i'm in all the echoes that have faded out [private]

The night was young. Only a handful of stars peeked out from the sky, as if they too were afraid to make themselves seen at a time like this. There were no crickets chirping, no owls hooting - nothing that provided a soothing note to anyone who was awake. Instead, what met their ears were the mixing sounds of groans and screams. Here in the Treetop Village, even with how calm and natural the surroundings looked, the atmosphere was tense in exactly the same way it had been for the past few days. Conversations were hushed, supplies were carefully rationed, and a few campers had even begun to pray to any god or goddess who was listening. It was chaos outside, people either died or turned half-dead. It wasn't any better in the village.

Taylor volunteered to stand guard along with a few others. Her red hair was tied up in a messy ponytail like always and she wore a worn-out orange camp shirt, the text Camp Half Blood already faded. With a sword in one hand, Taylor sat on one of the hammocks high up the tree and forced her tired eyes open. She wanted to sleep - so badly in fact - but the prospect of rest was terribly uninviting with the nightmares that came with it. There was hardly a difference between sleep and reality nowadays. Even her mind wasn't safe anymore.

Taylor stood up and stretched her arms upwards, feeling her joints crack at the gesture. Forcing back a yawn, she cast another glance around to make sure the village was still devoid of zombies. The dryads did a damn good job in hiding the place but there was still the occasional corpse that wandered in, and it was her job to put that corpse back in the Underworld where it came from. It was a tedious chore, but it gave her something to do at least. Her eyelids drooping, Taylor's head slightly dipped to the side before snapping back to the front so quickly that her neck cricked. Sleep was not an option, she reminded herself.

Not wanting to doze off, Taylor let her eyes flick to the faint figure nearby. "Hey. Doing alright there?"

coding and graphics by sapphire

Taylor's eyes lingered on the bow in the girl's hands. Archers definitely had an advantage in this kind of job. Swordsmen, on the other hand, needed to get close to their targets to land a blow. The prospect wasn't so pleasant when your target was a mindless rotting corpse. Taylor sighed, absently running her fingers along her sword's hilt. Any weapon was better than nothing, at least. Besides, she wasn't an archer. Her aim was crap, although she'll never admit it to anyone. 'I just don't practice,' Taylor would say. Surely she would start hitting targets perfectly if she fired arrows in the arena every single day. That was what she believed. Didn't necessarily mean that it was true.

Taylor smiled back, though she wasn't sure if the girl could see it with the lack of light. "Same. Sleep would be so welcome right now but a job's a job."

Of course, Taylor wasn't about to display herself as a wimp and admit that nightmares plagued her every sleeping moment.

She squinted at the girl. Even without the darkness, she knew that she wasn't about to recognize her face. What's new? a snide voice in her mind remarked. Shrugging the thought off, Taylor inclined her head in the slightest motion of a nod. "I'm Taylor, daughter of Khione."

coding and graphics by sapphire