I walk a lonely road

[Ebony Arka]

e b o n y
heading for the great escape



A tense and emotional time preceding the full moon, that is one thing for certain. No one will admit to it but everyone suffers with it, they will often find themselves becomeing inexplicably tense and angry, or perhaps desolate and melancholy. It changes from one person to the next you see. And of course it affects teh animals too, the wayt hat they go suiet or suddenly noisey, and it all comes to a head on teh night of the full moon, thats why we have werewolves or so the urban legend goes.

But on the afternoon in question it was not the full moon that drove a troubled young student to the streets of hogsmeand, drenched in late summer sun. But that was only the main streets, for int he back alleys and the edges the little houses nestle closer together, and the low sun oes not reach to penetrate the rabbits warren that runs there, and here creatures and people may hde themselves away, for few know it is there.

And it was down one of thses back alleys that Ebony headed, making her way out towards the edges of teh village, she dived along another small lane and found herelf onthe very outskirts of the village, heading off sideways she followed it around a short way and sat down, wth the rough warm stone of a wall at her back and a view of the moutnatins at her front she felt her mood lift considerably. She let her mind wonder and breathed deeply, why was it all so testing? School, lessons, lies. All of it stressful all of it pushing in on her, she breathed again. No. Push it out of your mind. She told herself. Quietly she closed her eyes and tilted her head back against the wall, breathing deeply. The deep breathing helped, she pushed everything, absolutly everything, from her mind. Beetles, Adam and Hair dye. All gone.

She pulled her legs up beside her and pushed the perenial strand of hair auburn behind her ear. She allowed herself a smile, eyes still closed. She chewed her finger in thought. No one. No one at all was going to spoil her day.

[Kasen Kemal Kasabian]

The sun was slowly setting, lost among teh warrens of Hogsmeade which once again showed the stark difference between England, this dismal place, and Australia, the land of the golden sun and the red earth. At home you could see glimmers of the sun until at last the moon took to teh stage, silencing all quivers of the day and awakening the wild life of the night. Parties were wild, but they were no where near as enchanteing as the Outback under teh moon. The time when all the creatures ventured forth from their burrows and went about their businesss, shadowy shapes among the dark patches cast by the low, sparse scrub. Could he really call Australia home after how long he had been gone? Always. That summer he had gone back, and after six years absent it had still fetl far more fitting then any place in this place could be. How could anyone live, surrounded and enclosed by mountains like a convict in prison? It was intolerable, teh closed in spaces made the seventh years skin feel tight, his height unbearable, and his heart stuttered among teh cages of trees and walls with every beat. Perhaps one day soon it would stop all together, leaving nothing but a shell fo the proud wizard that had once inhabited it. Pride. A sin, but a worth while one, and the only reason he was in Slytherin. What did he have to be proud of? Why, his blood was teh purest of any wizard that ever lived, far cleaner then the murky blodo of the Malfoys, the malingering twerps that only thought they ruled their house. Kasen knew the truth. He knew what teh oracle had said to him, not teh fake, misty-eyed seers of Europe, but the hawk-eyed Aborigine who spoke with the certainty of one who knows. He had said that while blood was pure, honor was pureer, to think of his Patronus, and take after the dingo. This had seemed odd to him, to think of his Patronus, which could either mean the noble lion, or the house of Gryffindor. And the dingo he was supposed to be like? A fool of a pup who had no brains in his head, called Wallaby for that very reason. Besides, honor had always been important to the Kasabians, even without an oracle's warning.

The tall blonde male paced among the rat-warrens of Hogsmeade, picteresque even here. His boot clad feet stepped easily over any puddles that came his way, proppeled by long, strong legs clothed in jeans. His shirt was simple, a tee shirt the exact same color as the red dirt of his homeland, enscribed with simple words that read out the words of his house. Stand with honor. The Kasabians were famous for their war skills, loving the art and beauty of the spells, shunning any taht were Unforgiveable. Let the common dirt deal with those, they had more class. His pale green eyes were fixed on a point ahead of him, a decaying brik wall, when he stumbled over an object in the street. With the predator-like grace of a great feline he recovered his balance quickly and turned,f expecting to find a cat, and exclaiming in surprise when he saw a young girl with brunette hair.

[Ebony Arka]

e b o n y

The sun dipped lower and lower sarting to inch it's way down below the horizon line, it was at its most beautiful out at sea, a grea firey red giant slitting its wrists and then bleeding to death in the immense bath tub of the ocean. Thinking about the sea made her smile and she let her thoughts wonder back to family holidays with her mother and father, playing in the water and making sandcastles, childhood bliss. Her thoughts half turned to her earlier analogy but it made her wrists tingle and raised dark and bad ideas to her mind so she pushed it down, down into her boots and returned to her memories.

So deep was her reverie that she did not hear the other approach and with the suns rays warming her eyelids she did not see him either. And so it was not until he tripped headlong over her was that she became aware of him at all. Moving instinctively her eyes snapped ope and her hands movid like lightening. One hand went for her pocket closing around her wand and the other shot to the floor, just at the base of the wall to ais her should she need to move at speed. But the mysterious boy did nothing and did not seem hostile so she did nothing. Just watched him, like some strange parody of a spaghetti western stand off.

Shifting her hand to a more stable position she slid herself up the wall; looking up at people from the floor always mader her feel vulneraeble. The rough stone work ragged at teh wasteband of her jeasn and pulled down on the hem of her top but once she was up right both pressures released and she was comfortable again. SHe flashed the boy a smile and then glanced down at he sandaled feet, this caused a strand of hair to fall back into her face from behind her ear so she pushed it back and looked up, meeting his piercing gaze.

The moment stretched awkwarly on into the failing light and neither of them spoke. She tried again to hold his gaze and this time she managed it, she was suddenly stuck by that feeling you get, when you sense how far from home someone is. And it mader her gasp a small breath, she had never been that far away from her parents or her home. Breaking eye contact for a moment she trirled her fingers about, trying to break the scilence but not managing to speak. Looking back up she took his gaze again and spoke. Hello. I, i'm Ebony she whispered at last breaking eyecontact again and staring down at her shoes. Hardly the best way to make a good impression.[/right]

[Kasen Kemal Kasabian]

She was like a doe, the small ones that inhabited the slightly taller scrub near the rainforest toward Australia's interior. So unexpected among the plethora of marsupials, and yet, although you could not help but feel they were some how intruding upon your space, they were such graceful creatures they captivated your attention and held you in their thrall as man and beast stared at each other, neither willing to break the unspoken truce that kept both from either fleeing or attacking. During that time, that intermittable period where you feel connected to this strange beast you can feel a thread of tension stretching out, intertwined with something else. Neither are where they belong. One in a land of alien species, the other alone in a hostile enviorment. Yes, Australia is hostile, and that is part of it's beauty. The knowledge that danger lurks around the corner, but the child who walks the path knows that no snake will bight him, no scorpion will sting him. How? He was born there, among teh bush, and the land knows his blood, knows the taste, and it cherishes it and it's holder so much she will halt her warrios from attacking, for she knows the child will not harm it. Indeed, his feet fall feather-light, leaving plants undamaged, his pale green eyes observing the creatures of the Bush, but not interfereing. Never. Suddenly the moment is broken as the girl looks down, a purely human gesture that sends Kasabian rocketing into the present and reality. He was no longer the teenager in the Bush with teh deer, nor the child cradeled by his home. Now he was a stranger in a place he hated. And he couldn't help it, a lump formed in his throat and he swallowed, fighting back the tiny pricks that stung his eyes.

Ebony. A pretty name, though slightly unfitting. She was not black, in anyway. Her hair was the lightly tinted red brown of the stone that formed his family home. Her eyes were matching, nearly like teh rowe deer she ahd been compared to just seconds before. No, Ebony was not fitting, but it was no matter. Was Kasen truly a fitting name for himself? Kasen meant pure, and he knew his heart was muddled with the uncertainties of life, despite the fact that his blood was pure. "Forgive me, Ebony." His voice was a soft baritone, slightly rough from his accent paired with the effort it took to keep the sorrow from his voice. The blonde's broad, muscular physique was kept straight in the air at the towering height of 6'4", quite a difference compared to the girl before him. "My name is Kasen."

[howlie]

e b o n y



She smiled as he spoke, the giant and foreboding creature had a soul after all, maybe he was even gentle and caring, that remained to be seen. He seemed still to be analysing her with his light green eyes that almost looked through you. It made her feel ever so slightly strange and for a moment she wondered if he was seeing her at all. It was hard, extremely hard to tell. And there ws somthing aout the green eyes that took her away to another place.

Smooth green grasses, roving up towards the skyline with little black creatures dotted on it, as lumps of aparatus rose up out of the ground like organic beings. Children laughing and a mothers warm hug, the deeper laughter of a father, more hugs. A perfect moment captured in memory. She pulled her self reluctantly up out of the depths of the green eyes aware that she was probably staring. She knew he was looking at her, thinking no doubt about this misfit nauture of her name, well there was time enough for that story if the opportunity or question arose.

Then she suddenly realised that he had spoken and that it would be apt for her to reply, feeling foolish for her prolonged scilence she said, pology accepted Kasen Holding out a hand to make his aquaintance, But if you'll forgive me for asking an i right in believing that you are a very long way from home? The words felt foreign in her throat and she felt odd. It was not as though she had trouble speaking to boys, after all she found Adam perfectly easy to speak too. And he was a boy. But this Kasen seemed different, somehow. Just 'cause he's not your best mate a snide voice in her mind chipped in, but she dissmissed it.

It was of little consequence, she stood their one hand out stretched, yawning across waht seemed to be an insurmountable gap, stretching back through the centurys to the most basic of instincts, identifying one self with a new person or creature. The most ipulsive and anchient ritual of all. And then she was back in hogsmean smiling at a mysteriouse boy with her hand held out.

[/right]