Prism drafts

Slide w/ Ben and Erich

Ben was casually strolling in the thick part of the forest, blissfully alone yet hopelessly lost.
What was to be a quest for searching for the perfect place to relax his overworked mind turned into a solitary fruitless endeavor.

Ben turned his head when he heard a rustle beside him. A bolt of fear stuck through him and rooted the boy to the ground. The youngest Muto sibling's heart was beating rapidly and his hands were sweating profusely. Ben could hear his tattling teeth and he curled his arms towards himself.
It's just an animal. A small woodland creature.

Once again, with regained courage, Ben walked forward. His arms still tightly wrapped around his abdomen.

A rustle was heard again, but this time more louder. Trepidation coursed through his veins and rendered his insides cold.

A dark figure slowly emerged from the bushes and Ben's long, fragile thread of courage finally snapped.
He leaped sideways and burrowed in the foliage of a big bush.

He curled around himself to make himself smaller. Not that that was a problem, he had never felt smaller in his entire life.

Suddenly he felt his vision falter and move, he turned his head groundwards and stayed perfectly still.
Seconds passed and he let out a much needed exhale and shifted.
That shift turned out to be the most climacteric shift that inspired the ground beneath him to collapse.

"Oh god, no! NO!" Ben frantically reached out his arms and grabbed the bush's scratchy branches that made him wince and his eyes to water. 

His legs were awkwardly bent and dirty, he could feel them suspended in mid-air and he wiggled his feet. The absent solidity underneath was alarming and he swallowed a sob.

"Help me.. please" the young boy weakly cried. He desperately thought of his past and just like a cinema there they were, his memories projecting at the back of his eyelids.

Like a brown thick snake, an arm flashed out from the bush and grabbed his hand.
Ben screamed and tried to wriggle out of the unknown's grasp then ceased when he remembered his precarious situation.

A grunt resounded on the other side and he was being pulled up. Once his knees were on steady ground, he heaved himself up helpfully and the strong grip on his arm vanished.
Ben looked up to see and identify his savior and was met with bored brown eyes.
It was a girl. With brown hair that framed her face and tied in a low ponytail. Her lips and eyebrows were set down low.

"Get up" Ben was so busy with assessing the girl that he didn't notice her speak.
He nodded in acquisition and stood up, brushing his hands across his dirty pants and shirt.
Although she already saw him in his previously pathetic state, the need to be impressive around a girl was deeply rooted inside him.

The girl stared at him then smiled. It was small and her eyes were still hooded, but there was a certain light in them now.
"You must be wondering why I saved you, huh?" She asked, her smile now tugged into a playful smirk.

I wasn't really wondering but PLAY ALONG Ben, PLAY ALONG
"Yeah, well..um do you know..Lorelei Kingsley's Residence?"
The shorter--Ben reluctantly admits-- teen asks tentatively.

The girl laughed and slapped his shoulder painfully,
"Yeah I'm in acquaintances with her"
She was now pushing him by the shoulder, urging his feet to move forwards; move forward he did.

"How did you get here?" She inquired. Oh, so he was supposed to engage in conversation with this strange girl. Roll with the punches Ben.

"I wanted somewhere quiet" he spoke in candor. No use lying to her, he won't probably see her again anyway.
She nodded and tapped his shoulder.

"Me too, bub" She began "A place to settle down the mojo, eh?"
Ben nodded, startled by her slang.
They continued walking in comfortable silence. The girl's hand still settled up upon his left shoulder.