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 Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:59 pm
They'd been so busy lately, what with moving and everything. Why did things have to be so difficult? Echo was carrying the burden of their purchases. She had bags hanging from her wrists and boxes in her arms. It had been cloudy when they had walked into the mini-mall, but by the time they exited the doors it was down-pouring.
Mackerel hesitated at the door and snorted at the rain. "Oh no... I'm not going out there! Get the car and drive up here to pick me up," the girl demanded.
"Yeah right!" Echo snarled down at the girl, who already had her coat-hood up and over her head, a gloved hand holding it tight to her face. "I'm already carrying all the stuff, if I have to suffer, you're going to suffer with me."
Mackerel looked up at her Guardian, bright blue eyes shining through the shadows of the hood, "I'm already suffering."
The woman flinched, even though she knew Mackerel was just playing the guilt card and really didn't mean it. The little herald knew what her sacrifice had been, and what it meant to Echo... and knew that Echo regretted the decision and didn't give her a more appropriate sacrifice.... there were so many things, and Mackerel knew exactly how to play with the human's emotions.
Without commenting, Echo took a step out, and was immediately drenched. "I'm not coming back, so you get out here!" The woman was a little bitter... for unlike Mackerel she had no hood to protect herself in the least... just an uzipped rain-jacket.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:08 pm
So the supermarket hadn't sold worms. It was hardly her fault for being so out of touch with 'modern' society - where she had previously lived they had sold worms in the shop. Granted, it had been a very small fishing village and with an extensive 'tourist' based of fisherman it had been a valuable source of income. STILL, there were many people who had often argued with her and informed her that you could get anything in a super market.
Clearly not.
They now owed her money.
Nevertheless, twirling the keys around her baby-finger she drifted towards the entrance and paused only briefly to survey the car park. 'Briefly' turned into a considerably longer time as she glanced at the reams of cars all in rows. All the colours of the rainbow, all relatively plain (whereby they conformed) and yet somehow she had still managed to lose her own car in the midst of it all. Any normal person would have considered this to be unusual, given that the car was a sports car and particularly pretty -
This woman never made any sense; to anyone. Not even herself.
Even so, she had very little time to consider her options as she caught wind of the dispute nearby and raised a brow. It seemed to be something along the lines of a mother-daughter dispute over something so trivial as rain. A spoiled child at that. Turning to face the origin of the voices, the young woman was rather surprised to see a face she hadn't seen in quite a number of years.
"Foxtrot, is that you?" She enquired, grasping her keys in her hand as she abruptly ceased her swinging. Head canted to the side she continued to look at the woman who seemed a little young to have a daughter that age...
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:21 pm
Elf twirled in a pathetic attempt to find the face that belong to the voice. It had been years since anyone called her by that name... and usually only in the beginning years of her university life. Where was...? There! The woman walked in the direction of the form standing there. Something was familiar. Finally, recognition sparked in her eyes, "Adelle? Omigosh, is that you Adelle?"
The small woman was peering from up and around her purchases. Calling her 'Foxtrot' now made sense, for a classmate from the past seemed to be standing right in front of her.
When Elf stopped, Mackerel huddled close to use the woman's form to use her as a breaker from the rain. Why had she come with? She could be sitting dry in her new room, reading a book by a nice warm fireplace. "Typical, Elf! Don't you know it's rude not to introduce me?"
The sheer happiness in Elf's eyes dimmed just a bit as the woman took one deep sigh. "This is Mackerel..."
"Hi," Mackerel nodded from inside her hood.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:35 pm
Or maybe not - clearly the two came as a pair and the young woman fought hard to mask her amusement. It seemed in the last few years things really had changed. While she had received extensive training on various internships it appeared that many of her friends had found rather plain jobs or had started families - although... Adelle did have to wonder how on earth her child managed to sport wings that looked to be genuine.
"It's a pleasure." She offered a delicate smile to the young angel-like girl and then flicked her gaze towards Elf. She had never excelled with children, then again she was poor in most social circumstances as it was. Gods help the man that decided to make her his bride, either he would have to have an extraordinary boat or he would have to have a significant amount of patience.
Men like that didn't exist in the world.
End of discussion.
"It's been a while." Confirming her identity to Elf she canted her head to the side and examined the current situation. At present she was dry and carrying a set of keys, Kerel seemed to be carrying nothing and Elf seemed to be carrying - well, everything? Adelle was of the assumption that the child should have been carrying something but given he interaction between the two she suspected she may have to start referring to the girl as 'twinkletoes'.
"Do you need a hand with those?" She asked at last, blowing a wisp of unruly brown hair from her eyes. She hadn't tied it up particularly well, it hung messily at the nape of her neck and had she not been wearing a rather high necked jacket she would have suspected she would have been forced to endure it's rebellious protests already.
Regardless, for the time being she had cast aside the fact that she had lost her car and the odd little individual within it.
Ah...
She knew she'd forgotten something.
"Clothes!" She muttered in agitation as she lifted her free hand to slap her palm against her forehead. It was only after a brief time that she allowed the hand to slip from her forehead to her nose and then passed her lips to return to her side again. The statement would hold no relevance to Elf but it had now begun to tug endlessly at Adelle - how was it that she could remember worms and not clothes?
She wasn't a three year old boy for goodness sake!
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:57 pm
Mackerel's lips did not so much as even curl up in welcome. The gaze she gave Adelle was one of disinterest, if not distaste, despite her demand to be introduced, "I cannot say the same..."
Elf almost seethed as she glared down at the girl, "Now that was rude, Kerel! You should apologize!"
"Should...." her voice trailed off. "But won't. I'm getting wet, my hair is damp, my wings are getting rained on" -it was true, the drips of her own wings' specialty mixed with the rain and fell to the ground, where is sizzled and then evaporated- "and we are still not moving."
Clenching her jaw, Elf looked back to Adelle, her gaze returned to her once-classmate, "I am sorry, Adelle... I wish I could say she isn't usually this way, but she is."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Mackerel piped up.
At the offer, the woman's face lit up with relief, "Oh that would be wonderful!" The cardboard was soaking in the water and becoming much heavier. Echo shifted her weight so she could pass a few of the boxes over to Adelle. "Clothes?" She was a bit confused.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:40 am
She raised both brows at this. Here was a young child who already had a viper-like tongue and zero manners. Adelle was rather surprised at this but if the girl really wanted to be so anti-social then she wasn't going to stand in her way. Still, it was rather odd that Elf had let the young girl get to this point to begin with and the wings still evaded her.
"Yes, clothes." Adelle replied vaguely, offering a smile as she took the boxes handed to her. Given her occupation she barely even struggled with the increasing weight or the rain and gave a shrug. "I just stumbled across someone that could do with some - the rain has done nothing for his health to say the least." She mused and then canted her head to the side, a sheepish grin on her lips.
"Although I suppose it isn't a great deal of help if I can't even remember where i put my car." She confessed.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:56 am
Elf felt loads better with just the few boxes gone that Adelle had taken up. "Oh, thank you!"
"Well, maybe we can help?" Elf offered, turning around to look at the cars in the full parking lot. "What does the car look like?"
"You help," Mackerel snapped, "I am going to go to our car! Give me the keys." Without waiting, she started digging into Elf's wet pockets. Because the woman's hands were full, there was nothing she could really do about it. The little herald found the keys she wanted and literally streaked in the direction their own car was at.
Elf didn't even have the time to respond, she was watching Mackerel's mad dash to vehicle; wrapped in a long black rain jacket and boots. the only color was the green wings that poked out from the back.
The woman took a deep sigh and said under her breath, "She could have taken at least one bag..."
That done, and no more nagging Herald around, Elf turned once again to Adelle, "So... let's go find this car of your's."
As they walked a few steps, she could help but as about this person Adelle found, "You found someone? In this weather? Shouldn't we take them to the hospital... I mean, they could have pnuemonia or something."
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 10:39 am
"She doesn't strike me as the type of girl who would understand or think about anyone other than herself." Adelle had never been the most subtle of individuals and her tact left much to be desired. A long time ago she would have said that she had never really been a sociable person but now she had began to suspect that her occupation really didn't help matters either. Either way, despite the loss of her car she did find one thing peculiar.
"Why exactly did you name your daughter after a fish?" She asked at last. She had known some people to give their kids strange names but the name of a fish, especially one you could eat really took the biscuit (excusing the pun). Nevertheless, before she received the answer she did release a sigh and pursed her lips in thought - it really would have helped if she'd at least remembered which number she'd parked by.
"Well, for a start it's racing green and a jaguar." Hopefully that would narrow things down for Elf, although observation had never been one of Adelle's personal strong points. "As for the kid in the car, I figured I should take him to hospital...but -" Again she looked sheepish and shook her head, clearly the woman still hated hospitals even after all these years.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:39 pm
Elf nodded, "Mostly... unless by dealing with someone else it will then relate to her own needs. But she's not all-together that bad. She mostly stays out of trouble." She couldn't complain too much... she was busy a lot of the time too, and couldn't always dedicate the time needed for the little herald.
"Oh, I didn't name her. She already had that name, it was written on a feather when I first met her," Elf explained to the best of her ability.
The short woman laughed, reminiscing a little. "How is it you lose so many things? And a green jaguar doesn't seem to be something typical to misplace!" she joked, but looked around nonetheless. Over the time, green was a common color for her to be searching for.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:58 pm
"Feather?" Now she was curious. Adelle had seen many really weird things during her work but since when had a feather been linked to a child? It was at this point that the woman began to question what had become of the world - did this mean that Elf had adopted a little baby and instead of paper...the parent had opted to use a feather instead? Humans really were odd, she much preferred the company of seals and fish...at least what you saw with them was what you got.
Shaking her head, the woman decided now wasn't the time to question.
"Ah..." Now being asked about her little problem in relation to her memory always made her sheepish. At this point she provided Elf with a wry smile and gave a loose shrug. What could she say, other than she just seemed to excel at misplacing everything other than the equipment she needed to scuba dive?
"It's a gift." She mused at last, releasing a small laugh as she caught sight of her beloved car out of the corner of her eye. "Either that or I should really work on my skills of observation, eh?" Turning round once again she canted her head to the side and directed it in the direction her car was. "Would you rather I left your boxes by your car? ...I'm afraid my boot is full." She mused, although she must admit it would be interesting to see if she could fit anything more into it while that child was still in there...
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:32 pm
"Yeah, she hard lots of feathers aroung her," Elf attempted to describe. "One of them had the word Mackerel on it, and since that was the only one with a word, I assumed it was her name. She responds to it."
And then, they came around to the car. "What," she joked, "do you have a body in the car?" Of course, Elf didn't mean it.
"I'll say... I almost had a heart-attack when you lost your notes for our paper," Elf chuckled. They had found them in the end, but was was nerve-wracking to say the least. "And that's okay, our car's just an aisle away. If you helped me out, you may not find your way back," she teased and moved her burden around again to make room for the ones Adelle had assisted her with.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:41 pm
She hadn't lost them, she had temporarily misplaced them and she would stand by that forever. That and it wasn't her fault that she had accidentally placed her laptop over them in the first place...she needed somewhere to put her fish tank. If she was honest she rather missed those frogs that she had gathered but she was fairly certain that her old room mates didn't.
"Are you inferring that I'd forget I was only an aisle away despite being able to see my car?" She enquired, although she was aware that she probably would. She was only teasing though, she considered it a good idea to check that her little guest was still alive and thus it wasn't long before she drifted towards her car once more and glanced into the passenger side.
Nothing.
"Eh?" Her face was one of utter confusion as she straightened and glanced at the door - it seemed to be completely intact.
...There was no way she had forgotten to bring the kid was there?!
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:23 am
Elf snorted, just as Adelle walked away to peek into her car, "Well, given your record you just might...." Her chuckle punctuated that although Adelle was forgetful, she also understood that the woman almost always came through in the end.... even if it was rough ride... and that she didn't hold it against her.
And then, it was almost as if she was forgotten as her former classmate went to the car and seemed to be pondering something. For a moment, Elf just watched, being patient and unimpeding.
Leave it to Mackerel, though. Even though the child was there, she made her presence known as she LOUDLY honked the car horn many times. Elf jumped, not expecting that, and almost dropped all the stuff in her arms (which, were getting tired under the time and weight).
Elf sighed, she regretted wanting to leave Adelle in this seemingly confused time. "What's wrong? Kerel will have to wait a little longer if you needed some help."
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Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 8:45 am
"Uh..." Offering her signature wry smile the woman looked away from her car and the empty passenger seat. It was clear that she was incredibly confused given the circumstances. She might have been forgetful about items but a living being didn't classify as an item and she was fairly certain the knowledge that she wouldn't accidentally misplace a person - especially when they had looked so incredibly ill.
"It's just -" She nodded towards her car and shook her head, "The kid I found, well they're gone." There wasn't really any other way to express what had occurred and she gave a hapless shrug. It was obvious her car hadn't been touched so no one had tried to kidnap the poor thing...unless of course everything in this area was super natural.
Back tracking...
You know, Adelle really wouldn't have been all that surprised if it was given that Kerel had WINGS.
"And he took me jar too." It seemed like an odd thing to borrow as a momento - maybe she had been hallucinating?
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Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 8:50 am
Elf watched Adelle carefully. The woman did seem quite confused, and she wasn't feeling so confident either. It would make sense if someone just... walked off, especially if they have two legs. That wasn't anything new.
"Well, did you give the kid the jar?" Elf teased. You cannot really steal something if it was given to you.
The horn blew again. Elf mumbled something under her breath but other than that ignored the noise.
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