Familiar Faces [Eden]

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[attr="class","ktitle"]Familiar Faces

[attr="class","kcontent"]Shale Town was not the place to be walking around with valuables on display. In a place where survival was valued over all else, displaying what you had to offer, and what you had to lose, was not the wisest of choices. It risked the opportunity for others to target this individual. To seek something from them whether it be of a monetary or healthy value. Someone should have told this to a young woman now seated just out of town.

Towards the town’s northest side there would be the remnants of two forking paths. From the outside of town, travelers would be ushered through town in each of two directions. But it was neither of these paths that this traveler had chosen. Rather, she chose something of a middle ground between, literally.

Where the two paths converges at the remains of an old sign once detailing where the two paths went to. Behind that sign, and behind the fork, there would be a large stone on the ground. It was a boulder at least three meters wide, and at least one meter tall. Though its surface was jagged in some places, there was a part flat enough to prop up the rear of a young girl.

The red had sat with both legs together. The soles of her shoes remained parallel to the ground as she leaned just a bit forward. This was to allow her to cradle something between the gap in her legs. There it could be seen that there was a small bag. Resting on top of it was a piece of bread. Not exactly fresh, but not something that anyone would be finding just lying on the ground in this area.

Accompanying the bread were her own elbows resting on the tops of her legs. This allowed her arms to be held up to clutch another piece of the grainy sustenance. But for a moment now that was all that she did. Those arms of hers did not budge, they did not move. The face above had seemed to abandoned the bready morsel in her hand as she became aware of something nearby.

Large blue eyes were nestled between thick and vibrant red hair. Rather than focusing the two orbs on the snack in her grip, she had them focused on another pair of eyes ahead of her. And just as she would peer at those eyes, they too would peer back at her. They each repeated the same sort of blank and quizzical gaze, neither unable to suitably explain their goal.

This amounted in a sort of staring contest. One that obviously could not last forever.

Lisabeth blinked first.

”What do you want kid?” She asked in a way that might have seemed rude. But the tone and volume of her voice was more neutral, more interested in chowing down on her bread then on dealing with the child that happened upon her.

Whereas she was willing to talk, the child would not trade her the same dignity. Instead, the young boy, no older than 6 or 7, lifted his arm and pointed towards her. Though there was only one thing he could be pointing to, the red-headed chose to humor him. She chose to follow his hand and see if maybe there was something else. ’Not like a kid that young is going to try going on a date or something, right?’ She thought.

At the same time she repositioned herself. While one hand continued to hold the bread, the other moved away from it and came to rest under her chin before she asked, ”The bread. You want the bread?”

’Just say it already. If you’re going to beg, just say it.’ Were the words going through her head. It was not his intentions that bothered her here, but the way the boy went about it.

There was a different, though, between wanting something to happening and reality. She may have mentally urged the boy to use his words, but he instead chose to remain silent. His finger too would remain where it had been. He held it forward and kept it pointing towards the bread. There would even be a moment when Liz tried moving the bread only to find that the boy’s hand followed it like a bloodhound tracking a fox.

”Alright already. Take it, you brat.” She finally broke. Not just a loser of the staring contest, she was now the first to abandon her instincts. Without delay she forced her hand forward and offered the boy half of the bread. ”But you better say something. Anything. That silence is unnerv..”

She did not finish. She could not finish. Before the words left her mouth the bread was freed from her hand. Then, with unbelievable speed, the kid was gone. It was such an upset that Lisabeth found her eyes rolling around the area searching for head or tail of the boy.

She was defeated. It was obvious by her physical response. Her lungs would heave with a deep sigh as her head and arm that held it began to droop. At the same time she closed her eyes and turned her face away from where the boy had been. After a moment of dwelling on the mistake she had just made, she palmed the remaining piece of bread and forced it into her maw.

”Stupid kid.. Oh, you’re back..?” She began in a whisper, insulting the kid that abandoned her. But as she made that remark she heard the sound of feet across the nearby earth. Given what had just happened it was no surprise that she first assumed it was the boy coming back, to say something finally or to ask for more bread. But what she found instead was not what she was expecting. It was not who she was expecting. Her eyes became large and fixated on the approaching figure. She would not say anything or do anything unless the other acted first.

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Notes: Wearing a white, sleeveless shirt and green cargo shorts.

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