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Dusk was falling, filtering red light through the leaves. The Mourner's Woods were said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman, wandering through the trees, waiting for the day to exact her revenge on her murderer.
The haunting lullaby became louder, and through the trees a girl could be seen, her windblown orange hair flaming in the fading light. Soon, she would disappear completely through the thickening trees.
Are you going to follow her deeper into the woods and try to talk to her, or leave her to her wandering?
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Silence, ignoring how creepy it was all around them, decided to yell out to the lady, "Hey! Yo! You know where I am?" Silence, in fact, did not know where they were nor anything about the forest. They just ended up there randomly.
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(so much for being quiet xDD)
The girl stopped singing abruptly. She only looked to be about fourteen. Her dark brown eyes had a wild fear in them as she looked around, trying to recognize who had made the noise. Her white dress drifted around her in the faint breeze as she looked around frantically.
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(Lol me once again using unsubmitted characters in threads)
Was Xolani going to enter a place with absolutely no idea of its background and lore? Of course they are.
...now, do they really want to follow after a stranger? They really don't. In fact, they really, really don't. Especially if they just saw another stranger. That one seemed like the loud type--and anyways, one stranger showing up usually meant more showing up.
But you know, they can't exactly leave.
So now there's one more suspicious individual following after the girl. Sorry.
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(is that legal Galaxian)
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(Well I haven't been arrested yet...)
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The girl finally noticed the two strangers. She darted behind a tree and slowly peeked out from behind it.
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Silence did a head tilt, then grinned.
"Oh! Sorry! Didn't mean to scare!" Silence said a bit more quietly (although still loud).
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Xolani stares back, unsure what else to do.
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She made a small noise of fear before inching further behind the tree.
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"Ah... uh..." Silence, who was 6'5, shifted down to 5'9.
"Does this help?! I can turn into a cat too, if that's any better!"
They don't seem to hear their own loudness that well.
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They blink, incorrectly registering her response as that of a startled individual rather than a "fearful" one. Still, they know enough to know that she has been bothered by their presence, so they tilt their head and attempt to make up for it.
"Hello," they start, a good start considering everything else. "I apologize for trespassing. I mean no harm."
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The girl was trembling visibly. Her bare feet made almost no noise as she slowly began to back away.
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Silence pointed at Xolani and nodded, "Yeah! I agree with..." They looked over at them. "...Whoever this person is! Sorry for trespassing!" Noticing the girl back away, Silence shifted down into a medium-sized, fluffy, black cat.
"Is this less threatening?" They gave a small meow after, which is a bit funny since it really just sounded like a human trying to say "meow" rather than a cat meowing.
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Xolani thinks that talking cats are normal. Meanwhile, having gauged that the girl might appreciate it if they back up their claim about meaning no harm, they don't speak and stay completely still. So still, in fact, that it seems unnatural. Whoops.
By the way, for the two currently present at the scene, they appear to be a child of around 14 years of age, with short pale hair and passive, almost timid, posture. Interestingly enough, the red light gives their hair a blue hue rather than a reddish one.
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The girl watched the cat, or, to be more accurate, Silence-as-a-cat, then her eyes moved to Xolani. She finally took in their appearance, a child. Perhaps...perhaps these two were not so bad. Surely they could not destroy the forest, as those who had come before had?
"Who...who are you?" she asked, so softly that it was almost lost in the wind, "Why are you here?"
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Usually Xolani speaks only after others do, but in this case they have made a different judgment.
"I am Xolani," they say with a slight curtsy, perhaps a curious gesture considering their appearance. "I am seeking a friend, while the shapeshifter, whom I am not acquainted with, presumably does not have an answer to that question. They seem to not know where they are."
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The girl looked at them with a hint of suspicion. "...Friend?"
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"I am aware that I seem the type of individual to not have friends," they say with a completely straight face, "but I assure you that I am telling the truth."
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The girl giggled slightly, then quickly covered her mouth.
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Silence sat down, their tail swishing happily (and sort of dog-like).
"Name's Silence! And, yeah, I have no idea where I am! To be, like, honest and stuff, I just like to wonder around and around and around and that's how I got here. Walkin's good for the legs."
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The girl bit her lip. Should she risk it?
"I'm...Zioki." she said finally.
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"That's a nice name!" Silence said.
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"I agree," they say, though they say it like they've never said that before in their life. Or, uh, lives, one would suppose. "It is nice to meet both of you."
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Zioki looked up suddenly, and looked off into the trees. With no warning, she took off, running at top speed through the trees.
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Silence tilted their head and looked back, trying to see what Zioki saw.
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"Oh, so that saying inflicts fear in this world..." Xolani notes to themselves, otherwise apparently unbothered by the fact that someone they met just took off out of nowhere.
Someone who had formerly been invisible (and had stayed as so due to gauging it a wiser decision) silently follows her from a reasonable distance out of concern for her and her welbeing.
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If the two decided to follow, they might find the reason she left.
A man was chopping down some trees, seemingly a normal human. Zioki was standing behind a tree, watching him with fierce eyes as a tree fell to the ground.
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Xolani can't see it, but they certainly can hear that loud chopping going on. Though not necessarily a tree lover themselves--they're not particularly a lover of anything--they start to trail off in the direction where the man is.
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Silence followed the sound quickly and without a sound of their own, shifting back to their usual humanoid form once they saw the man.
They noticed how Zioki stared at the man. They also liked trees for climbing, and this forest seemed pretty nice.
Although they usually have a distaste for the law, Silence spoke up, "You sure that's, like, legal, bud? Or, like, you know, morally good?"
Last edited by Echo (December 29, 2021 12:54:27)