{SCE} So, the Black and White Striped Thing is Bad, Right?

[Nico Martell]

Nico hadn't meant to encounter any wildlife, even if he was stuck in the woods. Yes, he figured that he was probably going to run into some of the unavoidable pests: bugs and stuff like that. You couldn't avoid that if you stepped into the woods. But he hadn't been expecting to run into anything else.

All he'd wanted to do was gather some wood. That was it. It was part of his "job" that they'd assigned to various students upon their arrival to this wonderful little trip. Collect firewood for tonight's supper. Simple enough. He even had an armload already.

Then he'd picked up a log and uncovered some ticked off creature. He wasn't sure what it was, since nature had never been one of Nico's strong points. Based on his limited knowledge, which extended mostly to cartoons, it looked like a skunk. Black and white, about the right size, and ticked off.

Leaving Nico standing there, staring down the animal, trying to figure out if he should be moving or ducking or just keep standing there and hoping that someone who knew how to handle this sort of thing showed up. So far, he was defaulting to the latter.