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 Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 11:12 pm
"Well, that may be so, but it seems like everyone around would rather live in their stupid ugly world of stupid ugly buildings and stupid.....stupidness." Jayke couldn't being himself to feel sorry for anyone so blinded; it was their own fault if they thought that their entire world was made of all that was synthetic and against nature. They chose to turn a deaf ear to nature, and thus they didn't deserve it. Only people like himself and Crysta deserved such a wonderful relationship with nature; anyone else would just waste it.
He nodded his head and smiled at Crysta. "I know just how you feel. Classes can be so boring, but what's worse is when they see your boredom and mistake it for confusion. People think that just because I spent my childhood with the wild world as my playground, school and backyard, people don't think I'm good enough for their crappy old buildings full of chalk and textbooks. It's no wonder half the world grows up to be boobs, if that's how everyone learns things."
He listened with half-amusement at first to her question, but as she went deeper into it, his smile turned into a frown; not an annoyed frown, but a pondering frown. When she had finished, he almost felt as though the very eyes of the world were on him; the world that he knew and loved. "Well.....I'm afraid if I did that, I would have a very short good list and a very long bad list. See, I'm the first to admit it, but I'm not happy with my lot. I have no real family anymore, none of the other families I get put with ever want me, I have no friends at school even though I do alright, and at the end of my day I'm probably going to discover that I have detention AGAIN for hitting a teacher." He sighed sadly and looked down at the ground. "My life sucks."
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Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:01 pm
Crysta ceased her bouncing and tilted her head. Jayke had so many negative spirits fluttering around him. It was a wonder the air around him didn't seem shaded. He had a lot held inside, and...well... Crysta was certain it was poisoning him. However, the best way to open someones eyes was not to rip away their blindfold. You could loosen it, but in the end they had to take it off, otherwise you risked blinding them in a different way.
"I think I understand what you mean. I mean, my teachers have always complained about all the energy I have." As if to prove her point she began to bounce up and down again, like she simply could not manage to keep still any longer. "They say I'm too hyper for their classes and need medicine to help me focus on my work. They say I have something wrong in my head." With a small giggle Crysta clapped her hands before her and jumped back a step. "So I made them all look very very foolish. I simply went through my text books and completed every single assignment in them. Hee hee!" Crysta's blue eyes brightened as her grin grew wider. "I handed them into the teachers as one big lump after the second quarter started. So far I am maintaining a B plus average, and I don't have any homework for the rest of the school year. They don't complain anymore about my energy at all."
Crysta lifted a hand and began to play with the dangling butterfly in her right ear. "When you are in tune with the world, you are never alone. The Spirits are friend and family alike. I believe you are only as alone as you let yourself be." Crysta lifted a hand and wagged a finger at Jayke as she continued. "Is it that the other families did not want you Jayke of the Wild? Or was it you that did not want them?" Crysta balled her fist and placed it on her hip as she looked in amusement at Jayke. "Didn't your elders ever tell you it's not right to strike out at those who are the Educators? I'm sure you've been told that you wouldn't have detention if you didn't hit anyone...I really think you should try my List practice. Maybe it will help you with your Spirits. You've got a lot of them you know, and you really do have a Warriors energy. I am sad over the fact you have no way to express it yet."
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:48 pm
Had Jayke known what Crysta was thinking, he would have agreed wholeheartedly. He had so much inside of him that he wanted out, and his having to keep it inside was like poison that yearned to be drawn from his body. He had never asked for this to all be upon him; his parents gone, no friends, and only a limited connection with nature when he used to be free to visit it whenever he wanted.
He couldn't help but chuckle at Crysta's explanation. "Don't let them give you any medicine; that's just their way of conking you out so you'll make their jobs easier. There's nothing wrong with you; you're just too big in spirit for their dumb little box of a school. You know, one time when we were visiting a relative in the city, I overheard them asking my mother why they didn't put me in school. She told them that I learned by being outside with the trees and the birds. They asked her what I could possibly learn from them, and I never forgot what she said. 'At least he'll learn no evil.' That's what I feel like I'm learning there at the school, trapped in a box away from nature, the only thing in my life that I have left of the life I actually want. I don't want to get good grades in dumb things that I don't think are worth learning. So I do just enough to get by."
He looked uncomfortable then, shuffling his feet and scowling indirectly at Crysta. "Well.....nobody can replace my real parents, sure. But I don't do anything to make the foster parents hate me, and they always do. It's not my fault! Just like it isn't my fault that the teachers pick on me. When I see things that aren't fair or right.....I get really angry. You know I saw a boy pull the ears off of a bunny on the playground, and I got in trouble for showing him firsthand what a pulled-off ear felt like?" Running out of steam, he resumed shuffling his feet. "I...suppose I could try it, to see if it helps. Can I bury the bad list instead? Paper doesn't hurt the environment, and maybe some mice can use it to make nests with."
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 2:52 am
"Your mother sounds like she is a very warm Spirit." Crysta spoke of the woman as she could only imagine her. As a Spirit now that followed her son in hopes of seeing him grow into a happy being. Though Crysta was not certain that she should share such a view with Jayke yet. What if he became ashamed of the things his mother may have seen him doing? "Though I believe that more can be learned in accepting the different ways in which things are taught. If the people in schools came out into the world to be taught the way you were, then they would learn so much more. Likewise, I do not believe that there is only the learned and the unlearned. The Spirits tell me we are all unlearned and must allow ourselves to be taught in the eyes of all." Crysta reached up to fold her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.
"I can learn a lot by watching the animals, but they can not teach me to read and write. Those things are important for recording history when songs can not be passed down." Crysta's eyes opened a little as Jayke spoke about his parents replacements. Was it too soon to speak so openly? Should she be considerate and just nod her head? Crysta's eyes turned towards the tree that Jayke had been hanging in when she'd seen him. "You know Jayke...Butterflies are often believed to be the souls of the departed. It's terribly odd for one to land upon a person..and it was the butterfly that drew me into the woods today and right to you. Maybe there was a reason we met today. Maybe someone wanted us to meet."
Crysta smiled faintly at Jayke and rocked back on her heels gain. "Foster parents do not take a boy into their home if they hate him you know...there must have been some sort of love in them for you. Or the desire to love you." She supposed she could bring up the possibility of him feeling guilty for giving anyone a chance, but she chose to let him think of that on his own. Instead she merely murmured. "Maybe these new foster parents of yours have more hope for love in them then all the rest thought. Adults are funny like that." Her eyes fell down to the ground as she frowned.
"The boy was wrong to hurt the bunny... I think it was very brave of you to stand up to him." Her eyes lifted then to peer at Jayke and she found herself grinning more. "Just so long as you swear to tear it up and let the world worry about the bad things in your life, while you promise to hold onto the good things. Then I think it will be fine. The Spirits of the Earth are just as capable as the ones of Wind and Rain."
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Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:25 pm
"A......warm spirit?" Try as he might, the only mental image Jayke could conjure up from that was an image of his mother following him around like a little candle flame, sort of like the ones that folowed you around when you were playing Mario. The thought made him smile a little; he would bet anything his mother would laugh at such a comparison, if she had known he was making it. She always had such a good sense of humor, taking everything in stride and striving to remain optomistic no matter what. Even as she lay dying on the bed in the hospital, she had summoned the strength to give her son one last smile before he was led away.....
"Well.....if they know only as much as I do, then why should they be teaching us?" Jayke was always certain that he could receive much more knowledge if he was left alone to pursue it instead of forcing him to learn while surrounded by people who weren't as keen to learn anyway and would much rather spend their time establishing pecking orders that would just dissolve as soon as they graduated and the outside world gave them a smack of reality. "You really think so?" He looked around then, only just noticing that the butterfly had flown off of his nose. Wouldn't it be something if that little creature housed his mother's spirit, and she had come to say hello and prepare him to meet this girl, who was so close with him in thinking?
Once again feeling a little foolish, Jayke looked down at the ground, studying his lightning-emblemed shoes. "Well....not everyone adopts a child to love them, and some of them have very weird ideas on what sort of love they should give, or how much." He looked up and smiled sheepishly. "Deston and Lillian are just cooler. They let me do what I want and don't try to change me or make me do things just because it's right or proper. I can connect with them more because they don't care about how they look to others and people see them as weird and wrong, just like they see me." His smile dissolved into a scowl. "Not nearly enough people stand up to others when they're being cruel, or they try to be involved so they aren't picked on. Somebody had to stand up for the bunny, since he couldn't defend himself. And I just thought it would be fine to show the boy what it felt like; maybe then he'd think twice before hurting an innocent animal. I hope they weren't able to get the ear back on; I know the bunny won't get his ears back." Fighting down his bitterness once more, Jayke forced a small smile back on his face. "I guess so long as the world doesn't mind dealing with my problems, I guess I could give it to them. They sure don't seem to mind my other rituals, but I try not to make a mess or anything. 'Leave only footprints', you know?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:52 pm
"Well isn't it obvious?" Crysta responded to Jaykes somewhat challenge question. her blue eyes blinked at him and she spread her hands. "Because they know things we do not. The amount of knowledge they contain may be similar in amount, but different in make up. Sort of like..they are flowers and we are the bee's collecting the pollen of their knowledge. We have to visit many mind flowers in order to achieve our goal of being fulfilled. And we can't be picky. Just because one mind flower may not be as pretty as another, that doesn't mean it's pollen is any less valuable." Crysta clapped her hands before her and grinned rather widely. "Though personally I like to think of myself as a butterfly fluttering from flower to flower in order to sate my appetite. So you can always change the way you view it to best suit you."
Dropping her hands to her sides, Crysta swayed them back and forth as she considered his next question. "Oh yes. I certainly think so." Jaykes gloominess was clearly due to the gathering of depressive spirits. Crysta let her eyes dart around herself as she considered where they may have been lurking. Perhaps if she countered them with her own vibrant spirits they would be chased away. Ying and Yang meeting to create perfect balance! It made 'perfect' sense to her! "I don't think that you can judge as a group or whole." Crysta lifted her hand up in an attempt to tap Jayke on the tip of his nose with one finger. "What matters most is what these two parents in your life are offering. Did they adopt you to love you? Can you honestly answer that? It sounds like they adopted you because you seemed more likely to understand them. I can't imagine it's easy for adults who are different to find a child that would be able to grasp how they view things. Most kids our age are already trained to think in certain ways and have closed up their minds. Maybe your their one hope for a loving family huh?"
The talk about the bunny was depressing to say the least, and Crysta wrinkled her nose a bit. "In life there are many types of people... There are just too few warriors who have a guardians spirit" She replied with a small huff of air. Jaykes attitude seemed to hint at a reluctance in Crysta's eyes, and she reached out, unabashed, to grab at his hands. "Jayke. Your a part of this world. When you get tired of standing on one foot don't you switch to the other? Why would the world care if you shared your troubles with it? Your just another part of it, so of course it's going to be fine with offering you another foot to rest on. Your so silly!" She exclaimed with a small giggle.
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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 7:58 pm
At Crysta's words, now all Jayke could imagine were the leering faces of all his teachers staring up at him from a bunch of flowers, like that movie with the little girl who fell down the rabbit hole. Had such at hing happened to his friend here? The thought made him grin a little bit; she did seem to live in an enchanted world, and he couldn't help but be a little jealous at how happy she was in it. It was as though, without even trying, she had obtained a greater understanding of the harmony of the world around them, and he had to struggle and toil to keep what he had and learn anything new, since his parents were gone and he was left to figure out the rest on his own.
He wrinkled his nose as it was tapped, and kept his hands to his side; anyone else and he would have brought his hand up like lightning to smack the hand away. Of course, anyone else would probably be looking to break his nose instead of tapping it; Lillian was too cool to do the whole nose-booping thing. "Well, I guess they did. They sure like me a lot better than any of the other folks before them. And they're easier to understand than they were too. They understand natuer a lot better and try to live with it instead of ignoring it or shutting it away. I'm different to the other kids the same way they're different to other adults. And we can actually stand up for each other that way; I think they're pretty neat and they'll talk to the grown-ups in my defence, even though I can tell by the looks on their faces that Devon and Lillian are 'out of it'. But I can be myself around them; they're not my parents, but.....I can at least treat them like family since they act more like it."
He started suddenly as Crysta reached out and grabbed his hands, unsure of what she intended to do. But as she talked of guardian spirits and sharing troubles with the world, he relaxed a little bit. After all, it wasn't as though she was going to drag him back to school or anything. She just seemed so......expressive in her need to get her point across to him. She had persistence that he found refreshing as opposed to other people who just gave up trying to tell him something after a few tries, thinking that he was either too stubborn or he in his 'savage mind' could not understand such complex thoughts and ideas. "My mother said that some Native Americans sat on the ground because they believed it was the lap of their mother, the Earth. But I always told her that her lap was best, and it never got wet like the ground did." He smiled at her. "I'd like to think of myself as a sort of animal guardian. So many people think they're stupid, like they think of me, and really their usually smarter. They just can't fight back because the people are bigger and stronger. They need someone like me to fight for them, to show them that it isn't okay to pick on things that are different from you." He looked up into the trees, as though searching for something. "I'm afraid sometimes to let my pets out to roam; if some dumb kid found them......I try to think that they can take care of themselves. They're wild, you see."
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Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:28 pm
That was it. It was now settled. Crysta felt a sense of inner peace and contentment as she personally believed that in some way she had succeeded. What was it she had succeeded at? Well..driving away some of those negative spirits of course! Changing Jayke's view's wasn't her job. It was his job. HER job was to give him a chance by keeping all those dark negative spirits away so he could think more clearly! Spiritual influence was very powerful after all! Crysta continued to smile up at Jayke, even as she squeezed his hands gently in her own.
"Well. I am happy for you then. You've found a place that is more suitable to your type of soul. It sounds like these new people in your life are going to be very good to you." She cheerfully spoke, then released Jayke's hands from her own. "You know, there was that old saying...what was it... It takes a village to raise a child? Yeah that was it!" Crysta flicked a finger upwards as if acknowledging someone else was speaking the words to her. "I think that applies to your situation. Now then!" With a bat of her blue eyes, Crysta hopped about and turned her gaze towards the pathway she had left behind in order to approach Jayke. "I like your thoughts. They are very positive, and I'm sure the animal spirits would be grateful for your aid on their behalf. There are too few who listen to the voices other then their own species after all! I don't have a pet myself, my sister says the land lord will not allow it, but I am certain that if I had one, it would be very happy to meet you Jayke!"
Crysta turned to Jayke and held her hand out to him as she took a sideways step away. "Come on. Let's go. We have been here long enough and I feel like it's time to move on." She unexplained to Jayke as she shifted from one tip toe to another.
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Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:59 pm
"Yeah, I suppose I did." Jayke answered a bit hesitantly. Crysta seemed so happy just then, and in truth, he felt a bit happier too. It seemed as though her happiness was contagious, like pox. But he never felt more glad to get THIS sort of pox. The events of the morning already seemed so far away and trivial. Now if only he could erase them and there wouldn't be any angry teachers calling his parents and telling them that he had ditched school. Again.
"Well, maybe someday you'll see mine. I don't know where they are half the time, but hopefully they'll show themselves at a time when you're with me. I don't think you'd be the type of person they would hide from and wait until you were gone to approach. They sometimes show themselves to Deston and Lillian, but not too often......" He sighed a little, more in remebrance than sadness this time. "I still miss my real parents though. They taught me the greatest and most valuable things that I know. And they could get along with anybody. I always had friends wherever we went because they were friendly with so many people."
He shrugged a little as he looked around at the surrounding trees and bushes. He had honestly meant to just spend the rest of the school day here in the park, cooling off alone and surrounding himself with what he truly loved, but now that he had a friend with him, perhaps he COULD spend the day elsewhere, at least until he was expected to return home and face the music. He reached out and took her hand, expecting to be yanked along and so walking at an automatic trot so that he could keep up with his excitable new friend. "Where are we going?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:26 pm
Oh, yes yes yes. The moment Crysta had Jayke's hand in her own she started off at a brisk pace. The Spirits had been so kind today! She was meeting a wonderful friend! She just knew they were bound to be great friends! Crysta's eyes sparkled as she stalked off in a random direction into the park. "Where? I do not know. I just feel like going this way." Crysta informed him. She lifted her hand and pointed ahead of her as she walked along.
"I think we'll know where we are going when we get there. I feel all warm and happy, so I'm sure we have a lot of good spirits around us. They would not lead us someplace we would not like." She explained to Jayke. "I get the feeling we are going to be the greatest of friends. We have a lot of things in common you know." Crysta jabbered away a little as they walked along. "I mean, I don't have my parents with me like you. We both have a greater sense of closeness with the world around us. It's like we're siblings!"
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:19 pm
Trotting quickly to keep up with Crysta, Jayke had to smile. It was starting to feel like old times, when he was younger and schooling meant being taught by an elder about the ways of the earth, instead of being shut away in a box to learn about pointless drivel. What use did Mother Nature have for long division, or the Four Winds for who did what when they were president? His old teachers had been patient and wise, and the entire world had been his classroom. What joy he had known back then; had he known how abruptly it was going to be taken away, he would haev savored every moment twice as much as he had.
"Sounds good to me," he said with an equally enthusiastic grin. "You never know what you'll find if you just go out and explore. You can find a secret swimming hole, or a harpy eagle's nest, or even a live, winding stream of siafu." He winced a little. "And don't you ever step in those. THAT'S the sort of thing that they should be teaching us in school! I bet half those kids in there are dumb enough to try and step in it." Trying not to think too much about school adn the writhing mass of humanity therein, consistently stewing in their own unintelligent muck, he focused more on the new friend he had made; she was infinitely more important than all of them put together anyway. "We do seem to have a lot in common, don't we? You could easily be from one of the villages that my parents and I travelled to. And if you were......every village that welcomed us made us honorary members, so for all we know, you really could be related to me, in that sense."
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:12 pm
Crysta bounced on her toes a bit as she led Jayke through the park. She did not know where they were going quiet yet. She was just so full of energy that she just had to walk, or run, or skip! She had to move! Crysta turned her head a little to peer curiously at Jayke. "What is Siafu?" She asked him, as if merely validating his previous comment on what ought to be taught to them. Crysta paused in her ambling leading half run rather abruptly, and she stepped up to stand toe to toe with Jayke. "You are right! We could, but how about we make it a sure thing?" Crysta found herself leaning in just a little towards Jayke with a widening grin. "I should take you home and we could perform a adoption ceremony! Then we'd REALLY be siblings!!"
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:03 pm
One good thing Jayke had going for him was that he was so used to running that he still had enough breath to hold a conversation while they were running along. "Siafu are ants; really big ones that travel along the ground like a winding river, with the biggest ones on the outside. If you respect them enough not to get in their way, you can walk right alongside a steam of them and they won't bother you. But if you get in their way...." He shuddered as he recalled his particular lesson on the siafu. "One of my elders showed them to me, and then showed me what was left of what got in their way. Animals, even people, get eaten alive by these things; one of their signature moves is actually the way they can swarm into your nose and mouth when they're attacking. It's pretty scary."
Jayke almost crashed into Crysta as she halted and turned until her little nose was practically touching his. "An adoption ceremony?" Any other kid would probably have laughed at Crysta and told her not to be silly, but for someone who had been passed from family to family, Jayke had a pretty deep understanding of what truly made a family, having been brought up in an atmosphere where family meant so much more than just sharing parents or blood. "That's okay by me; I don't think even Deston and Lillian would mind. They're always saying how everybody is everybody else's brother and sister, and tehy always call people that, even if they've just met. Kind of freaks some people out."
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:43 pm
It sounded horrible. The fate of those creatures that is. The actual insecty things themselves sounded powerful and incredible though. Just imagine! Such tiny but fierce things! It just went to prove that size did not mean you were the most powerful thing. Sometimes small things were truly powerful in their own way. "It sounds so very impressive though Jayke." She replied with a smile.
Now the subject was clearly changing, and Crysta was far more interested in it then the insects. "Well I agree. But we can make it more fun and special. We can be like siblings! A family! Our own clan!" She began to bounce up and down on her toes while reaching for Jaykes hands. "How about...tomorrow after school? We can bring what we need for the ceremony and do it in the park! Under the big tree we met under! I think that place should be our special place, cause it's where the spirits had us meet!" Crysta's eyes sparkled brightly as she thought about how much fun it was going to be to be clan mates with Jayke. Her sister was so...so modernized. She didn't care for any of the old ways the way Crysta did, and clearly Jayke appreciated them too!
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:33 pm
Starting a clan with Crysta........THERE was a thought that made Jayke smile. He could imagine Lillian and Deston fussing in their own less-fussy way and bringing flowers and incense and some sort of ceremonial bong pipe. He hoped that if his folks were permitted to come, that Crysta's own family were....understanding.
But now there was talk of doing it in secret, in the park after school. That sounded more fun anyway, a secret meeting! "Why wait until after school? You think I'd be able to just sit in class and learn nonsense after an invitation like that?" He had always had a particularly low opinion of the teachings inside the school; how they always tried to explain every little wonder of nature away with science and mathematics and other dull things only created to help the slow-witted comprehend the sheer magic of the living, breathing Mother Earth. He didn't need to know WHY the flowers opened every morning, only that they did. But of course, his explanation of them greeting the sun was always met with scorn and accusations of living in a fantasy world dreamed up by savages. Well, if they were any example of the place, he would gladly take his world of sentient flowers and living earth over their world of stone and beakers and long division.
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