starlightcafe | There's just no telling how far I'll go...

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There's just no telling how far I'll go...

It had been a long flight out east for the family, and Della had been in the extreme minority when it came to the vote of "should she and Launchpad split flying time?"... Sure, Della'd accepted Launchpad as someone with promise as a pilot. He really tried, and he could crash like nobody else. If he had to fly the Cloudslayer sometimes, she could live with that.

But he didn't have to fly when she was right there!

So once they'd landed in China, Della had needed some time to cool off from the stress of it all. And then, well, a series of distracting finds and interesting incidents had left her absolutely lost, and all those pictures she'd taken with her cellphone had drained the battery dry.

That left her with one option: Find the hangar where they'd landed and wait around there. The only problem? Well...

"Who made this map? I know I've passed this pond, like, four times already!"

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As Della was passing the pond again, she would actually find that it was occupied this time around. At the edge of the pond, there was a figure practicing what seemed to be Kung Fu with long sweeps of his arms and legs.

On nearing the pond, Della easily spotted the person, and waved an arm in the air. "Oh! Hey, you know this area well?"

He paused in mid-stance as he glanced in her direction. After a moment, he answered in rather clear English, "Yes. Are you lost?"

Della snorted gesturing to the map that she'd been holding in the other hand.

"I wouldn't be if this map wasn't stupid!"

With a slight frown, he walked around the pond and carefully approached her. When he was close enough, he peered at her map, a feat which was easy to do thanks to the additional height he had on her.

"Where are you heading?"

"Well..." She trailed a finger along the map, down to a commercial area. "The hangar we landed in is over here..."

He frowned as he watched her point to the map, taking another moment to study it.

"That's the wrong section of land," he said, his finger resting on the point where Della had started. "You're not here, but actually here..." Then his finger glided down to a lower section of the map.

"...Well that explains it. Stupid map..." Della muttered, shaking her head. "Okay, so, I should head up through..." She pointed to another spot. "...Here?"

"You could, though it's easy to get lost through the forest in that area," he said, stroking his beak for a moment. "It would be better to go through this way..." he traced a path on the map for her, "but that's a good few hours' travel."

Della chuckled a bit, shaking her head. "Thanks for the concern, but I'm a pretty practiced adventurer. I'm sure I'll be fine in the forest," she said lightly, as if she hadn't just been lost three seconds ago.

It was that fact exactly that had Della receiving a rather dubious look. "Are you sure?"

"Of course! Earlier was just because I was following the map, and not my intuition! Look, if you're worried, you can come with me."

He debated that for a moment; on the one hand, he didn't know this woman, and she wasn't really his responsibility. If she insisted that she would be all right, who was he to question her?

On the other hand, what he did know was the forest, and the dangers that lurked within it. And, despite his own reservations, he couldn't in good conscious let someone wander into it on their own.

"...all right."

"Oh! Man, I did not think you'd really go for that, but sure!" Della laughed, heading off. "I mean, having someone to talk to makes any trip even better!"

He bit back a sigh as he followed her, his stride and height making it easier to catch up.

"So you're a visitor here, I take it."

Della grinned, nodding. "Heh, yeah. My uncle wanted my boys to see more of China than just Macaw. I guess they were there last year?" She felt a pang of regret that she'd missed that, as she did whenever she thought of adventures she'd missed with her children.

"I see...Though it is a bit of a surprise that he'd bring your family to such a remote part of China. This area isn't exactly known for any tourist spots."

Della's smile grew at that. "Oh, we're not regular tourists. Not my family. We're more... Adventurers-slash-treasure hunters-slash-explorers."

That gets a curious raise of the brow. "Oh? So what reason would a family like that decide to come here?"

He had an idea, of course. There were some treasures here that actually many people in China weren't aware of. But he wasn't going to mention it to her if she didn't know about them.

"Oh, my uncle always has his eye on something with these trips."

But like him, she wasn't about to give much away. Word spread fast, and they didn't need extra competition, as fun as that sounded, she had to admit.

"By the way, the name's Della."

He'll take that for now, but made a note to keep an eye on this family.

As she introduced herself, he then bowed. "Huang Jien," he said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Jien!" Della said, and hey, at least she got that much right today...?

He nodded, satisfied, and they continued on their way, following the path that eventually leads to a forest that was so thick that the sun could hardly filter through the trees.

There also seemed to be something heavy surrounding the forest, a feeling that was thick and almost unnatural. Jien hung back for a moment, glancing at Della.

"Are you sure you want to pass through here?" he asked. While he was more familiar with what lay in the forest, he always preferred to exercise caution.

While the strange appearance of the forest gave Crane reason to be cautious, it just excited Della. She looked dead ahead, clearly eager to get going.

"Yeah, sure I do. This place looks like an adventure."

He glanced at her for a moment, then pulled his rice hat down a bit to hide how he rolled his eyes.

Americans.

"All right," he finally said after a moment. "We better get going then."

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There's just no telling how far I'll go...

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