They all jumped. A loud, roaring yell, like a herd of raging mammoths, had suddenly burst from a patch of nearby forest. The pack of birds Elaine had been watching exploded up into the air, wings flapping like mad. The yell suddenly tapered away, leaving behind faint echoes reverberating around the landscape. Then, silence.
The flock of birds were coming closer. They could hear their disturbed chittering, faint but rapidly growing closer. Overhead they flew - the birds were mostly black, with green and brown splotches, about the size of an albatross. Later Guybrush would find himself oddly disappointed at how normal they looked. They showed no interest in these strange arrivals or their ship, and were soon mere specks.
Everyone waited about half a minute before daring to speak or move. Finally, when it became clear there wasn't going to be any more noise, Guybrush said, "What the hell was that?"
Elaine shook herself - her limbs felt shaky. "Don't ask me. Whatever it was, it sounded enormous." She didn't dare take her eyes off the forest, not with those black, hidden spaces that could house anything. She wished she'd brought her blaster - but it was back in her room. Safe, and useless.
Beside her, Guybrush was moving toward the steps. He started climbing down. Elaine stared after him with some horror - going down to the surface, after that sound? Then she shrugged her shoulders, and followed after.
Soon they were all on the ground. Guybrush knelt, and touched the ground. He stood up. "Ah, this is more like it," he said. "Have any idea what that was, Wally?"
Wally looked at one of his pieces of equipment. "Whatever it was, it got to a peak of 124 dB. Audio scanner placed the source as being about six hundred metres away."
Guybrush whistled. "Wow! That's some animal." He paused for a little, thinking. "Okay. Here's what I think we should do. Let's all split up and explore."
Elaine whirled around. Wally's head jerked up.
"What?" yelled Elaine. "Split up... after that sound. Are you mad?" Her eyebrows suddenly narrowed. "Or have you got something else in mind?"
"No, nothing else," said Guybrush easily. "I just thought that we're going to be stuck with each other for some time to come. We could probably do with some time alone. Don't want anyone getting cabin fever on my ship. Look, I'm not stupid. We all heard where that sound came from, so we just stay away from there. We can't hang around here like a couple of scared puppies."
"You can say what you want," said Elaine. "I'm not heading into that forest on my own. And unarmed." She glared suspiciously at Guybrush.
"Well, get your blaster," said Guybrush.
Wally suddenly piped up. "I'll come with you, Governor!"
"See?" said Guybrush. "Take Wally if you want. It'll be like a date."
Wally's eyes lit up. "A date! Yeah!"
Elaine ignored this. "What are you planning?" she said.
Guybrush. "Nothing, I said. Look, I can't stand around debating this all day. See you back here in three hours." He turned and walked to the forest. Within seconds he was out of sight.
Elaine watched him go. She didn't believe his talk for a second... Guybrush was definitely planning something. Maybe he intended to leave her stranded here. Still, he surely didn't plan to leave Wally behind as well - if she stayed with him she should be okay.
Elaine turned to Wally. "All right, let's go," she said, starting toward another part of the forest.
Wally beamed - an expression that spoke volumes. He fell in step proudly beside her. "Is this really a date?" he asked, stealing a glance up at her face.
Elaine sighed. "Looks that way, doesn't it?" she said.