<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/59/Seadragon.jpeg) (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d3/Screenshot_2022-04-02_17.03.27.png)</div><strong>Character Name:</strong><em>Faith Carvalho and Coral (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=341012.msg16150945#msg16150945)</em><br/><strong>Wearing:</strong><em>This (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d5/Screenshot_2022-04-02_17.03.11.png)</em><br/><strong>Time:</strong><em>9:00 PM June 9th; Night</em><br/><strong>Location:</strong><em>Concert --&gt; Castle Tree</em><br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong><em>Karina, CLOSED</em><br/><hr/>Merry camp song floated across the clearing. Cheerful faces, tangerine, and crimson in the flicking fires joined in as if their joyful voices could chase away the nightly ghost stories and dark things that creep along the forest edge. It was a ritual as old as man. The trappings have changed, as have the words and verse. Sing away the night. Sing away the fear. Together we are safe. Together we can chase away the monsters with fire and song. There was comfort in obliviousness. In not knowing the monsters were real.<br/><br/>In the shadows between the flame, the flickering fires illuminated a half-face. Dark and brooding. A lurker at the music's edge. A monster in the night. A girl. Waiting…watching…annoyed.<br/><br/>Her uncomfortable fidgeting mimicked the dance of firelight and shadow. She wrapped herself in a solitary cocoon of disdain, keeping the merrymakers at bay. Danger. Do not approach. You will be bitten. The cheerful faces around her offered her no comfort. Her blissful ignorance had been shattered years ago. How many of these children would end up like her? Broken across reality's knee. She wanted to shake them. Slap them across the face like reality had done to her. It was better they knew, wasn't it? Light eyes clouded in doubt and frustration. Was it better to be shattered on the shores of reality or drown in blissful stupidity, unknowing of the dangers that threatened to consume?<br/><br/>Vulgar words spat from beautiful lips, startling a couple of firelight cherubic faces. Their angelic features twisted and contorted as they turned from the light. Shadows gathered in furrowed brows and crinkled eyes. Meeting scowl for scowl, she gave them the finger and chased them back to the light. Leave them to their ignorance. Reality was inescapable and would break them all eventually.<br/><br/>The soft coil of faux fur around her waist fidgeted with her, sensing her mood. Coral was soft and warm, a comfort she ignored, only making her frustration grow. The silent treatment was not working. Coral refused to be brushed aside or pushed away. Her stubborn streak was as wide and long as Faith's own.   She constantly found ways to drag Faith into situations where she had to interact with the other campers or forced her to dig up things she preferred to keep buried.<br/><br/>"Where are we going?" Coral's voice came from inside Faith's leather jacket with its slight British accent.<br/><br/>"Anywhere but here," she said, standing. She turned away from the light of the concert fires and disappeared into the shadows. Faith didn't have a destination in mind other than to remove herself from all of that childish cheer. She had been one of those happy faces bathed in fire. Her voice enthusiastically raised. Laughing with her friends at the goofy ways they could twist the lyrics or add their own exuberant spin to them, often ending a song in a fit of giggles.<br/><br/>"What are you thinking about?" Coral asked.<br/><br/>"Nothing," Faith replied, shaking her head. She rolled her shoulders as the warmth of the concert faded and the night chill of mountain air enfolded them. Faith just walked. She passed the dining hall and the girl's cabins. She didn't wasn't tired and didn't want to deal with her cabin mates at the moment, so she turned away from the inviting light that flickered in one of the windows signaling someone was inside.<br/><br/>Behind the cabin was an old trail, one she had walked so many times she had lost count. The trail was indelibly etched in her subconscious. Booted feet walked confidently while her mind wandered. Even in the dark, she navigated the path easily, with no worry of tripping and no fear of getting lost.<br/><br/>"Um, Faith. We shouldn't be out here alone. It isn't safe," Coral said cautiously.<br/><br/>"Why did you feel anything?" Faith asked, only casually caring. She was lost in her head, trying to make sense of all the things that made no sense. Why her? Why magic? Why now? Did it change anything? Not really, and yet everything.<br/><br/>"No," came the response tinged with uncertainty and worry.<br/><br/>"Okay then," Faith replied as if that settled any discussion on the matter. There was a huff from her jacket, but Coral didn't push the issue.<br/><br/>Where the main trail circled around to the beach, an often used sneak path for nightly excursions to the lake for smoking or skinny dipping or spying on those who do both. The fork Faith took curled away from camp and up a slight rise.<br/><br/>"Ohhhh," Came the knowing voice from her jacket, causing Faith to surface from the deep dark pool she had been wallowing in. At the top of the rise was a large structure jutting from the hillside trail. In the dark, the old hollow tree looked like a miniature tower. Long ago hollowed by lightning and fire, the massive trunk's splintered top were jagged battlements and the old tangled opening in the roots a portcullis. The Castle Tree. Faith frowned. She hadn't intended to come here, had she?<br/><br/>"I remember this!" Coral said excitedly and uncoiled from around Faith's waist to zoom ahead through the air and disappear into the hole by the roots only to reappear atop the "battlements" with a giggle.<br/><br/>"I am the dragon queen! None shall pass!" she said, her voice taking on a snarl that tried to be intimidating in that fairytale villain sort of way. In the dark, even Faith smiled.<br/><br/>The Castle Tree had been the focus of many childhood adventures. Both shining home to Fay the Fairy Princess and her stalwart companion Karina the Brave and the evil fortress of many a big bad evil genius depending on the story. Faith had spent hours and hours at this spot, making up stories and playing them out with her camp friends. She approached the tree with less enthusiasm than Coral, but that wasn't that hard considering how the fluffy dragon darted from opening to opening, poking her head through and quoting snippets of old adventures.<br/><br/>Faith ran her fingers along the old roots and bark. In the dark, she allowed her thoughts to wander briefly to happier times, the phantom of a smile remaining on her lips as she walked old paths and older feelings. They seemed so distant they were someone else's. Someone filled with vibrant color and life. Someone happy.<br/><br/>Faith leaned against the tree, feeling the hard bark against her back through her leather jacket. It was solid, firm. Like the old fort could protect her from anything. It was nice to feel safe. She missed it.<br/><br/>She retrieved a pack of cigarettes from the jacket's pocket and rapped it against the palm of her hand a couple of times before pulling one out and placing it between her plum-colored lips. She shoved the pack back into her pocket and cupped her hand. A small flame appeared in her palm, the bloom of fire illuminating her face in warm light. She sucked lightly at her cigarette until the tip began to glow and flicked her hands a few times until the fire went out.<br/><br/>"You have magic, and that is how you use it?" Coral observed dryly, looking down at Faith from the top of the old tree trunk. Faith sucked in a lung full of death and blew a set of smoke rings towards her fuzzy companion. They floated upwards, growing bigger and less substantial as they went.<br/><br/>"You know that doesn't bother me, right?" Coral sniffed regarding her young charge with beady glass eyes that held way more life and wisdom than they should. "Why are you holding back?" She asked. It was one of those probing questions Faith hated answering. "I thought you would love having magic."<br/><br/>"Oh, sure. It's great. The timing couldn't have been better," Faith clearly didn't believe that, and Coral's eyes narrowed.<br/><br/>"What do you mean, Faith?" Coral dug down in that innocent, "I'm just asking an innocent question," sort of way that Faith had already come to hate. Dammit, Coral. Why can't you just let me enjoy my fucking cigarette? Faith sighed and flicked her finger, knocking the cherried end to the ground before grinding it into the dirt with her boot heel.<br/><br/>"Where was magic when dad died, Coral? Is it some kind of cosmic fucking joke that I get it now? When I can do fuck all to help him. Why did I get it and not him? If anyone deserved it, he did. Cause I sure as fuck don't." Her tone was conversational, but her voice was burdened with such deep pain that there was no hiding it. Faith was met by silence. Figures. She thought, bringing the cigarette to her lips and drawing the burn into her lungs again. The tip of her cigarette burned bright as she inhaled, causing her face to glow softly. Glancing upward, she spotted the unmoving Coral, and her eyes narrowed. Now what?<br/>