Lasrune

Velina was surprised as Brian went by but she recovered quickly. She was used to her father coming home late at night without his clothes and often a girl on him. She grabbed her bag in her hands and quickly left through the door. She saw the commotion, but she didn't stop. Greg had probably explained to the two already what a monster she was, and if she made any signal that she was there, they'd probably go after her. So, without a good-bye, she slipped into the trees surrounding the area and disappeared. After she was out of sight, she sat down, sighing. There was no use in returning home. Her father would simply beat her to death for being so late.

Confident that the sudden appearance of Brian, naked, with a sword that clearly should not be would distract Greg from his disappearance long enough that leaving wouldn't be so terrible, Josh moved slowly away until he had a decent head-start, then bolted for the trees where Velina was headed. She beat him there by quite a bit, and by the time he reached the treeline she was completely out of sight. He shouted for her feebly a few times, mostly certain she couldn't be convinced to come back after THE HAMMER COMMANDO exploded from his chicken coop, acidic hate dripping from his lips. He attempted anyway to track her down, despite being completely upset at his uncleanliness, and justified it to himself with the knowledge that he wasn't far from the path that led to a brook if he kept going this way, even if he never found her.

He felt bad. He thought about a song he'd heard in town when he was young.

Velina heard someone coming and stood quickly, continuing on her way. She ran fast for a woman and reached a stream where she sat, putting her legs in the stream. Thinking they'd probably forgotten about her, she relaxed and began to sing softly. It was a song she'd known since birth, though she didn't know who taught it to her. "The first cut is the deepest. Baby, I know, the first cut is the deepest. When it comes to bein' lucky, he's cursed. When it comes to lovin' me, he's worst." her voice was lovely, probably from the chanting she was born for, but never had a chance to do. After a while, she lost herself in song.

Having given up after a very lackluster attempt, Josh trudged over to the brook and plopped down next to it. He immediately took off his shirt, removed his book and a few other things from the secret pocket, and began sloshing it around in the water. He figured there was no use getting clean only to put on dirty clothes. Still upset from the ordeal earlier, when a hammer-wielding alcoholic ninja had bust out of his coop, and beginning to feel a bit tired, he didn't bother to look up. Not that he could, really, by now the sun was too bright and being outside irritated his eyes. It had to be 10 or 11 in the morning by now.

Velina stopped singing as she heard someone sloshing in the brook. Caught by surprise, she fell into the brook, getting soaked from head to toe. She cursed silently, hoping she hadn't made a racket. She turned in the direction of the sloshing and saw that it was the guy from before. The one who was on the ground when she was being accused. Velina had a sudden flash, but it wasn't a clear scene, like usual. It was just a feeling. She knew something bad was going to happen, but she didn't know what. She tried to stay as silent as she could, standing at the side of the brook, hoping he wouldn't turn in her direction. She was successful... Until she sneezed.

(sorry about the long absence)

Lost in his thoughts, sleepy, and comforted by the sound of the brook as he tried ever more lazily to wash himself, Josh was confronted with the presence of a large, warm rock to sun on, and began to nod off after a few moments. At first let his head droop, some of his hair fell across his shoulder, and for a moment he had to have been asleep. He was unsure of just how long he'd been out when his head snapped up and around as result of some stimulus he hadn't consciously experienced. As he pushed himself up to look for the source of his reaction, he saw the very person he'd wound up here looking for. "Oh hey there," he slurred sleepily, "I'm glad I found you, I wanted to apologize about Greg, he's like a drunk or something and he gets all crazy when there's nobody to give him beer. Something about someone has to give him the beer, beer he gets on his own is no good somehow. One time he was so mad he chased me through town, throwing bar stools, during the pumpkin festival...." he trailed off. Eventually, regaining some sense of priority and diction, he offered, "That stuff isn't important though, what's important is that you ignore him. He lets the liquor do his thinking even when there's not a drop of it in him." He laid his head back down and, after a moment, spoke again; "I'm sorry I can't be more attentive, I'm just so tired."

(It's fine)

Velina sighed softly. "It's fine. He's right. I'm a demon." she said, repeating what her father told her everyday and every night. She looked into his eyes, the sun reflecting off of her crimson eyes and making them shine bright scarlet. She didn't bother hiding it, since she had to return home. She wasn't interested in Greg's life story, since it was similar to her father's. She'd experienced the pain of a beer bottle hitting the side of her head. The result was broken glass leaving scars on her cheek.
Velina forced a smile, hoping that he would be too tired to notice it. "Didn't you get any sleep last night?" she asked, wondering if it was because of her coming late at night. "It's fine, really all the things he said. I apologize for causing such problems." she looked down. Josh and his brother; those two were the only 'friends' she'd had in a while. The only people she could talk to. She hated to go and return to her normal life, the daughter of a drunk.

"Don't apologize for Greg, he's a horse's ass. Well, maybe not literally..." he paused to think, but decided his thoughts on the subject were more than likely stupid and irrelevant. "People shouldn't treat you like that, it's not exactly polite." He skirted around the issue of her eye-color, he had no room to judge a person on their abnormalities. He paused for another moment to think, how much should he reveal to a stranger? A little bit wouldn't hurt, he decided. "I don't sleep at night; ever since I got sick, the sun's hurt my eyes and given me awful headaches. I can barely keep 'em open right now," he continued, "and when I manage it, what I can see, I'm not seein' too well. So instead of having a respectable daytime profession that'd make me suffer, I run the bar in the evenins since it's the only way I could think of to make money in my condition, and I do things mostly at night. People get suspicious about it sometimes since usually folk who only come out at night are sneaky-types; theives, drunks, hookers, gamblers-" he listed, " but I just remind 'em that someone's got to run taverns to keep them creeps off the street." he thought for a few minutes.

"I tried gettin' in to one of them scholarly institutions to write books for rich folk, but they didn't want me, said I'd lose them too much money on account of the cost of candles. Personally, I keep bees and make my own now, they were right. I do cost a lot on account of needin' candles." He yawned, and paused for a while, struggling not to fall back asleep. "I wish I could go home and sleep in my bed, this rock's warm but it ain't exactly comfortable, but Greg's more'n'likely waiting for me to go back there. God damned son of a bitch will put off work just to harass me if I don't open the bar when I'm supposed to. I guess I could sleep on the ground, but then I'd be filthy again and that would bother me so much..." he trailed off, whatever he'd been thinking had practically blown away on the breeze. "I'm sorry, all I can think about right now is going to bed. It's awful rude of me."

(Sorry, i may take some time to reply. I'm spending a while in Maine and there's no internet access whatsoever...)

(Sorry it's short. I don't have a lot of time.)

Velina shook her head. "No, it's fine. I'm used to people treating me like he did." she heard his confession and she was a little surprised. He sounded just like one of the myths she'd been told. She didn't say it though, since she knew how she felt about people saying things about her. Velina listened to him ramble and realized just how much she'd miss talking to someone without worrying. "Well, you can go back now. Go to bed if you want. You don't have to bother with me anymore." she was terrified of going home. She'd been away for too long. Her father would beat her to deat; she knew it.

Sleepily, Josh contemplated getting up. "No, no I don't think I can go anywhere right now, much as I'd like to. You don't need to be goin anywhere yourself, either. No sense in trying to get to town at this point, it's far away..." he trailed off again, realizing he was letting his being tired speak on his behalf. He finally forced himself to sit up, eyes closed, and put his now-dry shirt back on. "I feel... like I am goin' to fall over" he tried to feel balanced. He started again, "You can walk back with me and keep me from passin' out in the woods if you don't mind- my sister could use a lady friend, you're a might bit older 'n her but any female companionship will do her good, she really only sees me and Brian often and there's got to be something she's missin' out on that way. I'm sure yer dad- it was just yer dad if I'm rememberin'? he can't miss you too much or someone'd be lookin' for you by now. I just hope Greg went the fuck home and doesn't like pop out from behind my dresser when I finally get to bed."

(back from maine ^^)

Velina gave a soft sigh, listening to the logic in his words. "I guess, but I'll be in deep trouble if father does send people to look for me. He's just too poor to hire anyone. He's not gonna miss me. He's just gonna be wondering where his 'slave' is. Ever since momma got killed-" she stopped, sighing. She'd already given too much away. "Nevermind. I guess I could go back with you... only gonna get myself killed if I go back." she said, looking down at her soaked dress. The fabric was a bit see-through, but only up to her waist. On her side, a symbol was just barely visible; a star inside a circle. She held her arm so her wouldn't see it. It was a sign of something, but she wasn't sure. "I suppose a little female companionship would be good for your sister. I've never actually talked to her, though."

She got out of the stream and didn't bother trying to dry her dress. It was ruined for good, no use trying to save it. In the woods, she saw a man out of the corner of her eye. "Um... who are you?" she asked softly as he approached. She wondered if this was just another lost soul that hadn't passed on yet. If it was, Josh would surely think she was crazy. After all, the soul was usually only visible to her. The man didn't answer her, but only pointed to the stream. "Um... you died in the stream?" the man simply shrugged and disappeared. She gave a confused sigh. Things were getting very complicated...

Meanwhile...

Greg stared at Brian for a full second's worth of stunned disbelief.

Then he pointed at his strange sword.

"THAT SWORD IS BULLSHIT AND SO ARE YOU," he roared. "I'M SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THOSE FUNKY TOOLMARKS AND SHIT MAKE IT A SWORD OF DESTINY OR MAGICALITY? WELL FUCK YOU I KNOW SWORDS." Greg natural rage at not having a proper morning hangover was magnified by this insult; focused like light through a lens, at the mere thought of somebody assuming they could manipulate him so.

"I'LL SHOW YOU MAGIC, MOTEHRFUCKER," he said, bending down and scooping up the flustered chicken, the first thing he laid eyes on. This is why Greg never used his hammers to commit violence- by the time he remembered he had hammers with him, everybody in the room was unconscious. The shortest distance between Greg's rage and and somebody's face was through his fist.

Velina's brief ministrations had done nothing to relieve the chickens shock, so it didn't fight back when Greg laid hands on it. "I'LL SHOW YOU MAGIC, BITCH," Greg roared, his booming voice filling the small yard. "I CAST CHICKEN!" His powerful arm hurled the hapless avian towards Brian at impressive velocity.

Brian was flabbergasted by Greg's assertion that he and his sword were bullshit, he barely swung it in time to bat the chicken away. Unfortunately, he forgot to turn the sword so he'd hit with the flat of the blade, and sliced into the chicken. The sword lit up and unnatural sparks crackled where it had made contact with the chickens blood. The chicken itself began smoking from it's wound as it scurried into the woods, crowing in pain. Brian watched the effects somewhat fearfully, he had no idea that the sword did that- when he'd tested it to see how it cut, he'd done so on a bundle of raggy clothes.

Greg simply stared at Brian's sword for a long moment.

"That is.... fucking.... sweet..." Greg decided at length. "Bodacious asskickorama. Dude. Dude! DUDE YOU MADE A MAGIC SWORD!" He pointed at the blade with one giant finger. "That's awesome! And it FRIES shit! Man, you could, like-" Greg framed a square in the air with his hands, "-a restaurant right? And you could cut bread and meat with that bitch and it'd toast the bread and cook the meat, and you could serve hot sammiches in, like, seconds. We'd call it fast food, people'd love that shit."

Greg was getting excited now, sketching out the floorplan of the new restaurant with his hands. "And I'd totally stake you the cash for the initial building, man, we could take this shit to the moon-" something occurred to Greg just then, something about the sword. "Wait," he said, cautiously. "Wait man, even if you, like, wrung a fairy out over the metal for the blood and danced naked under a full moon and shit, you had to have made the sword, right? Right? You- YOU'RE A FUCKING SWORDSMITH!" Greg pointed one massive digit at Brian accusingly. "And you didn't TELL me?" Greg gave Brian a sad look. Here was a man who probably understood hammers, and hitting metal, and perhaps, even, punching people in the face for asking stupid questions. And he'd been holding out on Greg, when they could have shared the brotherhood of men who hit shit with hammers.

"That's cold, Brian," Greg said sadly. "That's cold."

Stunned, Brian was silent for a few seconds. "I thought I had to hide these because people would like, burn me at the stake, man. I didn't do anything to 'em on purpose to make 'em like this, but now I know you like 'em, I can like, show 'em to ya. I've got lots more, I've even got a few hammers!"

Josh knew he hadn't been dreaming Velina was talking to a stranger because he was still standing. "Who're ye talkin' to?" He opened his eyes a bit and took a squinting peek where Velina was standing- nobody else seemed to be there. He dropped the subject entirely though not voluntarily when he noted that he could see the silhouette of Velina's lower body through her dress. He turned his gaze to the ground and tried to think about the most boring thing that he could summon to his mind, and that happened to be bar tabs. He duly noted that Greg wasn't among the bums who owed him, and tallied up in his mind how much he was owed. He moseyed back on up to dry land, tallying the total of all the tabs to be around 5 gold in total- he'd been charging 2 copper for his cheapest (but for some reason best-selling) swill. "how could I have let it get that high", he murmured under his breath. He resolved to start collecting his tabs tonight, after he'd gotten some rest. Realizing he didn't hear Velina following him, he turned and asked, "Can we get goin' or is there somethin' that still needs doin' here?"

Velina turned around quickly, a faint blush on her pale cheeks. "No one... Just a bit of thinking out loud." she looked at him and gave a small glare when she saw his eyes wander. Thought, her glare softened. She was too soft to be mad at anyone. Even if it was for peeking. Velina followed him, her feet soft agaginst the ground. She was a bit slow, however, since the bottom half of her dress was soaked and it dragged on the ground. She tried to lift it up, but it got annoying as it slid down sometimes. She gave an irritated sigh, wondering if her father would indeed send a search party for her...

Josh was having a perfectly pleasant time walking back through the woods to his house when, as he reached the edge of his property, he damn near tripped over a smoldering chicken corpse. He stopped and picked it up by the feet, and after a glance at the unburnt portions he confirmed it to be his favorite laying hen, the one he'd tamed enough that she enjoyed when he picked her up. After a long moment of staring silently at the remains of his once beloved pet, he sprinted toward the house with the still-smoking bird, and began to shout as he approached the back door "BRIAN JESSIE IS DEAD AND SHE WAS ON FIRE WHAT HAPPENED WHY IS JESSIE DEAD AND WHY WAS SHE ON FIRE?"

(That is pretty creepy... MY name is Jessie... So that freaked me out a bit when I read it.)

Velina watched with wide eyes as he freaked out at the burnt chicken. It wasn't something she saw everyday and though she felt a bit bad for the chicken, it was funny to watch. She gave a small laugh as he ran towards the house, shouting at the back door. She walked over, her steps slow and calm. Brian was probably going to get it when Josh found him. She giggled, imagining what would happen.

(I named the chicken after my friend who keeps them as pets, lol)

Josh kicked the door open and yelled in a bewildered tone, "BRIAN? BRIAN! WHAT HAPPENED TO JESSIE? WHY WAS SHE ON FIRE?" he set Jessie's crispy corpse on the counter as his sister ran in. "Brian's with a scary man", she said, "I'm scared of him, I don't know what happened to Jessie. I'm hungry and Brian's ignoring me though, he didn't make any breakfast, can you please make me lunch?"
"Is it lunch time already?" he wondered out loud. With a sad expression, he started to pluck the feathers off the half of his ex-pet chicken that hadn't been burnt.
Sarah pleaded, "Stop that, I don't want to eat Jessie, I want to bury her! She was a good Chicken! She was never mean like the other chickens, she didn't peck me and didn't even chase me once!"
"Sarah, this is what happens to chickens when they stop laying eggs. Jessie was a nice chicken, yes, but she's also food. If we buried her, we'd be wasting food."
"But Jessie was a good chicken! Please kill some other chicken to eat and bury Jessie!"

Josh sighed and stopped pulling feathers. He didn't really want to eat her, either, so he took Sarah and went to the shed for a shovel. After sending Sarah off to look for a rock she could use as a headstone, he dug a shallow hole and got the chicken. Sarah came back with a long, flat rock, and she put it upright in the dirt. Josh handed her the chicken and she laid her in the hole, then threw a handful of dirt over her. Josh shoveled the loose soil back over her, then took his shovel back to the shed, and remembered he'd never collected the eggs. He picked up his basket, which had survived the attack of the hammer ninja, and head into the shed. The rooster cocked his head at him as he moved the egg Jessie had laid that morning into the nest of another chicken from whom he'd just taken an egg. The rest, he took into the kitchen.

Velina followed, seeing Sarah. She was such a sweet girl. She reminded her of herself when she was younger. Seeing her beg not to eat the chicken made her smile. She stayed outside after they buried the chicken and she knelt down beside it. Putting her hand on top of the soil lightly, she closed her eyes. "Rest in peace, child of the mother." she spoke silently, a light violet glow appearing around her hand.

After asking that nobody allow him to oversleep, and having politely excused himself, Josh slipped upstairs, out of his clothes, and under the covers.

Velina sat outside, looking down at the ground. Thinking of things to do, she spread out her dress, trying to let it dry quicker. She began to sing softly, trying to pass the time. "Everytime I try to fly, I fall. Without my wings, I feel so small. I guess I need you baby."