Remnants of the Earth
TEINAR => Wastelands => Topic started by: Anonymous on January 25, 2008, 11:17:38 am
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The wastelands...a barren region of venomous winds, skeletal forests, and poisonous streams. Aside from the mutant creatures that adapted to life in this region, the area is uninhabitable and lifeless, bringing only death upon the unprepared traveler.
However, in an area surrounded by jagged mountains, there exists a paradise within the wastes...the BioSphere. Stretching up to thirty miles in diameter and fifteen miles high, the BioSphere is nothing more than a force field that gives life and prosperity. It has been in existence for centuries, and it still runs to this day. The generators that create this BioSphere gain their energy from the toxic atmosphere on the outside, and convert that energy into purified, breathable oxygen.
Because of this, the area inside the BioSphere is a true paradise, filled with lush forests, clean water, warm plains, and unaltered life. Here, the skies are always blue on cloudless days, and on the cloudy days, rain falls instead of acid. During winter, the snow is free of radiation. For centuries, this BioSphere has existed in seclusion, but it is not rare for the occasional outsider to step into the forcefield that protects this lush utopia from the outside elements.
A tribe of leonine people numbering only a few hundred souls dwell within this BioSphere's epicenter. They are a very protective and secretive tribe, as they do not like outsiders. However, one person of the tribe, different from the rest, welcomed people who came in peace or have simply lost their way.
Her name was Kyra, and she now wanders the plains of the BioSphere, her rust-red tail swaying with each step, her cat-ears perking at the many sounds of nature. But she didn't like wandering alone. She wished for some pleasant company.
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edit: Righty-ho, it's gone, sorry for the intrusion, carry on ^^
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Louhi, a young rather pale girl walked alone, keeping to the shadows of the trees. It wasn't as if she could hide among the shadows, but they comforted her and prevented her skin from being severely burned by the sun. She appeared human enough at first glance, though her eyes at the moment were wavering somewhere between blue and lavender. They had a tendency to change color depending on the situation. Her clothing was extremely dated. The fabric was roughly woven cotton, a simple earth tone brown, her shoes leather, but repaired multiple times. She carried a staff in one hand, relying on it quite a bit to ease what could be a rather heavy limp at times.
She was scared, but not for the reasons most people might think. She was in a whole different world than the one she knew, but that had become a common enough theme in her lifetime. However, severe bouts of blood lust were problematic. She was on her own for blood when the time came, and she hated it.
She stopped as she heard a change in the surrounding areas. Listening intently, she tried to discern what it was and decide if it was likely friendly, or if she needed to put distance between them and herself. She wasn't likely to outrun a wild animal, she knew that. She couldn't even outrun a person anymore, so she waited, listening.
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Kyra continued walking across the plains, nearing the dense forest that she had become so accustomed to seeing. As she walked along the edge of the forest, she spotted something sheltered under one of the great trees out of the corner of her eye. She stopped and tried to see what it was, but the foliage prevented her from doing so. She carefully stepped through the brush and beheld an odd sight.
It was a young human girl, and she was dressed in the oddest attire she had seen yet. Kyra had seen odd fashions from other outsiders, but this easily topped the odd factor. The girl seemed frightened of something, but what it was remained a mystery to Kyra.
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Louhi shifted uncomfortably, removing the weight from her bad leg as she eyed the cat girl. She was still not used to seeing things that didn't look human, but she had never stood gaping in shock anyway. Servants did not allow themselves such behavior.
Unsure what to do, Louhi bobbed a flawed curtsy. "I'm sorry...is this your land?" She asked, and then wondered if the cat person even spoke her language. Why did she get herself into these messes? She had obviously been seen, there was no point in trying to hide after already being found.
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Kyra cocked her head to one side. Like many of the outsiders she had spoken with, this one spoke the tongue of men, which she understood and spoke fluently. But when asked if this was her land, she couldn't help but show a look of curiosity in her eyes.
So she replied, "This is my homeland, yet I do not own it. It belongs to my tribe. But you are welcome here." Or, at least, she welcomed the outsider. She knew how the tribe would react if she brought this strange girl into the village.
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Louhi's eyes slowly shifted to a lavender-gray. She was nervous and didn't really know what was going on, but she bowed her head in thanks. "Do many of you live here?" She had tons of questions, but feared being a pest by asking them all at once. Technically, she wasn't even supposed to ask any unless given permission, but that was definately an old way of thinking and she was slowly changing her habit. She shifted to lean against a tree. She'd been walking most of the day every day and it was taking a toll on her leg, but given the technology of the time, she was lucky to still have it and be able to use it.
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Kyra gave a pleasant, calm smile. "My tribe numbers a few hundred people. But the village in which they live in is quite a long way away from here." She pointed west, the direction in which she came from, to indicate where it was. But she wasn't going back for quite a while.
She then noticed that the strange girl was leaning on a tree, as if she needed it to support herself. She then made note of the staff she was holding. "Is something the matter with you legs?" she asked.
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"Where do you stay when you're so far from the tribe?" Louhi asked, forgetting for a moment her resolve to contain her questions. For all she knew Kyra was a private person and didn't want to share her knowledge of shelters with a strange new comer.
"Oh" Louhi blushed a little "Just this one" She said, placing a hand on her right leg. "Old injury is all." A couple hundred tribe members? That was a lot to her since she'd lived in a mannor and rarely made it to town at all. She looked up at the cat girl with concern, waiting for her to say something as being 'half lame' had caused discrimination before, and she'd stopped trying to know what to expect seeing as every place she went seemed to be entirely different from the previous one
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Kyra smiled. "Not in one place usually. I like the wilderness," she said. "And I'm sorry to hear about your leg."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't even introduced myself yet. I'm called Kyra," she said, bowing slightly. "And what might you be called?"
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"I'm Louhi" She said, bowing as well, smiling just slightly, revealing normal human teeth. "I like the wilderness too" She commented. Mostly because in the wilderness, she was relatively safe. Maybe she didn't want to go to the tribe after all. "What kind of beasts roam here?" She'd run across a couple that were quite frightening at first. She wasn't entirely sure how she escaped them, but that was hardly unusual.
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Kyra thought for a moment. "Oh, you know...birds of all sorts, antelope, coyotes, wolves...pretty much every generic animal of the food chain." She also knew that out there, life had been corrupted radically by the ever-expanding metal cities, but she wasn't about to tell Louhi that, now was she. "But they're nothing to fear really."
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Louhi gave a nod, looking a little relieved. Earth animals. Those she could deal with. It was those strange, unnatural animals she couldn't wrap her mind around. "What do you do here?" As far as she knew, everyone had a purpose, everyone had a place of some kind-- except maybe herself, but she had had one when she was younger.
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Kyra cocked her head to one side in a curious manner. How could she answer such a broad question like that? What does she do here? "A lot of things," she began. "I'm a hunter-gatherer for my tribe."
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Hunter-gatherer. Not what she had expected to hear, but it was at least something she knew what it meant. "That must keep you busy. Is that why you spend so much time out here?"
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Kyra rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, that's not exactly why, but to tell the truth...I tend to run away from home a lot," she said. She then found herself numb with disbelief that she was telling an outsider about this...but she told a lot of outsiders, so there was no need to break with tradition.
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"Really?" Louhi asked, tilting her head slightly. "Do you keep getting caught? Or do you keep going back of your own free will?" One she might be able to help with, the other didn't technically need any help. Wandering was lonely. Her leg was quivering under her skirts, but she seemed to be paying it no mind, but that was entirely perception. She was keenly aware of it, she just didn't know how to gracefully sit down without being rude. Those old teachings and trainings stuck hard with her.
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Kyra shrugged and sat down into a cross-legged position, setting her quarterstaff next to her. "It's always because I keep getting caught. But this time, the tribe will never find me." She sounded confident, but inside, she wasn't really sure. "I don't really like my tribe too much," she added.
"Please, sit down."
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Louhi sank slowly into a sitting position "If...if you wanted, I could help you make sure they didn't find you again. I'm good at hiding." She said. She did want to help, but she also wanted company. Before her mother had sent her away to keep her alive, she'd always had at least her mother to talk to, and then there were other servants around whether she talked to them or not, but now, she mostly wandered the wild portions and took her chances living off the unfamiliar plants and wildlife she could get ahold of. "Why don't you like your tribe?" She asked before hastily jumping in as if she could cut off her words "I mean...you don't have to answer, none of my business. I appologise."
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Kyra smiled, then said, "No, no, don't worry about it. I feel more comfortable when I talk to somebody about my problems." Her smile then disappeared.
"There are two reasons why I don't like my tribe. The first is that my tribe hates outsiders of all kinds...especially humans, because they nearly hunted my kind to extinction. So they keep this lush paradise to themselves. But I think they are still living in the past and keeping their old grudges. I want to have different people to talk to and help out. But my tribe thinks that I'm bringing their downfall by doing that."
She paused, as if expecting Louhi to say something.
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"So, I shouldn't be here" Louhi commented lightly before suggesting. "You could come with me. I don't know what I'm looking for yet, but I know I'm looking for something. I think I'll know it when I find it, though that hardly makes sense" Not being welcome was nothing new to her. When people welcomed her, it was far more suprising. "I'm sorry, I've never met a person of your tribe and I'm curious...." She didn't know how to phrase it without risking revealing too much. In short, she wanted to know if the tribe had powers, but people were protective of their powers, particularly with the hunt for mages, and those who knew of powers had obviously either been educated, which Louhi always said she wasn't, or they had seen powers, or they possessed powers.
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Kyra noted all of this for later, and then she thought that Louhi was at a loss for words, so she decided to finish the sentence with what she thought Louhi would say. "That we have abnormalities that make us completely different from humans? Hardly...well, besides the fact that we have cat ears and tails, as well as a thin layer of fur atop our skin." True, their fur was the same color as their skin, but was only a very thin layer, so it is near invisible. "Here. Feel it," she said as she held out her tanned arm towards Louhi.
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That was close enough to answering the underlaying question for Louhi. She gingerly reached forward to feel the fur. "It's very soft" She said, giving it an extra stroke before catching what she was doing and putting a stop to it. Just because they were fuzzy didn't mean they liked to be petted. They were people too. "So, you're like humans aside from physical appearance?" She asked, wanting to get it straight. It was easier to avoid offending people when you at least knew a few of the basics about them.
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"Well," Kyra replied, "you could say we're half-human. We also have the agility and senses a cat does. But, to tell you the truth, I'm very different from the rest of my tribe, and that's the second reason why I don't like them."
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Louhi smiled for a brief moment, shifting so her good leg was tucked under the bad one and her staff lay across her lap. "Those senses would come in handy, I'm sure" She commented, glad she was not obvious in what she was, of course, she didn't really know what she was anyway. Human, if her mother had indeed been her real mother, but aside from that, she hadn't a clue aside from what other people had told her. "Does the tribe make all tribe members stay, even if it's against their will?"
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Kyra only nodded at the polite comment. Then, to Louhi's question, she responded, "Unfortunately, my tribe forces all members to stay, even though it is against their will. And it's unfortunate for me, because I've been treated as an outsider all my life." She then debated whether she should show Louhi why that was. "You want to know why?"
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Louhi nodded "If you are comfortable telling me, I would like to know" She leaned forward just a little. She was interested and she had missed interacting with people. Having a connection, even if it was just conversation, was wonderful to her. She'd been isolated for so long.
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Kyra nodded, then she shifted herself so that her back was facing to Louhi. Since she was wearing a bare-back top, it revealed two long, thick, blood-red scars that ran the length of her shoulder blades. "See these scars? They're proof that one of my parents--my mother--was an outsider."
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Louhi unknowingly curled her bad leg closer to herself. "What did they do?" She asked softly as she studied them, trying to figure out what had caused them. Her scar was on her leg, hidden under her skirts and while not the same thing, was inflicted on her out of fear and because she was seen as different.
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"Oh no. My tribe didn't inflict these," Kyra said. "They've been there since I was born." She paused and, thinking Louhi might have been lost on the meaning, said, "Here, let me show you what I mean."
She then closed her eyes and shut out all other thoughts and images except her wings sprouting from those two scars. Her scars began to glimmer with a soft light, making them seem a brighter shade of pink. Then, as if by magic, two giant, feathered wings emerged from her back, one from each scar. They were white dominantly, but the very tips started at a bluish hue, and as it goes up, it faded to a purple hue, then pink, then ultimately into white.
Kyra then turned around to face Louhi, afraid of the reaction she might give.
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"Oh they're beautiful" Louhi breathed. She had no such spectacular abilities that she knew of, but she didn't really know what she did, it just happened against her will. "And they are from your mother? What was she?" Now Louhi was really curious. "Do you still have them?" She wouldn't ask her to show them or anything, she simply wondered if she'd been allowed to keep them. She'd met creatures who had had their wings cut off to prevent escape.
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Kyra chuckled. "I'm showing them to you now, aren't I? Anyway, I've been told my mother was a nephilim...an angel with a human soul. But beyond that, I don't know her, because she left me and my father when I was still an infant."
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"Oh" Louhi said "Well, I never knew my father, just my mother" Louhi admitted, leaning back against the tree to try to make herself a little more comfortable. Getting up wasn't going to be the easiest thing in the world when the time came. "So...do you know anyone outside the tribe, or have an opinion about the different creatures who occupy the space stations and planets?" She was curious. There were still prejudices she'd noticed, she just had to ferret them out. She needed a friend who was accepting of all-- because she had no idea what she was.
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Kyra cocked her head to one side in a cute, clueless sort of way. She then replied, "No, all I know is the village and the lands around it. But I do know that beyond this place, the land is foul and very treacherous. But you're not the first outsider I've encountered, and I liked them so far."
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"Oh" Louhi said as she thought about it. "I just wondered. Outsiders are kind of odd sometimes. They'll not like something just because it's not like them. I think it would get boring if everyone were the same, don't you?" She was going to have to tread carefully. She had not found a circle where she was welcome yet, and really, in all honesty, she couldn't blame them. It was like being happy to befriend a mosquito swarm.
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Kyra nodded, sharing that same opinion. "Yes...it does get dull when everyone's exactly the same...especially when my tribe shares the same view on the humans that live in the outside world." True, she had heard stories about a human empire ceaselessly expanding to fulfill its own material needs and wants, even if it hurt the world to do so.
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"Well...I wonder if there are more people out there who think like we do" She mused, adjusting her leg to try to find a more comfortable position. "Think we could find them? I mean, I found you...or you found me, either way, and if you're the only one of your tribe who accepts outsiders, I can't very well stay here." Louhi could feel a spark of excitement rising and the sun seemed to shine more brightly around them.
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Kyra smiled. "I'd like that," she said, looking at the sun, which, even though it was almost obscured by the trees, seemed to be at its highest point. She would like to get away from the tribe for an even longer time than usual...perhaps a couple of weeks at most. She really wanted to see if there were any others out there like them. But would the have to travel...out there to find it?
"Do you want to start our adventure now? Or would you like to rest a little more first?"
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Louhi took staff in hand and used it to help lift herself to her feet "We can go now. It'd probably be best anyway" She commented, feeling she was pressing her luck being in a land where all outsiders were shunned-- she was shunned by their outsiders. "Do you have transportation at all? Or is that part of our adventure?" She mostly traveled by stowing away. She got dropped in the most random places that way. "Though, perhaps we should gather a few supplies. Food, water." Fresh blood. mmm. No. No blood. "It's hard to guess what we might find once we begin our adventure. I've found entire planets with no water source, and some of the ones that do have water, are so polluted one might as well drink poison straight from the bottle." She had a knack for knowing when water was unfit to drink, which did come in handy.