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 Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:32 pm
Day 3
Morning
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The air was warm with spring, the sky was a beautiful blue, and all of the forest's inhabitants were out and about. Today was a wonderful day.
Erik paused and took a deep breath, just to take in the beauty of the forest. It was strange, when he left his cabin just a mere 20 minutes ago, he was tense and nervous, but here...here, he was calm, almost in tune with nature. For as long as he could remember, forests, plains, mountains, any place of untouched nature was his sanctuary, a place where he escape the concrete jungle of civilization and the many problems that came with it.
Looking around to see if anyone was within sight, he lifted his hand and brushed away his thick red hair, revealing pointed, almost elven ears. Looking around once more, Erik spotted a tall weeping willow which was possible for him to climb. So, he began climbing up the tree, making sure to not let the bag he was carrying fall.
Finally, he reached a branch large enough to support his weight. Getting into a comfortable and stable sitting position, opened his bag and pulled out a book, The Natural History of The Unnatural World, one of his favorites. Flipping it open, he began flipping through the pages, searching for a very important article. "Chapter 6: Humanimals" he said to himself. He still flipped through the pages, but at a much slower pace, trying not to skip the page he was looking for. As he did, he murmurred out names of different articles "Harpies, Centaurs, Sphixes, Merfolk...Found it!! He had finally found what he was looking for - Lycanthropy.
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:47 pm
Relana walked down the path back to the resort, sighing as many a thought went through her head. The sleep she had aquired last night was nowhere near enough; when her alarm went off at seven that morning, she had barely enough sense to get herself ready for the educational convention she was supposed to be attending. She was so sleepy, she had placed two contacts in one of her eyes, thinking she had only put in one. The wind breezed through her dyed hair playfully; she couldn't help but smile as she recalled her romantic night from the day before.
Relana hadn't paid a bit of attention at the convention; instead, she had doodled on the handout papers and kept quiet instead of conversing with other people. She was too immersed in her thoughts of merfolk and Glaucus.
"Ach," she sighed to herself, holding on to her papers as the wind picked up once more. "What a mess you've found yourself in, Relana," she shook her head as she pulled her armwarmers down to sneak a glance at her scales. She had been so obsessed with them; she was afraid that they would spread without her noticing and, in turn, would be seen by others. Her armwarmers could go up by only so much, and after that point, she would have to start wearing long-sleeved shirts in the North Carolinian heat.
She walked through a wooded area; she knew that she was close to the resort once more. Relana's heart skipped a beat in excitement and anxiety as she thought of her plans today; she was to meet Glaucus at the beach with his parents. She wasn't sure how they would react to her--she was positive that she would fumble and do something stupid.
She looked up to the treetops, sighing in contentment as she saw the sunlight filter through the green leaves. It was then she noticed a boy with red hair, perched comfortably upon a tree limb with a book in hand. She squinted (it was a habit because of the combination of her astigmitisms and nearsightedness) as she tried to identify the boy--it was Erik.
She cleared her throat as she approached the base of the tree. "Hello, Erik!" she yelled, grinning. "Nice day, isn't it?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:07 pm
Erik had just found the paragraph on causes of lycanthropy, something about a virus, when a voice took him by surprise. He lost his balance and fell, but he was lucky for two reasons. 1.) His foot got caught between two large branches, so he didn't touch the ground, but was hanging upside down. 2.) The branch he was sitting on was only 10 feet off the ground (he never was a good climber).
Hanging there, he looked around for a way to get down. He attempted to reach up to the branches that had his foot in a vice, but couldn't reach. Out of ideas, he simply replied while suspended in midair "Up until this exact second, it's been a great day." It never occurred to him that his pointed ears were clearly visible.
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:44 pm
Relana squealed loudly as she watched Erik tumble; however, she was relieved to see that his foot had caught onto a branch. She couldn't help but laugh at his witty response.
"Aw, do you need help, Erik? I can..." her jaw dropped as she noticed Erik's pointed ears. "E...Erik?" she tilted her head in confusion. "Is it...happening to you, too? You have pointed ears!" She didn't say this too loudly; she was afraid of others hearing.
She swallowed hard. (I thought that only Glaucus and I were the only ones that changed....Was Chris the same?)
"Anyway, do you need some help?" She smiled at him once more, keeping her thoughts to herself.
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:05 pm
"No duh, and you have scales on your arms, Glacus has gills, and Chris has stumpy, tail thingy." This was the reaction Erik was hoping not to have, he had a bad feeling he was going to face this sort of thing much more in the near future.
Erik once again attemped to free himself, reaching up as far as his arms would go. "Can't...reach........need to.....work....out more." And, as before, he fell back, panting. "Yeah *pant* I could use some help."
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:25 pm
Relana squealed loudly in frustration. "Who told you that? Or did you see, Erik? Aw...It's not like it matters, anyway. We're all like this, and I think it's best if we stick together!" She sat her papers down and climbed up the tree, trying her best to dislodge Erik. She grunted, trying to push his foot out of the hole. "Uuugh....It won't budge!" she shoved again and again, intent on getting his foot dislodged from the malevolent tree.
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Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:27 pm
"Well apparently, you Glacus, then he told Chris, and Chris then told me. That, and a few are poking out from your sleeves." All the blood rushing to his head was starting to give him a headache and make his face look red.
Erik tried to help Relana get him unstuck, flexing his foot to try and wriggle it out, but to no avail. As he gave up for the third time now, he heard a distinct cracking noise. "Oh....crap." he said to himself. The branch suddenly snapped in front of Relana and Erik completed his prolonged fall, landing head first. Luckily, though, it was a short drop, only 2-3 feet.
Lying on his back, Erik got up after a minute or so, he sat, shaking his head to regain his balance. "Well, that wasn't so bad." It was at that moment that his book, which had miraculously not fallen from the top branch, chose that particular moment to drop. Looking up to tell Relana he was okay, Erik was instead greeted with his large, heavy book falling onto his face. Stunned, the only sound he could make was a muffled "Ow" before the book slid off his face and into his lap.
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Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:49 pm
Relana tilted her head to the side slightly, frowning as she stepped back to look at Erik.
"Well," she sighed, "I don't--"
At that moment, the branch snapped and plummeted to the ground. Relana squealed loudly in surprise; she winced as he hit with a loud smack.
"Erik!" she yelled, "are you okay?!" She tugged the branch off of his foot and frowned; she was unsure of his condition because he had fallen on his head. "You're not bleeding or anything, are you?"
She opened her mouth to warn Erik of the tumbling book, but she couldn't speak quickly enough. It hit him square on the head and slid down his face into his lap. Relana didn't know whether to be worried or to laugh; she was sure the book had hurt Erik, but his expression was priceless.
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Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:01 pm
Once again, Erik sat upright. It looked as though the bump to his head may have actually done some damage, as his lower jaw seemed to have popped right out of it's socket. Erik took a moment to catch his breath before closing his eyes and shaking his head before simply moving his jaw back into place with ease, making a few disturbing popping sounds in the process. "Well, that could've gone better." he said. It was strange how even though he just fell out of a tree, landed on his head, got hit with 5-pound book, and had his jaw pop out of place, he sounded as if nothing had happened
Erik got up on his feet, his stance a wobbily from his fall. Once he got his balance, he started blinking a lot, his eyes were watering. He leaned up against the tree he fell from, holding a hand very firmly against eyes. "Man...it feels I got dirt in my eyes. He started to stumble forward, leaving his book behind, laying on the ground.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:34 am
Relana stole a glance at the book's contents as Erik leaned against the tree.
"Lycanthropes," she read to herself. "He's reading about lycanthropes?" Relana wished to thumb through its contents, but she decided that it would be rude of her to do so. She picked up the book in the crook of her arm before coming over to the dazed boy.
She approached Erik, looking him over. "Erik?" she said softly. "Look at me. Do you see how many fingers I'm holding up?" She proceeded to hold up three fingers.
"He may be suffering from a concussion," she thought, "I'll have to take him to the doctor if he is...."
Blushing, she realized that he was standing next to her pictures she had doodled during the medical convention.
"Ach," she thought with a grimace, "I hope he doesn't see them....He'll think I'm positively mad, drawing such silly things."
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:55 pm
Erik's breathing became steadily heavier, advertising the in pain in his eyes. They felt to him like they were going rip out of their sockets. He clenched his teeth as hard as he could and turned his back towards Relana as the pain reached it's climax and then slowly dissapated.
Slowly then, he pulled his hands away from his eyes and trembled at what he saw...his hands were covered with blood. Erik's breathing started to speed up, a fearful shudder within each breath. "Oh God..." he muttered. There was a certain tone in his voice, a mixture of fear, sadness, and confusion.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:58 pm
Relana stared at Erik in worry; he wasn't responding to her request. Rather, he turned away from her and held his hands to his face.
"Erik?" she called out, holding on to his book tightly in concern. "Erik, tell me if you're okay...."
She got closer to the trembling boy. "Erik, you've got to talk to me....What's--" she saw crimson blood glisten in palms. "Erik!" she yelled. "You're bleeding!" She saw his eyes were bleeding profusely. "Erik, we've got to take you to the hospital or.....Or something! This is serious, Erik...."
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:28 pm
He turned around slowly to face Relana, revealing a quite morbid sight. His cheeks, and the sides of nose, were red with blood which had leaked from eye sockets, and looking at him in the eyes, it was apparent as to why. His eyes had changed drastically. The iris' in his eyes had disappeared completely, leaving nothing but deep amber aside from the pupils, which had stayed the same. "Is...it bad?" he managed to whimper out. Although the bleeding had stopped, he desperately needed to clean up or someone (most likely Relana) would drag him to emergency room.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:58 pm
Relana's eyes widened at the sight; his eyes were so strange now. They were such a deep amber.
"This must be another transformation," she thought. Sighing, she dug through her pocketbook and took out several unused tissues.
"Here," she replied in a soft tone, wiping some of the blood from Erik's face gently. "You don't hurt anymore, do you, Erik? I...don't think it would be wise if I were to take you to the doctor now." She shook her head. "They'd think you were too suspicious...."
Her shoulders sagged; Erik already had gone through two different changes. When was she to be next?
"What if I don't change at all?" she thought to herself in despair. "What if everyone else....and Glaucus changes? What if I don't anymore, and I'm stuck with just these scales? Yet, that would mean that I could still be with my family and friends..."
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:46 pm
He didn't need words to tell how he looked, Relana's expression said it all - he was a total freak. He took some of her tissues. He tried to say thank you, but he was breathless and could only mouth the words.
As Erik started wiping the blood off of his face, he realized just how dire his predicament was: he was turning into...something, after running away from home, which was 7 states away, back in Illinois. Almost on cue, he started to cry silently, the tears caused the blood to smear as he wiped with the tissue.
Everyone else could easily hide their changes, but not him. Once again, even here, two thousand miles from his hometown, he was still the exception, still the different one, still the one who didn't fit in. Erik felt defeated, there was nothing he could do or say. He just sat down on a rock behind him and wrapped his arms around his legs.
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