The Spirits Inside

Cars honking, people talking, the city was one big state of organized chaos. Streets were bustling, people were making exchanges for cash, and everything seemed to be perfect in this chaotic city that Corvus was unfamiliar with. The small child was only 13, and yet he had been relocated here to begin his official job after 12 years of training. The boy's face painted a frown as a strange beast walked along side him. Humans here did not flinch at the monster that stood before them, and walked right through the strange beast as if it were nothing but a hologram. They knew it was there, they knew that it too lived, thought, and felt. They were just unafraid. This thing was a Tamed. It was incapable of hurting them unless it was told.

It was only a few moments that he had hopped off of a subway and entered the bustling streets that the organized chaos turned to straight out chaos as a strange long beast with wings flew about the sky wildly. Its movements spoke its angers, sharp, and enraged. This thing was out for blood, as all spirit animals were. The only difference between the beast beside Corvus and the beast in the sky, was that the flying on was solid. The flying one was capable of harming people. The flying one was a threat.

Corvus had been brought here to defend the city, and defend it he shall, but first a hotdog. He certainly couldn't defend the city on an empty stomach and let an unattended hot dog cart go to waste! The beast raged above as the crowd scattered and hid in buildings, awaiting for tamers to come to slay the beast. Corvus enjoyed his hotdog, it was kind of funny seeing how scared the people were, it was just a flying lizard like his. His beast could easily take it out whenever he wanted. He was just too hungry to do much at the moment.

A fifteen year old female with shoulder length, honey coloured hair walked along one of the loud urban streets, her dull, unseeing eyes appearing to scan the area. In truth, Thea was using her other senses, ignoring the general noise of the bustling city. She wasn't used to this much noise, coming from a small town, but she had quickly learned to tune out that which was irrelevant to her current job. If she wanted to, she could always ask the spirit that accompanied her for help, having the unique ability to see through her companion's eyes. However it was unnecessary when there were other ways to conquer the noise pollution. The lithe black creature proudly walked alongside her, those that passed by moving out of the majestic, dragon-like beast's way despite having the ability to walk straight through it. Though the spirit was clearly dragon like, it also possessed various birdlike qualities, having large feathered wings and feathers on the tip of it's tail.

Thea's intuition was a thing to be wary of, being uncannily correct most of the time. It was just one of the odd things about her. Her intuition was once again proven correct when the young female's dull eyes turned to the sky. Though she could not see it's arrival, she knew something was there.
"A wild spirit," her own companion confirmed to her. Reaching out, Thea ran her hand through the feathers on her spirit friend's head.
"Thanks, Rei," she smiled to the spirit, before jogging off down the street in the direction of the wild creature. People often wondered how she managed to navigate towns and cities without being able to see - she'd never tell them how of course, that would just ruin the mystery. Synrei quickly bounded after her, spreading her wings as she prepared to take flight. An aerial target meant there was likely to be an aerial battle.

It was times like this that Sim decided that the best part of being deaf was not hearing the terrified screams of people whenever a creature attacked. Having just been transferred into the city, the teen had been taking a taxi into the town, sitting in the back seat in a relatively relaxed manner. On the roof of said taxi, a creature visible to any passerby humans rested on top, laying down and looking around the area as they traveled. If there was anybody who cared, nobody said anything. Well, nobody except the somewhat disgruntled taxi driver, but he got over it rather quickly. If there was one thing Sim and the creature accompanying him had in common, it was an air of calmness and relaxation. Neither seemed worried by the reassignment or the town.

Well, that was how it started. And then all hell broke loose in town, with the addition of the solid lizard-like creature terrorizing the town. Sim found it somewhat amusing how a bustling town could empty out and panic in the span of seconds depending on the situation it faced. The taxi driver stopped the car and immediately climbed out, running away and leaving him alone inside. The teen sighed, opening the door and stepping out, his spirit growling somewhat as she stepped off of the roof and moved beside him. Seems like we just can't catch a break, can we? Well, it's not going to take care of itself. Know, to figure out how to ground it... He thought to himself, drawing a knife from its sheath on his left shoulder and spinning it on his finger as he looked up at the creature, not noticing the fellow Tamer eating a hot dog at a nearby abandoned hot dog stand.

Corvus finished grabbing a final hotdog before turning around and looking up at the beast that twirled and swiveled in the sky in absolute and seemingly unreasonable rage. He looked over to his beast who looked to him as he pointed at the dragon in the sky. The reptillian creature nodded as unspoken words were exchanged, and seemed to suddenly disappear off the ground as it took a leap into the sky and unfurled its wings. The beast looked as if it were about to collide with a nearby building, but the tamed passed straight through it. He seemed to disappear for a moment before erupting from a different building, having gone behind their walls and between the allies, into the wild beast. The Wild screeched in surprise as the Tamed crashed into it, but quickly darted back into the building as the dragon attempted to strike back.

Corvus watched his beast in action, his hand resting on a sword perfect for his size as he waited for the wild beast to be grounded. There was no way he would be able to ride his Tamed Beast in this area, due to the beast's size and natural clumsiness that came with it. His beast needed to phase through the walls, and he didn't like the idea of becoming a pancake on the side of a building.

Waiting at the end of a street for Synrei, Thea quickly climbed onto the spirit's back and the dragonlike creature bounded off towards where another tamed beast had just attacked the wild, solid spirit. Her specialty was long range weapons, and she kept a bow on her nearly all of the time. Using said bow, she quickly loaded an arrow to it, drawing the string back with ease. Detecting the winds without her sense of sight was easy, before she spoke to Synrei,
"Go."

As she said this, her eyes lost their dull, grey colour and became a bright blue. The girl and her spirit seemed to act in sync as Synrei ran along the streets, allowing Thea to accurately target the wild spirit with the gift of her spirit's sight. When Thea loosed her arrow, she quickly loaded another as it's sharp, metal tip embedded itself in the wild spirit's shoulder.
After the first shot, the wild spirit turned it's attention to her with a frustrated roar. The arrow having been tipped with sedative, Thea hoped that she would be able to wait out the solid spirit, until it was knocked out. Firing a second arrow, it connected near the first, giving the wild creature a second dose.

You'd think we would have come up with some kind of strategy to ground wilds after so long, besides depending on the incredibly off chance stroke of luck. Sim thought to himself, watching the other two much more effective tamers and spirits begin to attack. He wasn't a fan of staying off to the side and waiting, but at the same time there wasn't much he could do to help from the ground when the fight was taking place in the air.

The teen smirked, watching the female tamer fire two arrows into the wild and causing it to droop a bit closer to the ground, just high enough for them to intervene.
"Amynta, try and see if-" Before Sim finished his creature was off, sprinting down the street with the gist of what she figured he was going to say in mind. Taking a running start she solidified and jumped up on top of an abandoned car, using it as a boost and pouncing at the wild spirit, clamping her jaws down on its other shoulder and clawing at its back and underside, attempting to bring the wild creature down to the ground. It seemed to screech in irritation, attempting to throw Amynta off of it as it became distracted. Sim ran over towards her and the creature, knife in hand and ready to intervene if he could.

Although a male teen was already running towards the beast, Corvus's beast was already erupting from the ground and snatching the dragon's neck and dragging it closer to the ground. The sound rang clearly for all to hear, even humans which was strange since beasts normally could only speak with their tamers and such, that seemed to come from the tamed beast's throat as it rose to snatch the dragon from the sky, "Hi there doggy!" and as the tamed beast allowed gravity to take over it once more there was a grumbling growl that could have been, "Bye there doggy!" The dragon slammed into the ground, not able to phase through it like the spirit animals could. The beast screeched in rage as the set of jaws were locked on its throat and pinning it to the ground.

The big and clumsy looking beast had free reign to do anything it liked and had the mobility its power needed. It was using its ability to phase through objects rather expertly as its surprise attacks had quite definitely taken it by surprise.

Corvus made his way close calmly, bringing out his blade, but waiting a distance. He was interested in what those other tamers would do to it. Finish it? his Tamed asked, Corvus simply shook his head, and waited.

Synrei quickly bounded over to the fallen and pinned wild spirit, it's solid form preventing it from phasing through the ground and escaping. Thea hopped off of her spirit's back as she furled her feathered wings. Her eyes were once again a dull grey in colour and unseeing as she jogged over to the fallen creature. Ever so gently, she felt her way to the beast's shoulder, soothing it with soft whispers. Finding what she was looking for, she kept a pale hand on the beast's fur as she turned to Synrei. The dragon-like spirit nodded knowingly and gently walked over to the fallen beast to examine the wounds sustained by the pinning grip that Corvus's spirit still had around it's neck.

"Tell your spirit to let go," she spoke to the younger boy, tracing soothing circles in the fallen beast's thick fur, being careful to avoid the area where her arrows still protruded from the beast's shoulder.

As Corvus' beast emerged from the ground, Amynta released her grip and dropped to the ground, landing on it and backing away as she watched the wild beast get dragged to the ground by Corvus'. She huffed slightly, muttering something less then pleasant about being called doggy as she watched the female Tamer and her creature head to the fallen beast and examine it. Meanwhile, Sim had arrived by the group and looked over at Thea, unable to see her lips from where he was. Linking with his spirit, he began to listen from her perspective as the tamer told the younger boy to have his spirit release the wild.
"You do know that it's most likely going to attack you when it gets back up, right?" Sim asked in an almost matter of fact voice, watching it carefully and crossing his arms.

Corvus's beast's head raised from the ground to look at his Tamer, as if waiting for an answer. Corvus thought for a moment, if it attacked, his beast could easily repeat this process and he would finish it with his blade of iron at his hip. He nodded and the beast held the neck still, only letting go when he earned an angry look from Corvus. THe beast sank beneath the ground and climbed back above ground in front of Corvus, as if protecting him.

The wild beast went wild as it was released, at least as wild as it could go with the sedatives. The sedatives was only a small dose, but the dragon was thin enough to be affected by the drugs. Close by, some brave souls of the humans began to step out, preparing for the moment when the tamer would kill it, and some preparing for their opportunity for fame as they would dart forward and claim the stone that would have a chance of being produced, they would go home and hand it over to their sons and daughters. Their sons and daughters would then be sent to the military, where tamers were always on demand and constantly drafted.

Synrei spread her large wings threateningly as the beast went wild. It must have assumed it was in danger due to the group of tamers that surrounded it. Thea wasn't fazed however and merely felt her way to the wild spirit's head, looking into it's green eyes with her dull ones.
"Shh. I won't let them hurt you," she whispered, "Just let me pull those arrows out."
The beast looked into her unseeing eyes with it's forest green ones, as if trying to judge some ulterior motive. It had never been shown the slightest kindness by a tamer before. It wasn't capable of speech like tamed spirits were, but it turned to Synrei and blew a breath of air from it's nostrils in her direction before it lay it's head on the ground.

Confidant that the beast would not harm her as long as she wasn't perceived as a threat, she gently moved back over to the beast's shoulder, not needing to feel her way as she remembered from a few moments previous. Thea's hands rested on the fletching of one of her arrows and she ran her hand down it's sleek form until she found the tip, just slightly buried within the beast's skin. As quickly and painlessly as she could, she pulled the arrow from the wound, the bloodied weapon onto the ground beside her. The beast growled at the pain, and Thea glanced over with her dull eyes as if to apologise.
"Just one more," she whispered as she felt for the second arrow. Quickly pulling it from the wound, she dropped it as she had the other and got to her feet. Moving back over to the beast's head, she  knelt down beside it, Synrei's not-so-solid form shielding her companion from view.
"Those sedatives aren't enough to keep you downed for long. You need to get out of the city and find a place to wash those wounds," she whispered, a hand hovering over the wounds on the beast's neck. She knew that the wild creature would not entirely understand the meaning behind her words, but she hoped that the intent and feeling behind them would get through to it.
"Stay out of the city in the future and you won't get chased by other tamers."
Thea looked to Synrei as she once again got to her feet turning away from the grounded beast, she glanced up at the sky, taking her bow out once more before shooting a small glance back at her spirit companion.
"Run," blinked Synrei, speaking to the wild spirit before she too backed away to give the beast space.

It spread it's large, uninjured wings and did just that, rising into the air and taking off in an attempt to flee the city as Thea had advised. The young female did not believe in slaughtering these creatures just because they stumbled into the city. That was equivalent to shooting every pigeon in the city square just for being there.

Watching the whole procedure, Sim sheathed his knife and blinked, watching and listening in through his spirit. At first he had been so sure that it wouldn't work, and that the wild creature wouldn't be consoled. But then the girl seemed to be able to calm it down and even take care of its wounds. Amynta sat on her haunches, watching the procedure as well with the same level of curiosity as her tamer. The duo had never really stopped to spare a wild spirit before, it was their job to protect the town and take wild spirits down, and that was exactly what they did, no questions asked.

As the wild creature flew off Sim stepped closer by Thea, watching it fly off. Amynta padded over as well, moving beside him.
"Alright, how did you do that?" He questioned Thea curiously, not looking over at her as he asked and instead looking upwards. The teen was skeptical about it, and yet genuinely curious at the same time. He looked away towards Corvus as well, checking to see what his reaction was and what he was up to at the moment.

Corvus watched as the solid spirit animal flew over him and his own creature. He looked back only to look back to the two older teenagers. He made his way towards them and his spirit seemed to about to do something but was interrupted by angry bellows from the fame seekers of the crowd.
"Ya should have killed it!"
"It's just going to come back!"
"they always come back!"
The ones that didn't lecture the two teenagers and the pre-teen simply went about business as normal. The organized chaos resumed once more.

The Tamed Spirit that belonged to Corvus's mouth opened and he spoke, "You did it wrong...you're supposed to kill it so it didn't come back and so more Tamers could be made...right?"
Corvus was the one to look to Sim instead of the beast though. As he spoke to the two, he remembered a rumor of a blind Tamer, which brought the memory of how the girl and felt the creature, searching for its wounds instead of just looking.
"You're blind." his creature spoke bluntly to the girl.

"You sound as if I've grown an extra head or something," frowned Thea, "Is it really that hard for you to see the non-violent side to these creatures?"
She paused briefly as Corvus, or rather his spirit, spoke, ignoring the angered cries of those who had wanted to obtain a stone so their child would become a tamer too.
"These creatures are the same as the ones that accompany us, in more ways than one. I don't believe it is right to condemn them all to death purely because they were the unlucky ones and they were the ones who hatched with no young child to bond with."
She explained her motives for doing what she'd done quite clearly, so that those protesting her choice to free the wild spirit would hear her too. She didn't look at anyone in particular as he spoke, instead focusing on the the area around her rather than those she was speaking to. She had no need to look at them of course, not being able to see them in the first place. She appeared to ignore Corvus's spirit's statement about her being blind, after all it didn't change anything.
Synrei wandered over to her tamer as she spoke, hovering warily near her, waiting to see the reactions of the other two tamers.

Hearing the complaints of the people, Sim decided to cut off hearing through his spirit and went to lip reading, watching Thea closely as she spoke as to see what she said.
"Well, I don't think it's so much because they're unlucky and more so because they go into town, destroy things and kill people, but we can go with that. Besides, you did manage to calm it down somehow, as long as it's not here and causing trouble I'm fine with it." He commented, nodding his head at the two and shrugging his shoulders. Maybe it could be said that he sort of had a bias against wild spirits, but in his mind he had good reasoning. There was a bit of a big difference between the tamed and wild spirits, the fact that one could phase through objects and was sentient, and the other was solid and near feral. Sim had never actually thought about saving wilds before until Thea had just done it. And as for the comment about her being blind...He might be right actually. She actually may be blind.