Simon, who had been admiring the sun with Desdemona, sneered at Matt.

"That 'vamp' happens to be my girlfriend," he said haughtily. "And I happen to be a 'vamp' as well. And you would do well to not group me with that weak girl and the sunshine one. It is not nice at all." He sniffed and brushed at his jacket.

Bobby was torn between watching the fight with the monster and helping Sammy. In the end it did not seem to matter as she fainted anyway. He sighed and hoped she was okay as he moved over to Kari. "Do you think she's a part of the Game?" he whispered to the girl, keeping an eye on the strange young woman who had just appeared out of nowhere.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Desdemona ignored the argument brewing and threw herself down in the grass, ripping flowers up and shredding them into pieces, all while humming happily.

"Will you play with me, Simon? That fun game where we catch the little furry animals? I quite like that one. I wonder if there are any cute little animals for me to cuddle here?"

Sylvia grimaced at Desdemona's comments about animals.

"I don't like animals. Nasty, dirty little things. Fleas and ticks in their fur and they bite and carry disgusting diseases. Totally overrated little abominations," Sylvia rambled and then realized there were more important things to discuss.

"Why was that creature chasing you? And why are we here? It can't be a coincidence we met you after arriving here."

Matt kept his cool with some apperant inward struggle... and a lot of battle meditaton "I'm sorry about that Simon but I was trying to do them with some alphabetical order" he said calmly.

"Oh, well in that case you should have mentioned dear 'vamp' Desdemona first," Simon said, being excruciatingly polite while spitting out 'vamp' as though it were a bad word. "Now would you like to go and introduce us with the Dewey Decimal System or can we move on?"

He moved over to Desdemona and sat down beside her, picking at the pieces of flowers she had already killed. "I don't know, dearest," he said. He glanced sidelong at the new girl. "Mmm, she has a rather tasty-looking neck, don't you think?" he asked, admiring the new girl's throat.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

"Oh... oh my," the woman said and raised her hand to protectively cover her throat. She eyed Simon worriedly, and turned to Slyvia both to answer her question, and to try to ignore the vampire's gaze.

"You're most definitely not from Lyolen if you don't know about the monsters," she said. "The land is crawling with them. My village was destroyed by them when I was a child, and I've been on my own ever since. I was trying to get to the next village, but that Sni caught wind of me. It's really not safe here. We should get going. Come on."

She made her way through the group, making sure to put distance between herself and Simon, and walked off at a brisk pace. She paused and turned to face the Dittotopians.

"I'm Mona Dydevli, by the way," she said matter-of-factly, and then resumed her course across the field. Though she knew they were still in danger, she had to admit to herself that she felt a lot safer with these foreign warriors nearby.

Shono snorted I could get you all there with out any danger at all. He tansformed into his starfighter mode "see?"

"Maybe." Kari said non-committally. She holstered her pistol snugly against her wrist and looked at the woman curiously. "Lyolen." She repeated. "Sounds interesting. Where did the monsters come from?" She asked the woman.

Kari frowned as Shono turned into a starfighter. "That's great, but I don't think all of us can fit. Inside you." She considered what she'd said for a moment and decided that it sounded weird.

Xerec watched the proceedings calmly. Her eyes lighted with interest as more monsters were mentioned and kept her crossbow out.

Mona shrugged.

"Where do any animals come from? They've always been here." At the sound of Shono transforming, she turned around in surprise and caught the tail end of the transformation. Her eyes grew wide in amazement.

"That's incredible!" she exclaimed, momentarily forgetting the danger. "But I'm afraid she's right, you are rather small... I think your pets are the only ones that could fit in you. Hurry. We have several iles* to go."

*not a typo, just for the record.

Dona managed not to land on anyone else when she came through the door. She felt this was probably a good thing, especially with hungry monsters roaming around.

Apparently, the game started with a... well, not a bang, since it wasn't an explosion... Since Dona was unarmed, she was not particularly thrilled by the turn of events. What if she got separated from the players who were armed? It was distinctly unfair, unless there were weapons laying around in the rooms for adventurers to pick up. If they lived that long.

And now they were going to walk across a monster-infested countryside. Or hurry across a monster-infested countryside. Apparently, this game was not going to be a short one.

"Err," said Dona. "Shouldn't we revive Sammy? Give her water or something? She seems to have fainted."

(Um, nn, why is Matt using battle meditation? We're not fighting anyone. )

Desdemona tugged Simon along, happily chasing after the others.

"I'd rather bite that boy. The one the silly fainting girl keeps grabbing. He has a nice aura. Can you see it, Simon? Pretty, pretty colors. I wonder if his blood is pretty too?"

"I'd rather walk than ride inside of the tin can," Sylvia said. "Besides, what if he forgets we're inside and turns back into Robbie the Robot? I can't die, but I'd prefer my essence not be tainted by squished up guts."

Xerec pulled a canteen of water out of her pack and unceremoniously dumped it on Sammy's head. "Up." She commanded. When Sammy didn't obey right away, Xerec nudged her with her foot.

Kari watched, mildly amused. "Does someone want to pick her up so we can go? I don't want to meet another of those..." She searched for the word. "Snee?"

The nudge seemed to work. Sammy suddenly jolted and transformed into a fish (because of the water), but realized when she finally came to that water had simply been dumped on her. She automatically shifted back into human form and began to shake herself and squeeze the water out of her hair. “What's the big idea? Do you know how uncomfortable wet jeans are? It'll take hours to dry.” She pouted a little and started shivering, looking to anyone in the group for sympathy.

Simon smiled vaguely at Desdemona. "I'm sure his blood is very pretty indeed, love," he said in agreement, readjusting her hand on his arm so he was leading her rather than the other way around. "Perhaps we shall see it later on."

His smile widened at the prospect.

Bobby felt a little guilty about Sammy being drenched in water and knelt beside her. "Er, we had to get moving and no one wanted to leave you just . . . lying there." He rubbed the back of his neck ruefully and then stood, holding his hand out to her in order to help her up.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Cosmi hissed softly at the word "pets," but said nothing. He joined Tomas close behind Mona, wondered idly what creatures vampires liked to prey upon, and listened attentively for any sign of dangerous beasts.

Mona was clearly unhappy about hesitating. She bounced from one foot to the other and looked around nervously.

"Could you please hurry up?" she asked anxiously. "We're sure to be spotted by every monster in the plains if we stay for too much longer."