-Color: Veins of a New World-

Steelio, shook his head, emerging from his state of blankness. "Oh," he walked over to the canines. It seemed to Steelio that Faez had already lost interest in him. That didn't bother him much. He smiled, and said, "When did you get here?" He began to space out again. Who are you anyway? The voice said to him, I am you, and you are Fear. He blinked and pushed the thought aside.

A peaceful wind blew through the forest.

***

Further away from the forest, shrieking energy mortars whistled as they fell through the sky onto a nearby village. Explosions littered the dirt roads. Shanty tents were easily decimated by the Deathcapps new powerful arsenal. Deathcapp raids were spreading throughout the world. Eventually the afterlife would be completely transformed into just another Destroyer's outpost.

***

Somewhere very far away, two beings sat in a room. One seemed very stressed and the other had his hand on the stressed one's shoulder.

The stressed man spoke. "The only war we have actually benefited from is the one that freed us from Corruption. Hatred needs to stop his universal expansion. We already have enough. We don't need anything more to control."

The other said in agreement, "We have lost many allies because of him. We have lost countless wars. The Destroyed Clan is slowly decomposing."

A tear rolled down the stressed ones cheek. "We lost Fear because of him." He tensed his fists.

The other frowned, and seemed to be angry now. "Hatred thinks we are traitors, when we are doing the right thing. Death has been stressed too. It's almost as if she wanted us to lose the war with Corruption."

Raik was about to answer Faez when he noticed someone else speaking. "Oh, hi!" he said excitedly, "Uh, we just got here. I'm Raik, and this is my brother Kairn."

He grinned at the newcomer, who was about the same height as him, and asked, "what's your name?"

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Kairn observed the two, Faez and... Whoever this was. He watched every move they made and memorized their mannerisms as fast as he could, trying to size them up, see how helpful they might be to him and Raik. There was a good chance that the pair of them would want to 'help' him and his brother. The question was, would they really help, or would they hinder?

He didn't know yet, and wouldn't for a while. He thought about intervening, but decided to let Raik keep talking a while longer. He at least wanted to know this newcomer's name.

Safina grinned when she saw the creature that had made the sound. It was a little fox, and being someone who loves nature Safina didn't shy away from it. In truth there weren't many things Safina would shy away from. She listened as the fox told her its name. Poor thing- she seemed timid speaking to Safina. Maybe she should try and fix that by introducing herself to the fox.

"Nice to meet ya, Flower. My name is Safina and there's my new friend Gwyneth," she pointed at the dragoness. She wasn't sure if they could be considered friends yet- they had only just met, after all- but it was the best description for them right now, it would seem. Plus the dragon seemed friendly enough, so she probably wouldn't mind. Safina continued talking, "I'm a dryad and I honestly don't know where we are right now... So do you by any chance know?"

On her way to the duo Ilene saw two wolves join them. She picked up her pace and ran until she was just a few yards away. Her large red eyes sized up the peculiar group as she listened to their conversation. It seemed that they were also strangers to this place. The entire time she didn't blink or make a single sound. After a few second delay she took one step at a time gradually getting closer, and closer, waiting for somebody to notice her.

Steelio turned his head to the red eyes. He assumed whatever it was, was friendly. Unless it's extremely obvious that something is a threat, he considers it a friend. He spoke, walking around Faez, "Uh, hi." He took a step forward, then looked to the side at Faez, giving him a reassuring smile, and turned back to the red eyes. Continuing forward with a slow saunter, he said happily, "What's your name?"

Ilene now noted that the blue reptile seemed to be a type of wingless dragon. It might be aquatic since it's all blue. She was interrupted when it met her gaze. To her surprise the draconic creature recoiled pressing it's ears against it's head. Did I spook you? she though to herself.

It spoke to it's companions in a quiet tone, which confirmed her suspicion. Perfect time to make a first impression.

The boy had spotted her as well and cheerfully called out asking her name. There was little doubt the wolves had also noticed her by now. The hellish eyes dipped downwards in the blackness as she coiled her legs and sprang.

In response Ilene landed soft and catlike before them, she stood up and coolly uttered a single word. "Ilene."

Raik turned around, but didn't speak. His ears lowered and the grin fell from his face. Something about this new creature, Ilene, scared him. He wasn't sure what. He glanced at Kairn, who gladly stepped forward, realizing that he was finally wanted.

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Kairn kept a stern look on his face as he turned to address Ilene, sizing her up just like everyone else. He could see this one being more dangerous, but of course he could never be sure.
"Hello," he said evenly, "I am Kairn, and this is Raik."

He didn't mention that they were brothers. The less others knew about the two of them, the better should they turn against him.

Ilene's eyes darted from one creature to another. The dragon regained it's composure, but one of the wolves now seemed unsettled by her appearance. Am I really that scary? A genuine pretty smile played across her lips "greetings" she said softly. She blinked her eyes and twirled to and fro, trying her best to appear nonthreatening.

Steelio smiled at his new friend, and was a bit excited that so many people were friendly around him. It brought a feeling of security. Suddenly a memory flashed by him. A muscular shirtless man, climbing a tree, with a friendly smile beaming down at Steelio. There was a meadow, and-and, nothing. The memory faded. Steelio stood there in a bit of awe, as a question came to him, "Does anyone remember what happened before they came to this forest?"

Raik, seeing that Ilene was actually friendly, calmed down immediately. He turned to Steelio, thinking hard.
"Well... I remember falling..."

He fell silent, thinking. There had to be more than falling. Unless it was a dream... He didn't really know, but somehow he felt fairly sure that it was real. But why?

----------

Kairn, on the other hand, was more worried about the current situation. He didn't fully trust Ilene, and felt more like she was trying to appear friendly. Perhaps just because she came off seeming hostile otherwise, but he rarely gave people the benefit of the doubt.

Besides that, there was the issue of food, and shelter. He was sure Raik would insist they help everyone they met, but realistically unless everyone could at least partially pull their own weight, an arrangement like that was doomed to fail. He would keep that in mind, but he couldn't really decide until the question was posed.

Still, something seemed off about Ilene, and even then he didn't really trust anyone. He kept a close, though silent, watch on all of them.

Helios awoke in a forest. What happened? he thought to himself. He had a faint memory of being on the battlefield, and then a hot sensation on his back, then waking up in the forest. He looked around, and realized he heard voices. The location of the voices seemed to be coming from about 35 feet away. He got up and decided to investigate, walking toward the sound of the voice quietly. He noticed with a smile that the strange incident that preceded his arrival here hadn't robbed him of his pants, which was his only garment apart from his boots. He flexed his chiseled muscles as he came closer, preparing himself in case the source of the voices was hostile.

Ilene turned her glowing orb like eyes to face the boy and simply stared for a moment. She then looked away and said "I'd rather not talk about it." From her observations of the wolves, the frightened had one loosened up, but the other still held it's ground. Not so soon to trust it seems...

A figure approaching in the darkness caught her attention, she fixated her gaze upon it and didn't move a muscle. As she glanced at him statistics involuntarily ran through her head. Male, grey skinned, roughly six foot, peak physical condition, unarmed. She had no idea why she sized him up and not the others, she wasn't going to dwell on it at the moment.

The dragon had picked up on the visitor as well. "Correct. Right over there." she held her arm out straight and rotated like a compass to indicate his direction.

Helios emerged in the area with his hands up, ready to grab anyone who tried to jump him, to find a younger looking girl pointing in his direction, accompanied by a reptilian creature, two wolves, and a young boy. He wore a serious expression on his face as he asked all of them "Who are all of you?" in a deep voice.

"The bigger question is who are you mister?" Ilene quickly closed the distance between them "And how'd you get so strong?" She giggled placing a tender hand on his left arm and squeezing his bicep. Her hand quickly retreated back to her side. Ilene then adopted a wider stance and put her hands on her hips making her elbows flare outwards. "Well?" she demanded, all signs of childishness dissipating.

Helios looked down at the...he wasn't sure whether she was a teenager or an adult, and her eyes, there was something not right about them. "Me? I am Helios" he replied, inwardly amused at her childlike interest in his muscles. "Now what is your name girl?"

As soon as the newcomer had finished giving his name Ilene let her hands fall from her sides. She closed her eyes, turned on her heel and pranced back towards the others. A triumphant smile was openly displayed across her face all the while. Midway she called back "You can call me Ilene."

When Ilene returned to her former spot she spun to face Helios, folding her arms casually against her chest.

Helios looked back at her with his serious expression, unmoved by her prancing. "Now who are the rest of you, and do any of you know anything about this place?" He folded his arms back at Ilene.

Safina Turned to Gwyneth after introducing herself to Flower. "Maybe we should see if there's anyone else besides us three here. We could be a small team for now or something." She looked from Gwyneth, to Flower, then back. So they were a group made up of a dragon, a fox, and a dryad. An unlikely team in her opinion, but pretty cool. Safina looked around the woods. There were so many trees that went who knows how long. The possibility of finding some more living beings that weren't plant was extremely low- right? Then there was food... Safina didn't find it much of a problem- there was probably some sort of edible plant around here- but a dragon and a fox prefer meat, right?

Safina nodded in agreement, "I was just thinking the same thing about the food. I think it would be best to look for others first, though. Strength in numbers, after all. We can search for food also while we search for the others. Shelter I don't really know about, though. Any ideas?". She paused before noting, "if we find others around here we'll probably find a shelter, right?  So for the first step in finding someone..." Safina gave a sheepish grin before cupping her hands around her mouth, "Helloooooo? Anyone hear me?!"  

Safina uncupped her hands and looked at Flower and Gwyneth, "I guess we see if there's a reply.". It was quite a risky move- the wrong beings could hear her. But then there wasn't anything else she could think of doing so it was fine, right? Sure, maybe a little childish... But a good start.

This moment spawned a glimpse into Steelio's past life. A beautiful gray skinned girl leaned over towards a fanged man. They were in a white room with a gray couch. Everything seemed to be white or gray. It was fairly hard to recall every detail in the scene, thus he couldn't remember any specific names, nor could he remember the location. He thought, What is this place? Who are these people? The voice in his head responded. All you can talk you, is thats these people will be defined overtime and throughses these is experience.

Steelio pulled his conscious out of the hole of memories. He looked at Ilene and gave a mischievous smile. He teased her, "You like him." He skipped over to her, laughed and pointed.

Raik had slowly moved himself until he was behind Faez. He wasn't worried by any one person really, but the large amount of new people... Well no. He didn't like Helios, and now that he thought about it, Ilene still worried him a bit. Overall, though, he just wanted to stop meeting new people.

---------------

Kairn very deliberately ignored Steelio and turned to Helios. He chose his words carefully, as always when speaking to anyone other than family and close friends.

"I am Kairn," he said, for what felt like the hundredth time, "over there is Raik. I do not know anything about this forest, and I do not think anyone else here does either."