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A Well-Lit Escape; {CI: Erik | ISO: OPEN}
Topic Started: Jun 13 2009, 07:26 PM (276 Views)
Alma
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[align=right]Fall 6th ~ Firefly Festival
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Even though he was sure that Kayla would moan and gripe and whine about the fact that he was making such a long trek out to the Sapphire Glade so late at night where no one could help him if he injured himself, Erik was still resolutely and relatively stubbornly pushing himself toward the glade. He had no true reason to be here. Indeed, he still had a few things to complete back at the shop, and his home needed to be dusted, but...he supposed that Kayla could take care of that. Hmph. He hadn't meant to take so quickly to the little dark-haired woman who was his self-appointed nursemaid, and even though he hadn't had much of polite conversation with her given just how irritable and crotchety he could be, he had to admit that he didn't quite mind her company. At least she could give as good as she got.

Regardless, Erik knew that he needed some sort of escape. He was tired, so tired, of being cramped up in that little shack of his, simply waiting for his leg and his ribs and his arm to recover so that he could get back to his livelihood. The untidy mops in this village called to him to cut them so that the village would be full of absolute beauty again. That, and he desperately needed a bigger share of profits. He couldn't stay in that tiny shack anymore. He just couldn't. And, if he got a larger house, he mused that he might be able to add on a bedroom extension and rent it out to someone, a newcomer to the village who wouldn't be aware of his cynical irritable crotchetyness and who would sign a lease that would bind their money to him for a season, at the least. Yes, that sounded like an absolutely perfect idea. To think, he almost wanted to smile.

But that wasn't the only reason why he fled his shack, carefully maneuvering his crutch down the road before breaking off of it to go through the more uneven section of dirt and grass as he headed straight toward the Sapphire Glade. No, he'd heard of a beautiful, utterly artistic event taking place during this week. He'd heard that the fireflies would be making an appearance, absolutely filling both the beach and the glade with rapturous lights and calm atmosphere. And, whether he wanted to admit it or not, he desperately needed it.

As Erik paused in the middle of the glade, surrounded by the constant flickering of lights and the soft tickling brushes against his skin as the fireflies waltzed through the air, he released a long, heavy sigh, observing everything as best as he could through the longer bangs that hung in front of his eyes. By the Goddess. It was gorgeous. Erik let the silence of the Fall surround him, broken occasionally by the chirping of crickets or the mournful calls of the owls and the turtledoves, and felt his heart pick up speed in its beating. It made him...miss home. What? Aye, but it was true. For the first time since he'd arrived, he actually and genuinely missed his home. He missed his mother. He missed his younger sister. He missed...well, no, he didn't quite miss his father, but he felt the need to know how he was doing, for once. It all rushed in so quickly that Erik felt a pang in his heart that threatened to bring him to his knees, a stinging at his eyes that soon clouded his vision.

No. No, he could never go home. Never. And yet here he was, pining for it, especially for the familiarity. He wanted to watch his little sister as she danced around the room, grinning widely and waiting for her date to arrive for the night. He wanted to see her walk down the aisle to a good, upstanding, handsome man who would treat her right, who wouldn't treat her like his father treated his mother. He wanted to see his mother cry that day out of happiness, for once, instead of the countless other times that she'd wept, that Erik had held her close and buried his face in the top of her head and begged the Goddess to ease his mother's pain. Before he could stop himself, Erik felt a tear or two seep out of his eyes, creeping down his chin. He lifted one of his broad, calloused hands into the air and, after hesitating for a moment, shot it forward and closed it into a fist. As he drew his hand back and slowly opened it, he watched the firefly instead sit patiently, flashing its bulb and flexing its wings from time to time. By the Goddess, how he missed them.

Let Kayla say what she want tomorrow. He would stay right here, and appreciate it all.
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(Sorry it's so late!)

Arienette wondered how they could have been so cruel. They knew, they all knew what they had done. They had to. They probably didn't think it would bother her this much. She shouldn't let her bug as much as she was, but it bugged her all the same. It was the eve of her parents death, of the only trauma she flat out refused to talk about ninety nine percent of the time. George and Michael both knew that she would be upset, it was the only day of the entire year that she was a little off. That her smile was a little more forced. She had every right to be upset given the fact that her parents had died, that it was impossible to push her family from her brain on this night, like she did the majority of the time. Yet, they didn't seem to care. It was a festival after all. A day for celebration. Everyone was together again. Their friends who had stayed on the mainland came to the island to celebrate. Their idea of a fun time, was a giant bonfire, in a clearing the middle of the woods. Flames licking the sky, coming dangerously close to branches that would ignite instantly if a stray spark decided to be so bold. They were all dancing and singing, like a true band of gypsies would. Happy, carefree, unaware of the terrified girl sitting as far away from them as she possibly could. No one noticed her screams of terror, they probably mistook them for cheers of joy. Even Kirk, her giant, grey wolf, was hiding behind his paws, remembering the fire that had eaten up half of the woods he had used to live in.

No one noticed when Arienette ran, either. She didn't expect them to. They were all to preoccupied in their happiness, to jovial to notice one girl out of place. This whole night was too reminiscent of what had happened so long ago. She had to escape to where she couldn't see the flames, or even the smoke. She ran as fast as she could, as long as she could, her eyes were closed tight, causing her to stumble over roots. Kirk trailed her, not wanting to be left alone without his dear owner. Finally, Arienette couldn't run anymore, she was out of breath, she was tired. She stopped, she collapsed. She didn't think she had run far enough. She still smelled the smoke. It was a strong smell, connected to a strong memory that made her stomach turn. She got up to run again, but didn't have the strength. She looked back the way she had come. She did not see the light from the fire. She did not see the tower of smoke seeping through the trees. She realized the smokey smell was coming from her hair, her clothes. She needed to find water.

She was near the ocean, she could hear it through the trees. She quickly made her way to the sound of the waves crashing, after she had caught her breath. It wasn't hard to find, within minutes she was there, staring at the vast emptiness of the sea. She smiled, she waded in. She scrubbed at her clothes, at her hair. She tried to banish the putrid smell, she hoped she had succeeded as she waded back out of the dark water. It was dark. So dark. Fear began to creep back into her body, her bones. She needed to run again...but not back the way she came. She ran north. She saw flickering lights, smelled no smoke. This was a good sign.

As she made her way into the glade, she realized that the lights were coming from hundreds of fireflies. She smiled. The irony that she had stumbled upon the very bug her friends had scared her away for. She sat down. Here was safe, and here was light. She would be fine here until morning. She started to wring out her hair, and her clothes. The cold, wet, salty water was uncomfortable, but she had no change of clothes. She would have to make do. She left her hair down to let it dry faster. Kirk, ambled through the clearing, and sat in front of Arienette. She began to stroke his fur absent-mindedly. She was glad to see him comfortable. He even was able to close his eyes while Arienette stared off into space, not seeing around her.

It wasn't until she heard a low growl from Kirk, that she was brought out of her trance. She followed the wolf's nose, and saw that it was pointing to a figure, on the opposite end of the glade, "Hush, Kirk," she reprimanded, realizing there was no real threat. She did not know if the person had seen them before. She hadn't realized at all that anyone else was there when she came tearing in. Kirk, however, refused to rest. The curious, protective wolf got up and ambled over to the figure, for further inspection. Arienette sighed, and got up and began chasing after him. As she got closer, she realized that the figure was a man, hunched over a firefly that was resting on his palm. Kirk got dangerously close to the man, before Arienette was able to pull him back. Kirk seemed to be satisfied, but Arienette felt that apologies were in order

"I am sorry for the interruption" she said to the man, "Kirk seems to not know about boundaries,"
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He remained there in his thoughts, completely unaware of the visitor to his Glade that arrived, and watched the firefly a bit closer. It was quite the fascinating creature, if one gave it the time to demonstrate its true loveliness, and one of the only insects that Erik could truly stand without wincing or growing a wee bit stiff in its presence. It scurried quietly along his finger, stretching its wings from beneath the wing casings from time to time but seeming to think better of this after a second or two and closing them to scurry a bit farther. Strange. Regardless, he watched, bright blue eyes in rapt attention, and studied the large, beady black eyes, the soft and low flickering of its bulb. How ironic, really, that it seemed so pleased to stay in one place and to trust its perch with its life.

So, then...why couldn't Erik remain just as happily?

Or perhaps I will. Though he didn't have any close companions here, no one that he could truly call a 'friend' in his vast and convoluted mind, he felt vaguely comfortable with his surroundings. There was something here that captured him and held him close and nuzzled him expectantly, as if it would make all of his troubles better. Granted, given the cast that he wore on his arm and the crutch that supported his injured leg, the island had done just as much pain to him, but he found that, strangely, he didn't hold it against it. Instead, he remained. He waited - no, expected - to heal quickly in the island's fresh ocean air. He knew that he would take his place in the island's society and find where he belonged eventually. Unlike back home, he had absolutely no desire to leave this place, not beyond a simple visit to his home.

Home? Once again, the irony made Erik shake his head very lightly. Home was no longer that building full of angst and pain and expectations that Erik could never fill. Nae, home was here, in Obsidian Village, in the Sapphire Glade, on the Ocean of Stars. If his sister wasn't still stuck at ho...- no, at where he grew up - then there would be nothing there to call him back. And he was all right with that.

His musings were cut short by the sound of leaves crunching, and Erik turned his head quickly toward the sound, though he winced very suddenly at the pain that sounded in his head. One would think after seeing the bandages every day on his head that he would remember not to whirl his head about like that, but some people never learned, no matter how bright and logical they were. His gaze blurred so suddenly that he didn't even see what was coming toward him until it was right upon him, a great wolf staring up at him with a wee bit of danger in its eyes. Erik froze where he was, aware of the fact that he couldn't run given his injured leg and that there was no way he could do damage to this thing with his crutch. If it wanted to eat him, then there was absolutely no way that he could stop it. Before his thoughts grew too morbid, however, and before he began to pray his final thoughts to the Harvest Goddess, a very tiny girl ran up and restrained the wolf. When the wolf didn't turn on her and attack her, Erik felt himself slump in relief, though he immediately visibly stiffened and drew in a quick breath and winced in pain as he did so. That was a bad idea with those bound ribs of his.

Her apologies didn't go over his head, however, and he nodded curtly once, scowling down at the creature. His heart was still pounding mercilessly, and it was making him feel woozy. Blasted animal. "Can't you find some way to restrain it?" he snapped rather cruelly, baritone voice echoing rather loudly through the Glade. However, as he stared for a moment or two at the small girl, who had to be at least a foot shorter than him, he felt something in him soften, surprisingly. It was the vague sort of reaction that he had around Serahfina as well, to be careful and kind to her. With Serahfina, it was because she barely came up to the middle of his thigh and was generally bright and cheery, not to mention that she saved his life. With this wee thing, however, he assumed that it was because of her short stature as well. Fair enough. He would try to be a bit kinder. He heaved a great sigh, turning his eyes back to his palm, where the firefly finally decided to flutter off to join its comrades. "No harm done. Please excuse my tone of voice. I'm in...quite a state tonight, I suppose." That he even admitted that much made tonight a red-letter occasion. Perhaps it was the darkness, or the fireflies, or the memories, but there was something softer about Erik, something generally unexpected. It was odd...and yet he refused to push it away.
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With the man's short, testy response to her apology, she couldn't help but let her follow the line of her arm down to her hand, where she held firmly to her wolf's nape. Wasn't 'restraining' the wolf exactly what she was doing? Yelling was entirely unnecessary. However, she and her furrier companion had crept up on the poor man without warning. She supposed that maybe the man had thought that Kirk would attack. She knew that no matter what, Kirk would never be the first to strike, but this man didn't know that Kirk was any better than a common blood thirsty wolf prowling for dinner. She looked back to the man, and for the first time noticed all of the gauze and plaster, the crutch. The man was injured, badly. She furrowed her brow, and wondered what on earth could anyone do to find themselves in such a state of disrepair.

She shouldn't be wondering things about strangers. She shouldn't have stayed glued to the spot. She knew that she should banish herself to the other side of the glade, curl up, sleep, and return to the camp when she got home. She shouldn't bother this stranger with her wolf- whom, after assessing the situation, and finding no threat, had flopped down next to her, and fallen asleep-or her questions. She knew that tonight of all nights would be an especially bad show of her character. She took a second to glance down at herself, now only fairly damp, with dewy leaves stuck to her hem. She instinctively took a step back, even though she was nowhere near close enough to drip on the man. She was about to curtsy quickly and retreat back to where she had come from, but the opening his mouth once more stopped her in her tracks.

The second time he spoke, his tone was kinder. He had apologized where no apology was needed, explaining that his terse words had come from being in 'a state.' Arienette couldn't help but let loose a single, dry laugh. It must be the season, the fireflies, the glade, the entire island. Something was up. The one night in an entire year that Arienette is out of sorts, is of course the same day that she would happen to run into another soul, who may just be as out of sorts as she is. That simple comment took her back to her youth, to the night from many years ago when her home became nothing more than charcoal. She began to wonder what had this stranger out of sorts, but quickly tried to turn the questions out her her mind, knowing that she wouldn't want to be questioned to much in the state she was in currently.

She turned her attentions to the man, still sitting on the ground and smiled a genuine smile, with sad undertones. "There is no need to apologize. I'm sorry he surprised you," she said, her voice a tinkling soprano to his baritone. "He would never hurt anyone, but you couldn't have known that. He's very....protective of me, especially around this time of the year," she said, not realizing how her explanation could confuse a stranger. She wrung her hair out, leaving a small wet patch of grass where she stood, and began to braid her hair, in efforts to keep it from getting any more tangled than her tearing through the woods had. "I'm Arienette, by the way," She said, after the braid was finished. She looked to Kirk, who was still asleep at her feet, and sighed, but smiled. Not knowing if she should wake the beast up to move, or to stand her, awkwardly.
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Erik winced a bit again as she shifted his weight, watching the play of expressions across the woman's face after he spoke. She seemed like a rather fragile individual, for whatever reason, though he supposed that he might only think so due to the correlations that he was drawing from her extremely petite frame in comparison to his. The wolf settled down slowly next to the girl, resting its head on its paws and seeming to drop almost immediately to sleep. ...Interesting. Erik arched one of his thin eyebrows as he examined it, wondering if it was narcoleptic in any way, before looking back to the girl again. Fascinating, really, how it looked almost as if she would rather turn tail and flee from him. Fair enough. That was the one bloody reaction he'd been looking for on this island! Everyone else seemed completely peachy with him and not intimidated in the slightest, not even a little four-year-old girl with a mind too big for her head.<br><br>

Oh, calm down, you big oaf. The thought rang clear and true, with the voice delivering it sounding very similar to that of his mother's, and he tilted his head downward to stare at the ground with a rather ragged sigh of sorts. If he was to intimidate someone, to make them respect him in any sort of way, through snapping and violence, he would rather it be someone of his own gender, age, and size, not a girl who stood at least a whole foot shorter than him. For goodness sake, it looked like he could decapitate her just by sneezing on her, given the thin state of her frame and what not. Nae, it was better to try to be a little softer, a little kinder, at least for the evening, though he did mentally remind himself that he also needed to be a bit more careful in terms of controlling his other emotions. Part of him still wanted to do nothing less than crumple on the ground and to sob until every last tear he'd held in over the years was gone.<br><br>

Hmph. No. This was most definitely not the time for that.<br><br>

The girl spoke again, then, shaking him from his thoughts, and Erik snapped his ice blue eyes up to pin the girl where she stood again with a certain tension in them that seemed to come naturally to him. Her voice reminded him of bells, in a way, and he found himself listening carefully, almost analyzing it, and wondering how her singing voice must sound. It was no secret around his home town that Erik was a sucker for dark-haired girls with beautiful singing voices, and he found himself hoping that if she could sing that he wouldn't ever be around to hear it. He'd undoubtedly make a fool of himself, like the one time he had rather drunkenly proposed to the dark-haired singing girl outside of the bar back home. "..." Yes, well...best not to think about that now, then.<br><br>

Her comment about her wolf being protective drew a very soft, amused snort from Erik as he rolled his eyes carelessly and tightened his grip on his crutch, but he still listened as she went on, commenting on this time of year. He wondered curiously if she meant the colder seasons, as she didn't seem to be incredibly warmly dressed, and found himself suddenly wondering if she had a place to stay. It was a quick conclusion to draw, but he couldn't quite help himself. His mind was much too logical to avoid it. Regardless, as she squeezed the water from her hair, Erik was distracted by the fact that she seemed to be rather damp, and wondered if he had missed a rainstorm of sorts. There was also a soft comment of thanks to the Goddess that it was dark enough that the girl wouldn't think him ogling her in any sort of way if she was indeed indecently soaking wet. Erik liked to think himself above such things, but one could never be sure with the rather passionate and curious male mind, especially coming from as sheltered of an area as Erik did.<br><br>

There was a bit of a quick introduction from the girl that snuck up on Erik, and he barely had a moment to digest her rather different name - Arienette? - before he knew that it was only polite of him to offer his own name in return. "Erik. Forgive me for not shaking your hand." His state of injury, however, rather prevented him from doing so, and he shifted a bit on the ground as if in recognition of this fact. "..." His eyes fell on the wolf, who was now snoring rather annoyingly, and he curled his lips into a frown once more before muttering. "Where did you find that beast, anyway?"

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She smiled again, and offered man, Erik, a single nod of understanding. "it is very nice to meet you Erik," She didn't at all expect him to shake, or even to shift as much as he seemed to be shifting. She stared exasperated at her animal companion as he began to let out a low gurgling snore. She rolled her eyes at the wolf, before turning her head to listen to the question muttered through a scowl. Was this Erik...was he actually inciting her to talk? She was so used to being the one to volley the questions rapidly at the second party, but rarely did she offer up her own information. She paused to think about the situation, the question. Both were harmless, there was potential for lethality, for the forbidden topic, but it was also easily avoided. She didn't know if this was Erik's way of inviting her into his bubble, offering her some temporary companionship, or if this was merely a prompt to wake her wolf.

She took it as the former, and happily collapsed onto the carpet of the clearing, crossing her legs in front of her, and easing Kirk's head into her lap, to pet him affectionally, and to try at least lower the volume of the snores. The deliberate act of petting soon became an absent minded one as she tried to think how to explain Kirk to a total stranger. Usually when she was confronted by strangers she didn't have him with her, and there for was only required explain him if he came up in conversation, which he rarely did. She didn't think that she had ever had to explain where she had found him.

"We've been together since we were both small," she started, this seemed to be a suitable place to begin, but what was the next step? We both lost our mothers? she thought to herself we both lost our homes? Both were to personal, and would spark more questions that she didn't feel that she could answer, at least not answer for a total stranger. As for location, where the pair had met never really go the chance to be called her home. "We sort of found each other, in the woods behind my birthplace. He was still a pup, and he needed someone to take care of him. I was the first person to discover him, so it became me, I suppose, and well......it just sort of happened that we began to travel together,"

Arienette reviewed her answer. Not very cryptic, she had answered the stated question of where, as well as providing a little bit of detail, but not so much to make either of them uncomfortable. She nodded, quickly to herself, as if confirming her thoughts. She had done alright. She wanted to ask the man about his injuries, about what exactly had brought him to what seemed to be a safe haven for fireflies, and , a million other questions, but she didn't think that he would like that at all. She bit her tongue both figuratively, and literally, in attempts to assuage herself from her usual inquisitive nature. "It must hurt an awful lot to move about," she stated. It was sort of a question in her eyes. She was opening up the floor for him to talk about himself, explain what he wanted, ignore what he wanted to ignore. She wondered if he would share, or if he would even notice.
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The woman was smiling, for some strange reason, even though Erik halfway expected her to turn and flee at the sight of him. After all, only moments before, she'd seemed reasonably intimidated by him, but now? Now she seemed perfectly well all over again. Curses. He was never going to develop any sort of respect around this island at this rate. Instead of hanging his head and muttering, however, he simply continued to stare at the girl with those vaguely cold blue eyes of his, watching her flounce down to the ground like she was still rather young - which she probably was, on second thought - and lift the wolf's head like it wasn't a wild animal. How...bizarre, to say the least. Why she would want to have anything in her possession like that was far beyond him. Women needed things that were a little more genteel, like...a Persian kitten or a toy poodle. A wolf? Nae. Things like that didn't quite mesh with the mindset he'd grown up with.<br>
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Before he could think on it any more, however, he also noticed that Arienette was hesitating, just enough for it to grow suspicious to an incredibly observant man like Erik. Add into that the fact that she seemed to be refusing to meet his eyes, and Erik found himself growing more and more curious. Was she hiding something, or was she simply shy? Was it a long story that she was shortening? He had absolutely no idea. However, he still leaned rather heavily against the crutch, waiting for her to speak. Jumping down her throat, he was sure, would only cause her to withhold information, and he was definitely not into that prospect at all.<br>
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Her explanation, however, was not entirely what he was expecting. What kind of mother would allow her child to raise a wolf pup, of all things? Unless...perhaps she had been absent from the child's life. Perhaps, like Erik's father, she had merely been checked out, perhaps due to alcohol or simply to depression. Erik considered this, since it seemed most likely, before rotating the rest of what she said in his mind, looking for any sort of hint to the contrary. She was careful, though. Nothing stuck out as terribly unusual to him, and he was left to simply consider what she said truth while also waiting for her to say something that would hint to him if his idea was correct or not.<br>
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Well then. Erik turned his head to stare at the flicker of the fireflies, not too keen on keeping a conversation going with the girl right away. He was a rather poor conversationalist given the fact that he would rather listen and observe than be the one asking questions or offering information about himself, and therefore silence rarely felt awkward to him. This point was not one of those awkward moments, and he happily stood there and watched the light show going on about him. It was a welcome distraction from his earlier thoughts.<br>
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Unfortunately, the girl brought him back to reality before he could get too far away, and he stiffened in a bit of silence when he realized that she'd basically asked about his wounds. Well then. "A bit." Maybe that's all she would get, then! At the same time, Erik realized that it was a bit rude, and he could just see his little sister eyeing him with a bit of a glare. Oh, fine. He mentally rolled his eyes as he looked back at Arienette, searching for any sort of insufferable pity in her eyes. "The earthquake...did a bit of a number on me, I'm afraid."
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Arienette nodded, of course she was sympathetic, the man in front of her was injured, badly. It was the natural thing to wish Erik well, however, her curiosity was peaked, and her curiosity was a hard thing to control. She hadn't remembered an earthquake. She had only been here for less than a season, but she still thought that even if the earthquake hadn't occurred while she was on the island, then there would have been some evidence of its destruction. The wounds seemed to be new after all. She leaned into the gap between them, letting her elbows rest on the ground, and her head on her fists.<br><br>
"I don't think that I was here for the earthquake, was it long ago? Was a lot destroyed? Was the island very different afterwards? Will you recover soon? Were others hurt? Did anybody die?" she asked, accidentally. She hadn't meant to bombard Erik with questions, it just wasn't in her nature do anything really, but ask questions. She was, by nature, a rather inquisitive sort of girl. She was fascinated easily, and when she came across something she knew absolutely nothing about, she couldn't help but want to learn everything she possibly could, and she had never been in an earthquake herself. <br><br>
She immediately felt bad for the random string of unexpected questions from above, and couldn't help a deep blush from forming on her cheeks. "Sorry," she added after a moment, "Don't feel as if you need to answer any of that. I just moved here at the beginning of the season with a pair of friends. I, well I plan to stay here, and so of course the island, and it's happenings. I mean, I don't really know that much about moving somewhere permanently, either-Nevertheless, I tend to ask lots of questions. I've started to try and control it, but it doesn't always work that well, so anyway, I will do that sometimes, just spout questions. I know it's annoying, and I'm sorry." she smiled here, punctuating her apology, "George and Michael make fun of me all the time,"<br><br>
She furrowed her brow, she had rambled without realizing how much she was rambling. The speech had been less guarded than before. She was relaxing, not just around the stranger, that was easy. People weren't terrifying typically. No, she was beginning to relax from her previous terror of the night. She let her mind wander, not really thinking about anything in general, but rather focusing on the friendly glow from the fireflies. It got dark so early in the fall, and she was glad that these bugs still remained to light a clearing for her. It was sort of like an early birthday present. She mouthed a silent thank you to the bright little insects, before turning her attention back to Erik. <br><br>
"It's nice here, the fireflies keep this clearing lit just bright enough to keep comforting," She offered in a very nearly, but not quite trancelike tone. "I abhor the dark," she added quickly, with another smile. "so it's nice to find someplace in the wilderness that isn't pitch black. If I'm talking to much, feel free to shut me up," she laughed. She wasn't very confident of her conversation abilities. This skill was one she didn't use very often, with very many people, so she had trouble distinguishing the difference between an amount of talking that was interesting, and an amount that was boring.


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Alma
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That's the machine that goes 'PING!'
Villagers
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It was rather odd that the girl was sitting on the ground when Erik was an inch or two over six feet tall and therefore had to lower his chin very heavily just to be able to see the girl. The fact that her hair was so dark, as well as her clothing, made it even more difficult for his eyes to keep track of her, though the effervescent nature of the lightning bugs around them aided him when their lights shone against her rather pale skin. Regardless, he couldn't exactly demand her to rise simply because his leg kept him from sitting on the ground. That would make him a bit more rude than usual...as difficult as that might be in his present physical state.
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As if the girl could read his mind, she immediately began to chat about that which brought him to said physical state, assaulting him with questions that brought back some not-so-pleasant memories. Goodness. Was she always this rude? He narrowed his bright blue eyes a bit, furrowing his scarlet brows in turn, and simply stared at her until her questions tapered off, leaving a moment or two of silence before she stumbled into a long and drawn-out apology that told him quite a bit more about her than he'd wondered in the first place. Still, he supposed it was nice to know that she wasn't homeless or that, if she was, she at least had two or so companions to take care of her, minus that silly wolf of hers. But perhaps he owed her answers to a few of a her questions. Goddess knew he'd barely allowed himself to think about the earthquake beyond his two tiny saviors and how it kept him away from his craft. Perhaps it was time to revisit it.<br>
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"...it's all right." That was as much of an apology as he was willing to huff out before sighing very softly and thinking of a way to answer her questions as concisely as possible. "It was...a little less than a season ago, early in the morning on Summer 13th, that the first signs started, little tremors here and there. It wasn't until the very early afternoon that it began in full force." His voice was low, turning more and more melodic with every phrase until it nearly danced with the words as they slipped from his lips. "A great tidal wave of energy shook the entire island, focusing purely on the center of it, until, to the horror of the few of us there, the island began to split down the middle." Erik closed his eyes, remembering every moment of it suddenly in great detail.<br>
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"From one horizon to the other, a great catechism appeared, and water welled up within it, taking many a villager into it. Some made it out. Some...didn't." The most vivid image of all, one of Peter, the owner of the local vineyard and winery, being taken under the waves and thrashing into a large, sharp rock, and of his corpse rising to float across the water's surface, his head halfway torn from his neck, suddenly swam in front of his mind's eye, and he shuddered, gripping his crutch a little tighter. He was silent again before he finally opened his eyes, staring at the ground with a rather numb expression. "Yes. Life was very different. For a time, there was no communication between the sides, until the Mayor rose up nearly two weeks later and called together everyone here, on the South side of the island, to build a bridge to reach those lost or helpless on the North side. We did. The docks were, and still are, ruined. The mouth of the cave where many mined and excavated is now sealed shut, and others are still repairing the damage to their houses around the beach." He shook his head a bit, suddenly realizing that his plan for conciseness hadn't gone very well at all. Well. He'd just have to stop now, then. "Be glad you weren't here for that."<br>
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Her comment about fireflies, however, seemed to diffuse the situation, and he relaxed a little, unaware that he had grown so tense over the course of the past minute. Nae. Perhaps that was a bad memory to revisit. If he could help it, he'd leave it dormant for as long as he could. And then, almost before he could mention anything about the fireflies, she suddenly perked up and acknowledged her rather...cumbersome talking. Erik shook his head slightly, focusing his eyes into the flashing darkness. "You will find very quickly that I abhor speaking. Please, continue your rambling." That way, of course, he didn't have to say anything in the present of possible awkward silences.
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