Waiting out the rain...(OPEN)

[urgorn]

Rain. Lovely.

At least when it started I was back inside the District, it could have been disastrous if I'd still been in the wilderness when the rain hit. Except I was about 1 and 1/5 kilometers away from the house, with nothing in between me and it but hilly pastures and a few trees here and there.

"Terrific. I'm never gonna make it home."

I realized that if I tried to run for it and reach our house, my leather jacket would be so freakin' soaked, it would be un-usable for a few days, and the weather has been all but warm recently. Lots of showers and breezes. So I decide to seek out the nearest sheltering tree or log to wait out the rain in.

"aha, there you are. Just the thing," I mutter through clenched teeth.
I'm already soaked horribly, and run under one of the few massive oak trees in our pasture. A couple of cows notice me, but turn their attention back to their grass.
Under the tree, I'm offered protection from all rain, and even most of the wind. Looking around, it looks like the rain shouldn't last long, and then I can get back to the house to dry off, because the sun'll be down in an hour or so.

After a few minutes of sitting absent-mindedly under the tree, I hear running. Not a cow, but a person. My mother was away at a friends', and my father wouldn't care to come looking for me, so who was it? Our pastures lie between many homes and cities, and since the District fence borders one side, we allow people to travel through our fields, as long as they don't disturb the cows. This must be someone just headed out of the rain, probably for my tree.

"Great. Company."

The shelter the tree offered was large enough for 4 or 5 people at the most, but I didn't care to talk to anyone right now. Well, maybe I would, but I wished that my dog was with me, but since I was intent on hunting, I left her behind. Of course, when I saw the rain clouds after 20 minutes of un-eventfullness, I headed for home, but only made it 10 minutes into the trip.

The running grew very close, almost to me, so I leaned around the trunk of the oak and peered at the person seeking shelter...

[SinInChaos]

Damion Winters



Who needs a friend
when you've got a hatchet?

The cool air and the rain are good enough for me, leaving the area empty mainly because no one wants to be out getting soaked by the downfall. Me? I hardly care if I'm wet. It's just a bit of rain, and the worst it'll do me is a small cold. Not like that is life threatening anyways. But these risks are the best because the rain gives me cover to do what I want. To do the things I enjoy. And I do just that. I spent a few coins on a chicken from a neighboring farm and hold it by the neck, enjoying how it flails for freedom in my grasp. I control your fate bird. Isn't that exciting? Me, Damion Winters, gets to decide what I will do with you. And even better you will get to see a secret place where I take little critters like you. I think they love it, even after I'm done mutilating them. They're stupid anyways, just like cattle lined outside of a slaughter house. I am the Alpha and Omega for that brief moment, that pitiless God that my family prays to.

Here is the stump out in a small clearing. The hatchet is still dug into the wood and the stains of another days work stay forever soaked to the innards of this tree. It's as though this stump enjoys to bathe in blood every now and again. I even find myself chuckling as the bird tries to have it's talons clutch to the bark. You think this place is a land of mercy but no one has enlightened you quite yet. The world is just a place for the sheep to follow a mindless shepherd. This world is a place where we all line up waiting for that inevitable end. I understand this world. Soon you will as well little chick, soon enough you will understand it as well.

But my hatchet is raised when the sound catches my attention. There are two people nearby. No sure who one of them is, but the other is a boy. I don't think I've ever seen him before but he is just as useless as most of the people in this district. He would rather run for cover than look the enemy, the stalker, head on. Show courage rather than fear. It's a harsh lesson to the naive when their mind is quite adapted like mine. But maybe I can be a teacher today, not only to this chicken but as well to this district member. Maybe he will be able to comprehend the world like I do, see the world in the same respect as I do. So I raise the hatchet and give it a quick chop on the chickens neck, leaving the remains to whatever weak-willed animal believing in hunger and start toward the boy, leaving the hatchet behind.

"Hey, you!" I shout after him, while walking. "Th'hell are you doing out right now?"

[urgorn]

Odd. Someone was addressing me. I turned and saw that there was someone approaching me, leaving a chicken's guts on the grass behind him. Good God. This guy was big. He could be near my age, but who could tell? He might as well be a 30-year old man by his height, weight, and - yeesh. Muscles. This dude was freakin' massive.

I griped my spear and swallowed, preparing a response, forgetting about the other person running for shelter. I didn't exactly want to tell this guy that my intentions were originally to poach animals for food until the rain hit, so I thought of a more reasonable, realistic approach.

"I sitting under a tree, the last time I checked," I grunted. "Returning home from checking cows. Now, I must ask, what the hell are YOU doing?"

Fear. Do not show fear. It's simple personal choice you have to make. If you simply CHOOSE to not be afraid, you don't have to be. Normally, even when outweighed, outmanned, or outwitted even, I try to even forget fear exists. But this guy looks like he's MADE of it. And his eyes - if you can call them that - are like these unforgiving holes of torture...he probably uses them to hypnotize birds or something, but I do my best to look him straight in the face, while he responds...

[SinInChaos]

Damion Winters



Who needs a friend
when you've got a hatchet?

My eyes meet with the spear first, something very forbidden to just be carrying around in the district. Like I care though. It only makes me smile a bit more because this idiot was planning to do something brash if he hadn't already accomplished that already. He was holding a spear up to me, thinking that it might make him look braver I bet. I almost forget that it's too easy to scare people these days. So I sit there and listen to his smart ass response, sitting under a damn tree in a storm. What a moron. And checking the cows? Most people have them in the barns now and the check is over. Otherwise those Peacekeepers would just be huddling people like you back to their homes. And who checks on some cows with a spear in hand? At least I am polite enough to leave the hatchet behind with my handiwork.

"Put th'stick down before I decide it's broken," I motion for the stick to be brought down. "You may think or even know how to use that, but trust me, holdin' that thing at me ain't a smart idea. Besides, I got my fill of a kill today, so's how bout you start telling me the truth about why you're out here, eh?"

And if he is stupid enough, but some chance of sheer fools mentality, I'll just have to grab my hatchet and scare him off. I don't have time to be dealing with liars and the like around these parts, especially when what I've done is highly illegal already. Not that I'm afraid of the Peacekeepers, but a trip to their 'whatever' it is would probably separate me from my hobby, my sport, and no one wants that. I doubt I could control my thirst especially with all that livestock that would be grouped together with me. I'm just have to kill one or two of the fellow captives, pin the blame on some unsuspecting idiot who tries to befriend me. But through all this thought, I almost forget I haven't answered his question. He's so kind enough to respond to me, so why don't I answer what I was doing?

"Now I was just out killin' a chicken I rightfully bought. Hoped to gut it before I saw this frail body running around here."

[urgorn]

Frail body??

Well, I guess it makes sense being as thin as I am, now drenched with rain - but it still irked me a little. I'm not like, anorexic, just thin. And hey, it's not my fault I literally burn more calories in eating food than the food gives me.

However, I lowered my spear, and tried to look a little less intimidating. I know this guy wasn't intimidated, but I musta seemed a little too hostile. Not my fault I don't like people.

"Well, if you really must know, I was out looking for something to hunt, but came out with nothing. And until I know where you place your loyalty to the peacekeepers, I'm at least keeping my spear."

Have I seen this guy before? I think I would have remembered it. But I also feel like I've run into someone like this. Not exactly my favorite type of person. It sorta bugs me when people who are bigger and stronger than me think that means that I'm like some little weak bug. I've speared enough bears and wrestled enough steers to know that muscle doesn't always mean an advantage.

[SinInChaos]

Damion Winters



Who needs a friend
when you've got a hatchet?

I let out a hearty, loud laugh and grab at my chest at the kid before me. The Peacekeepers? I could give less than two cents over what they wanted to know about our activities. Hell, I'm sure that I could be held accountable for breaking the law myself for half the things I do in the district. Who am I to even report this boy for doing what I do on a normal business? I kill animals every single day for the food of myself or maybe others. But then again, I have more sinister feelings toward that end where this one probably has the purest of heart with killing the poor things. I shake my head and laugh out more now not even worrying about who can see or care about what will happen.

"Your a moron," I say in the middle of my laughing fit. "The Peacekeepers? I couldn't give a damn about their needs. Hell kid, you might be alright by the end of this. Name's Damion Winters."

My eyes dart toward the stump where the dead chicken now lay, leaving the laughing fit behind and remembering the joys of killing once more. Maybe a hunt would be fun one day. I'd never thought about it because it seemed the words of warnings were to be ignored. The outside does not bring any harm to people like me. Hell, there is a bountiful sport out there with what could probably be one of my favorite hobbies ever. The kill. I could imagine the look of sheer terror in the eyes of the animals as the final moments were brought upon them. I would be there God.

[urgorn]

Hearing him say this about the peacekeepers relaxed me a bit.

"Urgorn Moedig. And it really's not fitting to call me 'kid' ya know."

This guy seemed - odd. Mentioning the peacekeepers seemed really funny to him, like they were nothing at all to him. Had he killed one before? That was really jumping to conclusions, but it seemed perfectly fitting with this guy.

"So live here in 10 huh? Where around? I've never seen you before."

I wasn't exactly trying to make friends, but I was also running out of things to say before the guy says something like how much he loves to behead animals...and maybe people. I doubt it'd make a difference to him.

[SinInChaos]

Damion Winters



Who needs a friend
when you've got a hatchet?

So the kid thinks that I'm insulting him by calling him that? Fine, I'll at least give him the dignity of calling him by his name. Don't want to seem rude at the least to a fellow member of the district. God forbid if the Peacekeepers hear about me again, about how I'm just a terror to others for existing. So I am just to change my figure and myself after trying so hard to become what I am now? I think not. My body is just for the image to instill fear, but my mind is where everything's at. I think about the ways to survive off of anything. And I learn to adapt to an enemy, not the other way around. Even though the boy had a spear, I had about twenty ways to disarm him and pin him to the ground. I don't care whether he's got bravado or not.

"Pleasure's all mine Urgorn. I'm from just down the path here, a few yards away. Now, I want you to tell me something: where exactly is it you hunt out there?" I smile a bit, the excitement is in the veins again. I want to go out there with the animals and instill fear where this kid didn't know any existed.

[urgorn]

Is he interested in hunting? This sorta put me on the spot. I could tell him about hunting all day long, but if he wanted to come see WHERE I hunted, that could ruin the point of going out into the forest to be alone. Nutsacks.

"It depends...really anything that I can spear. Usually muskrats, rabbits...not squirrels, you'd need a bow; a spear pretty much destroys all their meat. On good days you might find a deer or a beaver."

I wonder if this guy knew how to throw a spear. Probably not, since they're illegal - but I don't think this guy cared much for legal-illegal debates. However it's very possible to hunt without a spear, or even a bow, as long as you're very quick, quiet, and sneaky. This guy seemed more BIG than sneaky, but there was also obviously a lot I didn't know about him. I wondered what he'd want to know about hunting, there were plenty of things a guy like this could do for money or food, but he probably doesn't prefer common man work. Maybe he delights in killing things, in which hunting is just another extension of, really.

[SinInChaos]

Damion Winters



Who needs a friend
when you've got a hatchet?

I chuckle for a moment, walking off back toward the chicken and the hatchet before putting the bladed weapon in my hands. The kid was practically avoiding what I was asking and I don't like it when you show such a bold stature and then suddenly refuse to address what I ask. There is such a thing as being too bold, and being that bold alone around a force like me isn't really the smartest thing this kid could do. He's right on some things though. We're about the same age, so why do I call him a kid? He seems not quite developed like me. As though he still has that invincible gene running through him. He is not immortal and neither am I. The lesson is a hard one, but so easy to teach. The problem, the one that makes it hard, is that no one really remembers their mortality except for the wisest of men. Damn poets and lyricists. But I'm the middle ground, a god damn hybrid. And here to teach the lesson. I make a quick turn toward Urgorn and throw the hatchet and a bit of my strength. The weapon has quite a spin to it and it lands exactly where I want it. Deep within the bark of a tree just a few millimeters off from the kid. It's enough to watch the chips fly from the wood and wait for the response.

"Now look kid, I didn't ask what you hunted or aim at you with a hatchet. All I want to know is where you hunt, and then you're free to leave me be."

I walk back to him, my right hand on the hatchet's handle. I rip it from the tree, hoping this is display enough for that stupid bravado he's built up. I'm sure he's just like those damn losers with friends in town anyways, he just goes out to hunt for the extra food most likely. Hell, I'd love a bit of venison on my plate every now and than. The tough meat is nice to chew through making it a nice little exercise for my teeth. I even heard of some people using their teeth in the games to win. I could just imagine, biting into a poor tributes throat and feeling the warm blood gush down, over my being. Be a nice, warm shower in the middle of a frost covered map I bet. But then again, my thoughts aren't normal. I shouldn't share them.

"So ya gonna speak up kid?"

[urgorn]

Holy mother of shit.

Had he meant to do that? Maybe he was aiming for my face; maybe he's internally cursing at himself for missing my head. I had stiffened a bit when he picked up the hatchet but figured that he was just getting it while we were in the topic of hunting. But then he threw it, and it was sticking into the oak tree maybe an inch from my head. It caused me to jump back, out of the protection of the tree, and slip on some mud. I fell backwards, catching myself with my butt, but at least not falling entirely over. And the mud was thick and not all slushy and wet, so I didn't get to splattered when I fell, but it still must have looked stupid.

I regained my ground, but stayed where I was, the rain pouring off of my hair. I still held my spear, but I realized that this guy wasn't gonna do anything else. He might enjoy doing it, but I guess I got a little off topic and it irritated him.

"Well..." I wiped some mud from my ass and continued. "The District border fence is just over that hill there. Peacekeepers don't usually come out here, so I just slip through into the forest. But don't be stupid, there's more than just peacekeepers to worry about. Bears, wolves, and mountain lions roam that place freely, sometimes they even come out of the woods in into the District. But I suppose you'll be fine as long as you have that hatchet with you..."

If that was all he wanted, I was just fine with trekking back home in the pouring rain. This guy was a little too aggressive, but I guess it's not his fault. Most people in D10 piss me off as well, but it turns to irritation rather than anger.