Zaki | Male | 19 | Nagi
Location: Familiarized Camp
Mentions: Alistair (OPEN)

The air was a bit too cold for Zaki’s liking, and Nagi was definitely uncomfortable. The leucistic crocodile was much more grumpy than usual, hissing at anything that moved. He'd even hissed at Alistair at one point when the man had tried to coax him out of the sun for some reason or another. He was currently laying by the river in the sun, the water being far too cold for him to swim comfortably. Several blankets were thrown haphazardly over him to cover his entire length and keep him warm, with only his head and the tip of his tail visible from underneath. He was asleep with one blue eye open, and he would lift his head periodically to check in on Zaki and occasionally Alistair.

Nearby, Zaki talked quietly with Alistair about their plans for the Familiarized. They'd had this discussion several times before, but more as passing comments than true conviction. Now, however, Zaki spoke animatedly, tired of hiding in the forest and desperate to return to the city he'd lived in his entire life.

“We can't stay here, Ali. Our first winter in the forest was a nightmare and even Nagi got sick, and it was one of the warmest winters in the history of Pennsylvania! It's supposed to get much colder this year, and frankly, I'm not too sure we’ll even make it through the winter. Nagi most certainly won't. He's clearly unhappy now, and it's only August!” Zaki said in a raised voice, gesturing pointedly over to his familiar. The crocodile woke up and lifted his head to glance over at his Familiarized upon hearing his name, quickly going back to sleep when he realized he wasn't being summoned. Zaki pulled at his hair anxiously, putting all of his willpower towards not pacing back and forth.

“I want to go back to the city, Ali. I want to go home.” His hushed words held a determined tone, but there was an underlying frantic desperation that would've been impossible for anyone that knew him well enough to miss. He was terrified of what may happen if they returned to the city after the Unfamiliarized made it very clear that they were unwelcome, but he was more terrified of having to spend the rest of his life in a forest. He was sure some of the others were too. Zaki may not have lived a life of luxury prior to the Melanie Kyte incident, but it was undeniably better than what it was in the forest. Hell, even the foster care system felt like a dream come true compared to his life now.

Funny, Zaki used to dream of leaving the city and his past behind to travel the world. Now, he only dreamed of going back.


Anne | Female | 76 | Eden
Location: Familiarized Camp
Mentions: (OPEN)

The cold didn't bother Anne. She’d lived her entire life up north, so to her, Pennsylvania was nice and warm pretty much year-round. She was almost hoping for winter to come around, as there was nothing as beautiful as freshly-fallen snow in her opinion. Plus, snow meant snowmen, and she loved building snowmen. Every year her and Jonathan would go out after a snowstorm and make a gigantic snowman, making it a point to build each one bigger than the one from the previous year. Even after his death, she still built at least one snowman every winter, even if it was much smaller than the ones they used to form.

Anne sat against a tree, angled so that she could watch the activities taking place around her. Eden stood at her side, and if familiars could talk they would most certainly be bickering like an old married couple. As is, though, Anne was the one doing all of the talking, telling her familiar things the bird couldn't even understand although she reacted with head tilts and soft noises anyway.

“I mean seriously, who goes to a restaurant and orders a pizza with the crust cut off? Either eat the crust like a big kid or eat around it. Don't make the chef’s life more difficult than it already is,” Anne was ranting to the condor, although judging by the bird’s distinctly uninterested expression it probably wasn't the first time she'd told the story. Eden was patient, however, letting the woman recite her experience without interrupting. It's not like they had anything else to do. Half of the other Familiarized were still asleep, and the ones that were awake had better things to do than talk to the crazy old lady and her big scary bird. Anne didn't mind. If no one wanted to talk to her, she was perfectly content with talking to Eden, even if the bird had no clue what she was saying.

Cole| Female| 22| Bebet


The anger and frustration had Cole’s stomach doing somersaults. She felt like a creep spying like this but she just couldn’t help it. It seemed like it had been ages since the incident but in reality it happened just over a year ago. The embarrassment she had felt when she was effectively kicked out of her own stables was almost unbearable. Now she could only watch from a distance as the stables carried on without her. She was crouched behind a pile of tinder, peering over the top of it to shoot glares at a few of the riders.

‘There’s that witch Jennifer, prancing around as if she owns the damn place.’ Cole thought to herself as her lips pursed together in a pout. Cole watched Jennifer go through the jumping course, chuckling to herself when her mount balked at the Liverpool. ‘What an idiot. If she had paid any attention to what I had told her she’d know that Wewoka needs to be corrected so she doesn’t look down.’ Cole’s musings were cut short as her brain was scrambled at the sight of her pride and joy.

“Chili.”

She whispered the name out loud with a sort of breathlessness. The stallion was being lead out of the stables for his morning run and he was stunning, as usual. The rose grey colt tossed his head back as the trainer lead him to the track. Chili was always eager to get on the track, if he had it his way he’d spend all day running circles around that thing. Cole had never met a horse like Chili, he was bred to be a contender for the Triple Crown and there was no doubt in her mind that Chili would win. Although now, as she watched a stranger saddle Chili up and get astride she feared that she would never get to ride the colt again. Cole’s focus was broken by a nudge. She huffed and spun around, knocking a few logs off the pile.

“You silly oaf, get away from me.” Cole grouched. Bebet snorted at her and took a step back only to paw at the ground and move to nudge Cole again. With one last longing glance at the stables she stood and brushed off any dirt the clinged to her leggings and started off back in the direction of camp. Bebet followed close behind, occasionally nudging Cole when she wasn’t walking fast enough. Bebet was the only thing left of her old life. Her parents had moved back to Dallas before the kerfuffle started, leaving Nicolette and her older brother Mathieu behind in Pennsylvania to train. In the aftermath of the incident she had lost Mathieu, assuming he had taken off for Dallas. With a giraffe as a familiar it would have been hard for him to lay low, she hoped he had made it though hadn’t heard anything from her parents. Not that she got in touch with them often, there was no electricity out here and she rarely found an opportunity to sneak into the city to charge her phone.

As the pair trudged into the campgrounds Cole took a look around at the pitiful group of misfits that were gathered here. Bebet didn’t let her assess the sight for long, with a loud snort and a more forceful nudge the mare let Cole know she didn’t care for people watching. Cole stumbled a bit, almost faceplanting into the cold soil.

“Babs, stop it! You know just because you’re bigger doesn’t mean we always have to do what you want to do.” She placed her palms on Babet’s chest and gave a shove, attempting to push her back. The mare didn’t budge, instead Cole’s feet slid across the ground. With a huff she flipped Bebet the bird and crossed her arms . She wished the Throuroughbred understood the gesture but Bebet just sniffed at the ground a bit before walking off towards the river. As the mare lowered her head to take a drink she spied Nagi resting just a few feet away, the sight of the reptile set Bebet off and she reared up. With a loud whinny she bucked and took off in the opposite direction, jumping over a narrow section of the river that ran along the other side of camp and galloping off into the woods. Cole had tried to grab the mare only to be knocked to the ground, as she stared up into the cloud covered sky she fought down the string of profanity that rose in her throat like bile.

Vaughn | | Male | | 11 | | Fig
Location: Familiarized Camp
Mentions: Alistair, Zaki, and Anne (Indirect)

---

Waking up early in the morning was certainly not Vaughn's favorite thing in the morning. In a way, it reminded him of how he had to get up at the crack of dawn to get ready for school, slowly but surely, and finish any of yesterday's homework. It was almost strange that it reminded him of school; for he hadn't been there in a full year. But, like most children would be wondering- if he ever did go back, would he have to start with the grade he left off in? That thought hurt his brain, so he tried to suppress it with more comforting thoughts, like how his entire life was now one big camping trip, he could wake up whenever he wanted to (mostly), and how he had so much time with Fig... well, when she wasn't resting in the afternoon, that is.

A quiet rustling woke up Vaughn, whose messy hair had been tangled further by his incessant tossing turning in the middle of the night that he was sure annoyed Anne... and was probably the reason that she left their shared tent either in the morning. After all, very few people would appreciate being accidentally kicked or rolled on by a sleeping boy wrestling with the vibe dreams in his mind. But, when he heard the rustling, he knew it had to be none other than Fig. Lifting a tired eyelid, Vaughn crawled listlessly to the source of quiet noise, and sat up once he reached his backpack.

The rustling ceased, and he dug his hand around in his backpack until his finger brushed up against Fig's velvety, soft fur. Gently, his fingers wrapped around her small body, and he set her on the palm of his other hand. Fig's snowy white fur was temporarily dyed by the red berries he'd allowed her to get into last night if she pleased. Moving Fig up onto his his forearm, Vaughn rummaged through his back to pull out the open bag of red berries, and he inspected them quickly before sighing. The bad had been full of juicy, sweet berries that he knew that both he and Fig would like... but, over the course of the night, Fig fancied nibbling a tiny bite from each of them, rather than just eating a full berry. "Aw, Fig! I wanted some of those! Now they'll rot really soon," he sighed, and pulled out a berry to offer to her. "Since you did this- you take it!" He held the berry out to Fig for her to take into her little paws, but she simply refused it, not even wanting to give the slightest glance to the "tainted" berry. Sighing once more, he half-heartedly tossed the flawed fruit back into the bag. Maybe he'd find some use for it later...?

While tumbling with his thoughts, Vaughn perked up at the sound of Zaki and Alistair talking outside. Alistair's voice seemed to get louder and louder, fervent in his belief about violence in the city worsening the situation. And to that, he just covered it his ears, trying to drown it out. He'd heard similar things before, about going home and back to the city. But what did he believe in? Would his mom remember him? Was she still there? Did she even love him if she left him out there? As a child, it was hard to comprehend difficult questions like that. After all, he thought his mother had loved him... until that night.

~

His mother had left Vaughn and Fig on the edges of the gnarly forest nearly an hour before, but he'd taken little more than a few steps into the pitch blackness of the forest, with its thick canopy concealing any rays of moonlight that may split though to give him some sort of light and judgement. Fig was in his shirt pocket, restless. She didn't make a peep and Vaughn was terrified that she would slip out of the pocket at any time and race off into the darkness, never to be found again.

As a precaution, he removed her from his pocket and held her tiny body in his hands, while her weak, prehensile tail gently wrapped around his wrist. If anything, that gave him a sense of comfort, even if Fig didn't understand his emotions and she was merely doing it out of necessity. The only thing he could do now, was talk quietly to Fig, but definitely not too loudly, for he feared someone may hear him. "Fig... I'm scared. I can't see anything. I know you can... but you can't tell me where to go. Or who's around... or whether or not we can go back home." Vaughn's voice was weak and quavering while his hands gently squeezed Fig, which earned him an utterance of a growl from Fig.

"Why did mom leave us, Fig? She said it was dangerous... but... This forest is really scary. And... I want to go home!" And with that, Vaughn slumped against a nearby tree, hitting his a little too hard against it, and he cried, biting into his lip to try and quiet himself a little and to prevent open-mouthed wailing, while Fig wriggled about in discomfort in his now loosening hands. And defeated... Vaughn slid down the side of the the tree until he was sitting on the roots that bursted out of the ground and provided a bumpy place to sit. It wasn't comfortable... but, the biggest of his worries was spiders and insects crawling around on his sleeping body. That thought did not settle well with him, so that night, he stayed up all night, whimpering and holding onto Fig for comfort, even though she could not give him any, except for the blankness of her glassy eyes, which Vaughn thought held an inkling of emotion in them... or perhaps, it was just his imagination.

~

Figuring that he may as well start his day, Vaughn crawled out of the tent, his body popping gently as he stretched his way out, until he unceremoniously tumbled out of the tent. Fig had hopped off his arm by the then and he hurriedly inspected the area to make sure he hadn't squashed her, but was relieved to find her perched on the apex of the tent. "Gosh, Fig. I thought I smashed you!" he said, inviting her to crawl back up his arm, which she did... ever so slowly until she crawled up into the mass of hair on his head, which, embarrassingly enough, was like a nest to her.

Zaki | Male | 19 | Nagi
Location: Familiarized Camp
Mentions: Alistair, Solaria

Zaki wouldn't look Alistair in the eyes. He knew he was being unreasonable - there was no way they could return to the Unfamiliarized's open arms and settle back down in the city as if nothing had happened. It just wasn't possible. But oh, how he wished he could just go home and forget this ever happened. Forget he had to watch his familiar murder an innocent child just because he was too shy to not get nervous around other people.

"You know I can't promise you that, Ali. These people-" he gestured around at the Familiarized surrounding them; "They're here because of me. Because of what Nagi and I did. How awful would that make me, to run off and abandon everybody to escape the problem I caused?" His voice was barely a whisper, but it held complete certainty in the fact that he had to stay, whether in the forest or back home in the city. He hated arguing with Alistair, but couldn't he see how wrong it would be to leave all of the other Familiarized behind?

Zaki opened his mouth to let out what was almost certainly an apology for nothing in particular, but before he could speak, Solaria cut him off. His eyes widened comically at her suggestion, and he immediately shook his head at the very notion of using violence as a way of reclaiming the city.

"The last thing we want is to turn this into a full-on war. We'd never be able to win, even with our familiars. We're way too outnumbered," he pointed out, forcing himself to not stammer because of his anxiety. He quickly added: "Besides, violence isn't the answer. We'd never be allowed anywhere near the city again." While he disagreed with Solaria's aggressive approach, he knew the chances of them being able to convince the Unfamiliarized to let them return to the city peacefully were slim, if nonexistent. But that didn't mean they had to go on a rampage, killing anything that moved.


Anne | Female | 76 | Eden
Location: Familiarized Camp
Mentions: Vaughn

Anne spotted her favorite eleven-year-old exiting their shared tent out of the corner of her eye and immediately rose to her feet, wincing as half of the bones in her body popped with the movement. She brushed it off, however, heading over towards Vaughn with Eden close in tow.

"Sleep well?" she inquired when she got close enough, unable to help the smirk that appeared upon spotting his familiar perched on his head. "I like your new hat, by the way. It suits you," Anne teased playfully.


Jack | Male | 17 | N/A
Location: City -> Familiarized Camp
Mentions: OPEN

Jack had woken up around six in the morning (he didn't know the exact time because he didn't have a clock in the forest) so that he could make a quick run to the city to grab some more water bottles for himself and some other Familiarized, seeing as he only had one left and there was no way in hell he was going anywhere near that river. He never had to worry about getting caught, as he was Unfamiliarized and looked it, too. Besides, he was fantastic at blending in. It certainly came in handy as a thief.

He'd squeezed through a gap in the fence that separated the forest from the city, wincing as a sharp piece of wire dug into his leg and drew blood. Once he was inside the city limits, he'd done a little sightseeing, A.K.A. he'd looked for someone to pickpocket, finally settling on a young man probably on his way to work. Jack nabbed his wallet, counting up how much he'd made and finding himself surprised at the two hundred dollar bills inside. That would certainly cover enough water for a while. He then headed into the nearest grocery store, grabbing four packages of water bottles, each with two dozen bottles inside.

As soon as he payed for the water he headed back to the forest, passing the packages through the rundown fence one at a time before following them himself. He knew they needed more supplies other than water, but there was no way he'd be able to carry everything they needed back to the camp, so he just decided to get what he needed and skedaddle (and make quite a bit of money in the process).

Jack ignored the commotion when he returned to the Familiarized camp, heading over to "his" tree and setting the waters down at the base. He grabbed a bottle before climbing up to nestle himself in the only fork in the tree sturdy enough to support a person's weight, finally turning his attention to the activities going on below.

Danny | Male | 21 | Esther
Location: Fairground --> Forest
Mentions: Esther & Camp

He slipped out of his trailer as the sun was just rising. Danny had reassured Erik that he was just going to check on Esther, though that was far from the truth. He was tired of watching the circus fall apart as people boycotted it because he was a familiar. It wasn't like he asked for it, it had been given to him and many of his family. Though they either left the circus life as soon as they could or like his aunt had lost their familiar due to age. He hefted his bags to the animal tent. Inside many of the animals roamed free, the predators having gone with their trainer when he fled the circus and stole all the money. Now just a few horses, elephants, and zebras were left. A large percheron gelding walked up to him and nudged his chest. Petting his Aunt Talia’s new horse he looked for Esther. His aunt’s familiar had passed last year, the mare seemed to have only lasted long enough for Talia to train a new vaulting horse. Danny rubbed Esther’s trunk, glad elephants lived as long as people.

Packing the two bigger bags on top of his familiar, he put the last bag on his back. Without telling anyone he headed towards the forest, away from all he had known. Slowly the noises of the city faded away and were replaced with the quiet songs of birds. The duo made their trek towards the familiar camp. Danny had heard stories of it from the few familiars that had passed through the circus. Slowly it seemed like the birdsong had gone away, replaced by the quiet bubbling of the river. Wanting to get a better look across the water without crossing it, he quickly scaled a nearby oak. The tree was no challenge to the seasoned acrobat and shot he peaked out amongst the leaves to spot a clearing. Slipping back down to the ground, he looked for a shallow spot to cross. Danny was guessing that the clearing held the camp he was looking for. Finding nothing suitable, he climbed on top of Esther so she could cross.




Nola | Female | 18 | Rei
Location: Familiar camp
Mentions: Alistair, Zaki, Solaria

Peaking out of her tent, she spotted the others up and moving. Disappearing for a moment back inside the tent, she fixed her bandages and replaced the torn ones. Most of her burns by now were healed up into scars, though a few nasty ones lingered. The slim blonde stepped out into the sunshine, her crow hopping out behind her. Rei fluttered his wings and flew up onto a branch that gave him a view of Nola’s activities. He was at the tail end of his life and no longer had the energy to follow her around. The bird would have been perched on Nola’s shoulder, but there was a fear that the scabs and scars could break open again. Nola slipped over to the small group discussing the city again.

“Perhaps we should just try and improve our camp? Or we could even move to a familiar friendly city?” She piped up, offering a suggestion that would counter Solaria’s. Nola had just caught the end of her statement and knew it would do no good. Tugging her sweater closer, she hoped they might have somewhere warm to stay before winter kicked in. Her thin frame and hatred for fire could prove fatal for her when the snow hit. On top of that she worried about her aging friend who was already elderly for his species and would not survive the harsh cold for sure. Nola knew she would lose her familiar shortly, yet she was trying her hardest to extend what time they had left together. With a click of her tongue, Rei flew down to her extended forearm. Drawing him close to her chest, she stroked his feathered head.