[ on the note of hunting this place clean... the island is eerily quiet. there's no squawk of seagulls, no trill of birdsong, no skittering of crabs along the stones. the only sounds aside from their own careful footsteps were the pitched buzzing of rainforest insects and the lapping of the waves on the shore.

the tree is a telling sight, but not an encouraging one. whatever they were dealing with was bigger than them both, and omnivorous, with the weight or strength or both to cause this damage without much effort. xehanort listens, trying to catch the sound of heavy footfalls or animalistic breathing nearby, but there's nothing over the waves. ]

I'm no tracker, so if we can't tell which way it went, maybe this is a good place to split up. We can do a loop of the shore and then head into the forested area.

[ with everything so quiet, they would definitely be able to hear the sounds of the other fighting from anywhere. ]