Setting
- 67 posts here • Page 1 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
The unhurried moving stream of the river overlapped her feet in soft movements that left Cana feeling more tranquil then she was. On her lap lay an over worn, over used sketchbook with pages sticking out of every direction. Pencil in hand, her hand smoothly glided on the paper illustrating the scene in front of her, the river, the tree and plants, and the way the radiant sun hit all of it giving it a perfect blushing look. Her head hung down as she drew, her long slightly tousled silver hair hung like a veil in her pallid petite face, the also sun bouncing off of it giving it the blue tinge it sometimes gave off. Removing her intense green eyes up from the sketch on the sheet, she let out a soft groan. “It’s been three days.” She mumbled to herself in her light tone, half trying to keep herself remembering how long it had been since she ran, and partly because she hadn’t really heard her, or anyone’s voice for about the same time. Setting the book down, she lied down on the soft ground, looking up at the clouds that dotted the sky, before closing her eyes against the cruel rays of the sun.
Yet her eyes snapped open as soon as she heard a crack of a twig not far from where she was, and the scent of a wolf from her clan hinted around the area. Standing up abruptly, she slipped her sketchbook back into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Slipping on her light blue cloak, she put the hood up, knowing that is she stayed in her human figure she would slip by trees and hide easier given her tiny form, and that the ones after her would be trained easily to catch a wolf. Running in the opposite direction of the scent she caught, she slipped by tall looming trees, past plants and sceneries she’s never seen. Slowing down, she looked behind her, the scent of them getting fainter and fainter. Not taking the chance she looked up at a tree with many branches sticking out off it, and started climbing up onto it. Resting on a bulky branch, she would wait until she say them pass the trail below. It took only a few minutes before some wolves, the same pale coloured pelt she had, come sprinting by without a notice in the world that she was up above them. Shaking her head a bit, she almost couldn’t believe they didn’t catch her scent up there. Waiting a good half an hour before crawling back down the tree, she felt confident enough that they were off whatever trail they had been on before, completely away from her.
As she walked for what seemed like awhile, she came across a cave that seemed very isolated. Peering into the dark area, she could see it looked empty. Stepping into it almost hesitantly, the darkness overpowered her, taking her eyes a couple of minutes to adjust to the sudden change in light. Sitting down, she leaned her head back so it rested on the rocky surface behind her. Closing her eyes, she felt tired but to stressed to have sleep come. So she stayed there, simply letting the blackness unnerve her as much as it possibly could. Opening up her eyes after a while, she felt adjusted enough to this slightly dark surrounding that she now could see clearer, and what she thought was just a small nook of a cave, was really quite bigger. She was just out the mouth of it, but there seemed to be a tunnel that continued on through. She felt safer staying close to the front, and still felt like the cave was most likely empty as there was so sense that there had been any life in here before. There was a slight cool draft however, that made her glad her cloak was fairly warm.
Thoughts scattered her brain, many of the past and what was now to come of the future. She realized she would have to go back out soon, and scavenge for food somewhere. She was hopeful that she would find an abandoned clan nearby that she could look through for supplies and even stay there for awhile before she inevitably had to move on. She had currently been living on the little food she had brought with her, and the small un-hybrid animals that lived in the woods. Mice, and rabbits, things like that i which she cooked over fires. But she was going to run out of the supplies she needed eventually.
It had been around an hour since he'd "Gone to use the bathroom" and left the classroom, but in truth, he was leaving. He didn't want any part of the wretched clan he belonged to, oh his teachers had been kind to him, but nobody else. He wanted to live life on his own, free to make his own choices.
Yet he could already hear the stupid Monitors buzzing around for him.
The Monitors made sure none of the students in the Clan played hooky, each school had around four, The Avialae school of Arts and Academics had five. Each of them was a stereotypical idiot of their kind. Buzz, Frey, Pip, Slick, and Dib, A Vulture, Falcon, Sparrow, Hawk, and Seagull. They must have seen him or something, but none of them knew these woods half as well as Kyler did.
"Didja see where he went?" he heard the gritty voice of Buzz
"Dead meat Feather Brain! You're dead meat!" came the high pitched squeak from Slick, who's voice obviously hadn't undergone the effects of puberty.
He gave a little sigh and painfully plucked a black feather from his neck, then dropped it, he knew Pip, who's eyes were keen as anything, would notice that.
Sure enough, the stupid Monitors flew around, searching for him. But Kyler was long gone. There was no way he'd ever go back to that place, Nomad Raven Kyler... that didn't sound too bad to him. He'd always been the odd child, there was no way anybody'd miss him.
He didn't know how it had been for other clans, but the Bird Clan made special Shifter clothes for it's people, the molecules would sink into the skin when the wearer was shifting, and would part from the skin once they had returned to Human Form, Kyler didn't know the exact details, but he knew enough. He thanked himself that his eye sight was keen, and noticed below what looked to be a cave... yes, that looked like a cave all right, would it be safer to be an animal or return human?
He weighed the pros and cons, if there was something in there he was more likely to be looked at hungrily, but on the other hand as a human he had a lot of lovely pale flesh showing, but would a beast be disgusted at his skinniness? Flying was his advantage, but he did have several switchblades and other weapons in his hoodie, he could defend himself in either form.
But then again, a raven made it easier to disguise himself in the dark, if the Monitors saw him as a human they'd definitely know it was him, no question...
He'd chance it.
He landed and shifted into his human form, blowing black bangs from his eyes. His skin was paler than ever...
In the mouth of the cave, he thought he could see... oh no, was that a girl? Had he flown all the way to another Clan territory?
He just sort of stood there, frozen and not knowing what to do.
He woke up at a quarter past three this morning, when barely any guards would be out and searching for stray wanderers. He had been researching their times and schedules for a while now. After donning his typical clothes and placing his familiar cloak around his shoulders, he determined he was ready to leave. He gazed into his mother and father’s room briefly as he closed the door to his own room, but felt only a small tinge of regret. He attempted to brush aside that though and reminded himself that he could never be what they wanted him to be. He took a step away and ran off to the front of the house. It was now the time to act, as he had only been given a small window of time before security tightened. He grabbed a small bag of strawberries from the table and nimbly leapt up to the sill of a window that faced the direction of the forest. According to the calculations he had made over a billion times, he only had to run about a quarter of a mile to reach the edge. With one final look back towards his home, Jared bolted from the window and was on his way to the forest and hopefully his new life.
The problem came when he was about halfway to the forest’s edge and he heard the whistle of a guard. Panicked, Jared ran harder than ever as the heavy boots of the guards fell to the ground behind him. No matter what, he kept running and soon he was met with the thickest trees he had ever seen. After running a little bit further through the trees, he shifted into his small chameleon and tried to blend in with the surrounding foliage. The footsteps of the guards were coming closer and closer until all of a sudden, the steps simply ceased. Jared took a deep breath and waited for what felt like an eternity while the gruff tones of the guards rang out through the area.
“Sure ya’ saw something?” a very deep man voiced out into the forest.
A young female voice rang out in response, surprising Jared significantly, “Positive! It was a boy! He was---”
Before she could finish a youthful man’s voice interrupted her, “Sure, sure. How about we blame it on a rookie mistake and let it go. I’m sure you’re just tired.”
The girl tried to protest but the sounds of their boots were already going off into the distance. As the sounds grew softer, Jared waited and eventually they were gone all together. He crawled out from his spot and grew back into his human form. After looking around briefly, Jared began to run in the opposite direction of his former clan.
For the next few hours, he ran as far as his legs would carry him with few breaks. When he would stop, he became transfixed with the world all around him and the new things he saw. That mere thought kept him going as he became less frightened of capture and more eager to see what would show up next. Eventually, though, Jared grew tired and decided that walking was probably in his best interest. He didn't know how much ground he had covered but he did know that his legs were killing him. He slowed down and stopped to take a breather when all of a sudden, he noticed a large stone cave out of the corner of his eye. Hearing tales of what lurked in caves made Jared nervous about going inside, but his curiosity was not tamed. He decided to wait outside and see if anything came out before investigating the cave further. Jared then climbed a nearby tree and waited impatiently for any signs of activity.
His first instinct was pulling out a switchblade from one of his pockets and flicking it open cautiously. His pale green eyes scanned around, trying to find what was bothering his instincts so much... Though his bangs were making it harder to see anything.
"Who's there...?" he growled threateningly. On the chance that whatever was around here was nice, that'd be a miracle, he'd always been told stories of what was outside the clan, yet he rarely believed them.
But if he was on the territory of another clan, he'd be in trouble...
Her eyes spotted something in the trees, it wasn't green leaves, but green hair. Tilting her head, she waited to see if the boy in the tree would do something. She really didn't want to yell, afraid of a bad reaction and if something rather mean would here her she would feel unsafe once more. She also thought it would be best to let him make the first approach, unsure of how the boy was feeling. Looking behind her back into the cave, she called back into it, "Its safe," to the black haired boy inside. She felt her words wouldn't mean much to him as he obviously wouldn't trust her, and figured he would walk out, switch blade readied in hand once more.
He let out a small groan and was about to get out of the tree when he saw a girl near the entrance to the cave. He looked intently at her and saw her look back at him. Then she said something to a person inside the cave and a boy came out as well. At least, Jared thought it was a boy because most of the person’s facial features were hidden by a large black hood. The boy looked around warily and noticed Jared. Jared then noticed a knife in the boy’s hand. This frightened him greatly but it also intrigued Jared. His curiosity had been struck and there was no going back. What if they were friendly and of a different clan? He wanted to meet these two and decided on a course of action. The two of them seemed to be in conversation, so Jared discreetly climbed down the tree out of their line of vision and walked around the side, now at eye level with the two people.
He clicked his tongue and said to the two with the girl now holding the knife, “Now, if I promise not to hurt you two, will you put that knife away?”
He crossed his arms and waited for one of them to react in either a negative or positive way, and prepared himself to flee if the situation proved too violent.
He then turned back to the girl, who's name he hadn't learned yet, "May I have my knife back now?" he inquired with a soft tone.
Cana turned her gaze toward the boy with the black hair, and blinked, realizing what he had asked. "Oh!" She explained, looking down at her hand. "Here, I just didn't want you to hurt anybody." She said lightly, handing the blade back to him. Pushing her hood down, she tried to smooth down her long hair. Letting her eyes look around the area, she nodded her head. "We're pretty far out from any clan, but kind of in proximity of many." Slipping back into the cave for a second, she grabbed her back pack before coming out once more. "And there are horror stories out here, rogues and such. They'll kill anything in there paths most likely." She stated,her tone seemingly unbothered by the fact.
Looking up at the sky, she realized almost immediately it was going to get dark soon, and realized she would need to set up camp soon.
As he mentioned, the girl was obviously not a part of his clan, and Jared grew even more curious. Why where the two of them together in the first place? Maybe they had just met.
Either way, Jared spoke, “I’m just glad none of us are going to kill each other now.” And then added as he saw the girl look into the slowly darkening sky, “I don’t know about your clans, but when the sun sets, it’s time to set up a place to rest.”
He pulled his cloak up over his head and tightened the cape portion around his body. It was getting colder out and the cloak would keep him somewhat warm.
He was personally more comfortable with the trees, his animal instincts kicking in. The green boy's vivid colours seemed odd to him, sure he'd seen Peacock Hybrids with bright colours, but it still seemed sort of odd.
"And I'm from the Bird Clan, as far as I'm concerned, only the owls don't sleep during the night" he told Green-Head. He tended to give people random nicknames, but seldom used them aloud.
Jared looked at Bird Boy and considered his claim. It would make sense that he was of the bird clan, as most birds were darkly colored as he was. Personally, Jared thought he was more of a Penguin with the contrasting black and white, but there might be some other bird that he changes into. He thought it best not to say that last bit aloud.
Deciding to share his lineage as well, Jared said boldly, “I’m from the Chameleon Clan, hence the hair,” as he pulled at a strand of green.
"So you two ran as well, huh?" She asked, looking up at them. Laughing a bit, she said "I didn't think it was that common of an occurrence." She said. She for one had only heard about two others who had run from her clan as she grew up. She figured it would be as rare in other clans. She also never fully realized how close the clans must have been in proximity as they where. That, or she went way farther away from home then she had thought. Snapping back away from her thoughts, she cleared her thoughts a bit, feeling a little awkward for blurting out what she said. "I- uhm, sorry."
The girl's question made him shrug a bit, "Clans aren't always what they're cut out to be." he responded curtly, then reached a hand into his hoodie, taking out some cloth, "You might want to use this to fuel the flames" he offered it to her with what looked like a small smile.
“I agree. Clans… well, mine was complicated,” he said shrugging. Jared walked to the edge of the cave and looked into it. The dark walls were reflecting the last of the available sunlight and getting darker by the second. He turned back to the two of them and said, “I don’t have much to offer for the fire, but I have some strawberries.” He held up the bag. “There should be enough for all of us.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice about how terrible clans could be.” She said, her soft tone voice going serious, and having a hint of sadness added to it. Pushing back those emotions, she smiled to the green haired boy. “I’ve never seen someone with such an interesting hair colour, it’s neat.” She said kindly. Taking the small cloth, she said “Alright, but I’m going to see if I can find some large sticks or something.” She told him, before putting the wide large hood back on and slipping through some of the trees to find some. Picking some up as she went along, she felt strange about meeting a group. She still felt alone, like she always had, but it seemed to me lessening anf she really had no clue how to feel about it. She was always raised to believe other clans where unwelcoming, that they were different and where harsh. She didn’t believe it of course as she grew up, but she found she was happy that it trulely wasn’t true.
Walking back as she felt she had gathered enough, she tried to juggle them in her hands. Walking into the cave, she dropped them on the ground unable to carry the amount she had anymore. “I think this is enough.” She said, as she started setting them up to start the fire.
His hand tightened a little, "But he can't feed the fire too much, or there'll be smoke, and with too much smoke we could suffocate" he told them and then began to explore the cave a little more, taking in the surroundings.
He then stood up and brushed his hands off.
“Well, that should work for now. I’m glad we all have some type of supply.” he said. Becoming aware that he was the only one who had not introduced himself, he added, “Also, my name’s Jared.”
At this, he placed the bag of strawberries on the ground, slightly ajar and wandered outside to make sure no one was around.
He liked this, to be honest, he liked being with just a couple people who shared the same general interests as him, well, he didn't know exactly what they liked, but they were runaways, wasn't that good enough?
He decided to sit in front of the fire, feeling it's warmth. A smile came to his face once again. He realized he was likely going to get hot if he kept his hoodie on... but he didn't really want to take it off.
When Kyler went and sat in front of the fire, she smiled a bit at the glowing look it gave his pale skin, and started drawing him in too. Drawing she felt made an excuse not to say much. Its not because she wasn't friendly, but she really just didn't know what to say in this particular situation.
He gazed into the flickering light as the wood cracked and flamed and thought to himself about the day. He had gone from a simple life in his clan, to the life of a rogue in the wilderness. How odd it was though, to find two others in almost the same situation he himself was in. In his life, there had only been one runaway and even then the girl was returned not even a day later. But how uncommon were deserters in other clans if he had met up with these people so quickly. The day was simply a blur for him, and as he began to warm up near the fire, he finally began to feel content with the way things were going so far.
His mind wandered for a bit, 'Nomad Kyler...' he thought to himself, that name suited him much better than 'Bird Clan Resident Kyler'
He noticed the girl Cana with her sketchbook, was she good at drawing? He couldn't see exactly what she was doing, but he figured she probably wasn't bad. His face twisted in a small frown, he remembered some old nursery rhyme the kids would repeat around town.
'Scrawny cats and stupid dogs
Cowardly foxes and chameleons
Run away, run away,
Run away, run away
'Bats and rats are crybabies
Fish are stupid pipsqueaks
Don't fight our clan in battle
'Cause you'll never see the light of day!'
...
He really hated that rhyme.
“We’re a very regulated clan. Sure we’re very colorful and vivid to look at, but re don’t socialize much. We go about our daily tasks and that’s all. We… don’t really have much time for fun.”
Jared frowned at that remembering all that his clan had done. He looked back into the flame and recalled the first time he had ever ventured out into the forest. It had only been once and while he was there he had found the flute he carries to this day. Only moments after picking it up, the guards had found him and taken Jared back to his family, but not before Jared had the opportunity to hide it. After getting punished in solitary for seven days, he was allowed to leave. They did ask him if he saw anything, but he denied it all. When he went home, he had changed and it was then when he decided to leave his clan.
Jared gave a quick shake of his head to make the terrible thought go away, but to no avail. Instead he then spoke up again, “What about the bird clan? Do they really feast on the flesh of other clans?” Jared really wanted to know that. Because it had been told to him over and over when he was a child, and now that had the opportunity to ask, he was going to find out the truth.
He shifted to a new position, sitting cross legged now, "Kids are taught to fly at a very young age, and if you try to skip school... well, it usually doesn't end well" he mumbled. The monitors would usually go after the Skippers, and if you were caught, they were allowed to do whatever they liked to you.
He glanced at his right hand, which was covered by the long sleeves of his sweater.
Literally anything.
- 67 posts here • Page 1 of 3 • 1, 2, 3