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Lou bowed her head, gaze slinking from Danniel to Nathan and back. She toyed with her own hen-stealing-plans and figured this girl didn't happen to have a live chicken in her bag. Besides.. "Maybe a second look isn't so bad? There's more of us, and Bella might find something hidden. And it might be worth trying to figure out why everyone left there in the first place." She played with her knife idly, wiggling the blade. "There's usually a whole lot of people there.." What if they were planning something with her forest?

"It didn't even look like there was much of a struggle if something did happen. No blood or bodies thankfully, but there was still food on the tables as if everyone just up and left."

Nathan frowned. "So whatever happened, it happened suddenly and people were able to flee." He scratched his head, trying to figure out what kind of threat could cause an entire village to evacuate.

"I still want to have a look," he murmured to no one in particular.

Bella wagged her tail and then pricked her ears forward, listening intently for something.

"Well, it's this way. We've got about a weeks walk," Danniel said and started walking the way she had come.

Listening to Danniel's description of the place, Merrion just nodded. He didn't really care if it was populated or not, in fact he preferred the latter. There was too much to worry about with other people around, especially ones he didn't know. Empty just meant a free place to stay and make sure his equipment was in order. Although the fact there was no apparent damage or signs of attack that she had noticed piqued his curiosity.

Of course, after hearing how long the trip to take would be, his interest waned. How on Odessa did people survive before vehicles, and in places like these? Giving the trees an irritated look and reconsidering his claim of not wanting to burn them to the ground, he sighed. "From one middle of nowhere to another." He muttered quietly to himself, before following Danniel's lead.

Lou nodded quietly, checking her pockets for the things she tried to carry everywhere. She'd give a look to the tree helplessly before cooing to the horse. She was strong enough to pull herself upon his back, in fact she'd done so a couple times today, but okay pbbt she didn't feel like it right now. She touched his shoulder lightly and muttered a few quiet words. The stallion would then kneel down for her, allowing her an easy mount. Wait what, a week? She pet the neck of the horse before wrapping her fingers in his messy locks as the steed would stand. Um, alright. At least she knew how to gather, and the wolf man seemed efficient in hunting, and who knew what the other two had to offer other than some weird, frightful sense of security and a navigation reliability.

Nathan hoisted his pack onto his shoulders with a grimace. He had provisions, but not for a handful of others for a week. Although Aloutte seemed very capable of gathering...Danniel he wasn't sure about and then Merrion gave off some strange air of not being used to moving around in the woods.

Well, he'd been in worse situations--nothing came to mind--but he had gotten through them. And if need-be, he and Bella could hunt. They'd have to to make it a week. His provisions would run out in two days otherwise.

"Maybe we better make a plan as to how we can help each other," he advised. "I have some provisions in my pack, but they were meant to last me a week or so. Between the four of us, five if we include Bella, we'll be lucky if it spans three days. While rationing. So, in terms of skills, I know I can hunt and she-" he nodded at Aloutte, "-can gather. What can you two do?"

Frowning, Merrion considered the question. He knew electronics, robotics, had a good idea of layouts and such... he'd done well enough in most aspects of his training, really. Of course, all that was for surviving in a ruined concrete jungle, not a regular one. Okay, maybe this place wasn't that wild but still, here he was all but useless. The realization of which being rather frustrating.

"Sorry to say there isn't much I can help with in a place like this." Merrion said, patting the hilt of his sword. "If anything tries to attack us, I can put it down easily enough. I can see fine in the dark too, so I can make sure nothing sneaks up on us at night."

"I guess I can just be a guide..." Danniel said quietly, a bit embarrassed at how little she had to offer. "I can cook a bit and fix a few things, but really there isn't much I can think of to help with."

So she was right. Lou nodded, mostly to herself, and shifted her body to be more relaxed, entrusting the horse to follow along. He was usually pretty good with going with the flow. It wasn't so bad, anyway. Two people to provide for, and the other girl, sort of, she did say she could cook? And she knew where she was going, at least exactly. Lou had been to the town before, but she might have headed in another direction herself and that was probably the wrong way, seeing as this girl had just come from the other direction. And then there was the blonde one. No, Lou didn't quite trust him entirely yet. She'd keep her mouth shut regardless and keep her own eye on herself, and the others. God help them if a deer passed by and he pulled the "I'm not from hurr" and shot the poor thing.

She scratched her neck idly and watched the others. "So Blondey-" Should probably re-learn everyone's names, since outsiders tend to use them obsessively. "Why don't you tell us about this mysterious, far-away place you're from?"

This piqued Danniels interest and nodded vigorously in agreement. "Yes! Please do!"

Nathan grinned to himself and settled into their easy pace. His long legs were a boon for covering distance.

"I am interested myself," he said. "Your weapons are unlike anything I've seen before."

Bella frolicked around them, pausing only to give the horse a wary sniff.

Merrion crossed his arms as he kept stride with the rest of them, wondering what the sudden interest was all about. This place was far more strange than his home planet. Still, with the long walk they had ahead, he supposed it wouldn't hurt to tell them a little. Be a way to kill some time if nothing else.

"It's a city. Outside of the city, there's the ocean." He told them, wondering if they'd think he was just holding back on the details. Even to him, that didn't sound like much when said aloud. "That's really all there is. Places like this... forest. They don't exist where I'm from. Well, not anymore, at least. I think they used to, but I never could focus that well in my history lessons."

He noticed Bella walking along near them and Blue's horse, gesturing to the animals. "We don't have things like them, either. Maybe a few preserved somewhere by those... science-types, but that's about it. Unless you want to count the mutated abominations I mistook your fuzzball for at first, Nathan, but they just kill everything in sight."

"That doesn't sound like a good place to be at all," Danniel shivered. "Can you tell us what the city is like?"

Lou kept her head down, listening. Yes, it really did sound awful. Lou had always been here, besides her small trips outside. The animals were the only company she needed, whether they got a long or not, such as with the horse or with the coons. And the forest, was it not the girl who suggested her as a 'forest guardian'? Lou sure took care of it, anyway, and it took care of her. She breathed forest- actually, didn't everybody? This realization caught her off-guard and she looked towards Blondey with new interest. Was it human at all?

"The ocean?" Nathan sounded surprised. "I wouldn't mind seeing the ocean." He didn't bother commenting on the lack of forests; he'd been through so many he wouldn't mind having open spaces around him so he could see a threat coming a mile away. Rather than ten feet.

"Bella's kind will attack, but only if you trespass onto their territory. Unfortunately they've become widespread and nearly everywhere is someone's territory."

Bella finished greeting the horse and then dashed off into the trees, merging to become one with the shadows, but always keeping up.

"Good to know." Merrion commented at Nathan's information about the wolves. He'd have to keep an eye out for them, while making sure he didn't shoot Bella by mistake. Unless it was unavoidable. Besides, it was just an animal, and from the sound of it there were plenty to go around on this planet. That thought made his eyes drift to Danniel.

Now that his head was starting to clear after transport, being dropped in a river and the general confusion and frustration that followed, he began to wonder where she fit into things. Her appearance could easily drop her onto the expendable animal side of his mental scale, but she was also enough like the rest of them to warrant otherwise. What was she then, exactly? A mutant? If that was the case, he should have just shot her to begin with like he always does with their type. Realizing he might be staring and had been putting off her question, he looked away and left her as an unknown for the moment.

"The city used to be a nice place, I hear. Not much to it these days. Pockets of people living here and there, but last I knew most of it was still overrun by... things." He said, unsure how he'd even begin to explain robots to this bunch. Especially Blue. "Aside from them roaming around, it's still standing, for the most part. Streets, skyscrapers, shops... just rather devoid of life. There are efforts to reclaim it, but the going has been slow. Not that it matters to me anymore. I left and have no plans to go back anytime soon." He explained, not mentioning it's because he has no idea how to get back even if he did want to.

Danniel saw Merrion staring but ignored it. "I haven't been to big cities very often; they're really exciting but way too crowded, I've always wanted to go into a really big skyscraper and look down at the city from the uppermost window though," she commented.

Lou knew of oceans enough to have opinions, biased ones none the less. They roared and swallowed and were no good to canoes, at least. Now, with just 'big water' and concrete walls, she might figure it something of a floating city.. Or was there land? Was it the plains she'd heard of? Her curiosity over what it looked like over rode her curiosity over how they lived (what did she know of just human bioligy anyway?) and brought her to speak again.
"So there's nothing else? Any flat land around the city? Just like, a concrete island or what?"

"Overrun?" Nathan frowned. "Is it not safe there?" Of course he'd latch onto the idea of a threat, rather than the surroundings or descriptions. He glanced at Bella. "If you're having trouble at home, maybe we could help."

He hitched his pack higher and adjusted the quiver at his waist.