ZP Sinners: Dragon Falls Chpt. 1

    Everything seemed to be going just fine earlier that day when they were all relaxing at the small bank of a small lake. The whole lake was hidden by enormous trees that shielded the Sinners from the sun and any large birds of prey. The water shined an unreal shade of turquoise with emerald lily pads floating on its surface. The large water fall that towered over them dropped colorful water into the pond below it. Enormous glowing flowers provided light through the dark area. They dotted the shore like city lights. It seemed it was like night time in the middle of the day. There was nothing quite like the Dragon Falls.

            Valtina sat on a rock in the middle of the pond in her red bikini holding a glowing blue rose. Her hair was slicked and dripping from recently crawling out of the water. She hummed to herself quietly as she poked at the petals with her pink painted nails.

    Beside her was Rika. She was sitting on a smaller rock staring at the little blue fish with antlers. Her knees were pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. Her body was covered in a sky blue one piece with white poka-dots. Her hair was in a ponytail, also dripping.

    On the shore, more by the lake, was Oaks holding a fishing pole. She had her legs crossed and her left hand occupied by a red bull can. Her oversized boots were replaced by blue flip flops and her tail coat and white shirt were replaced with blue shorts and an orange tank top. She had her fedora hanging crooked on her head.

    Carter and Frost were sitting in the lake. Frost had her electric yellow wet suit on and her hair in a tight bun as she chucked enormous rocks over her head into the water, disturbing Oak’s fishing greatly, and sending droplets of water all over Carter who was reading on a floaty. He had pine green swimming trunks on.

    Pines and Crom stood haphazardly on the edge of the water fall, talking about science, fully clothed, when Cruach came out the side of Crom’s head and shoved Pines over the edge and laughing as he landed in the water. This was rewarded by a disapproving scowl from Crom and a rock coming out of the ground suddenly and pushing the hydra into the water.

    This is what a good day looks like.

    “Hey!” Valtina shouted as water from Crom’s impact splashed onto her. Pines sat up in the water and spit out a mouth full of it, purple and gray hair covering his eyes. Crom sputtered and coughed as he sat up as well. “You guys are supposed to be the mature ones!” She grimaced, pulling a glowing petal off the flower.

    “Cruach started it.” Pines said flatly. His voice had little force in it. It was more of a statement than an accusation. Crom’s nose scrunched up as he spit out a water weed.

    “You ended it.” Crom said, looking peeved.

    “Exactly.” Pines stood up and trudged his way out of the water, lifting up the tails of his coat so they wouldn’t drag. Rika giggled slightly as he tripped and fell again due to his poor sight since his face was covered in his hair. Crom got up and took off his jacket, tossing it at Valtina. She squeaked when it hit her face. Crom took off his shoes and tossed them onto the bank along with his socks. No way was he going to walk around in wet socks and shoes. Then he followed Pines.

    The Sinners rarely ever got the chance to just hang out and have fun together. They usually had their demons wailing on them to ‘keep practicing’ and ‘being prepared for any situation’ and ‘stop lazing about and do something’ and ‘keep their space clean’ and ‘finish their chores’. For laid back and fun demons, they were pretty high maintenance and naggy. But to their relief, they were able to get an entire week to themselves. As a group, they decided to go camping at Dragon Falls. So far, their first day was going nicely.

    “Hey, Oaks, catch dinner yet?!” Frost shrieked across the water.

    “No!” Oaks shouted back indignantly, “It’s kind of hard when you’re throwing huge ass rocks around!” She tightened her hand around the red bull can, crushing it slightly.

    “Then fussy fangs better have at least caught a rabbit or something.” Frost mumbled. She looked back at Carter who was still reading. Who the fuck reads a dictionary like it’s a story book? Frost asked her mind. Of course it wouldn’t have the answer. She morphed into a shark and sank below the surface, going deep into the water until her nose bumped the muck.

    “Excuse me!” Crom said to Pines. “That was completely unnecessary.” He came up to walk beside Pines as they walked up the bank, picking up the shoes he had thrown.

    “Then don’t test me with your little friend.” Pines said again, no force. Like a statement.

    “First of all, the more and more we go without violence, the touchier he becomes. It’s not exactly easy to keep him under wraps.” Crom points out. “You try to keep a violent genocidal maniac under wraps 24/7 365.” Pines slowly turns his head and stares Crom in the eye. Then Crom realizes the stupidity of that sentence and how literally Pines was a genocidal maniac deep down. So he purses his lips and starts to wring out his sleeves.

    Time went by fast. Valtina requested that the tents be put up before the sunset. Simon returned dragging a huge cooler of food. Oaks had managed a few measly fish, and they were currently hovering over the fire Carter made.

    Frost pushed the last nail into the tree that held up her hammock. She was especially careful not to push too hard because she’d probably crush the tree. She sucked on her thumb, biting her nail. It was too low. She wanted it higher off the ground so when she rolled out, the landing would wake her up nice and good.

    “Are the tents up yet?” Valtina called from behind a huge rock.

    “No!” Pines answered. He hammered the last peg in. “Okay I am now.” Valtina came out from the boulder buttoning up her shirt.

    “Simon start the salad.” Valtina said, beginning to set up the portable table. She pulled the legs out and flipped it over so she could lock them. Then flipped it the right way.

    “Already doing it.” Simon walked up to the table holding a bowl of almost finished salad.

    “Crom, how is the fish coming?”

    “Terrible. I can’t work with this!”

    “Excellent.” She clapped her hands to get rid of the dirt and then turned towards Frost. “We need firewood Frosty.” Frost raised an eyebrow at the nickname but turned towards the trees to go looking anyway.

    Valtina fixed the front of her shirt, now wearing a button down red blouse and black skinny jeans. In her pocket she felt a vibration followed by loud obnoxious ringing. She smirked and pulled her phone out of her butt pocket.

    “Hello~?” She asked, sing song.

    “Wassap?” The unmistakable voice of her demon came through the speaker. She smirked and then put her cell phone on speaker so she could start setting the table.

    “Hey Angel.” She cooed into the phone.

    “Ah! So ah did git the right numbeh!” Angel congratulated himself. “Cool! Anyway, howwsit goin’ so fah?” Valtina noticed Pines openly cringe at Angel’s grammar, but he came over to the phone anyway.

    “Quite fine actually. We are going to watch the sunset before we eat.” He said, grabbing some of the placemats and setting them down on the table. He allowed Valtina to put the cardboard plates down when she whined that she wanted to do it. “We’re planning on going fishing tomorrow and hiking.”

    “Sounds cool tah me!” Angel said through the fun, grabbing Simon’s attention from his salad mixing on a tree stump. “Jus remembeh though. If there is ah problem, you come right back! The Hive is still out there!”

    “Yes Angel.” Pines said. Then quickly added with a finger up, “And we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. If the Hive comes, we’ll probably hide in the waterfall. Bees don’t like water.” The Hive was a battalion of bees hired to hunt down and capture demons and sinners. Too many sinners had been taken by The Hive so far. You were lucky to even see three sinners these days. Time would only tell if more would come or if more would disappear. The ladder looked higher on the scale.

    “I know ya are.” He said slowly. “But we just can’t risk ya guys to The Hive. Ya aren’t jus sinnehs to us. Ya’ll are family.”

    “We know Angel.” Valtina says kindly. She has the sweetest smile on her face and Pines could practically hear Angel smile through the phone.

    For the rest of the afternoon, the sinners simply talked or explored their camp grounds. Rika sat on a stump, drawing. She looked up every now and then at her muse which was Pines, Crom, and Carter looking through alchemy books. Typical she thought. Her hadn stroked over the page and shaded in the dark circles under Carter’s eyes. How could anyone have such thick circles? Sloth Sinner or not! The guy is an insomniac! Rika curled her lip and then went back to Crom’s face. Why does he have to have such weird eyes? The people she drew these days just HAD to be all complicated didn’t they? Crom had circuit board eyes! Like what the heck?! And Pines’ hair was just ridiculous! Oaks just had to cover her ears with piercings didn’t she? Valtina always had to wear the frilliest clothes too didn’t she? Frost never stopped moving. Carter and his 1 inch thick dark circles! What. The. Hell. The only person who was easy to draw was Simon because he didn’t have huge spikey hair or weird eyes or too many piercings. He didn’t move around when he was sitting or standing. He didn’t wear ball gowns around the house like they were pajamas. She loved her friends dearly. But there was such thing as a little too much.

    She looked at her phone and slid the screen unlocked. She quickly typed the four number code and went to her messages.

    Hey, how’s that thing you’re doing going? She typed. The contact was labeled Leo.

    Pretty good. And I’m doing an exploration expedition about humans. Seeing how we all were once. It’s neat. Instead of worrying about their safety they worry about their money. It’s actually kind of sad. And there is sin EVERYWHERE. It’s like a gold mine! Rika read his text. Gold mine? Pfffft. That’s not what she and Pines found.

    Really? She sent it. When she went there, all she found was a lot of cars and toxic air. And a shitty Angel of Darkness and Grim Reaper that experimented on them. She still had scars.

    Yeah! SO MUCH LUST. You have no idea! Prostitutes everywhere. Lol Rika licked her dry lips and typed another message.

    Ha ha. We should so swing by. You missing out on a lot of fun stuff dude.

    Yeah. I bet. Anyway, gtg.

    Mkay. Bye. Rika turned her phone off. Best save the battery for more important things and emergencies. She looked up and drew the little strand of silver hair in Pines’ face that was not a part of the cluster that was his bangs.

    Oaks sat patiently on the waterside, still fishing. Now that Frost wasn’t freaking the poor fish out, she was able to catch a bigger fish and give it to Crom. He could work with it. Oaks had caught two other fish and had already stuffed herself with raw fish. It did taste better than cooked fish. The water was nice and still and unbroken. The glowing flowers were no longer the only things reflected on the water. A few of the fish had started to glow. She wanted to eat one and see if her stomach would glow. That would be so cool. Screw flashlights.

            Oaks usually never had the patience for anything. But she had a special exception for fishing. It was just the best thing ever. Being able to catch fish and then throw them back, sometimes eat them, most times raw. But when she ate them raw Pines would wail on her about how unhealthy it is.

            “Oaks!” She heard her name being called and so whipped her head around.

            “YEAH?!” She shrieked back.

            “Time to head up to the tree tops!” It was Valtina. Of course. She was a sucker for pretty sunsets. Especially ones at the Dragon Falls. Oaks abandoned her fishing rod and darted over to her friends, all gathered around a thick sycamore. Frost had already begun to scale it with Carter hanging off her back. Crom and Simon began their ascension. Pines helped Valtina on his back and he crawled up with Rika behind him. Oaks scrabbled up the tree after them. As they neared the top, light began to seep through the leaves as the canopy got thinner. Upon reaching the top Oaks had to squint. Even if it was practically sunset, it was still very bright compared to the darkness below the trees’ leaves.

            Oaks heard a breathy and dramatic gasp come from Valtina as they broke the surface.

            It was amazing. Even by Oaks’ standards.

            It was like a huge ocean of leaves. That was why it was called the Oceanica Forest, but it looked so much prettier in the orange light of the sunset.

            An endless sea of olive green stretched out around them. Above them was an orange sky that faded to purple and pink higher up into the sky. They both contrasted each other starkly but also sang together in the most serene way. The warm wind that pushed the leaves around gave them the equivalent to the sound of rushing water. Not a single cloud littered the sky.

            This was truly the best way to start the week.