Point Break

As they continued their hike, Richard began to wonder where Leo had disappeared to. It ha been a little bit but soon, the sound of the arrow flying through the air and impaling itself into a tree not too far from either one of them almost scared the crap out of Richard. He had been following pretty close behind Jake and the sound had practically knocked him off of his feet. That mixed with the leap his heart had sent the guardian tripping over his own feet and straight through Jake in front of him, landing on the ground in front of the boy with a hard thud. Phasing through bodies was always so weird an it was a feeling that Richard never got used to. The mushiness and liquids of the body was never appealing even just looking at them in the first place.

"Ugh, God damn..." he muttered, rubbing his head as he stood up again, glancing towards the sky to see Leo above them. "Good to see you again," he said, glad that the autumn was okay. But soon Jake was back to barking orders before a growl stopped the guardian dead in his tracks. Turning around, his gaze locked onto the strange creature who began encircling them. With a heavy sigh, he pulled out his knife, getting ready for the thing to spring. "Jake, you and Leo go. I'll handle him. This is your mission, after all." he said, not taking his eyes of the bird-cat thing.

Leo gave his head a shake. "Not too far, I just landed here. I think we're clo-" The blond was cut off by the cat-owl creature. His eyes narrowed as he looked over the animal. Despite the fact that both owls and cats were relatively docile normally, Leo was not sure that this one was. A worried look crossed Leo's face as the guardian spoke. He didn't like the idea of splitting up too much, but didn't voice his thoughts. It may be for the best too. They could be close to Pepper. Mouth closed, Leo looked back at Jake. Waiting for him to answer the older blond.

Jake looked from Richard to Leo and gave a sigh. "I didn't want to split up anymore, but we really need to keep going. I'll send a flare when we get to our location for Richard to find up, okay?" With that, he gave a nod to Richard, half wishing the guardian good luck and half thanking him in a silent, manly sort of way. Taking a deep breath and looking up to the mountain, Jake started towards the huge hill, adrenaline building as the two of them got closer and closer. He hoped that they wouldn't run into any more weird creatures and could just get this mission over with. He hoped Pepper was okay, even though she could most likely handle herself in her dragon form, but what about her mental state?

Picking up the pace to a run, him and Leo soon reached the base of the mountain. The whole island was covered in a dense forest of tropical trees and brush, and now, the humidity and bugs were started to piss him off. "Well, finally here," he started, breathing heavily. They reached the first part of their destination, but another task awaited them, finding the dragon or girl. If Pepper wasn't transformed, it's be a hundred times more difficult, but hopefully she was in her dragon state. Looking to Leo, he stood up a bit more straight, placing his hand over his forehead, shielding his face from the blinding sun, trying to look over the trees and spot anything out of the ordinary. "Now we just need-" a low roar sounded from the distance, making the earth rumble and birds fly up from the trees. There was their dragon, though unfortunately he couldn't see her yet. "- to find her," he finished.

Grabbing some water from his backpack, he took a refreshing sip. "Want some? We need all the strength we can get before going up there," Jake pointed out. Realizing that there was a strange scent in the forest, he looked around. Smoke? Was there a fire somewhere? Moving his gaze back to the mountain which he assumed Pepper was at, he noticed a large grey cloud coming from the far west side. Shit. "We need to go," tossing the angel boy the bottle of water just in case he wanted some, the tall student started running towards the danger. They need to find the girl before the fire got to big and made it impossible to get to her and unfortunately, they'd most likely run into some dangerous creatures who would most likely be running from the growing flame. What ever it took, they would complete this mission, Jake was sure of it.

As the other two took off, Richard quickly grabbed a stick off of the ground and tossed it at the creature, surprisingly hitting it square in the face to draw its attention as Jake and Leo ran the other direction. With a screech, the owl cat darted towards Richard, but panicked as the guardian braced himself and let the creature run right through him. It was still a weird feeling he would never get used to phasing through flesh and bone, but it was better than getting hit. As the creature moved through him in a disorientated state, Richard took that time to attack, running at the creature and grabbing a rather large stick along the way, using that as his weapon instead. With one solid whack, he landed a hit on the creature's shoulder and it let out another shriek before fixing itself on him again, only enraged by his attack. "You two better hurry up!" he shouted, even if they were already out of earshot. He had no idea how long he could hold this thing off.

Running on a treadmill and a track was one thing, but running up to the base of the hill with roots and other foliage in your way was another thing. There were a few times where Leo was sure that he would have sprained his ankle. Thankfully, none of the pain seemed to last...that or it was the adrenaline pushing the pain away. He'd find out when this was all said and done. But they had a mission to accomplish first.

The heat seemed to be less as terrible in the shade, the trees providing shelter from the rays of light. Even then, sweat was building just past his hairline, and he held a slight irregularity to his breath. Nothing quite what Jake was feeling. His training truly was paying off, even if he hadn't gone as often as he had six months ago. That being said, Leo appreciated Jake's offer of water. He even reached out to accept it when they both saw the smoke rising in the west. They didn't have much time to waste.

Despite the long distance that they had just run, Leo found himself up and ready to continue. His hands found the water bottle easily and took a few sips while they ran. The blond was not able to drink all of it, and instead opted to shut the lid. He'd rather not choke on the way to save someone else.

Leo set his blue eyes forward, and ran just behind Jake. The other student set a nice pace for him, and allowed the blond to keep an eye out for other monstrous creatures. "Keep running, even if one crosses our path. Keep going!" Leo called out, leaping over a fallen log. They didn't have much time to stop and scare off monsters. They had to find Pepper.