Back to civilization

[Jaxen Marveet]

Continued from Looking glass


Sierra was right. There wasn't a real road for at least a kilometer off the river. Luckily, Stanislav brought snowmobiles. There weren't real paths per say to cover the distance, but experienced drivers maneuvered Jaxen, Elias and Sierra through the trees by riding second seat.

Comfortable SUV's with blacked out windows and generic markings waited to carry them to the city. Stanislav ceased his interrogation of Jaxen along the way, but the narrow suspicion in his eyes sent a chill through Jaxen. That look might as well be transplanted off his father's face, and when he met it, he wans't sure he'd be able to hold back the truth. Scion was likely to have his son sent to a mental hospital, or else banished to some dark room until he gave up the truth of where he'd been.

As such he was relatively quiet as they returned to civilization. In Jaxen's mind mere hours had passed, and it should be early morning after a night pissed away at Manifesto. Yet the trees had changed season, the sun was in the wrong place in the sky, and as he scanned a Wallet delivered by Stanislav, he found the headlines surprising.

"What's the deal with this Theo Andlain guy?"
He asked of the car. He glanced at Sierra, but ended up looking for answers from Elias since she made it clear she wasn't up on the latest breaking news story.

[Elias Donovan]

The last trip Elias expected to make was on a snowmobile. He looked upon the contraption and the man that powered it up hesitantly. Jaxen already boarded one. He glanced at Sierra to see what she did, but she was no help. A low grumble lit from the back of his throat as he climbed on. He kept his eyes focused on the shoulders of the driver in front of him and was all too ready to trade rides for a car.

He was quiet for much of the ride, but the smooth highway eased his stomach. Jaxen caught up on world events, and vaguely Elias wondered about their destination. They were offered a ride into the city, but dumping him and Sierra off at the first corner was not going to be helpful. He was about to say something about it when Jaxen spoke up.

"Oh that guy,"
Elias was less than impressed. "Looks like he wants to hold the city hostage until they admit people,"
his eyes darted to Sierra as he remembered her impossible marksmanship, "like us exist."
His lips, pale from a week in winter's dry air, parted in a semblance of a smile.

[Sierra]

Sierra didn't like the idea of holding on to another person as closely as necessary for a snow mobile. It wasn't foreign to her, but the whole stranger thing made her uncomfortable. But she managed to do so without too much issue.

The ride into civilization was quiet until Jaxen asked about a some current event or another. It seemed there was much to catch up on with her absence, not that she cared one way or the other. Human trivialities were a just that trivial, and Sierra had very little interest in it most of the time. That was until Elias said the man Jaxen had asked about was "like us".

Like us? Sierra wasn't exactly sure what he thought, if she was included in the weird manifestations that she'd seen since coming into their presence. "Like us? Are you including me in the like us? I can't walk on water or start fires without tinder and some tools."
She was different but she was not whatever Elias was, and she had to wonder how Elias had known to include Jaxen in the "us" part. Was there some way to detect this magic? This strangeness?

Sierra knew how to find others of her kind, the golden eyes were a dead give away. In the short span of time she'd been with these two she'd forgotten that her contacts needed to be replaced. She looked down at the floor. The last thing she needed was to be thought of as different. It could mean her life.

[Elias Donovan]

The pallor of his smile remained frozen in place during Sierra's confrontational question. To fracture her usual stoicism lit pride through Elias. She pried apart his defenses, it was a pleasure to return the favor.

"Of course that's what I am saying,"
he replied matter of fact. "Even you must admit, you are strange. Stranger perhaps than the two of us. Although, at least you keep your clothes on while you hike through the heart of winter."
The level of his eyes briefly fell across her shape, emphasizing the fact. Sierra was annoying, strange and troublesome, but her frost was attractive, though likely painful to touch. The allure already pierced like a needle to the mind.

[Sierra]

Strange. Yes she was strange but it had nothing at all to do with her ability. Her strange was born long before the wolves ever spoke to her. She was strange because her father saw the apocalypse coming and he'd prepared. But it never came, and when the wolves took her and her brother - Sierra didn't want to think about it.

But in her fury she still noticed the glance she received from the man. She hid the bout of shyness as she barked a laugh at his comment aimed at the rich man who had kindly offered them a ride. Probably best not to acknowledge that comment. She she let the dark man have the raw side of her tongue instead. Sierra raised her eyes and stared into the dark hue of the man who had called her strange. She hoped the glint of the sun would highlight the fact that they were not human looking eyes. "My strange does not come from the color of my eyes or the gifts I may or may NOT have. You think I'm strange because of the way my father raised me. Off the grid, out of touch with normal people. Not that I'd classify you as normal all garbed in black like some lost member of ancient bands like The Cure."
Her father had saved as much from his father's days as he could. In the ancient bunker she grew up in there was still a machine that played vinyl.

Sierra smiled, it was genuine really, she had nothing against the man only his judgments against her. "Not that I judge you. I don't know you. Either of you. My father saw the apocalypse coming. He sheltered us. I think he was just a few decades too early. Men who can walk on water. Start fires and let it rain down on top of our heads. Sounds pretty end of the worldish to me."

[Jaxen Marveet]

The tension between Sierra and Elias was so cute, Jaxen hated to interrupt it. A half lit smirk tugged the corners of his mouth as he watched their back and forth. Sure Elias was a lot to get used to, but Jaxen didn't begrudge the guy for it. He even had a point about Sierra. Jaxen was fond of the hard to get game, and had a particular fondness for bitchy chicks, but something else haunted Sierra. She was wary of people, and although Jaxen couldn't blame her, people sucked, but her guard was more like a wild animal desperate to escape human attention. If she was just a loner, then she had more in common with Elias than she gave herself credit for. Maybe that was it.

Her final comment poked at embers Jaxen wasn't aware were stirring. The words dripped out of his mouth without even realizing their significance. He barked a laugh. "This isn't the first time the world has come to an end, and it won't be the last either."
His eyes danced with amusement.

[Elias Donovan]

Long hair and dark clothes was the normal personification of anti-establishment. Everything odd about Elias was completely normal. Everything odd about Sierra was flat out bizarre. And hypocritical. In one breath she defined him and in the next claimed not to judge. Old anger tightened his chest and clenched his jaw. Jaxen's interruption was well timed. Elias almost forgot he was there. His emotion diffused, distracted by the quizzical insight.

"The world won't end. If a giant asteroid slammed into the planet and every human perished, the world would still go on."
He turned back to Sierra. "You saying you believe in the apocalypse? Biblical wrath? Judgement day of Revelation?"
He shook his head in morbid humor.

As much as he enjoyed the comparison to Jesus, he was compelled to correct her earlier statement. "And technically I walked on ice. Not water,"
his gaze cast toward Jaxen, "froze the river surface. Easy enough."

[Sierra]

Sierra watched as Elias emotions played out. They were subtle but she could see the small movements but Jaxen's comment about the world ending seemed to diffuse things. She wondered what he would have said otherwise.

He asked a good question though, did she believe what her father did? He wasn't some religious nut preaching end of days or saving humanity or redemption or anything of that nature. No he was just a man trying to save his family.

"Do I believe in the Rapture? The book of Revelations? Not in those ways no. Do I believe that the world could end - that fire and death will reign down upon us. "
Sierra smirked, "An asteroid hit the earth once and killed all the dinosaurs - that's plausible. Men could just as easily blow us all up."


But it really wasn't his question that made Sierra roll her eyes. He corrected her - walked on ice. Sierra laughed, "You walked on water, the methods of it doesn't really matter. There was water between you and me. It was running and moving and impossible to cross. You walked across like it was nothing. I don't care if you built a bridge magically you did the impossible."

[Elias Donovan]

Elias's lips peeled back, revealing a toothy smile. He had performed the impossible, although at the time it didn't feel quite so impressive. Rationally, men should not be able to manipulate the rawness of nature, but it was a snap of the fingers to him. Less, it was mere thought transformed into will. He wanted to cross the river, thus the river molded itself to his desire. The water obeyed like it sensed his mind. "It was nothing."
He shrugged as his gaze shifted to consider the view out the window. The smile diminished by then, but the shadow of one remained. The awe in her voice echoed in his mind.

[Sierra]

Nothing? He thought it was nothing. He was either being flippant or he was truly delusional. Sierra laughed, "It wasn't nothing."


Sierra shrugged her shoulders. "You could do so much with that power of yours. Instead you wandering the river side doing what? Littering? Saving women from weird fires on boats?"
Sierra gestured to Jaxen. "What else could you have done to help our friend here? Stoking the fire pales in comparison to walking on water."
Sierra smirked, "Sorry, walked on ice across the water."


But at least he had done something. He could have ignored the naked man in the middle of the Russian tundra, or left the woman to drown. Sierra sighed, "But I guess what you did you was better than the alternative."
Her head turned out the window as she remembered what normal humans had done. All the countless wolves dead because the poachers wanted their hides. Snow was dead because of them. Sierra shook her head. She'd do something about that - if she could.