[closed] mission: lost children

[anotheroldsoldier]

who: Bucky, Eddie, Michael, Yuri, and Ivar
what: The team tries to find some missing children and wind up with more trouble than they asked for.
when: July 9-13
where: Out beyond the fence.
warnings: Fighting and teenagers in peril.


[When children started disappearing, note was taken immediately. They just seemed to wander off, a handful of them between the ages of five and fourteen, near the fences that separate Riverview from the uninhabited city. A small team is arranged to investigate the disappearances and - hopefully - bring the kids home. With representation from the Perimeter Guard and the police force, the group is supplied and set out for a short term mission, starting at the spot the latest child was last seen.]

Comments

[bespredel]

What Yuri remembered came in fractured pieces. They had been camping together, Bucky and Yuri on watch. Having begun to get tired, Yuri had mumbled that he was going to do a round, make sure everyone was all right. He had skirted the low embers of their campsite, had wandered the forest edge with the edge of exhaustion pulling at him. By one of the tents, he had heard a soft, mournful trilling from somewhere deep within the forest- but had only paused long enough to identify it as probably some sort of animal. If it got too close, they would take care of it.

Coming back to Bucky he'd been told to get some shut eye, and even though Yuri had put up some feeble protest, he hadn't been able to argue that the day's travel had tired him out. So he had mumbled that he was going to take a piss, and then retire to his own bedroll.

Well, that wasn't exactly how things had panned out.

He had remembered walking a little ways from the glow of the campfire- still close enough to see it, but far enough away to have a little privacy. He had done his business, sanitized his hands with a little pocket bottle he'd carried out with him, and had taken two steps to start walking back- when he had heard the soft, trilling noises again. It was louder this time, closer. Curious, Yuri had turned towards the source of the noise in the darkness, listened to it's soft tune in the darkness. Had closed his eyes, and started to fall forward, exhausted.

He had never hit the ground. Remembered the embrace of thick talons around him, almost delicately. The same tune carrying through his dreams. There was something so... comforting in the sound of the music. And yet so sad, as well. Yuri had let it take him, hadn't even been worried when, at one point he had slowly blinked open his eyes, lazily stared at the treetops far, far below, and then had fallen asleep once more.

He would have been happy remaining asleep, but rather suddenly his dreams were disturbed by a rather piercing, annoying voice.

"Fuck off," he mumbled, his hands pushing vaguely towards the other, before rolling slightly away. His arm dropping onto the ground- only to fall through it, instead. Jarred, Yuri woke up properly, sucking in a gasp as he realized he was at the edge of- of a something. Sitting up, he looked around wide eyed. Needing a moment just to take it all in.

Well. This certainly did explain a thing or two.

"Holy shit," he breathed out, before scowling as Ivar's words registered, and he turned, shooting the other an unimpressed look. "Maybe we floated up here on that fat ego of yours," Yuri sneered, rolling his eyes, before shuffling to his feet, to get a better look at the towering hollow they found themselves in; the interlocking branches above where other children huddled. Too afraid to attempt to climb down, or perhaps simply unable. Yuri wasn't really sure, just yet.

Worst of all, Yuri couldn't actually see any sort of bottom; which was unnerving in and of itself. How fucking big was this god damn tree?!

[ragnarsson]

"Sure we did. Or maybe one of Hræsvelgr's eagle spawn got the better of us." Like everything else bizarre in Norse legends, there was talk of giants that could turn into birds, birds that could turn into giants, and just plain giant birds. Ivar looked nonplussed about being up as high as they were. Nothing much frightened him except for open water. "You know, I can see why the bird would want to take me, but I can't see what it wanted with your charmless, scrawny ass."

At least now they had solved the mystery of what was taking the children. That still didn't answer the question of why, but he was sure it had something to do with that mournful song. The way the bird had put them all here wasn't like an animal storing food. Rather, it was like a creature forming a collection for some purpose, keeping them safe.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere soon." Ivar was strong, but even if he had a whole backpack full of equipment, it was doubtful he would have been able to climb down from the tree. There was just too much that involved using the legs when coming down from such an extreme height. One grip of his hands just a little too loose and that would be the end of him. That just made him all the more irritable. Ivar hated feeling useless, and while most of the time he was capable of keeping up with everyone else, there was always the painful reminders that he was different.