Reclamation

Few precious rays of moonlight shone precariously into the mouth of the cave. A pale hand reached out, letting the light slowly gather over the girl's flesh. After a few seconds, her arm up to the elbow was glowing with a faint light. She groaned, gritting her teeth. The waning moon was nearing the end of its cycle. "Damn cycles," Zein grumbled to herself angrily. She drew her falx; half sword, half scythe, and five feet long in total. The handle comprised just over a foot and a half of the total length, with the rest belonging to the ferociously sharp blade. The faint traces of moonlight and lunar energy emanating from Zein's hand was just enough for the girl to inspect the blade. It was still sharp, but there were several chips and scratches that she needed to work on. After all, with the new moon drawing close, her powers would be useless, and she'd have to rely on her skills and her blade for survival. She crossed her legs and pulled out her whetstone, slowly drawing it along the edge of her blade, sighing as if the scraping of stone on metal was relaxing to her.

She diligently sharpened the falx for nearly half an hour, each move careful and deliberate. The edge was slowly becoming smoother and smoother, the traces of light in the cave glinting off of it brightly.  She made several more passes along the blade, before setting the stone down and closely inspecting her handiwork. She seemed pleased, and carefully returned the falx to its sheath. She picked up a small back and slung it over her shoulder, approaching the mouth of the cave carefully, as if she were trying to avoid  being seen. It was nearly pitch black; but as little as there was, the light of the moon comforted Zein, filling her with a sense of solace that was so rare in the harsh world she lived in. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for movement.

Nothing, she thought to herself, crouching slightly before exploding out of the cave, down a hill, and to a thicket of trees. The wind tore at her jacket, threatening to rip it from her torso. She grabbed a branch and pulled herself through the trees, grateful that the trees were thick enough to shelter her for the wind. She kept moving, and suddenly found herself needing to shield her eyes.

"What in the goddamn..." escaped her lips, as her eyes adjusted and she looked around, utterly confused. She was in a very green land. There was no wind, for which Zein was eternally grateful, but the fact she was now standing in broad daylight made her feel heavily exposed. Sure, she had her weapon, but she could already feel the bright light sapping her strength. She looked around frantically for shade, hoping that nothing would come to attack while she was in the open. The field she was in was almost sickeningly green, and the sky was worse, like some sort of diseased reptile. An emerald tower jutted from the ground nobly, sparkling brilliantly in the sun, as if it were the ruling seat of the color green. Zein hoped it would be darker on the inside, because there was  nowhere nearby where she could hide from the sun. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out where the hell I am, she thought to herself, gritting her teeth.

She shouldered her pack and kept a hand on the hilt of her falx, taking off at a slight jog towards the tower. Sweat was already beginning to bead along her forehead, and she let her jacket slip off slightly, exposing her shoulders and neck. At least the late autumn air was cool, but the sunlight was just so damn hot. 


If I run into somebody, so help me God...

 

Riley sighed, gripping the tree before her and preparing herself. It had been days since she had food- honestly she was unsure of how she was alive. Everything in the low bushes and scattered trees around her was inedible, and wildlife seemed nonexistent. Her stomach grumbled and she sighed once more, pulling herself and beginning to climb up the tree. Today for sure, she thought to herself- there had to be something to eat out here, she just had to find it. Pulling herself onto a thick branch, she glanced below her. The ground was mostly dirt, dark and dirty patches of grass appearing once every few feet. The sun was setting and what little light was coming down through the dark, cloud-congested sky would soon be gone.

Perhaps not today, she shook her head weakly, it was too late for a search.

But then she heard a noise she did not expect, a bird. Somewhere from overheard she was certain she heard a caw. She leaned off the branch, eyes darting about and examining the sky- and in her sudden movement, she slipped from the branch. She closed her eyes but after a few moments, found herself perfectly safe. She opened her eyes, her feet on the ground and the cloudy sunset replaced with a green sky overhead. A tower rose before her, and her first thought was that it was a tomb. She'd heard of mass graves before- large towers over dead bodies or perhaps bodies stuffed within it's walls. But why was she at a tomb? Or whatever it was?

But the first and most important thought in her head, which she accidentally spoke aloud, was "Oh my god- is there food here?"

 

The wind tore at Malik’s coat as he ran through the mountain forest. The wind was a constant companion to the boy since it arrived and wiped out humanity as he knew it, but it wasn’t the wind that worried him now. Behind him, he could hear something crashing through the forest after him. He had gotten a brief glimpse of the creature before he had run away in terror. The thing looked like a huge boar, with tusks the size of his arms. Whatever this thing was, it was carnivorous as it had stolen the recently dead rabbit that Malik had just finished skinning, he still had the rabbit skin in one hand, and had swallowed it whole before turning its attention on the boy.

Malik heard the thing shriek behind and turned to see if he could catch a sign of the beast through the brush and gloom of woods. As he turned, he felt his foot catch on a root and fell flat on his face. The rabbit skin flew out of his grip as he fell, but he didn’t care about that now, he was more concerned with collecting the arrows that had fallen out of his quiver. With the arrows in hand he stood and ran again, angry with himself that he had fallen and let the beast get closer. His eyes focused again on the route ahead as he picked up his pace to try and make up for lost ground. The clouds above blocked any light that could help illuminate the way forward, which made him curse whatever gods were out there for screwing him over. It was in that moment that Malik felt no earth beneath his feet as he walked over a cliff and began to fall.

He landed front first and had the wind knocked out of him as the last of the arrows in his quiver and the ones in his hands spilled out around him. Am I dead? he thought, and rapidly decided that the grass beneath him felt too real to be some kind of hallucination. As he stood up he wiped some dirt off his jacket and began to collect his arrows, again. It was at this point that he realized that it was day time and, more importantly, there was no wind here. His sight was dominated by a large emerald tower that looked like it was something out of one of his dad’s old books. It even had a freaking moat and drawbridges!

Not knowing what exactly would happen next, Malik decided that it would be a good idea to string his bow again. The bow was in a tube strapped under his quiver and the string was stored safely in his backpack. He put his pack to the ground and removed the bowstring, and, with a grunt, strung his bow. With his pack back on and an arrow ready, Malik started looking around to find other people.

 

They'd already lost so much to the wind.

The damned wind, the cursed wind that blew away their entire life. It had instilled fear in the both of them, and wiped out humanity. They were fifteen years old, and had lost so much.

They still had one thing though, one thing that they clung to in fear of losing: each other.

Roxanne and Richard were walking through the woods clutching each other's hand. The woods were hard to walk through with the wind constantly blowing. Roxanne shivered in her jacket, pulling it closer together to keep herself warm. She hated cold.

Richard didn't mind it, though. He left his jacket open, the cloth snapping in the wind behind him, and used his free hand to hold on to the trees and guide their way through the forest. He stopped at the edge though, and looked up. "Hey, Rox... what is that?"

Roxanne looked up from her shivering and saw an emerald green tower looming above them. Her eyes trailed down the green to a moat with drawbridges on it. "Shelter... It looks like a place to hide from the wind."

Richard looked confused. "Then how is it still up?"

"I really don't care, Dick. Let's go look around. Maybe there's people."

"I told you not to call me Dick."

"Well, you are one. Suck it up. Let's go." Roxanne took the lead now, starting to walk towards one of the drawbridges in the beams of sunlight that illuminated the green environment. Heh. She still did not let go of Richard's hand, and while Richard had a really bad feeling about the tower, he followed his sister anyway. 

 

Zein stood at the edge of a broken drawbridge, scowling down at the rushing waters below. "Of course I find the goddamn broken bridge," she huffed. She plopped down on the ground, staring across the moat. The entrance to the tower wasn't on this side anyways, but at least she could see the shade from the building. She was visibly irritated, her brow furrowed and a scowl plastered on her face. Sweat was easily seen on her neck and back, face and chest. Her jacket lie in a pile on top of her bag, leaving her torso exposed with the exception of her black sports bra. Her falx was sheathed and lying across her lap. She looked as if she were suffering from some sort of nasty fever; sweating, shivering, rather faint looking. After a few minutes, she gathered up her belongings, slinging the pack over her shoulder, tying the jacket around a strap, and resting her sheathed blade on the other  shoulder. She spun on her heel and scanned her immediate area, looking for any other signs of life.

She spotted a figure not too far away. She drew her blade, quickly tying the sheath across her hips, and taking off at a jog. After a few moments, she could  tell the figure was male, and he was holding a bow. "God DAMMIT!" she hissed under her ragged breath. Not wanting to give him a chance to pick her off, she grunted and put the rest of her energy into a dead sprint that let her reach the boy in less than a minute. She brandished her blade, panting heavily and resisting the urge to wipe away the sweat that was now dripping from her face. She hoped that her shaking hands weren't visible.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" she questioned, her eyes glaring at him ferociously, almost like a cornered animal. She waited a few seconds becoming irritated that he wasn't answering. "What, are you mute?" she questioned. Her eyes quickly scanned him, looking for what could be hidden weapons, or any subtle movements that would suggest an attack.

She hoped, for her sake, that he wouldn't. She felt like she was about to pass out.

 

Malik saw a girl stand and draw a strange looking blade. Drawing a weapon was a pretty natural response to seeing a person, especially after the horrors that had been experienced by what he assumed was every survivor left on the planet. He drew his bow as the girl broke into a sprint towards him and waited for her to approach. His arms didn't shake from the strain of pulling the bow despite the 70lb weight of the draw. It was a familiar feeling, and comforting as he waited for the armed girl to get close. As she got closer, Malik could see more details of the girl. She was taller than him by a good two or three inches, and she was only wearing a sports bra. Despite her scars, she looked pretty attractive.

She brandished her blade and questioned him, but the blade shook in her hands as she pointed the pointy end at him and made her less threatening. It was the mute question that made him lower his bow, sigh and facepalmed. To answer her question, he lowered his bow and used his right hand to lift up the fabric that covered his neck to reveal a scar that ran across his neck. After lowering the fabric back down he put a finger in front of his mouth like he was going to shush her. Hopefully now that he had gotten his point across he walked over to the girl and lowered the point of her blade before putting his bow and arrow on the ground and slid his pack off his back. He opened up one of the smaller pockets and pulled out a small notebook and a pen and wrote a note before passing it to the girl. "Why the hell did you ask if I was mute you ass?" was written across the page in black ink.

Malik slid the pen into his right pants pocket and picked up his bow before walking towards the bridge.

 

Zein's face turned a bright red as the boy drew up his mask, revealing a massive, jagged scar circling his throat. He didn't make any hostile movements, nor did he seem intent on hurting her. He dropped his weapon and pushed the end of her blade away, reaching into his bag. While he was rummaging through it, Zein sheathed her falx, glad that she could now afford to wipe away the sweat that was coating her forehead. A notebook and pen were retrieved, and the boy scribbled in it for a moment before holding it up for Zein to read. She blushed again.

"Well, you weren't saying anything, and you have your scar covered so I wouldn't have had a way to know," she hastily shot back, crossing her arms angrily. He picked up his bow and started walking towards the drawbridge Zein just left. "Don't waste youur time heading that way, the bridge is broken. You'll have to walk around." She took a deep breath and fell in step behind him.

"Sorry for earlier. I get paranoid." She walked for a few paces before speaking again, feeling somewhat awkward for trying to carry on a conversation with a mute. "I'm Zein. Zein Tsukiri. What's your name?" She hoped her babbling wouldn't be seen as annoying. Having a ranged partner could be a big bonus for survival, so Zein hoped she could get this mysterious archer to stick around.

 

The wind, she had decided, was a pain in the ass.

Not that she would complain. Nope. Never. Nary a single word of the sort would pass through her thin, pink lips. Not if she had anything to say about it. And if she cared to speak of it to someone she would have plenty to say––this fact, although particularly unknown to everyone but herself, seemed quite obvious when it came to Claire. Almost as if nature itself willed the very fact into reality by unbinding and reweaving the tapestries of her design. The dichotomy of it all, she had also decided, irked her. But, of course, she would not complain.

Trudging through the expanse of jungle with equally reluctant, equally determined steps, she found herself pausing at one of the trees. The wind blew with a significant amount of force in response to this and the leaves caught fire in response. The wind, of course, instantly quelled the flames, but it could not cease the ever-burning ire trapped behind her critical eyes. Dissatisfied with the lack of wildfire, she reached into her boot and procured a simple knife.

She stabbed the tree.

She stabbed the tree four times in exactly the same spot. A futile attempt to vent her anger, and a rather poor treatment of her only non-power-based weapon, but an effective outlet for the rage bubbling in her veins. She sighed and slipped the knife back into its hiding place. "Hmph!" she growled, returning to her discordant trod of a pace. As if in response to her grunt, the wind picked up once more, only this time she found herself tossed backwards.

When she forced herself to her feet again, everything had changed. No longer did she stand in the middle of a forest. No, the jungle had been swallowed up by the earth, instead erecting a large green tower off in the distance. Offering yet another disgruntled utterance, Claire simply began moving in the direction of the tower.

Like it or not she knew she should go there.

She fucking hated this, she decided.

 

There was a person at the tower. A boy, older than them. Richard immediately drew a knife when he saw he had a spear, and Roxanne did the same. There were two of them and one of him. He would lose, right? They had a fighting chance?

The boy took a second to realize they weren't going to attack, and relaxed the grip on his spear before greeting the pair. Roxanne's grip tightened on Richard's hand, and he pushed his sister behind him. Roxanne rolled her eyes, and stepped forward beside him again. "I'm guessing it's the same thing that brought you here." She waved the knife toward the tower behind him.

"Put your spear on the ground." Richard growled.

"Dick, shut up. It'll blow away. He won't bite us if we don't bite him, right? Maybe he's friendly."

"Or maybe he's a psychopath who wants to murder us."

"He just looks like a kid to me. I think he just wants shelter like we do. That tower looks like pretty good shelter, if you ask me. Maybe it'll be our new home and we'll live in a massive commune with other wandering kids."

"Kids can be psychopaths!" Richard looked at his sister like she was the psychopath, rather than the boy they were talking about as if he wasn't even there.

"All the better to hunt for food with, Dick." Roxanne sighed, and returned her attention to Marcus. "Hi. I'm Roxanne. This is my brother, Dick, who is a dick. I'm sorry."

Richard responded by punching her in the arm. "It's Richard."

 

The kid was tall for his age and slender, with a shock of black hair and green eyes that peered out of pale skin and almost razor sharp cheekbones. He shivered from the cold, wrapping his coat around him tighter. Feeling in a pocket for a lighter, he drew it out, flicking it repeatedly trying to get it to light, even for a moment so he could have a little heat, but no avail. Letting out a sigh, he trudged onward. Finally, the tree cover broke, and he stepped out into the open, his tired gaze beholding the emerald tower. "Shelter...?" he murmured to himself as he moved forward, seeing the group of people gathering at the base of it. He brought out a lighter and rested his hand on the old sword at his side, his fingers tracing the worn grooves with a familiar tingle. He noticed the wind had stopped and grinned slightly, flicking the lighter and getting a solid flame for a moment before he let it go. With a nod, he moved forward, his longcoat swishing around his ankles.

 

Riley stood stunned and decided it must have been a mirage- her starving mind playing tricks on her. Although the tower did seem her best bet... She seemed to be far at the outskirts of the area, and she thought she could faintly make out two figures but decided not to believe anyone else was here until she met them- what with pink magic umbrella mirages around. At her side, she could see a cabin and pulled her roller skates from her belt- slipping them on and gliding towards the old thing. The door was locked and she sighed- best to listen to the strange lady...

She turned to the tower, the closest bridge was broken- but to Riley, it was much akin to a ramp. She grinned and began heading towards it from by the cabin door. Her speed was building and her eyes were focused on nothing but what was directly in front of her. With a big whoop, she flew off the ramp and landed on the other side, spinning herself around until she came to a stop "HA! Still alive!" She skated around the tower, humming, and found a small door. After checking it out she found it was locked. Riley grumbled but continued skating around the tower- and then she came upon a large ornate door, grinning proudly. She thought she could remember skating past what looked like people but was so caught up in the skating she wasn't sure- so she ignored it and pulled a butterfly from her waist, twirling it in her hand to release the blade as she examined the door. She began to whistle as she looked at every inch- she wasn't sure what a trap would look like, but she didn't want to accidentally set one off. 

 

Riley turned at the sound of a boy, and found that there were people here. She could see two others behind him, they had weapons and she wasn't sure if they were on her side. As wary as she was- she hadn't yet found a single trap, so she reached for the knocker. Slowly, she pulled and released it, the metal clanking against the door. Was she to wait now? She couldn't hear anything from past it, at least not yet. She looked up and realized- as she hadn't examined the tower much- just how tall it was. It pierced through the sky and almost blended in with it's emerald color. She remembered her initial thought of it being a tomb- but then why would it have doors...

"I'm Riley." She politely smiled at the boy, who she decided to think of as Spear-y until he introduced himself "I'd tell you what I'm doing here but I just kinda appeared here after falling from a tree. Maybe I'm dead... Are you dead? You're old enough to be a warrior, and you got a spear... maybe you died in a war? But there's not many survivors, huh... maybe you died a lot earlier..."

Riley began mumbling to herself as she tried to figure out the situation. She twirled her butterfly knife in her hands, upon first inspection it may seem she was being careless- but she was playing around with the thing like an expert, passing the handle between her fingers and the blade never coming too close to her.

 

Malik was about to reply to her question when blur shot past them. It was a human blur on roller skates, which was a strange sight to see here. What the hell. Who the crap. . . His inner dialogue stopped as he watched the person use the broken drawbridge like a ramp. He was pretty impressed by the fact that had actually made the jump. After looking up at the sky and shaking his head, Malik watched the person, a girl, skate around the tower and out of sight. "Malik. Time to run again. Keep up. Or not. Your call you ass." he scrawled hastily into the notebook and held up for just long enough for her to be able to read the text before shoving the pen into his pocket and the notebook into an inner pocket of his jacket. That pocket used to hold a small tablet, but he had long since abandoned the old tech for even older tech.

The boy broke into a sprint with his bow in one hand and the arrow in another and made it to one of the working drawbridges and followed the direction the girl had gone. He stopped short and readied his arrow, but didn't draw his bow, as he saw a group of four people standing in front of a large door. The girl he had seen dart by examined the knocker as he watched. Keeping distant felt like a good idea at this point, so Malik didn't join the group, but did cough loudly enough for the people to be able to hear him if the sound of metal on metal in his bag didn't already alert the group to his presence. He hoped his attire would cause some disturbance when they saw him for the first time.

 

Zein was still a few paces behind the strangely-garbed archer when something came flying past the duo. The dark blur hit the edge of the broken drawbridge and ramped over the distance, landing next to the tower and quickly zipping around the side. After a few seconds, Zein realized that it was a girl on roller skates. She stared at the broken bridge for a second, turning around to see the archer was holding up his notebook again. She caught 'Malik' but didn't see what else he'd written. Then, he took off at a dead sprint.

"You're an ass!" she called out, taking off with as much speed as she could muster in here fatigued state. She caught up to him around ten seconds after he stopped, panting heavily and once again drenched in sweat. She was upset that her first impression would be as a feverish and sweaty girl, but at least he didn't decide  to turn her into a pincushion. She stayed behind him just enough so that she could hear the other group, but not see them. She dropped her stuff and fell to a knee, trying to catch her breath. "Next time, let's do this running around bullshit at night," she grumbled. The sun's effect made Zein overexert herself extremely easily. If she had to fight or run again, she'd most likely pass out before anything happened. Hell, if she didn't get inside soon, she'd probably pass out anyway.

She glanced out across the moat, trying to see if anyone else was coming closer. At the moment, she didn't spot anyone, but more than likely they'd all be coming from the other side--that's where the majority of the others seemed to have come from, anyways. She managed to quiet her breathing just enough so that she could hear the other group. "How many are there?" she asked Malik, keeping her voice low. She was probably already discovered thanks to her ungodly loud panting, but she wanted to remain out of sight. Hopefully he wouldn't be a dick about it, no matter how much Zein deserved it for the mute comment from her first fifteen seconds in contact with him.

 

Richard was not pleased to have more newcomers. There was probably more, and they probably wouldn't be as... cooperative as this boy Marcus was. But he was at least willing to follow along for a bit. He had nothing to gain from them, except maybe his sister... Oh god, maybe he would try to take advantage of her. He wouldn't let that happen! No one would touch his sister's sweet innocence!

"Dick, what the fuck are you thinking about?" Roxanne interrupted his thoughts. Okay, maybe not so innocent.

"Nothing. I'm fine." Richard responded.

"Get your head out of the clouds. Let's go inside and look around." Roxanne stepped up to the door, standing beside Marcus. She turned to the new girl. "You're welcome to come inside with us. We won't bite." She gazed at the ornate door, running her fingers along some of the carvings. Pretty. Her hand started to drift toward the handle but the knocker caught her eye. It was kind of creepy. Not in the pretty, Edgar Allan Poe way. In the creepy 'do not enter' kind of way.

Something told her she should knock. So she grabbed the handle of the knocker and obnoxiously banged it against the door.

"What the hell are you doing, Rox?"

"It just felt like the right thing to do. Maybe there's someone in there already. If we knock, we don't look like intruders and are less likely to get attacked. Murderers don't knock. They'll feel safer." Roxanne shrugged. "If you don't like it, shut up."

 

"Umbrelly!" Riley sighed "Thank god- so I'm not insane!" She rolled inside and looked around, before hopping up next to Anya.
"That's Spear-y." She pointed to Marcus.
"Cutie." She grinned, pointing to Roxanne.
"And Dicky." Of course she was pointing at Richard now.
"And I'm Riley!" She turned to Anya "So what do you mean if we stay here? What happens then? Will we have to like, be your maids or something?"

She hopped off the rail, walking around the room "That'd be a pain! The place's so huge- and I never was good at housework- we'd never finish! Maybe I can help cut things up! Oh but that's probably not necessary..." Riley paced around, slowly speaking her mind and realizing she wouldn't be of much use as a maid- if they even were to be maids. All the while she'd glance as casually and inconspicuously at Roxanne as possible.