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Defining Reality ( Vawnie Bear & CasualVelociraptor )

Dawn stumbled and fell when the ground beneath her gave way. It was only years of training that stopped her from crying out. Precious seconds passed as she tried to flip herself over, to better see the ground below. Being only partially successful she landed on her right shoulder heavily. Pain caused stars to blossom behind tightly squeezed eyelids, fighting the urge to express how much that landing had hurt. Metal tore into her shoulder, through the thin material of her jump suit, and the tang of blood registered in her brain.

With the softest of groans she staggered up trying to get her feet under her. Mother waited for no one... and her strength and endurance was something Dawn had learned early... never gave out. Stumbling to her knees she grit her teeth pulling her arm in against her body, turning green eyes to look at the damage for but a moment. The skin was shredded, pieces of meat torn and ragged, but something was revealed in that mess... A tiny blip of blue... "Mnh..." She grunted and with her good arm reached dirty fingers to pick at the bloody silver tube with its blinking blue light.

A sound not far away had her moving again. There was no time to think, only time for action. Catching her breath she forced her legs up under her again, and this time they stayed. Carrying the capsule she moved towards the water and dropped it in before peeling off in another direction, and cover. From here, Dawn was able to watch mother appear from the far side. Breathlessly she forced herself to still, afraid any noise would draw her caretakers attention.

In her steady unhurried way, pausing to inspect where Dawn had fallen and been injured, before moving off once more. With her face towards the river she continued, following the body of water, with a familiar blue glow to her face plate. It was the same way they had hunted other machines during training... Mother said each machine had a unique signature, and if you selected that signature with your focus, you could track its movements... Mother had been tracking her... not just her focus but she had actually put a tracker in her body.

Knowing that her ploy would not work forever Dawn worked to secure her shoulder better, before forcing herself to move on. Using all the tricks mother had taught her, to lose her trail... and put distance between them. Turning from the downward slope to the mountains...

By nightfall she was beyond exhausted, cold and hungry. Feeling clumsy she staggered to a stop in the tall grass atop a hill, looking down on a forgotten place. The promise of warmth overwhelming when her eyes caught the distant glow of fire. Mother didnt need fire... she strictly forbade it above ground... machines never needed fire either... what did it mean? With little grace Dawn slipped and slid down the wall towards it. Slipping into the tall grass and settling for a moment to catch her breath, cup her aching arm and try and see what the fire was for.
 
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Viktoriyanda, better known as Riya by the Pyotomalk River tribe that called themselves the Reclaimers, but she called her extended family, was in familiar territory that night by the abandoned settlement on the river bed.

She was used to sticking out; her father and mother’s shared deaths on the day she was born marked her as the Legacy, the sacred scapegoat of the Reclaimers.

She was used to writing down all the painful stories of loss, unrequited love, and grief that her tribe members would bring to her to write in the dried out book that she’d scrounged up, so that they could forget.

And for the five intercalary days before each new year since she came of age three years ago, Riya was used to being pelted with ash from the fires before being cast out in the sacred Legacy Forgetting ceremony. It would supposedly bring about a Reclaimed world filled with eternal happiness and void of sorrow.

Riya thought perhaps the ritual of it all was supposed to make her not feel at least a little melancholy that she was being shouted at and shoved aside into the woods by people she loved and who claimed to love her. Even by, or especially by, Aarava, the Great Shield of the Reclaimers, who was Riya’s whole world. But that failed, so she turned to what she did best for hours- surviving and drawing everything she could down in her journal from the sky at sunset to the smallest rabbit- well into the evening.

That was...until she heard a rustling sound in the bushes. A strange creature appeared to be approaching the fire she’d made minutes before, and the poor, painfully shy Riya curled tightly into a ball and yelled, “Hey! Hey! Who are you? W-awhat do you want with me?”
 
Dawn stumbled backwards when the creature at the fire spoke out to her demanding who she was. She scrabbled back against the rock wall and slithered back up the hill side into deeper grass, and older trees. Never in her life had she ever seen another human being, according to mother, Dawn herself was the last. She crouched within the old growth staring back down at the stranger on the opposite side of the fire looking as frightened as she felt in that moment.

Finding some safety in the thick trees she took stock of their surroundings, her eyes scanning the immediate area for any of the machines who might be attracted by the sound. When she saw none Dawn gave a look back to the person down below. Did they know it was unsafe to yell? She appeared at the old growth once more, her body a shadow amidst growing shadows. Her pain deep, her exhaustion gnawing at her like the cold that she was not prepared for. The fire whispering warmth... she paced the upper ridge her eyes looking back the way she had come before turning once more to that fire.

"I... I mean no harm." Dawn said. Her voice unsure, barely loud enough to be heard. She didn't want to attract Mother if she had already figured out Dawn's ploy and was now scouring the countryside for her. "May I enter your camp?" She asked, raising her good arm, trying to show she meant no harm. If she were going to be allowed in she needed to hide the fire before Mother tracked them down.
 
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