Sparrow followed Tony through the trees, using her dagger as a form of light so she could see where she was going. It wasn't much, but it helped all the same.

"Where are we going today?" Sparrow asked, curious despite the fear gnawing at her stomach. Tony glanced back at her, a small smile on his face. "I  figured I'd take you into a safer part of the forest." He said. Sparrow let out a breath. "Does that mean I won't get attacked by some mutant crossbreed?"

Tony laughed. "No, you'll still be attacked. Just not as viciously."

"Oh, how comforting." Sparrow said sarcastically, holding her dagger out a little farther. She didn't want to show she was nervous, but if she was being honest with herself and Tony, she was terrified.

Sparrow heard a crack and jumped a foot in the air. Tony spun around, sword held at the ready. "What is it, Stripes?" He asked. Sparrow shivered slightly as she noticed marks in the ground, marks that she could easily identify.

Paw prints.

They were leading into a bush, and the bush was quivering. "Oh crap," Tony whispered, walking slowly up to the bush with his sword held as far in front of him as it would go.

"Tony, please be careful!" Sparrow squeaked as Tony prepared to poke the bush. He glanced over his shoulder and shot her a nervous little grin. "I'll be fine, Stripes. Survived once, haven't I?"

Tony poked the bush and something happened that neither of them had been expecting.

The bush said "Ow!"

"Okay, who the hell is hiding in there?" Tony asked, letting his sword arm relax and allowing an annoyed look to come over his face. Sparrow slowly padded up to him as a head poked out of a bush, the head of a lion.

"Holy crap, Shikira!" Sparrow snapped, her voice thick with annoyance. The lion grinned-at least that's what it looked like-and sat down on the ground. He licked a paw and drew it over his ear before proceeding to speak. "Sorry, my dear Ancients." He purred. "I was only doing as I was asked."

Sparrow narrowed her eyes coldly. "What were you asked?"

Shikira turned his eyes on Sparrow. "Ah, Sparrow, so nice to see you up, walking, and risking your neck again!" He said, a note of sarcasm hidden in his silky growl. Sparrow sighed. "C'mon, Shikira, spit it out!" She demanded. "Spit what out? I have nothing to spit out!"

Tony let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright, Sir Slick, whatever you say. Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be moving on." He said, spinning around.

Sparrow followed his lead, not sure who she preferred, the monsters or Shikira. Truthfully, she would prefer the monsters, at least they were more predictable than the lion.

Sparrow heard Shikira follow them and she spun around heatedly. "Okay, dude," she began. "Could you please make up your mind? Are you coming with us or not? And if you are, we'll do the talking."

She turned around to roll her eyes at Tony, but she found that he had a small smile in his face. When she tilted her head in a questioning way, he shook his head and looked down, so his hair covered the look on his face. Sparrow watched his body shake with laughter for a moment before he looked up, his eyes sparkling with what Sparrow thought were tears...happy ones, of course.

"That's my girl, Stripes." He said with a grin. "That's my girl."

Shikira cleared his throat. "I'd hate to ruin this beautiful moment," he said silkily, "but I do feel that I should give you a response."

"And why would I want a response from you?" Sparrow hissed. Shikira suddenly became stern, his eyes narrowing. "I'd watch that sharp tongue if I were you, child." He warned, his voice dangerously quiet. "I have connections with people that matter...people that owe me a favor." He added, showing his teeth.

Sparrow sneered at him. "Whatever," she said, "just move your furry lion's a-"

Tony threw his hand over Sparrow's mouth before she could let out a string of cuss words that would certainly put her in a bad situation. As Sparrow processed what she had been about to say, a horrible thought occurred to her.

Oh my God, I'm turning into Marley.

Shikira grinned again. "Let's walk, child, before you land yourself in a bad situation."

Tony started off into the forest again, his seasoned green eyes scanning the trees and bushes, waiting for something to jump out and attack them. Sparrow wished she had the experience to do this as well, but she didn't. When it came to keeping watch, she was as helpless and a blind person.

"So, Ancient..." Shikira said slowly, his dark eyes scanning the trees as well. "I've never really thought to ask...how do you feel about our world?"

Sparrow shot him a sideways glance. "I love it." She said simply. Shikira twitched his whiskers. "Yes, that's rather obvious," he said, "but why do you love it? By your standards, wouldn't you consider this world rather dangerous?"

Sparrow laughed bitterly. "Maybe a long time ago, but after being stabbed to death and coming back from the dead, nothing scares me much anymore."

Shikira stopped, staring at Sparrow, who stopped as well. "Nothing scares you anymore?" He asked. Sparrow bit her lip. "Well...so,e things do scare me. Just not as much as they used to."

Shikira narrowed his eyes. "So what would you say still scares you?"

Sparrow shrugged. "The Trackers...being controlled...myself." She paused and threw her hands over her mouth, stunned by what she had just said.

Shikira nodded slowly. "I know what you mean, child. Sometimes we can scare ourselves. Sometimes we do things that we never imagined that we could do. Your views on this will change, I'm sure. But you can never tell. We think we know ourselves, but the truth is we don't. There are some secrets that even we don't know about ourselves, for they are buried so deep that they can be impossible to find. If we do find them, though, we are usually scared of them. They are new, they are something we don't know about. The only reason we can ever fear ourselves is because we are living with the unknown."

Sparrow stared at him, her eyes wide. "That was pretty freaking deep." She said after a moment. Shikira did his lionish grin again. "Well I would prefer to be called deep rather than shallow."