Strolling through the evening

"Would you just walk already? We're not getting any younger."

"Yeah, seriously, Sabriel."

Sabriel grumbled under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose as he started walking again. He had forgotten to take his medication, again. It was a frequent occurrence that often got him in trouble not only with Michelle, but because he some time's wound up yelling a 'shut up' in the middle of the hallway. Needless to say, the little voices were a nuisance.

The fifteen-year-old twisted the fingerless glove on his right hand as he walked, trying not to pay much attention to the fact this place was forbidden. It was off limits, and while he felt bad for breaking the rules, he'd been told it was a good place to go if he wanted to try and bond with the shadows. Even if it was quiet and he would be able to try in private, there was a pit in his stomach that was turning all the positive things into negatives.

He stopped again and sat down on what looked like a tree stump, looking down at the ground and at his hands. How much more pathetic did it get?

A shriek pierced though his cat ears and he immediately looked up, blinking before standing. Being the uninformed child that he was, he couldn't really tell the difference between the scream of an animal and the scream of a human. And if someone else was out there, he was going to feel extremely guilty if they were hurt and he just walked away.

Throwing his common sense to the wind, Sabriel stood once again and walked in the direction the noise had come from, trying to be as quiet as possible. However, seeing another boy with an eagle on his arm was hardly what he expected.

He shrunk slightly under the sight, confused and fascinated at the same time. "What's... that?" he finally wound up asking once his voice had returned, looking from the young man to the thing crouched on his arm. He probably sounded like an idiot, but some things couldn't be helped.

Those eyes were staring at him. Sabriel gulped, trying not to look into the eyes of the eagle, but he couldn't help himself. His own golden eyes were shaking under the stare of the eagle, who was suddenly flying at him with talons out, scratching his cheek.

The force of the impact knocked him down with a yelp. A hand immediately went to the cut on his cheek as he wondered whether he should run away or not. That eagle had been mean, but he wasn't quite sure if the person it had been perched on was as hostile. The eagle disappeared, and to his surprise, so did the small wound on his cheek. And then, of course, the other male did too.

Paranoia swept over him. Either the guy hadn't intended for the eagle to hurt him, or he wanted to hurt him himself. Why had he come here? Why? He should have known it was only going to cause him trouble! He probably wouldn't even be able to get away, considering this forest was much larger than just fifty feet.

"I'm sorry about that. Now, who are you and what is it I can do for you?"

Sabriel looked behind him and up, swallowing as he saw the look on his face. So far, he didn't seem like a very friendly person. "Sabriel Phyero, fifteen, I heard something so I came here and then the thingy and the thing... and then the thing happened..." He wasn't very good at explaining things under pressure. Hopefully he would get the gist of it, though. The boy pushed himself up, wiping himself off before turning to face the stranger, inhaling and trying to seem a bit tougher than he was. Of course, he failed miserably. "I don't know what you can really do for me, aside from explaining what that eagle was made out of..." he mumbled before realizing something. "Well, you can tell me who you are, too, since I told you who I am."

"You can relax, I have no desire to cause you harm.."

That was a relief. Sabriel exhaled, glad he didn't have to put up an act. That would just end up in even more disaster for him. Maybe he was trusting a complete stranger, but that was fine. Words were promises to him; he just hoped this Albel wasn't one to break promises. "Oh, good," he said, a crooked smile spreading across his face as he said that. "I was kind of worried there for a moment!" He laughed, slightly embarrassed. After everything he'd been through, he should have been a cynic, not a naive little kid who believed everything people said.

"That creature was created from the shadows. It's my..ability..so to say. I can do things with the shadows, manipulate them, traverse them, so on..."

Perhaps he should have been expecting that in a place like this, but he hadn't been. "Me too! Except I don't think I can do all that stuff..." He certainly couldn't create animals, and he wasn't going to try. If they were going to be vicious creatures, he didn't want them around. He had no need for those kinds of things. Sabriel went quiet after that, an apologetic look swiping across his face when he realized he had probably interrupted Albel. Just knowing that there was someone out there with the same ability as him was a bit of a relief, was all.

"... because of the shadows they're created from, their nature is typically cold and untrusting towards people, hence the attack..."

His eyebrows knitted as he tried to take that in. His own shadows had never been malicious, and had even comforted him when he was in a bad mood. It didn't make sense, how they could have similar abilities and yet the shadows had different 'personalities', so to say.

"It's simple, silly. You're a coward, he probably isn't."

"That was uncalled for...." Sabriel muttered, turning his eyes away like he always did when talking to the beings in his head.

"... Once again, I truly apologize for that."

He sounded sorry, and besides, Sabriel wasn't one to hold a grudge. "It's fine!" he said. "It was... kinda cool, actually, since when the bird disappeared the scratch did too." All right, so maybe getting scared, being knocked down, and being attacked by a huge bird wasn't that cool — but it was the only nice thing he could think of to say.

"Oh, I'm sorry for rambling like that..I lose myself in thought sometimes.."

"That kid sure talks a lot..." the single female voice said with a sigh. "And they say girls chatter on about nothing!"

Sabriel rolled his eyes. He was actually interested in this, just in case, one day, he was able to make animals like that. The theory made sense... so he had no reason to doubt it. With a nod, he acknowledged that he had listened, even there had been some interruptions in his own head. "I see," he said. "It makes sense. Too bad I don't think anyone here would know..."

Michelle probably wouldn't know. She never really got involved with her powers, even though she had them.

"So what exactly is it you can do with the shadows? They're truly fascinating, aren't they?..."

Sabriel nodded as Albel continued to speak, but he was drawing some of the shadows up from the ground as he spoke to show what he could do. He didn't really enjoy exploiting it, but since he had been asked, he figured it was all right. The shadows wrapped around his arm before flinging themselves to a tree and wrapping around it before Sabriel lowered his hand and they fell back to the ground.

"Teleport through them and basically use them to pick things up or tie things up for me," he mumbled. As he mentioned making them docile, Sabriel clearly had no idea what he was talking about. "Mine were never hostile from the start..." Even the way he had discovered them wasn't dangerous. They'd comforted him when he was upset over his mother's pregnancy, not attacked him. "Weird."

"Hmm..maybe it's because the shadows you summon just happen to be nice ones. That's interesting, must mean I just continuously find the evil ones. Rotten luck that is.."

Sabriel laughed at the fact that he just happened to summon nice shadows. There had to be a deeper explanation; too bad he was a bit too naive to see it had anything to do with intentions. His shadows were bound to be kind, considering the teenager was a pacifist. "Bad luck indeed," he agreed. "But at least they don't do permanent damage, right?"

"So when did you discover you had these powers?"

The question seemed to make him freeze. How was he supposed to give a vague answer without hundreds of questions coming afterward? Sabriel was silent, simply looking at Albel and biting on his lip. "Well..." He wasn't quite sure what to say. Hopefully, his age would be enough. "I was twelve; I'm fifteen now. Uhh... let's just say the shadows discovered me instead of the other way around."

Well, that really was how it happened.

"What about you?"