[OOM] Kazic III.

[stuck_mynock]

Jaq is sat upon a clifftop, staring outwards into the distance.

There was someone in the trees earlier, watching from afar, but he's gone now. Jaq doesn't suspect he'll come back soon.

Comments

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy is outside the house, looking for Jaq.

[ostro_goth]

Teja is holding back, not wishing to spook the boy.

Instead, he is shovelling snow.

[nothawkingbird]

Kate trudged after Guppy, partly to keep an eye for Jaq. But also to keep an eye to Guppy as well.

"Any sign of him?"

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy is still looking, and then spots him sitting up on the cliff.

"He's up there." he says, going on up towards the boy. When he gets there, he sits down next to him.

"You okay lad?"

[ostro_goth]

Teja puts up the snow shovel over his shoulder, and follows slowly, keeping back so he would not intrude, and then shovels more snow.

[nothawkingbird]

Kate sat down nearby as well, patiently watching.

[stuck_mynock]

"There are people looking for you," Jaq says, without answering Guppy's question. "Some of them followed you through, and they're using puppets to hide." Beat. "An' there's the Dark Man. He showed up last night, but he won't enter the village. He just stays at the edges."

[guppy_sandhu]

"What should we do?" Guppy asks, trying to remember all of that. Sounds important.

[ostro_goth]

Puppets?

Teja turns his head, astonished.

Those that would possess other men? Evil beings that followed them from Milliways?

[nothawkingbird]

A chill went down Kate's spine, and it wasn't from the cold air.

"Possessed people right? How many?"

[stuck_mynock]

"A dozen. They came from a space between places," frown. "Somewhere where there's nothing. Then they burrowed into people. You'll know them when you see them: They bleed from their eyes, noses, mouths and ears. I've seen them wandering around, but they're not interested in me."

Headtilt.

"The Dark Man isn't like them. He's alive. He hasn't attacked anyone, he's just watching from afar, at the moment."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Who is the Dark Man? Why are they after us?"

[ostro_goth]

Teja wondered whether the monsters were real, or only childish imagination, much like that which Atton would be prone to later in life.

Or metaphors?

People bleeding from their eyes and nostrils would scare any one, and make more people notice.

[nothawkingbird]

"Well we're not from around here. Neither are they. Maybe it's because we're not supposed to be here."

[stuck_mynock]

Guppy gets a withering look.
"If I knew his name, I'd use it."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Then what identifies him as the dark man?"