---

The night had already made itself comfortable by the time Myen had arrived at the home of Loz and Herman. Next to a wide, shallow creek, several huts were built like sort of swinging tree houses suspended as high as five feet above the ground. Ropes hung from the doorways of the higher houses to help the residents pull themselves up to the entrance. In the middle of all the huts was the community firepit, In it was most of the crew's clothing and bedding. The only things spared from the blaze was Topaz's curtain, which she had wrapped around her as she sat infront of the fire on a log, and her footlocker containing her photography equipment, which rested at her feet. On the opposite side of the fire were 8 of the villages residents, all huddled next to each other, each of them staring at Topaz. She had very little else to do so for the past hour and a half she simply stared back.

Valk's only activity was trying not to fall asleep, because he recently received a authentic halfsquatch concussion in exchange for swinging his sledgehammer at Loz. He had even less to look at than Topaz, as he was hung upside down and hog-tied around a tree. His hammer was propped up next to him, and he had tried for a few moments to reach it and free himself before realizing that even if he managed to get a grip on it, hammers dont cut ropes.

"Hello my friends!" Loz half-yelled in a booming voice which scared nearly everybody, including Horman.

"Hey Topaz. You okay?" Myen asked as he exited the woods and entered the clearing of the camp.

"Where's Taint?" she asked, knowing that if he was nearby things could only get worse.

"He stayed back at the plane, I think." Myen answered.

"He did not follow." Loz said. "I cannot smell our jerky."

"Oh no, they took the jerky?" Valk asked. Nobody heard him.

"How have they adapted to the village?" Loz asked."Our new friends don't seem to be very receptive to our kindness, Friendmaster Loz." one of the men said. He had two silver streaks running on either side of his matted beard.

"Every time we go near the one with the hammer he calls us names. I don't think he wants to be our friend." another man with a thin beard and dead leaves in his hair mentioned.

"Nonsense, he has been declared a friend, so he is one. He has no choice in this." Loz spoke.

"Fuck that." Valk said. Nobody heard him.

"What do we do with her?" Horman asked, pointing at Topaz.

"Well, I dont know. This is the first time a girl has been declared a friend. I'm kind of confused on what to do." Loz said as he rubbed his chin. "I don't think girls play cards."

"They don't." said leaves-in-hair.

"I saw one that played pool once." said silver-streaks.

"Then I declare a pool table!" Loz shouted, sticking out his chest. Nobody moved or said anything for almost a whole minute.

"Friendmaster Loz, I don't think you can declare objects." another man brought to everyone's attention. He had the largest prospector beard Myen had ever seen.

"Nonsense. Of course I can." Loz said, keeping his chest out.

"Well, you can, I guess, if we found one."

"Good point. We need to find a pool table."

"You people don't even know what the hell you're talking about." Topaz said as she stood up, grabbed her footlocker, and walked in to the lowest hanging hut she could find.

"Donnelson, I think she just took your hut." Loz said.

"Yeah. She did." said prospector beard. "She can have it though, the imps keep getting in it."

"Imps?" Myen asked.

"DIRT IMPS!" Loz yelled. "We hate them! Filthy things, you can't kill them by stomping on them!"

"They just turn into a dust cloud and ten minutes later they settle down and spring back to life!" Horman followed.

"The best we can do is punt them into the stream, but then you just have little mud pies crawling up the shore the next day! Can't burn them either!" Donnelson finished.

It was at this moment Myen noticed Valk, hog tied upside down to a tree. "Hey, is he okay?" he asked.

"I think so. He's been pretty angry though, I don't know why. We just left him tied up there." Loz replied.

"Valk, if I untie you are you going to cause trouble?" Myen asked as he approached Valk.

"Hell yes." Was his answer.

"Well don't, they're our friends, remember?"

"Fuck that. Friends don't dish out concussions."

"Does that mean you have one or you're going to give them concussions?"

"Well I meant the first thing but the second is also true."

Myen leaned next to Valk's head and whispered "Listen, chill out. Give me like half an hour, we'll be out of here without any bad noise." in to his ear.

"Fuck that, I'm breaking their arms." Valk said, not in a whisper.

"Man just shut up. Jeez." Myen said before pulling out his pocket knife and cutting Valk's ropes.

He hit the dirt with a thud, sat up, and tried taking a swing at Myen's knees before giving up and grabbing his sledge. He rested it on his shoulder and sat quietly, flashing the meanest look he can manage at Loz. It would have been mean enough for most men to get the idea, but sasquatches operate on a whole other plane of meanness. Being a halfsquatch, Loz's perception of mean was well beyond that of a fullblooded human.

"I'm going to go talk to Topaz." Myen said, walking towards the hut she had entered. On the way a brown, five inch-high creature began attacking his leg. "What the hell?" he said as the little guy started beating on his ankle.

"Just give it a kick towards the stream, try aiming for the big rock. Should be a few more getting out in about 15 minutes from now, we use that one to keep time." Loz said. Myen gave it a kick and bounced it off the rock Loz mentioned, its form splitting in half and landing in the water with a pair of neat "ploip" sounds.

Myen entered the hut to find Topaz curled up in a hammock, covered up with her curtain. "When these guys go to sleep, we're leaving." She said.

"But they're our FRIENDS, Topaz!" Myen said.

"Fuck you." she said before turning herself over and facing the wall. Myen chuckled and headed for the door.

"Okay guys, I'm assuming you just shit in the woods?" Myen said out loud to everyone by the campfire.

"Other side of the stream." everyone said in unison as Loz began dealing out poker hands to his friends from a very old and ratty deck of cards. Myen crossed the stream and left the glow of the campfire, snapped a long stick off a tree and began smacking some shrubs with it. Eventually one tried smacking him back, so he pulled out his pocket knife and cut it off by the stem.

---