumphantly, in a posture that oozed dominance. On its four feet, its height would reach about Kiera's collar, but if it were to stand on just two, it would easily be almost twice her size. Not to mention the immense upper-body bulk of this animal. Hubert wouldn't hesitate to scan, though omitted the special 'flat laser' sensor module in order to not alert the animal.
Though as they noticed this one, they'd soon find out that at least three or four more were in the area, hanging from nearby trees or hiding behind random stone and fallen bark. They did not seem to be prepping any sort of assault, but rather their movements were similar to a society of apes asserting their dominance in a territory, essentially defending their home. The fact that Kiera and Hubert were quite alien to this whole biodiversity would have likely left the animals on high alert, and even overly wary.
"
No records have been found on these things. They resemble baboons from planet Earth, but with similar characteristics to K'raths* from Amaetra."
*Species that resemble wolves in Amaetra.There were only a few options offered to them here. The 'dominant' creature they had first seen, the one standing on the trunk, would lift itself onto both its back feet and commence humming a certain sound.
'Hunk. Hunk.'"
If we were to compare these actions to other creatures ... We should perhaps proceed slowly without any sudden movements. Unless you want to practice on them, of course. Or maybe a sample? You know how much I love new data after all."
In the end, Kiera was to choose her path.
