Definition Humane

Encountering a Mysterious Stranger

Lia walked quickly through the greenery of the forest with steps that made loud crunches, not bothering to see where she was going or where she would end up due to the overwhelming irritation that was radiating off of her right now. She and her step-father never got along well— although he wasn't cruel and it didn't seem like he hated her, and honestly she didn't hate him either. He was one of the better Titans that she knew of other then Rion, and he was also the only father she'd ever known due to not really remembering her biological father, having lost him at a young age. Sometimes though, he could be too controlling over her, which clashed with her free and easy-going personality. She wasn't an easy child growing up but wasn't a delinquent either. Her nature still drove both her step-father and mother crazy.

She remembered one time when she was ten, when she climbed out of the three-story window of their mansion and trailed the side of their home, trying to get a better look at the forest the city walls overlooked. She could remember hearing panicked voices of the neighbors and the human workers of their home. Her mother almost had a heart attack and her step-father was hollering for her to get down, while her then three year old brother looked up at her in awe as their mother held him. Everyone looked up at her in fear for her safety while she was the only one who wasn't afraid— quite the opposite: she was filled with excitement as she looked towards the outside wall where the vegetation grew, she eventually lost her footing from leaning too much and fell, but Kaleo caught her much to her mother's relief.

Kaleo, who was mostly a cold and quiet Titan, had shocked her with his outburst. That day she saw him express fear, anger, exasperation, and then relief. She had always managed to spur a mixture of emotions within him while she was growing up and in her as well. It was that day that she decided that someday she would go to the forest, and her step-father was against that idea form the beginning. Her job was the basis of most of their arguments along with pestering her about getting married, and it seemed like he kept pressuring her more every year. She then stopped walking around in the endless greenery, no longer being trapped in her thoughts.

"Ahhhhh!!!" she yelled out in frustration, no longer able to keep her inner feelings in as she ran her hands through her hair.

"What's got your panties in twist?" a voice said, surprising her.

She quickly grabbed her rifle and was ready to aim in the direction in where the voice was coming from only to relax and rub her eyes in irritation. She then brought her gaze to stare sternly at a young woman who was sitting on a tree branch above her.

"Violet! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that! I'm on patrol most of the time and I have a gun!" she yelled at the young woman as she swung the rifle back over her shoulder.

The girl laughed hard like it was a big joke as she sat in the tree with legs spread and her arms supporting her as she leaned back.

"Oh c'mon Lia, I know you never set that thing to kill, and besides it's fun to spook you," she said as she chuckled. She grabbed a vine and jumped down from the tree onto the ground with ease, smirking. Then she started to walk over to her as the sun began to reveal her unique appearance. Violet had dark skin with light purple, short, puffy, frizzy hair and almost golden eyes. She wore a loose black shirt that didn't cover her stomach and brown pants with a red sash tied around her waist. She was barefoot. While her hair and eyes did make her quite different indeed, it was the small vines that looked like they were glued to the right side of her cheek and trailed down her neck, wrapping around her arm, that sealed her identity.

Lia sighed deeply. "There's other sections with other border guards with guns Violet...and most don't like Terrans sneaking up on them, especially Titans..." she said plainly.

Violet rolled her eyes and scoffed at mention of them. "Those stupid drones would shoot us for just being abominations," Violet said seriously as she put her hands on her hips.

Lia wasn't really surprised at what Violet was accusing their rulers of; after the Titans went through their change they made a pact with the humans which where they could live together peacefully and with the Terrans allowing them to live in the forests because the cities made them ill if they stayed there more then six hours. Lia honestly thought it was because they were more then happy to get them out of the cities. While humans did deal with prejudice and were treated like second-class citizens, Terrans were treated no better then dirt, The Titans saw their mutation as an abomination and basically treated them like how humans infected HIV were treated when it was first diagnosed in the past long ago. Titans didn't like to touch them or be around them, and some humans shared this prejudice as well.

"I'm surprised you are not working today Violet?" she asked as the dark-skinned Terran came over to hug her, which she returned.

Violet pulled away to smile at her and they both started to walk deeper in the forest together. "No, too many injuries in the copper mines today, and not to mention I got into a fight with one of the... The drones..." the young Terran said with a distaste in her mouth while playing around with a stick she had picked up. Most Terrans and some poor humans worked in factories or mines away from the cities; it was the only income they could get besides being delivery drivers and their wages weren't even decent.

"About what?" Lia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"About me trying to give some healing herbs to a human who got a nasty cut from the rocky wall in the mine and the the drone went crazy with me!" she said angrily as she threw the stick. "They didn't have enough medicine from the city and I knew my herbs would help him just as well as the other ones but did he listen! No!" she continued to yell in anger.

Violet was an excellent botanist and herbalist, the best in the village she lived in. She could cure a poison or a sickness that had no synthetic cure— all she had to do was put together a few herbs and just like that they were cured, even if the poison or sickness had come from the squalid cities. Lia was an example of it— she once got a shot by a poison dart from a terrorist that had no antidote, and would have killed her in ten minutes. As she laid on the dirt paralysed but feeling every inch of pain coursing though her body during that time, all she could do was stare up at the blue sky and wait for her impending death...until Violet found her. That was also how she first met her.

"Anyway! Enough about me, how was your day Lia?" she asked the other girl.

" My stepfather wants me to marry. As usual," she said with exasperation. Then something caught her eye which made her stop in her tracks and made her eyes grow wide.

"Haha really? He's still pestering—"

"Violet, look," Lia said seriously, which made the Terren girl look in the direction of what she was staring at— a tree. What she saw embedded there made her understand the human girl's shock: it was a man that looked like he was infused in the tree.

"Oh my God..." she said quietly.