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 Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:10 am
Fiero looked around, very pleased with himself. The snow was still falling around him. He hadn't missed it! Joy!
Korea was asleep inside. She didn't know he had figured out how to work the doorknob and had sneaked out of her dorm room to play in the cold white snow falling. It had taken him a long time to figure out how to get the door to leave the building to work. He couldn't actually get it. Then a boy from the floor above Korea's had come by and opened it, saying, "Dorm's a bad place for kids." He smelled funny.
But now Fiero was outside! He'd been outside with Korea before, and once without her, but this was new. This was an adventure. He had chosen to be out this time, and Korea didn't know he was gone. He felt very sneaky indeed, elated by his own cleverness and the falling snow.
He floated quickly over the snow, letting his tendrils trail in the cold white stuff. He could sort of feel the cold that way. He felt it on his skin, obviously, but things felt different on his tendrils. It felt, sharper and yet kind of fuzzy, almost like it was an imagined feeling. He didn't think about it. Such thoughts were beyond his level of comprehension and computation.
With the wonder of a child he floated away from campus, into the dark night. In town he was awed by the sight of the snowflakes captured, it seemed, in the streetlights' beams. He was still, staring, ignoring the cold which raised goosebumps on his normally smooth elven flesh.
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:29 am
Holly twirled in the snow with her arms out wide. Beneath her she clutched a wreath with her tendrils making it twist like a tire swing that was being spun in a circle. She had managed to escape Noel for a few minutes while the girl was busy shopping for a friend's birthday present and was enjoying every minute of it. Noel had not been allowing her to play in the snow for fear that she would catch a cold and sneaking out of the house had proved difficult but sneaking out of the store behind a woman whose arms were full of bags was easy. She didn't think anyone had even seen her.
Dizzy from her twirling Holly plopped down on the ground on top of her wreath and tried to steady her head. After a few minutes the world stopped spinning and she was able to watch the snowflakes drifting from the sky. Her eyes followed the path of a bunch of snowflakes that were being blown in the breeze and came to settle on a figure a few yards away.
She floated out from behind the bushes that blocked view so she could see better. At first she thought that the boy was just a human child that had wandered away from his parents but then she saw his tendrils brushing over the newly fallen snow and realized that he was the same thing as she was. She had never seen another undera and curiosity quickly got the best of her. She glanced around to make sure Noel had not found her and then floated closer to the other undera. "Hi!" she called out cheerfully when she was close enough.
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:18 pm
Fiero whirled around, stirring up eddies of powdery snow with his tendrils and his eyes lit up joyfully.
"Hi!" he responded enthusiastically. "I'm Fiero Corazon. You're like me."
He took care to use words he was very certain of. His vocabulary had grown exponentially since he emerged from his orb, but he was a little nervous about having to talk to this new person without Korea to act as a translator when necessary. Well, he was adventuring!
"Why are you colored?" he asked after looking with interest at the undera who had joined him.
This person didn't have legs, like him, but her coloration wasn't human. Her skin was not the right color, and she looked like she was speckled. And her hair was green. Very unusual things, all. He had to know why she looked different. He knew that he was different from humans because he didn't have legs, but he had human coloration.
He wanted to know much more than that, but he waited to give her time to answer.
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:06 pm
((Sorry it took so long to respond. I'm not usually able to log on for very long most weekends.))
"My name's Holly." She told Fiero when he introduced himself. Holly held out her hands to look at her skin. She had often wondered why her skin looked different from everyone else’s but never thought too hard on it because Noel had always found something to distract her with. "I don't know. I've always been this coloring, I don't mind though cause it makes me more christmasy. And I love Christmas." She smiled brightly and nodded her head as if that was reason enough to be colored differently from everyone else. For emphasis she swung her wreath back and forth under her.
To her it was Fiero who looked different. She had never seen anyone with such red hair and gold eyes and she had most certainly never seen a person with pointy ears. "Are you a Christmas elf?" she asked. She thought Christmas elves were supposed to be brown haired with green clothes but he had pointy ears and was short so it seemed reasonable to her.
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:06 pm
Fiero grinned broadly. He liked Christmas, too. Korea had given him a warm jacket with fur around the hood for Christmas. And there was lots of good food around her house and there were indoor trees and he liked Christmas very much on the whole. However...
"I'm not a Christmas elf," he said. But he added quickly, "I do like Christmas though."
He looked around at the snow, which did have a tendency to swirl distractingly, and he couldn't help grinning. He liked snow. It was very pretty, and he felt particularly at peace in it. He'd seen other students throwing balls of snow at each other, but he had never felt any urge to do the same. He preferred the way it looked when it was newly fallen and falling.
"What else do you like? Do you live nearby? Do you have a human?" The questions poured out of him before he thought to check the impulse to inquire.
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Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:51 pm
Holly was glad to hear that Fiero liked Christmas too though she did not think it was possible for anyone to dislike Christmas. Her disappointment that she had not discovered a Christmas elf was short lived, it was replaced with a renewed joy that she had found someone that looked like her. When he asked her what she things she liked she had to think hard. Her face crinkled with though and she rested her chin on her hand like she had often seen Noel do when she was thinking. “Well, I like everything about Christmas, and I like snow, and I like winter because it has Christmas in it. I like toys. And I like Noel. She’s my human. I met her when I was an orb, but she’s so much fun! Except for when she’s teasing me, but that’s okay! She’s shopping right now, I don’t think she’s noticed yet that I snuck away, and it was so easy too!” Holly grinned imagining again how she had snuck out of the store.
“We live outside of town.” She said in answer to one of his questions. “I’m not sure how far; I sleep whenever I get in the car. Noel says it’s because of the rumbling. Where do you live?” she asked curious to find out more about this new person. “Do you have favorites? And a human of your own?” she looked around wondering if Fiero’s human was nearby.
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Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:44 am
Fiero smiled gleefully. He was so happy to see someone lke himself! And it was snowing! And he'd been clever and slipped away from Korea all by himself! Life was so good right now.
"I like snow, too," he volunteered. "I live at the university with my human, Korea. She's wonderful. Sometimes she gets in bad moods, but she takes really good care of me."
He looked up to the sky and the clouds from whence came the snow. As he did so, his mouth hung a little open and a snowflake fell on his lower lip. Another one landed on his nose. More landed on his eyelashes. He shook his head and looked back at Holly.
"I have lots of favorites. I like food, and being outside, and musicals. And I like Korea's cousin Robbie. And I like the pictures online. Those are very pretty."
"How did you sneak away?" he asked, striving to be polite. Then he added, in hopes she would ask about it, "I snuck away, too."
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Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:29 pm
Holly smiled happy to hear more about him but was stumped when he mentioned the university. She had never heard of one before. She waited patiently for him to finish describing his human even though she was so curious about this new thing that she felt like she was going to jump out of her own skin. “What is a university? I don’t think I’ve ever heard Noel mention one before. We live with her family and I’m sure they’ll know, I’ll have to remember to ask them later.” She said after her was done, towards the end she starting speaking more to herself.
She listened closely as he said the things he liked, agreeing with the food and being outside but not necessarily with the musicals. She loved music and though she sung off key she could often be found singing along to her favorite artists. She did not know who Robbie was but she assumed that if Fiero liked him he must be a nice person just like most of Noel’s family members were.
When he asked how she had snuck away she beamed mischievously at him. “It wasn’t very hard, really.” She started to explain. “I waited until Noel wandered into the music section of the store and was sampling CDs on her head phones. Then I hid by the door hoping someone would come by. I tried to stand in front of the door and make it open like everyone else does but it wouldn’t trigger it and the store people tried to shoo me away so I had to hide in the racks where they couldn’t see me. Then this one lady came by with all of these bags that she couldn’t really see around and I sped past her really quick before anyone could see me. Once I was outside it was easy to get away.” She waved her arms for emphasis, spreading her arms wide she tried to show him just how big the woman was and she moved her arm like a snake to show him how she had snuck past the woman and out the door. “How did you sneak out?” she asked him curious to hear his own story.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:52 am
Glee lit up Fiero's features at his own cleverness in escaping his guardian's care, but first he answered Holly's question about universities.
"A university is a place where a lot of people live to learn things. They teach classes on everything there, and give a lot of work to do in the students' rooms. Korea always has homework." He shrugged. He wasn't sure how to explain a university, really. He assumed everyone knew what it was.
"I snuck out by working to doorknob - which is really tricky - and then I looked like a human child and got one of the other students in the dorm to open the door to go outside for me." It wasn't really as good of a story as Holly's, and he looked down.
When he looked down he noticed that his tendrils trailed in the snow and made wispy patterns. He hadn't yet learned to write with a pencil like Korea and Ewan did, but he knew what letters looked like, and he wondered if he could make his tendrils listen to him like Holly's seemd to listen to her. She could hold a wreath with them, after all, and so he should be able to direct his so he could use them to write in the snow.
"How do you make your ribbons hold your wreath and do what you want them to?" he asked.
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:10 pm
From what Fiero said about universities they sounded similar to the school that Noel went to except that she did not live at her school. Holly wondered what it would be like if they did live there since her friend seemed to dislike it so much and was always complaining when she had to stay after for a school activity. The only time she seemed to like school was when they were going on field trips and from what she could tell only a few different subjects were taught. She decided she would have to ask Noel more about universities later. For now though she was more curious about the conversation at hand.
Holly’s face lit up as Fiero described how he had escaped. She listened closely to the details, storing them safely in her mind for use at a later date. One never knew when they would need to use such skills again. “Cool!” she said he had worked on the door knob. She had tried to work the door knobs at home many times but had never been able to figure out why the inside doors were easy to turn but the doors leading outside would not budge. She did not realize her doors were locked with multiple locks to make sure Noel’s young siblings did not wander outside into the cold.
Holly continued to swing her wreath beneath her without realizing she was doing it, much like a person shakes their foot while sitting only much slower. “Hmm?” she asked when Fiero mentioned her ribbons. She stopped swinging the wreath and looked down at it for a moment. “I don’t really know. I haven’t thought about it before.” She paused for a moment to try and think about when she had first started using her ribbons. It had been shortly after Christmas when she had gotten tired of carrying the wreath in her arms. “I guess it’s just like how we use our hands. It’s hard at first but with a lot of practice anyone can do it. Well, anyone like us anyway.” She looked at him wondering if he understood. Since she was not sure how to describe it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:03 am
Fiero frowned as he concentrated on making his ribbons do what he wanted them to do. He found that he could move them, but the movements were gross and clumsy, like his hands were when they went numb after he slept with his head on his arms. He didn't think he'd be able to do anything fancy with his ribbons for a long time, but even being able to exert a small amount of control over them was exciting to him - it had never occurred to him that they might do anything except float beneath him until he met Holly.
"I'll work on it," he said, turning his attention back to Holly. "Why did you sneak away?"
He was genuinely curious about that. He'd snuck off simply to see if he could do it, and maybe to have an adventure or two while he was about it. In the books Korea and Ewan brought him young boys were always going off and having marvelous adventures when they sneaked away from their guardians. He'd wanted to have adventures like theirs, where they came home in the end and were fed and praised.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:58 am
Holly smiled at Fiero when he tried to move his ribbons. Their movement looked slightly different from before and so she was sure that he had succeeded even if only by a tiny bit. Like anything else it would take practice to get good at.
She tapped her chin in thought, imitating Noel when Fiero asked why she snuck away. “It was boring in the store. It’s so much more fun in snow! And there were too many adults; I didn’t like the weird looks so I thought I’d find the park to play for awhile. Why did you sneak out?” It had always bothered her how some adults looked at her like she was a monster just because she didn’t have legs. Children didn’t look at her that way, well most of them didn’t. They usually just seemed happy to have a new friend to play war with.
Thinking about the game war made her want to play it. It had been a few days since she had battled with anyone but there were not enough kids around to form troops. She decided that she’d have to rally the neighborhood kids as soon as she got back home; she was having more fun here anyway. “Do you play war?” she added as an afterthought.
She shivered a little from the cold and pulled on the coat Noel had put her making sure it was completely closed so she would not catch a chill. The drifting snow melted as it landed on her causing her jacket and hair to have wet spots. The water made her wreath look fresher and the snow made it appear more festive so she did not mind.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:37 pm
Fiero nodded. He agreed that stores were boring. Korea didn't take him shopping that much because he didn't like it, but he remembered how boring it was. All that walking - floating - around just to put things in a bag and stuff. He liked getting new things, but he preferred not to have to go get them.
"I wanted to have an adventure," he said simply in response to Holly's query regarding his reasons for sneaking out. "In the stories, little boys sneak away from home and they have wonderful adventures and meet fascinating people and come home in time for dinner and their families are worried about them, but glad to see them so they don't get in trouble for sneaking out."
War...That word rang no bells in his head. He had no idea what war was. He said as much, having been raised to be basically honest.
"What's war? How do you play? Is it a computer game? I'm good at computer games."
That last was true. He was very good at computer games, and enjoyed playing on the computer when Korea was away at classes. He just enjoyed the computer in general. He could actually sit and watch the randomizer on iTunes for hours at a time, and then when he dreamed at night the swirling patterns made up the backgrounds.
He didn't notice the cold consciously, but he did have goosepimples.
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Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:11 am
Holly nodded. Adventures were fun to have and they made for good stories to tell afterwards. “I’ve read some adventure books. They’re great! Have you had adventures before?” she asked wondering if he had any stories to tell.
When Fiero said he did not know the game war she had to think about how to describe it. She had said it was a game but while it was fun sometimes it was also very serious especially with so many things at stake whenever there was a battle. “No, it’s not a computer game.” She said becoming serious. “War is when people get together and battle for things. At home we have a creek nearby and it belongs to my friends and me. But there are some big kids that don’t agree. They built a tree house in our creek which makes it ours but they say it’s theirs so we have battles over it. We usually win, although there was that one time that boy traded sides just because the big kids had water guns. He won’t be trading sides anymore. It’s been a few days since we’ve had a battle, I don’t know where the big kids went but they haven’t been coming around. It takes a few people to have a battle, three people at least on each side or it isn’t fun at all. I was just curious if you had heard of it. I hear other people have their own battles but I don’t know what they would battle over.” She smiled again and nodded her head sure that she had explained everything even though Noel would have told her she had missed some things.
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Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:37 am
Fiero listened closely as Holly explained the concept of war. Being utterly foreign to him, he figured it was important that he learn what it was and remember it. If he felt Holly's explanation was lacking in any way, he said nothing, and made a mental note to ask Korea about it. Korea knew these things. However, he felt that Holly had explained war adequately. He got the basic idea.
"War's like fighting," he said, to make sure he was correct. "There're sometimes fights in the adventure stories, but they don't call them wars. I've never had an adventure with a war before."
To be honest, Fiero didn't consider anything he'd ever done to be an adventure. Although he'd had adventures in his life, they never seemed to be as exciting as the ones in the stories, and there always seemed to be unlooked-for hardships. Like the last time he left the dorm when Korea was inside and got locked out and couldn't find her. Or riding in the car on the way to Korea's house, which had made him feel kind of sick. Besides, they weren't real adventures. Nothing particularly amazing had happened once he'd gotten over the initial excitement of doing something new.
"Does a war have to have three people on a side to be fun?" He doubted he'd be able to find that many people to play war with him at the university. Just Korea and Ewan. Maybe it could be him and Korea versus Ewan. He still wasn't sure how he felt about Ewan.
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