Alone...

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.

Reese grunted and scooped the girl back up into his arms. Ignoring the burning, the pain, the tiredness; ignoring it all, he headed further into the forest. He huffed and staggered a bit, his muscles almost at their limit when he finally heard the sound of water.

At last! He had a break! He could cool this girl down! Picking up pace he grinned seeing the river. Falling to his knees he lowered the girl into the icy water , the liquid hissing on contact as it steamed up around her. As he let the water slowly cool the girl, whatever she was, down to a normal temperature, Reese splashed some water up onto his red arms where she had almost burned him. Then with a grimace he reached behind him and felt for the arrow sticking out of his shoulder. This isn't going to be pleasant... he thought. With one quick yank he pulled the arrow and a hunk of skin from his back as he let out a nasty growl. Chucking the arrow aside he ignored the bleeding wound and focused on the girl siting in the water.

Now thoroughly drenched, her scorched dress clung to her tiny frame leaving little to the imagination. "Oh boy..." Reese's face reddened. Although the girl was a good bit younger than he was he didn't exactly want to be in this situation when she woke up.

With a wince Reese lifted her small frame up out of the water and laid her on the river bank. She was a normal temperature for now. Running a hand over his face Reese looked down at the girl hoping she would wake up soon, he wasn't sure how much more of this he could handle.

The witch sighed in relief when the word "yes" came out from the guy's mouth. She would have started to hate him with burning rage, if he refused to help her out of sympathy. It was a torture to Monika's pride, having to yearn for another person's helping hand. The conceited girl simply would not allow any refusal.

Hiroshi asked her if she wanted him to carry her. Oh well, I didn't think I would need it. But since you are willing to, yes please. she thought of the idea quietly and nodded with a beam on her sickly pale face.

As they left the abandoned accommodation, Monika felt someone nearby. A scent of sweet chocolate and caramel could be smelled. Food!!

Tay finally managed to find his way into the forest but stumbled upon a river, blocking his way to the other side. "DAMN!" He munched on his chocolate bar some more and started to walk along the river when he suddenly noticed a big pale buldge in the distance right beside the river up ahead. "Oi, the bugger is that?" He quickened his pace and soon saw that the buldge was a person, a very large man. "Woah, boy"

Tay got up close enough the stand right beside the big man and tap him on the shoulder. "Oi, who are you?..err and who is she?" His face turned a little red at the sight of a girl, drenched from the water. perhaps the man in front of him was a kidnapper.

"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.

Hearing from the young girl Monika that she had agreed to have Hiroshi carry her, he had ended up kneeling down to the floor in front of the girl to allow her to get onto his back. Even if she may not have had much strength within her body, Hiroshi had thought for sure she must've had enough to at least hold onto his throat as he carried her out of the abandoned home. However, as soon as they had both left the home having his nose catching the smell of something as sweet as candy itself. He quickly turned his head left and right on wondering where the smell must've come from.

Apparently the girl that he had carried had also caught onto the smell of food from hearing her sudden outburst on asking for food. A light gasp escaped his lips as he quickly began to chase after the smell of where the food was coming from. Just being able to catch the smell was good enough for Hiroshi, it would be much longer and harder to find edible and that wasn't poisonous at the sametime. He was sure enough that hearing Monika exclaim out that she had also smelled food, she would've wanted him to go toward the same direction on where he had smelled it as well. As he continued to chase after the smell, he hadn't realized but his own kimono that was once covering his head was starting to come undone from over his head slightly. Revealing his cat-like ears only just a bit, he hadn't paid much attention to his outfit at the time being due to the intoxicating smell of something sweet catching his attention made him want to see or even taste it terribly.

Caring none about manners, the witch clung to Hiroshi like a sloth cling to a tree. The male started to chase after the intoxicating smell of candies. Some of her hair supplely got in her face, making her realize how shabby her tresses had become. With a sigh she tossed her long hair back and helped scanning the surrounding. All trees and not a goddamn sign of human beings. Arschloch. she grumbled in her mind.

When Hiroshi kept his concentration on the food hunt, the cloth covering the top of his head started to go off. Since they were in a hasty situation - to have her own dying stomach fed or say hi to Death - her companion seemed not to have noticed that. Unintentionally she caught a sight of the furry thing attached to his head again. "Was ist das?" she asked herself, not letting the determined male hear her question. Then the male stopped chasing and looked around, possibly to make sure he was not lost. Monika raised her shivering hand slightly and poked the pair of pointy, ear-like objects popping out from his head. This appeared to be a great shock to the male, though he did not throw the girl onto the ground.

Seeing the male's reaction, the ignorant girl leaned closer to peek his facial expression. "Don't tell me they are... Ears?" she uncertainly asked.

Reese jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He really was out of it. Normally he was more on his toes, people couldn't get so close with out him noticing. Hewart racing he fell to his butt on the soft dirt hand on his chest. "Damn... You scared me...." He breathed as he tried to calm his racing heart. But as he looked up at the face of a kid that was barely a teenager he couldn't help but feel that stab of homesickness. The kid looked like his little brother. When Reese's paren't found out what he was, they threw him out, affraid he'd eat the younger child, but Reese would have never done such a thing! That's revolting!

Finally the boy's question's registered. Slowly pushing himself up to a squatted position so he was almost face level, and not towering over the kid, he held his hand out. "I'm Reese... I'm not too sure who she is. I sort of rescued her in a town a few miles back. She hasn't woken up since but... she's not exaclty...normal." If Reese's hunch was right, this kid wasn't either. The only reason a kid would be out here all alone was because he was like him and this girl. Perhaps it was his lucky day after all. "what's your name?"

With the introductions over, the girl on the riverbank finally started to stir. Bright blue eyes slowly fluttered open before her body went rigid and she jerked upright. She winced, cradling the knot on the back of her head as she fearfully looked at the two guys before her. "W-what's going on? Where am I?" That's when she remembered the town and what she had down, the fires. The color drained from her face. "Oh no..." She barely mumbled. "I didn't hurt anyone did I? Please tell me I didn't hurt anyone!" But with her last cry for answers, a branch above the newcomers head sparked a bit before falling off the tree and heading for him.

"Look out!" She scrambled to her feet and tackled to boy out of the way of the falling branch, landing on top of him. Luckily they weren't hit with the smoldering branch and luckily she was still wet enough to keep it from really going up in flames. When she finally opened her eyes and saw their faces inches apart, her pale face turned an extreme shade of red. "S-sorry." She scrambled off of him, hanging her head a bit at the sight of the wet body mark she had left on his front. Wake up to a cute guy and you tackle him... Way to go Maggie... Nice first impression. At least you didn't set this one on fire. She tried to argue with herself. "So um..." She tried again. "Are you guys part of the people trying to kill me?"

"Ah, the name's Tay! It's short form for Taylen. But don't tell no one, alright? Nice to meet cha Reese~" Tay took a good long look at the man known as Reese, now that he thought about it, he really wasn't all that scary looking.

Tay rubbed the back of his head. He really did need a brush, the only thing he really had going for himself was his hair and his face. The rest of him looked fragile and weak.

He then looked over at the girl that had just woken up. She had the prettiest blue eyes that he had ever seen. He had a puzzled look on his face at what had just happened. "People trying to kill you? Ha! Look at me i could barely hurt a fly!" Just then, a fly landed on his arm and he instinctively swatted at it, the fly no longer looking like one as he brushed his arm off and chomped away at his chocolate bar.

"Calm down girl." Reese tried to get her to ease up and not set anything on fire. He had seen what she had down to the town. "We aren't going to hurt you." He couldn't stifle back a grin at Tay's little display. "I rescued you from that town a while back. My name is Reese and this here is Tay. What's your name sweetheart?" Reese slowly pushed himself up to his feet, his full height towering over the younger two, but he needed to stretch, hunched over was killing his back.

"M-Maggie." She stuttered as she wrapped her arms around herself to try and cover up, the wet dress was clinging to her. "I guess I should thank you for saving me then." She added softly. Still blushing from her impact with Tay, she could barely get her bright eyes over to meet his. "So uh... What are we doing way out here? Is there another town out here somewhere?" She knew she didn't need to ask why she was soaking wet. Obviously Reese had figured out the key to keeping her under control.

He could just barely hear what she had said. A shapeshifter! Wow...at least now I don't have to be so nervous that she might attack me. Her story was a lot shorter than he expected. He was assuming she would start off with her whole life story, not just get to the point.

Wow. he whispered. Ya know, I believe you. He sighed. You're not the first shapeshifter I've met. And don't worry, I'm not going to try and hurt you. He wasn't lying. He had met many shape shifters over the year he had been in Teelu, and a few even before that. He also really didn't want to hurt her. He could never live with himself if he did.

"There's an abandoned town back that way~" He lazily pointed over in the direction he had come from and started to pull some more food out of his pocket. "It's lame really. Not a person in sight!" He waved his hand at the thought. He then looked up at Reese. He was very tall. "Oi, you on steroids or something?" Even though it was getting dark, Tay still had to squint a little because it was just a little too bright for his liking. Well at least the full moon wont be out for a few days..perhaps I'll stick with these guys for a while.

"Say are you two hungry?" He looked at both of them and tilted his head. They looked healthy, and he really wasn't too keen on sharing any of his food. He probably could eat all of the food in an entire store without sharing with anyone. Still, he was trying to be kind.

"Ah..you're a vampire aren't you?" She looked over at him, trying to take the attention off of herself by asking him a question. She never really thought vampires existed, but from what she read in books as a child, he matched the description perfectly, well other than the fact that he was being extremely nice to her. "Um, thank you though.."

She really didn't expect for him to be so accepting of what she was. Normally, people would just laugh at her. It felt sort of nice not to be laughed at for once. Admit it, you like him. She blushed at herself. Shut up I do not..well maybe. Her green eyes flashed golden for a moment, it usually only happened when she was about to shift forms. "Uhh we'd better hurry to that town..I'm starting to shift without meaning to.." She really did not want him to see her if she were to take her other form. It was a rather painful prosess. The cracking of bones shifting into opposite places, and her tiny little screams. She hated it. Most shifters never had a problem like hers. Perhaps it was because she tries to hard to fight against her other form. Oh well. I refuse to let him see that.

Reese looked down at the kid that reminded him so much of his brother and grinned. "No steroids I promise. Just a freak of nature.... In more ways than one." he gave the kid a wink and looked between the two younger ones before scratching his chest. "That town actually sounds like a good place. At least we'd have some shelter... And hey, you'd have some company if you don't mind us sticking around for a bit." At the mention of food though, Reese shook his head. He had a good meal hte other day, a nice sized meal of fish in the river. Can't beat that if you're a bear.

Maggie shifted nervously. She wasn't too sure how to act, normally people were terrified of her. She didn't know how to control herself, people feared her. But an abandoned town might be just what she needed, a place with no one around to hurt. "That town sounds nice... I can't hurt anyone there." She mumbled the last half to herself. Hearing Tay mention food her stomach gurgled but she shook her head no, her cheeks burning a darker red.

"Eh? But I've already walked alll the way here. Now you're telling me I'm going to have to walk all the way back? This calls for a snack!" It was amazing at how much Tay ate and never gained a single pound. Even worse, he was not fond of walking or running or any exercise of the sort.

He rummaged though is what seemed to be bottomless pocket and found a small bag of chocolate chip cookies. they were his favorite but he had just recently herd Maggie's stomach grumble. He looked down at his cookies then back up at Maggie, then down at the cookies again. "Aghh, here!" He held out the bag of cookies to Maggie and looked away, puffing out his cheeks like a stubborn child. "Take them you're obviously hungry."

Y-yeah. I am. He said, a little taken aback. I'm suprised you got that so fast. He chuckled a bit, showing his fangs. They were small. If you knew what he was or paid close attention, you could tell. Normally though, nobody ever noticed. So...uhhh. Yeah. We should probably hurry, although it might be kind of hard with your leg the way it is.

He knew he could easily make it to town in about a minute or two, but there was no way she could. It would take a good ten minutes to get there at the pace they were walking.

"Well I never said we had to go back right now..." Reese looked over at Maggie. "It may be best if we stay near the water anyway." He shoved his hands in his pockets before glancing back down at the kid. "So what are you doing out here all alone Tay?" He asked him.

Maggie shook her head. "I-I can't. They are yours!" She knew how hard food was to come by and she didn't want to anger the only people she hadn't run off instantly. Maggie had already tackled the kid and he was still standing here talking to her so she didn't want to take his food too. "I'll be fine." She gave him a shy smile.

Continuing to follow the sweetened scent of food the entire time Hiroshi had charged through the forest. He had kept turning his head left and right to see if the direction of where the smell was coming from had gone in any separate way. Obviously not using his full speed to make sure he wouldn't go running in the opposite way where the smell was coming from as well as not letting himself end up slamming face first into a tree. However, he had ended up coming to a complete stop in the middle of the forest as he turned around a couple of times to make sure he had known where he was. The chances of them returning to that old abandoned town were mostly likely going to happen no matter what. Sleeping in an old abandoned town within one of the homes even if the beds were dusty, was going to be a lot better then sleeping on the dirty floor within the middle of the forest where who knows what other creatures lurked around at night. 'Koko de mawari ni ōku no hitobito ga arimasu.(There are more people around here..)' He had began speaking to himself within his own mind as he had sniffed the air lightly, only to be able to smell other scents of other people around the area.

Gasping sharply but still keeping a hold onto Monika's to make sure she hadn't fallen, when Hiroshi had felt what seemed like a finger poking at one of his cat-like ears. He quickly turned his head up to look at the young girl staring curiously toward his head before looking at him with even more curiosity on what the fluffy things on his head were. Sighing with a bit of disappointment that he had let his own guard down to allow his ears to be shown, Hiroshi shook his head slightly. 'Ima, sorera o kakusu koto ni imi ga nai koto. (No point in hiding them now.)' Slowly enough he had began to shake his head left and right several times to allow his kimono to drop off his own head and fall down to it's full length which was about to his own feet. Revealing his cat-like ears and the hilt of the katana that was hidden under his kimono the entire time. He couldn't help but chuckle nervously. "Sorry, I no tell you. Em...embarrassing." he had done his best to try and explain why he wouldn't show Monika his different traits under his kimono, but with his broken English the thoughts that she understood him with slim to him.