Disclaimer: I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to it's rightful owners.
encounters
Bella's heart is thumping in her chest from the force she's exerting, feet pounding on the sidewalk as she gives it her all.
He's the first to chase her from a shop, and she's sure it's only her youth that is giving her the slight advantage in distance. But though maneuvering around the occasional passerby is not a problem in such a small town, it seems that a downfall to the size is a shop owner's ability and desire to catch her.
That can't happen.
She turns sharply at the next corner, shoes skidding on the sidewalk, only to run into an immovable object. And as the very much stoppable force, she's sent down onto the ground.
Looking up at what caused her fall, Bella's breath catches in her lungs. However, her sudden lack of proper oxygen intake is not from the run she's just been abruptly pulled out of, but from the piercing, golden stare she becomes locked onto.
She doesn't move.
That is until a shout breaks through, and then she's up on her feet running again, grabbing her dropped bag containing stolen goods and murmuring a rushed sorry to the woman she ran into as she zooms off once more.
.:.
Irina watches with narrowed, curious eyes as the girl runs off, before turning to the man that had shouted after her.
She looks him up and down, discerning he runs some sort of grocery shop both from his look and the smell wafting off him. There's something about this situation that reminds her of her younger self. So unsure of the reason for his anger towards the girl but wanting to lend her a hand, Irina 'accidentally' knocks into the man, sending him sprawling in an almost mirror image of the young girl he was after.
It's a hard fall, and even she winces at it.
Looking back towards the direction the girl took off in, she makes sure she can no longer see her and then turns back to assist the man in getting up. Her apology goes unheard as the man, now standing once again, dusts off his apron and turns to head back the way he came, mumbling about little thieves with not one glance in her direction.
Ah, that explains it, she thinks to herself, quickly putting together what must have happened, before shrugging it off and continuing on with her walk.
Somehow, she's sure the girl had a reason for it.
.:.
Catching her breath as she finally realizes the shop owner is no longer after her, Bella takes a moment to sort through her newly acquired items to check they're fine before making her way to the alley she'd spotted earlier on the other side of town.
She figures she can stay for another few days without risk since the man never caught sight of her face in the dark of early evening, something she's thankful for because the furthest her plan had gotten was to get to Alaska.
Now that she has, she's uncertain of what to do next.
Settling down her bag against the wall, she goes over to the large garbage container that will hopefully hide her presence in the alley and removes the duffel she stored there earlier for safety. Unzipping it, she pulls out a tattered sleeping bag and lays it out on the floor perpendicular to the trash and then closes it back up to use as a pillow.
This makeshift setup has been her bed for roughly two months now, and she's grown used to it. She sleeps at early nightfall to make sure she's not still there in the early hours when she'll be more easily spotted.
As soon as she settles and places her head on the duffel bag turned pillow, she's out for the night.
.:.
Irina walks at a steady pace along the sidewalk, her made up errands for the night done.
Her life can be a bit boring at times like this, with nothing else to do and no need for sleep; but exploring cities she hasn't been to in decades and seeing what has changed with the times is a bright light in a mostly dark existence.
It's as she's passing what used to be an old, dingy bar that she picks up the sound of heavy breathing. Curious, as always, she follows the sound to a narrow alley. At first glance, she sees no one. Walking further in, she finally spots the figure whose breathing she picked up asleep on the ground behind the only garbage container there.
Something about them seems familiar to her, so she approaches the figure, light on her feet as to not alert them.
Crouching besides them once she's within reach, she catches a clearer scent, but it's only when she spots the long, mahogany hair poking out of the sleeping bag's cover that she makes the connection. A slight frown becomes visible on her face as she realizes that the girl from earlier indeed had a big reason to steal from that shop.
Saddened that she's not really able to do much for the girl, she goes to smooth down the stray hairs sticking out but is startled at the high temperature that meets her cold fingers.
It's then that she notices the heat emanating from the girl, as though she was a heater of her own, but she doesn't have time to contemplate much about that oddity as her cell rings and she has to jump up onto the roof to avoid the now very much awake girl from spotting her.
It turns out she's needed back at the house, so she goes, leaving behind a confused and tired girl trying to fall back into a restful sleep.
.:.
The night before was one of the best sleeps she's had in awhile, despite the odd awakening she had at one point, and Bella hopes tonight will be the same.
She's eating one of the cans of cold spaghetti she'd taken from the shop yesterday, and she has a bottle full of water at her side to wash it down.
Also the best meal she's had in some time.
It's been dark for a while now, and she'll be turning in for the night once she's done. She'd spent the better part of the day trying to work out what to do now, but there's not really much to do in a small town like this one, so she has to move on to the next and try to find some sort of arrangement there.
She throws away the now empty can into the conveniently placed trash beside her, swigs down a few gulps of water and then settles into her sleeping bag for her second and last night in the alley.
.
Her eyes are closed but fluttering, and she's in that stage where deep sleep is just out of reach when a loud bang startles her awake.
She looks up to see a man rooting through the trash and quickly moves up into a sitting position. Huddling close to the garbage container and drawing her things to herself, she hopes against hope that he doesn't spot her.
It wouldn't be her first encounter with another homeless person, but she doesn't want to risk any sort of conflict. She's already had to deal with a few aggressive ones along her way.
The man lets out a sharp curse, and she guesses he failed to find anything. She hears him leap off the trash, pick something up off the floor and then nothing, and assumes he's gone.
She lets out a breath of relief and moves to get up, but a second later it hitches in her throat as she comes face to face with the man.
"Well well, what we got here?" He mocks, unbrushed teeth displayed in a crooked mouth as his eyes roam her figure before he asks, "Runaway?"
She doesn't answer him, focusing instead on packing up all her belongings for a quick getaway, not wanting things to get out of hand, but he takes her silence as a rebuff.
"Hey!" he shouts, "I asked if you a runaway, girl."
"I heard you, sir, but I have to go," she replies in a much quieter voice and makes to go around him but a rough hand landing sharply on her arm stops her.
"Oh hey, you got something to share in that bag?" He asks and goes to grab it before even finishing the question, but she moves to block him.
"Just let me go, I don't want anything to happen." She tells him. "Please."
"You don't tell me what to do, girl. I do the telling here, so you better give me that bag, and I'll think of letting you go, 'kay," He says, pulling out a knife from a coat pocket and motioning it at her threateningly.
"Please, just let me go. I don't have anything of use to you, sir," She tries to plead again, eyes following the weapon warily, knowing what will happen if she's attacked, what's happened every time she's been attacked since the day she left her hometown, and not wanting it to.
He doesn't reply, just encloses on her rapidly, grabbing hold of the bag and trying to rip it from her hands. Her tight grip on it prevents him from taking it outright.
She feels the tell-tale sparks along her fingers, and starts whispering hurriedly at him, "You need to let go and leave. Now please, just leave. I can't control it!"
He only scoffs at her words, taking no heed of her warning, and raises the hand holding the knife at her, swinging down.
She flinches and closes her eyes, hands bracing in front of her.
He lets out a piercing cry, knife clattering onto the ground.
The heat of fire touches her before she even opens her eyes, and she knows it's happened again.
Grabbing hold of her bag, avoiding looking at the man rolling around on the ground as he screams for help, she runs out and down the street with one single word echoing in her thoughts; no, no, no, no.
.:.
There wasn't much of importance going on when she arrived back at the house, so as soon as the meeting her sister and leader had called came to an end, she was gone again.
The past few hours were spent hunting, catching a deer south of their house, and then making her way into the town nearest where she ended up, the one she was in just yesterday.
She knows it might not have been such a coincidence that she ended up there again.
Walking around a bit doesn't lessen her urge to check up on that girl she'd run into twice - both literally and figuratively - and so she gives into it and makes her way towards the alley she'd last seen her in, hopping up onto the roof she'd been up on before.
The scene she comes upon sparks a great deal of concern in her, but she manages to stop herself from reacting too quickly and risking exposure.
She watches the interaction between the girl and the obviously homeless man with sharp eyes, wanting to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, but fails to react fast enough when he launches at her with a knife that had been blocked from her view.
She jumps down onto the ground of the alley but backs up quickly when she realizes that the man is on fire.
Burning hot, bluish-orange fire that could in no way be natural.
The girl runs out of the alley then, and she only pauses for a second to look at the man who is quickly burning up before going after her. The flammability of her venom is not something she wants to risk having near those flames - even with her ability.
She finds the girl huddled against a building two streets down, body racking from silent sobs and head tucked into arms resting on knees.
Slowly, cautiously, she approaches her.
"Hello, little one," Irina says softly, placating hands going up as the girl's head whips up towards her, "Hey there, calm down. I'm not here to hurt you, but you really shouldn't be out here any longer."
The girl's eyebrows furrow, as if she's wondering what she means, before her eyes widen in recognition, fear quickly clouding the previous confusion.
"I di-didn't do it, i-it wasn't me," The girl stutters out, hiccups from the past few minutes of crying escaping, as she wipes her runny nose with the back of her palm.
Irina knows she's lying, can tell from her shifty eyes, filled with fear and guilt, and the way she tries to cover her hands with the sleeves of her oversized sweater that she knows exactly what happened. And though it should not be possible, she understands it can happen. She's a prime example of that improbable possibility.
She's about to offer the girl some reassurance but the sound of voices approaching and a distant siren cause her to act quickly, instinctively.
She grabs the girl, who is too shocked from the sudden movement to react, and rapidly speeds into the forest, going far enough in that they won't be walked upon or heard.
As soon as she places the girl on the ground, she's stumbling away from her in fear, wide eyes looking at her as though she were an impossibility.
"Wh-how did you do that?" She asks, a slight tremor in her voice.
For but a slight second, she hesitates on answering the girl. She hadn't had time to think of the consequences of her actions, she just had to make sure the girl wasn't caught by anyone who could find out what she could do and harm her for it.
But she knows that if the girl truly is the cause for the fire that erupted out of nowhere and latched onto that man, and only him, then she would need to know she's not alone in that. So she makes the decision to tell her of herself.
It wouldn't have to be everything, not yet, just enough to gain the girl's trust and help her.
And it'll definitely cure the boredom of her eternal life.
"I have certain abilities," Irina begins cautiously, before adding on, "And I think you have one as well."