Trinity raised an eyebrow. Enjoyed killing? Was that how she came across. Lips twitching as she tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile, she replied amused, "Ah, now you have made an assumption. Whether or not your assumption is correct is not something I feel bothered to indulge." She swiped the man's hunting weapons and purse. The purse was not of money but things that were small and tradeable. Standing, she gave a mock bow to the strange white-haired girl. "The good treatment you receive by the welcoming committee when you visit the fort will be because of me." Silently she added, you owe me now. Someday I will collect. "Get your new friend to the doctor since he is worth so much to you." Turning, she leaped back into the safety of the trees and sprinted out of sight. She ran partially because the girl's eyes seemed to pierce her soul. She ran partially because she was still smarting over the beating she took at the hands of those lazy loots. She ran partially to get distance between her and what semblance of humanity existed. She hated humans. Selfish, sadist creatures is what they were.

Silver's deep, blue-green eyes followed the other girl until she disappeared from sight. Then they turned to focus on the teen, really studying him for the first time, from the mess of long dark curls on his head down to his feet. Justin's bright blue eyes looked at her full of questions. He looked pretty fit and athletic, so if he had decent hand-eye coordination it shouldn't be to hard for her to teach him to fight.

"Know how to fight? To protect yourself?" She asked briskly, her hands going up to unsheathe the swords on her back.

"Not really," Justin answered in an embarrassed tone. "Why?"

"I don't trust her, wouldn't go near the trading fort if I didn't need supplies," Silver growled. "Who knows what we will walk into."

Working her way around, she kept to the outskirts of the forest. There was always nomads traveling who lived the shelter of the forest but were not willing to brave it's terrors. She was hoping to find such a group now. If she felt like it, she would ambush them. However, she wanted to trade the purse she had snatched for something a bit different.

Silver made her way towards the edge of the woods and the trading fort, Black at her side and Justin wandering close behind like a puppy. At the edge of the woods she stopped and eyed the trading fort and surrounding area, before finally continuing. "Keep quite and let me do all the talking," she ordered Justin as they neared the gate.

They entered the trading fort and Silver saw many of the men turn to leer at her. She met their gazes with an icy cold glare. Her eyes were scanning the area constantly, looking for threats, possible escape routes and items that she needed. She moved swiftly from store to store, trading for the necessary items and then turned back towards the gate. Best to get out of there as soon as possible.

Coming across a group that had stopped for lunch. Trinity stayed to the trees and shadows in order to observe. They had started a large fire and always stayed in groups of three. Relatively a small group with mixed ages and genders, Trinity figured they must be a family. A group came back from hunting. They had only caught what they needed for that meal and from the appearances of things, were not wasteful. So it was a safe bet that she could trade safely with them.

Turning and making her way to the ground, she approached the cautious group.

"Go straight for the trees and don't stop for anything, even if I am waylaid," Silver whispered to Justin as they neared the gate. She had a feeling that someone might follow them out and try something there. "Black, protect Justin," She commanded as they left the trading fort.

They were halfway across the open area when Silver sensed trouble at the same time that Black looked back with a growl. Silver glanced back over her shoulder to see several rowdy looking men following them. "We've got company," She said, halting. "Remember what I told you."

Walking cautiously towards the group, she knew they saw her as soon as she left the trees. Still, though they were watchful, they were not arming themselves or looking alarmed. "Hello!" she called out.

"Hello to you stranger." None of them stepped forward signifying a leader. So she figured this group much be less of a hierarchy than some others she had know.

"I was wondering if I might join you for lunch and possibly to trade?" She stopped walking and waited politely for further indication of what would be acceptable of her. Experience had taught her that eating with a group often came with the common understanding that no one was to come to harm at that group meal and any additional activities. So trading would be safer if she ate with them.

"You are welcome by our fire. Lunch is almost ready," another said, motioning her over. They stepped back and took up obviously casual poses. She joined them and sat down.

(Sorry, thought I had responded to this.)

She sensed Justin racing for the trees, Black obediently follow, though the dog did stop to look back a couple times. Silver drew her swords and eyed the three approaching men. Her eyes searched for any signs of weaknesses or hesitations that she could use to her advantage. She noticed that one was a big, lumbering beast of a man. She would easily be able to dance around him until he was exhausted.

Another she noticed seemed to limp slightly on his right leg as he ran. Studying him closer, she noticed that the knee seemed to be the problem area. The third appeared to be in good health, with no weaknesses that she could discern. Her best bet, she decided, would be to take out the other two. With his friends out of commission, he might be reluctant to attack her. Men like this always seemed more confident in a group.

The food smelled tantalizing. She appreciated their sense of cooking. Less animal fat and oils were used here than the trading fort. The fort's food made her feel sluggish. When the food was ready, they did something she was not expecting. They prayed first. Then they dished up her food as the guest, then theirs. Then they all ate.

With a deep breath she prepared herself to attack. As the came into range, she exploded into a whirlwind of motion, calculated to the very last nanosecond. She brought the flat of one sword crashing into the one man's knee with all her strength. He crumpled with a cry, clutching his knee as he fell. She danced nimbly around the giant of a man, striking blows to his body with the flats of both swords. Her aim was to enrage him, until he tired himself out completely.

The beast of a man fell into her plan perfectly, becoming angrier and angrier at the girl dancing circles around him and swatting him. He threw out a massive hand to try and grab her, but Silver easily dodged it, delivering a blow to his wrist with the flat of sword. The man roared in pain, grabbing his wrist. He made a few more attempts to catch her, but she could see him quickly tiring and slowing, until finally he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

Silver turned her attention to the third man, who was throwing worried glances at his downed companions and her. She stood waiting for him to decide if he wanted to cause trouble or not.

The meal was extremely good. Trinity curiously looked through the food before her. Unable to find the meat, she asked one of those beside her about why there was no meat when they clearly went hunting. It was to her astonishment that she learned they were vegetarians, hunting only for their animals that required it.

The last standing man finally backed away towards his fallen companions. Helping them to their feet, the three then fled slowly back towards the trading fort.

"That was AWESOME!" Silver whirled and had a sword blade touching Justin's neck within seconds of him speaking. Justin gulped, his pale blue eyes wide.

Silver lowered her sword and with one graceful movement, sheathed them both. "Don't sneak up on me like that," she growled, irritably.

A bit baffled by this group and their strange ways. Trinity focused on the trading at hand. They had some neat technological devices and freely shared their knowledge for improving different devices depending on what parts you had. She drank in the knowledge eagerly. When the trading was done, she had acquired so new seed, parts, and devices. Her own garden and security would be improved for it.

As she was about to depart, one of them approached her, "Hey, you live in this area or at least are knowledgeable. We have been having trouble with a bandit group following and harassing us. Those other things you really liked are your in trade for a safe location to camp for a few days. The younger and older ones need rest and we have a lot of mending and repairing to do."

Trinity wondered at that. Why would she consider helping anyone? Still, it was just a trade. And she did know a place that was relatively easy to guard. "Sure, follow me. But uh, we would have to hurry. If you can hurry for a short time, then you can rest in the long run." Silently she cursed herself. Humanity reeked of decay and greed. Why in the world was she helping? At least these people had shown decency to their environment. That was a balm that slightly eased her confused mind.

(Drat, thought I had responded but again found out that I hadn't.)

Silver felt completely weary, so much fighting in one day. She usually avoided people mostly and only had the occasional skirmish when she had to deal with them and most of those were on her terms. She wobbled a bit as she felt her energy quickly fading; it was time to find a safe place to camp for the night.

"Are you okay?" Justin asked worriedly, staring at her like a concerned puppy when she sagged against a tree for a moment.

"We need to find a safe place to camp for the night," she said, purposely not answering his question. She didn't keep people around so why was she letting this teen follow her like a little lost puppy? She brushed the thought off and looked around her. Going back to the trading fort was out of the question and just setting up camp there in the woods wasn't a good option either. She longed for a cave or fissure in the rocks, something just deep enough to be easy to defend but not deep enough that you weren't sure what else might be in there with you.

She remembered seeing some cliffs back in the woods, maybe there would be something back in there. She headed off into the woods, not even bothering to look back and see if the Justin was following. This kid was so innocent and green, where had he been? Under a rock?

They did their best to hurry. Reaching a small pond that had fresh water coming in and a water outlet taking water out, it would not get stale. If they boiled and strained the water then they might get most of the pollen and poisons out and make it safe enough to drink. With that guarding the front, she took them around to the backside via a narrow path. It led to an outcropping that had a narrow ledge underneath it. A roomy cave situated in the back. There wasn't enough room for all of them, but the more innocent and animals went inside with the supplies while the rest stayed on the ledge.

They traded a few medicines and, to her unexpected delight, books in thanks. Packing them up, she bade farewell. One of the men came up to her, a look of concern on his face. "Miss, we don't have much room, but perhaps you would consider staying the night? Any place that would put you at ease or be most to your liking is yours."

Hesitantly, she replied, "No, I will be okay. I have a place up in the cliffs. Reachable by tree only. I'll go there."

It took a little more convincing. But after promising to stop by in the morning for breakfast, they reluctantly let her go. To think, another human could care for the welfare of her. A stranger at best and a killer at worst. Who were these strange people?

Shaking off the thoughts, Silver concentrated on finding the energy to keep walking and finding a safe place for the night. Justin followed throwing worried glances at his companion the whole time. Black moved ahead, leading the way through the forest. He finally stopped in a clearing nestled against a wall of rock.

Silver came to a halt in the middle of the clearing and began scanning the rocks for a suitable opening or niche. She spotted an opening about 7 feet up the wall, the branches of a nearby tree mostly hiding it. Silver pointed wearily to the tree and the opening beyond. With a soft woof, Black galloped towards the tree, scrambling up into the lowest branches before working his way up from branch to branch, Silver and Justin climbing up behind him. They reached their destination, an narrow opening in the rock that lead to an 8 foot deep by 5 foot wide room of rock. A stream of water tricked down the back wall into a tiny pool at the base of the wall.

Working her way in the near dark night, Trinity reached a familiar path she usually took back to her caves. Pausing at the base of the large tree, she looked up above her head at the large root system. She was tired and wanted nothing more than to already be home. Still, it was dangerous to linger. Sighing, she started climbing, taking it easy until she was up on the roots of the large trees. Then, she sprinted and leaped, working her way up into the large branches. Working from tree to tree, she gradually gained height.

The closer she got to the cliffs, the higher she rose in the branches until they were mere 8 inches across. Pausing when she reached the open, sparse area, Trinity glanced out at the night sky. An array of stars glittered high overhead. A beautiful sight in a world full of poisonous pollen and distorted creatures. Turning, she began her climb up the cliffs. Morning would be here soon enough and she had a date to keep.

(Sorry I am doing a terrible job of responding to these.)

Silver settled herself with her back against one wall. It wouldn't be the most comfortable place to sleep but at least there was a thick layer of sand over the rock floor, giving them some cushioning. She watched Black sniff at the pool of water. Her canine companion was wonderful about telling if water was safe to drink or not, something in that nose and head could just tell. Black started lapping up water happily, a good sign that it was okay to drink.

"Get some water," she said to Justin. "Who knows when we will find clean water again."

Up early before sunrise, Trinity worked her way carefully up the stairs and to the back of her cave. Walking through the cavern towards the front room, she paused at her work table. She shouldn't go to eat with people without contributing. If she brought enough for all of them, then she wouldn't worry about their food having a poison in it for her. Going through her items, she picked out a specialized weapon. With the stuff she had traded, she now had enough parts to finish it. Adding the final touches, she looked at it carefully. This was a dangerous weapon. It overheated quickly, so a person could only do so much damage.

Heading for the edge of the cliff, Trinity let the predawn light the sky so she could see her way down and then carefully worked her way along the side of the cliff to the lower ledge. From there, she leaped into space and landed on a large tree branch. Normally she didn't make friends, but if one was going to be nice to other humans then it was a good idea not to go solo. So before hunting, she worked her way through the forest to a very particular big tree. It was extremely huge with hollow spaces inside of it that allowed a person to live inside. And inside someone did live.



Archer had made the tree his home. Few knew his real name and fewer still knew that he was in this forest. Archer was adept with the crossbow. A technological feat where the simple instrument had modifications added to it so that it could withstand the post modern world. Trinity knew a little of his back story just as he knew a little of hers. They weren't exactly friends, but they did help each other out since he wanted solace away from humans. Similar enough to her own goal.

Reaching his tree and leaping onto one of it's branches, she ran along until she reached a door. Knocking on it for polite sake, she waited. He knew she was here. Had known since she was a quarter mile away. She didn't understand how he was so aware of what happened around him, but admired his skills. He quietly opened the door and raised an eyebrow at her. "Yesterday, I met and traded with a traveling group of humans. I'm not sure why, but I agreed to go join them for breakfast. Want to come along?"

He sighed, "I suppose this means they are not hostile in their physical actions. Let's at least take them breakfast." He reached to shoulder his weapon.

Trinity nodded, "I hoped you would agree. To both aspects. Anything close by?"

"Yeah, there is a one of those strange shelled-cows nearby." Trinity stepped back as he stepped outside and set up the locking system. She knew better than to try to break in. In fact she liked to keep her distance if she could when he had his tree armed. Archer led the way through the trees. Soon they reached their target. A cow stood grazing. It was a bull, so that explained the solitary situation he found himself in. It's hide was thick though, like a turtle's shell.

"I can take him," whispered Trinity pulling out her newly finished gun. He noticed it and nodded. She took aim and fired. A piercing light spun from her weapon and hit the hide burning a hole into it. The shot was true. The beast didn't have time to even call out in surprise or pain.

"Better let that thing cool down," said Archer as he headed to the forest floor. He had a laser knife that he used to cut the hide off with. Then they cut away meat and strung it up on a pole between them. Heading together, they began cautiously their trek towards the pool where the group was camped. "This lets them save their own resources. Also, I bet they haven't had one of these in awhile."

Trinity grinned in eager anticipation for the look on their faces. These guys were hard to kill. The shell did it's job very well. "It will provide a nice surprise. They trade easily, especially when they feel gratitude. Figured you should be forewarned."

He glanced back at her thoughtfully. This might be a new experience for her. If what she said was true, then they would have to treat this group as though they were guests. They might not have much if they were fair.

Silver awoke at dawn to find Black snuggled up to her side and her head on Justin's chest, his arm around her shoulder. She jerked away roughly, started and unused to human touch. Justin jerked awake and looked around confused. Silver turned her back on him and looked out of the cave, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"Its only dawn," she muttered to herself. "Get some more sleep," she snapped at the teen. "Black and I will go find some food." Justin looked up as if he was going to protest and she added, "You will be safe here in the cave."

She leaped nimbly in the branches of the tree, Black following close behind. They leaped from branch to branch, one after the other, making their way down to the forest floor. Silver halted periodically to listen for trouble, especially before dropping to the forest floor. With Black leading the way, his nose searching for the scents of edible food, they wondered through the woods.

Making the token appearance and dropping off the food was more than Trinity could handle. She was only too glad to accept a bite and be out of there. Glaring at Archer's back as they worked their way carefully away from the camp, she wondered why he had had them stay longer. He was definitely more of a people person than she. He merely found it more peaceful without humans around. She felt grieved as long as they lived in her forest. Now that ordeal was over and she could go back to her solitary life. But Archer had other plans.

"Trinity, you should get out more. Spend time with other living creatures beyond yourself."

"You are one to talk. You live alone just like me. You avoid people just like me."

"I wasn't suggesting you go be buddies at the trading fort. However, even creatures who are not human might be beneficial to you. Even I have animal companions."

Trinity sighed and ignored further comment. She could tell that he was still thinking on the subject, but he wisely let it drop. However, as soon as his attention was diverted by whatever ahead of them, Trinity slipped away quietly. Back into the woods and among the large trees. Animals were not suitable for companions. How would one ever be able to go to and from her cave system? It was ludicrous and she wanted nothing to do with it.

Archer saw Trinity slip away and sighed. Stubborn mule was what she was. She would kill another human on the spot with no second thoughts. Was this what humanity had been reduced to? Was death so common place during and after the wars that life could be nothing else? He hated it. Hated the political fighting among larger communities and the easily blood feuds among the smaller ones. The forest, despite its poisonous plants, animals, and weather, was more peaceful and alive than areas striving to be civilized.

Speaking of people... he paused. There was the definite signs of humans here. An animal trail had the markings of human feet smudges instead of the more obvious indention of clawed or talon feet. Who could be this far out and in such short numbers? He curiously, but cautiously, worked his way along side the trail until a cave came in sight. A good small cave that was easily defensible. Whoever picked it had some survival skills. He was impressed.

Walking towards the entrance, he listened. No sounds or conversation. That could mean several things. Cautiously he eased inside, his soft-heeled shoes making no sound. He moved slowly so that his eyes could adjust easily. There, he saw a single person. Softly he asked, "Hey, are you okay." He smelled blood and medicine. His eyes narrowed slightly. That couldn't be good. "I have medicines if you need them..." his hand brushed a bag hanging from his belt.

Justin snapped awake at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. With a startled yell he rolled away from the stranger, nearly rolling into the pool of water at the back of the cave. Don't let him see you are scared, his mind screamed at him. "Who are you?" Justin growled, attempting to sound intimidating. "How did you get up here?" He was so ingrossed in the stranger that he didn't even noticed that he was holding his shoulder or that blood was soaking through the bandages.

Black paused, looking back towards the cave. His sensitive nostrils picked up the scent of another human, and not that of the female that they had met before. "What's up boy?" he heard his mistress ask. He didn't move or hardly acknowledge her words as he processed the new scent, trying to decide whether the new human could be a threat or not. Then he heard the yell of the new young pup, that his mistress had allowed into their pack. He whirled and raced back towards the cave. He still wasn't sure what he thought of the young man but his mistress was letting the young man tag along and that made him part of Black's pack.

Silver raced quietly after Black, silently berating herself for leaving Justin alone. This is why she had avoided ever grouping up with any other humans. She was so used to be on her own, just her and Black. She wasn't used to looking out for others, especially some young teen who tagged along after her like a lost puppy.

Archer grimaced as he looked at the blood dripping from the boy's shoulder. Something very unfortunate had happened to the boy. He sounded and looked like an injured animal. Archer wondered how he had ever managed to get this far as he was. Archer had spent plenty of time among humans in his life to recognize a green person. How had someone unused to life outside of one of the fortresses or crumbling cities every manage to get this far into a forest. It was a miracle the boy was alive at all.

"You are hurt. I have medicines with me. Please, let me help you." He was pleading, he knew. But he kept his voice gentle, hoping to reach the stranger despite his fear. Slowly, carefully, he removed his bow and placed it at the entrance of the cave. Apparently unarmed, he eased on inside. Walking slowly, he gently began explaining what he was doing. "I'm just taking this cloth out. I'm going over here to this pool to get it damp with water. I can wash your wounds that way." He knelt near the boy and placed the cloth into the water, then pulled it out and squeezed it gently. He continued his request, "In my pouch at my waist, I have some natural remedies. If you prefer the medicines of civilization, I have some of those too. Antibiotic cream and gauze.

Outside, Trinity paused and saw a dark form racing along the ground towards her. Behind her a familiar girl following at the same run. Amateurs and idiots both. Didn't they have any sense of being more careful? She waited in her tree branch until the dog was in range. Then once again she gave him a thump on the head. It was easily accomplished. She simply stepped off the tree branch, bringing her staff around and down as she dropped. It landed on the dog's head before she hit the ground. Rolling and coming back up on her feet, Trinity felt her senses come alive. Enough with helping other humans. A little action would be good. "We meet again little birdling," she taunted the girl. "Did you kill off the boy like I suggested? I see he isn't with you." Raising her staff and taking a defensive stance, she waited for the reaction.