She finds signs of a struggle…

It wasn’t hard to find some of the paths Bone had taken to and from camp. Gouge marks in the ground where he had dragged in some of the heavier pieces, snapped branches, trampled grass… the pirate clearly had no intention of being stealthy. Johanna traced Bone’s routes for a good half-hour before eventually finding what she was looking for, or, more specifically, exactly what she wasn’t looking for: blood.

Upon seeing the crimson liquid splashed against the nearby leaves and flowers, Johanna immediately tensed up. There was no way to tell whether or not the blood belonged to Bone, but the fact that there was any blood here at all hinted at danger. As Johanna began to investigate the scene, she optimistically hoped that Bone had simply found a rabbit or some other small creature and had somehow caught and killed it for food, but if that was the case, wouldn’t he have returned to camp? Maybe he had failed to catch the creature, it had bloodied him somewhat before escaping, and Bone followed it deeper into the jungle in pursuit?

Johanna shook her head. She was being unrealistic. The amount of blood splattered against the greenery and soaked into the ground suggested a serious wound, and the way the earth was disturbed hinted at some sort of struggle. Worse, the trail utterly stopped here. Johanna backtracked a bit, then returned to the site of the bloodstains, investigated some more, and was utterly stumped. Bone had definitely come here, where he was probably attacked, but… then what? Where had he gone? Who, or what, had attacked him? The two hadn’t seen any signs of intelligent life during their short stay on the island so far, but they hadn’t seen much in the way of animal life either.

Suddenly, Johanna realized that if she no longer had a trail she could follow on the ground, then it must mean… yep. She looked up, and saw broken branches and even a scrap of cloth, likely from Bone’s pants. Whatever had attacked Bone clearly had overpowered him and taken him up, rather than simply away. Johanna doubted she would be able to navigate the treetops as well as whatever creature or person she was now tracking, but now that she knew where to look, it wasn’t hard to follow. Johanna proceeded carefully, suddenly very aware that this island was not, in fact, the paradisaical haven she had mistaken it for. Danger was very real, and she would have to play her cards right if she wanted to find Bone without sharing in his fate…