Chapter Text
Draven's head was pounding as she opened her eyes to gaze around at her surroundings. She was nowhere near where she has passed out the day before. She was still near a tree but high above the ground. Above her were all different color tarps sewn together to make up a roof. She slowly sat up and looked down to see what she was laying. A red hammock paired with a red sleeping bag. ‘ Why did it have to be red? ’ She thought cringing at the blood-colored fabric, Draven knew that she would be perfectly content never seeing the color red again. She was still in the same clothes as the day before when she had passed out. Draven looked at her right arm and saw a watch, the watches face lit up with a yellow-green light showing her it was now one A.M. She had been out for half a day. It had been late afternoon when she lost consciousness.
The rest of the area I was in was covered in more hammocks of all different colors, except for red, there were only three that I could see and the had to be at least 20 hammocks in here. She looked around not seeing any movement besides the movement of sleeping people in some of the hammocks and the leaves. She slowly started to lift herself out of the hammock and down the huge brach to the center of the tree. The trunk and branches were both wider than a bus colored a dark brown with deep green leaves sporting from them that got thicker the hight up she got.
When she hit the ground a swish of leaves in a tree 5 feet away in a few feet up for her could be herd. Thinking nothing of it she started to walk away from the trees that had hammocks and other things nestled into them. If anything it was a squirrel.
“And where do you think you’re going?” An annoyed female voice said from behind her. Draven wiped around quickly and saw a girl about her age jump out of the tree that she’d heard the rustling leaves in, so it wasn't just a squirrel.
“Away from here, I guess,” Draven said shrugging. “Don't have any idea where I'm going but I don't know where I am now and there's no way that I'm going to get caught by Andrew.”
“So you're like me,” the girl said running a hand through her short brown choppy hair. The tips were died witch contrasted beautifully with her intense green eyes. She stood looking at her expectantly. She radiated a sense of power that no one her age had the right to do. Despite the roughed up look, she was stunning. Her muscular arms were cover with a simple black shirt. An animal pelt cape hung from her shoulders and fell to her midsection. She had on brown pants and dark brown boots toppers with fur. She had a sword hanging on the right hip and a collection of daggers and knives on the other.
“What do you mean by that?” Draven said finally taking her eyes away from the other girl.
“Andrew tried to take you away from the life you had? You're a Snake Child, Andrew barged in and ruined your life, probably killed some family in the process and you ran. Am I not correct? If so just say. But most of the time I'm correct.”
“No... You're right, he killed my mom before I came out here,” Draven's voice broke as she said the word killed and thought of her mother. Draven squeezed her eyes shut willing away the tears and the fact that her mom was dead and gone.
“You poor child, I never knew my parents so I never had to go through the pain of losing them. That's the only good thing about being an orphan,” she said laughing sourly.
“You're an orphan?” I said starting to pity the girl standing in front of me.
“That’s what I said is it not? Keep up, Idiot,” Draven frowned at the girl losing all thoughts of pity she had had for the girl.
“The reason I ask is if you’re an orphan how are you still alive?”
“An orphan yes. But I'm not a helpless child I can take care of myself,” The girl said as she leaned back onto the same tree she had hopped out of and crossed her arms over her chest.
“How old were you when they die? Because if you were a kid then yeah you were a child once and you should be dead.” Draven was tired hungry, lost, and had just lost her mother, and was not having fun with the girl's sarcastic remarks.
“Yes, I was a child when they died. But I had other people who took me in and raised me, but I never got close to them. All they did was keep me alive nothing more. Anyways that doesn't matter, you matter,” The girl said gesturing towards Draven
“Me?” Draven raised an eyebrow at the girl.
“Yes, you. Who else is there? What's your name anyways Snake kid? Or I can just keep calling you Idiot if you want,” she said as she smirked at the half-hearted glare Draven sent her way.
“Draven, Daven Shade. I’m 15. Anything else you need to know? Also, what's your name? I didn’t catch it."
“I didn’t through it,” the girl said dryly they waited for a beat before speaking again. “My name is Valerie Wolf, but you can call me Val if you want to, everyone here does. And I'm also 15, what a coincidence. Want to hear something funny?” from the way she said that Draven didn’t believe that it was going to be to fun or funny. My name means strength, Bravery, and health. Quite a name for a kid who got her powers from a disease. Right?”
“Yea that does suck,” Draven passed to look at the Valerie looking for any signs of sadness, but the girl just looked annoyed. “Well… fun fact about me now, my name means Child of beautiful shadows and Avenger,” Draven said and couldn't help but feel a bit of pride saying that she knew that she was, in fact, beautiful. Driven ran a hand through her messy black hair that fell to the middle of her back. It almost always looked as though she had just rolled out of bed.
“Meh, I would drop the beautiful,” Valerie said shrugging.
“I am too beautiful! You're just jealous!” Draven said sounding like a child.
“Yeah okay,” she snorted looking at Draven's scrunched-up face. “Anyways you need to go back to sleep, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“I just woke up, also what do you mean by ‘we have a big day tomorrow?’ you're not going to sacrifice me or something are you?” Draven said taking a step away from the warrior girl, Draven would not have been be half surprised, but she also believed that this day could not get any worse.
“ Most likely not.” Draven couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
“Just go to bed Draven, I'll tell you and everybody else tomorrow. Okay?” Valerie said ‘okay’ like she was talking to a toddler.
“Fine. As long as you promise you're not going to murder me tomorrow.” Draven said crossing her arms across her chest and pouted like a child.
“Promise,” Valerie said as she stuck her hand out for Draven to shake. “Goodnight Shadow girl, don't let the mosquitoes bite.”
“Night Valerie, please don't kill me in my sleep,” I said with a tiny laugh as Valerie smiled mischievously at the dark-haired girl. Valerie turned and started back up the tree she had come from as Draven headed back to the huge main tree and bright red hammock. Hooray.