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Corona, Bonefire. Dated 12/14.
indent On the wall an old painting stood out, detailing primitive man’s hunting patterns. Ahren had seen it before—a long time ago when times had been easier. He and Matinee had come across this cave, talked about the primate oddities, and then went off with hot blood in their veins. They had completely forgotten about finding the flag; hell, Ahren couldn’t remember if the game ever had a winner. It seemed like ancient past though, all the things that had happened between then and now.
indent His feet carried him without direction, though instinct and memory took him to a specific cave. It was here that all of the alphas had once met, and had met for years before they had. The ashes of a long-forgotten fire lay in the center, and there was a small pile of dried wood nearby. Shortly after his findings, there was a small fire burning and he was seated cross-legged on the floor, smoking. The absence of thought was comforting.
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[html] It had been quite a long time since Corona had set foot in what was Bonefire. The last time she fully remembered being there was when she had first gone to Chimera, and the snow had just begun to melt. Even at that, she had met some of the most disturbed individuals there. But as it were, there were many places to meet those kinds if she so chose. With snow to blanket certain pathways within the riddled structure, there were some that offered relief from the icy wind that threatened to clamp down on her gangly frame.
There had been time for plenty of thinking and for the most part that was the very thing that she had done. The inner debate was forever sparked, unable to find a mean to settle on and rest. The smell of smoke and fire was easy to distinguish from the other smells that had long settled into the texture of the stone, and it drew her in for more than one reason. The way that the shadows danced against the wall the closer that she moved down the weathered cooridors eventually revealed what she had thought. “Seems like a nice place for a fire,” she spoke with a faint smile coming to her face temporarily. [/html]
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indent A pair of fire-red eyes turned up, followed shortly by his skull. Without even realizing he was doing it, mechanical response overtaking his muscles, he returned her smile. “We’ve used this cave for meetings between the pack alphas. It’s one of the few with decent ventilation,” he offered, flicking ash from the top of his cigarette. Shifting his weight and leaning onto his legs, Ahren gestured with his right hand, offering his daughter a seat.
indent“Haven’t seen you in a while,” he remarked before taking another drag on the tobacco.
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[html] Her expression changed to understanding just why he had picked that particular enclosure for a fire, though additionally she doubted that the leaders met like they once had. It was apparent just because of the way things had eventually degraded to war. But perhaps war was always on the brink in a place with a schism such as theirs. “Yeah… I've been keeping to myself mostly. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately.” If that was what it really could have been called. “Anything new going on?” [/html]
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indent “Not really,” he said with a faint laugh. Truly, he did not suffer a hard life. He lived in a day to day sense of things, moment to moment. There was little purpose outside of watching days pass, though he found his own meaning in the absence of reason. “What about you, kid?” He joked, giving his daughter a grin.
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[html] “Nothing much really,” she said, debating just what to say out of all that had happened. “Gabriel said that Mom is gone now, but we don't know if she just left or went off somewhere to die,” or something like that. It had been too long since she had talked to her mother, so she had no idea what had sent her away. “I've run into some old faces that were in Chimera too, but only briefly.” Most of those hadn't remembered her, either. [/html]
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indent He had known she was gone. Known before he had seen Gabriel, though his son had confirmed it. He did not tell her these things, as he did not tell her many things. Over time he had begun to learn that keeping his family in the dark was the only way to go. Otherwise things were torn asunder from below his feet, the ground opened wide and the earth swallowed him whole. “Is that so,” he said distantly, aware that it was not fully a question. “There’s not much left of Chimera,” Ahren added, aware of the redundancy of his speech. It was a choice.
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[html] “It was just Naniko,” she said, indifferently to his distance. “I don't think I remember running into anyone else but her who's still around from then, other than us.” Drawing her knees up towards her chest, Corona absently thumbed through everything else that had happened over a short span of time. “I met some traveller guy from Storm too… he was interesting.” At least, interesting enough that she envied his lack of home a little more by the day. It must have been nice to break from familial ties and the like. [/html]
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indent He offered a noise in response to the mentioned name, signaling he was not particularly fond of the young girl. Curling his toes, the blonde shifted his weight. The next individual mentioned was vague enough to be anyone, though Ahren knew who she meant in an instant. “I met him too. Tall fellow with a lot of tattoos, right?”
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[html] “Yes, that's him,” she said, figuring that the mysterious man had met many from the way he had spoken of some of those who lived in the area. “We had a look about some old prison out on an isle and visited the historical library in the city. Didn't really talk about too many things, but he got me thinking…” She debated just how to word what she wanted to say, feeling more like a child then than she had for a few days. After such a nice stretch of good days, today threatened to go dark. “I think I might go back to travelling around. Well, I don't think, I want to.” It was hard not to shake the guilt that followed, especially when she had been welcomed back with mostly open arms. Faces that were willing to take whatever help she wanted to offer them, and here she was wanting to take off again like a bird. Her eyes had drifted far from Ahren's expression, watching the fire more than anything else. [/html]
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indent There was no distinct change. Ahren understood what she meant. He turned his eyes up and met his daughter’s, reading them quietly. The blonde pushed his hair back, leaning into the heat of the fire. After a long time, he spoke. “If you’ve got the wanderlust, you should listen to it.” If she left, he wouldn’t hold it against her. Corona was still young, and still had a lifetime in front of her.
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[html] At first, his silence wasn't anything unusual, although it certainly gave the panic rat in her mind to run loose. Maybe he would be disappointed, she had thought. Maybe it would make him angry, which was something that she hadn't wanted at all. But in the end, the answer that he gave her was surprisingly, yet oddly satisfying. She had always been fond of approval, but she smiled thinly all the same. “You've had it before,” she said, “what places did you find interesting when you went?” [/html]
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End soon?
indent He shrugged lightly, suggesting his opinions were not to be taken as fact. “It’s the people, not the place, that make something interesting. Working on a ship was one of the most interesting things I’ve ever done,” he added, shifting his feet. Those days had been some of the most enlightening, when the scent of salt-water was strong and the horizon stretched on forever.
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[html] She could only imagine the wonders that he probably saw out there on a sea that seemed endless. Though she had seen the very places where the horizon stretched on for miles in what seemed like a limitless, flat plain, she knew that there were places all over the world. There was always land somewhere across that ocean. They sat for a while more, talking briefly as though it were really the enlightened days of the past, before Corona decided it was time to head off. Giving her old man a hug (because how could she not?) she left with a much lighter heart than she came in. Maybe her luck—and his—would change eventually. It had too, because not everything could stay as dismal as it had been. Maybe they shouldn't achieve the sort of things that were there some odd time ago, but something better. It was that kind of ideology that fuelled her desire to venture away from one of the only places she had ever known, and stake out somewhere else. [/html]
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