destined to wander ★ rp ★ open

Destined to Wander

rp thread

"I swear this damned forest is haunted."

"Don't be so superstitious, Konnor."

The early morning dew was still clinging the dark foliage and a light fog curled around the ground. The air was quiet, save for soft chirp of early birds, waking insects and the soft sound of boots crunching against the damp ground. It was cool, bordering on what could be called a chill, and the sky was still dark, lighting up to the east as the sun made it's slow ascent into the sky. Under the canopy of the trees, two people moved quietly through the forest. Each held close loaded rifles, as if expecting trouble.

A slightly offended puff of air came from one of the two - the man with sandy hair. "I'm being cautious, there's a difference. It's too early for this." He followed after his companion, a woman with long black hair, as she lead them through the forest. Both remained alert, watching for any unknown threat.

Silence fell around them and the woman held out her arm, signalling a halt. They both remained frozen, hardly even breathing, as they listened for the sounds of the forest. From somewhere in the distance, both heard a soft cry. Of pain, distress, triumph - that wasn't clear. They shared a glance, a frown, and both tightened their grip on their weapons. A bird shrieked in the distance, and the noise was like striking a match, because the forest was once again alive with the gentle, almost eerie sounds of early morning. Underlying all of it was something sinister, and if it hadn't been chilly before, it was now.

"Come on. I want to get back to town before I freeze my ass off."

They continued through the forest until the man stopped once more, making a gagging noise. "Please don't tell me I'm the only one who smells that," he said, bent over with hands on his knees. The woman made a face as, she too, paused letting a small huff of air out.

"Yeah. Yeah I-" she coughed, putting one hand to her mouth. "I smell it." She coughed again, as if trying to expel the stench from her lungs.

"What do you think it is?"

She took a deep breath, trying not to gag, and started walking towards the stench. She didn't respond, instead holding her breath to block out the smell, and loaded the rifle. The man gagged a few more times before he jogged to catch up with her.

The smell of whatever it was grew only more potent and unsettling as they drew closer. It was a nauseating stench, like something rotting. It left a ominous tension in the air, that thickened as the pair approached further.

They didn't find it immediately. No, they found it when the woman tripped over it and only stayed upright when the man caught her. "Whoa, you oka-"

"Shit!" the woman exclaimed, grasping the man's arm for support as she looked down to see what she had tripped on. While he looked down, bewildered, she swayed for a moment before turning and dry heaving into a nearby bush.

Half-buried under crushed ferns and brush, as if something had since stepped on it after it had been put there, was what looked like a corpse. A human corpse. Or at least, it had been, once upon a time. Now, the body had skin almost black as if it had been burned, in speckles around the nose, mouth and throat. The face was twisted, partially decomposed, and it looked as if some sort of animal had long ago eaten part of it.

As patient as a corpse could be, it waited until the two had recovered.When they turned back around, the woman crouches down beside the body, slinging the rifle on it's strap over her shoulder and on to her back, and covers her mouth with her jacket. She grabs a stick with her now free hand, and shoves away the foliage covering the body. The rest of the corpse looks to be in better condition, with only a slight gaping hole on the left side of the abdomen.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep for a year," the man commented dryly, cringing down at the body. "That has to be the most disgusting thing I've ever seen."

The woman didn't immediately respond, scanning the body in thought. "Poor bastard," she said, gently poking at his jacket. "He's got no identifying marks and I don't recognise him. Not, that I'd be able to." She rocked back on her haunches and glanced up at her companion. "We should take it back to Garcia."

"What?" the man demanded. "Are you crazy? I'm not touching that!" He covered his mouth, glaring down at the corpse.

She ignored his outright disgust and sighed. "Look at the marks around his mouth and nose. Those aren't some natural occurrence." She raised the hand holding the stick up mockingly. "Go ahead, if this really is something nasty and Pestil gets wiped out again, you get to tell Garcia you're the one who didn't have the balls to touch a dead body."

For a moment, the man remained quiet but made his displeasure known on his expression. Then he sighed with a wince and waved his hand. "Okay, okay. Fine. Let's just get it over with." He turned a glare on the woman. "If this kills me, I'm going to haunt you from the afterlife."

"As long as I'm not there with you."

★ Hey Olive,

No. Sounded too flippant.

Dear Olive,

No, too formal. This was her sister, not the governor.

Olive,

Unsatisfying and leaving something to be desired, but it'd have to do.

Olive,

I hope you're doing well out in Coisat. How's your work going? You must be busy. You haven't sent us a word. We're worried about you, you know. Milo and dad miss you. I miss you. Could you please just let us know you're all right?

Savannah looked up at the tablet and read her writing over once. She frowned, then sighed and held the backspace. Lately, every time she sat down to write anything to Olive, it was like yanking at her hair, which only made Savannah frustrated, and Olive could pick up on the tiniest traces of Savannah's frustration. What would she think if Savannah was practically holding a flashing neon sign about it? She took a deep breath and tried to ease her tension. She wished Olive hadn't missed the last two messages she promised to write.

I hope you're doing well. How's Coisat? You haven't told me much aside from 'noisy' and 'compact'. Please don't overwork yourself while you're out there. I'd really hate to be in the middle of assisting Dr. Garcia with a surgery, only to find out you've gone and exhausted yourself.

Everyone misses you here. Milo's been holding a solid streak at the top of his class. He's been doing great in school, and I think he's really happy, though he complains daily that he prefers it when it was one of us teaching him. Maybe you have a better argument to convince him we don't have the resources or knowledge school does. I'm just glad he doesn't have to work.

The Clinic is still as slow as it usually is - for a town that suffered from such heavy losses and was completely abandoned due to a plague, that the locals call 'cursed', you'd think we'd see more patients. I know I've probably already told you that, but after that one time with that couple, the feral cat and the crossbow, I don't think anything else could possibly be as interesting.

Savannah read it over again and sat back, content with what she had written but not about the finish. What else could she say? She felt like she'd started repeating herself at this point, but she knew if she tried to write anything else, it would come out desperate and anxious. She had never had trouble talking to her sister before - though, Olive knew everything anyway, spoken or not - but now that she was gone, and even though she had promised to write, Savannah couldn't think of anything to say.

Surely Olive had a good reason for not writing? She knew how worked up Savannah got over these things. She wouldn't be doing this on purpose. That's not reassuring. She sighed again and drafted the message before shutting off the tablet. She'd come back to it later. Olive was late a few weeks, Savannah could be late for a few hours.

She changed out of her nightclothes before she walked down the hall to another room and opened the door. It was dark in the room, and she could hear soft breathing from the far wall. "Hey Milo, time to get up, you have school." A muffled grumble came from underneath a heap of covers and Savannah walked over to the bed on the far wall. The covers shifted and Savannah could see a fluff of blond hair disappear under a layer of blanket. "C'mon, lion, get up. I'll even make you breakfast while you get dressed."

The blankets folded back to reveal her younger brother. Milo started up at her with a suspicious, bleary squint. "Do I get pick what you make?" he asked, his eyebrow raising a little hopefully.

Savannah tugged off his blankets. "No. Come on." She leaned over, brushing his mop of fluff and curls away from his face and kissing his forehead. Milo scowled and groaned some more, but shifted into a sitting position. Trusting him to get out of bed, Savannah left Milo to get out of bed and made her way downstairs.

Her dad was in the kitchen, dressed in his guardsman uniform. He looked up at she entered, and gestured to a mug on the counter. "Mornin' sweetheart. Coffee's there. I have to get to my post. Olive respond to you?"

She gave him a forced smile and shook her head. "Not yet. I'm sure she's just busy," she replied dismissively. She really didn't want to talk about Olive right now. "I have to get to the Clinic anyway after I make Milo some toast." She pulled out the bread from the fridge and put four pieces in their toaster.

Her dad gave her a kiss on her head as he walked by. "I love you. Tell Milo the same, I'll see you both later."

"Love you, dad. Have a good day," she called. Savannah took the toast out when it popped up and scraped on honey and butter. She heard Milo come down the stairs, not even trying to be quiet, and enter the kitchen. "Food's ready. Get something healthy later at school today, please." Savannah grabbed the plate of Milo's food and handed it to him as she started out of the kitchen.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Milo called after her, somewhat bewildered at his sister's rush.

"I'll be there in a minute, go ahead and eat! I have to find my assignment for Doctor Garcia!"

★ character introductions can be whatever you want. caravan's not in yet, so anyone coming in will be there

★  "All right, come on, Milo." Savannah ushered her younger brother along as he finished eating. Having found her assignment for work, Savannah quickly made her way back into the kitchen to get Milo up. Her younger brother frowned suspiciously at her uneaten toast.

"But you haven't eaten yet," Milo pointed out as he got up from his chair. Savannah glanced at the aforementioned toast and sighed, trying to shoo her brother out of the room.

"I'll eat it at the the Clinic," she promised, grabbing the toast. She ruffled through the cabinets to find a sealed container, which she stuffed the toast in and followed Milo into the other room, where her brother had started putting on his shoes.

Once the two had gathered all their things and Savannah slipped on her tan jacket, they both left the house and entered the earthen streets. Dust blew around in the morning breeze, and the sun was still taking it's time to rise. Pestil was one of few towns that still had dirt roads anymore, and it was like living in another country. Savannah had been to the Dominion before, and after living in Jadana, while only half the size of the Dominion was still kept up for the image and reputation, Pestil was both a welcome break and hard to adjust to. Over the year, it'd gotten easier, and while Savannah missed the advanced technology in Jadana sometimes, she didn't miss the people. At all.

She gathered her hair back into a loose ponytail as they walked and the breeze kept pushing her golden locks in her face. Milo seemed unbothered, even as his messy curls made his mop even more tangled then it already was.

Savannah paused for a moment and halted Milo by putting her hand out. "You okay to walk to school by yourself?" she asked, gazing down in concern at her little brother. Milo nodded, distracted. "Milo."

"I'm fine. Why do you ask me every morning like it's going to change?"

She sighed and ruffled his curls. "I'm your older sister, it's my job. I worry about you." Savannah smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of his head. "All right then, off with you. Go have fun, and tell me all about it later, okay?"

Milo started walking away and turned around to give her finger guns. "Okay, mom," Milo called mockingly, before he turned and started jogging off in the direction of school.

Savannah sighed again and started back off in the opposite direction. While she was walking, a few people started to enter the streets with her. Some, like her, were on foot, while others were zipping around on bikes. Pestil wasn't the biggest town, but that didn't stop the residents from using the bikes they had to get to places faster. She caught sight of a man with dark hair walking down the streets, preoccupied. He didn't look familiar and Savannah watched him for a moment, trying to place him. Someone new? She hadn't expected anyone new to come in until the caravan arrived, but of course, he could have just been someone she hadn't met yet.

She finally got to the clinic and entered to find her fellow apprentice, Alastair, sitting in the waiting area behind the desk. He was on a tablet, but he looked up when she walked in. He smiled and gave her a little wave. "Hey Vanna," he greeted. She raised an eyebrow at his feet propped up on the front desk.

"Hey." Savannah wiggled out of her jacket and set it on the coat racket next to the front door. "Where's Doctor Garcia?"

"In back. And before you ask, nothing is happening right now. Duncan said today shouldn't be busy unless the caravan got attacked or has sickness or whatever. He said he wanted you to go out when the caravan arrives in a while to...well I'm not really sure what." Alastair frowned, glancing back down at the tablet.

She nodded. "Okay. Thanks Alastair." She turned away from the counter, leaving Alastair to his own devices as she went towards the back.

★ I'm sorry for taking so long unfortunately, this probably won't be the last time, but everyone else is welcome to go ahead without me

_{(c)procrastiraptor}

★ Savannah found Duncan in his office. He was sitting at his desk, looking over what she assumed must be paperwork, but he looked up when she came in. He offered her a warm smile and Savannah returned a small one. "Good morning, Doctor Garcia," she greeted, holding out her paper assignment to her mentor. "Here's the amputation assignment you asked for."

"Very good, I'll go over that after I finish Alastair's," Duncan said, then peered at her over his reading glasses that rested over his hooked nose as he took the assignment. "And good morning to you too, Miss Silveira."

She suspected that he was trying to make a point, but she wasn't sure which one. "Don't call me Miss Silveira. It makes me sound old. Or like I'm my sister."

His smile remained on his face as he raised a contemplative eyebrow. "Don't call me Doctor Garcia. It makes me sound qualified."

Savannah laughed under her breath, now understanding his pointedly 'Miss Silveira'. It was a constant back and forth between them, trying to get the other to call them by their first name. "Oh perish the thought that the only doctor in this town is qualified," she said with good-natured amusement in her tone.

Duncan chuckled softly. "Yes, I suspect you and Alastair will be," he replied, then waved his hand as Savannah ducked her head under his praise. "Did Alastair inform you that I asked you to be present when the caravan arrives? I'm sure the Mayor will send someone, but then again, he's been reclusive lately. Alastair and I will stay here, in case there's any trouble. I know it is not our place to be meddling with the Mayor's business, nor the Dominion's, but I think we're both well aware how outsiders might feel here. I'd like you to make sure everyone feels at ease."

In a supposedly haunted forest, a community where you can't sneeze without everyone knowing and such little protection from mutations who would like nothing better then to kill us all, I can't imagine why. "I understand. Do you have any idea what sort of people are coming? Besides the supplies and anyone from the Dominion, I haven't heard of anyone else coming."

"Anyone who wants to," he replied, nodding at her. "The caravan will be arriving soon, I suspect. Why don't you go finish the toast you told your brother that you'd eat before you forget to."

Savannah looked at Duncan, bewildered. He always had an uncanny knowledge of...everything. "How did you-?" He gestured to the container in her hand. Savannah glanced down and felt her cheeks warm. "Oh. Right."

Once more, her mentor chuckled slightly. Sensing that conversation had come to a close and not wanting Duncan to remember the submissions for schools - particularly Santiago's - Savannah left the office and walked back out to the front. Alastair glanced up at her. She moved around him and sat behind the desk in the corner, where she pulled out her toast and started nibbling.

★ text

_{(c)procrastiraptor}