- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE at the bottom of the food chain ALL I CAN DO IS FIGHT FOR MY OWN SURVIVAL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Geez, I don't know why she's mad at me. Jacobus Zepter thought to himself, sourly. He had been walking through the outskirts of the forest with his fairy companion: a twelve-year old girl named Kairi, and a new comrade: the still mostly ambiguous Zeek. Kairi and Zeek had met during the former's routine search for her kidnapped brother, whom Jack had never met. He had seen the picture Kairi drew of him, and she had told him everything there was to know about the guy... But Jacobus knew that there was a possibility Kairi spoke too fondly of her sibling, and that some of what she told him was untrue or at least exaggerated.
He didn't mind that - little kids were prone to telling stories, and Jack did his part by listening to her when she needed someone to talk to. But for one reason or another, she had decided they should travel with Zeek for a while. Jacobus had not minded that, and Zeek seemed like a nice enough guy. But Kairi was as immature as ever, and after Jack told her he was glad to stand in her brother's place and protect him, she had turned red and ran off in a rush.
She had probably not even considered Jack might get lost, but he didn't know this forest very well at all. He didn't have a map, and even in the outskirts of the forest the repetitive scenery seemed to meld together and play tricks on the eyes. On his scale, he couldn't easily tell if he was going in circles or actually making headway. Neither Zeek nor Kairi had heard his screams - not that he had expected any different - and there was no telling how far away the camp they had set up was. He was fairly sure Kairi wouldn't just leave the forest without him, and he hoped Zeek wouldn't be inclined to try.
For now, Jack just resigned himself to the fate of being lost in the woods. He briefly considered using the gear his mother had paid some engineer or another to design for him to make it to the canopy, but he didn't think it was worth the effort. He had used it since he was eleven, and he learned how to maintain it well and even make improvements on it over time - but it still took some effort to use and wasting his energy right now would be pointless. So, he traveled onward, weary and a little hungry.
His eyes were focused on the position of the sun, as he tried to mentally gauge where he was geographically located. It was harder than it looked, but as a knight's son and a former navigator, he knew several tricks of the trade. The sun peeked down at him through the treetops. It felt warm against his face, but he couldn't look directly at it and had to avert his gaze to the ground. Careful eyes took that moment to check the positions of various shadows, and it was then he noticed one of them moving. He was confused for a moment and looked up to see a familiar sight that made his heart sink.
He recognized the appendage above him, slightly calloused and dusty though it was. The foot was already falling by the time he noticed it, and Jack reached for the handles to his Three-Dimensional Gear... But when he clicked the buttons to fire both grappling hooks, they mechanism jammed and he grimly recalled that he had not reinstalled them during routine maintenance last night. In an act of desperation he raised the ordinary sewing needle he carried to the sky and braced himself. This thing wasn't even a weapon, and it couldn't be called one. One of the Gear's blades would have been preferable, but there wasn't time to snap the handle onto a sword and draw it in time.
Post by AMALIARINA SASHURA on Oct 2, 2013 3:44:52 GMT
Rina’s people had this one particular saying that they would spout at literally every opportunity they got. Roughly translated, it was something like “she who cries for himself degrades herself further”. That was probably the only reason that she wasn’t crying. Her whole body hurt. There wasn’t one single inch of it that didn’t ache – at least, that was how it felt. But that was her own fault. She’d been running for days. Her only meals since escaping Malacai’s caravan had been whatever she could find in the forest or steal from unlucky strangers. The crickets here weren’t nearly as large as they were back home – hardly a substantial meal. If these hunters had found her in peak physical condition, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she could have smacked them all senseless. As luck would have it, though, she’d been so tired and sick when she’d been discovered that dragging her away hadn’t been much of an issue.
That was shameful. She was better than that. Even in her current predicament, people knew her as being dangerous. Malacai had known. He’s been ridiculously excited upon conquering her small clan to get himself a wife from this otherwise very vicious and exclusive little tribe. Still, maybe she didn’t look the part. Whereas most Gerudo were taller and sharper-featured and just overall intimidating, Rina was small and unassuming. Just based on that, the majority of people – even if they’d heard rumors of her ability – would assume after actually seeing her that those rumors had been incorrect.
These people, though…they definitely hadn’t made the same mistake. In a very strange way Rina was almost proud of them for having not immediately written her off as little and harmless after getting a look at her, but all of that would fade away again each time she tried to adjust her position and was stopped by one of her many chains. There was one connecting her wrists, a much longer one connecting her ankles – honestly, she thought that if she could only stand she’d be able to run despite it—and a few wrapped around her upper body and midsection that kept her fastened tightly to the tree behind her. It was impossible to reach very far forward or to grab at the padlocks, but it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d been able to – it wasn’t like she had the key.
She was far, far too fidgety to tolerate this sort of confinement for long. As tired and sick as she was, she could still find the energy once every hour or so to struggle like a wild animal for a minute or two before sadly flopping back into position. The one thing she wouldn’t do was yell. For one, she didn’t trust anyone in this horrible place as far as she could throw them, so she could hardly expect a gallant savior to come in response to any potential distress call. That, and her captors had warned her not to. They’d come back and put a stop to it themselves. While she thought it was truly cowardly to threaten someone in her incredibly vulnerable position, she didn’t imagine Malacai would care if his wife was returned to him without a tongue, and she refused to lose hers over something as foolish as this.
A slight movement caught her eye and she paused for a second, eyes fixing on the small spot on the ground where she was sure something had moved. And something had – something she couldn’t quite identify. Rina attempted to learn forward, but her back was firmly pinned to the tree. Swearing under her breath, she reached out her foot in an attempt to drag whatever this interesting thing was forward and into arm’s reach…
And she was pretty sure it poked her.
It was sort of hard to tell. Nobody in her tribe would ever be caught dead with shoes on – she had never worn them in her life. As a result, her feet were the absolute opposite of sensitive. Her soles were just a shade softer than most people's shoes, and at the moment they were caked in dirt from her earlier jailbreak. Poor Jack’s needle wasn’t much of a match for her. It folded over onto itself – the force was about enough to knock the tiny human to the ground as well. She dragged him forward in her direction, but attempted to do so carefully. It wasn't a bug, but it was about the size of one, and she didn't want to kill it until she knew for certain what it actually was. Maybe it was edible. In her current position, though, she wasn't as in control as she might have been otherwise, and so she might have pushed him just a little bit too forcefully into the dirt. Scrapes were inevitable, at the very least. Scrapes at best, some decent bruising at worst.
And it was...a very, very small...
Person?
For a second, she forgot how tired she was. He was close enough now that she could grab at him and so she did. She grabbed him by his tiny midsection as carefully as she could while keeping him intact and placed him into her palm, the thumb of that hand pressing down on his chest to keep him from trying to jump off. Honestly, though, she didn't know why someone is size would attempt that at this height.
"You. Explain yourself at this very instant." She whispered, attempting not to attract attention. Her voice was heavily accented, but she knew the language at least.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE at the bottom of the food chain ALL I CAN DO IS FIGHT FOR MY OWN SURVIVAL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jack did not notice the woman chained up tightly to the large tree until it was far too late to avoid her. She had not been able to reach him, and had labeled him as an insect anyway - so, she had no qualms about injuring the smaller creature. Without much consideration for the "bug"'s safety, Rina moved her foot over him, and that was when Jack had noticed the shadows he had been observing were moving. His brown eyes had turned upwards into the eclipsed sun, and the bottom of a large, bare foot was suspended over him. No, that wasn't right. The foot had been suspended over him, but now the sky was falling - and fast. Ordinarily, he would have used his 3DMG to jettison himself out of the way, but the equipment was undergoing maintenance after a quest inside a certain tree. As a last resort, he tried to use the sewing needle to fend off the falling foot. It was a futile effort, and he soon learned that something like a needle could not pierce the hide of this beast.
The soft yet calloused and dirty skin on the foot pushed down insistently, as if welcoming the needle. At first, the tip of the needle made some of the soft skin yield, and microbes of caked-on mud flaked off, falling into his hair and down his body. Then, a mountain of force began to be applied, and even as the young knight's son held firm, the sewing needle bent. He heard it creak, and put as much force as he could behind his body; surely this woman's weight would drive the metal needle into her skin, right? Apparently not, as it collapsed the blade into a forty-five degree angle of twisted metal. His only protection gone, Jack could only allow the heavy, dusty flesh to pin him to the ground beneath it. He half expected to be crushed flat in an instant, like he had experienced before. But in this case, he didn't... A little bit more pressure was applied, but it was done carefully. The weight was deliberate and almost calculated, applying enough pressure to mold the soft but tough flesh around his face, chest, and legs just slightly. But then it stopped, and he began to struggle.
That was when the foot - firmly rested upon him - began to slide him across the rough, unkempt Earth of the woods. He was scraped rather roughly against the ground, pebbles and debris digging into him as he was pulled across them rudely. The foot wasn't even touching the ground - instead, the ball of her foot was upon his entire body - and effortlessly manipulated his position. He couldn't even scream, lest he find out what the Earth this woman had trod hours ago taste like. The only result of screaming would have been a mouthful of dirt and rough flesh that would only serve to cut off his limited air even further. So he shut his mouth and eyes, and winced as the behemoth dragged him like a prey back to a beast's lair. It hurt, but Kairi had done worse to him - as had complete strangers. When the foot was removed from him, he was covered in bits of debris that clung to his hair and cloths, but he was allowed to suck down a breath of air. The scrapes on his body weren't even bleeding, but the green cloak and the back of his shirt had been torn and tattered by the unceremonious dragging.
He began to push himself to his feet, but before he could even do that, he was picked up from the ground. Pinched roughly between two fingertips, he surrendered and didn't even try to fight back - he was just grateful the person was picking him up, and no longer abusing him like some piece of discarded trash with her foot. He was dropped into her palm, and without having time to react a large thumb was placed squarely on top of him. He assumed she meant to pin him by his chest, but her thumb was so big it easily covered his upper thighs, crotch, lower stomach, and a part of his chest. His head and face were left exposed, though, and the girl whispered to him; despite her low volume, he could tell the tone demanded an explanation. Besides, even the whisper was loud enough to one of his size.
"You. Explain yourself at this very instant." She demanded, narrowing her eyes at him dangerously. He swallowed, and wasted no time speaking up.
"E-explain what!?" He demanded, yelling as loud as he could, which enabled her to barely hear him - as if he were whispering, only clearly. "You're the one who nearly flattened me! Why don't you apologize, then I'll talk!?" He insisted, perhaps surprising her with his own bit of stubbornness and fight... Though, whether that potential admiration would allow her to not accept his challenge remained to be seen.
Post by AMALIARINA SASHURA on Oct 7, 2013 23:24:29 GMT
This was the last thing she needed. For a moment there, pure curiosity had been enough to distract Rina from the dismal situation at hand. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but…certainly not this. In another setting she might have asked more questions. She might have actually been interested in whatever it was what she was currently holding in her hand. Today, she was not. It didn’t help that he was yelling at her. Where she was standing – erm, sitting—it wasn’t technically loud enough to be yelling, but she got the gist of it. Rina raised an eyebrow.
“You get no apology from me, nat.” She spat. “I am in no mood.”
While she scoffed at his silly demands, she could at least respect his fearlessness. She could have easily crushed him. She could still crush him if she liked and yet he wasn’t too concerned about what her reaction to his sass might be. It was either courage or stupidity. Either way she could respect it. And yes, perhaps she had been a bit rough with him, but …she really was not up for telling anyone from this horrible place that she was sorry for any misfortune that befell them, regardless of whether or not it was her fault. It wasn’t her fault that she was here, it was Malacai’s. So therefore, wasn’t it Malacai’s fault that she’d assaulted this little person? Yes. Clearly.
She sighed, making sure to turn her head first so as not to blow him right off of her hand. Honestly, Rina had hoped that he was a fairy. She knew that was silly – he was small and wingless – but she was desperate. Now that she was fairly certain that he not only wasn’t a fairy, but was likely completely useless, she supposed she had no right to keep him here any longer. The last thing she wanted was for the bounty hunters to hear her whispering and come to investigate. This little thing would end up under their boots in ten seconds flat. Very slowly, she lowered the hand that he was currently resting on. The chains clinked annoyingly as she did so, but at this point she could barely hear them anyway. Her mind was starting to tune them out. Once she back of her hand rested right at the top of the grass, she removed her thumb.
“Little accident of nature.” She began. “You are of no use. Go or they are likely to crush you.”
Woodfall Rises is an au legend of Zelda RP
the current skin was made by Rozie. with the exception of the miniprofile which was
created by RITZ! Codes seen and used were taken from resource sites such as slightly insane, ProBoards
support, and Socal. all images are either from Zerochan or made by original owners.
