It felt calming just to be in this area where everything was soft: the ground below her feet, the wind that was happy and energized just enough to dance ballet, even the emotions of the people here were much more placid. They just sat here waiting patiently with sagacious looks on their faces like they were doing it their whole life. She just supposed that the six people felt like they were going to be here for a considerable amount of time before things got exciting and they might as well not make it difficult for everyone else. Being the one that stalled this whole affair had made Sheep-dog feel somewhat guilty about making the others all sit in this "training ground", as the others called it, until any feeling of every part of their body had become ponderous with simple but several weights of boredom.

"The others". . . She was somewhat relieved to be able to think that, after having to spend time with these weirdos. She had such a profusion of questions ready to burst whatever container they were being kept in: "How did these people organize everything?" "What exactly do these people do that's so important?" "If this is something that she was so closely connected to, then why did she get this feeling that she was being ostracized?"

She could see them just sitting there with either detached and nonchalant expressions or ones of ecstasy.

"So you must be our little fugitive then?" questioned the lady with the ice-eyes before Sheep-dog had collected herself.

"Huh?"

The boy wearing the filthy sweatshirt gave an awkward smile and attempted to make some conversation, "Ya know, cause you didn't show up to th-"

"Yeah, I got that." She didn't feel the need to look at anyone as she said it. Apparently the little flower by her right foot was a better listener in her opinion.

"Weeeeeeeeell, someone's not happy," The girl with brown curls had added in a sing-song voice.

"Of course I'm not."

"What do you have to be upset about?" the boy with the backpack had inquired.

"You."

"Well, that's not offensive." This time coming from the female of the twins. It was absolutely saturated with sarcasm.

"It's not you guys necessarily that I have a problem with," she added on. "It's the way that you're handling this," this time facing the first who had spoken.

"Huh?"

"How can you get so excited or feel so neutral about something that could be absolutely dangerous? It makes me so angry that you could just blow off something like it's just nothing when. . . when it scares me."

"Really? Well it scares me too," the other blond spoke up.

What kind of enigma had he just thrown at her? He might as well have given her one of those puzzles from the Sunday paper except without the clues.

Inserted here were an assortment of "me too"s and "I feel the same".

"Well, if you're so scared, then why lie about it?"

"We're not lying," the small boy tried to explain. "We want to make the best of this, and being afraid was keeping us from doing that. I used to be just plain paralyzed with it, but then it was just a burden that I wanted to get rid of."

She couldn't think of anything to say. Her canvas was blank and her attic was empty. So what now?

"You don't have to be so fearful if you don't want to," the sweat-shirt guy added.

"We're all in the same boat so we should be taking care of each other, right?" suggested the girl in red.

Well, at least this gave her an idea of what she could say. Taking care of each other, huh? That was the most comforting thing she had heard all day. If this is was really a dream, it would be one of the ones that we all try to resume once we have woken up.

"I don't think that I've actually introduced myself, have I?"

I have absolutely no idea why this took so long

It still fails

On the bright side, 1000+ hits! YES! THANK YOU!

Please try to enjoy and constructive criticism is nice ^_^u