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 Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:59 pm
The blood-curdling scream jolted Shirin out of her sleep, and she hastened the gathering crowd outside. If she had to be afraid, she preferred to do so in a crowd that might explain away the nebulous threat or scare it off. Alas, it was not to be so easy, not when there was a murdered Leaf female, not when a trail of footsteps led right back into the heart of the settlement.
Unwelcome news as their words were, the Wind girl nodded somber agreement with the three prentices who had spoken. "Just as well if no one comes and goes, really." They had a whole settlement full of suspects already; her head ached at the mere thought of adding more with new arrivals. "Best we find the culprit quickly. We certainly can't let the killer leave and claim more victims." She shivered.
"Was anyone in her company, earlier in the night?" she wondered. She cast her own thoughts back to the easy camaraderie of the night before, trying to remember, but there had been so much going on.
She mustered up a wan smile for the youngling, not quite as reassuring as she might hope. "It's just for a little while, and then people can come and go again. I... guess she's gone wherever souls go." She considered telling him to stay close to the older ones, but that was maybe not the best advice, when everyone was a suspect.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 6:25 pm
Kelina's attention was then turned to the man with the...odd attire, but she wasn't one to judge. "That's for the best then. The footsteps led to the center of everything. We should probably try to figure out if there could be anywhere near the end of the foot prints that they could be hiding. After hearing what was exchanged between the youngling and the female near him, Kel was glad her sister wasn't here although she knew Lasarra could handle herself. Actually, she wished that her sister was with her so there would be somebody there that she could trust.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Nyiim turned and pointed in the direction the footsteps went
"It could be you for all the footprints tell us, though. There was time to run out, I think..." He stared wistfully off at the center of the settlement. Good, good. It could be the kid. "So nobody can leave, but what do we do with the suspects? If we... interrogate them? Where do we start? I've never even seen her before..." and now she was dead. He heaved a sigh. This wasn't how things were supposed to go in this settlement...
[[ I may not be able to post tomorrow to vote, and Nyiim refuses to believe that we need to kill anyone, so I'm going to be a jerk and arbitrarily vote for Nuawahn as the killer/hunter because suspicions... or maybe I'm just a terrible person! and Kelina for Wise! PS also totally picturing pinstripes and fedoras, sorry guys! xD ]]
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:33 pm
"But..." he looked up at Shirin, "Where do they go?"
He listened around him, his brain gradually waking up.
Wait. They were trying to figure something out.
Wait. It had something to do with the dead person.
"Wait, someone killed her?" he frowned. Okay, it was obvious. He was sleepy, thats why it hadn't made sense before.
But now it did.
"Why?"
It had sounded like a game. It had felt like a game. But he was starting to realize that it wasn't a game, and the body was looking less and less interesting and more and more sad...
He looked queryingly at Kelina. "But miss ma'am, all the prints go everywhere. They've all been stepped all over... see? They don't lead anywhere." Maybe he should just pretend it was all a big game. Yes. that was what he would do. Even though he was gradually realizing it wasn't. Not at all.
"Aren't you a sus...suspect too?" he asked, pointing to Nyiim, "Because... all the tracks lead everywhere so it could be anybody, but it wasn't everybody because then that wouldn't be nice and..." he yawned suddenly.
He was sleepy. So sleepy.
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 7:10 am
Ilyra woke up with a start at the scream, but instead of going to see what was happening she stayed where she was. She knew that sound. It was the sound of death, she had heard it before, only with animals and never a person. But this wasn't an animals scream she heard... That was a human, and if her ears didn't deceive her it was a human girl.
She got up slowly and made her way out of where she was sleeping, her eyes already had the look like they were about to cry. Why did this happen? She was still just a youngling and had never seen death before... It was horrible. She didn't want to be there anymore, and approaching the little group that was talking she suddenly didn't see any of her sisters.
However someone had to save her, and looking at Rayolun he looked like he could protect her. She listened to the little boy as he accused the older boy of being a suspect. Why was he so sleepy? Until the scream she had been sleeping pretty good. Maybe he was the killer? Maybe that was why he was sleepy, because he was out killing the night before? She decided to not say anything yet and just listen to what everyone else had to say.
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 7:35 am
Rayolun shook his head at their attempts of tracking footsteps. Any fool could see that villages were full of foot prints and impossible to track. Tracking in a village really sucked...
"There's too many foot prints too follow.. plus everyone has flocked to gather around here so any prints that might be the killers have been stepped on." He pulled his hat off and ran his hand through is hair. What to do? Well, first, tell the kid the truth. He was involved and he needed to know what was happening.
"They're dead, they won't be coming back here. Why? Who knows.. people do cruel and mean things some times." He patted the young wind tribe boy on the head, "But at least they're in a better place now, no pain or suffering."
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 9:49 am
"Well... They shouldn't do those things." said Nuawahn, matter of factly, looking up at Rayolun, "But at least they are somewhere better..."
But what was better? It had to be someplace high up, with lots of pretty flowers and trees...
He waved at the Alkidike youngling. She was looking at him funny, but that wasn't any reason not to say hi.
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:10 am
Kelina looked sadly at the two younglings in the crowd. She wished there was a way that little ones didn't have to experience things like this but logically in the world they lived in that was impossible. "You're right." She said with a frown. How were they supposed to figure this out if they had nothing to go off of. Kel echoed what the other woman had said, "Does anybody know who was in the woman's company last night? I don't think she looks familiar to me. What about you two little ones, did you see her at all last night?" She was glad that the other man explained what happened to the woman. Kelina was afraid she would have screwed it up horribly if she had tried to explain.
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:25 am
Ilyra thought about it, she hadn't really seen the girl yet. She was scared to, when she finally mustered up the courage to look she only did so for a second. Part of her wanted to act more brave, just because that was what her race was known for, being fearless, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. "I don't remember... Sorry..." she said sadly. She wanted to help, but she didn't remember much from the night before.
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:58 pm
"Don't pull the poor kids into this," Nyiim sighed. As it was they were probably traumatized for life. Th little white Alkidike seems especially put-off. Really, he'd never experienced an outright murder himself, but he didn't like the thought of a pair of younglings being dragged into a murder investigation. He turned to the little beans.
"You just stay close, and we'll keep you safe, okay?"
Unless, of course, the killer was right here. He turned to the adults again.
"Look, we're all going to say that we've never seen her before. Knowing her is motive, right? So let's skip the public interrogations. We were 'all asleep' when it happened, I'm sure. We all ran to the scene... and? And someone here saw something." He reached out and touched the little Alkidike's shoulder. All of a sudden, he didn't trust anyone.
[[ Guess I did make it! 8D;; Sorry for the totally unfounded voting, guys. I won't have to do that again! 8P <3 ]]
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:15 pm
Kelina shook her head, kids were some of the most active people here, they're more likely to notice the small things that adults would normally over look. Most adults would think of kids as fragile, which they are, but they also have a different way of looking at things. "Look, the only reason I asked the kids is because sometimes they're more attentive than adults. Especially when they're playing, they pick up on the finer things in their surroundings as well as covering more ground in a day than an adult would. I didn't mean any harm by it."
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:31 pm
"I don't remember her either. There were so many people," Shirin put in after Ilyra spoke, shoulders lifting in a helpless shrug. Her lips twisted wryly as she nodded to Nyiim. "Case in point, right?"
She gave the younglings a worried look, but said, "I think everyone's involved now, for better or for worse." Kelina did make a good point, and the best way to keep them safe was to identify the killer as quickly as possible, right? She could only hope they weren't unduly traumatized -- or worse, harmed by the still mysterious killer -- in the course of the investigation.
Considering Nyiim's words again, she added, "The killer must have made his -- or her -- escape quickly. Who was first on the scene? Chances are they saw something." She paused a beat, her expression turning stricken as a worrying thought struck her. "But would it really be safe to say so?" As soon as the words were out, she could've kicked herself. As if there weren't enough paranoia to go around without her adding to it.
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:47 pm
Nyiim sighed and rubbed his forehead. They were right, of course. The kids were involved for better or for worse, and there was nothing anybody could do about what they'd already seen and heard. It was all damage control now.
"That's the thing," he nodded, gesturing around, "I wasn't first, unfortunately, and I can't say I know for sure who was. Would anyone admit they had been? Saying you were one of the first is almost an admission, at this point. Nobody wants to say they saw anything, nobody wants to say they did anything... so what do we do? Guess? That seems like a dangerous game to play if the murderer is able to give his two cents on who should take the fall, right?" He gave an expression of frustration and tilted his hat back. His brows were furrowed.
"I can't say I've ever had to do this before." When it came down to it, he was young and lacking world experience. He hoped that someone else had a better idea... but what if they were the killer? Gah!
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 2:04 pm
"We guess and hope we don't make too many wrong choices before the killer strikes again?" Shirin suggested, the corners of her mouth turning down. "There must be a better way. 'Fraid I don't know it either." She looked hopefully around. Maybe someone else -- preferably not the killer -- would know?
She twisted a stray strand of hair around one finger. "The killer will want to prevent people from getting too close to the truth. Perhaps if we observe each other's guesses...."
Rayolun, Nyiim
((Sorry if this is too late -- forgot the cutoff time was EST, not my timezone.))
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Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 3:46 pm
Kelina for murder, Nyiim for wise
"I must agree with Nyiim. Publicly harassing anyone isn't going to get us anywhere. And you," Rayolun pointed at Kelina. "if you didn't mean any harm by it, then address all of us instead of just the kids. Everyone here is either a murderer or the next victim so we need to not go about accusing people randomly... That'd just cause chaos and bad feelings. Perhaps we should all be with another person, go about in teams. That way if one of us is targeted, the other person can be there to witness or stop the murder and catch the killer."
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