Chapter #5Watching From Their Hideout by: citywalker   As the small exploring party made their way through the overgrown trees and bushes in the Lost Forest of the Wildlands, they had no idea that they were being watched by six larger-than-usual eyes. These six large eyes belonged to three boys, who were hidden safely away in a particularly thick grove of trees, studying their every move.
"Who are they?" Kole whispered to his brothers. At thirteen, he was the youngest of the group, stood fourteen-and-a-half feet tall, and had the leanest physique, slender and smooth, clear of body hair for the most part. He was a curious, playful boy, always loving to joke around with his brothers. But he also proved loyal and obedient, still willing to follow their advice and directions. His shoulder-length, unkempt blonde hair only served to accentuate his best feature, his piercing blue eyes.
"Dworinians," Aric replied. "And keep your voice down!" he hissed in a lower tone. As the eldest and most clever of the brothers, the sixteen-year-old was unquestionably the group's leader. Though he was the shortest at a hair under thirteen feet (as the result of being older than his brothers when they arrived and thus living a smaller percentage of his life with the forest's growth stimulation), he made up for it with agility and speed, being able to climb any tree in the forest in seconds flat. The past few years of forest living had been kind to him, giving him a muscular, sexy build (though there was really no one else around to compare it to). He also was the only one of the brothers who bothered to regularly cut and groom his dark-brown hair, keeping it short and (using tree sap for gel) spiky.
Nolak growled lowly when he heard Aric say the word 'Dworinians'. "What are they doing in our Forest?" he muttered. The tallest of the three at fifteen feet two inches, Nolak had received the most benefit from the decade of living in the forest, and was certainly a beast of a boy, with broad shoulders and large, smooth pecs, biceps, abs, and thighs. He could easily lift either of his brothers off of their feet with one arm. He had an aggressive attitude, quick to anger and a fight, but never let it spoil his rock-solid relationship with his brothers. His dark-auburn hair was shaggy and thicker than either Kole or Aric, almost always covering his face.
The three boys had lived with each other, and no one else, for the past ten years. Though they did not get the pleasures and amenities of 'modern citysphere living', they didn't miss them. Besides, Aric was the only one with any real memories of living in Dworin, as the other two were too young when they left the citysphere for anything big to stick. They lived off of what they could harvest from the forest: plants, berries, and sometimes, as they grew older, even the meat of an animal that they had managed to hunt down (though they preferred to keep the peace with most of the creatures of the Wildlands, living and letting live). After they had worn out and outgrown their clothes a year in, they hadn't bothered with replacing them, and to this day were unashamed to be naked around each other.
Only occasionally had they even seen a glimpse of any other humans, and that was at the northern edge of the Lost Forest, along the Beggar's Trail that lead from Dworin to the merchant's hub citysphere of Falda. Most of the time, the humans were government trade-guards, armed with their Lightning Blades or Disruptor Bolt rifles, as they jogged alone or in pairs alongside hovercarts loaded up with unidentifiable merchandise. Sometimes, it was a lone traveler, looking scared and lost, like something was about to jump out and drag them off kicking and screaming into the woods. Whatever the case, though, the humans always wore layer after layer of protective clothing: masks, jackets, gloves, pants and hats, no matter how stifling hot the temperature was, in an attempt to shield themselves from the "dangers" of the unfiltered air outside the cityspheres.
That's what made this small group of Dworinians so different and interesting. Not only were they straying off the Beggar's Trail, they were also wearing the minimum in protective clothing: just a long-sleeve shirt, slim-looking pants, and a simple (if high-tech) mask around their nose and mouth. They didn't seem to be in fear, or even hostility like the guards. They were studious, curious - quite an unusual group, for Dworinians at least.
"What should we do?" Kole asked as the group began to get closer. He fidgeted a little, his nervousness and his inquisitiveness battling inside of him.
"I'd say let's attack 'em." Nolak flexed his arm muscles as he began to furrow his brow. "We could wipe out the whole lot of them in a minute, tops."
"Ssssh," Aric motioned to both of them, as the group got closer, and the boys finally got a good look at each of them. The group seemed to be led by a man in his late twenties, with a strong, handsome face and a decent, if not overly-impressive, build. He kept motioning to the others, telling them which direction to head and what to do. Right behind him was another man, younger (seemingly only a few years older than Aric), taller but very lanky, with glasses, holding a hand-held device that he kept entering data into and looking at the results. The third person happened to be a female, with long dirty-blonde hair and a smooth face, probably about the same age as the leader. Each of the boys hadn't gotten a close look at a female human in over a decade, and she definitely held their interest. Finally, at the rear of the group was a gruff-looking man, probably twenty years older than any of the other party members. He had a medium-trimmed, rough-looking black beard, and was a slight bit on the stocky side. He was also the only one of the group carrying a weapon, a small Disruptor Bolt pistol in its holster on his left hip. Aric guessed that he was the security guard of the group.
As they got closer, Aric turned to look at each of his brothers, catching eye contact, and trying to decide what to do. Finally, he whispered…  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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