Ravensblood Forest Μέσα στη δίνη

He left the sea. In time he would return to the beach; for now Panacea ventured inland, finally caving to the restless itch of his bones. It felt good to move, though the world felt no less empty. Oh, it was a vast place, and full of all brands of people and things, but not for him. Never for him.

Thrice abandoned, once outcast. What was he but a drifter down the back roads of life? There wasn't a soul out there who would be waiting for him now, or wondering about him. No one to weep for him if he never made it back to the beach. No one to notice at all.

He found himself in a shadowy forest, surrounded by the alarming glints of red sap, and marveled at it for a time. Panacea had always been fascinated by the unique, and painfully aware of his own lack. Surely a less boring boy would, by now, have found some semblance of companionship. But there was nothing special about him at all. He was just a little odd, and a little sad, and maybe more than a little lost.

He reached up to taste some of the sap on a whim. Even if it tasted horrible, it would still be a distraction.

The tangle of branches split the sun and the sap tinted its light with shades of varying red. From the outside, no one could've guessed that this nondescript forest was housing a cathedral.

It was a view that could put both the fear of god and love of god into you. But Gavrel's impassive gaze was inch-deep, revealing little of what went on inside. His pale body cruised through the undergrowth in search of nothing. He was about to return to the open beach when he came across a stranger.

Limned by red gold the boy appeared to be at first an entoptic phenomenon. Like floaters in the sky, or the subtle branching of your own blood vessels reflected across the lens that lay opposite. Gavrel blinked hard, once, twice, three times...

...but still, there he stood.

Unsure of what sort of behavior this type of situation called for, he simply barked:

Boo.

And his scarred face softened with a self-satisfied smile.

Boo.

Panacea glanced over his shoulder at the scarred blonde, interrupted before he could try the sap. I'm terrified, He said dryly, offering a smile of his own though it felt forced. It wasn't that he didn't find it amusing. It was cute, sure; he just couldn't seem to stir himself to any emotion greater than a lukewarm kind of sadness. An overall meh.

He looked back at the sap because it was easier than acknowledging his own strangeness. I wonder what it tastes like, Panacea commented aloud mostly for the sake of being polite. As disinterested as he was in idle socialization, he didn't have it in him to outright ignore the guy.

The deadpan response only broadens Gavrel's smile. The boy - on second thought, maybe a girl? - was bogged down by something, by an inertia Gav found difficult to read. 

You gotta nice way of showing it, he teased, before squinting at whatever had caught the androgyne's attention. 

That stuff can catch fire easily, y'know. 

Just the thought of smoke and ash was enough to turn his stomach. He remembered the last backwards glance at what was left of his home, a once-green talus now carbonized, charred bodies frozen in time as if preserved for an indeterminable future, some terracotta army. 

Maybe it'd burn your tongue. He swiped his own over his nose, and rubbed an itch on his shoulder against the trunk of a sapling.

That would be just my luck, Panacea snorted with lazy humor. He too recoiled from the thought of fire, and sought to change the subject in the next moment. You heading to the coast?

Or maybe, like Panacea, that was where he'd just come from. It did seem as if the scents of the sea were twined with the man's own, but it was difficult to tell. Everything smelled like the sea in this forest — and that striking sap.

Did he believe in bad luck, cosmic accountants than ran the numbers on karmic debt and karmic affluence? To Gav the world was nothing except what he saw in front of him. 

He grew pensive, and sucked at his teeth.

The last time I was at that beach, I scared this little girl halfway to death. And this complete stranger tried to compel me under the power of Christ, or something, he wanted to add, but he had no idea how to explain it. But why not go for a walk? Fuck-all else to do.

He proffered another winning smile which turned into a wince as it tugged at scar tissue.  

I'm Gavrel, by the way. But Gav is fine. Preferred, even.

Panacea laughed at that. Hey, scaring kids is a pastime for some people, He pointed out, gesturing for Gavrel to follow him as he started for the forest's edge. Suddenly he didn't want to be here.

You can call me Phoenix, Panacea added, wondering if he was a fool for keeping the moniker. It'd been some time since he'd seen his old gang, but suppose they caught word of him somewhere? He decided he would just have to keep a low profile. You just traveling then?