Eerie lights

[issunboushi]

where in the heck did he end up this time?
that was Jin's main thought as he layed down on the fresh grass, cooled by the night breeze.
how was he supposed to reach the ruins of Kusa? normally he would have orientated himself with the stars, but to him the sky was like a pitch black cloak. at least during the day he could tell the position of the sun in the sky because of the intense energy it emitted, but already when he looked at the moon the only thing he could see was a pale silver-white-ish halo. the stars were completely out of the question.
that night, though, the sky felt kind of different than the other nights...
a feint fluttering cut through the stillness of the night, breaking his stream of thoughts.
a white hawk landed on a nereby rock and let out a high pitched cry.
''you already back?? and? had a good hunt?''
the hawk cried again, and the breeze carried a faint smell of blood to Jin's nose.
''yep, i guess you had...''
he sat up and leaned with his back on the rock. the hawk opened its wings and jumped down, landing on his shoulder.
''say...'' said the man caressing the bird under its beak ''dont you too have this feeling there's something strange about tonight's sky?''
the hawk looked at him gor a second and then thingyed his head and cried again, but this time more softly.
''yea, you're probably right... still, it does feel kinda strange...''
he stared at the sky with his white eyes for another few minutes, then suddenly stood up, startling the poor bird.
well, moping is not gonna help us reach those ruins, is it?
the bird let out a deeper cry, which sounded more like a grunt.
hearing it, the man chuckled.
''caught ya off guard, didn't i?''
as an answer the hawk nibbled his earlobe.
''OW!! okay! okay! i'm sorry! sheesh... you sure are touchy''
he massaged his ear and then picked up his walking stick.
Jin carved that stick himself out of an old felled birch. the top end had the form of a 15cm wide ring like the staffs old shamans used to use... and coiled around that ring was a sleeping silver-gray-scaled snake.
''so there you were, you sleepyhead''
said Jin feeling the snake's weight on the stick.
''well, i guess i can let you sleep for a while... it's not like we got much to do at the moment.''
he started walking in a direction that felt right to him.
he didn't know it, but he was right before. he couldn't see it, but in the sky shined a majestic and yet uncanny display of purple colored northern lights.

{Hawk-> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:White_Hawk_2_2495417957.jpg
Snake-> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dendroaspis_polylepis_head.jpg}

[Lujayn]

For the fourth time that day Aneira tripped over a grouping of rocks, smacking her already bruised body into the unforgiving stone of the mountains. She managed to skin the palms of her hands this time as well, and she sucked in a breath as the sting settled in.

Why was she here? Hiding, of course. The town she'd been in recently didn't seem very happy to have her there, so she'd scurried away before they had a chance to do something permanent to her. While in the forest, she'd lost her way and had then stumbled onto the mountain range, and had now been there for a week, barely managing to survive. She had yet to start coughing up blood again, but she was already feeling even more chilled than usual- although perhaps that was because of the cooler climate- and she was started to cough a lot.

To make matters worse, she'd once more lost the little control she had on her necromancy and had summoned a partially-decomposed squirrel that followed her around mercilessly, which had now caught up and was happily perched on her head.

She sighed, wondering if it were possible to just lie there for the next few years, when she heard a sound. Something like... footsteps, and something else... a staff?

She scrambled to her feet, then swayed as stars sparked across her vision and a nauseous dizziness overtook her senses. She stumbled back until hitting one of the infrequent trees, leaning against it lest she fall back to the hard ground. She took a few steadying breaths, waiting for the dizzy spell to pass, before standing upright. She wavered a bit, but she could walk... just.

Peering out from around her tree, she watched a stranger approach. He seemed to have in his companion a hawk and a snake, which was intriguing. She looked closer, squinting her eyes to try and see better, and noted that his eyes seemed oddly... pale. Was he blind?

[issunboushi]

when they passed by the hiding girl the snake coiled around Jin's stick was woken up by the smell of blood coming from her wounded hands and started flicking his tongue in that general direction, 'sniffing' the air to find that smell's source.
''so you're finally up, eh?''
chuckled the man feeling the snake moving on the stick
''had a bad dream?''
he wanted to add something, but the snake climbed on the top of the stick with its head raised and let out a loud hiss.
the man stopped and tried to be as quiet as possible.
''you found something, Hebi?''
the snake hissed again.
''which way?''
he slowly moved the stick in front of him and started turning. when he was facing the tree the snake let out another loud hiss and he stopped.
''good job Hebi''
he murmured, petting the reptile on its head.
he started moving towards the tree, but then he stopped: he could see a very weak aura coming from behind it, so weak that its presence was almost completely hidden by the calm energy flow of the tree itself. yet it was undoubtably human... a lost child perhaps?
he crouched and started speaking in a calm and reassuring tone.
''you can come out... don't be scared: i won't hurt you.''

[Sennar]

Shado shuffled his feet, as he used to do, while he walked in a pine-wood admiring the nature.
With his hands in the pockets he wandered through the mountains, the forests, the plains, the hills, the beaches; far away from the towns and the entire human race.
His mind went back over age, when he supposed to be a normal guy.
He ran away from all human things a few mouth ago when he had been accused to have done sundry crimes. All this is caused by his strange nature, be son of a shade (spirit of dead people).
His stream of thoughts was stopped when he eared some zings and a human voice.
Overtaken by fear merged his body in the shadow of a tree, waiting.

[Lujayn]

Aneira hid back behind her tree, with a startled squeak of fright, before peering back out again, eyes wide and curious. The undead squirrel on her head, annoyed, started chattering, an eerie sound. She herself was silent for a moment, merely staring at him.

She didn't socialise well, used to being set apart and ostracised, and she wasn't sure what to say to this stranger. There was the option of just turning and running, but that would be rude, and besides, some company, even if for just a few passing words, would be nice.

"Uh... uhm... hello," she called out meekly, her voice hoarse from the coughing, and hard to be heard over the chattering of the squirrel. With an annoyed huff, she shoved it off her head onto the ground, where it bounced a few times before chattering at her once more, before running up a tree to sulk.

[issunboushi]

the weak voice sounded even more like a child's, Jin thought.
''hello''
he answered with a friendly smile and reached out a hand
''come on out: no need to be afraid. what are you doing here in the mountains? did you get lost?''
the snake raised its head once again and flicked out its tongue, having caught a whiff of another smell, but suddenly as it came, the smell was fast gone.
hoping to catch another breeze of that, the snake raised its head as much as it could, clinging to the stick just with the last part of its tail, but there was no trace of it...
with an 'i must have imagined it' expression, it slowly climbed down to its previous position.
meanwhile, the hawk was greedily eyeing the undead squirrel on top of the tree.

[Lujayn]

Aneira smiled ruefully. "I wish... that I were merely lost. But, no... that's not the case here... I'm merely staying away, for the while."

She was suspicious of the snake. It seemed... sentient, and most animals were not, or at least not to that degree. Or maybe it was just her imagination, the tricks of an overworked mind, that was overcome with fatigue and stress.

She coughed again, worse than before, and she tasted the metallic tang of blood, although none yet stained her hands. Oh, dear... at this rate I won't make it until morning.... She glanced up at the man, blearily watching the flow of the death streams as it wound around him. It seemed very much attracted to his eyes... was he blind? She leaned closer, to see, but a wave of nausea and fatigue washed over her, and she found herself falling to the ground... again.

"Ow!" She yelped, sitting back up. "Oh... how embarrassing." She mumbled, blushing, bringing some colour back into her pale face. "Really... someone, my age, falling over like that... you must think I'm rather pathetic..."