1.1.06-A star is (Re)Born
3/1/5/4353 M.A.C - Unidentified Forest- Early Afternoon
The midday sun shone brightly above the trees, but very few of its rays managed to pierce through the dense canopy. An owl was perched on a branch in a small pocket where the foliage was less dense, sleeping the day away and waiting for the sun to come down. Slowly the owl started loosening its grip, drooping forward until it laid flat on its belly and its weight was distributed precariously between multiple small and brittle branches.
My head hurts...I don't wanna go to lectures...Did Meg leave the curtains open when she left this morning?
The owl readjusted and a few branches gave off small cracking sounds as its weight shifted.
Oh wait last night was our end-of-semester party...no lectures today. I can just close the blinds and go back to sleep.
As the owl opened its eyes, it saw that all that stood between it and an 80-foot drop was a network of tiny branches that had already slowly started to give in.
What the hell!? Why am I in a tree? Shit the branches are cracking! I'm gonna fall! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!
One of the larger branches, on which a lot of the weight had been settled, gave way with a loud crack and the owl started plummeting toward the ground in a discombobulated flurry. Memories started flooding the owl's mind. The arduous training it had gone through to take its first flight, the first time it had soared above the canopy, and the first time it had successfully swooped down and caught its prey, all came back to its mind in flashes. With only a dozen or so feet remaining, the owl spread its wings and beat them down in graceful yet powerful strokes, arresting its descent and managing to land on its feet, unharmed.
What..the...hell..was..that..?
The owl stood on the forest floor with its eyes closed as the sound of its panicked heart and its ragged breath filled the small clearing in which it had landed. It remained like this for a few minutes until its heart settled and it once again opened its eyes. After giving the surrounding forest a quick scan, it looked down towards its feet.
Yep, those are definitely not human feet...kinda suspected something was up when flapping my arms stopped my fall...Can't complain too much though. At least I'm not a sword or a vending machine...I've read enough isekai light novels to know I'm either dreaming or was reincarnated. Although, if this is a dream, why am I a bird and not a dragon or something cool? Also, I'm sure my imagination wouldn't skip the trope where I meet with a deity and they give me a cheat skill. Heck, if this was a dream he would have been a hunk and I would have wished for him to be my guardian as my cheat skill like in that one trashy isekai anime. I'll assume this is real for now, maybe one of the prayers I made to the anime gods when I was a teenager was heard or something. So, what kind of bird did I become...
Emi looked down at her legs and could see two powerful feathered thighs that ended in sharp serrated talons. She then spread her wings wide and saw their span was larger than she was tall.
Maybe some sort of eagle? Don't know much about eagles but at least the dark brown feathers fit, not sure about the dark purplish tint on some of them though. Maybe the tail will give me more clues.
Emi spun her head 180 degrees and looked down at her majestically fluffy tail and her mouth hung open in shock.
A peacock!? Really?! At least brown and purple are less gaudy than the bright blues but....Wait...What did my head just do?
Emi started spinning her head around horizontally, testing her limits in each direction. After a few tests, she tried to swivel her head vertically and it didn't stop until it was nearly upside down.
Oooooh! I must be an owl! That's not too bad, that's like an eagle of the night. Weird ass tail for an owl, it almost looks like a harp or a lyre...Wait a second! A tail in the shape of a lyre? That reminds me of something. Let's check how lucky I got.
"Ahem, Ahem, testing. One, two, one, two. Sally sells seashells by the seashore. Polly wants a cracker!"
Yes! No cheat skills but at least I'm one of the varieties of birds that can make complex sounds. Need to work on the voice a little though... that really didn't sound like me. Can I push it further?
Suddenly Emi stopped speaking words and her mouth started letting out sounds that wouldn't have been out of place in a horror movie soundtrack. After a few attempts, the sounds she was making started shifting into clean musical tones reminiscent of a Violin.
Heh, even without hands or a violin I can still play Vivaldi! Oh crap! That's right I don't have hands..How am I gonna make a fire or build a shelter without hands? Hell, I can't even wipe...
If I rush and find a human settlement, I'll probably be captured and made into an exotic pet. Although, it might be safer than sticking it out by myself in the wild. I don't even know if I'm on Earth or in some fantasy world in the first place. Maybe I died and was just reincarnated as a bird somewhere on present-day Earth. If I'm in a fantasy world, there may even be monsters, or no humans at all.
Man, I'm more clueless in my situation than the majority of the isekai main characters from the stuff I read, except maybe the one with the spider in the labyrinth. Could have a worse start but can't get complacent. This isn't an anime and it doesn't look like I have any blessings or cheat skills from a god, so probably no plot armor either. First, I need to get accustomed to this body and find shelter, then I need to find food and water, the rest can wait.
*****
Flying is awesome but taking off or going up steeply is tiring as hell...I feel kind of bad though...I get to know how to fly right off the bat but the owl had to train and learn with a growing body...Actually...I don't feel guilty about it but rather annoyed on behalf of the owl...strange.
Emi had taken a few hours to move about and feel more at home in her new body, but thanks to the owl's memories, she now felt strangely at ease. By the time the sun was approaching the horizon, Emi had managed to make it to the top of the canopy by flying up to it and then climbing through the denser portions of the foliage using the powerful grip of her talons to secure herself to sturdy branches.
Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
Emi looked up to the darkening sky away from the setting sun and her eyes picked up a large shape flying down and swooping through a flock of tiny birds.
Holy shit! That thing is bigger than an ostrich!
Even with her newly improved vision, Emi couldn't make out all the details due to the distance, but some large eagle-like bird of prey was swooping through what appeared to be tiny songbirds in comparison. Only, after observing intently, she realized that the smaller birds were larger crow-like birds, and the predator was at least double the size of any eagle she had ever seen.
Yep, back down we go. That thing could eat me for breakfast, and be hungry again by lunch. My owl memories tell me the forest floor can be dangerous as well so... I guess I'll find a nice spot in a tree hollow or thick branches as a base for the time being. Let's keep the flying to below the canopy for now just in case. I'm not looking forward to my first meal though. No fire, tools, or hands means I'll have to feed the owl way for now, and judging by my memories...
Emi shuddered as she gripped the branch beneath her tightly. She had not followed a vegetarian diet, and being a half-Japanese girl raised in Tokyo, she was no stranger to eating raw protein, however, this was not going to be sashimi prepared by a skilled chef into bite-sized pieces of the most tender cuts. Emi had shuddered as her owl memories reminded her of how the ribcage of a rodent giving way under the pressure of her beak, and the foul explosion of flavor in the resulting bursting of its guts into her mouth felt like.
I wish I could be like a certain lion prince and not worry about it, but once I've assured my safety, fixing the food situation has to be my main priority. Can owls eat fruits and nuts? Let's search my memories for a bit.
***
Well, at least I don't think I'll have any appetite tonight.
After searching through her owl memories Emi had seen flashes of various dismembered and partially eaten lizards, smaller birds, rodents, insects, fish, and even the occasional bit of meat from large mammal carcasses that hadn't yet completely rotten. What she had not seen, however, were fruits, nuts, or vegetables.
Sure is useful to have learned from anime that if you do not let the blood out of your kill it will taste like shit, when I can't figure out how to start a fire to cook it in the first place. I can only use one talon at a time otherwise I fall over, so rubbing sticks or striking rocks together is gonna be hard, if not impossible. Don't have any glass either...Shit! Aside from a freak accident, like lightning hitting a tree, I can't figure out any way of getting fire. Still, between being an owl and the faint glow the mushrooms growing out of some of the trees were giving off, I should be all good for light even if most of the moonlight is blocked.
As Emi made her way through the canopy and continued thinking of a solution to her fire problem, she spotted a promising area where three thick branches split upward from the trunk of a large tree creating a small indented nook, a bit larger than her body.
This should be large enough and because it is kinda shaped like a bowl, I shouldn't fall if I turn in my sleep. Now I need to find a water source nearby, let's see if I can remember any.
Emi was puzzled when after a few minutes she realized something.
Dammit. It's one of those koala situations where I get most of my water from the stuff I eat, isn't it? Only this time it is not moisture from eucalyptus leaves but the fresh corpses of small animals...This sucks. I know I dreamed of an isekai adventure my whole life but I'm going to be living a barebones dangerous life without anything to look forward to. This is gonna be worse than when Dad made me join his recruits for an orienteering boot camp in the mountains.
"Whatever god or being out there did this, please send me back. Please send me back to my friends and family. I don't want to live out here on my own stuck like this. I know I wasn't the most amazing person in the world but... I was good enough. What did I do for you to decide I deserve this? Please.....send me home...I...I..."
Emi trailed off as she looked toward the sky beyond the canopy and nothing but the sounds of the forest answered her plea. She had dreamed of an adventure like the ones she had read in books and seen on screens her whole life, but as the reality of the situation hit home, a wave of sorrow washed over her. Her eyes started to moisten and her vision blurred as tears began falling down her feathery face.
Guess owls can cry...Sorry Dad, I don't think I can come back. Sorry Ben, I can't help you keep Meg under control anymore. Sorry Meg, I know how much me being your friend meant to you, but I hope you'll find some other girls who get along with you.
After crying silently for a few minutes while thinking back on the people she had left behind and the lonesome life awaiting her, Emi took refuge in the last thing she still had. She began mimicking a violin with her voice and made it play the melody that reflected her feelings the most accurately. The soft and melancholic sound of the violin spread throughout the canopy to the tune of "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables" as Emi tried to express her sadness in an attempt to get through it.
*thock**thock**thock**thock**thock**thock**thock**thock**thock*
Emi didn't notice it at first because she was focused on her performance, and the beating being in rhythm with the song made it feel almost natural. A little while after she had begun, the sound of two sticks hitting each other had joined in. Her song faltered as she looked up further into the canopy toward the source of the sound.
A white monkey?
As Emi's eyes settled on the monkey, she stopped her song altogether from the surprise of having an audience. As Emi blinked, the monkey in front of her seemed to suddenly disappear without any movement. After searching a bit more, she was able to make out the outline of the monkey in the shadows but his white fur now looked like dark green leaves. If not for the superb low-light vision she had recently gained, she would have been completely fooled. The monkey didn't seem aggressive, however, and just waited there with sticks in hand, observing.
He was in beat with the song...Let's try a different one and see if he can match it. A song about a monkey? Maybe a song from the Arctic Monkeys since he is a white monkey. Don't want to mess up so I'll stick with the violin voice for now, can't try out other instruments and fail now that we have an audience, can we?
Emi started singing a violin cover of one of Arctic Monkey's older songs where the singer complains about not being able to get a propeller spinning by himself.
Can you keep up with a faster slightly more complex beat Mr.Monkey?
*thock**thock**thock**thunk**thock**thock**thock**thock**thunk*
The monkey shifted back to white and immediately got into the rhythm, only this time he added a bit of flair and incorporated a whack against the thick trunk of the tree into his routine. Having found a distraction from her worries, Emi started playing with the monkey. She alternated between musical genres and after the first hour, the monkey began trying to take the lead with his own beats as if challenging her to follow him instead.
Hah! You dare challenge me! You are a hundred years too early. Don't you know who I am? I have trained with access to YouTube and Spotify for nearly as long as I can remember and only so many beats exist! Cheat skill activated! Ok, I'm mixing tropes here but this ain't an anime or a xianxia anyway, so what do I care about staying within my genre?
Emi used her extensive experience, of listening to random music while wasting time, to match every beat the monkey sent her way with a matching melody. To his credit, after a few songs, the monkey stopped trying to trip her up and just began jamming with her, as if to tell her that she had passed his test. Emi decided it was time to take a break and stopped singing, only this time the monkey did not shift to green. Instead, he approached her tentatively and then sat on the fork between two of the three large branches that split off from Emi's current home.
"Hey there Mr.Monkey. It was fun playing with you. if we are going to hang out I'll need to call you something else than Mr.Monkey. How do you feel about "Arctic"?"
Arctic mouth dropped, as if in shock, but no sound came out. He then began doing a series of gestures and then waited for a response. As Emi stayed silent, he performed the series of gestures once again, but the first time had been enough. The reason why Emi had remained silent was that she just couldn't believe what she saw.
Okay, the options for this setting are narrowing. No way in hell is a random wild monkey from Earth both this musically gifted, and capable of using his hands to sign in a way that I can somehow understand...Either this is a Planet of the Apes situation, or I really am in a fantasy world.
Arctic had finished repeating the gestures for the second time when Emi's mind caught back up with what was happening. Arctic looked like he was about to give up but he started to go through the gestures once again, more slowly. This time Emi was observing closely as Arctic pointed at her.
"Me?"
Emi pointed one of her talons at herself and excitement crept onto Arctic's face at the gesture. He then brought both hands under his mouth and spread them forward palm up.
"Voice? song? words?"
Arctic continued by pointing at himself.
"You"
Emi pointed back towards him and the corners of Arctic's mouth began forming a smile as he continued. He then shook his head from right to left before tapping his temple twice with his index finger.
"No brain? Wait, no, if I put all of it in order... You, voice or song, me, no brain..ah! You don't understand my words...if that is the case, let me try to use your language. If you somehow know that shaking your head from left to right means "no" then you must have learned from humans at some point and you should know how to sign yes and maybe some other gestures will also translate to this world, or time, or whatever."
Arctic's smile dropped as Emi began a long rambled sentence, probably assuming it to be gibberish, but then his smile grew much wider than it had first been at what she did next. Emi pointed at Arctic and then tried to replicate the gesture for words with her wings, as well as they would permit. She then nodded her head up and down and tapped her head twice before finally using her talons to try and mimic what she would have done with her thumb and index finger to convey that something was tiny.
Arctic jumped around a bit but stopped when one of the branches started creaking and started another series of gestures. He pointed at Emi then made his index and middle finger walk across the palm of his other hand before pointing at himself and moving his flat hands to make two diagonal lines that met above his head.
"Follow you to your....roof...shelter...home? Fairly sure normal monkeys don't have houses with slanted rooves, but they don't usually use sign language either, so surprise me."
Emi signed back as well as she could to say she would follow, but she had to replace the sign that indicated walking with a few actual steps due to her physical limitations. Arctic moved a few feet deeper into the canopy and looked back at her. When Emi followed, he went further in and waited a few feet away.
Can't be worse than being on my own...
*****
Dammit Arctic... it's been easily over two hours and all you tell me is "quiet" and "follow". How far is your nest!? Wait, why am I calling it a nest?
Arctic was slightly larger than Emi but he moved through the canopy as if he were built for it. Emi, on the other hand, was having trouble keeping up since she had to rely on her two relatively short legs and could only really use her wings or beak to try to keep herself balanced. She suspected that the journey was a short one at monkey speed, and so she didn't voice her frustrations at Arctic, since he kept waiting for her when he could long since have been home.
We've been moving in a roughly straight line in the opposite direction from where the sun set earlier. If things work the same as back on Earth, we are headed east from where I started. No clue if we have been going North or South and it's not like I measured the exact direction the sun was. My mental map kind of sucks though, so far it's just a straight line of temperate rainforest surrounded by the unknown. My owl memories are too disorganized and random for me to get any help from...It would seem she had been hunting the same perimeter since she was old enough to leave her parents, who hunt an area close by. Luckily I survived long enough to...I mean she survived long enough for me to...
Emi's minor identity crisis was brought to an abrupt end as Arctic stopped and signed for her to stop and not follow. He motioned toward a hollow in a nearby tree and signed for her to stay there. He then signed that he would go and then come back because Emi was...Emi had some trouble figuring out the last word, but when she did she turned her body around in indignation while keeping her head facing him and brusquely nodded before facing away. Emi fumed for a few minutes in her hollow before realizing Arctic had slipped away.
Wait here because I'm too slow? I can friggin fly! If I knew where we were going I'd be there first...stupid genius monkey.
*****
He went to sleep, didn't he...That little...
Emi was getting tired. Even though owls slept during the day, her sleep had been interrupted early in the afternoon and she had spent a portion of her night going through what amounted to one of the adventure courses Megan had forced her into back on Earth. As the sun began rising, Emi regretted that she hadn't taken a nap. Arctic hadn't specified when he'd return but she had assumed he would be back soon.
I hope he is fine. I left him to travel alone during the night in a place where wild beasts roam, and I don't think he can see in the dark as well as I can. Hell, I'm pretty sure most monkeys are active during the day, maybe he was so tired that he slipped and had an accident...or got home and decided I could wait until he had a rest...
Emi kept flipping between being worried for and annoyed at Arctic. She wasn't ready to be alone again now that she had found someone else, even if that someone was a genius monkey who could only communicate through gestures. As Emi was peeping out of her hollow in the direction she assumed Arctic had gone, she caught a glimpse of white fur on the forest floor.
"Arctic! I was worried! you better not have...."
Between her lack of sleep and the anxiety she had been feeling from suddenly being alone again, Emi had nearly reached the ground by the time she noticed the glaring differences between Arctic and what awaited her below. She tried to swoop up and regain the canopy but as she reached the lowest point of her arc, the white-furred figure below threw a net in her path, forcing her to arrest her momentum or hurtle into it and get tangled. She wasn't sure whether she would survive unharmed if she got tangled and crashed with her current speed, so she slowed down with a few powerful strokes of her large wings. The lack of food and her fatigue fought her with every wingbeat, and with all her momentum gone, she didn't think she'd be able to make it back up to the canopy.
He's got a spear but he is not trying to throw it at the moment. Do I try to go back up in the canopy and risk falling to my death if I run out of juice, or do I risk my fate below...This guy is a lot bigger and less friendly-looking than Arctic, but maybe it's his big brother or something?
As Emi was struggling to make a decision, Arctic burst out from behind her assailant and frantically began jumping in front of him while waving his arms to make him stop. Seeing that, Emi decided not to risk the climb and used the last bit of strength left in her wings to land safely behind Arctic.
This guy is nearly as tall as an adult man...Also sign language is one thing but since when do monkeys wear polished wooden pieces of armor or carry stone-tipped spears!? Are you related to Sun Wukong!? Did I end up in a world full of powerful sects and ancient Chinese immortals?
*bonk*
A hollow sound resonated from behind the armored white monkey as the tip of a carved wooden staff made contact with the wooden circlet he wore as head protection. The hit had been weak but the armored monkey moved aside and cast his eyes down to the floor as if to show deference to his admonisher.
If the armored guy could be Arctic's older brother, this one could be his great-grandpa!
A thin and frail white monkey in a loosely woven, belted, linen robe stood in front of Emi with the aid of the wooden staff that he used as a cane. He may have once been as tall or even taller than the armored monkey, but was now hunched over. The slits on the sides of his robe revealed bent legs that appeared to struggle under his weight. His fur looked similar to the others but the length and bushyness of his eyebrows were only second to those of his beard. As he studiously observed her, Emi could not help but note that the bits of his eyes that weren't covered betrayed deeper thought than the other two monkeys. He pointed at her before turning to Arctic who then nodded in confirmation.
At least it doesn't look like this one is going to attack me.
The robed monkey approached Emi and stopped a few feet in front of her before using the pointed end of his staff to draw a long line in the dirt. He then quickly drew what Emi thought could be a cow, or a deer, on one end of the line. Next, he moved a few inches and began drawing a crow-like bird, then a bit further, a quick sketch of the armored monkey. He then looked a bit troubled for the next, but he made a small mark an inch further than the previous one and pointed at Arctic before shrugging. The robed monkey went another couple of inches, nearing the end of the line, and made a mark that looked like a small human. At the very end of the line, he drew what appeared to be an adult human and then pointed at himself before making a mark between the child and the adult. The robed monkey finally pointed at Emi and then at the drawing, staring at her intently. Arctic started moving his arms to say something but the robed monkey put a hand out, palm outward toward him, and Arctic froze. Everyone's attention was now on Emi as they waited for her to make a move, but to the apparent surprise of the three, she pointed a talon at Arctic then scratched a new mark further up the line for him.
That's right! This guy was able to jam with me, no way he is that far down the line. Now for me. I don't know how smart people are in this world, but I'd like to believe I'm slightly above the average back on Earth. Not quite Ben's level but that guy is an outlier. I mean, if I never got bored when learning tedious stuff, I could probably compete. To be fair, if I use Ben as the norm then at least 90 percent of the population is below average.
Emi approached the line and pointed her talon at herself before letting it hover over the line. She first let it hover around the child mark but then she kept going. The left eyebrow of the robed monkey raised slightly as her talon slowed as it approached his mark. The inquisitive look turned into one of disappointment as she passed his mark and then the end of the line before putting her talon back down where she was standing. The armored monkey began showing his teeth to Arctic, in what Emi could only see as a malevolent smile. The robed monkey sighed audibly, the first sound she had heard any of them make so far, and turned toward the other two. The robed monkey was starting to move when Emi mimicked him by putting her leg out with her talons outstretched, approximating what he had done toward Arctic earlier. The armored monkey's face immediately displayed his anger, and Arctic looked like he was an inch away from having a little accident, but the robed monkey's curiosity was piqued once more.
If you aren't your own supporter, then who will be!
Emi walked to the end of the line but instead of making a mark, she used her talons to extend it a couple of inches then made a mark at its end before proceeding to stand above it. Emi then puffed her tail to its full size and tilted her head as far back as she needed in order to look down on the old monkey.
*THUD*
Emi heard a loud sound behind her. She tilted her head even further back and looked up to see what was happening behind her. Arctic was clinging to the armored monkey's torso and immobilizing him as they were both tangled into a pile on the floor.
Did my show piss the armored dude off so much Arctic had to stop him from attacking me? Was I too much? Meg always said I thrive on drama. Or was it feed? Not important. Now the ball is in your court old guy. Am I going to be your dinner tonight or did I pass your little test?
The robed monkey tilted his head back and started heaving with a large smile on his face and his free hand against his stomach. At that moment Emi truly understood why she hadn't heard any of them make sounds so far. It hadn't been because they were of a quiet nature, they literally couldn't. Aside from the absence of a well-defined tongue, now that she could see the inside of one of their mouth, she could see that their rectangular teeth went much deeper than she had expected and the back of their throat seemed much narrower than it would have been on a human of the same size.
Yeah...Not a creepy way to laugh at all. Downright standard if you ask me. Not the type of laugh anyone would have while thinking of the best way to roast you over a pit...At least it seems to have stopped the struggle between the other two before Arctic got himself beat up.
The Robed monkey started scratching something on the ground and to Emi's surprise, she was able to make out what it said.
MAJVSCVLVS
Majvscvlvs? At least I can read the letters but that's a lot of consonants. Is it not a world of Chinese immortals but some Welsh fantasy world? Wait! I may be talking out of my ass but didn't the Romans write the letter U as V?
"Majusculus?"
The robed monkey nodded, surprise apparent on his face, then pointed at himself. Emi walked up next to the word and scratched the letters E M I under it and then pointed at herself.
"Emi. That is my name. Although I don't think you'll understand English, maybe hearing me put a sentence together will convince you of my abilities."
Majusculus's eyebrows rose so high that Emi thought they would fly off his face. He then quickly started scratching out a sentence below and with each subsequent word, Emi started doubting her sanity further and further.
WELL MET. HOW DOST THEE SHABERI BRIHONIAN. THE OTHER FUTARI WAKARI A SMIDGEON OF IMPERIAL, NONETHELESS ORESAMA DABBLED IN THE BRIHONIAN TONGUE. PRAYTELL WHERE HAST THOU LEARNED A TONGUE THAT HAILS FROM SUCH A TOOI KUNI? MOST INTERPELLING DE GOZARU. LET US HOST YOU IN ORESAMA NO MURA. FORTUITOUS THAT ORESAMA HAS MADE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A GENTLEBUSHI ON ORESAMA NO JOURNEYS DE GOZARU.
Keep a straight face and don't laugh! Seriously though, the hell? Gentlebushy? Brihon? If I was online, I would think someone messed up and input Japanese samurai movie scripts alongside some badly modernized Shakespearean plays into the training data of an ai chatbot. How the hell does something like this develop organically? Guess I'll just do each sentence in both languages and hope Majusculus can figure it out.
"I am hungry. I want to sleep. Let us talk tonight. Onaka ga suita. Netai. Konya Hanashimashou."
Too tired to try and make it ancient-sounding, but since I kept it simple, I hope the message got through.
Majusculus gave a second rendition of his peculiar laugh before nodding and signing something to the other two, too quickly for Emi to catch, and then motioned for her to follow. Emi took a step in their direction but the edges of her vision started closing in. A step further, her legs began to wobble. As she set her talon down for her third step, her body lost all its tension. The small amount of momentum she had gathered, and the top-heavy nature of her body, sent her falling face-first onto the forest floor. Arctic and Majusculus started panicking until they saw the peculiar owl was still breathing. Arctic gingerly picked Emi up and followed Majusculus as the armored monkey covered the rear, his eyes boring a hole in the back of Arctic's head the entire way back to their home.