Soul Chasers

[Amber]

(To those of you that read this before, I would like to tell you that that was the version that was NOT mixed with the other writer. THIS is the real first chapter, and it is mixed with her writing.)

A dense fog of silence had fallen down upon the heads of Luneth, Kit, and I. My irritated nails were the only noise that clicked upon the roughly crafted oak table. It was in this instant that my senses had accelerated due to being the center of attention, even if I was in the presence of those I trusted. I grunted in annoyance, hoping that some form of noise would break the uncomfortable silence. It didn't.
More irritated than before, I jerkily lifted my hand and brushed my unruly chestnut bangs to the side, carelessly pushing them behind my ear. Such was one of my habits. I shifted my attention from the white wall to the center of the table, where the object that had dented our daily routine lay waiting in cold silence.
The object was a flattened ring of silver, about the size of my palm. I imagined its cool touch against my hand, remembering the sensation. Like water. The ring was separated into two parts, connected to each other by only four sections welded together. Each section was directly across from the other, so that if one was to place a cross in the center of the object, the lines would connect with all four parts. On each of the sections were three tiny, circular gems that went in the pattern of clear, deep blue, clear. The two on the outside were bigger. The smaller one in the middle looked as if it could be a sapphire, its hue as deep and blue as the most secret part of the ocean, trapped in a gem only a few millimeters wide. In the middle, most likely supported by a small rod, was the image of a... what was that?
The object in the middle could turn, confirming my suspicions of the unseen rod in the middle. It was silver, like the rest of it. Since I had no idea what it could be, I automatically associated it with something I knew all too well. It looked very much like a dagger with a more arrow-shaped head. What would be the hilt of the dagger was in the shape of a miniature version of the huge blade, only upside-down and connected by the rather fancy guard. What would be the guard were two long extensions coming from where the hilt and blade connected. They curved out and then curved down and ended in a talon-like shape. There were two similar extensions that connected to the same piece, but were under the longer parts of the guard and curved up. They were much shorter. The strange "dagger" in the middle was surrounded by a circle, also connected to the rod but not the dagger, as both could revolve freely.
I watched as Luneth, finally showing signs of life, picked up the object in a most delicate manner as if it were going to burn him severely. He held it with his finger tips, no different than a bird holding a nut as he inspected it. Quite literally, like a bird. Why? Because he is a bird, seriously I am not kidding.
I waited eagerly for his opinion, my bright green eyes locked on him. In fact, I was so anxious to know, that I decided to say something to speed his thought process up a bit.
"Is it tradable?" I snapped, my patience broken. He seemed to be taking his sweet time; that was Luneth for you, always playing around. He cocked his head in that bird-like manner again, his bright crimson, spiky hair shifting with the air of his movement. Bangs settled in over his left eye, and then a smile broke out across his thin lips. Oh, no. Not that grin, not the one he reserved for some joke or witty remark he was about to make. His gray eyes glittered mischievously as he stuck his hand out over the table.
"It's shiny." He chirped before dropping the object. There was a resonating chink as the object hit the table. It twirled on its shining edge, like a coin, and spun around like an undecided cat before rattling to an uneven rest, its mind seemingly made up.
My spirits withered as I tried not to smack the boy, or give him a good cuff around the ear. Clearly, Luneth didn't understand why I had gone out of my way to get the object, and boy had I really gone out of my way. I had risked a gash on my leg; talk about something costing you an arm and a leg, as my mother used to say.
I looked pleadingly across the table at Kit, who's actual name was Katrina, hoping that would maybe, just maybe she would understand. She was, of course, the most rational of the three of us. Especially when Luneth was the street-fighting-competitive-jokester-punk, while apparently I was clumsy and made rash decisions most of the time. And I don't deny either trait.
In the corner of my eye, I saw Luneth look from me to Kit with a quizzical look dancing in his eyes. Then he shrugged. I raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it's not like I'm a pro at trading or anything. I dunno why you expected me to know anything. " Luneth remarked. I clenched my jaw. Luneth just had to put his two cents in everything, didn't he? As if to defy him, I leaned over the table and snatched the object up, shooting him a hard glare before turning my attention back to Kit.
She had not uttered one word. Kit gazed at my hand, as if her eyes were x-rays that could see right through my clenched fist, enclosed around the object I held captive there. For a fleeting second, I imagined the ring of silver to be Luneth, and tried not to grin. I held the object so tight that my knuckles were completely white, save for the blood of my struggles that caked them.
"What exactly compelled you to risk your life for it?" Kit asked like a therapist, her light voice filling the room, muffled by the bandana she wore. I placed it back on the table, and slid it toward her. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a detail that I had overlooked. On top of the circle (which was determined by the position of this particular detail) was a thin, silver loop. The object appeared to be a pendant, as if it had once belonged to a necklace.
"It looks like it could be silver, doesn't it?" I suggested, trying to sound as reasonable as possible in this situation. Yes, that sounded satisfying. For once I had managed to produce a solid argument for one of my idiotic actions. Hold the applause, please. "And those could be sapphires." I added, giving her a chin-up. Also one of my habits when trying to make a certain point. Another one of my habits when trying to make a certain point included applying a swift punch to someone's face.
I searched Kit's face for any sign of agreement, maybe try to predict her thought process, even. But there was no reading stoic Kit. Not even a strand of her long, black, brown-streaked, vibrantly-green-spotted hair moved. That's right; I said green. Nor did the deep purple bandana around her mouth flutter with breath. And as I looked at her, I couldn't help that she looked as if she were about to rob a train. Hah. Bandit, bandana, get it? Um, just ignore me, I'm an idiot.
"I suppose so." Kit replied. That was "I agree" in "Kit Language", as I called it, because Kit tends to beat around the bush. But who needed to beat around the bush when you could just beat the bush?
Just when I was ready to start moving, the situation being settled in my mind, Luneth decided to interject.
"I don't think Reak wouldn't trade for that pretty piece of junk. Looks like silver to me." He decided to confirm. Hm, a first, Luneth had actually proven useful in a rational conversation. Maybe that bird brain of his wasn't as tiny as I had first imagined.
Well, that settled it even more. For me, at least. I was now more than ready to trade the "pretty piece of junk" for something useful, something that would actually make our lives easier. Like a blender. Yeah, that'd be nice. Or electricity so that we could actually use the blender. I swiftly stuffed the object into the pocket of my sand-colored cargo pants.
I got to my feet, kicking the chair a few feet behind me. This caused me to stand on my injured leg, and I let out a quick "oof" of pain as my right leg began shuddering violently with effort. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, I was beginning to feel the pain of my rashness. Just one of the many wonderful examples of how I was more than willing to jump into a fight if I saw there was a point. And sometimes, I admit, there wasn't one.
I saw Luneth and Kit as they jumped to their feet and instantly sprung into action. Bless 'em.
"Luneth, go get some water." Kit ordered, and tightened the bandana around her mouth nervously. I rolled my eyes as Luneth, apparently amused at the authority in Kit's voice, put a hand up in salute and assumed a stiff stature. Obviously something taught to him by my sweet little sister Brynne, which had been taught to her by our father. The thought of him burned at my already irritated mind.
"Yes'm!" He chirped jovially before grabbing our bucket and almost throwing himself out the door. I stared at the door, an eyebrow raised.
"What a dork!" I chuckled, a laugh laced within my words now that it was just Kit and I. Not that I didn't trust Luneth. Kit was my best friend, though, and my first one at that. Although Luneth was half bad either, though sometimes he's a little stubborn, like me, despite his bright attitude toward things most of the time. He's also competitive, like me yet again, so that factor didn't exactly help a situation in which a decision had to be made, though I've become quite attached to the bird-brained punk ever since we came across him at the age of eight. Or nine. Either one. I winced as Kit rolled up the slightly shredded pant leg of my cargo pants.
"Woah-ho!" I exclaimed at the bloody sight, and, interestingly, only then was I starting to feel light-headed. Not to mention the searing pain that roared through my muscles. It was a funny thing, really; only when one first saw the wound after an accident did they finally realize the pain.
"Looks like a leopard scratch." Kit observed as she started dabbing away at the blood. Of course she had smelled it. There was no fooling Kit's sense of smell, seeing as she relied on it most of the time. Nor was there fooling mine. The blood that was still flowing smelled musty and sweet, with the slight tang of metal. Thus was the smell of a mammal that swam.
"Just grazed me." I grunted in reply. Kit looked up at me in that instant, her amber eyes shining fiercely.
"What happened, Morri?" She asked, her lengthy komodo dragon patterned hair cascading down her right shoulder. She shook her head to shake it out of the way. Just as I was about to speak, the door opened with a metallic click and Luneth stepped back inside with the water. When he moved to where Kit and I were, his gray eyes lit up like Christmas tree lights.
"Woah, when'd that get there!" He exclaimed, placing the water next to Kit, who muttered a "thanks". I rolled my eyes and looked at the wall. I flicked my wrist exasperatedly and leaned back in my chair.
"Maybe when a leopard shifter decided to slap it on me!" I snapped. Luneth bent down to examine the wound, whistling as he did so. Then he looked back up at me, a question clearly on his tongue.
"How many were there?" He said eagerly. I blinked. Were they really that used to seeing me injured? Not that I enjoyed pity, but seriously, come on.
"I dunno. At least ten." I replied. That was a lie; I remembered every single one of them. The memory reeled within my mind, the images of them first appearing on the cliffs. Two women, one girl. Three boys, four men. All of them ready to tear me to shreds.
Although I had most definitely been attacked by people, at the same time they were far from being human. They were shifters, people who were born with the soul of an animal. Whoever possessed such a soul could "shift" into the animal that their soul was. Those who I had been attacked by, as well as ourselves, fit the description to the dot. Any shifter possessed the characteristics of their animal physically. One could see the traits of a shifter's animal in the hair color, eye color, body structure and the way they moved.
For instance, I contain the soul of an otter. I have the ability to swim faster than any human, and I can hold my breath for up to eight minutes. All of my senses are cranked up, giving me rather good hearing, sense of smell, and eyesight, even as a human. And though I am the clumsiest thing on land, I'm pretty fast despite my small structure. In fact, I am the fastest of the three of us, although Luneth and I have tied. Trust me, this has been proven more than once, courtesy of stubbornness...
Luneth is a cardinal, complete with wings and a possibly pretty singsong voice that no one's ever heard. I just assumed that, since he's a bird and all. He's fast, swift, and agile and flies like I swim. Insane. He's absolutely superb with navigation, unlike me; he knows the sky like the back of his hand. His build is tall and skinny, and he tends to move quickly and lightly, much like a bird hopping around on land.
Lastly, Kit is a komodo dragon. Yep, she turns into a huge, ten foot lizard with a tail so strong, if she hit someone exactly right, they'd find themselves with a broken appendage. She has a rather unfortunate trait, though; venomous drool. Nothing's ever happened, but she tends to be paranoid about it. She wears a bandana over her mouth most of the time so as not to accidentally infect anyone with flecks of spit. Honestly, I think it's ridiculous and highly unlikely unless she flat out bites somebody since the venom only works through an open wound. But at this point in time, I was immensely grateful for this, as I did have a rather large, open wound on my leg. Just sayin'.
We had something in common with all shifters, no matter who they were. All three of us, and my human mother and sister were all very secret about our abilities. And even if we told anyone, they wouldn't believe us. That, or we would find ourselves knocked out faster than either of us could run and wake up with needles jabbed into our arms. My mother, when Kit and I had lived with her, had told us about this, and warned us never to display any of our animal tendencies to the public. Not that I had a problem with that. Much. Or we could be attacked, like today. Word has it that there have been a lot of shifter attacks going on recently.
Luneth frowned, and I raised my eyebrows, a message that clearly told him to "spit it out".
"How'd you get away?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.
"I ran along the river." Immediately, Luneth clapped a hand t his forehead. Now it was my turn to frown.
"What!" I cried, moving my injured leg out of Kit's grasp, causing her to grunt in what was mild frustration. I apologized quickly and moved my leg back within Kit's reach. I didn't even shiver as she placed the freezing cold water on my wound; I had jumped into the river countless times, therefor being quite used to the icy temperature upon my skin. Beads of water rolled down my skin, dampening my maroon sock and seeping into my worn out, dirty white shoe.
"What about the blood? And your scent?" Luneth pointed out. Suddenly, my heart sank into my soggy shoe. In my haste to run for my life, I had forgotten to hide my scent. But hope still glimmered. If they had wanted the pendant so badly, they could have ambushed the house by now. Perhaps they had given up? I found myself speechless.
There was a slight pause where all was silent except for my heart beat. And then Kit wrapped some cloth around my leg so tightly that I almost doubled over from the pressure. I ended up almost kicking Luneth in the head as a reflex. He jumped nimbly out of the way, and shot me a glare. I shrugged and gave him an almost playful smile. Almost anything to get away from the subject of my failure.
"Reflex!" I grinned. He just shook his head. I looked down at my leg and raised my eyebrows.
"Hm." I said with inspection as my eyes traced the outline of the cloth, its knot beginning just right under my knee and tightened again at the ankle. My playful mood had seemed to spread just a little.
"What, should I put some bright pink bows on there for you?" Kit grinned, getting up and examining her work. She lifted her arms and made a box with her index fingers and thumbs, as if trying to see exactly where she would fix these dreaded bows. I grinned wryly at her, but then I snapped into seriousness again. I placed my palm on the table for support and hoisted myself up gingerly. I had a goal in mind, and an injury wasn't going to stop me from reaching it. I felt myself adjusting to the pain already. Luneth watched, baffled that I wanted to leave the little house-shack with such an injury. Did he doubt my stubbornness?
I felt the sweat breaking out on my forehead as I limped with massive effort toward the door. I was grateful for the cool touch the silver doorknob provided me with. I rested there for a moment, and it was then that I realized that no one had followed me. I hobbled around to face them, arms crossed, hip at an angle.
"Guys?" I pressed impatiently. Both Kit and Luneth stared at me in disbelief. Neither of them had moved. Had they even breathed? My hands fell to my sides, turning into fists. I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. Well, if they were unwilling to go... My hand found the doorknob. In that same instant, I observed Kit's deep amber eyes as they flitted to the doorknob where my hand was. I saw the clever art of persuasion form within her eyes before it was even produced by her vocal cords and injected into her speech.
"You leaving by yourself would completely defeat the purpose of you staying here. It's not as if we're injured."
Well, it sure looked as if Kit had a firm grasp of the obvious. Obviously not obvious enough if even I had failed to see the obviousness of it.
"Uh, Morri? You just got attacked." Luneth cared to pipe up, as if confident (as if he needed confidence) to speak now that Kit had thrown most of what she had to say into the situation. This was true. Both of them had a logical point. My face became stern, like I was going into deep thought. Not really, though. This was my silent way of brooding over truth that I occasionally had trouble accepting. I clenched my jaw as not to betray the twitch that the corners of my mouth were threatening to give away to. I could see my defeat reflected in Kit's eyes as she gazed at me still.
And then I came to the conclusion that the Shifters could be waiting for one of us to step out. A thought came to mind, terminating the previous one. Luneth had gone to the river to fetch water earlier, and he had come back, clearly unscathed. Nor in pieces. Physically, at least. And then it occurred to me that they might be waiting for me. By the time my mid had already chewed and spit this thought out, I had come to the conclusion that it was indeed wiser to remain here.
With a sigh, my shoulders slackened, muscles unwinding and uncoiling my fists as the message was sent from brain, to nerve, to sinew that the battle was over. For now. I cast my green eyes to the ground in defeat, chestnut hair spilling from the dams of tension and into my face. Kit came to my side and took my clammy hand in her room temperature-heated hand. Instantly, her hand warmed as it sapped the huge amount of heat I contained through the palms. Along with her quality of venomous saliva, she was also cold-blooded. Well, perhaps not as cold blooded as an actual reptile, but her human body, having adjusted to the animal soul, barely heated her on its own. She relied on thick clothing and constant warmth to keep her going. Otherwise, she seeped into hibernation. Because of her human qualities, death would not follow, unless no warmth was provided all, which was rare.
"Come, sit." She said, helping me over to the chair in which she had bandaged me in. Luneth, clearly hesitant in what his next action should be, moved forward and pushed the chair closer to the table, like a gentleman. I lifted my head and narrowed my eyes, tilting my chin upward at him and giving him a "uh hah, yeah, whatever" smile, contorted with as much sarcasm as I could muster. The competitive spirit flashed within those clear gray eyes, ablaze as it hungrily fed at my provocative, unspoken remark. And the most satisfying part of it was that he could do nothing, not as Kit helped place me, injured, upon the chair. Shortly after, all of the muscles in my body seemed to slack and give away to the stress and pain.
Kit then backed away and looked at the mess that was me, most likely trying to think of what to do. That was Kit, constantly planning.
"You're bunking with me tonight," She decided. My eyes flickered over to the steep gray-carpeted steps. I shrugged, waiting for her to say more as I commenced a staring contest with the gray-blue carpet. My eyes started to drift out of focus.
"Even though your wound won't be healed in a matter of two days, we'll have to leave any way." Kit remarked. I quickly broke my gaze with the floor as I looked up at Kit.
"Huh?" I said, surprised at her reasoning. Usually, she would make me stay inside until such a wound was healed. I patiently waited for her to continue. Luneth decided to step in at this point in time.
"That makes zero sense, Kit." Luneth said, frowning.
"We'll need to change that cloth." Kit explained, waving a hand at my bandaged leg.
"Your point?" Luneth said as he eyed her, still confused.
"We're out of medical supplies." Kit said grimly. Luneth stepped a little to the left as he mouthed an "oh!" of understanding. I echoed his unspoken "oh" softly as I assumed staring at the carpet. Well, it looked like the blender was out. We were getting medical supplies.
My hand subconsciously found my pocket and fished the pendant from its confinement. I started twirling it in my fingers, feeling for its unusually cool touch as it slipped from one finger to the other with almost legerdemain capability.

[- Wolvine -]

I LIKE IT :D

But its a bit of a block. 'Remember to start a new line when someone new is talking.' >.< I'm forever being told that.

[Amber]

Yeah. It looks like it, because when I copied and pasted it, it turned into one giant mass. D:

[- Wolvine -]

Yeah I hate that D:

[Bee]

"By the time my mid had already chewed and spit this thought out, I had come to the conclusion that it was indeed wiser to remain here."

You said mid. :D

It was a fun read! But I hated it.

Everyones' writing... constant reminders that I'm not that great of a writer. XD

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