The caravan travelled through the thick woods quickly despite the rough trail. The horses snorted and tossed their heads, their warm breath turning cloudy as it hit the cool air, trailing from their nostrils like dragon’s smoke.

To the right of the trail, the trees began to thin and drop away, revealing a steep cliff and a snarling river below. One shaggy head peaked out of a carriage window, coughed, and withdrew. “I hope these drivers know what they’re doing,” he grunted, his voice rumbling like rocks colliding.

“Even if something did happen,” a pale, nervous boy piped up, “we should be able to take care of ourselves.” His fingers danced over the hem of his sleeve, tugging and straightening. He didn’t try to catch the eyes of anyone else in the carriage.

The shaggy boy shook his head, making the charms woven into his lone braid clink together. “We’re tough, but maybe not that tough.” His thick hair hid his face in a tangle of brown, but couldn’t disguise the glint in his copper eyes.

“Alesies,” the one girl in the carriage said, not looking away from the window. “Birds are friends.”  Her short black hair covered the side of her face, but he knew she was grinning.

He shrugged. “Iamie is safe from me.” He glanced at the sleeping figure seated next to him. “J’yrhal on the other hand…” The figure yawned as if in response and rolled towards his side of the carriage.

Shaking her hair out of the way, the girl smirked at Alesies. “I’m sure he’s more dangerous than you are, bear.”

Alesies bared his teeth in a grin, splitting his dark face in two. “We’re all dangerous, Kyrie. You know that more than most.”

Her face darkened, the smile vanishing like the sun behind clouds. The line of her body stiffened unconsciously and her hand clenched around the strap of her pack. Iamie, sitting on the bench next to Kyrie, pressed himself into the corner and tried to make himself as small as possible.

Alesies barked a laugh and leaned back, crossing his arms. “Relax, wolf, we’re almost there. You can fight with me later.”

 

***

 

The carriages eventually came to a halt near a clearing through which a small stream bubbled. Alesies was the first from their carriage to exit, shoving open the door roughly and shrugging his bag onto one shoulder. He stood just outside the door, drank in a big gulp of air, and laughed.

Kyrie aimed a kick in J’yrhal’s direction, knocking his pack against his leg. “Wake up, sleeping beauty. We’re here.” Yawning again, J’yrhal stretched and scratched his stomach, blinking dark eyes at Kyrie and Iamie, and then stood.

He motioned a dirty hand between the nervous boy and the door. “Uh… I… Right.” Iamie ducked his head and hurried after Kyrie. The girl was shouldering past Alesies, who growled at her, and laughed again, striding in the other direction.

The pale boy stood nervously by the carriage, watching all the activity around him. The instructors who were on the trip to supervise were setting up their tents near the middle of the clearing as if setting up a boundary between halves of the campground. He hurried towards them, careful not to look as if he were insecure about being on the trip and looking towards the instructors for protection.

Kyrie raised a hand and called out to him. He paused and looked over at her. “Why don’t you pitch your tent here? There’s some good space right on the clover, see?” She pointed to a spread of fuzzy purple blossoms and soft leaves close to where

He smiled gratefully and shuffled over to her, unslinging his pack and pulling out his tent. “Don’t take Alesies so seriously,” she said, pressing a stake into the soft dirt with the heel of her boot. “He’s more bark than bite, even though he looks like a mountain man.”

“Yeah,” Iamie laughed a little. “A caveman.”

Kyrie fitted her tent poles into their sleeves easily and stood the tent without assistance, stowing her pack inside. She tipped her head to one side, watching Iamie struggle. “Would you like some help?”

“Oh, please. I’m no good at this camping thing…”

“You get used to it after a while,” she gave him a dry smile and showed him the quickest way to finish the set up. By that time, most everyone else had finished and was gathered around the instructors or throwing pebbles into the stream. J’yrhal moved up beside them and pointed at the cluster near the center of camp.

“I think they’re going to tell us what to do next.”

As the three joined the group, one of the instructors shouted gruffly at the few by the stream. “Let’s go, students, the quicker we finish instructing you, the quicker we can eat.” A couple of others made noises of agreement, but most stayed silent, thinking of the sun sinking steadily behind the tips of the trees.

“Well then,” the old instructor crossed his arms and closed his eyes. “We have some news for you students: we did not bring any food.” This elicited gasps of confusion from the hungrier students. “The point of this trip is to teach you all more skills than can be taught at the school. So if you would like to eat, you will need to catch your own food.” More students grumbled, a storm of protest.

“That’s enough.” The second instructor looked over the gathering, making eye contact with all those gathered. “You are more than mere humans, you cannot cheat yourselves of what you are. By cheating your animal half, you will cripple yourself as surely as cutting off a hand. All of you have instincts that you can rely on more than the dailies at the school can and you’re here to hone those skills. This is your first test.” She strode forward, the crowd parting before her, then stopped in front of Alesies, pointing a slim finger at him. “Shift.”

The crowd moved away from him as one being, leaving the instructor with her arm outstretched and the shaggy youth in a clearing of their own. Alesies took one great step backwards and kneeled on the ground, his hands planted in front of him, his face hidden.

As they watched, the arch of his shoulders began to bulge into an impossible mountain and his arms swelled to the size of logs. Short bursts of sound, ripping cloth, punctuated the air as he rose onto all fours, his entire body expanding into a furry barrel. He shook himself and raised his face to the instructor, knife-like canine teeth open in a heavy muzzle, a bear’s version of a smile. With a soft grunt, he pushed himself onto heavy hind legs, hauling his body up to impossible heights and stared down at the cluster now at level with ferocious claws.

With a tight-lipped smile and a nod, the instructor turned back to the group. “Now the rest of you.”

My favorite local band, Far From Falling, more or less reinvented themselves at the debut show on Friday. Their new lead singer, Harley Wood, brought them up a whole eight notches in skill level. But as they don't have any new lyrics floating around the internet, I'm going to post from one of the three opening bands, Severah.

( Severah - Up My Sleeve )


( Severah - Delirious )

 

( Egypt Central - The Way )

 

( Egypt Central - Home )


Stresses have sort of built up and I really miss my boyfriend. These songs just really strike chords with me, in good and bad ways.

I'm trying something with a friend of mine: Thursday prompts. Every Thursday starting this week, we write something based on a prompt. This week was "The Middle of the Night." I know I promised I'd put some of my own writing up here, so I think I'll use the prompts to do so.

---

Darkness never meant to me what it does to vampires. I waited in my dorm room for the dailies to be sent to bed for the night, watching them bustling around the courtyard below my window, my forehead pressed to the glass.

I sighed and watched my breath fog the glass like a mist spreading over the lake.  I turned away from the window and sat cross-legged on the carpet, facing the door. For owls like me, I waited until the doors were unlocked from the outside before I could leave my room.

For my own safety, they said.

It wasn’t for my safety, not really. It was for the dailies safety. Most of the owls are dangerous to the ordinary humans around here, but we were here to control ourselves. Where else are we supposed to go when our parents drive us out?

There was a knock on my door. “Kyrie, you’re free to go to the mess if you’re ready.”

I waited for a moment, listening to the nightman move down the hall, then stood. I wore loose-fitting clothes that would survive through my classes, but I adjusted them anyway. I needed nothing, so I opened the door to the hall where others were already trailing away in ones and twos to the mess.

I walked alone tonight.

***

I sat quietly for most of the meal, until the students restricted by true darkness trickled in. My eyes flickered from face to face, assigning names to them when I knew them. I didn’t know many, as we stay with our own kind for most of our time here.

Someone sat down across from me without a word. I glanced to them, then away again. I knew who it was. I’d met him before. I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone today.

“Good evening, Kyrie.”

I turned to him, eyeing him casually. “Cy-ell.”

He smiled, a little glimpse of fangs in his pale face. “You remember me, I’m pleased.”

I grunted and move the remainders of food around my plate with my fork. He opened a bag of crimson liquid and dipped a spoon in as if he were eating soup. His smugness rubbed me wrong, raising the hair on the back of my head like a hand up my neck.

“I need to go to class,” I whispered, knowing he would hear, and left my food behind. Damned vampires, I thought.

***

My self-control instructor tapped my head with his staff as I meditated. “Control is difficult for you today, Kyrie.”

“Yes,” I answered without opening my eyes.

“Why?”

“I am meditating, sir…”

His staff moved from a gentle tap to a harder thump against the side of my head. “I asked you a question, Kyrie.”

My already short temper started to fray and the mental image of my inner beast flared to life, a flash of fangs and rusty fur. “I am meditating,” I growled, forcing back the beast, locking it down inside of me. It was more than difficult as the staff moved from my head to my shoulders and back.

“You will not be able to keep this up.” He started prodding me in the back, between my shoulders and against my lower back. “Change, Kyrie, you cannot resist it for much longer.”

I growled, grinding my palms into my knees, but nothing could hold back from a shift now. The change hurt, everywhere burned with the worst fire imaginable. I’d scrambled from sitting to crouching, baring massive fangs at my instructor.

He nodded at me and I knew I had been dismissed for the night. I stood and watched him leave the courtyard, furious with myself, trying to regain my calm. I felt someone watching me and turned to see the vampire from dinner.

“Hello again, werewolf.”

I tried to ignore him, but when I turned away I found him beside me.

“You do well with the beating you endured.”

My lip curled back in a silent growl as I examined my clothing. Everything seemed fine and in a couple hours, I could shift back.

“If you are done with classes for tonight, would you like to come with me?”

I looked down at him with the black-and-white sight of wolf’s eyes. “You want something?”

“Possibly,” he smiled at me. “There’s no freedom quite like that of the night. Come with me.”

College snuck up on me, so I haven't been keeping an ear out for things. Until now. Hello again, Livejournal. Even if you don't like Nickelback, you can pretend it's not them and read the lyrics as they are, for fun.

( Nickelback - Gotta be Somebody )


And a quote from an Anita Blake novel, Narcissus in Chains, "It is both the trust and the element of uncertainty that makes the event."

I've been busy, so I'm sorry about that. I recently went to a concert opened by a couple of really awesome bands, Far From Falling and Johnnyrook. I've been listening to two of Johnnyrook's tracks because I more or less have all of FFF's memorized. So I'll make up for not being around by posting lyrics for both.

Tonight's post is a little different. This has been going around for a while, but I cry every time I read it. Equality for all mankind seems so far away all the time...

I'm sure you've all heard this one before. You know, from that one movie that came out a while ago? Anyway, I was listening to some songs that I hadn't listened to for a while and Rufus demanded to be played. I really like listening to the hopefulness in this song, as sad as it is, it's also very uplifting. If in a lost sort of way.

And another Dead Like Me quote, from Rube, "Want to be a bowling pin your whole life, just standing there perfectly content to be knocked down time and time again? Or would you rather be the ball? I gotta tell ya, being a ball feels a hell of a lot better."

I know this is done by Chad and Ryan of Nickelback, but I've no idea what album it came off of (certainly not off any that I have, and I have all, but they're burned.) It became an instant-favorite of mine the first time I heard it because it's not exactly like anything else they've done and it really reflects a lot of what I feel sometimes... Those times when I just give up on caring.

It's my favorite Far From Falling song, though you won't find it on their myspace. The version I have is a demo, but it's still really good. I also have a quote from a favorite show: "Not every death gets a candle light vigil, most just get a sky full of stars."