Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 40

Jump Start mumbled something about fruitflies getting away from the zap apple before waking up properly, looking around then up at Collapse. "Oh, morning. Uhh... do you know what we're supposed to be doing today yet?" she asked, then stood up and looked around.

"And where's Magloria? She outside or something?" she asked, moving towards the entrance of the cave and taking a quick look outside, only to cringe in disgust at the fact that the giant python was still outside, and now was missing half of it's hide, thanks to an oddly happy blue mare.

Jump Start seemed to go green in the face, before quickly turning away. "I'm just... going to... go somewhere else... and... do... something...!" she stuttered, and started to shuffle away from the gruesome sight.

Collapse follows Jump Start outside and stops to see the dead giant python outside. Collapse clearly cringed at the sight of that and looked to Jump Start, although she wasn't as queasy at the sight.

"This is...most disgusting but we have to do what we have to do. That snake has valuable scales, and it's best we take advantage of each resource we can." she spoke, looking to Jump Start. "I'd recommend we should search for fruits. Let Magloria do what she needs to do." she speaks and then walked a bit closer to Magloria.

"Unless you need...help taking the scales off. While I would never do such things under *normal* circumstances...this is anything *but*." she spoke, seemingly fine with both options.

Would Magloria request help? Or would Jump Start want to find fruits with Collapse?

Magloria simply shrugged as she idly played about with her shortsword, waiting for Jump Start to fully leave the place before she got back to work. "I don't particularly *need* the help, and skinning is delicate work, despite looking like I'm just savaging the poor thing."

She looked over to several large pieces of hide, resting in a pile on the snake. "Those do need to be washed before I can start preserving them, so you can go do that if you want. They need to be soaked in clean water for several hours. Might be a problem finding some clean water, but with the rain it might not be so much of a problem."

Jump Start paused her walk into the jungle in search of a good tree to harvest, and instead silently waited to see what Collapse would decide on doing. She did say that she'd join her in fruit collecting, but Collapse was also more interested in spending time with Magloria...

Collapse looks to Jump Start and carefully weighed her options. She knew that Jump Start had very little ability to defend herself, at least in comparison to Collapse's own prowess. So she decided that she would go help Jump Start find the fruits. Should be easy.

"Alright, I will help Jump Start get the fruits. Then when we get back, we can go off and find some water to soak these skins as you said." Collapse said to Magloria, seemingly compromising between the two options. She didn't want Jump Start to be alone, after all.

With a hoof step, she turned towards Jump Start with her look to Magloria. It seems as though she wanted Magloria's approval before any actions.

"Needs to be a good spot too. This means a place with no fish or dirt to destroy the hide, and a place where we would come back to, such as an empty rock pool." Magloria stated before getting back to her messy work.

Jump Start started moving when she saw Collapse join her. "Thanks for joining me." she said, looking up at the tree canopy on occasion in order to scout for possible trees.

10 minutes in they had seen a few, but they were either unripe or were something they couldn't use, like spiky nuts, deliberately hard to get into. As they rounded a place closer to the ocean, they saw a few of what looked like palm trees, complete with ripe, fuzzy brown coconuts.

Jump Start groaned. "These won't do either." she sighed, "I can knock them down and break them open, but they'd hit me as they fall."

Looking up at the spikey nuts and coconuts Collapse giggled. "Silly Jump Start. That's not how you do it!" she spoke, and with a gold flash her fly ring was summoned onto her body and she hovered into the air with a quiet hum.

"Work smarter. Not harder!" with that, she would rise up into the air and with her magic she began to pick off the coconuts in her magic before glancing back to Jump Start. She was able to see the Fly Ring in greater details. It had various engraved opened eyes on its outer edge of aesthetic choice. But as for why Collapse would choose that for her device, was unknown. The Fly Ring was almost hypnotic, and unreal to look at as Collapse floated there picking the coconuts off of the trees.

Maybe Collapse may have been showing off herself a bit, but Jump Start could examine Collapse's body if she wanted. Before long, Collapse would have a decent amount of Coconuts. Around 7 or 8 of them. With her magic she spun them around like balls, seeming to juggle them in the air before she would gently land next to Jump Start, the Coconuts seeming to just float casually around them.

"Well, I'm nuts for Coconuts. How about you?" Collapse asked, licking her lips.

Collapse immediately found out that the coconuts were pretty securely fastened to the tree it was attached to, but that wasn't anything a good magical twist and tug couldn't solve.

Jump Start looked a little miffed at Collapse's comment. "Well... I can't really do what you're doing right now..." she grumbled, sitting back and watching Collapse as she did her work. Jump Start would've done something to help, but she couldn't see how she could help, aside from breaking open the coconuts here... which would just spill the bountiful coconut milk everywhere. Not the best choice.

When Collapse was done with her harvesting and playing with their food, Jump Start collected some of them and placed them in her saddlebags. "Do you think we should collect other foods, or you think coconuts are all we need? Might take a little bit to find something different, but there should be some around here somewhere." she suggested.

Collapse eagerly let Jump Start take some of the Coconuts into her saddlebags. The remaining ones she put into her own saddlebags as well, packing them in as best as she could.

Her fly ring would remain on. However she was sure to use it sparingly instead of using it constantly like she normally would. The headache was mostly gone by now but if she turned her head in certain manners it would still linger a little bit. "When we get back to the cave, I'll get my screwdriver out and I'll poke some holes in these Coconuts so we could drink from them." she remarked.

"Yes, let's see if we can fin some other foods. Better collect all we really can at this point and gather the most we can so we don't have to collect later on." she remarked and would search around for other edible foods.

When and if they found any, Collapse would be sure to collect them as well. Still, she was on constantly alert just in case of other snakes or predatory animals.

Collapse definitely saw some snakes, but they were the smaller tree snakes that wouldn't willingly go out of their way to attack a pony. Instead they slithered off whenever they had been spotted, or eerily watched while remaining nearly motionless.

After another 10 minutes of aimless wandering they come across another tree, full of ripe looking mangos currently being grabbed at by a group of monkeys and making an awful lot of chattering noises.

At the rate that they were going, it wouldn't be long before the entire tree was void of any good fruit. Jump Start looked up at the tree and sighed.

"Well at least I could kick this one without hurting myself, but I don't really want to deal with a bunch of monkeys landing around me either." she said, turning to Collapse. "Looks like you're dealing with this one as well. Have fun I suppose."

Collapse had noticed the smaller tree snakes slithering and watches them move away. As they watched she felt herself rather creeped out by them. It's likely she won't ever look at snakes the same ever again thanks to the attack of the python.

Upon locating the mangos up at the tree she looked to Jump Start. "Right on!" she complimented before rising up towards the tree. Quickly she flew up towards the tree but not close enough to where the monkeys could reach her. Quickly with her magic, she attempts to grab as many of the mangos as possible in one fell swoop.

After retrieving what she could in one fell swoop, she would fly back down towards Jump Start. to see how much she actually managed to get.

While Collapse was busy picking the mangoes from the tree, some of the monkeys had taken notice of her... and they weren't very pleased with what she was doing to their breakfast.

They started screeching and performing aggressive looking actions, trying to scare her away from the tree. That obviously failed, so one monkey thought it would be the brave, smart fellow of the group.

The last mango that Collapse had grabbed suddenly became a lot heavier as the monkey also grabbed it, deciding that it wouldn't let go, even as it was levitated away from the tree it's friends were on.

She might need to do something about the monkey first before setting down, otherwise they'd have an angry monkey on them. Other than that, she counted 11 mangoes, including the monkey one, that were clean, whole and ripe for consumption.

Realizing that one of the monkeys wasn't willing to let go of its mango she decided to put that one back gently onto a large nearby branch so it wouldn't fall. Fighting a monkey over a mango wasn't worth it, besides, 10 mangos was already enough plus the Coconuts. Hopefully that'd last them a while.

It was unlikely that the monkey would follow them all the way down from the place it was set, but just in case Collapse had encouraged Jump Start to run along with her back to the campsite. When they had gotten away from the monkeys, she would give Jump Start 5 of the mangoes as a compromise between the two of them.

They now had both Mangoes and Coconuts. This likely satisfied Jump Start, as for Collapse, it definitely did.

The monkey hissed loudly as it was placed back into the tree, clearly not smart enough to realize that she was the one who offered it kindness, and instead merely decided to keep defending it's food. Ungrateful bastard.

Jump Start agreed with the plan, and the moment she set down onto the ground, she bolted away in the direction of the cave, stopping only to accept the fruits and carry them.

By the time that they had finally returned, about half an hour had passed since they left. There was still the horrible sight of the definitely-not-alive python, but at least Magloria no longer looked like a gryphon butcher. A stack of fairly decent sheets of snakehide was near the cave entrance. Thankfully she set it up in such a way that it only seemed like a dead animal if you got too close to it or pointed your nose in that direction.

Magloria herself was sorting through their things, checking what they had for when they'd definitely move again. She gave a nod in greeting when she saw the pair approach.

Collapse cringes at the sight of the dead python. From what she could tell the hide was all removed and it was just a dead skinless python laying there. Collapse walks up to Magloria sweetly and brings out a Coconut as well as a screwdriver and stabs a few holes in the top and gives it to Magloria first before herself.

"We found Coconuts and Mangos. I think we should find a different place of dwelling...I don't feel like waking up the sight of a decaying dead python every time, you know? We also need to get a move on finding anything we could use to either build a ship, steal one, or bargain for one." Collapse suggested, looking to Jump Start. She gestured for her to take out a Coconut, so she could poke a hole in it as well. Finally, she did the same for one of her own Coconuts and took a quick drink of it.

When she looks at their things, she would slide her boots on. Hopefully they were dry, or at the very least, more dry than before.

Magloria muttered out a quick thanks and took the coconut in her magic. While Collapse was talking, she took a long drink of the coconut milk inside, finishing off all the liquid by the time Collapse was done.

"Moving is definitely what we're doing next. We're not staying here because we'd just get predators from the scent of the meat. Look, you can already see some approaching." Magloria said, pointing her hoof off into the jungle where they could see a black figure shifting about.

"Finding a place to build the ship would be easy. We find a relatively large and flat place on the sand and use nearby trees for wood. The seaponies did agree to help us when we needed it, of course."

"If you want to try stealing or bargaining for a ship, there's always the felines. They are still mostly a mystery. Plus there might be others, like that lizard" she finished, placing the coconut down on a stone and harshly stomping on it, causing it to crack in several places, enough that she could tear it apart to get the coconut flesh inside.

Jump Start accepted her own coconut and did a similar thing, drinking then smashing, but the smashing was far more gentle... and she performed it between her forehooves.

Collapse understood what Magloria had spoken of fully while glancing off into the distance where the black figure was moving about. At the very least the dead snake would likely be entirely aten away by other predators and scavengers in a few days time.

However, she seemed to stare when Magloria crushed the Coconut. She enjoyed seeing Magloria show her dominance over inanimate objects such as a Coconut. Collapse had an obvious interest in Magloria's hooves, and looking when Jump Start did the same thing she also gave a bit of a stare too but it wasn't as long when Magloria did that with the Coconut.

A small giggle escaped Collapse's mouth, "We all have our ways with Coconuts." she spoke and brought out the mushroom axe handle and placed it against a stone and brought the handle down quickly, as well as precisely with her magic. She chopped off the top of the Coconut, and then broke it in half after drinking all of its succulent juices. It was quite precise, and the Coconut pieces seemed to be split in even halves. Despite Collapse having rather heavy boots, she wasn't a dominant type, in a sense.

"Yup lets get a move on. I'd like us to look for a place to build a ship first. I don't want to risk anything that would result in negative reactions with others if we can help it. Perhaps we can see if that lizard is talkative, though." she spoke, and made sure she had everything she needed.

Once they had what they needed she would bite into the Coconut and chew somewhat cutely as she looks to Magloria to lead the way.

When they were all done with their meals (or decided to walk and eat, in Collapse's case) and had packed up their things, Magloria began leading them back towards the beach.

Collapse had seen some of the beaches, and knew where some of the larger, flatter, sandier places were. They arrived back at the rocky beach again, and from there Magloria picked a direction to start searching, with or without the assistance of Collapse's directions to good possible places for a ship to be constructed.

"There's a possibility that the lizard has moved to a new location, plus finding it's old location would be a problem. On the positive side, they might have built a fire again, which we might be able to find with the smoke it makes. We're not going to be doing that from here though." Magloria said as she rounded past a large, smooth rock, watching several birds scatter to the air.

Soon the beach was free of most rocks, leaving only bright yellow sand everywhere.

Collapse chews the coconut flesh as they walk about. By the time they arrived she was finishing off one of the chunks. Upon arriving at the beach Collapse would point out locations that she thought would be good.

"Yes. I think it's best we focus on finding a good location to build at first before anything else, as well as finding a new shelter. Perhaps instead of a cave this time we could build some kind of shack or shed to sleep in. I mean, we have the tools. All we'd really need to do is cut down a few trees. Get some branches and leaves, and we'd have a makeshift shack." she remarked.

"As for building a ship...I can't really say I've built ships before but I think that with enough time and effort we'll manage. I imagine we'd have to find materials for a sail. It would be a fairly simple ship..." she thought outloud. "Have you ever built a ship before, or had any knowledge of construction a ship?" Collapse asked the both of them.

Magloria shrugged at the suggestion for where their next living space should be. "Sure I suppose. Decently insulated, but would need to be constructed close to the surface or have smaller tunnels for air, otherwise it could get... stuffy. Also need to make sure it's clear of nasty things that could be bad for us, such as mushroom spores or an excess of insects." she said.

"A sail might be easy to make, but hard to get the materials. They are typically made from cloth, made from processing certain plants. I don't know if this place even has said plants, so the next best would be silk from those giant spiders. There'd be plenty of it."

Magloria pointed to a big piece of relatively flat beach that was up ahead, filled with a few seashells here and there along with tangles of old kelp. "Possible spot there." she stated.

Jump Start looked to Collapse, then shook her head in response to the question. "No, I haven't really done much with ship construction. I suppose I could have an idea of how one is built internally, insulation and stuff, but no idea how to put it all together." she said in a disappointed tone.

"We'd have to obtain or make a blueprint. That way we can make sure what we're building looks correct, and we won't screw up as we're building it." Magloria suggested.

"Yeah...I am not willing to go back all the way underground to just slay spiders again, then have to deal with re-escaping out of the feline town among other things. We'll find something for sails. Maybe the seaponies have a good substitute for it." she remarks but seemed doubtful on that. As they walked she would look to the flat beach.

"Seems like a good spot. Possible..." Collapse remarks upon viewing the flat beach.

then she looked to Jump Start. "I could definitely construct the internal things and where the wires and engines go, along with other things but the actual construction of the exterior and cutting the wood in proper manners, fitting it together - I don't know how I would go about that. That's where the seaponies would come in." she suggested to Jump Start.

"As for a blueprint...I don't have any paper or writing utensils that I can unsummon unfortunately. So either way it seems like we are going to have to ask someone else other than the seaponies." she remarks. "Since the seaponies likely don't have any way of making them...I imagine that tar blueprints wouldn't exactly be the most...productive as well." she adds.

Magloria shook her head, kicking away a couple of the seashells, idly clearing away some of the debris while they talked. "No, tar blueprints would definitely *not* be a good thing. So then that leaves the felines, or wandering around through the jungle in search of someone *else* who could give us what we need."

She stopped for a moment. "So I guess after we've set up a proper place to stay around here, we're wandering. You clearly don't want to go back to the felines, leaving us with only one option." she said, looking over at the perimeter of jungle trees, looming over the group.

"That river's around here somewhere, right? Could find a nice place near that, set up shop, gather a few things that we could need, store them for when we need it then start exploring."

Collapse nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good plan. The seaponies however, did speak of 'hunters', whoever they were referring to. We better be on a lookout at all times, though." Collapse said, her jaw clenching a bit at the idea of them being hunted, or seaponies being hunted.

"We have this jungle here which is obviously not conductive to anything we want to do. We could probably build a ship somewhere along this shoreline here, after we explore a bit along the river and set up shop somewhere. I am good with that. We aren't likely going to be building a ship in short times so we might as well get our bearing around here to explore for other options." she added.

"The hunters they were talking about was most likely any old predator that happened to live in or near the river. Felines, crocodiles, rockodiles, river serpents. You know, those sorts of things. Stuff that we would have to watch out for anyway." Magloria said, shrugging at the thought.

She waited patiently for Collapse to finish the next part of the conversation, before letting out a sight. "So... basically what I just said then. Set up a place near the river, then go exploring. Glad we agree." She started walking down the beach again, past the suitable ship building place, and intending to find the start of the river.

Eventually they came to a large divide in the beach, reflecting sunlight off the clear water and into their eyes. The river seemed to span at least 10 meters across, making it difficult to cross, but perfect for staying near. The next step was to find a suitable place that was somewhat close to it, so they didn't have to do a lot of walking to and from it.

"So far so good." Jump Start said, looking back behind them. There was actually a lot of good space to build a ship, so the first place they saw wasn't the only suitable location. No need to travel back there all the time.

Upon reaching the river Collapse was pleased that there were other spaces to build a ship. It was actually for the better anyways, it was best to not stick around in that same spot as before. Let that cave and the area where they fought the snake only be another memory, and move on.

"Well here is the river. Perhaps we'll end up at a nice spot with a small lake or it would go up further in elevation so we don't have to deal with this nasty jungle all the time. I mean really, I don't really understand how anyone can live in such a hostile place. Underground there were nasty centipedes...on second thought I think centipedes are a lot worse than snakes." Collapse shudders at the thought there.

"Instead of a shack or something, maybe we could just build ourselves a large teepee. Fell a few trees, use the branches and leaves to cover the outside bits. Would have decent room. I think we can manage to build something like that." she pondered out-loud.

Magloria had begun to lead them up the river as they talked, carefully keeping an eye on the water and the trees by the riverbed, since there could be dangers in both places.

"It's actually quite easy to live in a jungle, if you were born there. The air is warm and rain is frequent, so plenty of plants can grow. Many plants means lots of food for everything that eats them, which means lots of food for predators. Everything is bountiful. The hard part is not being eaten." she explained.

She shrugged at the different idea for their possible future home. "As long as it's good shelter that can last for a while, and is relatively safe from predators, it's good enough."

An hour of walking passed, where eventually they found a place that they could possibly use. The trees were less clustered together in one spot a short distance away from the river, which could provide enough room to build a suitable structure, assuming they cleared away the few trees that inhabited the clearing.

Or they could use the trees as some sort of living roof, and build the rest of their shelter around it. There wasn't any government-specified building guidelines to follow line in Equestria, so they really could just do whatever they wanted.

Collapse kept what Magloria had said in mind. Perhaps she had misjudged the Jungle after all, Collapse comes from an arid desert town by the name of Dodge Junction. So many probably don't even know of that place on the map anyways. Thinking back, she can remember how there would be no rain for months, and no break in the clouds either. When it did rain though, the results were quite spectacular.

Looking at the place they had found Collapse thought this looked decent all things considered. She looked at the trees and figured that using them to their advantage would be good. Besides, they could always chop down other trees and use the ones here for a good shelter.

"Looks good, if you'd want to settle down here I wouldn't object. I have a few ideas as for how we'd go about this place. Use the trees for a roof, and cut some others to build various walls, as well as their leaves and branches. Perhaps we should start building here, or somewhere while we have the time." Collapse suggested.

Magloria stopped, turning to the clearing. "Over there? Hmm... Yes, it probably could do. Might have a bit of trouble with the bugs before we've built anything decent, but it looks well concealed from most things." she said, marching towards the clearing to give it a better inspection.

The place was big enough for a cabin, plus some things outside and around it. The thick jungle trees almost completely surrounded it, except for a thinner bit which they could see the river from. If more space was needed, they could simply cut away some of the trees.

Magloria took out the axe. "I suggest we build something small at first, so we have suitable shelter before we get properly started. A dense cover of branches and leaves propped up against a tree in the middle could work as a sort of den, and should be easy to set up. "We'll need a couple big branches and plenty of smaller ones."

Collapse agreed with Magloria and proceeded to gather branches and leaves into a pile by the trees here. When she needed to, she would cut some branches with her mushroom axe and seemed to mostly focus on the larger branches. It would likely take a bit for her to fully gather a few large big branches, that'd give the others the time they needed to gather more of what they wanted to get.

If nothing of interest had happened during the gathering process, once they had what they wanted Collapse would proceed in constructing a den with a tree in the center. With the large branches leaned up against the tree in an intercrossing manner with the various other branches all in between. She'd take her leaves and cover the branches as best as possible, leaving an opening in the 'front' of the den.

The size of it however, she let Magloria choose how big the shelter would be.

Magloria and Jump Start both split off from Collapse, intending to gather resources from different parts of the clearing. Since Collapse had taken the axe, Magloria decided on slicing off smaller branches from the various trees with her shortsword, leaving the larger ones alone as she couldn't cut through them without dulling her blade.

Jump Start took a completely different approach. Since she had no magic, she charged at trees before taking a leap at them, reaching up with her forehooves around low branches and pulling. The result most of the time was a branch torn straight off from the trunk of the tree, and other times Jump Start simply... fell back down with a thump.

When they returned, bringing their various resources with them, and put them to use, the result was what looked like a teepee, except with the tree in the center, supporting the larger branches, which let the smaller branches settle around forming a leafy covering. There was enough room inside that all 3 of them could comfortably sleep separate if they wanted, and there even was new petals for bedding

The whole thing took them several hours of gathering materials, and by now it was in the afternoon.

"Well, now what should we do?" Jump Start asked.

Now that they had made the teepee around the tree Collapse had stepped back to take in what they had just built. It looked more homey than a cave for sure. Collapse squeed edge to edge of her face and raised her hoof in the air. "We did it!" she jumped in place in excitement. Her tail wags a little bit too. Nothing felt better than successfully completing a project. To stand back and look at what you just made and call it a good day's work - there wasn't much better than that.

"We can continue exploring around for the rest of the day and come back here by nightfall. I reckon we should make a proper fire pit though, since this is where we'll be staying for a while. But we can do that later." she suggested to Magloria and Jump Start. Might as well take advantage of the day they have. The new pedals would have to wait for later. You sleep at night, so you can have the best sleep when your actually worn out from the day.

"I think it's a good idea to search a little bit further up the river. That way we can know if there is anything there that we should worry about, either because of what they are or what it's doing to the water we'll be drinking." Magloria stated, before marking a circle on the ground with the flat of her shortsword's blade, indicating where their fire pit would be when they came back.

She began leaving their camp to do exactly what she just explained. "You don't really have to come if you don't want to, and prefer to do work around here, but it's likely still the best idea to stay in a group." she said in a casual manner while looking behind herself at the others.

Jump Start would've liked to search for some rocks to line the fire pit with, but she also didn't want to be alone at the camp. She then realized that rocks could be found by the river with dirt usually being washed away, and she could just carry them back.

After putting whatever food she had in her saddlebags inside their new home, she began to follow Magloria again.

Collapse follows after Magloria. She had no intentions at staying at the camp because of her suggestion, not only that, she wanted them to stay together either way. "Good call, we don't want to be drinking any tainted water. Either way, I had planned on boiling it." she suggested as they proceed forward along the river.

Her eyes and ears are kept open and her focus is high, just incase something sudden would happen. Collapse was mentally preparing herself for anything. Crocodiles, other snakes, felines, or other such things. Her mind was playing through various scenarios within her mind to keep her occupied along the way there. It was best to think ahead while one had a chance to do so, rather than act in the moment.

During her battle with the snake she didn't use her summoning ability. It *may* be possible to summon something inside of something, however she has never really tried that before. Perhaps if there is a threat that comes about, she could say, summon something inside of someone?

With that in mind she suddenly slammed her hoof into the ground to get a good clump of dirt, before it vanished in a gold flash. She smirks.

"Hopefully I won't have to test what is on my mind" she spoke, leaving it at that.

Magloria nodded. "Yes, of course we'd boil it just in case, but there are sometimes things that you can't boil out of drinking water. Plus, if it turns out it's clean enough anyway, we don't even have to waste the resources." she pointed out.

*Collapse came to a big realization. If she could summon something inside of someone, then someone could summon something inside of her, among other dangerous possibilities. Was she really willing to risk playing such a potentially deadly game? Maybe she should think about that for a bit.*

"What? Testing summoning and unsummoning... a ball of dirt? Are you going to throw it at someone?" Jump Start questioned.

Over the course of a couple hours, they didn't find very many interesting things outside of the usual critters, snakes and other stuff in the trees. At one point they attracted another copycat parrot, who got annoying after Jump Start tried to make it say something stupid, but it stayed silent, making her look the fool.

A part of the river was larger and slower, almost like a lake but not quite the same. There beyond that they saw what looked like a small outpost of sorts, where water was bled off in another direction. On top of the outpost were those felines, either working, guarding or generally being lazy and bored, as cats sometimes were.

If it was possible for Collapse to summon something inside of someone but it was also possible for that to happen vice versa. However weighing the risks of that she didn't even try to summon an item inside of an inanimate object. She'll have to study that more before attempting to use it in combat. It is true though that none of those they have met so far seemed to even be capable of it. Still was something she'll have to think about more.

Looking to Jump Start she simply shrugged, not willing to get into that at the moment. It may sound stupid to someone else, after all.

Throughout their walk there Collapse had taken sighting of the various critters and snakes along the way there. The parrot made her laugh in a friendly manner at Jump Start's attempt to make it say something stupid. Smart bird.

Upon seeing the outpost Collapse had sighed upon seeing it. She was nervous about those felines, but they were likely far enough away from the other outpost to where a tree randomly catching fire at the other town wouldn't mean anything to them if they had known.

"Perhaps we should attempt to talk to these ones...?" Collapse suggested nervously.

Magloria quirked her eyebrow, wondering what exactly it was that Collapse hoped to achieve by talking to the felines. "We could attempt to do something like that, but it depends on what you want to say to them, and how you want to go about it." she pointed to the outpost.

It looked like a stumpy wooden tower with a slightly slanted, build right next to the river and surrounded by a stone foundation. A couple low walls branched out from it's sides, their purpose unknown, as they weren't enough to form any sort of full defense around something.

Some parts of the wooden frame and walls looked heavily scratched, as if hundreds of claws had sunk into them in all places. The only one that seemed to be on watch was a calm grey one, just laying down at the top of the tower and lazily flicking it's tail against the side of the building.

If they were to approach directly from the river, the felines on guard would easily spot them, and then who knows what they'd do.

Collapse looks to Magloria. "The only thing that crosses my mind at the moment is finding out what they know, and where we are in relation to everything else. A map of the wider area. Perhaps we could even find a better place of dwelling and building our ship for the long term. I'd want us to appear in a non-threatening manner, since we don't want to make enemies here" Collapse suggested, but seeming unsure.

Looking out at the way everything was constructed it felt unusual to see things constructed in this manner. The claw marks on the wood was of concerning nature. "If anything happens to where we get into conflict with them and they actually see us, they will spread word about it. Unlike with the feline town, they never actually saw us but here, if anything happens...they would see us, and our shelter is down the river so, hmm..." she ponders, weighing her options.

"What do you think, of our options here?" she asked Jump Start, wanting to see what she thinks.