Chapter 2: THE BEGINNING

Posted on June 11, 2016
CHAPTER 2: THE BEGINNING
When Roselyn opened her eyes for the first time since the rooftop, everything was dark. She could feel her body rocking slightly, as though she was moving. It was kind of like riding a boat amidst gentle waves. Yes, she was, in fact, moving. She felt a little motion sick.

Her eyes opened again, and she tried desperately to lock onto something; to focus. All around her though, was grey, and even darker grey. She squinted when she thought she caught a glimpse of movement, and a shape slowly started to form itself. There was someone walking there, but what was even more shocking, was the fact that she seemed to be keeping pace, despite not moving her legs at all. Her eyes wandered past the first figure, and a few more came into focus. She could see legs moving, and lots of black.

As she became even more aware, sounds began to creep into her thoughts; voices.

“We should have just left her there. This is so stupid.”

“But what if he needed her for something?”

“If he needed her, he wouldn’t have thrown her on the ground like that. Besides, I didn’t notice anything special about her. Nothing that would warrant you carrying her all this way. You should have just let me drag her.”

“No, he’s right.” A third voice added. “What other reason would those two have for being there in the first place?”

She suddenly felt arms reposition below her, and found that her weight was shifted forward. It was weird that she hadn’t noticed she was slipping. She tightened her arms around the shoulders of the stranger that held her. Roselyn wasn’t scared at all. She was simply glad that she wasn’t being dragged.

Ah, it must have been night. Even the sky looked ominously black. There was, however, a bright glow out of the corner of her left eye, so she turned her head slightly to make out a round disc, floating in the sky. It illuminated the darkness. When her eyes began to hurt, she shifted and turned her head in the opposite direction to see what was there instead. She pressed her cheek against the stranger’s neck to try to absorb some of his warmth. Her cheeks had been stinging with the cold night air.

But…wasn’t this strange? She was sure that she had turned her head, and yet, here, she still saw the exact same moon. So bright.

Maybe she was still dreaming. She let the weight of her tired eyelids overcome her, and she slipped.

It was a sudden shock to Roselyn to feel herself being carelessly slammed into something. Her eyes shot open, and she could feel a slight ‘uhgn’ sound escape her mouth. Her arms moved out around her, and she found that she was on the ground. She could feel something like grass beneath her.

As her eyes looked around desperately, the voices came back.

“What did you do that for? I could have put her down myself.”

“I didn’t want you wasting time being all gentle. Look at her, she’s fine.”

A face appeared in her field of vision. He was looking down at her with a concerned look.

“Are you all right?”

She instantly recognized the voice and knew that this was the one that had been previously carrying her. So this was what his face looked like. ‘Not bad…’ She thought. His eyes were kind of captivating; A dark shade of grey. She had never seen eyes like that before. His hair looked dark brown with a reddish shine in the moonlight, and the black jacket he wore had dark grey fur trim.

Actually….he’s kind of hot.

“I’m fine…” She managed, but she felt weak hearing her own voice. It was like she couldn’t muster enough energy to talk any louder than a mumble. Truthfully, she couldn’t even really be sure the words had come out properly.

“See, I told you!” The other voice replied. She looked over to see where the voice had come from. It was the guy with the fluffy red hair. Just thinking of his hair as fluffy made her smile slightly to herself. It stuck up like it was spiked, but without that gross, greasy look that comes with hair gel. Hence, it was fluffy. She giggled slightly to herself. The color looked a little faded though, as if he had washed it too many times and the red was starting to bleed out.

So did that mean that she was with the Shadows? Weren’t they the bad guys? Well, that was what she had assumed, anyway.

The girl felt completely listless and had absolutely no energy. She kept telling her legs to move…her arms to lift her. No matter how hard she thought this though, they would not do as she commanded.

“She doesn’t look like she’s transitioning well to the environment.” Another voice added.

She had not heard this voice before. This guy was standing just outside of her field of vision. All she could see was his hand, and….was she just insane, or did it look like he had claws coming out from his knuckles? Wolverine…

“Tie her up.” Red said.

“What? Why? She can’t even move.” Another voice she had not heard before. She looked over and could only deduce that it had come from the one wearing the hood.

“Well, if they were interested in her at all, she might have some strange powers or something, and it’s best to take precautions.”

“He’s right. We’ll tie her up.” Another voice replied. This was the third voice she had heard earlier. She looked around until she spotted him. He was wearing an eyepatch. For some reason she found this really cute. He then continued, “Go tell Amerun.”

As soon as he said it, the guy in the hood disappeared into a cloud of smoke, right in front of her eyes. He was gone, just like that. Poof.

‘Still dreaming…’ Roselyn thought to herself, and then she was asleep again.

This time, when she awoke, she felt more conscious, but her head was throbbing. There was a bright yellow glow invading her vision. Her wrists and shoulders were killing her, possibly because her arms had been tied behind her back, and the rope was digging into her skin. There was something else behind her though…like a post, jabbing itself in between her shoulder blades. Her arms must be tied around it, she thought. She was sitting on the ground, her knees up to her chest, and she couldn’t help but feel a little claustrophobic.
She looked to her right and saw a fire glowing bright orange. There was a wall of stones around it to keep it contained. She looked left. There was just a wall.

On closer inspection, she deduced that she was in some kind of tent…How bizarre. It was fairly large.

She turned right again, and looked past the fire. She could just barely see the door, and outside of it. There were shadows moving around out there.

Roselyn forced herself to stand (which was a harder feat than she had anticipated), yet she could still not go anywhere since she was secured to the post. This post seemed to be what was holding up the entire structure.

From a standing position, she could see outside much better than before. It wasn’t nearly as dark as she remembered it to be. It was definitely still night though.

I’m going to die here. She thought. Oh well…I guess it had to end at some point.

It wasn’t that she wanted to die, it’s just that living was something she just happened to be doing anyway. If it ended, then so be it.

Where was she though? The city was huge, so where had they carried her?

Oh, there’s the hot guy. She thought, as she looked outside. He was standing next to an unfamiliar shadow she had not seen before. He seemed to carry himself well though; like a leader, she decided. They were talking about something, but Roselyn could hear none of it. She took note of their postures though. Leader looked somewhat rigid, and Hottie seemed like he was desperately trying to explain something to him.

“I can’t help it. It’s just how I feel about you.” Roselyn said to herself, as the hot guy’s lips were moving. She smiled slightly, thinking that if she looked at it just right, it was almost as though that was actually what he had said.

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you telling me this. I’m married, you know.” She made her voice a little more gruff sounding when she spoke for Leader. The way he moved his hands at the same time was kind of hilarious. Hottie’s lips started moving again.

“But what about that kiss? Did it mean nothing to you?”

“Look, I like you, you’re hot, but that was just one time, and I-”

“Shhhhhh….” Hottie had lifted his hand as if to stop the conversation,”I don’t want to hear anymore of your excuses. I love you.”

“Not so loud, someone will hear you.”

Roselyn nearly burst out laughing, because right at that moment, someone else walked up beside them. She looked him over to figure out which one he was, since she didn’t immediately recognize him.

“What’s going on here?” Said Claws. (She raised her voice to a slightly higher pitch for this one.)

“Leader kissed me.” Said Hottie.

“What?!” Claws exclaimed, “You cheater!” (He was moving his arms very animatedly, like he was making an accusation or something, and then he turned away in a frustrated manner.)

“How could you do this to me? What about our family?”

“I have a secret to tell you both.” Said Leader. “I’m actually a woman.”

“But that’s absurd. I’ve seen you naked. ”

“That’s not true, you only think you did.”

“But then what about Timmy?”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Ah!” Roselyn jumped when the real voice of someone else startled her. She looked in front of her and realized there was another door leading into the tent that was now open. In front of her stood Poof. His hood was down and he wore a very confused expression. Even he had a nice looking face, with very appealing features. His hair was black with dark grey underneath and at the roots. (She saw this particularly well when he brushed the hair away from his face.)

“No one…” She muttered, under her breath.

Poof was just a little taller than her, and he had pretty broad shoulders, which she found quite attractive. He was wearing a black jacket, but there was some netting around his neck, like a baggy scarf. The collar of his jacket was also raised to cover his mouth (probably to make him look even more mysterious when the hood was up) but there was a gold zipper on the right side that had been unzipped, revealing his face.

“I see you’re feeling better.” He continued. “Can you breathe all right?”

“Yeah. I feel fine.” She replied, “Just a little bored.”

“Is that why you were having strange conversations with yourself?”

“That’s not it.” She said defensively, “I was watching them out there…” She motioned with her head toward the other door. “I was wondering what they were talking about.”

“Oh?” He stepped closer toward her and looked out the door as well.

“So then, who’s the cheater?” He questioned. “And who’s Timmy?”

“Timmy is obviously their unborn child.” Roselyn explained, “The one in the white jacket is the cheater.”

Poof laughed a little. “Really? He would literally kill you if he found out you called him a girl.”

Roselyn stared at this strange person in disbelief. “Just how long were you there for?” She questioned.

“Since ‘leader kissed me’, I think.”

Roselyn could feel her face flush in embarrassment. Poof shook his head at her, half amused, and half in disapproval. “Are you hungry?” He asked.

She hadn’t thought about food at all this entire time, but now that she had, she did feel a little hungry. She nodded.

“All right.”

After he left, Roselyn slammed her head back against the post, as though to punish herself for saying foolish things out loud. Damn, she thought, that hurt. Something pushed into the side of her head especially hard, like she was wearing a hair clip or something that she had forgotten about.

She left her head back like that and just stared up at the roof. There was a small hole up there that the post went through, and if she looked past the post, she could just make out the moon. It looks different, she decided.

“I heard you were hungry.”

This voice made her head snap back immediately. It was the hot guy with the fur around his hood. In the light of the fire, the red tinge in his hair seemed more vibrant. His eyes reflected the orange glow of the fire, almost eerily. She nodded.

“I’m really sorry you’re tied up like that.” He said, “You must be really upset.”
Roselyn wasn’t upset though. That wasn’t it…

“What’s your name?” He asked as he walked over to the fire. He grabbed a wooden stick from somewhere behind her, and began poking it into the hot coals. He then pulled out something that was wrapped in foil.

Roselyn wondered whether she should tell him her real name or not, but then she decided it wouldn’t matter if he knew anyway.

“Rose.” She replied. Her own response shocked her.

Now, Roselyn had been very adamant all her life that people call her ‘Roselyn’ only. There was a specific reason for this. Rose was someone she hated. Rose was the girl who sat beside her in kindergarten that everyone loved, and she always, ALWAYS got what she wanted. She had never failed to make Roselyn’s life miserable, just because their names were similar. She was the opposite of Roselyn, who had let everyone walk all over her. So now, why had she introduced herself as Rose?

It wasn’t that she intended to mislead him. Maybe, for once, she just wanted to think of herself in a different way; to be a different person. It should be easy, after all, since she hadn’t been herself for a while now, already.

“What’s your name?” She asked. He was now peeling back the tinfoil to reveal something underneath that really didn’t look all that edible.

“Kyndlen.” He replied.

“You’re the one that carried me all the way here?” She asked.

“I didn’t realize you were awake for any of that.” He said.

“Well, it’s a little hazy, but I’m pretty sure something like that happened.”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you.” She said.

Kyndlen nodded, and then tore off a chunk of the strange thing (which Roselyn could only relate to a sweet potato or a yam, though it didn’t ‘really’ resemble either. It was such a dark color too.) He blew on it a little to cool it off, and then lifted it in his hand and held it in front of her mouth.

“You’re going to feed that to me?” She questioned.

“Ahhhhh…” He replied, mockingly, opening his mouth as though wanting her to do the same. She hesitated a moment, and then opened her mouth and let him put it in.
She chewed once, but her immediate reaction was to spit it out, so that’s what she did. She spit it out…only it came out like a spray. She felt so embarrassed, especially since most of it went all over Kyndlen’s jacket. He lifted his hand to wipe something (probably spit) off of his face.

“I’m sorry.” She said, “but it tasted like dirt. You fed me dirt.”

“It’s not dirt.” He replied, “It’s a Tucrin.”

She just looked at him with a dumb expression. How the heck do you expect me to know what that is?

“It’s like a potato.” He explained.

“Potatoes don’t taste like dirt.” She said, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

“Well that’s pretty much all that grows here, so you should just eat it.”

“You don’t have anything else?”

He shook his head. He then broke off another chunk and blew on it again, then lifted it up to her mouth.

Roselyn could just picture herself when she was a child, shoveling handfuls of dirt into her own mouth on purpose. Gee, wasn’t that fun? Maybe she had an iron deficiency or something.

This reminded her of the picture her mom had kept in that stupid blue photo album from when they were young.

The thought made her feel regretful, so she instantly leaned toward his hand and swallowed the piece of Tucrin in one gulp, before she could even think to spit it out. Kyndlen lifted another piece to her mouth.

“Well, isn’t this kind of sexy?” She questioned, making her voice sound a little too suggestive. She instantly chided herself for saying such a thing. Who the heck am I right now? She wondered. She wasn’t the type of person who said these kinds of things, especially not out loud…. and wasn’t this situation just a little unconventional?

He smiled slightly, but mostly seemed to ignore her. After she had finished forcing herself to eat this horrible dirt potato, Kyndlen left the tent, and he didn’t come back. She was left all by herself once more.

She looked around on the ground to try to find something she might possibly escape with. It was no use though. There was nothing. She stood there for a long time, hoping someone else might come in and talk to her, but no one came. There wasn’t even anyone standing outside the other door anymore.

Eventually her legs got very sore, so she lowered herself back down into a sitting position, and laid her head back against the post.

Author's Note

I get the feeling that I'm the only one who thinks I'm funny...😏