Chapter 8: Councils of War

[Solomoriah]

"It's true, we really don't know where we are; but we can easily escape a U-boat just by flying inland," said the Captain. "But you make a good point, Mister Mansel... what the devil are those two up to anyway? Leftenant, go down and check on them. Tell them we're shoving off as soon as they're aboard."

[crazycrypt]

"Yes sir," and with that Tommy will head up stairs to the ladder in order to see what is taking them so long. When he gets to the ladder, if he doesn't run into them along the way, he till first look down to see if he can see anything climbing up the ladder.

[Solomoriah]

Tommy found the engineer, Green, still watching the forest below. Upon being asked by Tommy, he replied, "Haven't seen anyone since you came up. I did think I heard some voices below, in the trees, but I couldn't make them out well enough to know if they were natives or our boys."

Tommy saw no sign of them below either.

[rredmond]

Will looks around, shrugs, and follows Tommy off to descend the ladder again. "Might as well see this out to the end, if it wasn't for that damn flappy ladder..."

[Solomoriah]

In the interest of moving things along, I'll assume that Mansel descended the ladder as ordered by the Captain, despite cc's instructions ending at looking down it.

Tommy and Will went directly into the village as soon as they reached the ground. The only natives they saw outside the huts were those warriors on guard duty around the perimeter.

...

Simon Lars came to his senses suddenly, his head and neck aching fiercely. The moon had moved on a bit, and the clearing was almost entirely dark, but he was pretty sure he knew which way to go to return to the village.

[Hywaywolf]

Simon stands unsteadily and gently touches the back of his head. Blood on his fingers. His eyes have some difficulty focusing on his bloody fingers and his head is spinning. The trees around him seem to wobble as he starts to step slowly forward in the direction he believes the village lies. Without realizing it, his steps take him more to the right than straight forward and he slowly but surely begins moving deeper into the forest.

[Solomoriah]

Simon quickly realized he must be lost... it was taking too long to get back to the village. But then he found himself on the river bank. Uncertain whether to go left or right, he stood a moment in the moonlight, considering.

Then he saw, on the other side of the river, a limping figure. It was hard to tell for sure in the moonlight, but Simon didn't think the man was a native. The river between them was perhaps sixty or seventy yards across, and seemed to be moving relatively slowly.

[Hywaywolf]

Simon will follow on this side of the river, staying in the shadows until the moon goes behind some clouds or the man moves away from the river. Then he will try to swim across without being seen. Since I am unarmed and have a splitting headache I will just try to follow from a distance for awhile

[Solomoriah]

The man on the other side of the river was moving downstream. Simon followed for quite a distance, but unfortunately, it seemed the night was fated to be clear. As he walked along, Simon commenced to feel somewhat better.

Then, suddenly, the man across the river stopped. Simon froze in place and wondered if he had been seen. After a few moments, the other man walked up to the river's edge and jumped in, and with strong strokes he began swimming toward Simon's side of the river. Simon saw that the man would arrive a dozen or so yards downstream of his position.

[Hywaywolf]

Simon looks around on the other side of the river to see what startled the man. He suspects that the man has spotted natives and is trying to avoid them. If I see nothing I will look around on my side to see if he is swimming over because he saw some of his friends on my side of the river. Thinking that I shrink more into the shadows.

If I see nothing i will move closer to where he will come out of the water where I will hide in the shadows. When the man comes out of the water I will wait to see what he does before acting.