Magloria and Jump Start watched the magic strike the tree. As the embers spread, the orange glow started to glow brighter and smoke began to billow up from through the branches.
The feline had seen the spell fly off towards the tree from their direction, but upon seeing an open flame had quickly changed their priorities. They leapt off the rooftop, rushing off to somewhere else as quickly as they could.
"Now's our chance." Magloria said, giving one final look around to make sure they won't be spotted, then started sprinting over in the direction of the dense jungle. Jump Start ran after her.
Then Collapse heard a bell being rung. Likely an alarm bell to wake up everyone in case of emergency, such as something catching on fire.
Collapse ran after them as well. She easily matched their speed and found an odd sense of euphoria rushing through her. It felt good to escape a probable bad situation. There is no telling of what would have happened if the three of them got caught. Some of the felines were hostile, at least the ones they had encountered down in the caves. Collapse was most certainly pleased that they were now removing themselves from the situation.
The bell ringing was to be expected. Where Collapse was from, they had sirens but the bell served the same purpose. Getting everyone up to react quickly to an emergency. The felines and whoever else in the town were likely to focus on solving the fire first. It could take minutes, or longer to put the fire out. And even then, if they were to look for the cause of the fire they would find none, giving them more of a mystery on their hands, or rather claws.
Upon entering the dense jungle Collapse would look back once to make sure they weren't being followed, and would follow the three of them into the dense jungle brush.
None of them were being followed, the slowly increasing number of felines focused solely on the flames that were now very obvious throughout the tree.
The jungle around them was thick, forcing them to push through bushes everywhere just to get through enough to be decently hidden. As they went further, Magloria brought out her short sword and began hacking through some of the more annoying plants in their way to speed up their progress.
"We appear to be in the clear, for now. Next thing to do is figure out where to go from here, and for that we'll need to be up somewhere high to get a good look around." she said.
Collapse did what she could to help Magloria, such as moving plants out of the way or pulling them apart with her magic. She was most pleased that they weren't being followed.
"Well, I recommend that we get as far from that town as we can just in case but we should be able to find somewhere high when it comes daytime. Let's just keep going through this jungle to see where we can end up, maybe." she remarks.
"What do you make of the felines and the town? What purpose do you think they have with the underground caves?" Collapse asked, to make conversation.
Magloria looked up at the moon, then frowned as she studied the dark jungle around them. "Actually I think we have a better objective in mind. Who knows what sort of nocturnal hunters could be around at this time, so I suggest we find a place to take shelter at."
Just Start replied to Collapse's question. "Those felines could be doing anything with those caves, but..." she paused, "From what we saw, they weren't doing anything except guarding it. Maybe they just don't want to have anything to do with the caves?" she suggested.
"Nah, they've probably got a mine going down there and we missed it. I'd imagine there would be plenty of good minerals to be found in those caves." Magloria pointed out.
They came across what looked to be a low hanging tree with massive leaves, each one grown from the top of the plant reaching down to the ground. Their size made for a particularly good roof or curtain. The ground beneath the tree was also relatively clear of decaying leaves, making it decent to lie down in.
"We can stop here and rest until it's morning. Hopefully nothing will see us and get curious." Magloria said as she inspected under the plant.
"Ow!" Jump Start yelped as she touched one of the leaves with her nose. She started rubbing the sore bit. "These leaves are sharp!"
Collapse agreed with Magloria's suggestion to rest under the tree for the night. It seemed like a good place as any to stop for a rest. They had been going for quite a long time and Collapse was starting to get tired.
To Jump Start's unfortunate interaction with the leaves Collapse would walk up to her and make sure she was alright. "You okay Jump Start? I guess we shouldn't touch these leaves." Collapse sighed and moved under the leaves and layed down underneath the plant cautiously just incase there was anything dangerous about.
Once they were all underneath the plant and laying there Collapse would to Jump Start again. "Mining is a very likely but there are likely a lot of things we missed. Although I don't see why they would have a blockade and attempt to kill anyone who entered into that area if caught, remember how we had to fend ourselves off? They must be doing something they don't want anyone accessing, or seeing." Collapse suggested.
Although now that they were all laying together, it was clear what Collapse was thinking. Her close proximity to Jump Start was a good indication.
Jump Start moved under the leaves with the rest of them, but kept rubbing her nose. "I think they're covered in hundreds of little needles. I couldn't see them because of the darkness." she whined as she sat down.
All she could do was shrug in response. She had no clue what else she could say, since she didn't know much else about them.
"You two can go to sleep. I'll take first watch, then wake you each up when it's time to switch." Magloria said, getting comfortable as she looked outside of their shelter.
"Sounds like a plan to me. Sleep time it is, for the two of us." Collapse spoke and moves closer to Jump Start. Jump Start could feel Collapse's soft warmth brush up against her and then she stretches out. "Ahh...time to sleep. What do you say?" Collapse asked, smirking and blushing a little bit. Jump Start could swear she saw Collapse's tail wagging a little bit too.
"I am very glad we reached the surface, it feels good to be under the sky again. To look at the Moon and the stars, and we'll see the sun soon enough..." she sighs happily.
Jump Start knew exactly what Collapse was thinking about, but made sure not to make it worse. "Yeah, would be good." she replied, curling up on herself and getting comfortable between a pair of roots.
Any sort of attempts to sleep next to her would be allowed, though given the already warm air of the jungle, it might not be necessary. In any case, Jump Start closed her eyes.
Jump Start would feel Collapse's soft body press up against her and her hooves would rest around Jump Start gently, as if she was a pillow. She could feel Collapse's tail wagging a bit, but it would slow down as Collapse closed her eyes. Of course, she could feel Collapse's soft floofy fur.
If nothing else happened, Collapse would go off to sleep content with Jump Start in her embrace.