|
Post by Decoii on May 21, 2016 16:59:40 GMT -5
( Orfeo) If she was being honest with herself, she would say that not much has changed in the couple of days and nights that she'd been dislocated from the orphanage and placed in the center of this jungle of isolation. She was still in a lot of pain, she felt out of place, and she still woke up frightened in the middle of the night. She had no reason to not trust the stranger who had taken her away from that hell and protected her. However, she wasn't about to trust him out of gratitude and thanks. Yes, she was just a child and at her age trust was something as easily exchanged as oxygen and carbon. But for Itty, the world wasn't so simple and while other kids her age learned to not play with fire after being burnt, she was learning about true intentions, lies, and to not fall for anything that held hope or temptation. Many had been nice to her in the past and she'd been stupid enough to trust and crave that attention. She'd learned the hard way. So she was hesitant, distant, and silent. Not that it seemed to bother Vaas, the man who she could easily call her hero. He was silent, distant, and observing. He wasn't demanding things or throwing things in her face and he wasn't looking at her with dislike and disappointment and her outbursts. Itty would be honest to herself and say that these qualities helped her become more at ease considering that usually when a stranger came into her life they were overwhelming. It was as if they expected so much out of their show of interest and would be disappointed and let down when she didn't play the proper role. IF anything he was still being patient and that helped to ease her worries- but not her confusion. She didn't know what he wanted from her or why he even took her out here. She didn't know if she was expected to stay or leave and not return. She didn't know anything and that frightened her because she wasn't protected by four small walls anymore- she was free. She wasn't trapped and in fact from as far as she could tell, she wasn't anywhere near any place that could possibly trap her. It was all so funny in such a twisted way, honestly. Itty had done nothing more then to dream about her freedom and now that she felt it? IT felt far bigger then she could ever imagine or understand and at times, the company of those monsters t the orphanage didn't seem as bad or scary as the endless world around her. But Itty wasn't the type of person to just sit down and dwell on this either and she understood that even if she wasn't opening herself up to Vaas she still did owe him a lot. So in her own way, she took it upon herself to silently show her appreciation to him. He healed her, gave her a place to sleep, gave her warmth and food. It was more then she could possibly ever ask for and she wasn't about to just sit down and take everything she was given and not give anything in return. She just wasn't that type of person. She'd find herself watching him. Watching as he picked at the flowers and tree's and made them dinner, watching him as he collected wood for their fire and swam around in the lake to find other food sources. While she wished to help him with all of this and learn about what he was doing and what he knew- she couldn't simply ask him. So after a couple of days of silently observing she figured that she could at least attempt to help in one small way or another. She didn't know how to swim or fish and with her height most branches she'd pick up for the fire wouldn't work because they weren't dried or dead. So one afternoon as he came back and sat down with a handful of green's to be examined and used for dinner, she decided that she was tired of watching and it was about time to do something. Once Vaas sat down and showed no signs of getting up anytime soon, she stood slowly and examined the tree's and bushes nearby, determined to help find something for them to eat.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 21, 2016 19:56:49 GMT -5
As he had every day for as far as he could remember, Vaas took his time yo get things done. Early in the morning he awoke and scouter out the area to make sure that nobody was around, bow strung around his back with a fresh batch of arrows, and returned a few hours later, most of the time before the girl awakened. He would be there, watching silently over the horizon before silently gazing at her to make sure she was alright. He would treat her wounds and make his rounds for the rest of the day.
Foraging for food took the longest, not because of a lack of supply but because he did not want to exhaust supplies too quickly. Berries didn't regrow every other week and he was painfully aware of the fact that now he had feed a second mouth. However, whatever worried he had he did not express, and every day he came with something fresh to eat. He had built and set eight traps and in this particular day he came back with two dead rabbits thrown over his shoulder, as well as greens and fruits he had picked. He sat silently, and as he usually did, he got to picking away the good from the bad, whatever he could use in one pile and the other leaving it out for other purposes, either medicinal salves or poisions for self defence. His hands worked automatically. Simply from how each plant and berry felt against his fingers he could tell if it would be useful for his purposes or not. Matter of fact, Vaas could very easily go about his day blindfolded.
His head perked up quickly, and Vaas only made what sounded like a grunt. He wasn't goint anywhere but she was moving about, where usually she was just watching him work silently, an ever attantive observer. Now Vaas found himself stopping, sitting straight up and placing hands on his lap, his eyes darting sideways for a few seconds to make sure that the rabbits were still there before watching once more the girl.
Bushes? Trees? Vaas blinked twice, placing a glancing thought that he needed to wash their clothing tomorrow downstream and hang it to dry during the midday sun. The grey t-shirt he wore was ripped near the back side, close to his waist, and clung a little too tightly to his torso. He walked barefoot. The mkst prestine thing he wore was his pants, and those were muddy near the ankles. Vaas huffed, watching closely, unblinking, his ears steady for anything that may be trying to sneak up on them.
It never hurt to stay on alert.
|
|
|
Post by Decoii on May 27, 2016 15:24:25 GMT -5
Itty never wondered around. It wasn't really her type of thing to do. If anything, the child would simply spend her time sitting around watching Vaas. If he was out of sight, she'd either lay around glancing around at the nature before her or freak out at the solitude and go find him. She never invaded his personal space and if anything she tried her best to stay out of sight so that he wasn't as bothered by her as she thought he was.
Nature always captivated her attention, however. She didn't know if it was because she never had access to it, or if she was simply amazed by the amount of freedom that everything seemed to have around her. One thing was for sure, though, Itty wasn't aware of how HARD it was to actually be a part of nature. Out here, with Vaas, she had it easy. She had someone to feed her, protect her, shelter her, and guide her. But things weren't that simple either. She had on the same pair of clothing that she did in the orphanage and unfortunately for her, they were torn and stained with her own blood. Only having that pair of clothing meant that she needed to stay as clean as possible and when it came to washing it, she was left naked and awkward.
It also didn't matter if she tried keeping clean. She was outside and surrounded by dirt and grass, by the end of the night it always felt like she had a layer of gunk stuck to her body and she didn't know if she was still not being as tidy as she should be or if Vaas was just used to the heat and humidity that lingered in the air. The grass and dirt also had branches that she failed to see about ninety percent of the time, so she was constantly face planting into the ground and hurting herself. This was the hardest thing to get used to for Itty, and if felt like she was constantly walking wrong. But she supposed it was because she didn't pick up her feet when she walked, but trying to do so only made her feel as if she was walking funny.
Over all, she was a hot mess when she shouldn't be and it was mainly the reason why it bothered her that Vaas had stopped doing what he was doing and was now looking at her. Still, Itty wasn't a shy child around him and if anything it gave her the confidence to do what she was doing, searching through the bushes and the tree's and when she found something? She'd give him a look that clearly said: 'ha, I'm more then a useless kid.'. Not that he'd ever said anything to her, really. She was just feeling like she was dragging him around and without knowing what to do, it simply bothered her more each and every day.
Getting low on the ground, Itty noticed something within one of the bushes and moved forward to explore it only to sit back with a handful -really, it was more like three- little yellow-green things that reminded her of cherry tomatoes. She wondered why Vaas hadn't picked them but simply just thought that he was too big to dig around down under like she could simply seem to do. Smiling, she slapped her hair out of her face and looked up and over to him, plants in her hand and visible to him.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 3:47:01 GMT -5
He knew exactly what was happening the moment he saw her bend over and yet he did not do anything to stop it. Amusement perhaps, or merely a test of his own faith in the girl's competence. He had hoped that merely by observing him she would have picked up on why he never picked out those berries in specific, despite them being so close to their 'home': the place where they slept, ate, and felt the most safe in the vast empty wilderness they found themselves at. However, the certainty with which she turned and presented the clearly bad batch of berries shook what little faith Vaas had for her and her competence, and made him realize, even for the slightest, that he would actually have to take the time and teach her a thing or two.
A strange, and rather complicated, endavor considering the lack of proper communication between the two.
Vaas' sun-burnt skin glistened with sweat. He ran a hand through his dirty hair and sighed out softly, not in disapproval but in laziness. The cooking and preparation could wait. Her health would not. "No," he said, calmly and slowly, pressing his right hand against the dirt and pushing off from it in order to easily get back up on his feet. He only wobbled for a second as he dusted his hands off on his legs, then looked up with slightly closed eyes to shield them from the sun. Vaas paused with some distance between the two and pointed at the berries she had in her hand, then pointed at the bush she had taken them from, all while shaking his head in dissaproval. "Not good, you body." The message couldn't have been clearer in his head, the berries she had picked would be bad for her health, especially now that she was a child. Also, they'd be easy to identify simply by looking at the bush they grew on. For his trained eye it was all a sixth sense. For her, this may as well have been learning a new language.
His head turned from side to side, looking about before he slowly reached out and carefully plucked one of the berries from her hand before she could do anything with them. Vaas got down to her level, squatting so he could see her eye-to-eye. Raising the berry up, he made a motion at his stomach before making a thumbs down motion with his free left hand, then slowly placed the berry back on hand. He got up from his squat and, without another word, began walking off towards the forest. Yet, not before he glanced back and with his head motioned for her to follow him, the first time he had ever willingly asked of her to join him.
Vaas didn't wait for a reply, simply turned about once more and coldly walked on in silence.
|
|
|
Post by Decoii on Jun 11, 2016 22:06:05 GMT -5
The hardest thing for Itty to get used to was the silence of human interaction and messes being made. In all of the places that she'd managed to call home over the years, there was always something making sound, someone around giggling and even in the dead of night, she could hear the conversations from the nurses and guards and even the traffic. Yet, out here, with Vaas, she couldn't hear any of that.
At first, she considered it too silent, but even here she could hear a lot. The wind, trees, animals, water. There was always some kind of sound ,but it wasn't the same that she was used too. Vaas moved silently and oftentimes she tried figuring out how he could do such a thing. That, combined with his silence, often made her feel like she was alone if she couldn't see him and that scared her. She'd never admit to herself but, she has grown used to him and she was more then terrified of being abandoned again especially out here.
However, just because she was getting used to him didn't mean that she was already used to the random outbursts of sound that left his throat. So when he talked, Itty found herself jumping and nearly dropping all of the berries from her hand except one that she managed to catch before it hit the ground. Letting out a sharp breath, she turned towards him and looked at him as if he was insane.
Granted, he hadn't done anything wrong, but he'd scared her! Regardless of how annoyed she felt, her glare died down when he walked towards her. He still intimidated her and when he started to try to explain something to her, she gave him a confused glance. Was the berries bad? Looking down at the one he'd grabbed from her hand, she sighed and shrugged lightly, feeling useless and stupid. She should have known that he would have used them if he could.
Regardless, Itty glanced at him in curiosity before glaring at the berries and following him.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2016 22:41:26 GMT -5
It wasn't that Vaas was trying to rectify her mistake. Much rather, he was willing to go out of his way to show her how not to do that same mistake ever again, even when he only really planned on showing her once. The two of them, he thought to himself, were not at the point where his patience was not worn thin. However, his patience with her was much larger than that of anyone else he could meet around him. Perhaps it being due to her mutual respect of his silence whilst adhering to that one unspoken rule: if he wanted to be bothered, he would have gone to her first. He quickly glanced backwards to make sure that she was following behind - at a distance, yes - and without a thought he faced forwards once more while adjusting the eyepatch on his head.
Few minutes is what it took to get to the place he always went to first when gathering from the local flora. He pointed with something of a soft huff at a mass of somewhat low bushes that reached to about halfway up his leg, almost just below his knee. Blackberries, he thought to himself, as he yanked one from its perch and gently tossed it over at her once her attention was to him. "Look," he said, very softly, as he got back up and pointed around himself to a bush behind her, one deeper in the forest, another more towards the direction to where they slept, trying to make it clear that this particular berry was everywhere - their more abundant supply when it came to berries. He did not see a near future where they would run out. Vaas took one for himself and ate it in front of her, trying to will her to do the same.
"Color," he explained, struggling to find the letters to form the word to utter to the girl, as he walked and pointed at another bush - blueberries. "Feel," he continued, and pointed to his head, "remember. Safe." He tossed her a blueberry and ate another.
And so he continued this process, slowly, showing her the leaves of the bushed on which the good berries grew, trying to teach her how to easily identify the bad ones by mere touch and from his own experience, through the way they looked, so that she wouldn't repeat that last mistake again.
|
|