Adrian took one last glance at the cliff. The last figure had also disappeared. The storm clouds still had not dissipated and she heard a slight rumble from above. Not the best place to be in a storm. Adrian thought as she made her way to some lower branches. Suddenly something caught her eye. Two figures were moving down the river, right towards her village. As they drew closer Adrian saw that one looked like her but was not an auran. Must be a human. She decided after some thought. She'd heard about the pitifully weak creatures in old stories.

The other figure was the same shape, but seemed to be covered in metal. A human and a robot. Interesting. Adrian climbed a bit lower until she could catch the conversation. She found it to be not unlike her own language, though spoken a bit faster and with a few strange words she'd never heard before.

"So the surveillance camera is working right?" The robot said.

"Just a little further." The human, visibly female, replied.

They don't seem hostile. Adrian climbed to the lowest branches, still undetected by the two below.

"Ria? Are you out here?" Suddenly Ren stepped through the bushes from the village to practically run into the two travelers. The robot lifted his arm as Ren stumbled back. Adrian launched herself from the tree to land, though not completely comfortably without shoes, on the ground between Ren and the robot.

The only one not surprised by Adrian's sudden appearance was Adrian herself. Ren completed his fall to the ground with a yelp and the robot fired something out of its arm. Adrian drew Lightbringer on one swift motion and deflected the blast into a nearby tree.

The robot moved to defend the woman behind him and for a few seconds the two stared at each other, waiting to see if the other would attack. Thunder crashed above their heads and the sky seemed to rip open. Rain fell from the sky to drench the group.

"Listen, sorry about that. I'll but away my blaster if you put away the sword." The robot finally said.

Adrian decided that a "blaster" must be the thing he had fired earlier and relaxed a little. She dropped the point of her sword and he slowly withdrew the blaster.

"Who are you?" The woman asked from behind the robot.

Adrian resheathed her sword. "Are your motives hostile?"

"No. We're just a little lost." The robot said. "And wet."

"My name's Adrian." She said. She glanced back but Ren had already disappeared, probably to get Ragon.

"Well I'm Draco and this is Alicia Gold." The robot, Draco, said.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're not sure." Alicia said. "One minute we were in a factory, the next we were in a forest."

"So you're new to Zolott?"

"Zolott?"

"I guess so." Adrian looked the two over. Suddenly a strange whirring noise reached her ears over the pounding rain.

Alicia looked at something she was holding. "Hey Draco, it looks like we have ADUs."

"Dang it." Draco said. "On top of everything else."