Young Writers Society

Orren ran things over in his head. The open path would be the one he and his kind would be most comfortable with. Centaurs did better out in the open. But the elves undoubtedly knew that. The hidden path was the one that they needed to take.

"We can't take a vote on such a thing as this," he said, stepping forward. "We need to get a move on, and we need to do it now. We are taking the covered path. It will be hard on us larger beings. But, hopefully, we can find a shaded glen somewhere to catch our breath and appeal to the gods."

He turned towards the covered path. "Move out. Verdandi, take the doctor. Tin, take the other human."

Tin grinned, thrilled by any form of logical thinking as she always was. As they moved away, Tin put Mell onto her back and pulled out a short sword. As they passed trees, she cut off some of the materials she needed for Mell's harness. She weaved fern leaves together to make lengths of mock cloth and wound vines together to make them stronger, passing bits and pieces to Mell for her to hold. After all this she made it into a simple harness that would wrap around Mell's chest under her arms and around both her legs to join in the middle of her back. This would be tied around Tin. Mell's legs would also be bound to a stretch of mock cloth that ended in vine stirrups near Tin's waist. Mell would be able to lean forwards (Tin's backwards) and twist from side to side. As Tin lent her torso forward when she ran, she wouldn't be elbowed in the head or back. It wasn't fool proof; if Tin died, Mell wouldn't be able to get out of the harness quickly. But at least she wouldn't be crushed under thundering hooves. When she was done, Tin put the harness over her shoulder until it grew dark and the 'troops' stopped.

Mell eyed the pieces of vines that Tin handed her with a touch of amazement, an unexpected warmth bleeding through her as she watched Tin work, weaving the vines together to make a harness. While Mell hadn't had any notably bad experiences with centaurs herself, she had had no reason to expect any gesture of kindness from them either--not only was Tin willing to carry her but the centaur had taken the time to devise and create a harness for her, for a human, for Mell.

Chewing on her lower lip, Mell remained silent on Tin's back, passing her the supplies and holding whatever Tin told her to, unsure whether the centaur would prefer her silence or her thanks. When the harness was done and the centaur carried it upon her shoulder, Mell lowered her eyes, gazing at Tin's horse-like back.

The group reached their destination by evening, a dimly lit glen amid the trees, slices of bronze-colored light filtering down from the leaves, and Mell climbed off Tin's back carefully, landing in the grass and looking up at the centaur. "Thank you," she managed to say, a slight red brushing her cheeks as she turned to face the head centaur and Verdandi, her face on fire as she thought about the centaur gods, what they could possibly want with her, why she was so scared of them.

So, I'll be taking over for Jenna, as Tara. Since my character never came into play.

--

Tara bit her lips, the ceremony sounded so tempting. Becoming one of these strong, but elegant creatures would be marvelous. Being able to run, that feeling of flying she felt earlier. She was pulled onto Verdandi's back, wrapping her arms around her torso as they trotted into the covered path. She pushed branches out of the way, the forest was getting thick very quickly. Tara opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, hesitating.

"I'd love to do that ceremony." she said softly, finally deciding to speak.

Full Name: Ariana Chibtisa

Gender: Female

Age: 17.6

Birthplace: The Southern Forest (I just made that up...)

Race: Human

Eye Color: Constantly changes but more often than not a light grey

Height: 5'6

Weight: 112


Appearance: Dark brown hair with natural blonde streaks and unnatural blue streaks she got from working with indigo so much. Tall and strong. A small sharp nose, big intimidating eyes.


Clothing:

-Grey Bandana pulling her wavy hair back

- Camoflauge Green Shirt made out of basic clothe

-Camoflauge green pants made out of basic clothe

- Leather Moccasins


Weapon(s):

-Bow and Arrow

- Machete

Spells: (?) If this is what you mean she is a Wicca and can do basic spells, **please explain this further***

Special Skills: She is very charming which comes from her Wicca skills

Natural Abilities: She can shoot an arrow four miles from her target and still hit with great accuracy.

Brief History: Her father owns most of the Southern Forest and has a cottage there, where she lives alone with him and her older brother. Her mother died in childbirth. Her father taught her all about finding food in the forest and hunting. Her father has many connections that enventually help her. She was just shooting deer when her arrow accidently hit a passing elf and she was taking prisoner.

[Storybook has started. No new characters will be added.]

[storybook is dead-ish]

Verdandi turned back to Tara slightly, smiling. "I knew you would. Of course, now our primary concern is safety, but once the threat has passed, we can start to go a bit more in depth on the matter."

She continued to move until evening, when they reached a suitable camp, and she started to gather kindling for a small fire. She built it as miniature as she could to reduce their chance of being seen, but it was enough to give off a comfortable heat, and an adequate cooking source for the humans, if they chose to cook.

"I'm just glad you're not turning against me," Verdandi said in a quiet voice to Tara as she worked.

Eeek! A new post!

They centaur/human group continued moving for days through the forest. A roster was made and put to use. Mell rode Tin in her harness, and though they were tired every evening after the daytime trudge Tin insisted that she and Mell trained together with it. They'd be ducking and weaving, jumping and sprinting all afternoon while aiming and shooting. After a while Mell was shooting off accurate shots and they had started to work like one beast. After a little while more, mountains were seen in all their massive glory through the trees.
"Footsteps of the Gods," Tin whispered. Mell looked over her shoulder. "Aren't they magnificent?"
The troupe started towards their destination with new gusto.

The mountains towered over them, sunlight bouncing off the snowy peaks, and Mell looked over the shoulder of her friend, gazing up at them with nervous eyes. Her friend. She would never have predicted she would find a friend in Tin, in any centaur, really.

Mell rubbed her dry fingers, looking down at the tiny cracks in her skin and bemoaning how dry it was up here in the mountains. Weren't they magnificent? Mell pursed her lips, glancing off to the side at the question. The footsteps of the gods--the mountains were magnificent, yes. She could do without the reminder of where they were.

"Magnificent," Mell murmured, lowering her head and then falling silent, her shoulders slumping a little. "Tin..." she started, pretending to be preoccupied with her bow. "Tell me... how do you like your gods?"

"Well..." Tin paused. "It matters. If you mean, how can you like your gods, it's... complicated, but easy at the same time. Gods are just like people, all of them different, controlling different things. And I don't hate people just because they have different temperaments and skills from me. But if you mean, how do I like them... quite merciful, fierce, magnificent. Which, luckily, most of the gods are," Tin laughed. "Does that answer your question?" She breaked a leaf off a passing tree and twirled it between her fingers, a smile on her face.