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| Shapeshifter Isle Chapter 18; Encounters | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 30 2013, 04:15 PM (299 Views) | |
| Wyvax | Oct 30 2013, 04:15 PM Post #1 |
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We Within
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Installment #18: Encounters I continued to watch them until they disappeared beneath the trees. A sigh escaped my lips as I turned back to camp. He wanted an assignment, well he’s got one. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised he took Paul and Søren with him, but still, I wish… I let the thought die in my mind. I kneeled to rip a piece of meat off a beaver tail Seamus seared over the fire. Mixed blessing’s better than none. They know already after all. I turned towards my tent, seeking solitude for my musings. Pushing away the edge of a tarp that formed my door and laid down to gather my thoughts, I pondered the issues at hand. Alright, Drake’s got his assignment which gets him out of my hair for a few days, and for now at least, removes the biggest wild card from the game. …Damn you Drake; taking Paul and Søren but leaving Zach here with the rest of us! What avenue would I take now? More than half our triad of conspirators dragged off on a hunting trip with Drake, leaving me alone to deal with our “leader”. I sighed. Guess I shouldn't get angry with him. Not like he knew what we were up to… Still, those two better keep their mouths shut for the next few days. Drake’s a whole lot shrewder than everyone thinks he is. He proved it well enough when he actually asked for a job and instructions from me. Very odd behavior for him. “Hence the wild card,” I muttered aloud. I shook Drake from my mind; we had bigger problems right now, namely Zach. The guy’s like a schizophrenic; he’s had more violent mood swings then a pop star in rehab. Wasn’t at all like this on the cruise, something’s changed him, and it isn’t just being stranded here. Any leader that nearly kills his charges isn’t worthy of the position. My brows furrowed at the next thought. For the last two weeks though… he’s been strangely calm, compared to the past month anyway. Sure he lost it two days ago, but that’s been the one blot so far. He seems closer to the guy he was before… but will it last? Maybe but maybe not, if his “blot” proved anything, it was that he still was volatile, almost like a missed dose of anti-depressant. I’ll stick to the plan and prepare for the worst. “I just hope we aren’t the ones starting it,” I breathed aloud. The word needs to be spread, only to those we can trust though. Dave? Yeah, he’ll do, don’t know much about his buddy Red but I’ve seen the look in Dave’s eyes when Zach goes off. Who else? Super won’t do, he looks up far too much to Zach; James might be trustworthy, but he looks up more to Drake, and we definitely don’t want him knowing what we’re planning just yet. Same could go for Zero or Zane I s’pose for now, he might make a good ally in the future, but I hope Paul and Søren don’t ask his opinions just yet. “Guess that just leaves one person for now,” I sighed. “Dave.” I got up and exited the tent to find him. I checked his usual haunts in the camp: his tent and a crooked tree that he leaned against when smoking. He wasn’t there, nor anywhere else within the perimeter that I could see. Thankfully I spotted Red smoking outside his own tent and hailed him down. “Oi, Mister Red!” I hollered. The old fellow choked and coughed out smoke in a startled wheeze. I grimaced. I really ought to be more careful. “Dammit Wyvax! I nearly swallowed a butt!” “I’m sorry sir; I didn’t mean to startle you.” “Don’t worry about it, I was asking for it huffing on that stub,” he laughed. “You don’t have to call me “sir” or “Mister” you know, Red works just fine.” He chuckled again. “My upbringing I guess, well you can just call by my real name as well.” “Well than Walter, what’d ya need? It ain’t often we speak.” “I need to find Dave. Do you know where he is?” I asked. Red just shook his head. “I know that he’s gone spearfishing along the beach, but where exactly I don’t know. Don’t bother going now,” He added as I started away. “You won’t have luck finding him; the walk’s a way and you very well may pass each other going to and fro without noticing.” “Then I guess I wait,” I sighed in frustration. “Hold up now,” Red cut in. “If you’ve got business with him, you can leave it with me if you want and I will let him know.” “I mean no offense Red, I know you’d tell him exactly as I told you, but I’d rather give it to him face to face. You can tell him I was looking for him though, I’d appreciate that.” He nodded. “Alright Walter, I’ll tell when I see him.” “Thanks Red.” He lit a new cigarette and I left. I just can’t get a break can I? So far today wasn’t going all that well. I stood and gazed around the camp; people moved everywhere, darting in and out of tents, lugging bundles of cane reeds and loads of firewood; the noise and hustle irritated me even more than I already was. “Need to get away from it,” I muttered under my breath, grabbing another slice of beaver flesh and scarfing it in one bite before I turned towards the forest. “Got to go somewhere soothing…” I walked into the woods, only half aware of where I was going, my mind whirring with many thoughts. “Got to calm it down,” I breathed. I needed to escape to a place far away from the camp and calm enough to silence my thoughts. The sound of camp diminished almost immediately but I kept on for at least fifteen minutes, seeking out a place where I knew I wouldn’t be disturbed. The gentle sound of water told me I’d found it. A deep and wide creek, more of a small river really, flowing softly through the trees, ferns overhanging the banks with many large bushy plants with hundreds of small yellow flowers and smaller spinach looking plants growing alongside them in the sunnier areas along the edge. I smiled as I recognized what they were. “This is it,” I sighed in contention. I ran my fingers along the fronds and under the flowers, pushing them aside as I headed for the water. A frog jumped from my path and into the stream, sending ripples towards the other side, accentuating the glitter of fishes’ scales below the surface. My eyes soaked in the soft movements of the water and the starry show of its creatures, bringing a peace to my soul that rarely I ever felt. The ripples settled and my body reclined under the shade of the ferns. Sun shone through the tops of the trees and through the ferns themselves, turning the leaves a luscious green, pleasing to my eye. The light broke over the tops of the cedars, blazing into my eyes. I lifted my right hand to shield myself but clouds passed over it, dimming the light of the sun and the emerald brilliance of the fronds. A slow sigh passed my lips and my hand slid past my eyes and onto my mouth. Prickly hair pressed against it, informing me that it was time for a trim. Cool metal felt good to the skin, somehow even more so than normal, as I ran a blade along my jaw and down my neck. I enjoyed the sensation; even as I hated the irritation the knife caused as it sheared away the hairs at my beard’s periphery. It had been some time since I’d shaved properly. My twin in the water looked up at me as I eyed my work. A less ragged but still rich coat covered my lower face. Taking a deep breath in satisfaction, I sheathed my hunting knife and set it up on the bank within my clothes, then submerged below the water, scattering tiny red hairs in ripples across the river. Even better than steel, I thought with content. Swirling through the water like an eel or serpent, I reveled in its coolness as the flow gently coursed over my body. Small trout scattered as I flew through them below the surface, enjoying the simplicity of this moment. Emerging for a gulp of air, I came up near the bank and under a shadowed overhang clustered with bracken ferns, their fronds tickling my face. Reclining against the submerged earth, I sighed as the water lapped at my neck, gently tugging the hair at the base of my skull. My eyes closed to the sensation. Water heals, I mused, as the ache in my arm faded below the surface. But then my neck twitched and my mind darkened as I remembered my other injury. Why did he do it? The question crossed my mind for the thousandth time. I was a friend, badly injured by the elk, bleeding, in great pain yet concerned for his own wellbeing, and he decides to play with my life by crushing my windpipe? I couldn't answer then and I can’t now, but I knew that Zach was off, very, very off and not for the better. I remember the way the world shook about me as my body convulsed violently and my hands grasped at my collapsing throat. I remember the terror in Paul and Søren’s eyes as they saw me suffocating. I remember Zach’s bestial roar. And I remember the piercing pain in my trachea right before I passed out. I should have died. But I didn’t. Dim light filtered through my eyes as my lids parted. A blur loomed over me, silhouetted with a fire’s light from behind. My vision focused and I now saw that a young woman stood over me, one whose face I didn’t recognize, but also one I never would forget. Shadows played across the features of her face as she looked over my aching arm, firelight illuminating the tiny vellus hairs over her alabaster skin before disappearing in the dark as the rich mahogany strands slid off her shoulder. Eyes of pale blue, like a cold winter’s sky, but when she turned them to me, I knew they held nothing but warmth and compassion within. Her face, somehow, became gentler than before as she spoke. “Thank God,” she breathed. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t wake.” I cracked my mouth to speak, releasing only a weak groan and waves of pain in my throat. “Don’t try to talk; you’ll only hurt yourself even more.” Defiant, I tried to again anyway, getting the same results again. She took my clenching jaw in her hands and stroked the muscles to make them release. “Please Walter, don’t do that. If you try now you’ll damage your vocal cords for good.” I locked my eyes with hers as she eased my jaw, desperately trying to ask her everything through my gaze. What happened to me? Why can’t I talk? Who are you? Questions swept through my mind like leaves in the wind. She knew exactly what I begged answers for. “You’ve been hurt Walter,” she explained in a soft tone. “Hurt badly …but not permanently.” She was quick to add the ending, which I appreciated immensely. She paused before she continued. “Do you remember what happened to you? Don’t nod, just blink good and long.” I closed my eyes, good and long just as she said, trying to shake of the memory as I opened them. She sighed and I saw the relief in her when she realized she didn’t have to tell me the hard truth of Zach’s betrayal. I noticed then that something was tied across my neck. I lifted my left arm to feel but found that simple action exhausting. The woman gently lifted my arm and placed it back against my side explaining as she did so. “We bandaged your neck. You bled quite a bit.” My brows furrowed as she said it. Why would I bleed? Zach pummeled my throat, he didn’t slash it. But as she saw my confusion a shadow of anxiety passed over her face. “I should tell Paul you’re awake,” she said, voice wavering. She started up from the ground but I lurched weakly forward, barely grasping her hand. Still as a statue she froze, halfway between standing and crouching, her eyes fixed on mine. I looked back into hers, seeing apprehension and… Fear? I wanted answers to my condition, but now more than anything I needed to know what was playing on in her mind, and somehow the two were connected. Slowly I slumped onto my back, gently pulling her with me onto her knees besides me once again. Letting go of her hand slowly, I struggled to bring it back to my chest, pointing at my neck. She knelt there quietly, averting her gaze away from me for a long moment before answering. “When… Zach hit you, your throat crumpled; it bounced back into shape but became inflamed extremely fast.” She paused; gaze still away, considering her words carefully before speaking again. “I was studying nursing in medical college, before, you know, all this happened. When the trachea gets inflamed badly it swells completely shut... asphyxiating the individual… killing them.” Again she stopped speaking and again she continued on. “There’s no medicine or massaging to stop it… just a knife and tube.” As she said it she looked me right in the eyes. “I don’t know you, not personally anyway, or you me, but I couldn’t stand by and watch you die, so I took your knife and a hollow reed and opened your throat. That’s why you bled so much…” This didn’t make sense, she saved my life yet she almost looked ashamed. Before I could motion anything however, she spoke up, her voice cracking, and explained it well enough. “I was clumsy and cut too much,” she began to cry. “I never actually tried it in nursing school. You bled so much, and between your throat and your arm… I… I almost…” But she shut down completely and fled from the tent, and I could do nothing to stop her. That had been two weeks ago and despite ceaseless searching on my part, I hadn't found her yet. We survivors were numerous and had started to spread out our camps somewhat over the last month; she must reside in one further from my own. But I will find you, out of around eighty survivors, one person shouldn't be too hard to find. My resolve was strong. Sooner or later, we’ll meet… Brush crackled ever so gently nearby, snapping my eyes from the shadows and to a cluster of tall bracken and moss laden cedar branches further in the forest. Silence and stillness only… until finally broken ever so softly by a familiar and unwelcome figure. He strode dark and foreboding amidst the shadows of cedars and oaks, taking each step with care and silently cursing himself for the noise he made prior. A rough kilt of patched elk and deer hides covered him from knees to waist and wrapped around his right shoulder, secured by a single leather belt around the waist, but he wore nothing else; what ragged remnants of modern clothing he once possessed had been scavenged for threading and tinder. Jagged, black markings scrawled across his body distorted his human form into something altogether different and unholy. He held his long wooden spear ready in his hands, while he carried a long curved blade under his belt and a bow and quiver slung across his shoulders. He swept his gaze around slowly as he walked, and passing them over my alcove I could see the darkness in his eyes. “Rashido…” It came from my lips as a ghost’s whisper, barely audible to myself. But Zach tensed, and I could see the hair on his neck prickle as he cast his gaze about. I lay below the surface stunned. There’s no way he could have heard that, no man could hear that! …Could they? But as I continued to watch him glance to and fro, confusion gave way to curiosity and when my curiosity couldn’t be satisfied it gave way to anger and a strange, grim pleasure. You aren’t natural Zach. Keep looking about, keep worrying; it’s the best policy right now. You never should have come to this place to begin with. He began to creep forward once more, keeping his eyes and ears alert, the hairs on his neck still on end and his grip tight about his spear. But he came towards the creek, the grove …my place of refuge. Inexplicably I started to seethe in the water as he approached; it was if a dark cloud passed over my mind. Soft thoughts entered into it, so very treacherous, angry, and frighteningly foreign. This place is ours, the water and all near it belongs to me. He’s alone, avenge your wounds by his hand and rid these islands of his threat now before it is too late… Slowly a growl welled up, deep from my throat as I crept from the water, neglecting my garments and instead picking up a short but sturdy oaken branch from the bank; it would make a simple but horrifically effective weapon. He stopped again and listened, dropping his spear into a combat position. He knew it, whether he heard me or could somehow feel it in his soul, he knew he was in danger. I readjusted my grip on the branch, readying to spring. Out of the bushes behind him a vicious furred beast flew, striking him on his back and driving him onto his side in the ferns. The horrid caterwauling and Zach’s frantic grunts as he desperately fought back shattered the angry presence’s hold on my mind, leaving me stunned, if only for a moment before leaping in with my club. Striking out as best he could with his left arm, Zach fought against a huge mountain lion. His right arm was pinned under the grappling beast and the thick hides over his shoulder were protecting his throat from a direct attack of the cat’s fangs. He couldn’t reach his kukri. With a savage howl I smashed into the right shoulder of the beast with a brutal two handed swing. It shrieked in pain but leaped at me. Barely managing to dodge, a nasty set of claws sliced alongside my ribs, shedding my blood but only succeeding in sending me into a rage. Charging at the cat with club overhead, it met me in a leap but I brought it down squarely on its head with a loud crack. It collapsed writhing at my feet, before I landed another blow on its skull, ending its pain. The rage passed and I turned to see Zach get up, eyes bloodshot and angry. “Wyvax! The kill was mine!” he growled. “I was hunting that cat through the woods.” “The kill was its, Rashido” I retorted dryly. “I don’t need any help defending myself.” He was fuming now. “I killed those coyotes with my teeth; I can kill a damned cougar with a kukri.” “A cougar’s on a whole other level than a coyote and you know it. Besides, you couldn’t reach that kukri pinned under him.” He stepped forward with his teeth bared and hand on his blade. The rage began to cloud my eyes once more and I felt a dim nagging in my mind, as if someone were prodding it. I lifted my club in one arm, tan fur caked on the end in red. “Perhaps I helped the wrong individual in that fight then…” He stopped advancing, still with anger in his eyes but obviously making the wise decision not to engage. I lowered my weapon. “Take it,” I motioned to the dead cat. “You’ve got what you came here for now go.” Hauling the carcass onto his shoulders he gave one look at me before commenting mockingly. “I’ve got no problem with you going around nude Wyvax, but even you should have sense enough to wear the body paint. It’s dangerous out here.” And he turned and retreated towards camp. “It’s dangerous out here,” I scoffed. The nerve of some people… This little get away hadn’t gone quite as I’d planned. I went back to retrieve my clothes, moping as I dressed. Sighing, I gave a last look at my grove and stream. I’ll remember this place. Then I saw the large yellow-flowered plants and the smaller spinach like plants and I remembered I knew them. A smile crossed over my face. All right Zach, I guess all follow your advice, but you might be surprised with how I do it. I chuckled as turned and made my way back to camp, new weapon in hand and some hope in heart. I may have a lot of problems right now, namely Zach, these strange feelings and surviving in general, but I got things to look forward to. ...Like finding her… Letting myself get lost in thoughts, I made back to camp in no time at all, or at least that’s how it felt. I was just about to enter my tent when someone hailed me from across camp. “Hey, Walter!” I looked back. “Hey! Dave, how was fishing?” “Pretty good, I found quite the bounty,” he grinned. “But you wanted to talk to me right?” I nodded seriously. “Yes, I did. Please come join me in my tent. We have much to discuss…” To be continued… |
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| Wild | Oct 30 2013, 04:31 PM Post #2 |
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HEAD ADMINISTRATOR
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AWESOME, lol at you running around naked |
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| Black Ice | Oct 30 2013, 04:41 PM Post #3 |
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After reading this I like the use of our real names in the story. |
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| Wild | Oct 30 2013, 04:44 PM Post #4 |
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HEAD ADMINISTRATOR
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I know right makes it feel more realistic and natural |
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| Black Ice | Oct 30 2013, 04:52 PM Post #5 |
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I'm gonna put Nicholas in my next SIS chapter. Edit: The chapter was definately worth the wait Wyvax.
Edited by Black Ice, Oct 30 2013, 04:56 PM.
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| Wild | Oct 30 2013, 04:57 PM Post #6 |
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HEAD ADMINISTRATOR
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^ a lili short especially for Wyvax tho.............who's nicholas? |
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| Black Ice | Oct 30 2013, 05:00 PM Post #7 |
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Venemous Dragon |
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| Wild | Oct 30 2013, 05:01 PM Post #8 |
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HEAD ADMINISTRATOR
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WE HAVE PLANS, but if you think your plot point is better be my guest |
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| Black Ice | Oct 30 2013, 05:02 PM Post #9 |
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........... please stop saying that.......
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| Wild | Oct 30 2013, 05:07 PM Post #10 |
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HEAD ADMINISTRATOR
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don't even...
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don't even...

7:31 AM Jul 11