A/N: A story incorporating characters that don't belong to me! :D I own the plot, but all of the characters introduced so far do not belong to me.
Out in the mountain ranges, snow piled high, no matter the season. Very rarely were the large animals that dwelt in the barren lands seen, as rarely did humankind travel these parts. That being said, the white covered ground most usually lay undisturbed and relatively untouched aside from the hoofprints or squirrel tracks that would soon be filled in again.
Peaceful... and untouched...
"Almost...Got it..!" Settled carefully at the edge of the tree limb, several feet from stable ground, the light brown haired boy poured his efforts into his extending arm to where his sky blue eyes reached. His body was crouched, knees huddled up towards his chest in doing so while his feet were planted firmly on the branch. While his left hand lay firmly clasped around the branch for stability, his right was inching further and further away from his body.
His fingers reached, wriggling at the tips in the attempt to reach the shimmering red stone, all glowing with a radiant red cloud of light. It was mesmerizing to say the absolute least, and when the young male had caught wind of such a sight being spotted up this way, he knew it had reached the top of his destination list. Otherwise, he believed, someone would make it to the stone before him, which simply could not be done. "Can't..."
Adjusting his footing to a dangerous edge of the branch, far less stable than the initial brunt on which he originally stood, he began his attempt to reach it yet again. It was as though he could feel the light against his fingers, so close that the material of the stone was just within his reach-
"HEY!" Called a feminine voice, loud and pouring with a stern sound, "DON'T you touch that stone!"
"Uaaah!" Losing his balance, the branch bowed, snapping under the unsteady pull of his weight. He fell towards the snowbuilt ground below, but before doing so... His hand just barely swiped the stone. And so, with a 'pfft' sound, he fell gleefully through the snow, leaving his hollow imprint several feet deep. At least he had gotten what he came for. "The stone is mine!" He grinned, bursting through the snow to raise his arm up.
His glory was short lived, for the owner of the warning voice that had caused his ugly spill into the snow had him up by a bunch of his shirt in a brief matter of moments. "On a scale one to ten..." She began, sharply, yanking him up close to meet his blue eyes with her own sharp, red ones, "How stupid are you? At LEAST a seven, I know!"
A bead of sweat formed upon the boy's cheek. As far as he was aware, the stone he had managed to get his hands on was coveted by most, considered a treasure by all, but belonging now only to him, but despite all of that, he was more focused on the frightful female that so threateningly held him. She was taller than him, for sure, as his feet were now dangling from the ground, and the grip she had on his dark colored coat was practically choking the life out of him, "W-Wait..." He choked out.
"Wait, nothing!" The red eyed girl barked bitterly, the wavy portions of her short, red hair somewhat obstructing view of her eyes at times of her spirited speaking. "Do you KNOW how big this world is?"
Barely able to say much more, and hoping that agreeing with her words would relieve the painful crush against his throat, he began what little words he could speak -what with his face verging blue, "I-It's huge! Y-Yeah..!" It must have had something to do with the stone. Maybe that it was the only such valuable treasure for quite a ways, and that it would be far too much trouble to try finding something matching its value or use.
"Exactly... And I've searched that big world..." She seemed to have been calming down a bit, her tone growing a bit more quiet and stable, "FINALLY I found the Ruby I need... " Uh oh.. Her words once again began to rise up in fury to the tune of an irritable sounding woman, "And NOW I have to track it down AGAIN!"
"W-What do you.. Mean I...- Aaack." Breath was eluding him, and his eyes started to water while he flailed his arms in protest.
The redhead haphazardly dropped him right back in the snow, dullest look depicted on her face as she uttered a distasteful 'tch'. Her bitter expression was firm, and dully, her red eyes rose up to meet the red glow of the Ruby that seemed to be slowly deteriorating into orbs of red aura. The bright glow that once illuminated it began to fade as though it were disappearing.
She uttered a disappointed sigh, stuffing her hands into her red-brown coat pockets, "Fucking fantastic..." She muttered in displeasure.
Taking in scathing cold breaths to his raw windpipe, the blue eyed boy glanced over to the female. Tracing her line of sight to the disappearing Ruby, he searched his person, then the snowbank he had initially fallen in. "What the..." Patting down his pockets, he scowled, a pout forming on his lips, "I could have sworn..." It felt as though he had it right in his hands... But then, the only explanation would be that he had missed it? Feeling his palms together, he took note of just how cold and dry the skin seemed to be, and he could barely even differentiate palm from finger. The cold seemed to have numbed them... That would explain why he never even noticed the stone's absence.
"What's happening to it?!" He questioned in alarm, distressed by his hard work gone to such waste as he turned his gaze back to the nearly-gone stone.
The redhead, turning to him with furrowed brows of notable bewilderment, opened her mouth to speak, though paused. She seemed to be in mild disbelief, "... What the Hell do you think happened? Ruby is MY stone. NOT yours."
"..." More confusion set into the male as he returned the same look of confusion, "What is that even supposed to mean?"
"It MEANS that the stone rejected you, stupid!"
"Rejected...?"
"Oh brother..." Offering a bland expression, she shook her head, "Each person is linked with one stone, and one stone only. If you can find that stone and take it for your own... It'll grant you immense power... Of course, that's not all there is to it. You have to be strong enough... And do whatever it takes for your stone to accept you..."
This all seemed to be getting more and more confusing. Though the basis of her words seemed to make sense in the boy's mind, it all seemed to sound pretty...out in left field? "Uhh...huh..? So what then? What's the point of finding your stone? I mean... What for?"
"ARE YOU COMPLETELY CLUELESS?! WHAT DO I LOOK LIKE, YOUR OWN PERSONAL ENCYCLOPEDI-"
The sound of a rolling boulder cracked and echoed, reverberating through the closed in mountain ranges.
"Shoot, here we go..." Contnued the female.
"What? What do you mean..?" Prodded the male, seemingly filled with questions.
Said rolling boulder, then seemed to be mimicked, succeeded by the sound of many more boulders crashing down over the side of the concaving mountain range walls and in towards the area in which they stood. Boulders and boulders, rolling and crashing, triggering rumbling tremors.
"I mean we need to go?" Although lacking any sort of fright from the ordeal, the redhead did seem to be speaking with a certain disdain, "An avalanche is coming.. And I'd rather not stick around." Turning carelessly on her heal, she began trudging through the snow.
"Wait!" Up to his feet soon through struggling and pushing through the high waisted snow with freezing body parts, he began to struggle over to her, "I can't-"
"Forget it!" She huffed, disregarding the worsening rumbles of the ground underfoot, "I'm not your babysitter! You're not getting me killed!"
With another well-placed pout, he through his body forward, gripping onto her arm and bullishly refusing to budge. It wasn't hard from the contact for her to find that he was frightfully chilled, but it never relieved the bland scowl she wore.
In fact, she wore that same bland scowl even as the snow began to pour in. "You owe me," She muttered, pulling him up onto her back by his arm to allow his legs to rest at her hips -although they drooped a bit from his lack of feeling in them, "Once for the life-saving. Twice for the Stone."
"Well..! I'd buy you something... But I left my wallet at ho-"
"Typical excuse!" She quipped, darting through the shaking piles of disturbed snow with high-kneed steps to avoid struggle.
Trying to force back a smile at her quick response, he continued on, "My name's Erin, by the way!"
"Well, Erin! Now I know who I'll be fucking up after we get out of this!"
With the area at ground-level abandoned, the avalanche began to roll in, tremors subsiding in areas that it had covered.
"Hmnn..." Murmured the male in thought as he peered down towards the tree that housed the still-slightly-present stone.
"How'd I do?" The black haired female nearby inquired, lightly tugging at the cat-eared hoodie atop her head as a bitter wind blew in.
He didn't respond right away. He stood unchanged, despite the blustery gusts wildly blowing his spkiy black hair. For the moment, standing atop the mountainous range where snow was scarce -compliments of the avalanche-, his both red and brown opticals focused upon the fleeting red aura orbs that faded completely from view until nothing was left.
Bearing notice to this, the black haired girl shifted her green eyes up to the male at her left, "Looks like we were too late, hmm?" Oddly enough, it seemed as though she was relatively unfazed. To her, it was merely a task that didn't require her immediate attention; and one less thing on her to-do list.
"..." Turning his head and closing his eyes, he uttered a soft sigh under his breath in exasperation. "It didn't get into her hands," He collectedly clarified, beginning to walk in the opposite direction, "So I couldn't call it a failure."
"Yah, but," She slyly began again, catching up with relative ease to walk at his side, "Still not a success." A small smirk coiled onto her lips, although she tucked it away into hiding rather nicely.
Glancing over to his left with a brown eye, he calmly turned back to face forward, not uttering a word, sound, or any sentiment that would lead her to believe she had succeeded in getting under his skin.
Pursing her lips into a pucker of amusement, she went to speak as though to continue on with her attempts, but instead, her eyes went to tracing the scurrying squirrels that went toddling past them.
Finally there was silence. Said silence was welcomed by the taller of the two, and he began to bring into account their next steps. If they were going to find success, they would have to be more prepared than this time, and have more in their arsenal than a few stones and boulders... Maybe even step from the shadows to confront them head-on. That was always an option.
"So many options..."
