just smile back. [Shelly.]

Candice wandered about the quiet ruins, Atticus next to her. She loved this place, it was beautiful, and best of all, people were rarely there.

She walked along the fallen and cracked stones, tracing each symbol with her fingers. A cool breeze blew, and picked up her hair, and the leaves around her danced around. Candice let out a soft relaxing sigh, it was so nice to be alone.

After a bit of more walking, Candice came upon a large tree, the trunk was about as thick as an elephants body. Candice found a soft spot of moss below the tree, and sat down. After a few minutes of just sitting there, Candice slowly drifted off to sleep.

Shel had never been to the Ruins before. He'd heard all about them. No one knew why they were there. No one knew what the symbols running along them meant. No one knew anything about them...Except for Pollux. Pollux knew everything.

What does this mean? Shel asked, pointing at a strange swirly symbol on what used to be a pillar.

That means 'wyrd', Pollux replied knowingly. He was in the form of a crow. He knew everything.

What's 'wyrd'? Castor, Shel's real other daemon asked the question on Shel's mind. He was in the form of a rat. Pollux ignored him and instead stared intently at something behind Shel.

Shel turned around and saw Candice. She was his friend. She was asleep under a tree. Shel smiled and walked over to her. He shook her shoulder vigorously and said, "Hey Candice!"

Candice was awoken by the shaking of her shoulder and the sound of her name being called. She opened one eye and saw Shelly standing before her. She smiled and sat up, Shelly was the only clio who she would call friend. Shelly was like the little brother she never had.

"Hey!" Candice said, grabbing Shelly into a hug.

"I'm happy to see you!" Shel exclaimed, returned Candice's hug. He really was happy to see her. He wouldn't have said he was if he wasn't. That would be lying. He never lied.

Tell her about tomorrow! Castor urged excitedly, transforming into a hummingbird and fluttering all around.

Tomorrow? Shel asked, confused.

Your birthday, Pollux reminded him.

Oh right! Geez, how could he forget his own birthday? He was turning thirteen. "Guess what, Candice," he said. "Tomorrow's my birthday."

"Tomorrow's my birthday."

"Your birthday?" Candice asked with a smile, "I'll have to get you something special!"

"Maybe we could have a party!" Atticus added in, then gave a flick of the tongue.

"A party would be fun," agreed Candice, Just as long as we're the only two clio there. she thought.

"I've never had a party before," Shelly replied. He didn't have many friends. His guardians didn't like him very much. No one had ever thrown him a party. He gave a small smile. "I think I'd like a party."

You would, Pollux replied, because he knew. He knew everything.

How would you know? Castor asked moodily. He didn't like Pollux. Pollux was trying to take his place as Shel's daemon...He wasn't going to let that happen.

"I'm gonna be thirteen," Shel said, not listening to his daemon's argument. "I guess I'm gonna settle in a few years. Will they both settle as the same thing, do you think?"

Candice knew that Shelly suffered from schizophrenia so she knew who he was talking about when he said, they.

Not wanting to upset him, Candice shrugged and said, "I dunno, maybe."

Atticus frowned, he worried about Shelly as did Candice, but what could they do?

"My last birthday party was when I was...seventeen..." said Candice, her voice trailing off.

The fact was, she only had five birthday parties her whole life, and they were all with Esther, how she missed Esther.

Candice stood up and stretched, "So, what brings you to the ruins today?"

"I...don't know," Shel replied after a moment. He hadn't come to the Ruins for any reason. He just randomly decided to. "I've never been here before."

He looked around. It was really nice here. Why was Candice here?

"Why are you here?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Why are you here?"

"I came here to get away from people," replied Candice "You know how I am with people," she finished.

Candice scratched her nose, then started to think a little about what she should do for Shelly's birthday party.

"Yeah, you hate people," Shel replied matter-of-factly. Shel didn't like other people much either. They always stared at him. And tried to touch his daemons. But he liked Candice.

"I have a question," he said suddenly, a though striking him. "If you hate people, why do you like me?"

"Well," Candice began "That's a tough question to answer!"

She thought about it for a moment, "I think it's because...you don't judge me...and you remind me of myself when I was your age."

She wondered if that really was the answer, or if maybe its just because there was something about Shelly that just made her, feel calm, like she could be herself.

Shelly looked thoughtfully up at the sky, where Castor and Pollux (both in the form of birds now) were circling the area. Castor had to make sure he didn't get too far away but Pollux didn't have to worry about it. He could go away sometimes and it wouldn't hurt.

He looked back down and his eyes just so happened to land on more of the strange symbols carved on the Ruins. They were different from before. Did they move?

"Hey Candice..." he said slowly. "Do you know what the symbols on the Ruins mean?"

Candice followed Shelly's eyes onto the symbols, she had no idea what the symbols meant.

She shrugged and said, "I don't know what they mean."

She wished she did though.

"I wonder what the clio were like, long, long ago?" Candice wondered.

Since I just found out that I can lock topics since I'm a mod of this forum, I'm gonna lock this RP!

Neat.
xD