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 Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:39 am
 He hadn’t eaten in days.
At first it was the fear. The fear was like a living thing inside him, urging him forward, sending him stumbling over roots and rocks and cracks, moving always away from the coast and the boats and the strangers and the tall, tall women with the green-yellow faces and the empty black eyes.
He kept looking over his shoulder, expecting entire whooping bands of them to be following him, shaking their spears and shouting curses. He could almost hear them – smell them, even. But there was never anything there, only more trees and rocks and cracks, the same trees and rocks and cracks he had just dragged himself over. He kept moving. He moved without sleep, without food, without any thought in his head beyond the anguish of having seen such terrifying things.
Matchitemin was not unskilled in foraging and hunting small creatures; on any normal day, a trip through the jungle would never leave him with an empty belly. But on the third day of his flight, far away now from the place where the strangers had landed their boats, when his hunger finally caught up to him… he was too exhausted to hunt or find food. He did instead the only thing he still could; he kept moving, his legs scratched and bleeding, his hair tangled with twigs. Would he die here?
It turned out that fortune was, on this rare occasion, playing on his side. Through the receding canopy he saw the shapes of houses, and the sound of soft Yaeli voices going about their business. He had some to the edges of a settlement.
Still cautious, he crept forward. Had the strangers come here? Would they? He didn’t want to draw attention to himself, so he skirted around the backs of the houses until he found someone who was mostly on their own; a girl, his age maybe.
“Hey…” He tried to call to her, his voice cracking and hoarse. “Have you… have you any food to spare?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 4:54 pm
 It was a rare day that saw Mosi with nothing to do. Not that she had a proper job that demanded she stick to a specific schedule, but she did strive to keep busy most of the time, taking breaks at week's end. She was meant to be taking one of those breaks today, but instead her mind whirred, imagining all of the gems she wasn't gathering as they fell, cracked and dull, into the clumsy hands of others. It wasn't long before she was packing some dried meat and water into her pouch-laden belt and sneaking off to the caves, ducking behind her neighbors' dwellings so that no one would be tempted to question her or strike up a conversation about those... creatures. She shuddered. Mainlanders. To say she was surprised by the dirty, injured young man scrabbling through her shortcut would have been stating the obvious. Mosi let out a small, surprised peep and took a step back at the sight of him, scrambling to touch her supplies as if he had somehow already claimed them just by asking. There were loonies in the city who begged for food, men and women who she took pains to avoid, but she couldn't avoid this one. At least he didn't seem all that crazy, nor was he shoving her or shouting obscenities. "All right." Mosi stood taller. "Yes. I have some jerky and water, if you would like." She opened her pouch and removed the items, holding them out with only a slightly shaking hand.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:00 am
He seemed to have startled the girl, but he was too exhausted to apologize. Maybe later he’d feel bad about it – maybe later he’d feel embarrassed for begging like this. He knew how to take care of himself, after all. More so than most people his age. He didn’t beg. He didn’t even ask for any favors, not if he could get away with it.
But – good Gods, when she offered him her jerky he forgot all that pride. He stepped forward and took it from her hands, the water first and then the jerky. As hard as it was to eat the dried meat, he downed it all in record time. It was good food to take the edge off your hunger, salty-sweet and filling as the meat expanded in his stomach. Before he knew it it was gone… and he had recovered enough to feel sheepish about what he’d just done.
“I’m sorry.” He frowned, the water having smoothed his voice over a bit. “I took all your food. I… I haven’t got any money, but I can try to repay you, somehow? I need to rest now, somewhere safe, but I can… do some work for you later, maybe. Or for your family? But you must tell me. Have the Strangers been seen here?”
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2015 7:10 am
Mosi took a step back as the young man chewed, seriously considering turning tail and running home while he was distracted. She was quite aware that she was a bit of a coward about certain things, but when she stopped to think about this situation in particular, she realized panicking this early in their relationship would just be silly. She had helped him. If he decided to repay her with a fist to the jaw or a hidden rodent of some sort, then she would run. Anticipating that things might escalate once he was finished with his food, her legs tensed in preparation. She crouched slightly, ready to race away. And then... he apologized? Huh. "It's not a problem. I'll just cut my search short before lunch and..." She had been about to say she would go home for more jerky, but that was just rubbing it in, now wasn't it. "...really it's fine. If you want to help, you can carry gems for me someday?" She might have tried edging around him and moving on then had he not mentioned the Strangers. "Dear Lurin, no. I can't even imagine..." Her initial reaction to this strange boy was barely significant when compared to how she felt now. "I know a few people who have gone west to deliberately seek them out, but I've never actually seen one. I don't want to." She crossed her arms and hunched a little, as if Mainlanders were creeping up behind her and trailing their mutated fingers down her back.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:35 am
It did not seem that the girl was very interested in his offer of help -- but really, Matchitemin was too tired to notice. He didn’t want to be a useless drain on someone else’s time. He wasn’t some kind of beggar, and he never intended to become one.
“Gems? Do you… collect them? I saw… there was a cavern… close by, I think, I’ve been lost a while but I think I could take you back there. There were many precious stones there, you know, the sort that -- “ He was having some trouble speaking through his yawns -- “the sort that get tumbled smooth in the water? Blue-green-yellow things. I… it was very pretty, but I… I don’t know, I was so tired, I just pushed through.”
Finally he gave up, and let himself sink to the ground -- hugging his knees and letting his tangled hair fall over his shoulders.
“No, you’re right.” He nodded. “You don’t want to see the strangers. They are tall, with green skin and horns. Just like monsters!”
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