Into the Wind {South}

ooc: This is my first time writing in third person with River. Forgive me if it's horrible DX

Actually walking down the streets of the fourth district was a rare event in River's life. The redheaded girl didn't typically like being around people, so she usually stuck to her house, the beach, or the docks if she didn't happen to be working that day. But on this particular afternoon, they needed groceries and Fledger was working, leaving the anti-social sixteen year old storming up the cobblestone pathways to the grocery store by herself.

She was on her way home now, balancing a huge load of paper bags in her freckled arms. The icy wind tossed her rust-colored curls every which way, the cold radiating all the way down to River's bones despite the fact that she had dressed warmly in one of the few pairs of long jeans she owned, a gray thermal, and a comfortable sweatshirt-material jacket she had borrowed from Fledger. Her chocolate-hued eyes roamed over the empty street irritably, the heart-shaped face in which they rested knitting itself into a scowl. Of course she was the only one stupid enough to be out roaming around on a day as miserable as this one. District Four hadn't experienced a cold snap of this magnitude in some time, and the flat gray sky coupled with the frigid winds and rumours of snow seemed to have kept everyone besides River Destin holed up in their well-heated homes.

River's home wasn't heated at all, so being out in the cold was just as bad as lounging around in her living room. River had lived with her father in the run-down old shanty on the beach since she was a young child, her boyfriend being only a recent addition to their little family after he'd left his own home, his mother's chronic amnesia becoming too much of a strain on him. Fledger had helped improve the house greatly, fixing the sagging roof, picking up all the discarded rum bottles the River's father left lying around, scrubbing the scent of alcohol and tobacco from the home and making the windows able to open and close without having to utilize herculean strength, but he couldn't rectify the lack of heating or poor water supply, not without a vastly greater amount of money than they had to work with.

River blew a stray auburn strand away from her face as she gazed out toward the ocean, wishing she could be out there today working, like Fledger was. But it was agreed between the two that at least one of them needed to stay on land to keep an eye on both of their parents, River's father in his drunken stupor and Fledger's mother in her forgetfulness. She had already dropped in to check up on Mrs. Rells before she went to the grocery store, so now all there was to do was go home and wait for the only truly good part of her day - Fledger's return.

Jolted from her thoughts, the willowy redhead noticed someone else's presence on the empty street. The boy seemed to be about her age, much taller than herself, and was leaning against the wall of a building. River tried to make herself ignore him, tried to make her feet keep on the path towards home, but her sympathy arose against her will, sending her walking over to the boy's location. For all she knew, he could be sick or in pain, and she was obligated as a decent human being to help him.

"Hey, are you all right?" she asked in her deep alto timbre, nudging him softly with one foot. "You're gonna get sick if you stay out in the cold."

River snorted derisively at the tall boy's reply, clutching her bags of groceries to her a little more tightly. She wasn't used to being called beautiful by anyone besides Fledger. She wasn't used to actually being talked to by anyone, actually. The redhead preferred to keep her distance from others, simply because of the fact that she wasn't too skilled in the art of conversation. And now, in the light of this unknown kid's weird pickup line, she found herself sputtering for a response.

In her brief moment of silence, she took the time to get a good look at the boy in front of her. He was abnormally tall, River could tell that from looking at him even in his current sitting position. Tan skin, dark hair, chiseled features - your typical District Four beach bum. The sixteen-year-old rolled her dark brown eyes, a respone finally coming to mind. "Yeah, it's a bit chilly. Good thing I borrowed this jacket from my boyfriend to keep me warm."

She hoped that her rebuke had made itself clear, but you could never tell with these tall, tan, Career-looking types. Sometimes most of their energy was concentrated in their muscles instead of their brains, something the intelligent dancer found extremely irritating. Still, he was there, and as long as he was flirting with her... Who could turn down free labor. River tossed her aubrn locks over her shoulder, smiling in what she hoped was a winning way. "So, it'd be a shame for a beautiful girl like me to haul these heavy groceries all the way home in this cold, all weak and vulnerable and feminine. I sure could use a big strong guy to help me."

She smirked to herself, hoping that her charms worked on other people besides Fledger. "By the way, I'm River."

River nodded down the street in the direction she'd been headed. "That way. It's a bit of a walk, I live on the beach."

The two set off, feet making fragmented staccato taps against the uneven cobblestones of the road. Absently, River wondered why there weren't more people out and about today. Yes, it was bitterly cold and the wind made it downright miserable, but didn't people have things to do, groceries to buy, Career training to go to? Every shop window they passed reflected on stores empty save for their bored-looking shopkeepers, and the training center looked to be abandoned as well. It was odd, the redhead decided, searching her pockets and finding her sought-out reward of a hair band that she used to hastily pull the wind-tossed auburn curls back from her face in a messy bun.

They walked in silence for some time, River's deep brown eyes occasionally flicking over to glance at her new acquaintance, Greg, if she remembered his name correctly. How was it possible for someone to be so tall? The young dancer knew that she was of a considerably large height for a female, standing at five feet, eight inches precisely, but this boy had to be well over six feet tall, maybe six and a half. And yet he was so soft-spoken, and, other than the pick-up line he had greeted her with, he was actually rather polite, something that River definitely wasn't used to from males, seeing as she worked on a whaling boat with a bunch of rowdy, cursing men that found it entertaining to make lewd passes at her for fun. The willowy girl shrugged internally, musing that Greg must have been one of those strong, silent types.

There's a problem with being tall, River found herself thinking a moment later, mid-fall. You tend to not pay much attention to the ground. She was not aware what she had tripped over, it could have been a loose stone in the cobbled pavement, or, knowing her, her own feet. One would think that after years of ballet training under her mother's tutelage, that River would have been graceful. On the contrary, she was a downright klutz, so tripping wasn't anything new for her. However, toppling face-first onto the hard pavement was. The sixteen-year-old bit her lip as she fell, trying to muffle the frightened little squeak that left her mouth, which turned out to be a very bad course of action. River's chin struck the ground first, driving her front teeth deep into the flesh of her bottom lip. The taste of blood registered to her first, followed by the agonizing pain. Pushing herself up to her hands and knees, river spat out a mouthful of red liquid, the crimson splattering the dusty brown of the pavement.

"...Ow."

Gingerly bringing a hand up to her heavily bleeding lip, River heard herself let out a low groan of pain. The stupid thing was bleeding like hell, not to mention the fact that her law was screaming in agony from its hard contact with the stone pavement. The redhead spit out another mouthful of liquid, pulling herself up to her knees.

"Shit, that must have hurt. Don't strain yourself River. You'll be okay, just... let me help you.... Uh, well, do you, um..., need me to carry you or anything?"

She growled irritably, the pain making her more snappish than usual. "Seeing as I don't walk on my lips, I think I can take care of myself just fine."

The words came out rather slurred because of her injured lip, but River couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. She lifted the sleeve of her sweatshirt and pressed it to her lip, attempting to let the fabric soak up some of the blood. The contact of the gray cotton stung, but otherwise did its job, absorbing enough excess liquid to allow her to reach in her bag and pull out a compact so she could assess the damage.

"Aw, man," she mumbled painfully, analyzing the swollen flesh in the little circle of polished glass. There was a ragged hole where her teeth had plowed through the sensitive skin, blood still flowing freely. She was definitely going to need stitches. River clicked the compact shut, angrily flinging it back into her bag. "This is great. Fantastic. Just what I needed today."
ooc: Failpost! I have no muse.