Thread: Alone...

Snap!
"Damn it!" Damien mumbled under his breath.
He was hunting, and had been watching a doe for about 2 minutes, waiting to pounce. He was hiding behind a small bush, looking just over the top. It was around 4 p.m., and he had started to get hungry; his eyes the color of fire from the hunger.
He had taken a step forward to get into a better position to attack when he stepped on a twig. The deer heard it and imediately lifted its head. After about five seconds, it ran off.
"Well, there goes my meal." Damien said to himself as he stood up. "I guess I need to go find something else."

A pair of bright green eyes looked around at the surrounding forest. For some reason, Josephine felt right at home here, maybe because she herself, had always loved the outdoors. But not under these circumstances. She sighed and hid her face within her surrounding black hair that bounced perfectly against her lower back each time she took a step. She looked like a ghost compared to her surrounding. Her skin was creamy white. Almost as if she'd been dipped into milk. Back home, when she still called it that, every single boy there was lusting after her. And all the girls were envious. Though, Josephine hated the attention that her beauty brought. She hated been looked at as eye candy for creepy perverts. She sighed and shook off that memory as she kept on walking.

It was rather chilly out to her, and all she had to keep her warm was her rather thin black dress, that unfortunately for her, showed off her lovely curves. Lovely curves, she thought. That's what the boys said to her. Lovely curves. Ugh. She looked around at the forest, taking in all the little details as she hugged herself to try and get a little bit warmer. She wished at moments like these that she had someone to share them with. Someone who meant something to her. And thought of her as a person and not a piece of ass.

A girl could hope, but hoping only goes so far. Just then her stomach growled. She had not eaten a descent mean for over a week now. And the food she did catch was when she was in her owl form. And that food consisted of rats,mice, frogs, etc. Which at times, even disgusted her. But at least she wasn't going starving. She looked down at her feet and continued to get lost deep within her thoughts, not really paying attention to her surroundings anymore.

Damien walked off from his old hiding spot. He was walking very quietly, trying to see if he could hear any prey. He stopped for a moment and sniffed the air. There was a sweet smell, though he couldn't quite tell what it was. It made him think of a girl that he had met two years ago. Jessica. She was the only person who acctually thought of him as something besides a monster and a street-rat. He missed her long, wavy, brown hair and her bright green eyes. He cared for her deeply, but before he could even tell her how he felt, he was forced to leave town once more. It was a never-ending cycle.

He shook off the thought and pulled his hood up a little. It was a bit cold outside, but he didn't mind. He liked it when it was colder, rather than warmer. He couldn't stand the heat. It was like falling into a fire for him. Burning him right through his whole body.

Suddenly, he heard a noise. The scent was stronger, but he couldn't see anything. Hoping it was a deer, he hid behind a tree, listening in the direction he had heard the noise from before. Please be food, he thought. He was getting very hungry now. He waited in silence for another noise.

Josephine finally snapped out of her little trance and looked up to see a big tree that she was about to crash into. She forced herself to a halt, and then walked around the tree. She sighed of relief that she got out of that little mishap before she crashed.

Unfortunately, she was not so lucky the second time around. She had been so relieved that she hadn't crashed into the tree that she forgot about the other things that she could have ran into, just then she found herself tripping over a root sticking out of the ground. Her arms quickly went out in front of her and she crash landed onto the ground. If any body were near, they definitely would have herd the loud thud that her fall gave off.

"oh great.." Josephine pushed the hair out of her face that was now knotted from the fall and sat up, brushing off the leaves and dirt that had gotten attached to her dress. She went to go brush off her legs and winced a little. Am I bleeding? She thought to herself. And of course, she managed to cut herself on something that was not even sharp. Stupid stupid..

She got up and looked around. Well this was just great. not only was she lost, but now she was wounded and couldn't cover it with anything, which meant that it would get infected if she didn't do something about it soon. She sighed heavily and asked if her day could get any worse. but she was not hoping for the challenge. Please someone find me..I don't know what I'm doing.. her arms wrapped around herself again. She was used to being alone, but sometimes it all was too much for her.

There is definately something there! Damien thought. Then he heard some more noises and...something else. Talking. There was a person there! Wow...a person! I can't believe it. He was still cautious though. He was actually afraid, if only a little. He slowly crept around the tree. He looked around a bit. There she was. A girl, probably about his age. She had the blackest hair he had ever seen. She was wearing a thin dress, and seemed cold. He stopped walking around the tree and just stood there. looking at her with slight confusion as to what she was doing here.

The wound on her let was much deeper than she had though. She found that out when she stood up, it hurt really bad and a lot of blood was coming out. No no! She looked around for a moment, trying to see if she could cover it with anything. She then looked down at her dress..

She limped over to a tree that looked like it had a few vines in it. She reached up her dress and pulled out a small knife and cut two long strips of the vine down. She then ripped along the bottom of her dress, making it seem like she was wearing a skimply outfit.

She knelt own and folded the piece of dress, putting it on the wound. she then began to wrap and tie the fines around her leg to keep the piece of her dress in place. She then looked around again. Just now, she thought she had sensed someone. She could smell the change in the air.

She cautiously looked around and then continued forward, carefully watching where she stepped.

She was hurt. That much was quite obvious for many reasons. First, she was limping, and she also tore here dress to cover it. He could smell the blood from her wound, long before he could see it. It was sweet smelling, almost intoxicating. It went away a bit when she covered it, but not much. He pulled a grey bandana out of his hoodie pocket and held it over his nose, afraid he would lose control of himself. Keep calm. You don't want to hurt her. You don't want to hurt her. he repeated in his mind. He pulled his shiny pocket knife out of his back pocket. Just in case. He slowly walked towards her, only one step about every ten seconds. He tried to breath through his mouth as much as he could, but it was hard because he was trying to stay quiet. He stopped about twenty feet behind her. He was hoping she would both see him, and not at the same time, which was a strange feeling. He was very confused about her. He could usually sense a bit of what kind of person somebody was, especially if he smelled their blood. This was much different though. The blood didn't help, like it usually did, but instead made him more confused. He pulled the bandana down and stuffed it back in his pocket as quietly as he could. He hid his small knife in his hand, and just stood there.

It might have been nothing, but Josephine had the strangest feeling that she was being followed and watched. She cranked her head around, her black hair covering the majority of her face. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight of a boy, around her age. What was someone like him doing out in a place like this? He looked scary..Are you afraid? She shook her head a little and thought back to herself Of course I'm afraid! Someone found you..don't be afraid..She shook her head again Shut Up!

She turned fully around, with her arms still hugging tightly around herself. God, she must have looked like she just got out of the loony bin. Her hair was a wreck, and her dress was all dirty..not to mention that the boy in front of her was rather handsome looking. A small blush started to rise on her cheeks and she just sort of awkwardly stared at the boy.

She noticed that he had blue eyes. How pretty..Josephine always loved looking into people's eyes. They told so many stories..She shook her head, snapping back into the situation that she was in. She finally decided to speak up. "U-um..hello..?"

Damien continued to look at the girl, nervous his eyes were still red. He had forgotten about his hunger so he assumed they were back to his normal blue. As she turned around, he saw her face. Oh wow. he thought. She's beautiful. He felt dumb.He didn't seem to be able to do anything but just stand there and look at her. He was totally toungue-tied.

Finally, the girl spoke. Her voice seemed sweet, but very cautious, and a bit weary. "Hello." was all he could get out. He moved from looking at her face to her leg, where she was hurt. He tried as hard as he could to not lick his lips. He looked back up at her face. "Who are you?" he asked, just barely above a whisper, somewhat afraid of the answer.

He looked around her slightly. He was pretty sure she was alone, and he didn't sense anyone else, but he could never be too sure. He looked back at the girl and saw she was hugging herself. She's cold. he thought. Even just thought of her being cold made him feel chilled. He shivered. Then he waited for an answer.

It has been about a year since Hiroshi has been living on his own and away from the incident with his family and with the people dressed in all black. Even to this day, the memories of what he had done to his mother and father still haunt him. Placing a single hand over his forehead to see if he could push the thoughts aside even for a moment, Hiroshi did his best to concentrate on where he was walking as well as the area to make sure no animal decided to use him as a snack. The sounds of the animals walking around and calling out to each other were much stronger then they normally would've been before he was changed into this more cat-like form. Both the strange cat-like ears on his head kept twitching lightly from being fully aware of everything around him.

Removing the hand from his forehead, he slowly reached back to hold onto the sheath of his katana to make sure that it was still there. This was not only a weapon for Hiroshi to protect himself, but it was as well a reminder to him to allow him to remember his mother and father. Even if the memories are painful due to him killing them, it was still better then losing sight of them in his own mind. The chances to see him use his actual family sword was rare to no chance at all, he didn't want his father's spirit to see him as weak to be using a weapon at all times to protect himself. Instead, he tends to use his martial arts to fend off himself since that was what his father had taught him.

Sighing quietly to himself, Hiroshi wrapped himself up a bit more into his kimono. It was indeed cold in these parts of the forest strangely. Usually the weather didn't bother him one bit, so it was kind of strange to him why this cold was starting to get to him. Soon enough, he came to a large tree as he folded the bottom of his kimono as though it were a dress even though it was just so it wouldn't get dirty and ended up sitting down on the side of the tree. Resting the back of his head against the tree, Hiroshi began to wonder if there were any other people out there like him. If not, his thoughts on when he first ran away from his home would be proven to be correct. He could never be able to face civilization ever again.

Josephine kept staring at the boy in front of her. It really had been a long time since she'd herd another person's voice. "I'm.." She wondered for a moment if she should give out her actual name, you never know who might be looking for you..for good and bad reasons. But she figured that he didn't look like the type to actually want to cause someone harm.

With a little cough to clear her throat, she spoke up again, answering the boy's question. "I'm Josephine...Who are you?" It was only then that the boy before her was staring at her. Not in the same was as other boys did..they're eyes were lustful, his were, well they were almost kind and gentle but at the same time cautious and weary. She shook her head again. She must have looked terrible.

She finally just decided to look at the ground and wait for his response. The cut on her leg hadn't bothered her until now. It was really starting to hurt. And her vision was getting a little blurry too. She needed to sit down soon or she might faint.

Josephine. What a pretty name. Damien thought. A pretty name for a pretty girl. Stop that! Stay focused. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thought. Uh... Damien. My name's Damien. He was having trouble thinking. The smell of Josephine's blood was strong in his nose. He was getting hungry again. He licked his lips unconsciously. Umm.. So- so what are you doing here? I-in the forest? Damien asked. Stupid! Of course she knew you were talking about the forest! How could you be so dumb! He always hated when he argued with himself, but he couldn't help it sometimes.

He continued to look at the girl, Josephine. She seemed hungry, and a bit unfocused. She was probably tired from stumbling through the forest. It was pretty hard to navigate if you didn't know the forest like he did.

"Damien?" She tucked a strand of her black hair behind her ear and looked up at him again. "Oh um, I'm sort of lost.." She rubbed the back of her head a little and gave a small awkward laugh. There was something very odd about this boy..He wasn't like her but she knew he was..different.

When she realized this she stood up at little more, she would shift into her owl form if this encountment ended up in a fight. Although she hoped that i didn't, she wasn't too sure about how well her transformation would work since she was wounded. "D-do you live around here? Do you know where this is?" She kept her eyes focused on his, her vision getting a little fuzzy.

Yes. I-I do. He had no idea why he answered so quickly. He knew he shouldn't have answered her question but for some strange reason, he felt like he could trust her. It was an odd feeling since he usually never trusted anyone really, let alone someone he had just met. Oh well, he thought, she couldn't hurt you anyway.

He then thought of her leg and looked down at it. You're hurt. he said. He knew it was obvious, but he didn't really care. He just wanted to make sure she wasn't too badly hurt.

"Yeah..I kind of tripped a fell a little back there.." She scolded herself a little. What an embarrassing thing to tell a stranger. It also had seemed that her Irish accent was becoming more clear, which made her face even more red. She hated most everything about herself.

So he did live around here. That's odd, she didn't see any houses of buildings near by..She shrugged a little to herself, then suddenly felt a sharp pain on her leg where the wound was. "Emm..you wouldn't happen to have a needle and thread would you? I think its a little deep.." She smiled kindly up at him, blushing again at how tall he was compared to herself.

Panting, the giant of a man sprinted through the trees. The Unconscious girl in his arms didn't way much but he had been running for hours. Stupid humans. Stupid normals. If it wasn't for them being so cruel and heartless he wouldn't be in this mess. At least his situation wasn't as bad as the poo thing in his arms. She was already starting to heat up again and he had only dunked her in that pond about two miles back. Whatever was wrong with her was really wrong, and if she didn't wake up soon -or if he didn't find another creek soon- he'd be in a world of hurt. Reese was too nice to just leave her behind. So he kept running.

Muscles screaming, lungs crying out for air, arms feeling like they are on fire... Shirt actually starting to smoke a bit. "Damn it..." he spat out as he finally slowed down. He looked around desperate for help. The arrow in his shoulderblade was throbbing finally, he couldn't ignore it forever. No one had ever suspected him before, not until he started helping the girl.

Gently shaking her he dropped to a knee. "come on girl wake up! I can't do this much longer..." she didn't stir, her long golden hair just fell over her bruised face as her body continued to grow hotter.

Reese's eyebrow twitched and he let out an inhuman growl that scattered the birds in the trees above him. "Is there anyone out here?" he was desperate. He didn't know what to do anymore. He could barely touch the girl let alone help her.

N-no. I don't. I might have something back in town but....Damien looked around and then sniffed the air. Town is about a mile from here. D-do you think you could walk that far? Or I guess I could always run and bring something back...He was pretty nervous. He didn't know what he should do. Either way, she would end up finding out who he was. He could either take her to Teelu, where she would see everything, or he could run and get her stuff. In that case, she would see how fast he could run.

She had such a pretty smile though. It was sweet, and genuine. Over the years he had gotten tired of the fake smiles people would give him. They would act like they liked him, but never really did.

"Well..I guess I could walk, if you don't mind slow people.." It had been a while since she actually walked somewhere for a long time. She usually just switched into her owl form and flew places. She wondered if she actually could walk that far. Well, you've gotten this far, might as well go along.

She started to walk towards him, assuming that the town he was talking about was in that direction. She was walking but she felt her legs shaking a little. Not because of Damien, but because she was really forgetting how to walk. "I suppose I should to this more often then.." She mumbled under her breath and stopped beside him and looked down at her feet, not wanting to make eye contact in fear if her face turning as red as a tomato.

Damien gave a little sigh of relief. Only for a second though. Josephine had walked up to him, but stopped. Is everything okay? he asked, truly concerned. She seemed to be acting strange, and he wasn't sure how to react. She had mumbled something, but he didn't know what it was.

Now she wasn't even looking at him. Did I do something wrong? No, I couldn't have. I haven't done anything at all.

"Huh? Oh, yeah everything is fine..Is the um..town this way?" She pointed in the direction she was facing and slightly looked up at him, trying her best not to blush. She would have not been so scared to blush if she were darker so it was less noticeable. But her skin made her look whiter than a ghost so the redness of her cheeks would have looked like two giant strawberries.

She shivered a little bit, remembering that she was only wearing a thin dress. Oh great, bring on the damsel in distress much. She shook her head and shamed herself. It was bad enough that she was barefoot in the woods with practically a cloth on, but now she was going to be led by a boy she didn't even know about, to a town somewhere.

"well, um we should get going then.."

Yeah. Umm...This way. He said, heading off a bit to the right from where Josephine had pointed. He turned back and looked at her. She had shivered a little. Are you cold? he asked. He was wondering if he would be giving up his hoodie. He didn't necessarily mind letting her use it, there was just a bit of a problem if he did.

He heard a noise coming from somewhere in the bushes. He thought of hunting it down, but decided against it. Josephine would probably have a lot of questions to ask if he did that. He shook the thought off.

"Just a little.." She smiled kindly up at him and started to walk behind him, wincing a little every time she stepped from the wound on her leg. Why had she fallen? Was it not embarrassing enough that she was in this ridiculous dress? She sighed a little and just continued walking

Suck it up princess. She thought to herself. If people that live in the woods with barely nothing on, then she could walk though the woods with no problem. "So um..Have you lived here for long?" What a stupid thing to ask, But it was her failed attempt at talking to someone normally. Well what else was I supposed to ask? gee mister, are you a shape shifter too? Ugh. She looked away again and just continued walking and hugging herself tightly for warmth.

I've been here about a year. Do you ummm...want my hoodie? You know, to keep you warm? He felt stupid asking the question, but there wasn't much to say. He didn't know anything about her except for her name. So, he just had to do with what he had.

He had slowed down to walk beside her, that way he could talk to her better. She was quite a bit shorter than him, but he didn't notice too much. He could smell her blood and it mixed with the sweet smell that she gave off. It was a strange scent to him. He didn't really know of a way to cover it up though, so he just tried to ignore it.

Her whole face turned bright red when he asked her if she wanted his hoodie. She didn't realize that she looked completely cold. "U-um..sure.." She did her best to hide her face. She let her black hair hide most of her and she slightly glanced up at him again, wondering if he saw how red her face was.

Holy hell why am I acting like this? Because you like him. Shut up I do not! What was she thinking? Had she gone completely mental? " Y-you don't have go give me the hoodie..cause then you might be cold.." She managed to stutter out the sentence. But it was obvious that she probably needed the hoodie more than he did. She sighed and let her head down, waiting for a response.

No, it's fine. I don't get cold very easily. He looked up to make sure he would be fine. The sun was getting low, and hidden behind clouds. There was also the fact that they were in the forest, so the sun couldn't really hurt him anyway. He took his hoodie off. He laid it over her shoulders. His hands were shaking since he was so nervous. He let go of his hoodie.

Damien continued to walk, barely watching her out of the corner of his eye, trying to see what she would do. He ran his hand along his hair, smoothing it out. Why am I so nervous? It's probably a mix of things... His mind was racing with all kinds of thoughts as he walked.

Josephine stiffened for a moment when she saw Damien go to put the hoodie around her. She hadn't been this close to someone in over a month so she really didn't know how to act around him. She then made a sigh of relief when she felt how warm the hoodie was. "Thank you.."

She unfolded her arms and put them through the arm holes in the hoodie. And of course, it was like she was swimming in it. It was very baggy on her and probably made her look like a poofball. Her hands didn't even make it out of the ends, which made her blush even more. She glanced over at him again and smiled faintly, as a thank you for letting her borrow the hoodie.

Damien smiled at how small she looked in his hoodie. I guess it would help a bit if it fit you. The hoodie was always a little bit big for him, but not too bad. So....how did you end up here? Why are you here?

He had so many questions to ask, but decided to stick with the biggest ones for now. He wanted to learn a lot about her if he could. He would have to wait though.

"Oh well umm.." She was at a loss of words. She wasn't entirely sure if she should tell the truth about how she ended up here. But for some reason she didn't want to lie to him. She bit her bottom lip and tried to come up with something believable to say that was at least half truth. "Ah..I ran away from my old home...I wasn't wanted there anymore." She shook her head, well at least that was part of the truth.

"As for the rest..I really don't think you'd believe me if I told you." She half heartedly smiled to herself, of course he wouldn't believe her. nobody ever did. And when she prooved them wrong, they hated her, they were afraid of her. She looked away and tried to sink deeper into the hoodie. She clung to the comfort that the warmth of it brought. It also had a nice smell..It made her feel safe even though she was out in the woods.

Oh, I really doubt that. He smiled. He had quite a few stories of his own, and he didn't even believe some of them. So why don't you give it a shot. Even if I don't believe you, at least I'll have tried. He was really beginning to warm up to her now. He felt comfortable, not so on edge.

He looked down at the ground, watching their feet with each step. He noticed she was barefoot. The ground probably wasn't the most comfy thing to walk on, but it didn't seem to be too bad. He looked back up at her face, waiting to hear her story.

"Ah well..I'm a shape shifter..I can turn into a black owl.." She practically mumbled the whole thing under her breath, too embarrassed to look anywhere but the ground as she walked a little faster than before, causing the pain in her leg to be much much worse.

Suck it up, you've just basically ruined all chances with this guy. Shut up its not like I had one anyway.. She shook her head as her eyes watered only slightly. At that moment she wanted to dissapear, or die. either would be good for her. She hid her face within her hair and tried to shrink inside of the hoodie.