Eden Thereafter {Jaeger/Talbot}

[Talbot Emlen Garret]

The thing about the village was that when Talbot first arrived she suspected that it was less of a village and just a safety choice for people to live close together. What few places had been up and whole were occupied and closed off even as more arrived it seemed. With time though Talbot had found that things had begun to change. The more people began to get to know each other the less hostilities there were, though there was still the occasional fight, bloodshed, and even death. All in all whether people like each other or not the village had grown to become more of a community than anything. Talbot had even joined in, helping the occasional new arrival with adjusting to the world. She had her maps, her notes of the creatures, the people. There was still the adjusting she had to do now that Lilith and Nero had vanished. It left her feeling on edge, but she'd slowly managed to come down to a point of cautious relief knowing that dealing with the Witch and his mate would only cause trouble...after all she had attacked Nero and she suspected that a punishment for that would not be pleasant to say the least.

Whispers still carried around, the strange events left a few more on edge than most. Some had left the village, the newest of the makeshift homes abandoned by others who had vanished like all the rest. Talbot questioned the selection process of those who vanished, but now with Lilith missing she'd all but thrown her hope at understanding into the wind. She let herself get lost in her books and her notes. Her maps growing more detailed each week now that she'd not only grown accustomed to the island, but realized that she was fairly safe from a good number of dangers.

A shifter, she could feel her beast, asleep within her. It now was like an instinct, but still not her own. Talbot still could not figure out how to shift on whim, but slowly she began to learn the smallest things about the skills she did have. It was another person, a stranger that had been with her all this time. Her reflection in the water still hers, but somewhere deep inside there was someone who wasn't.

Today she was just outside the village, a small spring running around the far side just out of sight of the first circle of buildings. Fresh water was clear and cold, the rocky bottom visible with pale stones. She lingered there, not many other places where one could get clean unless they wanted to drag water back to their own place. She lived too far to make several trips for fresh buckets just to bath, and usually it was easy to find a place fairly private.

The young woman knelt on the edge, wearing a short silk, cream colored shift she'd found among the many items she scavenged around the island or traded for. By now her information and maps had given her the edge to trade and she found it useful. On the shallow banks her burgundy hoodie and worn jeans folded neatly beside her as she dipped her hands in a proceeded to do whenever she had the chance to do, a cold bath. Some preferred the waterfall, but to travel that far all the time took up a day which one could hunt or learn more just to get clean. Slipping in a bit further she got down closer, water soaking up along the fabric she wore as she let the chilly liquid wash away the burning muscles, the bruises and scratches from what she could only assume were her beasts escapades when she slept.

Letting the water bead and roll down her skin she brought another handful up and drank down the clean water, just the barest hint of salt from the sea, nothing too harmful. Giving a sigh Talbot pushed the wet curls from her fact, the hotpink stripes now a soft rosy hue, a hit of pink like the early sunrise. The island was quiet and peaceful as she look around from her watery perch, for now it seemed like Eden...but just how long could Eden last?