Moss-Smattered Cave

[Skylar]

Skylar listened to his answer patiently, finding it occasionally difficult to discern what he was saying from the sea of stutters, and he was vaguely pleased with what he heard. If it was true, it gave Skylar a valid reason to believe that Ellis had not joined the war because he himself had wanted to. That was much better than the alternative. Skylar grinned slightly, but it went away when his stomach pinched and growled at him. He reached into his pockets, but only a few crumbs remained from his meal earlier. Well, if a piece of bread and some berries could be called a meal, that was.

He brought his attention back to what Ellis had said. "Tthat is a much better reason than I was expecting, to be honest. But if you don't actually want to be a soldier, why don't you just... not be one?" Unless they made peple sign contracts or threatened their family or something, it shouldn't be too hard for a soldier to quit. It was like any other job, except it required killing and taking over a country that didn't need or want to be taken over. Skylar felt sorry for the people who lived there. All of a sudden, one day thousands of people just march in and start fighting each other over it. That would be horrible.

[Ellis Danton]

Ellis had been right, Skylar appeared very against the war when he told the older man that he expected a less worthy answer, when he asked Ellis why he didn’t just leave. The answer to that was, once again, not only found in one single avenue. It was easy to conjure the answers, just not easy to pick out the exact ones. It wasn’t as simple as just leaving, anyways. When you enlisted, you enlisted. For better or for dead you were part of the army. The only way out was in pieces, dead or alive. It didn’t matter if he didn’t want to be part of the army. He was a soldier now. A soldier until he was doing more harm to the condition of the army that good. He didn’t want to lose a limb to get out of the army however. How would that affect his future life? If he ever found a woman he wanted to marry? If he ever met his father? He would look pathetic, standing before him with only one arm, a lack of ten fingers or toes, hobbling on one leg.

“It’s n-not a… a… a straightforward thing, Sk-Skylar,” He finally said after mulling over the words and swallowing down the ones that begged to escape without his express permission, “N-Not with Xista or any other army th-that I can th-think of. T-t-to leave without… without permission is to c-commit crimes against the n- the nation, t-to sign your own d-d-death warrant as an MIA soul-soldier. To g-get p-permission is to be broken to the point wh-where you can’t fight anymore, e-even if you tr-tr-tried your b-b-best.” He wiped his face of sweat with the handkerchief and then positioned his elbows on his knees, leaning into them with his face in his hands, fingers digging into his tiring eyes. After wiping away the oncoming vestiges of past tears, he pulled his hands away from his profile. He let his arms rest on his muscled legs as he kept his face downcast while continuing, “I… I suppose st-staying in the army offers the ch-chance of death… But it’s n-n-never a sure thing. Even wh-when it feels like it is And Xista has ways of making it… of making it more…” He trailed, finally perking his head up and sitting slightly straighter, "At… At least that’s what I’ve heard.”

He stood up, facing away from Skylar and walking towards the wall as if the moss growing on it was the most interesting thing he’d seen. In fact his mind with filling with the prospects he’d always mulled over about leaving the army. He had thought of every action, every consequence. Every little bit was well thought out to the point where he knew that joining the army would become his second biggest mistake of his life if he were to try and leave. Finally catching hold of himself, he spoke again – his voice hoarse, “B-b-besides, I c-cannot d-d-disappoint mama. She would d-die if I left the army.”

[Skylar]

Forcing people to stay in the army even when they wanted to leave was a horrible thing to do, although he tried to ignore the fact that it was because the people had already chosen to join up in the first place, and once you signed up to do something it wasn't fair to just stop doing it whenever you pleased. In any other job, it wouldn't matter so much. But this was war they were talking about, and at any moment a soldier could be killed. It wasn't the same when you worked in a bookstore, or a grocery or something.

And the way Ellis talked about it... it sounded horrible. To get out of the army one had to be broken beyond the point of usefulness and he just couldn't imagine how horrible it must be for people who had signed up to fight. They might as well have committed suicide outright. Ellis added at the end that he didn't want to disappoint his mother, as it would kill her if he left the army. He wondered why Ellis and his mother had such a strong bond that he would actually care what she thought when it was his life to live.

"That sounds horrible," he replied. "But what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be doing... war... things?" He didn't actually know what it was soldiers did on a regular basis, but if it was that hard for people to get out of service once they were in, shouldn't they have trouble also leaving where they were stationed? There was no way he could be stationed here; this was the country of the peace-keepers. What would a soldier want with this place?

[Ellis Danton]

Why had Ellis come here? Well that was simple: To look for his father. It was one of the reasons for joining the army as well. Not that Ellis really wanted that to get out, to get going around the gossip mill. Not that he believed anyone would think him interesting or special enough to gossip about, it was just that he was safer if he didn’t press his luck. And so he worked hard to keep his mouth shut when Skylar asked the question. He had to think of a different answer.

“W-well… I… I was doing war things,” He finally answered after a long silence. It was a horrible lie. And looking back on it, Ellis was quite surprised that the stutter had not strayed into all of his words either. Then again, what he was saying wasn’t true, which may have had something to do with it. “I’m d-doing… research. That’s part of what I do for the army, being a… general, you know…” He wanted to slam his head against the wall. It was a horrid series of lies that, according to Ellis, only an idiot would truly buy. Then again, perhaps the feeling was because he knew it was a lie. It was possible that he was, in fact, being quite persuasive. Skylar may very well believe him. Though it was unlikely… Also known as: Impossible. He dabbed his upper lip with the handkerchief.

At least the rain looked to be letting up a bit.

(OOC: Sorry, that's all I could come up with. /kindafail.)

[Skylar]

Skylar, having no idea about anything war-related due mainly to his utter detest of the whole ordeal, had absolutely no idea what it was a general was supposed to be doing, or whether Ellis would even make a good general, so he had no choice but to accept what the man said to be the truth. He didn't really care either way, because the chances of him and Ellis ever meeting again, in this big wide world, were about as big as Skylar winning the lottery when he had not even entered it. Once he left this cave, which he might be doing any time now, seeing as how the rain was slowly but surely letting up enough for him to be able to see what was outside the cave, and Ellis also left and they each went their separate ways, Skylar would probably not see him ever again. So whether he was a general, or a warlord, or a foot soldier didn't matter to him in the least.

He found himself wondering, though, what he could possibly be doing around this area when he was supposedly doing 'research'. Was he going to get inside information so that his battalion could attack the Peacekeepers and get rid of them or something equally horrible? That wasn't very nice of him, in that case. But what if he was doing some kind of good research, that would help people? Skylar tried, but couldn't think of what that might include. In the end he decided to not make random guesses, seeing as how they would get him absolutely nowhere, and instead decided to ask Ellis. "What exactly are you researching?"

[Ellis Danton]

While he watched the rain, Ellis considered his lie. He considered if it would work, if this silence it had generated was simply something natural for Skylar and not something caused by his doubting what Ellis had told him. He dabbed his lip with the handkerchief and considered how hard the rain might be going right now, how far he could get before finding another cave to hide in – one that would, hopefully, not force him to lay himself false. He wondered if the rain had let up enough yet for him to trek through the country without filling his boots with water and mud.

“What exactly are you researching?” Skylar finally asked, bringing Ellis’ attention back to the situation at hand. He opened his mouth to answer, more than ready with something that would make some semblance of sense for his position – but then his mouth froze. This could be a trap: a trap to make him reveal his lie. A real General wouldn’t go about telling anyone who asked what they were researching for their battalion – right? Ellis didn’t think so.

“N-nothing,” He explained, standing up from the mossy rock he had made a chair out of, “N-nothing that is… is important enough t-t-to be re-revealed.” He quickly paced to the mouth of the cave, stretching his arm out to feel how hard the rain was pelting down. He turned back to Skylar quickly. “W-well… It l..l..looks as though the rain has l-let up. I-I-I ought to be off,” He dabbed his lip and nodded his head briefly at Skylar before turning back to the mouth of the cave, beginning to step out into the rain that was still pouring with enthusiasm, but not hard enough for him to turn back. “G-goodbye Skylar, it… it was a pleasure.”

And with that, Ellis disappeared into the green of Niseca, holding his arm above his head as if it would help protect it from becoming soaked.

[Skylar]

Ah, it seemed he had hit a nerve of some sort, as Ellis told Skylar he was researching nothing and stood up from the rock he was sitting on. He then rephrased what he had said to say that he wasn't researching anything important enough to be revealed, and then started pacing. Skylar watched him with a mixture of amusement and suspicion, and then Ellis told him that the rain had let up and he should ge going. He finished by saying that it had been a pleasure and then walked out into the rain (which was still quite heavy, despite letting up a bit) and disappeared into the forest.

"Well that was interesting," Skylar commented to himself. And interesting it had been. He wondered where Ellis would be going now, and what in the world he ahd been researching. He also found himself wondering if he would regret letting the man go so easily. If he was going to do somethign bad, then maybe Skylar should have made him come back, or kept up the conversation a bit more, or talked about something that didn't lead to the man getting defensive. But it was too late for him to do any of those things now. He didn't know where Ellis was headed and even if he did, what could he do to stop him from doing whatever war thing he was going to be doing?

Ellis was a general, and Skylar was a clumsy little boy. If Ellis wanted Skylar gone, he could make that happen. And Skylar valued his life. Yes he did. Which was why he waited for a good ten minutes before he even thought about leaving the cave. In that time, he had to sit in the dark and he found himself noticing more and more bones, and he could have sworn that he heard a growl coming from farther in the cave. He hated dark, scary caves. A few minutes later he thought he heard another growl, only louder this time (it was probably just thunder in the distance, actually) and he high-tailed it out of there.

He hated things that lived in scary caves more than he hated the cave itself. And for good reason; nasty, evil, giant monsters liked to live in caves, and if a monster decided it wanted to eat Skylar because he was in its cave, then he was pretty much out of luck. He didn't want to become some beast's dinner.