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Post by clouds just clouds on Apr 23, 2014 21:03:07 GMT -8
"Darling, no-" the woman cried, but before she could saw anything, Zachariah grabbed the man's collar and held a knife to his neck. His eyes were cold and challenging. Before she could help herself, tears burst from the woman's eyes and she lowered herself down onto her knees and wept into her hands. "Please, he didn't mean anything. Darling, please, calm down... everyone--"
"Hey," Zachariah gave up the man and instantly caught the woman's hand. "Don't cry, alright? As long as he doesn't try to hurt us, we won't hurt him." Sympathy filled him like a balloon. He couldn't resist helpless women that were crying. Especially pregnant helpless women.
Especially pregnant helpless women, that were crying, named Mimi.
Or, Mimi in general, but that wasn't relevant.
A sob fell from the woman, "Please, he didn't mean it. We're both just tired, and we can't find our little girl." She looked up at Mimi with red-rimmed eyes. Her face then twisted and she crumpled into herself, letting out sob.
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Post by Moon on Apr 23, 2014 21:42:55 GMT -8
Mimi winced, feeling the sudden intense emotions rage through he body. She pulled away from the man and put a hand over her mouth. She suppressed a cough that nearly turned into dry gag as he stomach rolled uncomfortably. She closed her eyes, counting mentally while her stomach settled. Despite her discomfort she made her way over to the woman, with Damos in tow, and knelt beside Zachariah. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Here, let me." With that said she moved closer to the woman and wrapped her arms around her, sending a wave of calm toward her.
The man felt bad for the rash decision and promptly retrieved his weapon to sheath it. "I'm sorry, that...was completely my fault." He ran a hand through his sandy hair. "She is right, though. We've had a rather rough morning. Our daughter went missing while we were out for a small family outing." The man sighed as his previous bravado disintegrated. "This whole mess is my own damn fault."
Another wave and Mimi felt her insides knot. She grimaced, but remained focused on her task of comforting the woman. She glanced over her shoulder at the man. "Perhaps, if we knew her name we could help you look for her?" Mimi was letting her soft spot show once again. Most likely something she had picked up from Chance, she never let the less fortunate suffer when she could help.
"Ah yes. Her name was Amy." Relief flooded his features and he physically relaxed. "And I'm Mason Archer. I couldn't tell you how thankful we'd be to see her again."
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Post by clouds just clouds on Apr 27, 2014 11:21:34 GMT -8
The woman took in gasping breaths, but refused the wave of calmness that tickled her edges. "I can't be calm!" She pushed herself away from Zachariah and walked away. "My baby girl!" She mourned. When she figured that she was far away enough to not bother Mimi she collapsed again. A moan left her and she whimpered. "My poor baby... My baby girl..."
Zachariah watched her with saddened eyes. Slowly, he stood and tried to help Mimi stand. His eyes flickered up to the man. "My name is Zachariah Short, this is Mimi..." A brow raised. "Mimi," he sounded surprised as he glanced at her. "Do you have a last name?"
He quickly shook away his surprise and flickered a gaze back over to the man. "Do you have anything of hers? We could track down the smell." In the corner of his gaze, he saw the woman stiffen.
"R-Right here..." The woman turned, sniffing as she held up a small teddy bear. "W-We found this on the ground. It's hers. She never goes anywhere without it. M-My name is Aieeda." Zachariah walked over to the woman and carefully reached down to take the small, worn stuffed teddy bear. The woman made a noise that sounded like he broke all her fingers when he took it. He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand, "No. Don't make any promises..."
Zachariah nodded grimly and gingerly held the teddy bear. "Alright.."
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Post by Moon on Apr 28, 2014 13:42:48 GMT -8
It took all of Mimi's concentration not to jump away from the woman. Slowly she exhaled, feeling the searing pain of backlash on her fingertips. She sat back on her heels and watched the woman closely. She couldn't even begin to imagine the pain she felt. Or rather, she could imagine it but to actually experience that kind of loss and not the residual feeling of it was hard for her to imagine. She bit her lip and glanced away, afraid of showing her own sadness for this woman. "I'm sorry, I thought I was helping."
Gratefully Mimi accepted his help and held onto him as she rose. The multitude of negative emotions were making her stomach do back-flips. She decided to let Zachariah do most of the talking as she tried to manage the emotions. She glanced up at him when he called her name. "Huh?" She frowned, confused by his question. "Of course I do." Though, as she thought about it, she began to doubt that statement. In a sense she did have a last name, it was the name of her tribe. But she was no longer a part of that tribe and thus she had no right to claim that name any more. So, instead, she took the next obvious choice. "It's Short."
Mason stared at the pair curiously, but shook the feeling away. Their private matters of names weren't exactly on his list of priorities. He didn't care who found his little girl, so long she was returned to them safe and sound he could care less. "I don't have anything, but my wife might." He walked over to her and knelt beside her. He didn't bother to comfort her, because he knew that would only make things worse. Instead he turned his attention toward the strangers. "Just please, bring her back safe."
Mimi knelt beside Damos and stroked his fur. I hope your tracking skills are still up to par. This little girl is going to be hard to track with the old scent of a teddy bear. Damos snorted, but understanding was clear in his eyes.
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Post by clouds just clouds on Apr 28, 2014 14:20:30 GMT -8
A deep blush swarmed his cheeks, and he couldn't keep the shock from filling his face. Short? His heart skipped and leaped up into his throat. Protests filled his tongue, but his mouth refused to cooperate. Instead of telling her how unreasonable it would be to have his last name, he let it drop. Her suggesting that her last name was the same as his meant that they were married.
A small part of him filled with worry. The last girl that wanted to take his last name cheated on him and pretended him to be dead. Shaking away his selfish thoughts, he glanced up at Mason and let his brows fall together. "My sense of small isn't bad, but it isn't the best. I might as well try." He reached out to pass the doll to Mimi. If she took it, he dropped to his hands and knees and shifted into his tiger form.
In this form, he moved to breathe in the doll and closed his eyes. The scent on it was strong because it had been used so much. Turning his large head, he sniffed the air, hoping to focus onto that one smell.
The woman fell in silence, whimpering only slightly. She leaned against her husband and turned to push her face into Mason's shoulder. She rubbed her hand on her swollen stomach, feeling the child within it give small kicks, as if he/she sympathized or even missed his/her sister.
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Post by Moon on Apr 28, 2014 15:16:12 GMT -8
Mimi sensed his shock and turned to him, shaking her head. The last thing this couple needed was for them to seem distracted. If anything she knew she would have to explain her choice of words later, but for now she wanted to remain focused on the task at hand. She wondered briefly if she could sense the girl's emotions from where they were in hopes of making the search that much easier, but with the current storm of emotions around her, the idea seemed highly unlikely. She wouldn't be able to pinpoint the girl until they were close enough to her.
Mimi gingerly took the bear and studied it. It wasn't anything special, just a normal stuff toy. Yet this little toy was the key to finding this little girl. She waited until Zachariah was transformed then held it out to him. As he scented the air she turned to Damos and knelt so that he could get a scent from the bear too.
Well, the good news is: at least the scent is strong. Mimi frowned at Damos' tone. Good news was always followed by bad news. Bad news is: we've got quite a ways to go before we find her. It may take some time, possibly even into the evening.
Mimi nodded, straightening herself up, and walked back over to the couple. "Here, you should keep this. It may be better for you to have something to hold onto. We've got the scent of her so we'll be fine without it." She glanced back at Damos, remembering his words. "In the meantime you are welcome to use our camp for food and shelter. There is deer near the fire pit so all you need to do is cook it. We will be back with your daughter, you can be sure of that."
Mason started to protest about the bear, but instead thought better of it and took the bear from Mimi. He wrapped his arm around his wife and placed the bear next to her swollen belly. He offered Mimi a tired but thankful smile. "Thank you, for all that you're doing."
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Post by clouds just clouds on Apr 28, 2014 15:54:00 GMT -8
Jeremiah glanced over at the man and let out a chuff. After rubbing his head on Mimi's legs, he trotted away and into the forest. His tail flicked back and forth as he stepped into the shade and began taking in the smells around him. While hunting, he usually didn't focus on such things, but now it was needed for him to.
He didn't know if Mimi and Damos would follow him. He hoped the either flanked his right or left. That would have them cover more ground, and more easily. Following the mother and father's trail, he decided that it would be the fasted way to figure out where the daughter last was and where she would have ran off to.
Worry flickered through him. He hoped she didn't meet the ends of some predator's jaws. He wouldn't be able to deliver that kind of news.
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Post by Moon on Apr 28, 2014 20:24:37 GMT -8
Mimi smiled, feeling the spot where his cheek brushed against her leg tingle with warmth. With a final glance at the couple she climbed onto Damos' back and urged him forward. She kept her eyes ahead for fear of losing what little control she had managed to gain over her composure. As Damos raced through the forest, Mimi felt her senses begin to heighten as her senses melded with Damos' own. Her vision became sharper and more attentive to detail while her ears rang with the sound of rushing wind and the crunch of the grass. Though those senses were short lived, as she was focused on only the scent. Slowly the world became gray and colorless, with only the scents of specific things coming to view. She was literally seeing the scent trails left behind by countless bodies. Two in particular interested her. A light blue scent, which belonged to Zachariah, and the other a bright yellow scent, which Mimi had assumed to be the girl's scent.
Damos easily flanked Zachariah, matching him in strides, even if he was a bit faster than he was. His sharp eyes were trained on the yellow scent trail Mimi had managed to pick up on. He barked a few times, trying to catch Zachariah's attention, before veering off to the left. He didn't really need to focus on much save for the direction in which they were going.
Suddenly he slowed to a stop and Mimi slid off his back. Her scent is all around here. I can't quite make out where it leads to. Maybe you can sense her?
Mimi nodded and opened an outstretched hand. Using her arms like sonar signals she closed her eyes and focused on trying to feel any kind of emotion. Fear, sadness, loneliness any emotion strong enough to notice was what she searched for.
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Post by clouds just clouds on Apr 29, 2014 20:44:04 GMT -8
Complete and utter terror filled her. Her childish mind couldn't tell time, yet she would still swear that it had been days. At first it had been the strange animal that waved for her to follow it, and her parents were too busy coddling over her supposed little sibling that grew in Mommy's tummy. She followed the creature for a little and heard her parents calling out for her. Right when she turned to call back, a hand clamped around her mouth and she was dragged away. Her small hands wrapped around the irons bars tightly as the van rattled along a dry and unstable road. Tears had dried on her cheeks, and occasionally she would whimper. Other cages would rattle around her, but the others weren't full. Only two others had anyone in them, and one was a young boy and the other was a dog.
It looked dead.
Turning her back to the opening of her cage, she whimpered to the car's wall and let out a small sob. She never would see her mommy or daddy again. Slumping against the wallx she closed her eyes tightly and tried to control her breathing. Her lungs ached from crying, and her throat closed tightly. She couldn't breathe.
Zachariah made sure to follow Damos. His fur prickled. He could tell her sent filled the area around them, but he picked up on another too. A koala bear. His ears twitched. Why would a koala bear be around here? He glanced at Damos and Mimi, wondering if they sensed anything. His muscles bunched as the smart part of him came to resurface. What if it has been a trap? What if they wanted the parents to look for their baby girl and fall into the trap, too?
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Post by Moon on Apr 30, 2014 18:24:08 GMT -8
Normally the boy would have responded to the whimpering of another living person, but he could not bring himself to turn around. He couldn't bring himself to do much of anything, in fact. He wasn't quite sure what purpose the dog served, but he wasn't about to find out. He didn't want to look. If he did he would remember the severe beating he had witnessed the dog receiving. Every time he closed his eyes for too long he saw the scene again. So he focused on not closing them at all. Fear kept him from closing his eyes, but fatigue beckoned him to ease them shut.
The girl's terror shot through Mimi like lightning and she stumbled a bit at the sheer intensity that hit her. She gasped and felt her knees buckle as she knelt to the ground. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on pinpointing the emotions and not her protesting stomach that rolled violently. She turned to Zachariah, trying to hide her extreme discomfort as she spoke. "I-I can sense them in that direction." She gestured off to the right. "I've never felt anything...this intense. At least not from children. There are two of them there and one is on the verge of losing himself. I can feel his emotions fighting against one another." She closed her eyes again, feeling her own remorse flood her system. "What could make them feel such intense emotions?"
Beside her Damos tried to block her from the onslaught of negative emotions. He only succeeded in diverting some of the emotions to himself, but the intensity was no less shocking to either of them. It had nearly knocked even him over when they first felt it. It made him all the more eager to find the little girl and return her safely to her parents.
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