)Moon Wolf(

Moon Wolf decides that climbing a tree would be smart, to see if she could see over the trees. Looking around, she spies a large oak that went high above the other trees, but the branches were much too high to reach. Her eyes trace the tree, following the branches from the trunk to the tips. One of these branches end hung about 5 feet off the ground. Moon Wolf smiled.

A few minutes and lots of scratches later, Moon Wolf lay panting on her stomach, legs and arms wrapped around the branch, successfully up the tree and near the tree trunk. She lay there a few more moments, catching her breath, before shakily shifting to a sitting position, and reaching to the branch above her. Standing, she hauled herself up to the next spot, and so the climb of the giant oak began.

This took the better part of an hour, due to the largeness of the tree, sparse spacing of the huge branches, and caution. Moon Wolf refused to look down the entire climb, instead focusing on going up. When she got well over the treetops, she squeezed herself into a nook and stopped. She was shaking--- she’d never attempted such a climb like this. She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and looked down. She gulped. The ground was VERY far away. Moon Wolf steeled herself, and looked away. She instead stared over the forest. It was a very large forest indeed. She saw swaths of green, maybe an occasional blank spot where a water source or meadow lay. It went on, in the distance becoming more mountainous, but still tree filled. The sky was blue, the sun seeming to be about halfway in the sky. 

To the east, she saw smoke. Not very noticeable, her eyes had passed over it easily the first few times. She squinted closer. It was definitely smoke. Strange smoke, though. It looked silver, almost sparkly. She sat there, contemplating it a bit longer. Then Moon Wolf decided to look up one more time, to the last of the branches. She froze. A piercing amber eye was glaring down at her. She didn’t move, her eyes trained on the creature. It was a bird--- it had a large curved beak, and sleek golden brown feathers. The nest was very well woven, it looked like part of the tree.

“Um, nice birdy?” Moon Wolf finally squeaked. 

The bird squawked, then stood. Moon Wolf’s eyes widened. It was not a bird. It had four legs, and fur mixed with the feathers. The tail was like a cat, long and twitching. It had a fur ruff on its neck. 

“A griffin,” Moon Wolf breathed. Now what?

1. Attempt to make friends with the griffin

2. Climb down and go left on the path, towards the smoke, and hope the griffin doesn’t follow

3. Stay still and hope the griffin doesn’t attack

4. Do something completely stupid, like leap off the tree

~Wildsong~

Wildsong decided that climbing the rock behind her would be the best (though the most dangerous) option. She turned to fully face the wall, sighed, and started to stretch.

Once through the pondering stretching session, Wildsong stared long and hard at the wall, to the overhang. It was at least twelve feet above her, which wasn’t super far. But the rock wall before her was pretty smooth, and it continued to be that way down the wall and up to the overhang. She looked down the path, and then went to the narrow passageway. Bracing her hands on the sides of the rock, she heaved herself upward, putting her feet on the rock below her. She inched up this way, and almost fell once out of strain, but she righted herself and continued. Finally, she got to the ledge and pulled herself over, balancing and catching her breath. Then she shakily made her way to the wider spot on the ledge and looked out. 

The world stretched out before her. She was obviously just at the very edges of the mountains, for a forest stretched out to the right, with more fields to the left. The sky was blue, and free of clouds. 

Wildsong saw the path going to the left disappear into the forest, and she couldn’t see where the trail went to the right. She decided to sit down before figuring out where to go. 

As she sat and rested, her eyes wandered to the rest of the unexplored ledge, which widened even more before going around the corner and out of sight. After some contemplation, Wildsong stood and made her way carefully around the corner. Here, she gasped. The ledge stopped after a few feet, revealing the path winding below. But what surprised her was the door in the mountain side. 

Made of weathered wood, it was curved at the peak and about 5 feet high. A tarnished round door knob was in the wood, and no key hole was present. What to do?

1. Leave the door alone, climb down, and travel to the forest

2. Leave the door alone, climb down, and continue into the mountains

3. See if the door is unlocked, look inside, then leave and choose a direction

4. See if the door is unlocked, then go inside

*Lyric*

Deciding to go over the hill, Lyric made her way up and over the sandy hump. On the other side, the path traveled aways through the grass, but Lyric saw beyond that there was a beach, with a cliff base starting about halfway on the exposed beach. With a smile, Lyric walked forward, taking her time and walking the wandering path even though she could’ve cut across and made it to the beach quicker.

Eventually, the path widened and stopped, and Lyric emerged onto the open side. The sand here was a mix of white and golden. The ocean was quiet today, with a soft swishing of the waves. The sky was overcast, but the air was warm. Lyric considered the scene, then decided to continue down the beach to the cliffs.

A while later, Lyric got to the cliffs. They were tall, and quite smooth. She ran her hand over the surface as she continued to walk. Eventually, the beach dwindled into a small strip before disappearing into the ocean. Lyric hesitated, about to turn back when a dark slash in the cliffs just a few feet away caught her eye. She walked forward, and then saw that it was a crevice in the cliff. She looked down it, and saw that it went quite far back. She couldn’t see the end. Lyric frowned, considering. What to do?

1. Go down the crack

2. Turn around

=Scuttles=

“Of course it’s the best direction,” Scuttles said seriously to their scaly friend. “Lead on!”

Fluffles gave a pleased hiss, and promptly disappeared into the very tall grass. Scuttles hasten to follow. 

Fluffles were quite hard to keep track of, but thankfully they stopped from time to time and called to Scuttles whenever Scuttles lost sight of them. But not thankfully, Scuttles ended up treading on Fluffles whenever they stopped, so Fluffles finally just slithered up Scuttles’s arm and directed them from there.

The grass only got taller as they walked, ending up a good 4 feet about Scuttles’s head. They felt quite small, and had no idea that grass could grow to such a height.

Suddenly, Scuttles tripped on a sudden incline and fell down with a thump.

“Oof,” they huffed, and Fluffles snickered, launching into a speech about how life was much more convenient without feet. 

Scuttles mostly ignored this tirade, having heard it several times before, and stood. Feeling around, they found that they were at the base of a hill. Walking carefully around it, they suddenly walked into a clearing. It was about 7 feet in diameter, and clearly trimmed. Turning to the hill, Scuttles now saw there was a covered porch coming out of the hillside, and there was a door in the hill.

“Mmm, rats are here,” Fluffles fell to the ground, and slithered under the porch without further ado.

Scuttles glanced around the clearing again, noticing for the first time that a small, fenced off garden was in the far corner. Somebody obviously lived here, in the hill. What to do?

1. Collect Fluffles and leave

2. Go in the tall grass, wait for Fluffles to finish doing whatever they were doing, then leave

3. Knock on the door