Exhaustion

Seraphim stared out of the cave at the dark night sky. Her hair hung around her like a curtain as she sat on a rock, her eyes sunken and shadowed from her exhaustion. She had found a cave after wandering around the rockier part of the beach. She had planned on resting there for the night but now found herself to nervous. She thought at any moment someone – a guard for instance – could find her and take her back to the facility. She got off her rock and peered out of the cave, listening hard to make sure no one was coming.

James gazed down upon the rocky surface of the beach, praying for a moment's reprieve. Since he began flight he had not spotted a simple safe place to land. He continued to flap his wings, an occasional pitch black feather shedding from his tired and aggressive thrusts to keep himself in the air. He tried his hardest as he scanned the coast, finally finding a small hole in the side of a rock. He smirked, looking forward to a small rest as he tucked his wings in and performed a nosedive. Just as the beach became dangerously close, he expanded his wings once again and flapped a few times to safely slow his impact as he touched the ground. He began to enter the cave, when eh felt as if somebody was watching him. "Hello?" he called out into the darkness.

Seraphim's eyes flashed in the dark, looking vaguely lamplike and not unlike a cat's. She knelt close to the ground, her body poised to pounce if she needed too. “Who’re you?” she snarled from the shadows, her polite mask in tatters due to her lack of sleep. She looked him up and down, checking to see if he had a visible weapon. “What’re you doing here? What do you want?” She fired questions at him, not giving him a chance to respond. Then she fell silent, moving around in the shadows to get a better look at him.

James stepped backwards carefully as questions after question was launched at him. "Easy there, calm down. I'm James...I think... anyway, I mean no harm." he tried to force out in between her inquiries. He continued to slowly step back,t trying to lure her slightly out into the moonlight so he could study this stranger. Her eyes glowed with a strange light, and for a second he pondered whether or not she too was an experiment. They were not too far from the lab after all, and they did all escape regardless. He had his two sword upon him, but he tried to hide them from her in case she thought he was aggressive.

She noticed the swords and moved closer, positioning herself so there was a boulder near her incase she needed to take cover. “You ‘think’?” she asked, sounding paranoid. She moved a little closer, a sliver of light falling across her face to highlight some of her features, which were, at the moment, wary and untrusting. “What are those for?” she snapped, nodding at the swords.

As the light was bestowed upon his inquisitor's face, he could make out some of her features, but not enough to recognize her at all if she had been another experiment. Though he was unsure whether this was friend or foe, he needed to gain trust if he was to survive on the outside, so now seemed good enough practice as any. HE grasped the swords and drew them from their sheaths. "These? They are for enemies," he explained, stabbing them both into he ground and backing away, hands in the air, "Not friends. Now, please, show yourself."

She froze when he took them from her sheaths but relaxed slightly after her stuck them into the ground and backed away. She watched him closely as she moved into the light. The moonlight showed her features; tall and slim with black curly hair and delicate asian features. She had on a pair of the standard issue grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt that they gave to the experiments. The pants had the legs rolled up and the shirt was dirty and ripped. She had many scratches and cuts with twigs sticking out of her hair and dirt smeared on her face. "Are you from the facility?" she asked.

James's mouth opened agape and he couldn't help but chuckle, studying the girl. He moved closer and looked closer at her. "You were Number...Three, weren't ya?" he asked. HE laughed and look down at his gray sweat pants, though his white t shirt he had discarded long ago when his wings tore through it. He smirked and gestured to the clothes and wings he then spread form his back. "Well, I'm certainly not here on vacation." He took his swords back, sheathing them once more and laughing. "Good to see somebody else out here. Afraid the rest of you might have gotten caught already."

"What do you mean were?" she asked coldly, a grim expression on her face. She noted the wings and she narrowed her eyes. "I doubt we could get caught that quickly," she remarked. She wiped a smudge of dirt from her face and looked him up and down again. "What was your designated number?" she asked curiously.

James frowned, looking at the ground and kicking softly at the sand with his bare feet. He allowed his dirty black hair to cover his face. "Yeah...sorry...I like to think of that as the past, and try to think of this escape of the beginning of something new. Thats why I've tried to remember a name, of any kind." he explained, looking back up at her. He nodded his head in response to her question. "Number 15," he said spreading his wings again, "or Krow, whichever is easier."

"The past is simply an instance in time," she said, her face expressionless. Then her face twitched. "15... the raven experiment?" she asked, looking surprised. "I... s-sorry," she stuttered. "I heard about an experiment with wings and who could fly... I thought the guards were screwing with me," she remarked. She peered closer at the wings, a look of interest on her face.

James laughed and flaunted the wings, snickering at the comment about the guards. "Yeah, they sure liked to do that don't they?" he tucked them back into his back and crossed his arms. "They come in pretty handy on some occasions, you know, long travel, crowded paths, escaping government facilities, etcetera etcetera." he joked, trying to get some expression form the woman. He stopped, deciding it was a fruitless endeavor. "And guessing from your number and the way you've been acting, you're Catwoman." he laughed.

"I would imagine so," she said absentmindedly to his remark about the usefulness of his wings as she stared them. Then she looked up and nodded. "Er... yes... cat...woman," she said, her eyes flickering back to the wings. Along with her curiousness about them her instincts were yelling to bat at them. It was the house-cat in her. Her hand twitched and she moved back, scolding herself mentally.

James looked back and forth between her and his wings, an eyebrow lifted. He saw her hands moving instinctively and the bird inside of him was screaming for him to flee immediately. Luckily his human instinct was the winner int hat argument and he merely pulled his wing back slightly. "Note to self, I'll try and be more careful around those of the feline inclination." he joked, retracting his wings back, concealing them once more. "So, back tot he subject at hand, you wouldn't mind if I shared this cozy little cave for a few moments of rest would you?"

Her mouth twitched slightly at the feline joke. Then she shook her head. "I don't mind..." she said, perching herself on a boulder, watching him warily. She didn't trust him completely, go figure. After spending her whole, granted short, like being surrounded by people testing her. She didn't trust most people, especially after her bout in isolation. "Do you know where you are going?" she asked, watching him carefully.

James sighed, sitting down on the sand, looking out across the sea, a bemused look upon his face. "Not exactly sure...though this weird feeling is telling me to head to California...like I left something behind there." He shrugged. 'Maybe I'll find the source of my Human DNA there, and who I was before this whole mess...or who he was...erm...science is confusing." he pondered to himself aloud, laughing at his own stupidity. He looked back at her, smirking. "What about you? You certainly can't pass as a house cat now can you?"

She nodded. "I see." Then her expression grew slightly pained. "I... I don't know where I'm going," she said, examining her nails. "And I doubt I could do house cat... especially since I am only a 1/6 house cat," she said with a snort. "Too mixed up for that..." 'To much of a freak,' a nasty part of her brain added. She hissed slightly and turned it into a cough.

James nodded, seeing her pain and he sighed, saddened for both of them, and the other experiments. They really didn't have a home technically. In fact, to society,t hey were all freaks. Nobody would accept them for who they were should the public know the truth. He pushed the thoughts form his mind, trying to be positive. He smiled and stood, shrugging. "If memories serve me, In California there seems to be a house I...or is it he...anyway a certain human with my name used to own." he laughed, trying to figure out the strange circumstances of their birth. "If you wish, you could come with, maybe we will find more experiments along the way.

Seraphim couldn't disguise the shock on her face when she looked back up at him. She had not been expecting an invitation of any kind. Quite the contrary, she had expected to start wandering again the next day. "With you..." she said, frowning slightly. The idea of not traveling or doing things alone was alien to her. Not just because she was part cat either, but because she just wasn't used to it.

James laughed at her shocked expression and raised an eyebrow. "What, don't tell me YOU'RE the one afraid of ME?" he laughed lightly, turning around and crossing his arms, lying back on the beach yet able to look up at her. "I mean on the food chain, who really has a reason to fear the other?" he joked as he pointed backward with a thumb to his wings, reminding her of how she had batted at them earlier.

Seraphim's mouth twitched again as she struggled not to laugh. "Well, you can't say that when a strange person, who just happens to be genetically enhanced, shows up and invites you to come with them to... San Frensisko," she said, stumbling over the last word, "you wouldn't be a little nervous. But I'm not afraid of you... I just... never thought that not being alone was an option," she said, chewing on her lower lip now. She brushed her curly hair back and ripped the cuff of her t-shirt off, before wrapping it around her hair so it was knotted messily on the back of her head. She picked a twig out of it and wiped another smudge of dirt off of her face before looking back at him, almost expecting some sort of half sarcastic half joking response to what she had said.

James listened to her struggle to say San Francisco, and chuckled slightly. "Woah, slow down, I said California, I wasn't giving away specifics." he joked, raising an eyebrow. "And like anything about our situation is normal, so you should probably learn to expect this stuff more often." He frowned slightly at the last of her remark though. He shook his head. "Why should we have to be alone eh? I mean seriously, when your like us, when you're a..." he stopped before he could say Freak, deciding to change the phrase for something a little kinder. "...an experiment, you gotta stick together am I right?" he wrapped an arm around her shoulder smirking cockily, trying to reassure her. He let go and stepped back, watching in curiosity at what she was doing. He laughed slightly. "Okay, lemme guess, this is the cat human hybrid version of grooming yourself?" he joked, but smiling kindly. "I'm kidding. But it's not like anybody else is going to see us, and if they are, we probably don't want them to anyway"

She picked another twig out of her hair and set it down gingerly. "Um... in a way," she said, sounding embarrassed. Then she shook her head. "It's not because I don't want anyone to see me... its like a ritual. It calms me," she said, sounding a little embarrassed. At least she didn't lick herself. She froze when he half-hugged her. "You are... very... unnerving," she said, when he pulled away, a slight frown on her face. "Not at all like anyone else I've met." 'Of course,
she added in her mind. 'The only other people I've met have been trying to imprison and test on me.. She absentmindedly picked another twig out of her hair and set it down, before going up to pick out another, only to have it snag. She winced and started to work it out of her hair with both hands.

James frowned and folded his arms again. "Unnerving? Jeez, you act as if I tried to kill ya or something." he muttered, shaking his head. But he understood he may have come off a little strong, but perhaps it was simply the excitement of finding another experiment. He backed away to give her room, sighing. "Very well, I apologize." he stated as he pulled some frayed rope from the pocket of his sweat pants and tied his hair up out of his face as well. Flying could become difficult when you can't even see where you are going.

"I... it's not... exactly a bad thing," she said hurriedly. "I'm just... again, not used to it."

'You're being quite rude,' a part of her crooned.
'Oh be quiet,' she thought, annoyed.
'Yes. Be quiet. I don't trust him either,' a more feral part of her said.
'I don't understand why,' a more timid part of her thought.
'Me neither,' the crooning voice said.

"Oh shut up," she hissed. Then she realized she had said that last part out loud and she turned pink. "I... er... sorry... I wasn't talking to you," she said, looking mortified.