Follow Adeline

"Okay Adeline, I'm coming with you" - Finn said, after much thinking of his choice. All of his friends were surprised, for picking Adeline as his search partner, when they met fairly recently, and even she was surprised, but mostly happy.

"Alright, let's go then... I'm sure we will find her in no time" - Adeline replied, with a big grin, as she got to go with Finn alone, through the left path, where they started walking after the friend group separated, and Zoey went to the right path, with Lilith, and Itzel.

After Finn and Adeline started walking through the forest, he began to regret his choice a little, because he was curious to know what happened with the kiss Lilith had given him, just a couple days ago. He realized it was a good chance to talk to her about it, since they could walk alone, and have plenty of time to discuss their awkward kiss, but then he tried to ignore it, because the whole situation with her was just that, awkward. He still wanted her to be his friend, and didn't see her as anything more than that, his cute catgirl friend, so he decided to move on, and instead talk with Adeline.

"So tell me, how does this tracker of yours work?" - Finn asked Adeline, while fidgeting the device, without knowing anything about what he was doing. At one point, he felt like her tracker was just a lie, so he wanted to prove if choosing Adeline, to find Katsumi's sister, was an actual good idea.

"Well, I have analyzed Katsumi's dna by pulling a small strand of hair and with that I can get the necessary information for this device to locate their species in a nearby area..." - Adeline replied, with a casual smile, but while Finn understood most of it, he wasn't sure if such technology existed ,as he had never seen something like that before, so he got a little skeptical.

"Here, let me show you..." - Adeline said playfully, as she noticed Finn's confused expression, and after making a gesture, for him to come closer, she activated her tracker, to start analyzing the area.

"So, as you can see, right now it is searching for any type of creature, material or whatever I order it to do... So for example, we can search for some... umm, let me see... exotic plants... There, now it should be able to locate rare plants or trees around this area..." - Adeline explained, as she held her tracking device, with Finn staring at it very closely.

"Woah..." - Finn awed, as he saw the tracking device displaying a lot of pulsating circles, and making some strange noises, before a big red dot appeared in the middle of the screen.

"See?... I think we found something... it should be around here somewhere..." - Adeline asked enthusiastically, as she was entertained by showing her devices to Finn, who seemed very impressed, and amazed by such technology. But after locating a rare plant, he quickly looked around the area, and was able to find a few purplish colored leaves, with a weird texture, that he picked up from curiosity.

"What is this?" - Finn asked, as he held the rare leaves to get a closer look. And after his question, Adeline quickly searched for the available information about these leaves, and shortly after, was able to give an answer.

"Let me see... I think those are Rouse leaves... they are commonly found in forests and underground caves and they are used for the enhancement of mating between different species if I'm not mistaken... So I guess these are used so different animals are able to breed, maybe they use it in farms..." - Adeline replied, with certain curiosity, as she had rarely seen the Rouse leaves before, so she was almost as clueless as Finn, when it came to these special types of leaves, that apparently were very useful for breeding animals, or other non human species.

"Hmmm... I see... very interesting... I guess they could be useful in the future..." - Finn said thoughtfully, before grabbing the leaves, and storing them in his backpack. And after not much hesitation, they decided to continue walking, after Adeline laughing a bit, from Finn casually grabbing some strange leaves like nothing.

Adeline and Finn spent a long time walking together, and not much talking, and while they used their tracker during the entire time, it was useless, as it didn't find any type of foxgirl around the area. They even got to a point, where they considered the possibility of Katsumi's sister not being a foxgirl, but before all hope was gone, finally a big red dot appeared on the screen of the device, and they both got excited.

It was moving though, quite slowly, but the creature seemed like it was very near. So after a suspenseful moment, Finn decided to jump out of a corner, right where the path ended, with the hopes of finding Katsumi's sister. But instead, he was surprised to see that it was just his friends that took the right path, and ended up in the same spot as them. He got disappointed, but laughed a little, after seeing the reaction of his friends, that he scared with his jump.

"Oh hey Finn... don't scare us like that, we thought you might be the girl that we've been looking for but I'm glad is just you" - Zoey said, with a playful smile, that made Finn smile awkwardly, as he could tell that his girlfriend really wanted to kiss hi, or hug him in that moment. She was about to, but then Finn noticed that Faranne, and Katsumi, were right behind Adeline, and Itzel, and they seemed a little odd.

"So you two had a talk... I'm guessing everything went well..." - Finn said, with a suspicious tone right, as he stared at Faranne, who seemed very comfortable walking with a stranger, which was rare, but good to see.

"Yep, everything is okay... it was just a small talk to get to know her a little bit, you know..." - Faranne replied playfully, which made Finn more suspicious, specially because Katsumi was acting very shy next to her, and he worried something might have happened to her with Faranne. But he just assumed she was getting worried about her sister again, so to cheer her up, Finn decided to continue with the search, now that the whole group was together again.

"So we all just ended up back together?" - Finn asked, while he looked around the area, to see if he was anywhere familiar. He noticed that they were in an even darker part of the forest, so they probably had to be more careful now.

"I guess so, but that's good... We can all search together and it will greatly increase our chances of finding Katsumi's sister" - Adeline replied, with her casual manner, even though she knew they were in a more dangerous zone of the forest. Finn got a little confused by her statement, as before they determined that searching in small groups was better. But after seeing that there was only one path from now, their only option was going together, although he couldn't continue searching quite yet, because Faranne had something to say.

"Wait a minute, young man... Why did you think splitting up in the middle of this forest was the best idea?" - Faranne asked, with a somewhat menacing tone, that got Finn very nervous almost instantly. He knew he had messed up, and that this could happen, so he tried to justify his actions.

"I-I didn't kno- I'm sorr-..." - Finn tried to explain himself, but after realizing that wouldn't help his case, he decided to apologize, but he failed at both things ,because he was so nervous, he could only stutter. He felt like everyone was staring at him, and he was about to get lectured very hard by Faranne, but shortly after, she did something he wasn't expecting at all.

"It was stupid and you could've gotten everyone killed, specially Lilith... So from now on you'll come with me, and I'll make sure you don't split up from the group ever again..." - Faranne replied, with an exaggerated upset tone, that got Finn scared even more, but then she turned a little playful, as she tried holding his laugh, and act convincing, when she was only messing with Finn. He couldn't notice she was joking though, until she all of a sudden grabbed his hand, and pulled him closer to her, to then keep him at his side, like a mother would do with his child, when they walked together outside.

Finn instantly turned his scared expression, to an embarrassed one, as Faranne held his hand in front of all of his friends. It was even worse, because everyone laughed, but after accepting the shame of being humiliated in front of everyone, he tried to ignore it, and realized Faranne did it with kindness, and a good intention, as she smiled at him, and kept him at his side, before they started to walk. He quickly got used to walking with Faranne like a kid, specially because the forest was getting creepier and creepier, the longer they walked, and he was grateful for having Faranne protecting him like his mother, like she did most of the time anyway, but this time felt extra special, after knowing they both loved each other in many ways, including sexual (specially sexual).

The group continued walking deeper into the woods, they had been walking, for at least two hours at this point, and some were getting bored, like Itzel, or Katsumi, who were scared of the forest, for different reasons, with the latter being afraid, that it was too late to save her sister, that she was never going to find her, that she was lost forever in these woods, and that she was going to have to spend the rest of her life without her. Then there was Lilith, and Adeline, who were enjoying a lot being outdoors, and exploring the forest, even when it was starting to get darker, and scarier.

Zoey was probably the one that was enjoying the search the least, out of all of them, since she could only walk at the back, and stare at Faranne, who was walking together with Finn, just like she was doing with him when they started the search. She got a little jealous, from not being able to hold his hand, and she couldn't wait for Faranne to let him go, so she could get her boyfriend's attention, and affection once again.

But since the search was leading nowhere, and Finn didn't seem to be too focused on finding Katsumi's sister anymore, since he could only enjoy Faranne's warm touch, as she held his hand, Katsumi decided to wait no more, and just start calling for her sister. Even when they told her it wasn't a good idea to scream in the forest, as it could attract all sorts of dangerous creatures, she did it anyway.

"Sayuri!! Sayuri!! Where are you??!! Please come out sister! I'm here!!... Sayuri!! Come out!!" - Katsumi yelled in all directions, to call for her sister, but was quickly shut up by Faranne, who turned around immediately, when she heard the foxgirl screaming in the middle of the forest.

"Hey, what did I tell you... you can't scream in the forest or else monsters will come out and eat us all!!" - Faranne exclaimed, slightly infuriated, as she covered Katsumi's mouth, so she could stop screaming. Everyone got nervous, as a tense moment was created, it felt like at any moment, goblins, or even worse, monsters could come out of the trees, and attack them. But before anyone could freak out, or think they were going to die, Finn stepped in, and defused the situation.

"Hey! Calm down!... Everybody, if any monsters do come out from these trees I will make sure I kill every single one of them!!" - Finn exclaimed, with a fearless tone, in a heroic action, that made everyone feel safe, from the confidence of his voice. There was a long silence, where everyone just stared at Finn, before they all cheered for him, even Faranne, who felt a little bad for shutting up Katsumi.

"Yeah!! That's right... we can fight any monsters we encounter so don't worry!!" - Zoey exclaimed, with the same heroic tone, as she stood next to Finn, before they exchanged stares, and smiled at each other, when they stood side by side.

Now that everyone was motivated to search in the forest, Katsumi felt overwhelmed by the support of her new friends, but mainly impressed by Finn's bravery. She stared at him for a few seconds, and admired his heroic pose, as he stood in front of everyone, to lead them in the search, but as she was distracted, she didn't notice at first ,Lilith asking her a question.

"How did you say your sister was named?" - Lilith asked, with her usual curious tone, which after being completely zoned out, by admiring Finn's fearless attitude, it got Katsumi back to reality, before she replied to Lilith's question.

"Sayuri... her name is Sayuri" - Katsumi replied, slightly nervous, before she witnessed how everyone started calling her sister's name. She never imagined she would find herself in a situation like this, but she was happy she wasn't alone, so she joined them, and started yelling Sayuri's name ,to finally find her sister.

After a couple minutes of walking around, and calling for Sayuri to come out of the woods, the group seemed to be fearless, just like Finn, as they didn't care about any monsters attacking them from the trees. They kept that attitude until shortly after, when they started hearing a lot of noise around them, which caused them to get in a defensive position, as Faranne ordered them to do, in case they were going to get attacked by forest monsters.

"Do you think it is one of those goblins from before??" - Zoey asked, while looking around the trees, and being cautious, for the apparently imminent attack.

"I don't know... but if they are, they can bring it and I will kick their asses" - Finn replied, without a single sign of fear in his voice, as he smiled with confidence, in the wait of an attack. But as he, and the entire group, seemed to be prepared for an attack, the sounds surrounding them became louder, and the supposed threat was getting near, although one of them didn't think there was an actual threat.

"Wait!! That could be my sister!!" - Katsumi exclaimed with excitement, as she thought her sister could be the one making the sounds around them. But as Faranne wanted to protect everyone, she tried to order her not to move.

"No, we are not sure yet... we have to wait an-" - Faranne replied, as she tried to warn Katsumi from the threats of the forest, but before she could finish, the foxgirl didn't want to listen, and was already running towards the sound. The entire group panicked, when they realized Katsumi was running away, so they all chased after her, and hoped she wouldn't be attacked, but they were surprised to see what happened next...