Twil'Eye Vision - Steffan

A Chapter by Jobyn

You utilize the power of your Twil'Eye to look into Stiff's mind.

Making your way out to the deck, you approach the Catalyst, who remains indifferent to your presence. Activating your Twil'Eye, you look into the depths of its ruby red eyes and search for Stiff's lingering mind.

Not long after, you find yourself inside a dream that isn't your own.

A young, brown haired boy no older than twelve walks into a wooded area belonging to a small country side which was partly secluded by half a circle of small mountains. He walks some distance deeper in before finding himself in front of a rope ladder leading up a giant tree and into the opening of an amateurishly crafted tree house.

His clothes are rather tattered, and his hands are both slightly callused and darkened with dirt. However, they weren't the signs of a simple street rat. Those tears on his clothes were very specific, in that the knees on his pants were ravaged, and he had a bit of dirt on his shirt imprinted with the corners of objects and structures.

No, he wasn't a street rat, but he was most definitely a thief. And a clever one at that, who preferred the art of stealth and free-running, which would explain his appearance.

He looks up towards one of the tree house windows and whistles a faint, melodic tune, which is then met by another confirming tune being whistled in return. The hatch on the bottom of the tree house, at the top of the rope, opens.

Being quick, the boy runs towards the base of the tree and jumps, latching his hands onto the rope and climbing up quickly with ease.

When he reaches the opening, he's helped up by one of three friends already waiting for him inside; all of them about his age. The one who helps him up-- a sun blonde haired girl with green eyes smiles at him and greets him. "You made it, Stiffy!"

He grins and nods at her, as well as the other two. "Hiya, Okina. Hey guys!"

Those three had been lazing around playing dice prior to his return.

"You're late, Stiff," the only other boy besides him mumbled. This one had a head of short blonde hair and a bright pair of blue eyes, similar in build to Stiff.

"Heh, sorry about that, Drae! I came by earlier, but then realized I had forgotten my plans so, uh... yeah," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You idiot. And don't call me that. It's Draven, alright?" The boy grunted.

"Are you finally going to tell us why you called this meeting, Stiff?" The second girl; pale skinned with silky light brown hair that was fashioned into a well-kept pony tail asked curtly. "I've got a lot of other things to do, you know!"

"Yeah, I'll get to that in a second, Kyrie-- Kye, whatever," he motioned his hand to her while replying, beckoning them all to the center of the room. "Pull up a seat."

Each of them brought whatever they could use as a seat amid their "treasury" of scumbags' stolen treasure, and makeshift furniture, save for Kye who stood there with her hand on her hip as if she didn't have the time for this.

Shoving away the cards and dice from the table, Stiff reaches into his pocket and pulls out a folded up paper, laying it out on the center.

It was a well-drawn map of the small, nearby lumbering town with penciled in points of interests as well as routes. The main detail that caught everyone's attention, was the furious circle drawn around a big house some distance away from the town, along with a pissed off caricature that resembled the house's owner.

"Ladies, gentleman, I present to you my restore-the-abundance-of-animals-to-the-wild-so-that-our-orphanage-has-something-to-eat plan!"

"I already hate it," Drae mumbled.

"Stiffy! I don't think I can remember the name of that plan..." Okina pouts.

"Oh my gosh, if the name of your stupid plan is that long, I can't imagine how long it'll actually take to do it!" Kye sighed in irritation.

"Hey, hey! Just hear me out, you guys," Stiff tapped his finger on the map. "Look, forget the name, alright? I only said it to explain what we're going to be doing. You guys know how there's like, hardly anymore animals to hunt in the wild because of the drought, right?"

"Yep," Okina frowned. "And people are at each other's throats all the time because of that."

"Not to mention the scarcity of food for us at the orphanage," Drae added. "If the people in town think they've got it bad, they should try living with us for a change. We're the last ones everyone thinks of in these situations."

"It's not a problem for me! In fact, this is a good thing for my weight," Kye shrugged.

"Kye, if you get any thinner, you'll perish into thin air!" Okina exclaimed.

"And I'll look fantastic," Kye smiled.

Stiff lowers his head and gives a drawn out sigh. "Oyoyoy... You know, If you guys weren't so good at this, I'd be doing this stuff on my own."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Drae narrowed his eyes. "All you ever do is complain about how hungry you are all the time. I mean, this whole plan is about food! You would come up with this plan, Stiff. You would."

"Yeah! And you have zero fashion sense!" Kye chimed in.

"Hey, hey! Easy!" Stiff snapped at them in his defense. "I'm doing this for all of us! And my sense of style is totally irrelevant, sheesh."

"Guys, let's hear Stiffy out already!" Okina grumbled.

"Fine," Drae said. "So what's the deal with this house, anyway?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Stiff smiled, returning his attention to his map. "Alright guys, here's the story. I did a bit of climbing the other day while keeping my eye out for some animals. I figured if I could reach the top of that little mountain to the east of town, I might be able to spot things easier."

"Pfft, you expect me to believe you climbed that thing?" Drae snickered. "I doubt anybody could have done that without the proper equipment. That mountain is pretty big, and steep as hell."

"I did! Did I not tell you guys?" Stiff asked in surprise, before realizing he hadn't. "Oh, that's right! Well, that just further stretches my point! What I saw was that important. Look, when I was up there, I didn't find an animal. I found a whole bunch of them!"

"Really?" Okina's eyes widened. "But how? We've all looked everywhere!"

"Yeah, how do we know you weren't just looking at people that you mistook for animals?" Kye rose a brow. "You can be pretty dumb sometimes, Stiff."

"They weren't people! I'm telling you, it was practically a zoo down there!" He exclaimed. "Boars, pigs, cows, deer... And you know what the crazy part is? That old rich snob, Soren has them all gathered and enclosed in a large building on his land! I saw him and his men temporarily hoarding them out while others stood watch."

"No way," Drae furrowed his brows in thought. "You can't be serious."

"You gotta be kidding me!" Okina slammed her hand on the table. "That selfish son of a b***h!"

"Watch your language, Okina!" Kye snapped. "Girls shouldn't swear like that! It makes you look boyish."

"Nuh uh! Swearing is fun! And girls like having fun!" She snapped back.

"Ugh, you have so much to learn," Kye rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Guys, be serious," Stiff said. "We've got a real problem here. I'm pretty sure this is how old Soren has managed to stay wealthy while the rest of town goes to hell. He must have known the drought was coming, so he probably had his workers hoard up as many of the animals as they possibly could in advance."

"That old man," Drae grumbled. "He didn't just take what he needed. If what you say is true, then I think the reason he gathered up so many animals was so that he could remain well-fed and make a good profit with the rest of them. I've seen him walking into town before with some livestock, acting as though he hunted them himself."

"Me too!" Okina nodded. "And if people asked how he managed to find so many, he'd lie and tell them he uses some of his expenses to travel to other regions for hunting, sacrificing his time and money to bring food that he could sell to everyone else..."

"What a fine example of a scumbag," Kye crossed her arms. "But, you've got to give him credit for that one. Clever old dude."

"Right, now you guys are getting me," Stiff nodded. "Thanks to him, everyone else has it tough, especially the orphanage. Especially smaller animals like rabbits and chipmunks who can't even see the light of day without a damn crowd of people running after them. And I don't know about you guys... but I'm sick to my stomach of squirrel stew!"

"Me too! Gimme a darn burger for once!" Okina said playfully.

"I hear that," Stiff grinned. "Bring on the freaking meat kabobs."

"How ironic," Drae sighed. "We want to free the animals from Soren's house... so that we could eat them."

"It's not like that!" Stiff protested. "I doubt a selfish goon like Soren is taking proper care of that many animals. If we can get those things back in the wild, it'll be better for us and them. If we can expose Soren for all this, I bet my life we can get the town mayor to issue a temporary limit on livestock per household, at least until the drought turns over."

"So then, the animals will be raised properly and taken better care of," Kye tapped her chin.

"Right," Stiff nods. "There's no way in hell I can do this alone... Soren has quite a few people working for him. It could be dangerous, and I don't think they'll regret taking out a buncha' orphans if need be."

"What the hell," Drae stood up. "I got nothing to lose. I'm in."

"Me too!" Okina jumped up. "This sounds like so much fun, I can't wait."

"I guess I can tag along," Kye shrugged, unable to hide the glimmer in her eyes. "So I can make sure you all don't screw it up."

"Alright!" Stiff chuckled with relief. "We'll be flippin' burgers in no time!"

"Some future..." Drae mumbled sarcastically.

They all laughed and began some early planning, going over the operation many times while making revisions to Stiff's map. The four friends were naturals at this. They thrived on this kind of stuff, as a matter of fact.

"I bet things are a lot better in the main cities," Drae thought aloud as the afternoon began to close and the four friends were preparing to head back to the orphanage. Okina and Kye had already been climbing the rope down. "Time feels like it's frozen out here."

Stiff grinned and patted Drae's shoulder. "We'll get there. Trust me."

Drae glances at him for a second, and then snickers. "Yeah, sure. Let's get going."

A sudden, brief flash of white. You promptly return to the airship deck, where the Catalyst stands idly by.

You: What in the world? Those four kids were...

I think I'll go talk with someone else.

If you click on the option to talk with someone else, please scroll back down to the bottom of the chapter to do so.

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