Isabel Albright moved through the jungle like… Well, like a teenage girl who was trying to move like a soldier. But even as she moved, she was keenly aware that her motions were awkward and jerky, and her feet never seemed to come down in the right place. Oh, and also, her mom's borrowed sneakers were just a hair too small for her so her feet pinched. But the only other option was to go barefoot or in flip-flops, and no, thank you, leaving her feet unprotected on a trek through a jungle just didn't sound like any kind of fun at all.

"Bend your knees a bit more," Mom's voice from next to her almost made Isabel jump, but she managed to keep her cool. She glanced over to see Mom looking at her, dark eyes sweeping her up and down, judging. But in a good way. Sorta.

"Like this?" Bel asked, bending her knees as she moved.

"Better. Take smaller steps, too. It gives you more control."

Isabel shifted her pace, and blinked as things felt like they slid into place just a bit better.

"Thanks," she said. "I guess you learned this stuff in boot camp, huh?"

Mom snorted and adjusted the way her rifle hung on its strap. "No, most of what we learned in Basic was push-ups and how to work as a team. The important stuff came later, once you got with your team and your first Sergeant taught you how to not act like a Boot."

Isabel nodded slowly, watching Mom walk and trying to adjust her own gait to mirror it. "I guess I never really thought about how tough things were for you when you started. You just always seemed like this big larger-than-life soldier woman, and I guess I just thought you started out like that."

Mom snorted. "Hardly, mija. I could fill books with the mistakes I made. But I learned from them. The same thing will happen to you. To all of us," she added, bringing their conversation out to encompass the other two girls with them.

Isabel glanced at them. At her sister, and at Dinah. Who, she realized, was basically her sister now as well. Mom and Dad seemed to have made that leap pretty easily. Lucas too. And, well, Olivia had always treated the other girl like part of the family.

Guess it was time she joined in, huh?

"Okay," Olivia said, clapping her hands together–well, clapping one hand against the wood of her new staff, because she had apparently decided that she was never going to let go of the thing no matter what happened. "Everyone feel that?"

Everyone paused. They'd been walking for only around ten minutes, moving away from the home clearing at a fairly slow pace. To conserve energy and keep attention focused, Mom had said. But Isabel had a feeling it was also because, as much as the past week had toughened them all up, they were still suburbanites who suddenly had to step into the too-small shoes of guerilla monster fighters.

"What am I supposed to be feeling right now?" Isabel asked after a second.

"I think I got it," Dinah said, frowning. "It feels kinda like how it gets before a thunderstorm. Things are charged up in the air, like we're waiting for something to happen."

"Yes!" Olivia jabbed a confirming finger at her friend. "Exactly that! I think we just moved out of the boundaries of our current territory. Or maybe there's some extra kind of effect that drops off the farther you get," she added, frowning. "I'm not sure. The scrolls are kinda unspecific. But never mind, Mom, try to claim this territory for us."

Mom shrugged and raised one hand, like she'd done back in the battle against the bugs. Golden light pulsed around her hand…

And then died. There came a loud squawk from somewhere off to the right, and everyone turned to see a big red bird the size of a walrus stalk out of the jungle on two legs. It looked like an ostrich that had binged on cheetos and cookies for the last three years. It waddle-stalked up to Mom, who just held out her hand to accept the scroll. The fatstritch eyed her for a moment, then almost grudgingly lifted a wing and flopped a rather crusty-looking scroll into it, then turned and waddled back into the jungle. Mom watched it go with a raised eyebrow, then looked down at the scroll.

"It says we haven't explored enough of this territory to be able to claim it," she told Olivia. "Well, I tell a lie. It says something about battery acid and hairdriers, but I'm pretty sure that's what it's telling me."

"Darn," Olivia snapped her fingers. "I was hoping that wasn't the case. But of course, there'd have to be a mechanic to keep people from just claiming territory willy-nilly. Hoolio, map."

"Hoo," the weird little owl pulled a larger scroll out from somewhere and handed to Liv. Isabel turned away and directed her gaze towards the jungle around them, totally not feeling a little jealous of how her little sister got such a cute little animal sidekick.

"Man, I wish this was more accurate," Isabel heard Olivia say. "It's just a bunch of blobs and unexplored space. I mean, if it even showed borders, that would help some. I swear, this stupid world gets more frustrating every day."

"Try Coinin' it," Dinah said.

Everyone stopped and looked at the girl.

"What?" said Olivia, blinking.

"I mean, c'mon. Everything here runs on coins. So try coinin' it. Take one'a your coins and slap it against the map an' see what happens."

Isabel fought to keep a smirk off of her face at the expression on Liv's. Sometimes her little sister could get way too focused on a thing, and totally forget about stuff that should be obvious. Not that she could talk, of course. She hadn't had the idea about coins either.

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Isabel turned back to watching the jungle as Liv grumbled under her breath and started messing with the map. The jungle was a riot of color that should have made her eyes bleed, but somehow managed to blend and meld together into a complete picture that was mostly just annoying to look at and not, y'know, sanity killing. The plants and trees were every shade of blues and purples and greens and even an orange here and there. It looked about as realistic as a watercolor Disney background. But it was how this world worked, apparently. There was probably even a reason all the plants were not-green. Maybe they used something other than Chlorophyll, or whatever the chemical was called back on earth.

Too bad I'm not a Botanist. I bet I could have a field day with all this stuff.

"Okay, so, that worked," Olivia said sheepishly. Isabel turned back to see her sister holding up the map for them all to see. And this time, while most of the island was still blacked out and indistinguishable, there were definitely some areas right near the home clearing that were now outlined. The map was laid out in hexagonal areas, like some old-school military strategy game or something.

The Home Clearing was easily identified. It was colored in and detailed; Isabel could see little intricate depictions of Billy The Tree and the rubble piles, and it was also glowing slightly and had a golden border around its hex. Around the Home clearing were four hexes that were grayed out, one that was fully colored in, and one that was half-colored.

The path they'd taken back to the Dilligaf and the part of the beach where the boat was resting was the colored and filled in one, and there was even a little representation of the Dilligaf in it. Both those hexes and the grayed out hexes had black borders around them. After a second's thought, Isabel figured that the golden border probably meant 'claimed territory', while a black border meant 'unclaimed.'

The map only showed the hexes immediately around the home clearing. Everything else was blacked out, not even the shape of the island was visible.

"Well, that's going to make things a little easier," Mom said, coming forward to take a closer look at the map. "It even shows which hex we're currently in. Do we all have access to this? Isabel, try pulling out a map for yourself."

Isabel blinked, then shrugged and tried to pull a map from the Somewhere. Her hand came up empty. She waggled her fingers to show that nothing had happened, then stopped at a soft cough from behind her. She turned, and saw one of those monkey-squirrel things hanging from a blue treelimb just a few feet away. It gave her a shy wave with one hand, then offered her a scroll with the other.

"I am never going to get used to this. Thank you," she said, taking the scroll. Then, after a moment's hesitation, she reached into her fanny pack and pulled out a half-eaten granola bar, unwrapped it, and offered a piece to the monkey. It blinked at her, then swung forward, grabbed the bar, and chomped down on the piece. Then it gave her what she interpreted as a shy grin before vaulting back up and disappearing into the canopy.

Isabel shrugged and unrolled the scroll, and sure enough it was a map. A static map, however, without the hexes and the golden glow, just a slightly blurry rendition of what Olivia's map showed. Right, because she hadn't Coined it yet.

"Looks like we can all get one," she said, holding it up for the others to see. "Better let Dad and Luc know. That'll come in handy for them."

"We gotta remember to go back and start claiming the territories we've already explored, too," Liv said, rolling her scroll up and handing it back to Hoolio, who made it disappear with an expert flourish. "If what Tori said is right, then more territory means more coins generated for us, and that means we can power more stuff and get more stuff done."

Liv kept talking, but Isabel stopped listening as something made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. She turned, eyes narrowing, and looked out into the jungle. What was…

The feeling came again, and this time she looked down at the 'swords' in her hands. They were really just two feet of wickedly serrated citin that had begun their lives as the stabbing proboscis on the Mosquitos From Hell that had tried to kill her and her family a couple days ago. She'd wrapped some stuff around them to make a good handle, but they were still just basically horns she'd ripped off an enemy and was now using as her own weapon.

And the one in her left hand twitched.

A week ago, Isabel Albright would have shrieked like a cheerleader on helium and dropped the thing like a molten spud. But now, after a week in Fantasy Land, she instead tightened her grip and brought her eyes up again, really leaning into the feeling that was coming from the mosquito-sword.

"Guys," she said, and was amazed that her quiet voice cut through the chatter like a knife. "I think something's coming."

Instantly all talk ceased. Dinah and Mom brought up their guns and started scanning the jungle. Olivia put both hands on her staff and took a wide stance, turning slowly, eyes searching.

"What do you see, Bel?" Mom asked in her Soldier voice.

"Nothing. But my swords are twitching. And my instincts are telling me that they're doing that because something's coming." she raised her blades and started turning in a slow circle, until the feeling got stronger. "That way," she pointed in a northerly direction, the same direction they'd been walking away from the camp. "I don't know what it is, or if it's friendly or not, but there's definitely a thing that way. And I think it's getting closer."

It was a testament to how weird the previous few days had been that no one questioned her. No one even brought up how weird it was that she could apparently use the noses of dead enemies as divining rods for potential enemies.

Mom pulled the radio from her belt and rattled off a fast report to Dad back at the camp, then replaced it and nodded at Isabel. "You're on point, Bel. The rest of you, spread out and stay low. Do not fire until we know what we're facing, but be ready for a fight."

"I am totally ready for a fight," Liv said, grinning huge and hefting her staff.

"Do you think it's coming after us, or just walking towards us?" Dinah asked, her rifle against her shoulder and tracking around.

"Beats the heck out of me," Bel shrugged, moving forward so she was in front of the rest of them. She could see the flicker in Mom's eyes that said Mom didn't like it, but Isabel was the melee fighter here, and if something turned into a scrap, she was gonna be the best one to take the enemy's charge first. Then the rest of them could back her up with their firearms and, er, fireballs. "Do we move forward Mom?"

"Si," Mom said after a second's hesitation. "We are here to explore, and we knew this might happen. Stay alert, stay sharp, and let's see what we may find."

The others nodded, and Isabel started moving forward. A part of her marveled that suddenly her feet didn't hurt anymore and she was moving so much easier through the jungle. Apparently all she'd needed was adrenaline, mix well, and administer intravenously.

Quiet and competent, Isabel led the others deeper into the jungle.

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