Thirteen - Alden

I had a dream I was running. The ground was soft, and the trees seemed to move out of the way as I raced through woods. When I got to the end I saw nothing. It was like the world just dropped off into nothingness. I turned to go back the other way, but when I did so I felt a grip on my ankle, pulling me down into the depths of nothingness. I clung to the edge of Terraro's surface, crying out for help. Below me a menacing cackle echoed. I dared a look down, to see who it was that clung to my ankle, and saw the glowing eyes of Lesion, slowly digging his clawed hand into my ankle. 

"Come with me." He hissed, yanking me off of the edge.

I bolted up right, body shaking and sweat dampening my ripped up tunic. I sat back against the tree I had fallen asleep under, taking note of Tristram's sleeping form against a tree across the way. Still trying to calm myself, my fingers searched for my scimitar, but to my dismay felt nothing but leaves. I sat up straighter, becoming more alert. After searching my area thoroughly, and searching quietly around Tristram, I realized I was never going to find my scimitar.

I sat down again, defeated. I glanced up through the leaves, trying to get a gage on the time, but the trees hid the location of the sun, leaving just a few rays leaking through here and there. 

Tristram was snoring quite loudly at this point. I didn't know what to make of him. He was a Brackin, and for all I know I can't trust the Brackin people. But then again, he's an exile like me. A part of me wonders if he knows anything about my brother, maybe he was even responsible for my brother's death... No. My brother would never fall prey to the barbaric acts of which Tristram explained. If I knew Fastus at all, which I surely did, I know he died trying to get back to me. No matter how hard I always pushed, he was always there when I needed him to be... until now at least.

I stood up again, trying to be as quiet as I could; Tristram kept snoring away. I ventured a bit into the woods, figuring I should find something new to defend myself with. As I walked between two intersecting trees, a tree-nut fell in front of my feet. Confused, I glanced up, thinking I wouldn't really see anything, but did see brief gleam through the leaves. I tried to get a closer look, and surely enough I caught a glance of a light bouncing off of my scimitar. 

"Hey!" I exclaimed, excited to have found my scimitar. "There you are!" I made a move to climb the tree when suddenly my scimitar was moving. "What the--?" There was a flash of green, and suddenly I realized that my scimitar was being held by someone. "What?" I sat there, stunned for a second, and then I began to grow furious. "The heck!" And I began to run after the thief.

Twelve- Tristram

I listened to Alden's snores. We slept under the stars that night, a beautiful clear one. Had it been raining, I would have brought out the tent, but why trouble yourself when the ground is dry, the sky is beautiful and I finally wasn't alone... "of all the people I met in the forest, it just had to be the brother of the man I killed," I thought, "there is no doubt about it, I can see the family resemblance...". I pushed the guilt away, for now at least.

I happened across Alden quite by accident. I had been hunting and saw an odd color through the trees, it had turned out to be Alden's skin: dark, unlike all the green here. It was a miracle I even saw the kid, the forest is so dense, especially here in Viridi territory  that you can pass someone who is five feet away and neither of you notice. It had happened a couple of times already. I would be walking along then glance behind and there would be a trader a couple feet behind me and to the left, having crossed paths ten seconds before and not even noticing.

It was these chance encounters with traders that probably saved me life. The crate I had been given contained a proper knife, a waterskin, string, and flint. Both were old and not suited for the humidity of the forest, hence they broke after a couple days. By then, however, I had scored some kills for both meat and fur. Traps proved very effective for catching smaller mammals, but I had several close encounters with the juks: ferocious cats whose meat and skin were both profitable. I traded what I could spare whenever I came across a caravan, and had gotten a couple of proper knives, a tent, and a pack that could both hold supplies as well as water.

Perhaps I could trade some more of my skins to get the kid some stuff. He looked like he'd been out here a week or so. If he really was banished, then it would have to have taken him  a handful of weeks at least to cross the desert and reach this far into the forest. He's lucky to be alive. Besides his rusted sword, he didn't look like he had much else on him. He was deliriousness too, he thought his brother died a few days ago... if only he knew it had been a little over a month now... and that the murderer was right next to him. Guilt washed over me once again... Leaving this kid brotherless. I caused his banishment. Surely he wouldn't have done whatever it was if his brother was still alive. Maybe this was my chance for redemption... taking care of the brother of the man I murdered. It certainly can't be a coincidence that we met in the forest. I'll have to tell him in the morning, perhaps ask him to join me. I'd hate to be alone and he needs someone to take care of him... he can't be older than 16, untested by the harshness of life... but now... My eyes kept drooping... couldn't focus...

As I started to drift, I thought I saw something move up in the tree above... a flash of green, a different hue than that of the tree, in the moonlight... But I fell asleep, and when I woke, whatever it was was gone.

Eleven - Tarka

"What?!" I thought to myself in surprise. "Now a Brackin man, too?" Still up in the tree, I crouched down even further on the branch I was on. I was even more determined to keep myself out of sight as much as possible. Who knows what they might do to me?

I looked back down to the Brackin man. He was very large, large enough to squash either I or the Palkin. There was something about him though, that made me not as afraid of him as I could have been. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Standing over the Palkin, he scratched his head with one of his very wide fingers and looked around. Probably didn't know what to do about him. With the meat still in his other hand, he kneeled down to the much smaller Palkin and tried to gently shake him as much as possible. However, his way of being gentle was still considered pretty rough by me as he shook the Palkin a bit too violently. With no response from the Palkin, the Brackin looked around again. His eyes finally caught a large jungle leaf that contained lots of water from the rain storm. He stood up, and plucked the leaf from the tree trunk it was attached to. He stared at it, then at the Palkin. What was he going to do with it?

I didn't have long to figure that out as he walked briskly towards the Palkin and splashed him with the water. The Palkin awoke with such a start, I had to stifle my giggles. I shook my head at myself. I'm laughing? I haven't laughed since before . . .

The Palkin's breathing slowed down after a bit, while he and the Brackin stared at each other for a few minutes. They didn't speak for the longest time. Then, finally, "How long was I out?"

"Not very long."

"Oh." Then silence again.

Oh, how intelligent these two men seemed to be . . .

The Brackin lifted up the meat he had in his hand. "Want some? Or is it still too much to handle?"

The Palkin shrugged. "It's the only food that's been offered to me since . . ."

"Since when?"

"Since I was banished."

"You too, huh?"

The Palkin raised his head towards the Brackin as he was given some meat. "What do you mean 'You too'? You weren't banished because everyone thought you were a traitor to your own people, were you?" He took a huge bite of the meat, his eyes from even up in the tree were large from hunger.

The Brackin lowered his eyes to the jungle floor. "Well, not exactly that, but it might as well have been."

The Palkin raised his own eyes, mid-bite. "What did you do?"

"I killed someone."

The Palkin slowly stood up, on guard now. "How?"

"I hit him in the head with a rock." The Brackin looked up at the Palkin man again. "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. It doesn't happen a lot, the one I killed was not meant to be killed. He taunted my people. I threw a rock in a fit of rage, and it just happened to hit him. But even the Brackin people as a whole know that it is not right to murder someone, ever."

The Palkin relaxed his shoulders. "My brother was killed a few days ago." Now it was his turn to look down at the ground.

The Brackin raised his eyes. "This is getting really interesting," I thought to myself, still sitting on the branch.

"What happened to him?"

"He was a Palkin scientist and went on a mission. All I know was that he was killed." The Brackin's face turned a ghostly white. "That's . . . awful. I'm sorry for your loss."

"He was the only one of my people that ever remotely cared for me."

The two of them stood in silence again. Then, the Brackin finally looked the Palkin in the eyes. "I don't even know your name. If we're both banished from our own lands, we might as well get to know each other; it seems we already have a bit."

"I'm Alden."

"Well, Alden, I'm Tristram. Glad to put a name to a face." He shook Alden's hand vigorously, forgetting that he was more than twice Alden's size.

"I'm glad to finally know some names, too," I thought to myself.

Alden looked up towards the now clear sky. The stars were out in their full glory, and the moon was no exception. "Well, we should probably get some rest. We've got to start gathering food and make ourselves a more reasonable shelter if we're both going to live here for a while."

Tristram nodded. As they both laid down on the moist jungle floor, I held my breath as everything seemed to fall silent. Once I finally heard them snoring, I climbed down from the tree as quietly as I could. "Maybe I should try to find them some food . . . Wait, why am I trying to help them? What does it matter to me?" I thought to myself. Maybe it was because I recognized their loneliness, their outcast status in their own land.

I was just like them.

Careful not to make any loud sounds, I tiptoed back to my village in the moonlight, making my own plan of action.

Ten - Alden

My fingers wrapped tightly around the rusted scimitar as I lay on the wet soil and leaves. With Callow being in the middle of town, no one was there to watch his boxed up items, and for some reason we treat everyone, even traitors like me, with trust. So I had marched the walk of shame alone, and taken the scimitar on my way out. But now... Now there was nothing.

I looked up through the Viridi trees as I lay uselessly on the damp jungle floor. The trees began to drip, and a rolling thunder paraded overhead. Letting my head fall back to the ground I felt everything within me breaking. It's not like I particularly cared for my job or home life, but what am I supposed to do now? If my life had no purpose before it surely didn't now.

Each breath seemed to grow more painful, and I had a hard time telling the difference between the falling rain and my own tears. Silently I lay, stifling my thoughts and ignoring the stab of hunger that grew more powerful each moment. Eventually, I thought I might die from hunger, having no way of telling time in the condensed spot of trees I had collapsed under. My fingers grew white as I clenched the scimitar, wanting desperately to just be rid of this pain, when the hunger began to subside. I have no idea how long it took, but the hunger went away in time.

For a little while the rain seemed to stop. I looked up with a groggy view of sunlit leaves. Before I may have found it a beautiful sight, having seen nothing but a distant view of what trees might look like, but everything seemed so meaningless instead.

"Brother..." I whispered, in a hoarse voice, desperate to speak with the one person who ever listened. "What am I supposed to do now?"

Then I heard a sound, like a large feather falling from a flying berkalo and landing on top of a paper, like when it was cool enough to set tables up outside in the evenings just before the sun had fully hidden. Shifting my glance I saw a blurred vision of someone standing before me. It was a brief moment, and I'm not sure it was real, but by the time I had closed my eyes and opened them again I saw some kind of meat before me.

The thought of eating turned my stomach. I reached with the hand unattached to the scimitar and tried to push it away from me, when a loud voiced boomed.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

I flinched back from the meat, trying to raise my scimitar in a sad attempt at protection, my vision almost doubled as I glanced about.

"Oh man..." I felt a cold touch on my shoulder, and a pulsing sensation began to stir in the raised skin of my branding. My finger's lost grip of the scimitar and my head started swimming, thoughts of my brother being dead and the searing pain of being branded crowding my head. "You don't look very good." A distant voice murmured as I drowned in darkness.