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Feared and Fearful in this RP
Christopher Dunche
Erik Attaway
Glaucus Masculli
Relana Sahira

Relana stumbled out of the car as fast as her clumsy legs would let her. She laughed as she smelled the damp air; this was truly a magical place. The bright sunlight dappled the pine-needle forest floor, giving her a sense of being in a dream. The long-leaved pines stretched their straight, green needles into the bright blue North Carolinian sky. The gentle wind caressed her face as she stepped next to Glaucus, looking into the forest path that led to the river.

"So this is the Tarhelian River...." she said softly, sighing. "It's so peaceful here....I can't wait to see the rapids!" She ran off from the group, wanting to see this place for herself. She followed the forested path, trying her hardest not to trip over the various roots that snaked their way across the path.
She passed a sign that said "Tarhelian River Ahead" in large, red letters. Several small sentences were written below the sign, but Relana didn't bother to stop and read them. She heard the telltale sign of the loud rapids as she neared the river; it urged her all the more to see this river bathed in mystery.

Glaucus walked up to the Riverine, and there he beheld the great Tarhelian source of their adventure. And tas if transfixed by some otherwordly spell he gazed upon it. The river was both tranquil and violent at the same time, and it was crystal clear. Whirlpools and eddies formed and dissipated in seconds, and unlike most rivers it was changing constantly. Glaucus bent down and touched the water with his hand, and almost instantly he felt a tingle on his neck, it wasn’t painful, just surprising. He recoiled and drew his hand back. He looked down at the water, and despite the clearness he saw no fish and no flora of any kind near the water, which reminded him of the rivers of Greek mythology.

“Glance upon stygian streams,” he said quoting the song Aphelion and harkening back what Relana had said last night.

Relana approached the rocky shore of the Tarhelian River; she took off her black flip-flops off of her feet and rolled her long pants legs up. She leapt upon a flat, wet rock near the shore and felt the cold water lap against her skin. This place was truly beautiful, but at the same time, very dangerous. The river moved at a quick pace, unlike the rivers she was accustomed to. She heard the sucking and swooshing of the water ebbing and flowing at a constant rate; falling into these waters would have grave consequences.
She looked back at Glaucus, yelling over the loud roar of the river.
"Isn't it beautiful?" she smiled, brushing a strand of her dyed hair out of her face. She began to hop across the small stones adjacent to the one she originally stood upon; she gasped as she almost slipped on the slick surface of the smooth rock.
"Ach, that was close!" she laughed, her heart in her throat. Almost foolheartedly, she began stepping across the stones once more, seeming to tempt the fickle tendrils of fate to trip her up.

Relana continued to skip haphazardly across the rocks; she seemed to be lost in a world of her own. Even if she was clumsy, she felt confident enough in her ability to keep her balance--she caught herself three different times on the slippery rocks. She wasn't too far from the shore, so she felt safe enough, even if she were to fall in the river.

"It's okay, Glaucus, I--"

Midway through her sentence, she jumped to another rock. This rock, however, was much slippier than the other ones. She lost her balance, not having enough time to gasp before tumbling headfirst into the river. She disappeared under the water as she was carried by the strong current, still too disoriented to find her way to the surface.

She thought frantically as water entered her lungs, I'm going to die! She cold water sucked the warmth straight from her body; the river's base was in the tall mountains of NC.

Relana couldn't see anything under the water; it was all a darkened blur to her. She briefly recalled someone--or something--grab her arm. It felt warm against her cold skin; she could not comprehend any more than that. Then, there was a strange sensation she felt. She grimaced slightly, slipping into unconciousness. It felt as if someone had grated the skin on the inside of her arms off. She became unconcious for a moment, then awakened once more.

Someone was talking, but she couldn't understand them. It was if they were making strange, gurgled noises. She was stuck inbetween the world of dreams and the world of reality; she couldn't seem to discern which was which. Relana felt the heavy pull of gravity as she was brought out of the water and on to the solid land. Still caught between worlds, she felt someone's cold fingers press behind her ear. For what, she didn't know, but she opened her eyes for a moment in response.

Even in this half-awakened state, she recognized Glaucus; his blue hair was plastered across his forehead and his face was contorted into a grimace of worry. His chestnut eyes were filled with an emotion Relana had yet to see in her friend--fear. She felt numb all over; Relana couldn't move if she wanted to. Her limbs felt ridiculously heavy as she tried her hardest to reach out to Glaucus.

Relana blinked slowly; was that blood running down from Glaculus' neck? Squinting, she saw three slits on the sides of his neck that each had a small river of blood flowing from them.

Weakly spluttering water out of her lungs, she tried to speak--yet, it seemed as if her voice was carried away by the current. She attempted to touch Glaucus once more, but he sighed, said something, then fell over. She felt a large thud as his body hit the pine-needled earth.

"Gl...aucus?" she whispered his name, slightly worried about his condition. It was her fault he had to go and save her from the icy embrace of the Tarhelian River; it was her fault he was exhausted and hurt. He had warned her; why hadn't she listened?

A single tear, full of frustration and grief, ran down her cold cheek. She felt horrible about what had happened. She endangered her friend as well as her own life. He had risked his own life for her because of her foolishness. She turned her head slowly to face Glaucus.

"Glaucus....I'm...So sorry..." another tear ran down her cheek, the guilt building up in her.

He'll never forgive me for this, she thought, biting her lip. He won't like me anymore and he won't be my friend...

Relana felt even worse as Chris scolded her; it made her regret she had ever come to this place. Now, both Chris and Glaucus were mad at her. Erik probably thought she was an idiot, as well.

Relana wanted to run away from her problems and get back on the next plane to Ireland. Her trip to the river was nothing like she imagined; she just wanted to forget everything and go home. She didn't care about the educational convention anymore, she didn't care about her date with Glaucus (she was sure he was going to cancel it and tell to go away), and she didn't care about America.

She slowly brought a hand up to her face to hide her oncoming onslaught of tears; she wasn't going to allow anyone to see her cry. She was ashamed, guilty, and above all, disappointed in herself.

She cried without making a noise, as she always did. Relana never let a soul hear her weep; she was far too strong for that. Instead, she kept quiet and hid her tears, leaving her red eyes as the only remnant of her emotions.

The insides of her arms stung again, but she ignored the pain. She gasped slightly as she heard Chris exclaim about Glaucus' neck; once more, she was reminded of how much trouble she had put her friend into. Relana quietly coughed up more water, bringing her other hand to her face as she felt another wave of hot tears rise up.

He could be seriously hurt, she thought to herself, her tears ceasing for a moment as the claws of fear dug into her. His neck is bleeding; what happened to him?

Glaucus said as he began to come to, he saw Relana’s face and expected to see it burst into to tears. “Relana calm down, please don’t cry.” To Chris he re-invoked what Erik said almost a second ago, “Quiet! Chris I’m not angry it was an and a good test for my life guarding skills” Glaucus said belittling it gravely. “Relana, Are you alright?” He approached her, but her look of fear made him stop, and before he could ask why Chris broke in with,
"Holy Glaucus! Your neck... it's bleeding!"

Glaucus grabbed at his neck, “My neck is what?” and looked at his hands, Blo.od. Thin line marks of it were in a diagonal pattern on his hands meaning that they mirrored what was on his neck. Glaucus in moment of pure , ran towards the river and looked, and saw it, in the water his neck showed small stripes of blo.od. He waded out into the water, though he knew he could not go out far lest he get pulled down stream but Glaucus had to wash the sangiune humor out.

Glaucus got about hip deep and dunked his head under water. He tore off his shirt and undershirt, and began to use the latter as a tourniquet for the . He didn’t know which was weirder, the rips not causing any pain, beyond what eh felt in the water or the fact that he couldn’t figure out how, he never hit a rock or sticks, and the scratches were too straight and too thin.

He managed to keep his shirt out of the sanguine liquid and he carried and his makeshift bandage back to shore. Glaucus threw his shirt on the ground and pulled the tourniquet off. Standing shirtless, he snapped back to reality and he beheld an almost weeping Relana and Chris who was glaring with an almost animalistic rage. He had turned at her sideways from the river facing Relana, holding something…that was… sticking out the back of his pants… ‘What is that?’, His mind screamed, but he knew, if Chris hadn’t said anything he is trying to keep it under wraps, and he knew not to draw attention to it. He would talk about it later tonight after his date.

He noticed Erik slinkign off into the shadows, "Where is he off to?" Glaucus asked out loud.