Over the hill and through the woods (open)

[Carter Roth]

Why can't the park be like this? Carter wondered idly to herself, picking her way through the forest as if she'd been there hundreds of times before. Sprawling vegetation, huge trees, the gloom of the stormy day making the forest floor seem to be in a perpetual twilight. She'd tried going for walks in the park to clear her head, but they never worked. She could always hear the sounds of the city no matter where she went in it, the noises grating on her already frayed nerves. It didn't help the fact that people loved to wander there as well, a thing that was rather less than ideal when all she wanted was to be alone with her thoughts.

She was a relative newcomer to Hollowhill Grove, and though she'd adapted well enough to the new environment, she hadn't gotten used to it. She felt like it was temporary, almost like she was staying here for just a short time before continuing to her real home. The funny thing was, Carter didn't have a real home. She ran away from the orphanage years ago, and ran again after she was turned. Since then she was a perpetual nomad. No matter where she was or for how long she stayed, no place felt like home. Even now, after nearly five months of living in the city, in the same apartment, seeing the same faces of the people that lived in her building, she felt like a stranger. It was probably mostly due to the fact that she was a Lycan, maybe because she was a Lycan without any pack to belong to, but she didn't think that was the whole of it.

She was good at being alone. Even as a kid she wasn't very needy, could spend all day with friends and turn around to spend the next day all by herself with no problems. Of course, this didn't mean she didn't want friends, but so far she hadn't gone out of her way to make friends either just yet. Maybe that was why she was in the forest. Not just to explore and get away from the city for a while, but to find someone out wandering the forest as well. After all, if they were both out here they might share the same reasons. She couldn't hear anyone else though, and while there were old scents of other Lycans around, nothing was particularly fresh. Like always now, it seemed she was alone.

[Araceli Ricci]

In the city there was a young woman sitting at her window glaring that the grey clouds and rain that surrounded her outside. Now it wasn't the weather she was mad at, she was quite font of the rain, it was lovely weather and dancing it was amazing fun, but at this moment the little brunette Italian was not pleased with her situation. 'That's it! I'm going to kill him for this!' she growled to herself. She was just being melodramatic, there were no true intentions of killing her brother's best friend, she was just pissed that morning the two of them had taken off, with promises to be back in a few hours. By one at the latest. But noon came and she got a text from Dante because they had met up with a few other friends and he was going to join them and wouldn't be back until that evening, sometime after the sun went down. That was hardly fair and she entirely blamed the best friend for this. She groaned and shook her head and headed downstairs pulling on a jacket. She texted him that she was going to wander around town and she'd be back then she braved the rain.

Araceli was truthful in her text, she went to wander the town, but there wasn't really anything to do, at least not anything he would want to do alone. It was terribly boring. She finally stopped into a cafe and got a hot chocolate with caramel then she continued on her way, stepping into the park. She clutched her warm cup in her hands as she sipped, weaving her way through the trees. She jut got lost in her thoughts as she roamed, eventually finishing her drink and tossing it into a trash can. But it was the wall that startled her back into reality. She hadn't realized she'd come so far as to reach the wall that totally surrounded the city. She huffed and turned around to head back but only five steps away did she freeze, glancing over her shoulder, curiosity and that daredevil adventurous side getting the best of her yet again. Dante wouldn't know he wouldn't be coming home until after dark and if she wasn't there he might call her but she could just say she was in the park. Easy.

She looked around and then picked a tree, leaping to the lowest branch and swinging herself up then she scaled quickly finding a branch that went over the wall and close enough to another tree she could jump to another branch and then slip out of the tree on the forest side of the wall. That was one thing to be said about the park and even more so about the forest, it lessened the rain a bit with all those leaves and branches deflecting the raindrops and making it easier yo not get totally pelted by rain. She giggled and hurried off actually liking this trying to figure out why she hadn't gone into the forest before this. She shrugged and started singing and old Italian song from her childhood as she slipped through the trees, going further and further away from the wall. Ara closed her grey eyes as she walked and sang, though that wasn't a good idea and she stumbled tripping over a root then she smacked face first into a tree and she bounced back hitting the ground hard, her head swimming the world spinning, an she swore she saw stars despite is still being daytime and very cloudy and rainy still. She could feel the rain still. She tried to sit up but she just groaned at the pain in her head and she just sprawled there on the floor wondering how long it would take to pass so she could get home.

[Carter Roth]

A human? Here? Wasn't it quote unquote common knowledge that Lycans roamed this forest? Carter almost rolled her eyes. Stupid humans... Funny, just two years went by and she had already started to think of humans, what she once was, as a different species. She could remember the times when she was just a year into being a wolf girl when she tripped up and thought of herself as human. Something she'd never be again..Great now she was depressing herself. And for what? She growled, kicking a rock and sending it flying into a tree. It wouldn't do any good for her to get depressed. She did enough of that the first six months after her turning and she hated it. She never wanted to feel that way again, ever.

But the human had her curiosity piqued, and so she followed her nose to pinpoint where they were. She didn't know what she was expecting, some moron kid -yes, she was technically a kid at eighteen but god did she feel so much older- trying to be all tough. Or maybe it was still some moron kid but was there on a dare or some crap like that. What she wasn't expecting was a girl, a girl that seemed around her age. A girl that looked like she was gonna pass out. She blinked through the rain, it wetting her light blue hair and making it look darker. She immediately went over to the girl, wanting to help her. "Hey, you okay?" She crouched down next to her, reaching out t gently -and slowly for that matter- pull her upright into a sitting position.

This is why people who don't know the forest should stay the hell out of them. Especially when the forest was a known, at least she thought so, Lycan haunt. She would have rolled her eyes if she wasn't so worried about the strange girl. She was a Lycan, yes, but she'd always been caring. And the little thing of being directly standoffish might alert the girl to her...unique status. She wasn't completely ashamed at herself being a Lycan, at least not anymore, but that didn't exactly mean she wanted to go around advertising that fact with a neon sign that said; "hey! I'm a werewolf!" either.

She snapped her fingers in front of her face, wondering how bad her head was at the moment. Whatever fall she took must have did a number on her, she was just staring up into space when Carter found her. She could have a concussion for all she knew! That meant she would have to drag her all the way back to the hospital in the city. Great. Well her day was turning out just peachy.

[Branton Applegate]

Nimble fingers began to rhythmically tap on the small wooden table as their owner's bright emerald hues glanced around the room so often. Every now and then, taking a small peek outside to check if the sky's bombardment on Hollowhill Grove had sheathed. Only to be quickly disappointed, and to look back at his cell phone as song after song of pirated music finished downloading. So far the fire-loving-magician had amassed a grand total of eighty-seven songs within the past five hours. A rather small feat, but one he was proud of nonetheless.  Scrolling through his ninety-or-so item list of achievements. The brunette searched for a fitting song until a sudden silence caught his attention. Shifting his glaze up, and looking through his uneven bangs he once again looked out the window. At first nothing seemed to clicked until he saw a droplet of water fall from the top of his window. The great blitzkrieg of rain had finally ended once again! 

Jumping to his feet, with phone in hand, Branton snatched his jacket off the back of a chair, and hurriedly searched his studio apartment for some his various belongings. Keys, headphones, wallet, shoes, etc etc. With everything in hand, and/or being worn properly he headed out the door. And made it a grand total of twenty steps before realizing he had forgotten to lock the door.  "Son of a bitch..." He muttered before jogging back, and locking it. Twisting the lock a few times to make sure it was good. After all, he really didn't want a repeat of that horrid jockstrap incident. Shuddering at the thought, he pushed it safely into the back of his mind, and went over his mental check list again. Having confirmed everything was in the clear. He spun around on the balls of his feet, and made his way out the complex. 

Now, Branton Applegate didn't exactly live in the shittiest of areas, but he didn't live in the nice ones either. Doing the best with what he could afford. The swindling magician was stuck in some kind of awkward middle ground between the classes of the city. Having taken of all this wonderful knowledge into account. It would take him about thirty minutes on foot to reach the part of the city that had any decent stores, and to be completely honest. He would rather make that hike than risk trusting of the places around him. "May I have your attention please." He song as he plugged his earphones in, and started his hike. However, about midway through Branton's boredom boredom finally kicked in, and had gotten to the point of no return. It also didn't help that the bloody rain had flipping started pouring again. Pulling his hood up he quickly looked around for something to hide him from the rain. After several seconds of searching he finally settled on a line of trees next to the wall. 

Jogging over to it, Branton saw something odd out of the corner of his eyes. As he came to a stop he looked over, and to his surprise saw a person climbing a tree to get over the wall. Then almost instantly Branton's curiosity was piqued. Checking over his shoulder he jogged to the tree the girl had climbed, but was quickly turned off by the idea of psychical activity. It wasn't that Branton was out of shape, or fat, but it sure did seem like a lot of work to climb this thing. So, he put on his thinking cap, and started to pace back and forth. A minute later he had a grand idea, and said idea was either brilliant, or completely mad. Weighing the possibilities of of him making it over the wall, or breaking his neck. He quickly decided the pros outweighed the cons. Taking a few steps back to get a running start. He sprinted toward the wall, and kicked off of it. Twisting in the air he pointed his hands at the ground, and shouted "Magnum ventus, pulsum hostis!!!" Pouring a decent sum of his life energy into the spell, and using the gust of wind it created he launched himself over the wall. Once over, he let loose another spell to slow his descent.  Tucking and rolling semi safely once he had reached the ground, and ended a few yards away from the girls. 

Groaning loudly, he lifted himself up and stumbled to his feet. Although the world had yet to stop spinning around him causing him to stagger left and right.  "Did everyone see that! Because I will not be doing it again!" 

[Araceli Ricci]

'Hey, you okay?'

Ara groaned and blinked when she heard the female voice and then she winced as she was pulled into a sitting position. Ugg her head was killing her. She reached out and pushed her wet hair away from her face and she squeezed her eyes closed as she waited for the wave of dizziness to pass. So maybe this wasn't one of her brightest ideas to hop the wall into the forest and then on top of it sing with her eyes closed. And okay if Dante were to find out about this he would be totally justified in chewing her out and scolding her for it. But Ara wanted to make sure he absolutely didn't find out about it because, she didn't want to worry or upset him. Grey eyes snapped open when she heard the snapping of fingers and she looked at them before turning her attention to the girl that was helping her. She was pretty, and looked a bit older than her maybe around her brother's age or a year or two older? It was hard to tell with her head still sort of swimming. "Si... Yeah I'm okay. My head hurts but I'll live."

Just then her attention was pulled away by another voice, one she could hear faintly, but clearly there. Then a young man fell from the sky and rolled to the ground not terribly far from where she and this girl were sitting. She clanged over to the other girl hoping she saw him to and that she hadn't hit her head harder than she thought... But she was pretty sure this guy was there and she was good. She watched him curiously as he groaned and pushed himself into a standing position and swayed a bit. Clearly his methods of getting over the wall were... A bit more disorienting that her own. So she made a mental note to just stick to the trees instead. Much safer.... Sort of.

'Did everyone see that! Because I will not be doing it again!'

Ara laughed lightly and nodded, careful to not make her head pound in pain again, even though that was fading quickly, and gave a little wave to the guy. "I did! It was quite impressive." She watched him for another moment then she perked up bit and smiled looking at each of her new companions. "Oh I' Araceli by the way. It's nice too meet you all."

[Carter Roth]

Carter breathed a sigh of relief when the girl seemed alright, her words not slurred and seeming to be fairly alert. She knew they weren't out of the words yet -literally- but so far it seemed like she didn't have a concussion or anything majorly wrong with her. At least she seemed to be okay enough to make it back to the city and to a doctor or something rather than dying in the woods. That made Carter feel a little better; burying bodies in a downpour couldn't be easy. Or clean. Granted burying bodies was never clean from what she could imagine, but doing it in the rain had to be a hundred times worse.

She was about to say something back to the girl but then the guy popped out. She had heard his voice too but the last thing she was expecting was him to fall from the friggin' sky. Carter sighed internally when he pushed himself up and staggered around like a drunk. Great. Now I have to deal with him too. One human's enough...Looks like today just got a little harder. She just blinked at him, not saying anything. Sure, it was a little impressive he managed to do that but was she going to tell him that? No. And the other girl, what was her name? Araceli? Already did. No use in repeating the poor girl, right?

"I'm Carter." She really didn't need to say anything else. What was the point? She didn't really need to give them any more information. She had a feeling Araceli would talk enough for the both of them anyways. At least she seems okay now...Apparently she was a social person, perking up the more people showed up.