Chapter Text
Yang brought her machete down with a grunt, cutting through the thick jungle ahead of her.
It was just her luck. Of course she had to crash-land in the thickest part of the jungle. Now she was wandering aimlessly, trying to find any sign of human civilization, with only her machete and her water bottle tied to her hip. It was just supposed to be a scouting mission, she wasn't prepared for this.
Yang stopped to wipe the sweat from her brow, it was so hot. She had tied her long-sleeve explorers button up around her waist a long time ago, leaving her arms exposed in her tank top.
The journalist was lucky that she had many years of flying experience under her belt, or else that crash-landing wouldn't have been so successful.
Well , Yang thought, as successful as a crash-landing could be. Her plane was totaled, it would never fly again, and unfortunately for her, the radio had gotten completely smashed in the process as well.
Yang had been flying over this region to see if she could gain any information on the weird happenings here, before her plane jolted and alarms started blaring. Engine failure.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Yang said, frantically flipping the switches above her head to divert the power to the one remaining engine.
It wasn't enough, she was losing altitude fast. She had no other choice but to deploy the landing gear, not that it would do much, but the parachute that had been deployed out of the back would hopefully slow her descent.
Seeing the top of the canopy rapidly closing in, she braced herself for impact. Her plane crashed through the tops of the trees, making Yang's head smash into the control wheel. The plane's left wing then hit a thick tree, sending it spiraling towards the ground. Yang blacked out before she landed.
Yang shook her head of the memory and refocused. She looked around to try and get her bearings with no success. Everything looked the same in every direction. Yang felt the beginnings of panic swell in her chest, it'll be dark soon. She took a deep breath to try and quell her uneasiness, and started in the same direction she'd been going. East. That’s the way she flew here from after all, and plus, she didn't really see a better option.
Yang hiked for the better part of an hour, cutting through leaves and vines when they got too thick. Her boots crunching on the forest floor as she walked.
I should start looking for food, she thought, Or maybe shelter? Yea shelter would be nice. Yang raised her hand to her forehead to feel the bump that had formed there and winced. She definitely had a concussion.
Yang, distractedly, cut through the next layer of vines, coming suddenly face to face with another human being. She screamed loudly and promptly fell on her ass, raising her machete in front of her defensively.
Chest heaving, she looked closely at the other person before furrowing her eyebrows. “Wait a minute.” She muttered, and got up to her feet. That wasn't a person...
It was a statue.
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A scream echoed through the jungle and the girl shot up from her spot on the branch she had been relaxing on, high in the treetops. Her ears twitching on top of her head, trying to identify what direction it came from.
Her heart raced with worry.
Intruder.
She grabbed her spear and took off through the trees towards the sound.
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That's weird. Yang thought, looking around as if to find the answer as to why there's a random statue in the middle of the jungle.
Finding nothing, she turned her head to look at it more closely. It's so detailed, realistic. It made the hairs on the back of Yang's neck stand up. She wished she had her camera.
Instead, she pulled a little notebook out of her pocket along with a small pencil. She needed to take note of this, she was a journalist after all.
After taking some time to write about the statute and its detail, she pocketed the notebook and grabbed her machete again. Yang took one more look at the stone figure before continuing on.
Another twenty minutes passed before she caught sight of another statute off to her left.
What is going on? This one looked completely different from the first one she saw. This one looked female. It had its arms out in front of it as if it was blocking an attack.
Yang was about to make her way over to the statue to get a better look, when her feet were kicked out from underneath her. Her back hit the ground roughly and before she could even think about raising her machete, there was a foot on her wrist keeping the weapon pinned to the ground and something sharp pressing against her neck.
“Who are you?” A voice said.
Later, Yang will look back on this moment impressed. She had no idea she was being followed, this person, whoever they were, moved through the forest so silently she didn't even know they were there until she was at their mercy.
“Please don't kill me!” Yang's eyes were shut as she begged, “My plane crashed in this jungle and I'm lost, I have no idea where I am!”
The pressure on her neck increased, any harder and it would break skin. “Who are you?” The voice said again, firmer this time, but not louder.
“My name is Yang Xiao Long,” She tried again, “I'm a journalist who was flying over this area to gain information about the strange happenings here before my plane crash-landed.”
That was obviously the wrong thing to say because the machete was kicked from her hand and a knee was brought down onto her chest, knocking the wind out of her. The pressure on her neck not letting up.
“You are trespassing on our lands, you are not welcomed here.”
Yang cracked her eyes open. A girl was kneeling on her chest, holding a spear to her throat. She was tan and wore a mask that covered the top half of her face from the eyes up. She had long black hair that was pulled back into intricate braids. But the most curious thing however, was the extra set of ears the girl had perched on top of her head that were currently pinned back defensively.
“Look,” Yang started, more calmly this time, trying to ease the girl on top of her, “I-I’m not here to cause trouble or hurt anyone, I'm just trying to find a way back home.”
The pressure on her neck eased up a fraction. “You’re not a hunter?” The girl asked.
“No! No, I'm here by accident, I swear.”
“Then why did you say you’re here to gain information, what do you want with my family.”
“Your family? You live out here?”
The girl said nothing, waiting for Yang to answer her question.
Yang took a breath, she needed to tread carefully. “Apparently, the people who enter this area of the jungle never come back. There have been over thirty cases of travelers who have gone missing in the past twenty-five years.”
“Travelers?!” the girl snarled, “They were murderers and thieves. Your kind only comes here to hurt this forest and my family, you shouldn't be here.”
Yang's eyes widen. “You know what happened to them?”
The girl tilted her head in confusion, “You really don't know who we are?”
Bewildered by everything going on, Yang raised her voice, “No!!”
In an instant the spear was lifted from her neck and a hand was covering her mouth.
“Shut up, you're being too loud.” The girl was leaning in close. Close enough that Yang could see the little freckles on the girl's cheek as she turned her head to look around.
The girl turned her head back to look at Yang through masked eyes. “There is a village about an eight days walk from here. Your kind set up camp there a few months back.” She spat out the words like it left a bad taste in her mouth. “I can take you there but only if you do as I say and keep your mouth shut. This forest is cruel to those who do not know it.”
With wide eyes, Yang nodded, and the girl slowly lifted her hand from her mouth and got up to her feet. She picked up Yang's machete and tied it to her own waist. “We have to move quickly, it'll be dark soon.” She said, already walking away.
Yang scrambled up to follow her, “Where are we going?”
“I have a shelter built not far from here,” She said, keeping a brisk pace. “But, with you making so much noise there's no doubt the forest already knows you're here. We have to hurry.”
“Wait!” Yang said, stopping the girl in her tracks as she turned slightly to look at her. “What uh.. What’s your name?”
The girl turned her body fully in the direction of Yang, her chest puffing up to make herself look bigger as she planted her spear in the ground with a thud. Yang was definitely not intimidated.
“My name is Blake Belladonna, and my family and I are the guardians of this land.”