"There–" Shenzi's quiet voice and body gestured to the jungle ahead of them. A clearing stood between the mushroom trees, the sky darkened by the canopies above and the criss-crossing of vines. Still, some rays of light managed to warm the ground, sprouting small berry bushes. They'd be trampled by something–something still here. Oinking nukap rubbed their noses along the ground, digging up fresh roots and mushrooms to munch on. Fortunately for them, she, Akira, and Sharkbait weren't there to hunt – They were for official business. "Come on, if we're lucky we can slip on by without bothering them," she gestured for the two others.

Akira eyed Sharkbait warily. In what world would a herd of wild pigs ignore a giant snake passing by? He lowered himself to the ground–that soft, mushy moss that covered much of L'Hatzif. "You two pass by firsst," he offered. "Y'know, when you sit so still like that, it makes me think you're gonna try to eat us," Sharkbait shivered at the thought, unable to fully trust a giant bird-snake–even if they were part of the same colony. Akira could sit on him and crush his bones, even if it was an accident. "Whatever," Shenzi shook her head, deciding that she would lead the two slowpokes.

"Watch and learn, you two!" She cheered. Even for a tsabhua, she was rather large, and her pelt mimicked a predatory species. Still, the walked proudly, confidently by–never looking at the Nukap or making any indications towards them. One or two glanced up suspiciously as they grazed the small, red berries from the bush. Some of them snorted a bit and moved towards the edge of the glade, but none ran. "C'mon, you guys," she called out, waving a forepaw since she lacked the arms that most of her species had.

Akira gulped and frantically shook his head, unwilling. Sharkbait forced himself to step forwards, then. The belemoid was much smaller than Shenzi, however, and appeared to not issue any threat distress at all. The nukap didn't even glance up at him, too busy picking away at their lunch with their dull teeth and wiggly noses. "That's two of us," the hyena-like tsabhua pointed out, giving a stern look to Akira. The draconic tark'ee shut his eyes tightly, as though if he couldn't see them, they couldn't see him, either. "C'mon, we have to go eventually," Sharkbait pointed out.

Giving into the peer pressure, and perhaps even his slight crush on Shenzi, Akira began slithering forwards–ever so slowly. About a foot every few seconds, he snaked his way forwards on his blue-tinted stomach. "Uh, a bit slow, but sure," Shenzi sighed–it looked like their day of travels would take forever if this would be his rate every time they ran into animals. Sharkbait's blue eyes scanned the herd of nukap, curious for their reactions to the predator in their vicinity. A few looked up, one even gave an angry grunt, but they seemed too preoccupied with their berries to actually care.

"It worked!" Shenzi determined as Akira reached the half-way point between the edge of the valley where he'd hid in the trees, and where the rest of the colony scouts stood now. Feeling more brave that the nukap weren't bothered, the draconic tark'ee slithered just a little faster. His scaled body slid across the spongy rainforest ground like a breeze, dewdrops glistening on his scales. "Are we going to do this the whole time?" Sharkbait pointed out, "I mean, crouching around animals, won't it take us a lot longer to get to the outpost?

"Well sure," Shenzi pointed out, as the leader of the group, "But if we startle the animals, they're gonna make a whole lot of noise and ruckus, and then other colonies would realize that we were here." Of course, maybe talking out loud this whole time hadn't been that secretive, either… Akira gave a low, relieved sigh as his large, beaked face finally landed at the two's feet. "I made it," he breathed as though the anxiety was going to give him a heart attack. "All the way passst the nukapsss… Without sssscaring them."

"Perfect," Shenzi declared, turning down the rest of their heavily overgrown path through the backwoods. "Looks like we just have to get through–" Sharkbait couldn't believe his eyes–through the grove of large fungi-trees ahead, it appeared as though there was a whole family gathering of nukap, easily two or three whole herds all gathered together! "Through there?" Akira exclaimed, thinking that just passing three of them had been a death-sentence. He gave a dramatic gasp and fainted, pretending to be dead in the way snakes do–by rolling over and lolling out their tongues.

"Oh, Akira!" Shenzi shook her head, wishing that she could facepalm. "We know you aren't dead. Get up, you big oaf!"