Private In Pursuit of Pursuit

Three times now. That was how many times Alby had caught a shifty figure heading into the woods. The first time he’d headed in there talking to someone on a phone and then came back out about two hours later with a large black bag. Alby found it odd and showed up the next day, with the exact same situation occurring. Then a third time happened the day after that. Now he was sitting by the lake, pretending to look through notes in his book as he awaited the fourth. And sure enough, the man appeared, dressed in some weird green suit with fairly heavy duty boots.

This time was going to be different though. This time he brought a bit of camouflage with him and fully intended to follow the man. After all, the last time something like this happened, he’d ended up coming across a secret academy that the island had long forgotten. It wasn’t entirely impossible for something else crazy to follow suit this time.

He strapped a mask made of leaves to his face and pulled the hood up on a dark green hoodie, then headed out to pursue the mystery man in the woods. He didn’t, however, make sure that nobody else was around before doing so.

@GrimRPer

Alby followed the man for a while, doing his best not to fall behind while also keeping out of the man’s notice. Finally, the figure came to a halt, looking at something on the ground.

Alby needed to get a better look, so he carefully made his way closer until he was several meters away. He found a nice spot between two close trees and watched through his not so expertly crafted leaf mask.

Tuning out all of his surroundings, Alby watched intently as the man tapped his foot down on the ground and the jaws of a plant lifted up to grab it. Alby was fairly certain that it was a bear trap plant. That was the only one he knew to live in the woods. Though he didn’t think they were all that common outside the forbidden forest.

Alby continued to watch as the man carefully dig the plant out of the ground and placed it inside a bag he’d brought with him. Then the man took out a phone and appeared to be texting someone.

Alby considered going to get even closer and attempt to see the phone itself, but a brief consideration of the idea led to him deciding against it. He remained where he was for the next couple minutes as nothing was happening, until the man put his phone away, lifted the bag, and headed on through the woods.

Alby stumbled a little before following after, seemingly unnoticed.

Alby snuck through the woods carefully, still keeping his attention on the man rather than anything or anybody that might have been nearby.

Alby started falling behind as the brush started getting to be too much for him to quickly get around quietly. But before he could lose the man entirely, the man stopped and began to examine something on one of the trees far up ahead. With a sigh, Alby finally started to catch back up to the man.

For once, he looked back. Trying to see how far in he must’ve been. It wasn’t exactly clear just from looking, but at the very least he had brought a compass with him so he’d be fine if he did get lost.

He still hadn’t even noticed Bastet.

Alby finally managed to catch up to the man after scrambling through the brush as quietly as he could without moving too slowly. When he finally did get near, he tripped on a root, falling on his face and creating a loud crunching noise as some dead branches broke his fall. He stayed down for a minute or so before actually looking up, making sure to keep still and hope his crude camouflage would keep himself hidden.

When he did slowly move his head up to see the man, it seemed he had heard the sound but had no clue where it came from. He wasn't even looking in the right direction, though he did seem startled and looked around cautiously. Alby stayed put, despite how uncomfortable it was, for a long while after this before the man finally shook it off and moved on, leaving Alby to sigh and lay there on the pile of branches feeling like a dunce.