A Voice // [GreenBeads]

The body that emerged from the foliage of the bushes made Raphael's stomach jump, and a frightened yelp echoed throughout the forest. It took him a moment or two to realize that the yelp came from him. The sudden surprise almost made him fall back from shock, but he prevented the mishap by sticking out one of his arms, but it still caused his legs to flail out into the air before crashing into the dead leaves. He raised a quick hand to his chest, feeling his pulse beat aggressively through wearied skin, as if begging to be freed from the rib cage that trapped it.

What the hell is that thing and where the hell did it come from?

Before he began tying ends together and assuming that the whatever it was was Big Foot, he decided to trust logic and observe the situation.

The first thing he noticed was the unnatural height of the stranger. . . or rather, the lack of it. It's just about as easy to come across a dwarf today as it is to come across a talking animal - almost impossible. This was the first Raphael had ever witnessed one. Why would someone like him even be out here? Well, I'll be damned.

Pushing this thought away, Raphael was left to realize that he was in the presence of another human. Maybe not the average size of one, and certainly not the most welcoming looking type - but a human all the same. He coolly digested this before wondering if he even remembered how to socialize. What do people say in situations like these? Then again, no wanderer has ever returned or lived to tell the story.

The seventeen year old hesitantly picked himself up off the ground and dusted off what was left of his jeans. Wait, why was he attempting to look presentable? Everyone out here was just the same as him, why even bother? The only action he deemed acceptable was to stick his two lanky hands into his pockets and just stare back at the snarky looking stranger.

Once again at a loss for words, he merely dug his right heel into the dirt and greeted the stranger with a, "Well, hi there."

"Listen kid," He began in an irritated rush, but before Raphie could bear to listen to the rest of the man's speech, he stood baffled at that mere word - kid.

Kid?

Hell, Raphael was no kid. He was a goddamn adult. Sort of. At least, he knew he must've been around that age by now, right? As he tuned out the rest of the stranger's speech, he mentally counted his fingers in his mind. I was fifteen when I left... how long has it been since then? He furrowed his eyebrows in a confused state, his pupils focusing on a spot somewhere behind the stranger. More than a year. Probably two years, already. Two years since he left home. Two years since he ran away. Two years since his mom's been dead.

Awh, fuck.

No, Raphie would not force himself to think of his mother - to open up such a raw and infected wound - right in front of the first human contact he's had in months. What the hell was the point of that, anyway? She was gone. But, then again, so was he.

He tuned back right in time to hear the end of the man's speech, "Go find some shelter kid, rain is coming any minute now." Goddammit, he used the word kid again.

Raphael stared back up at the sky, as if first noticing how gray the day was, and how heavy the clouds hung above him. It wasn't as if he's never dealt with rain before in the woods - he's been out here for at least a year now. Then again, his wearied expressions and tattered clothes made it seem like he was on the verge of collapsing any minute now. Which he was. It took some time before Raphie could soak in the words that the stranger had said to him. He could recall something about dragging his ass back home, and not giving two shits if he died today or tomorrow. All he could think about these - otherwise insufferable - comments were how such a small man could be so feisty. Luckily, he stopped the words before they came out. He shoved his hands back into his pockets, when he felt the muscles at his lip twitch ever so slightly. The feeling was foreign to him, until he realized that he was, indeed, smiling. Yes, it might've passed off as more of a smirk than a smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. Funny, I thought I've forgotten how to do this by now.

"I'm not a kid." Was the first words that came out of his mouth. They sounded strangled, as if he was desperately trying to convince the stranger that he definitely was not a child. Oh, but it seemed to him that he needed to convince himself that first. "I'm not a kid, and I've been out here long enough to know how to take care of myself in the rain." Shit, do I sound mean. He bit the inside of his cheek when he immediately realized how harsh his words came out. No, I haven't forgotten how to smile. But I did forget how to be friendly. In an attempt to conceal the sudden burst, he pettily added, "But, thanks for the heads up."

Guess I forgot how to socialize, too.

He hurt the guy.

Raphael could detect the wave of pain that suddenly gripped the stranger - could see it in the way he suddenly clenched his walking stick, in the way he heaved a huge sigh as if it hurt him to breathe, the way he piercingly shouted back at Raphael, "Then stop acting like one." A twinge of guilt coursed through the wanderer's veins, causing him to sigh on his own. He stuffed his hands back into his pockets and kicked a stray pebble to the side. He may not have as much social contact with people anymore, but he knew better than to act this way with strangers - even if they did meet in some place as pathetic as the woods.

After all, no one just runs into the woods for the heck of it. No one leaves their sheltered home for desire of damp dirt and isolated nights. No one abandons the ones they love for complete seclusion and solitude. The madness that drives them all out here binds all the runaways together - like a cord intertwining each and everyone of them - no matter what the differences in their personalities or reasons. If anything, they all share one thing - they are all broken beyond repair.

Raphael parted his lips to mutter the best apology he could muster up with at the moment, when the stranger spoke again, "Follow me."

The man walked ahead with or without Raphael, and, without his knowing, his feet carried him behind the stranger's trail. The shorter of the pair, however, walked presumably fast than the other - causing Raphie to wonder if it was due to his own weakness, or because the man was angry with him and wanted to spread the distance between them as much as possible? Hell, Raphael would be angry at himself, too.

He decided to go with the latter. "Look, I'm sorry. . . for the insincerity, I guess."

"You have a name? Or should I just call you Boy?"

Raphael stuck a hand in his ragged pocket, before lifting one up to rub the back of his neck. He laughed a little at the last statement, even despite having told the man that he was definitely not a kid, he still seemed to prefer to label him as one.

"I'm Clinton."

He nodded, even though Clinton couldn't even see him. The name seemed to fit the small, strange man. It oozed maturity and yet an aggressive nature, somehow all compacted into the body of a dwarf. Briefly, he wondered why a guy like Clinton was out here by himself in the woods? Running away from something, someone, a past? No one just proclaims a life of solitude for themselves out of the blue, everyone - even those who can't admit it - crave a home.

Realizing he still hadn't said his name, he told Clinton, "Raphael."