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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 18, 2006 15:18:57 GMT -5
In the middle of a great grass land where the grass reaches past the waist of a grown man is a crossroad. All through the plains this road has been strong and straight but now it suddenly split in two. A post stood in the middle of the fork, on it signs saying what laid ahead each path. All around this dusty dirt road was the seas of grass and nothing else. Everything was a dusty brown, the dried grass, the road, the sign post, even the sky was a pale yellow tint for the sun was setting. And before this sign stood a small dark girl, looking like a hole in the world. Her black wings folded loosely against her back, dark clothes covered in a thin layer of dust from the road.
"Ah, ah, ahbuh." Rhaspsody looked at the shapes on the sign carefully, trying to remember what she had learned about letters and reading. She didn't know much but she knew enough to usually keep her from getting too lost. |
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Post by Terrace on Mar 21, 2006 16:41:11 GMT -5
Terrace quickly quieted from her chitchatting with Zeke about how they were going to get to Tyraan- they had the money, they just had to find a boat (find about to get on another boat. Good thing they didn't hate boats)- when she saw a little girl in front of her. This girl was dusty and winged. She couldn't quite place a race on her. The same could be said for Terrace, though.
Zeke walked in front of Terrace, alert as he always had to be. He tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Do you know the-" he began to ask, but stopped. The figure couldn't be more than a child. But what was she doing out here all alone? There were no houses nearby!
Terrace could see it in her face. Her fear, of course, but not only that. There was lonliness and sadnes etched across a face too young to know such a thing. In this girl, the lupine child of a goddess saw sadness deeper even than her own. She didn't know why. She felt an empathy with this girl. "Are you in some kind of trouble?" the quick thinker asked, quickly taking hold of the situation.
Zeke shrugged, ready to guard his charge if neccessary. The little one didn't look like a threat, but you couldn't be too careful. And he was always as careful as he could be when it came to Terrace.
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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 21, 2006 16:50:02 GMT -5
Rhapsody turned quickly at the tap. She had been so consumed with trying to read the sign she hadn't noticed these people. There were two of them, both seemed...wolfish to tell the truth. What if they were Kurash! What if they knew that she had almost told about the underwater city! Then the girl spoke, she did not seem like she was about to hurt her but she had learned not to trust everyone with a kind face. If they found out she was a half breed they would hurt her, or at least try. So she needed to keep it a secret, no matter what. "N, no!"She blurted in response to the woman's question. "I'm completely fine!"
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Post by Terrace on Mar 21, 2006 17:07:16 GMT -5
Terrace looked her up and down. She was afraid of the two, but the wolfgirl had no idea why. She brushed back her midnight hair from her face, her yellow eyes searching the girl's face. "Little one, why are you out here alone?" she asked kindly. She always tried to be kind. Children were never the ones who betrayed in her visions of horror.... they never made her doubt right and wrong. She may have seen those who were "good" betray all they knew, and she had seen those supposedly evil killed for converting to more righteous ways. She had seen all things that made her doubt. But never had a child turned to darkness... not like Terrace herself might have done.
Zeke placed his hand on Terrace's shoulder and whispered into her ear. "We'd better get going." Good thing the goddess-daughter's mother wasn't here. Xyla would have tormented him later for his sad excuses to be ever nearer his charge.
Terrace nodded. She gave him a look that said so much. I want to talk to her first.
"Don't your parents worry?" She'd seen the things that could happen to a little girl, and quite often a little girl like this one. She would prevent that from happening.
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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 21, 2006 17:17:27 GMT -5
This left Rhapsody in an awkward spot. If she told them they would do wonder why her parents left her before she could remember them. It never occurred to Rhapsody to lie, her mind never even thought about it. "I'm reading, and they're not here right now." This was true as far as Rhapsody knew. Her parents could be anywhere, whoever they were. But they certainly wasn't these people, they were too young by the look of them, so and they were the only ones here, so they were not here right now. And she had been reading. Yup, this was completely innocent and true answers, now they wouldn't know about her being a half-breed or orphan.
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Post by Terrace on Mar 21, 2006 17:25:09 GMT -5
"An odd spot to be reading, don't you think? Shouldn't you be home, where it's less dangerous?" Terrace asked cautiously. Something was up. Kids didn't come out on their own to sit alone and read. A good parent wouldn't allow it. Though what did Terrace know? Her father was dead and her mother was a, by her definition, not Xyla's, completely insane goddess whom she loathed.
Zeke was uneasy. Something was definitely fishy. Terrace knew it too, he could tell. It was obvious she wanted the girl to some with them. Why? What use would she be? Perhaps she was dangerous! So many things could go wrong. What was Terrace doing?
She was trying to protect someone completely innocent. She didn't want the girl to come to any harm from the horrors she knew- plagued by them nightly- lay out there. She gave a smile, or what she thought was one.
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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 21, 2006 17:32:32 GMT -5
"I was reading the sign, I can't read the sign from home." Rhapsody said. If she had calmed down upon giving the vaugest answer she knew for the first question she was not tense again since the woman was pressing the point. What if she ran out of vauge answers? Would she tell the truth or run for it? She quickly glanced at the man, trying to see if he had some weapon on him. She saw a bow, that would stop any attempt to run quickly. But maybe she could hide in the grass, it was almost over her head anyway. She angled her self toward the fnearest field in case they wouldn't drop it and move on.
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Post by Terrace on Mar 21, 2006 17:44:56 GMT -5
Zeke saw in the little one's eyes the eyes of some frightened animal. Apparently Terrace had seen the same thing, from the next thing she said.
She laughed her normal laugh, the little weak one she always gave out. "You're surveying us like we're a few monsters." Her face turned deadly serious. "You really shouldn't be out here all alone." Her voice became quiet, almost sad, like some depressing vision descended upon her mind. "There are monsters... ones who will hurt someone like you, all alone here, if you're not careful. You should be home with your parents to take care of you." She knew if she had parents who could and would take care of her, she would want just that. At this the girl remembered the humans who had taken care of her so long.
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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 21, 2006 18:17:49 GMT -5
At the word monster Rhapsody stiffened like she had been struck with lightning. "Monster won't bother me." She said slowly, eyes dialated so that the pupils were only pin pricks of black. "I'll be fine all alone, and my parents won't take care of me." She realized what she just said and jerked her head up at the two people then shot off for the grass. She should have stopped, she shouldn't have talked so much. Now they would ask questions, questions that would make them hate her. She had to leave before they decided to kill her!
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Post by Terrace on Mar 21, 2006 18:27:07 GMT -5
Parents won't take care of her? Terrace thought quickly. Then they would have to do it. She looked pleadingly at Zeke, who sighed.
He touched the ground under his feet with a finger, and the grasses were called to halt Rhapsody. They quickly caught up with the girl, then.
Terrace's only thought was that they had to help this girl, to take her in, to take care of her. She couldn't leave a child out to fend for herself.
Zeke's was, What the hell've we gotten ourselves into this time?
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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 21, 2006 18:32:34 GMT -5
"Let me go, let me go, LET ME GO!!" Rhapsody said panic rising as the very plants grabbed her. "I won't let you kill me, I won't! Not yet, I won't die!" What could she do what could she do! One of them was a mage, how could she fight against magic. Well there was one way...NO! She didn't want to do that, she never wanted to do that again! Nothing good came of it! She wouldn't do it unless there was no hope of getting away. But struggling against the grass she felt as if there was no way to get away. What should she do?!
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Post by Terrace on Mar 21, 2006 18:49:21 GMT -5
Zeke grabbed the girl's flailing arms, willing the plants to back down.
Terrace stood in front of the girl, hands up to show she was wielding no weapons. "Please, don't try to run away. We want to help you, truly." Her eyes were shining with the beginnings of tears. Parents who won't take care of you? That was all she'd gotten since she was thirteen. Parents who couldn't or wouldn't take care of her. All she had was Zeke.
The wolfman added, in an attempt at calm, "If you just calm down and hear us out I can let you go. But not until then. We don't want to hurt you. Terrace just wants to make sure you're safe!" He looked pleadingly at the girl, who returned his look with one that showed her determination to help this girl.
"You haven't seen what can happen to people like you out on their own like this. I have. It isn't pretty and I don't want to have another nightmare about it-" she quickly covered her mouth. What had she been saying!
Zeke stared in shock at what the wolfgirl had just done.
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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 22, 2006 16:04:52 GMT -5
((Ironically Rhapsody probaly has seen the horrible things that happen to people like her out on their own, and experienced it to.))
"I won't let you kill me!" Rhapsody said more to herself than to the woman, Terrace apperantly, and the man. But she stopped struggling so hard. She still strained against the man's grip but it was so strong it didn't seem like she would ever be able to get away from it even when he let go. Still she tried. One thing she was glad of was that he hadn't grabbed her other arm. It had broken recently the last time she had been in a city and hurt so badly when she did anything or when something touched it. If they tried to kill her she would use it, that was all there was left that she could do.
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Post by Terrace on Mar 22, 2006 16:18:39 GMT -5
((But Terrace doesn't know that.))
"I'm not going to kill you!" Terrace yelled in frustration. "And Zeke's not either. If you calm down, we can talk like civilized people. I just want to help."
The lupine man held the young girl's arm fast. Until she stopped struggling, there was still the chance she'd make a break for it her first try. They had to prove they wouldn't hurt her, or she wouldn't calm down. And her running away without them trying everything first would upset Terrace. She tried to be good. She really did try. His charge was already upset enough at the thought she might kill this kid. Zeke could wave it off.... but Terrace? Perhaps not. There was so much she had to struggle with already.
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Post by Rhapsody Mutt on Mar 22, 2006 16:25:01 GMT -5
"What do you want with me? I don't care if you hurt me but I won't let you kill me." Rhapsody said gasping from the effort she had put into trying to be free of the man's, Zeke's, grip. She returned stare for stare, she would not be called a coward, but she really wanted to just collapse on the ground in the fruitlessness of everything she did. Why did everything she did or touch go wrong? The only thing she ever seemed to be good at was music, and that made things happen which she didn't want to happen, horrible things.
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