"žJust a smell nothing that could harm me." Mike tried to convince herself while the raptor-girl fought against her urge to run away. But it was so strong, and grew even stronger the closer the creature, the source of this stench, came. She opened her eyes to see the distance towards the creature but a veil of tears rendered everything blurry so that Mike couldn't.
Suddenly the stench grew stronger by the second, so strong that it overwhelmed every clear thought of Mike. Her strong sense of smell, usually her best help while hunting, turned now against her, sending daggers of pain towards her brain and stopping every clear thought. Her instincts took over and the raptor-girl sprung to her legs and darted away. Mike didn't even bother in which direction her legs took her, she just wanted to get away from this stench.
Cecilia was running a second scan on the liquid that covered the head of this new creature and caused the scent that drove tears in the eyes of Hawkins and Jen and was apparently strong enough to disable Mike with her more sensible nose. Luckily for her she could disable her own sense of smell if one could still call it this way. It was made mostly from sulfur-containing methyl and butyl thiols. Her databases suggested this mixture would be close to the fluid a skunk used as a means of self-defense. But the concentration and strength where to high, this couldn't be the right solution.
"What the hell is wrong with this smell?" Jen asked. Good thing she hadn't eaten recently. Well at least physically. Otherwise, the demon-girl suspected, she would throw up by now.
Then, the wind changed and the four members of the group found themselves downwind and the stench became even stronger. "Pfft typical, as if breathing wasn't hard enough already." Jen remarked sarcastically. But suddenly Mike, who went to the ground thanks to the stench, jumped up and darted away, away from the stench and unfortunately also in the opposite direction of where the town was located.
The demon-girl didn't even bother to think of possible consequences, she gave a single view in the direction where the town was located and then sprinted after the raptor-girl.
Hawkins saw both girls darting away. He just knew that this would lead to further trouble and decided to follow both of 'em. Yet he had the feeling that following this alien was important and ever since the sun changed him those feelings seem to come true almost always.
"Cecilia, follow this life-form, find out if there are more of them. But don't try anything that gets you in trouble. We meet back at the hotel, I'll follow those two."
And with those words he was off, chasing both Mike and Jen. He knew that he had no true chance to keep up with the raptor-girl. But to his surprise he couldn't even keep up with Jen despite the fact that he was sporty. Soon he lost both out of his sight and had to follow their tracks in order to find both girls.
Jen wasn't exactly sure how far she followed Mike out in the barrens. But after what she thought must have been almost a mile, maybe even one and a half mile where the raptor-girl where always barely in sight between these strange crystals she lost her in an area where there were so many crystals that the demon-girl had to think of a crystalline forest. Luckily Mike's claws left deep marks in the dry earth Jen could follow and half a mile later she found Mike leaning on a crystal and gathering her breath. Though, unlike Jen whose heavy breathing was caused by her burning lungs, in Mikes case it was caused by the pain she could still feel.
"Are you nuts?" Jen started scolding the raptor-girl between heavy breaths. "Running of like this to nowhere. What if you ran into more of those things?"
But Mike didn't even seem to recognize Jen in the moment. All that came from her was a shot "Huh?" Jen stepped closer towards Mike, close enough that she could feel that the raptor-girl was still caught up in her instincts. But at least she started coming back, past her instincts.
"Come on," Jen pated Mike on her shoulder "lets head back towards the others. I'm sure they're worried. And there are enough reasons to be, let's not add one more to the list."
Suddenly the girls felt the ground beneath their feet tremble.
Mike darted away when it broke up, while Jen only managed to scream. Mike almost managed to get away from the opening hole but was caught in the end. Both girls fell down into the hole, together with the crystal.
When Mike came back to her senses she found herself in some sort of small cavern. The air was full of dust that made it kind of hard to breathe. While the cavern was just a small one with around 11 yards diameter. But it was an impressive sight. Crystalline roots grew out of the celling while huge glowing mushrooms and mosses covered the ground and walls and provided enough light fore Mike to see. There was even a small stream of water coming from one wall, making its way through the cavern and disappearing inside the opposite wall. But Mike really had not much time to take in everything that was there to be seen since the familiar smell of blood caught the attention of the raptor-girl. Not far from here Jen lay on the ground, close to a really huge crystal. Mike quickly found the source of the smell when she saw blood on one of the sharp edges of the crystal and the left leg of Jens trouser cut open and trenched in the same blood. There was also blood running down her temple and she was out cold. A quick examination Mike performed on Jen's leg led her to the conclusion that the wound itself wasn't too serious. Given she was no doctor but her hunt's gave her at least some knowledge of wounds to come to this conclusion. (Though she usually inflicted the wounds, rather than trying to tend them.) She took Jens jumper, cut off part of her trouser with one of her sharp claws and bound it on Jen's leg to stop the bleeding. But Mike didn't knew enough about injuries to determine if the wound on Jen's head was serious or not.
Hawkins followed the tracks of both girls, a rather easy job thanks to Mike claw marks, till he came to some sort of crystalline forest. Not too deep into it the marks lead towards a huge hole in the ground. The agent lay down to the ground and then crouched slowly towards the edge of said hole, careful not to brake in himself. Down in the hole he saw some sort of cavern and in it the familiar forms of Mike and Jen. Though the demon-girl didn't seem to move.
"Mike, Jen" he called them "are you two alright?"
It was Mike who answered "I think I am. But Jen is seriously hurt and her leg and head."
"Is she in acute danger?"
"I I'm not sure." There was a short pause "She's breathing normally but she isn't conscious."
"Can you see a way to reach up here?"
"No, but there are various ways out of this cavern. Maybe one of them leads back to the surface though I can't smell any fresh air from any of them."
"No, try to stay where you are. I try to find a way to get both of you out of there. There is no telling if you find your way back here once you enter those tunnels or what dangers are in there."
