IC Time: Dusk, August 31 2007
Location: Forks - Forest: Abandoned Campground
Synopsis: Holly and Tiago are attacked by a wolf. Abbey arrives too late to spare Tiago from a bite.
Submitted by: Holly
It's a very good thing cell phones still work in these parts of the woods, no matter how desolate it would appear to be. Holly has been texting on hers for the past hour or so, trying desperately to contact Tiago. He was the only person with access to the house at the moment, since Leo was at work, and Maria was presumably off doing her own thing. Tiago? Well, he didn't do anything, did he? Not in Holly's opinion, anyway. 'Plz bring me beer. Will pay up. Camping. Kthx.' She sends off another text and then sighs, leaning her back against a tree where there's been a tarp setup to prevent the raining from soaking through. For now, there's no rain, but there are bugs. Lots of them. The girl looks rather miserable, glaring toward the shouts heard further in the woods where her friends frolic in the stream. "This was the dumbest idea ever."
Tiago doesn't respond immediately afterwards, but he does respond. And much like everything he does, he does it in his typical, slightly immature and offensive manner. 'R u srs? Camping? haha ok lumberjack, i'll b there in a lil'. It takes him even longer to actually show up - a school bag slung over his shoulder as he hikes his way through the woods, swatting at the bugs that seem to lack self-preservation and mock him by flying around his head. "Geez! Fuckin' hicktown, I swear. How'm I s'posed ta find 'em in the middle of the entire goddamn woods? Holly! Holly, where the hell are you?"
Holly stands to grab her rolled up sleeping bag and tosses it on the ground under the tarp. She then lays in the grass, resting her head on the rolled up bag and glancing at the sky and trees with the same general pissed-off glare. At first, she doesn't hear Tiago's shout. After all, it sounds a little like the rest of her friends just goofing off from far away. A full two minutes after his last call, however, she rises. "Huh? Tiago! Over here! Past the picnic tables, down the path." She jumps into the clearing and peers through the foliage of the overgrown trail, waving her arms 'round. And really, she shouldn't be too hard to spot — bright lime green shirt, black skirt, and yellow rain boots do well to stand out against the landscape of brown and green. "I can't believe you came! You must actually like me."
Tiago glances around, perking up when he hears the call ringing out towards him. "Holly? Oh, uh - 'kay." A couple of minutes of shuffling later, and the boy bursts through the foliage, jumping into his heroic stance as he grins broadly, hands planted on his waist. "Tada! I have arrived! have no fear, 'cause…wow. You /really/ don't know how ta dress for campin', do you?" He sounds quite amused as he looks her outfit over, shaking his head slowly. "And - eh. I was jus' bored, is all. Anyway, I've got the stuff. Where're your friends at, anyway?" He slides the bag off of his shoulder, smiling as he unzips it and searches the contents rather idly.
Holly laughs at Tiago's antics, eyeing the bag interestedly. "Have no fear, the beer is here?" she finishes, her mouth forming into a smirk at her cheesy rhyme. "Finally. Jeez, I didn't think you'd come. What kind did you bring? You know I hate the dark stuff. If you brought that ale shit, I'm going to be pissed." She steps closer to the boy, watching him search the contents of the bag. "They all went swimming. I don't swim, remember? So I'm supposed to be putting together a campfire, I guess." There is a wary look given to the campfire pit, currently empty. "It's not going so well." There is no mention of the money she promised the Brazilian, and no purse in sight. "Hey, you should stay. My friend Alyssa thinks you're cute, anyway. The pudgier one?"
Tiago curls the corners of his lips into an amused sort of smirk, pleased by Holly's rhyme. "Yeah, somethin' like that. 'Cept less corny. And I dunno - the cheap kind. I ain’t made of money or anything. Which, by the way, you owe me big." He pulls out two cans, tossing one over to Holly thoughtlessly as he allows the bag to drop onto the floor. He doesn't even react to the invitation to stick around - since he had apparently been intending to do so the entire time, and instead skips right ahead to the 'friend'. "Huh, yeah? She pretty?" Beat. "D'ah! You can't hook me up with your fat friends, Holly, that ain't fair. But we'll see, I guess. So like, you need ta make a fire and all?"
"Awesome. I love the cheap stuff." Pleased, Holly catches the can, but doesn't bother to open it yet, allowing for the fizzy beverage to settle before she cracks it. "I owe you, but I don't have any money out here in the wild. You'll have to wait til I get home. Which, by the way, won't be for a few days. We're really roughing it, for serious. Taking baths in the river, cooking hot dogs over the fire… I thought it would be fun, but I've only been here for three hours and it fucking sucks," she complains. "Oh, hell." Holly opens the beer and it froths to the top of the can before she kicks it back for a long sip. "Yeah, guess so. How do I do that? You do it for me." Playfully, she kicks at Tiago's shin. "Bitch."
Tiago looks to her with an impish smile, making a show of shaking up his can and holding it in her direction as if threatening to explode the fizziness in her direction, but it's a bluff, seeing as he merely cracks the beer open and clamps his lips down onto it, sucking away to keep the beverage from overflowing via carbonation. "Hm?…Shit. /Why/ wouldya think this was goin' ta be fun? If camping was fun, cavemen wouldn't have invented /houses/, duh." It's almost impossible to tell whether he's being serious or not. One semi-chug later, the lad shakes his head. "What? Hey!" He is amused by the 'pet name', but not enough to comment on it. "I aint doin' your dirty work for ya. C'mon - we gotta go log…huntin' or whatever."
A squeak emits from Holly, a very high pitched one, all things considered. Her cheeks color beneath her layer of chalky make-up as it turns out amber colored fizz /doesn't/ explode in her direction. "Well, they said we'd sit around and drink all day. As it turns out, everyone assumed someone else was bringing the booze. This case?" She nods toward the school bag. "Keeping it all to myself. Alright. Let's go," she agrees rather easily, nodding her head toward the woods and beginning to pick through them, beer in hand, clunky rubber boots still on. She does bother to grab a bag to throw some sticks in, but it's just a grocery bag. The sound of snapping twigs and a distinct curse as a thorny tree swipes her bare arm can be heard as Holly ambles on through, glancing over her shoulder to see if Tiago follows. "So, I have my own tent. Everyone else brought a boyfriend, so they all like, want to be alone. You want to stay the night?" Pause. "Not like /that/, but, you know. So I have someone to shoot the shit with? There's also this story. Well, couple of them. It's creeping me the hell out!"
Tiago jumps into action rather quickly, the ball of energy hiking along through the woods, occasionally wandering a bit farther away from Holly, out of sight, in the name of exploring. He always manages to pop right back up at the most random moment, however, usually from right behind Holly. When he stumbles back into sight as Holly glances backwards, he is carrying a couple thicker branches. "Huh? Wait, you're askin' me ta sleep with you." He clarifies, his grin growing broad and raucous. Shaking his head, he chooses to conveniently ignore when she clarifies the inquiry, instead skipping ahead. "Heh. Well…what story? S'like a ghost story or somethin'?"
"Those look good," Holly says encouragingly, eyeing Tiago's finds. "I'll just grab the lighter stuff to start the fire, you concentrate on the heavier stuff. You have to make sure it's dry, okay? Wet stuff doesn't light." Well, look who has suddenly become an expert in camping! She scoops up some dry weeds and stuffs them into the plastic bag. "In your dreams, Chi. You aren't getting any of this." There is a vague gesture to her figure given with her beer can as she steps over a fallen, rotting log. "Not exactly," she begins, glancing toward Tiago as he weaves back into view. "More like a legend, I guess. Last time some people went camping here, they disappeared. I guess they got married or something. But still, they just up and disappeared… some people were sayin' it was like that family that got murdered several months back. They were all sleeping in their beds when the entire family — kids and all — got murdered by some wild animal. Fur and shit everywhere. That was just outside of the woods. So Alyssa was telling us /that/, which is kind of creepy, but honestly, more sad than scary. THEN her boyfriend, Wilbur, starts saying this stuff about those Indians in La Push. That they have this legend about people turning into wild boars! Can you believe it? Wild boars might be killing people in the woods." Holly actually seems a little disturbed by all of it, despite how ridiculous it sounds.
"Why's it gotta be wet? The fire'll dry it, no worries." Tiago isn't exactly the perfect outdoorsman, apparently, but once he finishes off the beer and chucks it to the floor carelessly, he actually does take her advice to heart, sifting through wood in an attempt to find the most promising pieces. Before too long, he's got a healthy pile built up in his arms, and nods to the campsite to inform her that he - and by extension - /they/ are returning to it. "Huh? Like, for reals? Do you actually believe in that shit, man?" He seems quite intrigued by the story - more amused than anything. "That's kinda cool…D'you think there's somethin' in here? Like, a yeti or something? Man, that's cool! Maybe there's somethin' to this hick town after all! Awesome."
Holly throws Tiago a look of slight exasperation at his question about the wet logs, but he quickly makes up for it when she spies the rather promising wood piled in his arms. "Hey! You can't just throw that down," she criticizes, eyeing the beer can as she steps over it, not bothering to pick it up either. "That's like, littering. The ranger'll come out and fine us." She doesn't sound too concerned as she drops her own can into the bag with the sticks and turns back around toward the campsite. "A yeti? No. But other things, well yeah. For sure. It's not really funny, Tiago. People have died," she claims, her voice rising to a slight shrill. "Wild animal attacks. Missing people. It's like, out here, we're alone in the wild. Like that movie, the Blair Witch Project. So that's why I need you to stay in my tent. If a yeti comes, you can kick it in the balls for me."
"Yeah, well, tell 'im to mail the bill to me or whatever," Tiago comments snickering at her trepidation about littering. "Geez, man, you've got ta let go. It's cool." As he reaches the fire pit, the lad tosses the wood into it, clapping his hands with satisfaction as he cleans off his clothing. However, when her voice rises, the boy does straighten himself out, turning to look at her with slight confusion. "…Okay okay, so it's not funny. Relax. If you were so scared, why didya come anyway?" Beat. "But…yeah, okay. I guess I can stay, if you're /that/ upset about it all. I mean…you /are/ kinda frail and stuff. It'll be good for ya to have me around. I can kick anyone's ass, fur or no fur."
"I'm not scared. Just cautious. I didn't really know any of this until we were on our way here, and everyone started talking," Holly explains, breaking into the clearing and heading for the campfire. "Did you bring any pajamas or anything? You aren't taking off any clothing in my tent, Tiago. Especially if you have beer," she says sternly, standing over the pit and emptying out the bag's contents over the top.
It's beginning to get a little darker, the sun has noticeably dipped down below the line of the trees; the shadows grow shorter and more defined. In the distance, the voices of Holly's friends have stopped. There isn't even much wind, just a pervading silence. Holly breaks it, "Here." She throws the matches at Tiago, her voice breaking over the noise of something moving through the trees very nearby. "Who's there?"
There is no answer.
"Chyeah right. Scaredy cat." Tiago prompts, a mild smirk on his face as he watches the girl before him rather smugly, waiting until she's unloaded her bounty before bending over to mess with the pit of fire and try to organize it into something remotely flammable. Really, all he's doing it poking the logs to make it look like he knows what he's doing. "Nah. I didn't. I thought I was just goin' ta hustle you out of some money, remember? But it's okay. I'm wearing boxers, and they're like shorts." He ignores altogether her passionate admission that he will not be stripping down. Now, Tiago hadn't been paying much attention to the sounds of nature in the first place, so he doesn't exactly realize when the silence falls. Oblivious to the rather foreboding atmosphere that has fallen around them, he catches the matches swiftly, striking one up and lighting the foliage on top.
He /does/ notice when the leaves rustle, however. Put on edge by their previous discussion, he makes his way to his feet rather quickly, gripping a baseball-bat sized branch in his hand like a weapon of some sort. Keenly, he stares out into the direction of the rustling, his eyes darting back and forth as his body seizes up, prepared to jump into action. "Y'better show your damn self, before I go in there'n beat the shit out of you. Now!"
It's amazing how quickly dusk falls after the first shadows arrive… or maybe it's just perception. Creepy noises, a sudden silence — it seems to darken the sky just a bit, so much so that it might be better at this point to have some kind of light. Stupid fire. Holly bends to grab the matches from the ground, hastily jumping behind Tiago and fumbling with the first match to get the fire lit. It snaps in half. She tries again and manages to get it lit, but after tossing it into the pit, it fizzles. "Shit!" she mutters, eyeing the woods in a paranoid sort of way as Tiago shouts his taunts. "Tiago, don't," she pleads under her breath, turning her face away from the trees.
The rustling only grows louder as the figure in the woods emerges into the clearing for a split second. In the shadows, it's hard to tell, but is looks like a great, tall, hairy human. No, wait — the figure turns back toward the woods, revealing a long, bushy tail that sways as a snarl escapes the thing's snout.
Holly had been looking in the other direction until she heard the growl, and only sees the tail disappearing into the woods. "Don't. Move," she whispers from her squat on the ground behind Tiago. "It's a wild animal. Just be calm," she advises, completely freaked out, but doing the best she can to stand still.
The sun has very recently set itself, though the woods are far from empty, as Tiago and Holly are currently finding out. They're standing in the middle of a campsite that has been all set up, the girl struggling to strike up a fire and the boy standing rather stiffly with a thick branch in his hand, glaring out to the forest on high alert.
Once he sees the distorted, hairy face, all of his false bravado goes right out the proverbial window. His expression goes from steely and strong to horrified, and he nearly trips over his own feet, stumbling backwards, though he luckily avoids making any loud screaming noises thanks to Holly's whisper. Suddenly, he freezes, not moving an inch, and swallows rather audibly, her anxiety and nervousness taking over. His fingers flex, gripping the branch so tightly that his knuckles blanch.
Holly eyes Tiago, not moving an inch. "Is it going away?" she asks thickly, her voice a hoarse whisper. She seems a little surprise at the drop of Tiago's bravado act, but not enough that she says anything. Silently, she reaches out a pale hand to Tiago, a tacit offer of comfort in a time of fear and confusion.
Holly's question is soon answered. The bushes rustle again and a low growl sounds across the landscape as the creature bounds out once again, this time, facing forward, almost proudly showing off its deformed physique. Holly is looking this time, and does NOT take her own advice. "What the HELL!" Her voice cries. In her panic, she eyes the matches and shakily lights one, desperately throwing it toward the fire. This time, it catches and lights — she grabs a small stick and thrusts it forward. "Go! Shoo!" Her other hand hasn't released Tiago, if he's allowed her to hold him. Unwavering, the half-man-half-wolf stumbles toward the pair.
There are other things out tonight, with the full moon out any werewolf in Forks has become affected to say the least. One of those affected just happens to be Abbey. The alpha is pretty much on her own now, with Aset on the other side of the world she has stayed in Forks to try and pull the pack back together, though it has backfired to say the least. At the moment the large wolven monster is making her way through the forest moving upon all fours, she made a deer kill not too long ago so isn't that hunger filled at the moment. The scent of another wolf has caught her attention and she is now moving towards it looking for this wolf. Along her way she soon picks up the scents of others, humans here and then catches the noises of their cries. It doesn't take long for the large wolf to shift into a run, heading towards whatever may be going on still some distance away from her.
It is a testimony of how scared and bothered Tiago is - the fact that he allows Holly's hand to slip into his without comment, merely gripping onto her rather tightly. There is a moment of utter silence, during which he waits, with baited breath, to see whether they're in the clear or not, giving Holly an angry squeeze when she speaks. A silent bid for her to /shut up/.
Unfortunately, things do not seem to be going very well for the pair. It emerges from the foliage, and with a high-pitched squeal of horror that Tiago will kick himself for emitting later, he instinctually turns away to start /running/, only stopped by his and Holly's conjoined hands. Suddenly, his life flashes before his eyes. Suddenly he can't breathe. Suddenly…
Clarity comes to him thanks to the high dosage of adrenaline. he looks to the fire, then to the beast, before turning to Holly. "Go. Get out of here! Run and, and get some help or something, move it!" His branch is dipped into the fire, lighting the elongated tip of it as he turns to warily face the wolf creature, jumping away from Holly to try and draw his attention away from her. "Hey! Who d'ya think you are anyway, the big bad wolf or something? I ain’t afraid of you, bonehead! C'mon!" The branch is swung in its direction, as if to ward it away.
The teens have the wrong idea. The wolf is unafraid of the flame; he even laughs to himself somewhere deep in his head. He is not a leech. All the same, something does distract the creature from his stalk toward the teenagers, but it isn't Tiago's insults. The scent of another wolf, the sound of impossibly fast steps alerts him. He hesitates before breaking into a straight run for Tiago, teeth bared and snout parted in attack mode. If he can't torment the two for awhile, he'll at least get a bite in.
Holly obeyed Tiago, but barely. "Chi, no. You're coming too!" she tugs on his arm to no avail, stumbling back when he moves to pick up the stick. "Tiago!" she cries again, though this time, her voice is retreating as she takes several backward steps towards the faint trail. "C'mon! I'll get help!" The girl turns away for a split second, turning back only in time to see the beast leap toward the boy. "NO!" She begins sprinting back toward Tiago.
It doesn't take long for the large hybrid to get herself to the spot where the others are. Abbey appears right as the other wolf starts running towards the humans. She merely blinks at the sight, a glance flicks from the humans to the other wolf before she lets out a deep snarl, maw opened wide and fangs fully bared. The thought of chomping down on a human might pass through her mind later but the sight of the other wolf going for the kids is what has her attention. She runs forward now heading towards the humans as well it seem, yet at the last moment she turns her movement and springs towards the other wolf, jaws opened and a large clawed hand swiping out towards the other to try and make him turn away from the humans.
"Get /OUT/ of here!" Tiago snarls over to Holly, much more comfortable with reverting to anger than fear as he steels himself to face down the were creature. Sweat trickles his forehead in anticipation, and in a strange, macabre sort of way, he takes the charging rather well. At least the suspense is gone. At least he can react in the only way he knows how, to try and hit back. The branch is swung like a glorified baseball bat as the creature charges towards him - and the Brazilian is so focused that he doesn't even hear Holly's screams, doesn't even notice the second wolf.
He doesn't even really feel the creature sinking its teeth into his arm until the wolf is batted away by Abbey's powerful swipes. Overwhelmed, and crying out in clear pain and fear, Tiago falls to the ground before the two massive creatures all the while clutching at his wound, unable to do anything else.
The wolf isn't surprised to feel Abbey's form colliding with his own. She's actually considerably larger than the wolf, which licks its chops in a satisfied sort of way as he manages to tear into Tiago's skin, if only for a moment. He willingly goes down underneath Abbey, squirming and grunting in protest, gold eyes boring into her own as if to say, 'it is done.' The wolf lies still for several moments, trying to fake Abbey out, before he tries to get up with a gusto of strength, and if he succeeds, runs at top speed back into the woods.
Unlike Tiago, Holly did very clearly notice the second wolf, and shrieks louder still. "There's two! Tiago, you have to come!" she whimpers, struggling toward him, even as he falls to the ground. She cries openly, salty tears blurring her vision as she arrives next to the boy's fallen form, grabbing for his uninjured arm and putting all of her strength into dragging him away toward the woods. "Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name…" she begins to choke out a prayer as she tugs on him. "You evil, evil creatures!"
A deep growl escapes Abbey while one clawed hand goes to try and grab hold of the male's neck, her jaws snapping at his face even as he lays there. Even with the other wolf holding still and looking up at her with that face doesn't make her any happier, or make her way to stop what she is doing. Another snapping of powerful jaws is offered towards the male's face right as he moves about trying to get up, which she lets him. The red wolf stands tall before the humans and lets out a loud snarl after the fleeing wolf proving she'll hunt him down later it seems. Once the other is racing off she hears Holly and tilts her head to the side, large ears perking forward while her icy pale gaze rests upon the pair..
"Whoa," That's all Tiago can really articulate at the moment, even as all hell breaks loose all around him and he is being tugged away by Holly, scrambling onto his feet in order to help her with it. His eyes are wide and staring almost blankly at the wolfish encounter, and he stumbles along with Holly, before eventually getting hold of his footing and turning away from the clearing to /run/. Run far, far away and bring her along with him. He can't help the look that he throws Abbey's wolfish form over his shoulder, though. Nor can he quell feeling that this isn't really happening, that he's just on some really bad acid trip or something.
"You're bleeding," Holly is so kind to point out to Tiago, sighing with relief when he manages a stand. She purposely avoids looking at the two creatures at all, not noticing as the male retreats into the woods, badly injured by the alpha female. "Let's go to the hospital," she suggests, though it's more of a mutter than something directed /at/ Tiago. She speaks more as a comfort to herself, hoping the words won't coming out, hoping she's still asleep. They do come out, however, and it only serves to trail more tears down her cheeks as she runs after Tiago, reaching to keep a hand on the back of his shirt. They are lucky enough to pick up the trail eventually, and from there, it's an easier trek out of the woods, back into normal civilization. It's a shame, though. Undoubtedly nothing will ever be 'normal' to the two teens again.
The large wolf takes in a slight breath as she watches the pair leave, Abbey shakes her head slightly in a rather human fashion before he gaze drifts off back to the forest. There will be another wolf soon and she is rather sure the one that did the biting won't be around to help the new wolf out. She waits for the two to get a ways off before she starts to slowly follow after to make sure nothing else bothers them on the trip to town.
