Immortal

21. Something like Family

Jala was thicker and had a larger bone structure than normal. His curly hair was long and messy and he was halfway through a piece of bread, when Esai approached him. I watched the guy half gracefully move shoving the second half of the bread in his hands completely into his mouth. Esai was standing in front of him and he made a sort of half groan. Jala stared at Esai with Bambi eyes like a child getting caught eating something he wasn't supposed too.

"New recruit." Esai told him and he turned toward me and tried to smile but his mouth was still stuffed with bread. "Finn" Esai spoke to a female who looked about my age. She had red/black hair and wore an oversized t-shirt with cargo pants and she had a fairly large looking crowbar of sorts in her hand. She sort of stared at him like she too had been caught doing something wrong and was on the way to the principals office.

"Eh." She spoke. "New guy." Esai shoved me forward. "Be nice, no biting." He pointed at her and walked away.  For a second the crowbar in her hand looked really threatening. I was left in probably one of the more awkward situations, Ive ever been in.

"No promises." Finn said under her breath. I heard and moved away from her. "You look like fresh meat." She pointed her crowbar at me. "Whats your skill stat."

I understood Alaric a little more in that moment specifically. How he must've felt whenever I asked him these kinds of questions. I didn't understand her slang terms or what category of skill she was referring too. Since my skill set varied. My memory remembered all the ways Alaric would stare at me in sheer confusion when I asked him things. I felt a twinge of gilt about it even though I found his confusion funny. No doubt my dumbfounded expression was probably something she was enjoying too.

"You mute?" Her crowbar was inches from my face. I raised up a finger and shoved it away from me. "No." I responded. "Illiterate?" She asked again. I stared at her not answering but giving her a clear, 'you serious right now?' Look. "Why you taking so long to answer?" Her voice was intimidating; until Jala ripped the crowbar from her hands and took off running in a different direction.

"Jala give that back!!" She screamed, then my mind went back to its first assurance. These two are probably really useful clowns. I smirked while they both ran in circles. She gave up going after him. I watched her walk back toward me, I felt her fist collide into my shoulder with a lot more strength than I thought. "Ow." I winced rubbing the collision spot.

"Come." She started walking toward one of the huts in the area. I paused, but she turned around and looked at me dead the eye. "Don't make me drag you." She was serious. I didn't doubt that she had the balls to drag someone across camp. I followed reluctantly, still taking in the surroundings. There different areas scattered everywhere, beings working materials into tools. Areas being cleared out, structures of new dwellings.

"This is home." She stopped in front of a dwelling. There was a carving of a symbol in the dead center of the archway to get in. There was tree moss on the roof and several trees surrounding it. Rocks and overgrown grass. It was a bit out of the way from the rest, but when I looked out there was a clear view of almost the entire camp. Finn walked inside, I followed behind staring at the symbol for another moment.

"What is that." I pointed. Finn stopped and looked up at it. "You noticed." She grinned.
"Jala made it. Its the mark of those who dwell here." I squinted trying to get a better look but there wasn't much light. "The mark of the black sun?" I asked.
"No. That's the mark of our tribe, the symbol of the district of Silvas." Finn informed me.

"Silvas?" I questioned. "Yep. You're standing in it." She said gesturing to everything. "This is Silvas." So it was its own district. They didn't abide by the laws the rest of us were enforced to live by. "That mark is the mark of those who dwell in this unit." She exposed her wrist and there was the same mark done in a red ink.
It was a feather much like the one's in my wings. "You can get that mark done, once this place feels like home." She stated to me and headed inside.