Opal is a bit carried away with himself.

The voices get closer and then farther and then closer, and by the time he's really, really far away from the trail, they're right past that bush - 

Then a clearing, and they dart around him in a circle, and then vanish into silence.

Malen is still shouting for him, but her voice is faded and distant.

And there's something glinting dully in the corner of Malen's eye.

She trips, skins her knee and scrapes her palms again and just. Sits back and grumbles, then glances over at the glinty thing.

It's... not like the birds. A bit like the minnows, though. A thick cord of muscle gilded in black scale.

That's pretty!

Opal had the stick, so she watches it with her head tilted while she waits for her hands and knees to stop stinging so badly. She then gets up and walks over to it.

The scaled think looks at her, before letting out a long, rattling hiss, it's thin, forked tongue shaking in the air.

Cool! She hasn't seen any animals other than the birds and minnows.

"Hi! What're you?" she asks, not being able to recall the thing's name immediately. "You're pretty." And she crouches down in front of it, trying to get a closer look at the scales.

Like a fork of lightning, it strikes, biting girl on the hand.

Ow! Mean, bitey land minnow!

She screams, loud and high-pitched, and falls back.

The land minnow slithers away into the undergrowth.

A few seconds later, Opal wanders back, worried. "Malen?"

Whimpering, sweating, breathing harshly, and in general not doing very well at all. She doesn't react to his approach.

These... do not seem like things that should be happening. He shakes her side gently. "Malen? Why are you all wet? Were you in a stream?"

Gasp and a sobbing cry.

Hug. "Do--do you need fruit?"

She keeps crying. Eventually, she starts getting quieter, having more trouble breathing.

Opal somehow isn't reassured. Some muddled knowledge drives him to try compressing her chest.

Not helping!

He then tries lifting her to her feet. Maybe one of the girls will know what to do.

She flops and is in general dead weight.

Before he gets her very far, she shudders and then stops breathing.

Mouth to mouth is a thing he sort of knows!

She's still.

And then her skin becomes sort of faded and papery and starts to slowly turn to dust.

A scream! Almost as loud and high pitched as the one that brought him here!

She continues crumbling, until her ashen flesh flakes off leaving only cold white. Like the rock arrangements from before. The bones fall to the ground, and flowers almost immediately sprout to twine around them, a riot of reds and oranges and peachy pinks.