You feel weightless and distorted for a moment, but stumble out of the portal, standing there a moment to regain your balance. You shake your head, as if to clear it, and take your first real look around. Pinetrees. That's the first thing you see, and, as you look around, you realise that it's just about the only thing you see. Wonderful. These are the perfect conditions to get lost nice and easy.

You sigh and start walking. You walk. And walk. And finally get bored of walking and start to jog instead. This seems to go on for forever when you see a shadow pass overhead. You glance up, but nearly run into a tree when taking your eyes from the path you are creating. You slow your pace, hearing a thud. Slowly, you make your way forward. You trip over a root and let out a shout as you fall.

Pushing yourself up on your hands you look up, seeing a pair of fierce eyes, a sharp beak. You yell and fall back, the stern looking griffin watching you quietly, unmoving. You gawk when seeing the figure behind the creature, face turning into an angry sneer when seeing Vaprrenon standing behind the beast, hands on her hips.

"Well," she says, "Come on, now. Fisher only wanted to see if you were alright after that spill of yours! Now, come on. There are a few other cyber pets around here who are all looking forward to meeting their guest! They don't get too many people coming through here...they keep going around in circles and give up on finding the residents..." She shrugs, offering you a hand. "Come on, then, Fisher will tell the others that you are here to visit."

You sigh and follow Vaprrenon when she turns and hurries off. You already know that you can't afford to loose her in this place. Everything looked the same--you'd never find your way out again! You hear howls rising up from what seems to be nowhere. In this place, the sounds echo through the trees so horribly that you can not even tell from which direction they are coming from. You run faster to keep up with Vaprrenon. You are already too far behind for your liking.

The howls grow louder, echoing every once in a while from a new direction of the woods, or so you assume by their volume. It is like they are coming from everywhere at once. Everything: sights and sounds, are blending in this place. It is really starting to creep you out a bit...more than a bit, but at least you have Vaprrenon at your side now to guide you.

You hear a twig snap nearby and spin around quickly at the sound to see what creature might have sneaked up on you. You blink, seeing green and grey at first, the colors a blur. You find yourself face-to-face with a strange...wolf. It appears like any other of its species, save for the strange green coloring clearly showing in its fur along its back, neck, and tail. The canine looks up, and you turn about to see Vaprrenon grinning, leaning against a tree nearby, quite relaxed and looking amused at your reaction.

"I see you've found Boyo, or should I say that Boyo found you, huh? He's a wolf from Corroded Psyche, and was presented as a special Saint Patrick's Day gift to those of us belonging to the CCF. He's a curious little boy, don't mind him if he trails around with us. The rest of his pack should be around here somewhere, but he tends to wander off every now and again."

You are surprised at the mentioning of a wolf pack wandering around these parts, but if the other pack members are as nice as this Boyo wolf seems to be, then you will be eager to meet them all. You glance behind as you and Vaprrenon start to walk off again. Boyo is following behind, wagging his raised tail a bit as he watches you in return. You smile.

"Just this way!" Vaprrenon calls after a shrill birdlike shriek rings through the trees. "Fisher says he's found his younger brother and he'd like you to meet him. They're landing up ahead, shouldn't be long now." You blink, not having realised until that moment that Fisher had suddenly disappeared. You shake your head, as if to clear it. You should pay more attention to things.

You blink, seeing a yellow, red, and green colored creature jump down from the tree. It is about half the size of Fisher, though he looks just as fierce when looking to you, probably moreso, but the odd santa hat upon his head offsets his look of danger a bit. You blink, looking to Vaprrenon for an explaination of this new creature.

"This is Santa Talons, Fisher's younger brother. He was a Christmas gift to the CCF members a long, long while back, and he's made his home here ever since I adopted him." The strange griffin nods slightly and flaps large, holiday-themed wings. He shakes his large mane, and you keep your laughter inside as you watch the strange Christmas ornament-like things about his neck jingle when he does so. What a strange griffin.

You bow to the creature slightly, not wanting to upset the fierce looking beast, but when you look back up, you see that the creature is not even looking in your drection, much less directly at you! You straighten yourself so you don't look so foolish, and watch as Fisher stands. You blink, watching the two griffins turns and start off into the trees.

"Sorry about that," Vaprrenon says with a 'please forgive them' shrug. "They're more or less the, um, the kind who like their solitude. They only greet visitors for a short while, barely more than introducing themselves, and then they run off again. I've tried to convince them to stick around a bit longer, but they don't seem to like that idea too much. Sorry again."

You smile and shrug, asking about the wolf pack she mentioned earlier. If there would be no griffins, at least you still had other creatures to meet in this forest. Things were not a total loss that way, after all! You give the ishna creature a smile.

She nodds. "Oh, yes. One of them is nearby, actually; she's the alpha female, Boyo's mate, here. She's right over there." She points into the trees, but you see nothing. "She's a little shy right now, though. Oh, here she comes..." Vaprrenon smiles and calls Boyo over, whispering in his ear. The canine nodds slightly and runs off.

Vaprrenon whistles, seeming to be trying to coax something forward now. You watch, standing still as you see a gray wolf emerge from the many trees. You swallow and it paws forward causiously, wandering near Vaprrenon, sticking close.

The ishna squats down and pets the canine, looking up at you. "This is Soul Skies. She was a custom gift to me, isn't she adorable? Sh'es very shy at first, but very very friendly and affectionate once she gets to know you. She's just like a puppy to ya at that point!" Vaprrenon scratches behind Soul Skies' erect ears and the wolf seems to go into a trance, thumping her back paw on the ground with pleasure. You laugh to see her little antics.

"I sent Boyo off to get another pack member," Vaprrenon explains to you as she continues petting the wolf by her side. "He should be back with him in only a minute." Vaprrenon smiles happily over to you and pats Soul Skies' on her head, standing back up. You wince when hearing something crack. You assume it's Vaprrenon...her legs, back, something...you don't like the sound of it, but Vaprrenon doesn't seem to notice.