The Forgotten Zodiac

Karsenir slowed his pace so Avis wouldn't have such a bumpy ride and have an easier time resting. He had offered to let her sleep, so he'd do what he could to make it easier for her to do so. He had no problems staying awake. When light finally began to show in the grassy fields, he sighed and stopped, gently sliding Avis off of his back and setting her down against a tree. Figuring it would be best to let her wake up where they could see each other. Oh wait. He looked down at himself. Sure it was still dark enough most colors to appear black and grey, but there would be definite outlines of things. He sighed and ran his huge hand through his hair as he watched Avis, thinking. In the past whenever she'd felt him or seen a little of him, she didn't seem to mind, but that was differed, little part of him... He sighed, shook his head. If she didn't like him, he could just go his own way and not have to worry about anything.

After awhile, Avis stirred. Her hand dropped onto some twigs and fallen leaves; she sat up almost at once, looking around her in surprise. "That wasn't a dream, then..." She murmured in shock, watching a bird or two take flight into some trees. She didn't even look at Karsenir at first, staring in shock at the trees and the world around her. She then turned and her eyes fell on Karsenir.

((You have to describe him in full now. xD))

Karsenir was watching her anxiously the moment he noted her stirring. He kept his eyes on her, waiting for her reaction. Thankfully, he had been given decent clothes back at the circus, so the majority of his dark, splotchy skin was covered up by his clothes. "...Good morning." He said, looking away when she looked at him. Everything about him was rather dark. From his black and intensly dark purple hair, to his large grey eyes, his blemished skin, and his clothes, Karsenir was a dark, giant of a man. As Avis had gathered in the dark during the night before, everything about Karsenir was large. His hands had to be large to fit an extra finger on each hand and the extra knucles on each of his fingers. There was no doubt that his feet were built similarly. It goes without saying that Karsenir's body was larger and more built than the average man his age, but apart from it's size he seemed normal enough. He seemed to have the shape of a human being. The imperfet skin wouldn't be too visible in the dim, early morning light, and he was glad for that for the time being. The large patches of dark purple on his darkly tanned skin covered every inch of visible skin.
"...I trust you slept well?"

((full enough for ya?))

Avis' smile faded a little as she looked curiously at Karsenir. "Wow, you look...interesting." She tilted her head to the side. "Actually really...really cool." She smiled, looking a bit...awed. "Yeah, I slept alright. Thank you," She said, her smile turning happy rather than awe-inspired. Her stomach let out a hungered growl a moment later, though. She put her hand on her stomach, then let out a sigh. "We should get moving again," She said, looking towards the plains.

Karsenir didn't say anything a Avis spoke. He didn't smile or frown, just sat solemly until Avis decided they should move on. Then he nodded, got on his feet and crouched down in front of Avis, ready for her to climb on so they could continue on. After they had been moving for a while, Karsenir spoke. "Do you like berries?" He asked, looking back over his shoulder at Avis. "I have a feeling we might find some out here, if we don't find a suitable place to get food elsewhere." He said with a light shrug.

"Don't we have to be careful about what we eat, though? I would think that some berries would be poisonous. Like mushrooms, right? You aren't supposed to eat things you don't recognize..." Avis looked around curiously, not seeing any berries.

Then again, there probably weren't any berries in trees.

"Of course, but, I'll be able to recognize several types of berries we might see, if we see any. I had to live on my own for a period of time, and I still remember many of the things I had to eat." He said, keeping his eyes ahead now as they kept moving. Now that it was daylight, Karsenir was moving a tad bit slower than he had during the night, and he stumbled minorly a couple times as they went on. He was careful about what direction he was falling whenever he seemed to lose his balance, making sure if he were to fall entirely that Avis wouldn't feel anything.

Avis noticed this. After awhile, she slid off of Karsenir's back and walked beside him, peeking up at him curiously. "Did you not sleep at all last night?" She questioned, frowning at him a little. "You don't look so good, either. Although...I don't really know how you look normally, so I don't know if you're sick or not, and--ouch!" She yelped, stumbling back. Her foot was already turning red; she had stepped into a patch of stinging nettles, which burned on contact. "Ow, ow, ow..."

He didn't mind Avis' coming off his back. If she wanted to walk okay, but  when she started asking questions Karsenir's expression turned to something of a scowl. "I'm fine." He stated quickly and grumpily, though his hardness quickly melted away when she stepped on the stinging nettles. He picked her up again, with his hands this time, carried her to the edge of the forrest, to the grassy field. "Are you alright?" He asked her, concerned.

"I'm fine, it was just a sharp plant," Avis nodded quickly, though she rubbed the sole of her foot in annoyance, which caused bumpy little white spots to show up on her sensitive skin. "I really need shoes," She muttered, holding back tears as she poked one of the now-tender puffy spots. "Darn it, what kind of plant causes this?! I don't like forests anymore, I change my mind!" She huffed in annoynace.

Karsenir frowned at the stung skin of Avis' foot as she rubbed her foot. "Hmm..." He sighed, shook his head and said in a slightly irritated voice: "This is why I was carrying you." Karsenir hadn't yet realized that in the fields there was plenty of light that did more to reveal his interesting skin. The skin on his forearms, face, neck, legs, any skin that was visible, was a dark tan color with patches of different shades of intensely dark purple. The purple areas of his skin were jagged, as if a severe burn had caused them, but if someone had the nerve to inquire about the tough skin, he would eventually tell them that he was born with his skin like that. "Come on. We'll get you shoes soon enough." Karsenir sighed again and had Avis return to her position on his back. "Don't worry about it."

"I guess...you just seemed tired, so..." Avis sighed unhappily, but settled down on Karsenir's back anyways. She looked at his skin from her spot on his back, ever curious. She didn't inquire this time, though; she assumed that he had been born with it. She asked a different question entirely, one that did indeed matter. "Where are we headed? If we can't go anywhere the circus has been, nor where it's going...then where?

Karsenir shrugged. "I'm fine, Avis. I never sleep." That was something of an exaggeration, but not a big exageration. He could go about two months without having any negative side effects from lack of sleep. His problem now was that it was daytime. He never had great vision during the day as everything always seemed to bright to him, so it was a little difficult for him to see where he was going. 
"Where are we going? Anywhere, really. I don't know anything about where we are, so we just have to find a town, and soon. If we wait too long, the circus might move on from the twon they were headed too, and they will have undoubtedly left notice of a reward to anyone who finds us. That is if they don't stop and ook for us themselves." Karsenir said, walking a little slower than before so he wouldn't worry Avis.

"We could move ahead of the circus," Avis suggested. "Get to a town before they do, leave before they arrive. I payed attention to the path they were taking and how long they stayed in different sized towns; if I had a map, I would be able to write down what I know, but..." She looked around, suddenly nervous at the idea that the circus would be coming after them. Hunting them down, looking for them like a marketgoer searches for expensive, lost merchandise. Except the circus would torture them beyond the point of sanity if they were found. 'Handle with care' wasn't in their dictionary, so to speak.

Karsenir shook his head. "We've got no chance at that. They've got their carriages, to haul, sure, but they've got animals and other stong characters around to help them. Until we find you some shoes, all we have are my legs." He said, sighing heavily. "I think we should try to cut perpindicular, even though we would be going through this open field. most of the roads around here are pretty direct when it comes to going to other towns nearby, so maybe we'd have a chance to get away from that circus."

"Alright, I guess I can see the logic in that. We might as well move now while we still can." Avis nodded, shifting to a more comfortable position on Karsenir's back. She nearly giggled at the thought of the vampiric ringmaster, raging on about how his most prized possession had escaped him with a human. Ohh, the look she imagined on his smug, ugly face...priceless.

((Okay, so my plot thinking (for general overview) goes like this; Karsenir falls for Avis as they travel. They run into a few thugs from the circus, who Karsenir beats up, Avis helps him get better when it's over. Blahblahblah, maybe a few more things, Karsenir realizes that he's in love with her, then boom. They find the quarentined humans. Avis is found to be riddled with the disease, but somehow immune; the 'cleanup' people find this out and are insistent that she stay. Karsenir leaves, thinking she's safe with her own kind, then discovers from a 'source' (that I'll provide, probably), that they'll be killing her due to the fact that the leader of the quarentine thingy still wants his workers and whatnot (although I'm still leaving what he's looking for a complete and total secret because I don't know what it is), and the doctors want her because they want to work out why she's immune and give an antidote/vaccine to the humans there so they can go and live their lives but it would also kill Avis.

Or we could just blow things up and call it a day. Feel free to add in anything, throw out ideas, do stuffz?))

((I loves that. A lot. I'm loveing that. A great deal of much.))

Karsenir nodded. "That is why I'm still moving forward." He said lightly. "We've got to get you some shoes as soon as possible. I'm sure you're getting stiff from the ride." He glanced back at Avis, smiling a little himself as he saw her on the verge of giggling. "I wonder if there's any way we could make some temporary shoes for you." He thought aloud, looking around a little, which resulted in a mis-step. He stumbled forward, but caught himself, again, very careful of Avis on his back.

((Good to know. xD Anything to add?))

Avis clung onto him tightly, not wishing at all to fall into another patch of those stinging plants. "Temporary shoes sound good, but I don't know what we would make them out of. Leaves and sticks?" She giggled a bit at the thought of wearing such things, though she would if Karsenir bothered to make them for her. She would much rather walk on her own, to be honest, but she couldn't without shoes.

((Not yet, but I'll be thinking. If I think of something I'll let you know. : ) ))

Smiling a little when he heard Avis' giggle, Karsenir suddenly looked down at Avis' feet, then came to an abrupt stop with a quiet grunt of irritation. He sighed loudly, let Avis off his back, moved against a tree and pulled his shoes off, muttering something about how idiotic it was that he hadn't thought about doing this sooner. He held them out to Avis, setting his feet down and sliding them into what foliage there was on the ground so she wouldn't look at his feet for too long. The skin of his feet was entirely the darkest shade of purple. It was very tough skin, so there was hardly anything that he could step on and have a problem with. "Do those work okay for you?" He asked Avis, straightening up off of the tree he was leaning on.

Avis looked down at his feet, then up at him in confusion. "Will your feet be okay?" She asked, though she slid his shoes on anyways. They were way too big for her, and she knew that she would get blisters before long, but they were shoes. Exactly what she needed. "Don't even answer that, I'm pretty sure you'll be okay. Let's just go, shall we?" She waited for him despite her words; she wasn't confident in her own navigational skills at all. She didn't have any; she was always dependent on others. She hated it, but it was so. She had been a captive for most of her life, after all...and now, being free, it felt...wonderful. But frightening, so very frightening, at the same time.