A bounty posted outside the Jungle of Fools

Markus' shoulders slump. "Why me?" Markus raises his right hand and draws back the hammer. "Sit." He fires a resounding shot, aiming towards the charging creature's leg to drop it before it reaches him. "I have a monkey and a kid to skin alive."

The boar falls onto its front legs, releasing an ear-piercing squeal. The ape from up above in the canopy tenses, and then turns, fleeing as fast as it can. All is silent for a moment.. then the ground rumbles.

"What the hell is wrong with this jungle? Are all the beasts within one square kilometer of me?" He reloads his right gun, then draws and reloads his left gun. The first bullet he load in the left gun is a white tipped bullet which glints in the sun. He raises both arms and points them in opposite directions, preparing for the worst.

A massive red lizard, nearly 20 feet long, and 5 wide, comes skittering across the ground with surprising agility. It's hard to tell whether its weaving its way through the jungle, or if the jungle itself is parting itself for it. It pauses about 100 yards from Markus, sniffing the ground, and tilting its head, as if in search of something.

Markus watches the lizard closely, crouching down and slowly backing behind a tree, still keeping his eyes on the lizard. "I would presume this may be that 'dragon' the notice board was talking about." He takes another glance at the downed boar to make sure it stays down, then back to the lizard.

As the large horned lizard leers closer, keeping its nose on the ground, Markus can make out more of its details. Fukuda's dragon has a glowing red hide with multiple pointed spines along its back. As it leaves its mouth hanging open a moment, three rows of razor sharp teeth, also apparent. It resembles the cloak Mrs. Fukuda wears, but its hide is a darker shade of red, and its considerably larger.

"Hm. This must be the male counterpart." Markus peers further around his tree cover, looking where the giant lizard is sniffing intently. "What are you searching for?" Markus slowly walks from behind his cover, trying to look both nonthreatening and not delicious, trying to get closer to the lizard and it's searching spot.

The meditating man opens his eyes up very slightly and gazes at the elusive golden ferret. He slows his breathing down to nearly dangerous levels and watches the golden ferret with great intensity. When he believes the creature is at its least wary he attempts to catch it in a single gentle swoop of his arm.

The golden ferret moves at nearly blinding speed from the man's grasp. It hovers near the edge of the mans reach, as if to taunt him.

The massive horned lizard raises its great head, and fixes its eyes on Markus, the spines on its back bristling, and reaching nearly six feet into the air. It exhales steam slowly, looking ready to charge.

"Shit, it isn't a gentle giant." Markus levels his four shot at the beast, and readies to pull the trigger. Behind his back, he loads a white-tipped bullet into his ten-shot. "Time for a spotlight."

The great lizard tenses for a moment, before charging forward at a speed surprisingly fast for its size.

Markus grins under his mask. He pulls the trigger of his ten shot, which causes a bright flash of light to erupt from behind him, blinding anything that had the misfortune of looking towards him, but leaving himself unscathed. Presuming the lizard has been blinded, he dashes to the right, firing another shot at a nearby tree. The bullet impacts and explodes, leaving a large cleft removed from the tree. He rushes behind the tree and kicks it as hard as he can, and it begins to fall in the direction of the lizard's path.

The man's face grows red in frustration as the golden ferret taunts him and his hands begin to grow unsteady before he catches himself and starts to slow down his breathing. His heart rate drops to a few beats a minute and his body grows cold. After but a few minutes the man is like an inanimate object. He slowly and delicately retrieves some food from his bag and places it into his hand before resuming his statue-like trance.

The lizard continues to charge towards Markus despite being blinded, and when the tree falls, it begins to growl and thrash, threatening to wriggle out or break the tree in but a few seconds.

The golden ferret slowly approaches the man, its tail waggling, drawing ever closer, until it reaches its nose to tentatively sniff the food.

Taking this momentary restraint, Markus pulls out his Thompson G2 and levels the barrel at the lizard's head. "Die," is all he says as he pulls the trigger. A loud explosion reverberates from the barrel as a large projectile rockets towards the giant lizard. The bullet is shaped and threaded like a drill bit, and it spins with great ferocity- a bullet designed to puncture thick steel or heavy armour.

The man maintains his coma-like state yet aware of the ferret's hesitant approach his heart beats faster than he anticipated. Nevertheless he tries to calm himself yet stay ready to grasp the ferret should it enter his palm.

The bullet drills into the head of the great creature, and it roars in pain, rearing back, and attempting to turn tail and flee.

The ferret is precious moments from being in the palm of the meditating man, until a rustling in the bush causes it to flee with supernatural speed, a voice follows, "Aye, damnit! And I had just found it again too..," says a shaking young man, holding a double barreled shotgun.

The meditating monk's serene almost deathly face suddenly flushes bright red and he pounces upon the young man. He aggressively whispers "You idiot... you complete and utter buffoon. Right, when I was seconds away from grasping the fastest animal in the jungle you stumbled out like a blind oaf and scared it a-away! Aghhhh!". The monk hyperventilates a little before sitting down cross-legged and staring daggers at the young man. "Maduku-sensei will never let me live this down. If I don't return to the monastery by sundown with a live golden ferret then he'll exile me to live amongst your kind! You spiritually unenlightened dimwit!" he rants neurotically.

Markus watches the lizard turn tail, not wanting to waste effort and risk potential injury going after it. He looks around the jungle, trying to determine if that strange ape is still about, "Hey! Monkey! Better not try any more shit, or I'll give you a nice big hole in the brain!" He then stalks off through the jungle, trying to track down his quarry.

The shaking and starving boy grits his teeth, and yells, "The hell do I care about your monastery? And don't bother luring it with food, I tried that," he says as he grips his stomach, and points to the monk's palm, "So uh, you gonna eat that?" he asks.

"It was working you... ugh might as well. I've already eaten my fill for the day." the monk moans in resignation. He rifles through a hidden suspended sack and pulls out some natto for the young man to eat. He scoops it into a small austere wooden bowl. The natto gives off a rancid sour smell that the young man can register from several feet away. "Enjoy." the monk hollowly mutters.

The man dives forward, and begins swallowing the food alarmingly fast. He pauses and hiccups, panting, before turning to the monk, "Don't bother trying to trick it, I don't know how it does this, but it doesn't matter how quickly you reach for it. It's like its always a step ahead of you," he says. Then he blinks, and continues, "You uh.. you happen to know the way out of here?"

"Ugh, yes yes I do. Any fool with a basic knowledge of the celestial bodies could maintain knowledge of their position. Of course, I only know the way back to the monastery. If you want to go elsewhere I'm afraid I can't really oblige." the monk condescendingly states. He lifts a clump of sticky natto and shovels it into his mouth. "Mmmm, to think such traditional Japanese cuisine still exists in this otherwise dark and perilous world. And yes, the ferret is faster than humans. That's why I relied not on speed but reflex. I let it come to me then I seize it. That or I just don't try and kill it." the monk arrogantly touts while eyeing the young man's gun.

"W-what I mean to say is, its never where you think it is, and I just need help getting out of this forest.." he stammers.

Markus resumes his cutting through the jungle brush. He closes his eyes and focuses. His ears twitch, as he can hear faint murmurs in the distance of conversation. "Who's out there?" He begins heading towards the voices. Reaching the edges of the area, he peers out from some leaves and sees the monk and a boy with a double barrel shotgun. "Kichi!"