(A) Ellie ~ (JesusXMaleOc)

Chapter 1

Growing up, Elliot didn't get much attention from his parents, and instead hung out with his grandparents, who happened to be tribal elders. From them he learned the ways of the land. He became so interested in fact that he went to college to get a degree in pre- European ways of life. They taught him everything from how to build a fire, to how to skin a rabbit and make its skin into a coat. He learned the traditional ways of hunting and gathering, along with the stealth needed to get what you wanted. Though he was always well behaved when with his grandparents, while with his parents he had a bad temper and was very antisocial. His parent's solution was to sign him up for sports meant to help kids vent. He earned a black belt in karate, along with being a master at self defense, and for a while he taught it to pay his way through college. In his second year of school he received word that his grandparents had died in a drive by shooting, and at the time he decided to drop out. For a few years he worked in construction, learning how to build houses. It wasn't until the 3-year anniversary of there death when he went home for the celebration of their lives that he changed his life around. At the anniversary he was named the next chief, as his dad was not qualified in the view of his people. It was then that he decided it was best that he continue his degree and actually achieve something to make his grandparents proud. It was only a couple of weeks before graduation when it happened. The world literally ended.

Having grown up with his grandparents, he was ready for anything. He had the skills to survive and to prosper. He only returned to his house once to see if his parents were there, and was not surprised to see they had left and taken all the supplies with them. They hadn't even left a note for him, just left him an empty house. Luckily being the super prepared person, he hid many things from his parents, including his sexuality. Under his floorboards, he had a backpack full of unperishable items like beans and water. He also had his grandfather's double-headed spear and his grandmother's remedy belt. He left his house with all of his supplies and avoided all other people as he went.

He tried to check the reserve where his people were but was cut off by the dead. He took to calling them Mamin. This was a word he'd learned from his grandparents, which meant devils. He felt guilty, but he knew he needed to survive one way or another, so he fled.

For almost a year he wandered mostly alone. Living off the land and honing his skills was easy. Having to kill others was hard. He had gotten over the horror of killing the Mamin long ago. He simply told himself that he was doing them a service by putting them to eternal rest. But what concerned him was his growing number of notches in his spear, signifying the living he had killed. It wasn't something he was proud of, but not all people in this new world were good. In fact, finding good people was very difficult. At one point he had joined up with a group. Actually, joined wasn't right. He was forced to join to avoid being killed. The whole situation was actually stupid. One day while tracking a group of rabbits he had happened across a child. As he was not completely heartless he approached the child to offer help. He didn't expect the child to have a gun and for the rest of its group to ambush him, robbing him off all his belongings. Luckily, he was smart enough to hide the majority of his stuff to avoid this exact situation. They did get his sacred spear though, so he did what they asked. He spent 2 weeks locked in a sea can before he was let out. He spent most of his time meditating to calm himself and thinking of escape routes. The funny part was this group only opened the door because they were concerned about his lack of movements. When they realized he seemed like a chill person who didn't mean any harm, they let him out. It took them a few more weeks to trust him with a weapon, and a few more to let him go out hunting again. Despite the rough start, he could say he minded the group. They gave him shelter, and he helped to keep them fed. For a time, it was peaceful. That was until another group took over. They had different views of the world and did despicable things to other people. When Elliot found out about the cannibalism, it only took him a matter of hours to pack his stuff and disappear into the night taking with him the lives of the 5 leaders who had corrupted his old group. At the time of the killings, he didn't think much of it. It wasn't until later that he began to overthink it. It took many days for him to decide to not live his life with regrets and to move on. From that point on, he avoided other groups and kept to himself. The other 3 notches in his staff he referred to as mercy killings. He had found people during his journeys that had not been so lucky when encountering the Mamin. Rather than letting them suffer he would ease there suffering with a swift cut to the neck. This was something that made his life easier to maintain.

Now as his second winter had passed he was starting to feel it. The madness that came with being alone, along with the paranoia. Stumbling across the group of knights on horseback in time to protect them from a horde of Mamin might have been exactly what he needed.