Luce sat up as soon as he was awake, coughing up sand. He stood, slipping a few times but managing. He could ignore the pain in his head and limbs, he hurt most of the time when he woke up. He rubbed his forehead, he was pretty sure he hadn't fallen asleep in the desert. He remembered being on the floor with a ferret on his face, possibly not sober. A ferret? No, his ferret. He crouched back down and started lifting random rocks, searching. He felt panic rising in his throat. He could hear two females yelling back and forth in the distance. They sounded panicked and maybe desperate. If he couldn't find his ferret, maybe he could go to them instead, maybe they knew what was happening. He started picking his way across the landscape towards them.
Without a real clue as to what she was supposed to be saying, Eden tried her hardest to remember a song from her childhood—one her mother used to sing when she was scared. Her voice cracked in a few places where her throat was a little dry, but the general melody was there. Though the weather was warm, she felt the need to pull her jacket tight to her body as she stumbled her way through the landscape, peering into each barren nook and cranny she came across. The peacefulness of this place was one she didn't enjoy, it was a peace only violence and pain could have brought, nothing compared to the warm peacefulness of her room.
As Laura trekked across the desert, she found tears forming in her eyes - because of the haunting lull of the song, she assumed. Or maybe it was just more dust. She couldn't tell. She stopped, and closed her eyes, taking in the melody. As she stood there, the song continued. One note, that stood out from the rest jolted her out of her mind, and she stumbled to the ground. How long had she been lying there? Her muscles were abnormally weak, as if they hadn't been used in forever. Or so it seemed, Laura thought. She smiled, as a memory of her mom formed in her head. "Laur', you can do this," her mom whispered. Taking a deep breath, she took a step, and another and found herself walking, step by step, her pace increasing until she was running. Why was she running? The answer was unknown even to herself, well, at least to her conscious. Her sub-conscious most likely knew.
Lori had woken a little while ago in this strange desert and had heard the other voices on the wind. She was glad one of them had suggested following the voice of the other, which she probably would have done if the other hadn't been faster. Lorelei didn't know how she ended up here, at least she wasn't completely alone but she didn't even remember falling asleep. She remembered letting Jake coil around her as he loved to. Hopefully, I just spaced out and he's back in his cage resting. she bit her lip in worry as she kept moving towards the singing.
The sound of a roar reverberated around the barren wasteland. In the distance, two figures were grappling with one another, each with their hands on the other's shoulders. One of them was significantly smaller than the other. It was hard to tell if it was just because the creature was huge or if the person was short.
"Motherfucker!" a deep voice growled, and the smaller figure slammed his nee into the bigger's stomach.
"Gonna avoid that," Luce said, pointing casually at the two fighting figures. He continued skipping across the desert, humming along with the song in the distance.
Upon hearing a roar, Eden abruptly ceased her singing. Nothing was remotely human about that roar, and ti caused a new sense of dread to slowly creep through her body. Just what exactly was out there? Eden now faced two options: continue to sing and find the voice, or go out into the wasteland and find that creature that made that roar. Whatever the creature was maybe it could give her some clue as to what happened, why she was there! Finally some hope. Judging from the direction the roar came from, it wasn't too far from her. "Head towards the sunset, you'll find me!" she shouted to anyone who was listening, and broke out into a run. Her legs gave way, probably from not being in use for a while, and her body tumbled into the dirt. I don't have time for this! She dug her hands into the ground and scrambled to her feet. Sunrise, what creature are you hiding?
"On second thoughts…" Luce said as the music ended. He swung his leg around and twirled towards the fight. He moved towards it, dancing to music in his head. When he got near enough, he swept dirt off a rock and sat down on it, cupped his head in his hands, leaned on his knees and watched intensely.
Lori froze at the loud roar but was more than a bit stunned when the singer decided to head towards the fight. ”Are you crazy!?!” she called out as she started walking in that direction.
Yet again, Laura stopped short when the haunting lull of the feminine voice she'd heard stopped. But her ears perked up again once more at their shout, "Head towards the sunset, you'll find me!" the sunset? That was… to her left. Whoever they were, all that was running through her mind was one single thought - There's safety in numbers. "I'M COMING!!" she yelled back.
"Hit him!" Luce called at the fighting pair. He wasn't totally sure who he was meant to root for but he found it fun to watch.
As Eden kept running, she soon found two silhouettes appearing in her view. One of them was significantly larger than the other, which made her wonder if the smaller one was human. On the next breeze, she heard the voice call out to her. I'm coming.
All she could do now was wait. For something. Anything. The person, the two figures.. something. Eden never had been the patient type, but in a situation like this she had no choice but to stand by and wait. Just what was the larger figure, and why was it fighting the smaller one? Would she even find out? All these questions in her mind, and it frustrated her that she couldn't get an answer right there and then. Patience is a virtue–isn't that what mother used to always say?
The smaller one has happy to oblige with Luce's request, throwing a vicious uppercut that sent the bigger figure straight to it's back. The smaller figure didn't let up, pouncing onto the figure on the ground and throwing blow after blow until it stopped moving.
As the large figure came to a halt on the ground, Eden felt something surge through her. Anger. Her fists clenched, she made a break towards the two figures. She reached the smaller one, pulling him by the collar off of the creature, throwing him onto his back. "How would you feel if someone pummeled you to the ground?" she hissed, standing above the guy on the floor. Just who on earth did he think he was? What gave him the right to render a creature unconscious. She narrowed her eyes at him before proceeding to approach the unconscious creature. A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she pressed her hand onto its torso. It was still breathing, still alive. Phew…
Lori blinked in surprise as she saw the end of the fight and some girl practically bark at the winner. Since she didn't know all the facts she chose not to comment. ”Are any of you the singer from earlier?”
The question caused Eden to spin on her heels, her eyes wide. Funny, the voice that was speaking to her now didn't belong to the same person who had been shouting to her. Had this person really heard her sing? "That would be me." she replied, removing her hand from the creature. She instinctively pulled her jacket tight around her body, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Why do you ask?"
Lori shrugged. ”I heard you talking to someone else before you started singing. Turns out, I'm in the same boat as you are.” she explained. ”I have no idea where I am or how I got here but I figured safety in numbers was better than getting more lost.”
"So you ventured out here." Eden breathed, giving the girl a once-over. A slender kind of build, looks quite agile, like a snake. She nodded silently, extending her hand towards the woman. "Pleasure to meet you, I'm Eden."
Another person in the same situation, what was that? 4 now? She wondered how many others were here, and if they were somewhere close. More importantly, what was the creature that happened to be lying in the ground behind them? Stop with the questions, everything will be answered in time.
As the large figure came to a halt on the ground, Eden felt something surge through her. Anger. Her fists clenched, she made a break towards the two figures. She reached the smaller one, pulling him by the collar off of the creature, throwing him onto his back. "How would you feel if someone pummeled you to the ground?" she hissed, standing above the guy on the floor. Just who on earth did he think he was? What gave him the right to render a creature unconscious. She narrowed her eyes at him before proceeding to approach the unconscious creature. A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she pressed her hand onto its torso. It was still breathing, still alive. Phew…
The smaller was, indeed a human, with a large cut over his right eye and heavy bruising around his face. There had been more of a fight then they had seen, obviously. "It jumped me first, lady."
Eden turned to the man on the floor, her eyebrow raised skeptically. "Oh? Well—" Something stopped her from saying anything else as her eye wandered to the cut and bruises. The sight of them softened her, she backed down. The guy had clearly been hurt, and she was being rude by not thinking about how he was feeling. She quickly averted her eye sheepishly. "Sorry…"
He waived her off, wiping a bit of blood from the cut before it reached his eye. "Don' worry 'bout it."
Dionysus turned to the other person that had ventured over, raising his eyebrow at her. "You stuck out here, too?"
Did he just wave me off? Eden's covered eye twitched a little but her face betrayed no emotion. I will worry about it though, he needs some cream for those bruises.
She took a moment to study the man, her eyebrows furrowing when she reached the scar on his face. Just who is he, why is he so beaten up?
"We need to get moving," he said, not waiting for a response. "They'll be more of those," he gestured down at the creature laying on the ground, "an' I doubt I'll hold 'em off for long."
"What even are they?" Eden asked, glancing back at the creature, a sudden burst of frustration spiking her next words. "And no one asked you to hold them off so put a leash on it mister." Calm down, he's just trying to stay alive, and if those things are out to kill us then I had better listen to him.
He squinted his eyes over at her and let out a small growl. "They will kill you without fucking hesitation. I'm not puttin' a leash on shit, 'cause bein' high-strung is the only thing keepin' me alive right now."
