Reclamation

Malik finished emptying his quiver before deciding to acknowledge the arrival of the other people into the training room. That was the fifth time had emptied the quiver since he began shooting. The self repairing target was really nice for him, it kept the lines of the bulls-eye sharp enough to know when he had all of his arrows in the boundaries. The mark had been stuffed with every arrow he could fit in until after the fourth round of arrows. Hitting the mark had become too easy, so he had made a pattern with the arrows the final time, the same way he had ended every practice for the last year. This time the arrows made the shape of a star.

He unstrung his bow and returned the bow to its case and wrapped the string around his wrist before turning towards Zein and pointing towards the target. Hopefully she could appreciate the picture he had made as much as he was appreciating her body and the body of the topless girl he spied in the background. She was arguing with a group of the people he had met outside of the tower, but he didn't recognize the topless girl. Malik quickly turned away from both of them and went to collect his arrows from the target; he inspected each arrow before returning it to the quiver strapped to his back. The collecting and inspecting gave him enough time to calm himself and collect his senses before returning to his bag and re-wrapping the fabric to cover the lower half of his face.

"So where did you leave all your shit and where can I leave mine? I want a room next to yours too in case we need to cheese it." he wrote in his notebook. Underneath that he also wrote, "You are also hot stuff." After waiting for Zein to finish reading, he winked at her to let her know he wasn't being serious and then collected all of his gear and waiting for her to lead him to a room.

 

Zein flashed Malik a simple thumb's up at Malik's star-shaped arrow art. "I thought guys had trouble aiming," she said with a snicker. She knew that he was checking out the topless duo of girls, after catching his eyes wandering. "Oh yeah, that's Sydney. Riley's knife. It's her Flow or whatever." She stretched her back while Malik packed up, stifling a yawn as she did so. She watched Sydney try to kill Marcus with a bear hug, wondering what the actual hell was going on. "Man, she's totally ripping off my topless style. Maybe I'll just stop wearing pants." She smirked at Malik, who was in the midst of writing his note. "Then again I don't want you getting too excited if we have to fight." Zein then proceeded to snicker at her own joke.

She took his notebook, quickly reading over it. Her first reaction was to wink back at Malik with a smirk on her face. Her second reaction was to answer his question. "Well, Sexy," she grinned slightly wider at Malik, deciding this would probably end up as a nickname for him, then continued her sentence, "I was lucky enough to find a room on the second floor. Not sure if there's another opening on the floor, but I guess we'll find out. Let's drop off your shit and grab something to eat, yeah?" She slapped him properly on the ass and walked towards the stairs, leading him towards the floor her room was on.

 "Don't get any funny ideas. I know you're walking into a room with a girl who is mostly unclothed, but control yourself." She winked at him again, pushing open her door. "Yeah, this is where my shit is. Find somewhere to drop yours, I'm putting on some pants."

 

Richard saw the panic in Marcus' eyes and stepped between the two. He reminded him slightly of a frightened animal. "Hey, she didn't mean anything by it. It's okay." He gently lowered Marcus's spear and kept his other hand where it could be seen. "Let's go get some food and chill out. I won't hug you. Okay? I think we all had a very exciting day and emotions are running a little high. Let's get some food and some rest and we'll deal with each other in the morning."

 

"I won so I get to swim in the moat, right-"
Riley slapped the back of Sydney's head and forced the cloak back onto the older girl "Think about your health for a second."
"I'm fine-"
"Legs."
Sydney sighed and looked down at her legs, hidden by the fabric of her cloak "... I may have over done it with the kicks again."
Riley sighed and easily picked up Sydney in her arms, the tall girl was skinny and barely had any weight "I guess we should get our food now, yeah... I apologize for Sydney. It's been awhile since she's seen so many people. Reminds her of home..."

 

Malik follwed Zein to her room and walked in leaving all of his gear, except for his knife and tomahawk, in a chair. He waited for the girl to get dressed before breaking out his notebook and writing again. "Where do you think we should run to if we have to run? I don't even remember how I got here. I fell off a cliff and ended up here. Probably saved my life, so I'm not complaining about that, but if we don't even know how we got here then how can be sure that we can actually leave?" It was something that had been nagging at him from the back of his mind the whole he had been here, but it was good to voice his idea with someone else to see what they thought. Before showing Zein what he had written he added "What are we even gonna eat here anyways?" at the end of the note.

 

 Zein dug through her pack, pulling out a pair of baggy grey sweatpants. She thought about grabbing a tank top too, but she had what was important covered. It wasn't like her chest was huge or anything, and the cold didn't bother her anyway. Sydney crossed Zein's mind suddenly, so she picked up the tank top to give to the girl if she was still topless when they next met. Zein plucked the notebook from Malik's hands, her eyes running across the page rapidly.

"Well, if we're running, then we're just going to book it until we can't see the tower," she muttered, glancing towards the door as if someone was going to walk in and chain them up so they could never leave. She sighed, scratching her head in confusion. "I was running through the woods, and suddenly the trees just disappeared, and I was standing in the middle of this sunny-ass place. I think I would have preferred the monsters in the moonlight, but whatever. You weren't freaked out by my sweaty sun aversion." She handed him the notebook back.

"I don't know what they're serving, but there was a bunch of rice at the armory. Asian food maybe? I'd love that. Maybe that explains the sudden day-night transformation; I'm on the other side of the damn planet." She chuckled to herself. "Let's go find out when we can eat, then maybe squeeze in some training and call it a night, sound good?"

 

Down in the main hall, an individual was sitting, dressed in a black t-shirt and what looked like fatigues. At the moment, a spark of fir was dancing around his hand, and he looked absorbed in it. When the others started filtering in, he looked up, dowsing the spark and smiling welcomingly. "Well met, all of you." he said, steepling his fingers, his voice smooth. He was slender, with willowy arms and legs, with green eyes and black hair that spiked up on top. his face seemed young, but the aura around him was as if they were looking at someone much oler then them.

 

The teenager studied him, his sharp glance not missing anything as he smiled slightly, the smile not quite reaching his eyes, which remained wary. "Have a seat....and dig in." He said, gesturing. As he did, there was a flash of silver from the inside of his wrist for a split second before his sleeve covered it again.

 

"Holy headmistress' leather riding crop- That's a lot of food." Sydney melted into a chair, the cloak Riley had forced back on brushing the floor.
Riley came in behind her and released an equally odd exclamation at the sight "Holy headmistress' iron maiden! Are they rich!?" She plopped down next to Sydney, both amazed and perfectly ready to eat- but deciding it impolite to not wait for the others. Sydney turned to the teenage boy already there "Ciao- name's Sydney. This is Riley."
Riley turned to Marcus and reached over, gently pulling him towards the table "Don't just stand there Speary, take a seat. Staring's impolite ya' know!" Sydney moved a seat over so that the boy could take a seat between them- if he chose to accept Riley's sudden offer. "You've been standing for most of the day anyways, haven't you?" Sydney looked back and was caught by surprise by the scared look he was giving her, but didn't show it on her face. "By the way, Richard- Are you going to help Roxanne down? I mean... I could do it..." She quieted down in the middle of the sentence and then suddenly went back to her normal voice "I mean- only because you've been helping her the whole time! And you should just sit and relax!?"

 

Richard ended up sitting in the seat between Riley and Sydney, not realizing it was really meant for Marcus. Oops. 

Almost as if on cue, Roxanne came into the main hall, looking around for her brother. Richard noticed this, and waved her over. "I don't think that will be necessary," he told Riley as Roxanne smiled and came over to sit with them.

"That is a shit ton of food. It looks amazing," Roxanne said. "Oh, um... Sorry about earlier. Heart condition. Can't get too excited. That kind of thing." She took the seat on the other side of Riley, and scooped herself some food as she looked up at the other boy who had come to greet them. "Hey. Nice to meet you. I'm Roxanne, and that boy," she pointed to her brother, "Is my brother Dick."

"Richard." Richard corrected.

Roxanne started eating the food and her eyes widened. "Holy shit. This is better than your cooking, Dick."

At first, he was slightly offended. But then he took a bite, and realized he agreed. "Ha. I guess you're right. It's really good. They know what they're doing."

"It's okay. I still love your cooking." Roxanne teased with a sly smile.

 

The other kid nodded, leaning forward. "Pleasure." He said, his eyes examining each one of them. His voice had a hint of a twang to it, and his body didn't seem to relax as he laced his fingers togethor. "Names Abal. Abal Nightengale." He said, smiling again, and again, it didn't quite reach his eyes as he watched them eat. "So....what powers do you lot have?" He asked, canting his head to the side curiously.

 

Abal shook his head at the question. "No...I arrived not too long before you did, actually. Barely had time to settle in before you lot showed up." He said. He picked up a frosted glass of something and took a sip, leaning back in his chair after a moment. From his left sleeve came the sound of a zippo flicking open and closed.

 

"Oh my god, Abal, you can't just ask someone what their powers are." Roxanne laughed, and Richard rolled his eyes.

"Sorry for her. Roxanne and I are twins, and our Flows kind of... go together, I guess. I'm clairsentient, and she's clairvoyant. I see the past, she sees the future. It's weird how it worked out, but I think it's pretty neat," Richard told Abal between bites of food.

Roxanne had looked again to Marcus. "Sorry, didn't understand that when you hadn't finished eating your food. Wow." She rolled her eyes, but he could see she was just teasing and trying to have some fun. He was so serious.

 

The kid laughed softly at her comment. "Why not? They're gifts, right? You should share your gifts with others." he said, his voice sounding like he was saying it by rote. Another flick from his sleeve and suddenly, a streamer of fire curled around his fingers, forming into a snake-like image that rested on his hand. "You can guess what mine is..." He said with a sardonic smirk.

 

Walking, she had also decided, sucked ass.

The vast distance between herself and that god-damned tower pissed her off to no end. Claire had voiced this opinion continuously. Had anyone been within earshot certainly they would have shied away from the sting of the sharp string of curses she muttered. Her power, it seemed, manifested on its own in response––the bits of grass near her feet seemed to shatter into a million tiny pieces as she passed by. They sat in her dust, left as a reminder of the immense wrath bubbling underneath her skin.

When she finally reached the tower, she stopped, sidled around the main entrance, and landed in dirt. Eyes focused on the bleak sky above, she laid there in silence. No more curses flew from her lips. No more anger broke the awkward tranquility that this moment offered her. No. Now was not the time for anger––as soon as she had finished resting she would have to become strictly focused. Whatever this structure held within could pose a threat to her. Caution was the necessity.

Two minutes.

Exactly two minute later she rose and took her time to gather herself entirely. A deep breath. She reached for the knife in her boot. Her eyes darted around the tower as she began to circle it with the utmost expertise––getting a feel for the space and looking for better vantage points. It appeared, at least as far she could see, that the only proper entrance was the main one. Not an appealing option, but then again there was not much choice. Quickly deciding to roll with the punches, Claire approached the front once more.

Her boots clicked lightly against the stone arch that offered entrance to the tower. The steps she took, however, were specific and poised. No more sound than was absolutely necessary would resound. She had to be careful. This was careful.

She froze immediately as she neared the open door. Inside. People. She could hear them. Feel their presence. "Shit!" she muttered, tightening the grip on her knife. There were a lot of them. Too many. Claire knew, probably better than anyone, that even she could not take more than a few people at once. Maybe three at the most––even with her powers.

Leave. That was her first thought. Escape before they figure out anything and make a plan. Claire, of course, knew better than to just take off. She was logical if nothing else and her primal instinct was not the smartest. These people might not even be hostile. In fact, if she played her cards right, she could feel out each of them and react accordingly. Without another thought she slipped her knife back into her boot and stopped.

She closed her eyes and took a breath.

When they opened again, her posture softened and she started forth with greater fragility. Stumbling into the room, she tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible––her shoulders were shaking with false anxiety. "I-is it safe here?"

 

The kid at the end of the table's eyes widened as he took her in. Standing, he moved around the table, dowsing the fire and spreading his arms to show he was unarmed. "It is safe. Come in...you look exhausted." He said, slipping on the mask as easily as a second-skin.

 

Malik made it to the main hall in time to witness a new person join the tower. Do new people show up at this place this often? he thought. As that thought crossed his mind he decided to sit as far away from the group of the other people as possible; he preferred the company of Zein anyways. Seeing a spot that was open and far from the main group, he pointed Zein towards it before walking there and taking a seat for himself. This was the most food he had ever seen, even before the storm, so he was a little shocked that there could be so much food now. It just made the place seem stranger to him, but he wasn't going to not eat the food. With a full plate now before him, Malik uncovered his mouth and began to chow down, making sure to savor every bite he took. "Do you think people show up at this place this often all the time? Where do they get all this food? Do they have farms or something? I didn't see any on our way here. Where could they be? From now on, I think we should be ready bug out at any moment. Oh, and this meat is great." He put a slice of the mentioned meat that tasted like beef on the page he just written on to mark it before handing it the notebook to Zein. Hopefully that would be enough for her to talk to him about while he ate.