I would like to adopt!
Number: 5
Picture: 
Name: Farero
Species: Pompeii Smili
Personality: Farero is, to sum it up in one word, independent. He always looks out for himself and seems uncaring towards anyone else. He is very intelligent and has a strange ability to centre in on someone's biggest insecurity or weakness. On the exterior, he is cheerful and talkative but doesn't need company. He can spend weeks at a time without anyone else. He has acquired a habit of talking to himself when he's alone and vocalising almost every thought that comes into his head. He mostly rejects the authority and 'government' system that the Pompeii Smilis have set up and lives by his own rules.
Likes: - Fire (he's a bit of a pyromaniac)
- Not having to rely on anyone else (he's terrified of rejection or people leaving him)
- Getting lost (he loves exploring, discovering new places and things amongst the ruins that he lives in. It's about the only loss of control that he allows himself)
- Humans (he doesn't make much contact with them but he loves watching them, how they interact, how they react to certain things, how their minds work)
- Sleep
- Light (part of the reason he likes fire so much)
Dislikes: - People or things that he can't control (he likes knowing everything he can and feeling in control of everything)
- Having to be dependent on someone else (when he's injured ect., knowing that whoever's taking care of him has control over him, could kill him if they wanted, is a horrifying though for Farero)
- Total darkness (again, a loss of control thing. Farero doesn't like not knowing where everyone and everything is)
Background:Farero paused, lifting his nose to the air and taking a deep breath, trying to pick up the scent of any prey that might be nearby. Nothing. The dark brown Smili cursed softly and continued walking. The dark colour of his paws made a stark contrast with the pale, cracked stone of the ruins, this part of the ruins anyway. He'd seen some areas of the city that had been hit so badly when the volcano had erupted, so many centuries ago, that they were left black and dead, not a single sign that life had ever existed there. Farero tended to stay away from those areas. He kept to the places where the stone was still white..ish and grass grew between the cracks in the paving.
Farero hated the darker areas. They just seemed so... dead; that was the only word to describe them. He'd seen some of the bodies, if they could be called that; remnants of people, preserved in ash. The humans thought they'd found all of them but there were still a few, hidden in places the humans hadn't even thought to explore. Farero had found them. He'd seen the expressions on their faces, horror and fear. It fascinated him, in a way, that emotions that had been felt thousands of years ago, people who'd died all that time ago could still be seen.
The Smili raised his head once again, this time looking past the ruins. Even from this far away, the shadow of the volcano could still be seen. That was where he'd been born, on the side of the volcano, but he'd stayed as far away as he could from it since. It gave him the chills, for some reason, knowing that it was that giant hulk of stone that had caused so much destruction. It didn't look like much: it was just a kind of... blob, looming on the horizon.
Farero shook his head to clear it of his musings and returned to pacing the area, occasionally pausing to check for scents. He couldn't even smell the other Smilis here; he was too far out. The borders of Pompeii Smili territory was about half a mile away. Farero was just approaching the outskirts of the city. He preferred it here: the ruins weren't as close together and barely any of the other Smilis came here or even knew about it, for that matter.
He took the same, familiar path that he'd taken so many times before, not even having to look where he was going, and soon he arrived at what he liked to call 'his place' : a small clearing that was basically hidden from view by a circle of trees and large boulders. There was a small pile of sticks and small logs carefully placed to one side and, in the middle, a spot where the grass had been blackened and charred. Close to the wood pile there was a hole in one of the boulders. Inside was a collection of strange-looking items that Farero had
salvaged from the hordes of tourists that visited Pompeii every day. Some of them, he'd taken just because they looked interesting (for example, a 'phone', as he'd heard them call it, small black rectangle with lots of smaller rectangles on the face. He couldn't understand why anyone would want one but the humans seemed quite keen on it) but some, he'd taken for trading. He hated trading, having to haggle and barter with other Smilis just seemed like such a strange thing to do, but sometimes it was necessary. Some of the Smilis even traded extra food for interesting objects (there was one Smili that Farero knew of, Enzo, who was so infatuated with shiny objects that he'd trade a whole fox for anything that sparkled.)
Farero moved further inside the clearing, first making his daily check on the collection of objects by sticking one paw in the hole and checking for each item one by one. Finishing that, he left the hole and went to a large leaf that he kept closer to the centre, pushing it aside with one paw. Underneath the leaf was the most precious part of his collection: an assortment of small silver boxes that he'd discovered, after hours of examination, would make a small flame when you pushed down on the trigger.
Taking one of the boxes carefully in his mouth, he carried it to the blackened space in the middle and set it down, then padding to the woodpile and picking up a small mouthful of sticks. He set the sticks down in the same place as always and nudged the silver box over until it was almost touching several of them. Next, he propped the box up with one paw and carefully pressed down on it with his other paw. It had taken him so long to work out how to do this. After a few tries, he heard a quiet
click and a small flame burst into life. Removing the paw propping it up but keeping the one on the trigger held down, Farero let the flame touch a few of the sticks and waited. It took a while, it'd rained a few days ago and the sticks were still slightly damp, but eventually, the flame caught and the sticks began burning.
Once he was certain the fire wouldn't go out again, Farero removed his paw from the trigger and dragged it away from the flame, placing it back with the others and covering them with the leaf once again. Farero returned to the centre of the clearing and stared at the small fire, suddenly becoming completely still. The flickering flamed reflected in his amber eyes, seeming to make them glow dimly. Farero loved fire. Fire, he could control, he could predict. Fire never changed, never left. The Smili seemed hypnotised it, not even noticing the distant rumble of thunder of the sudden disappearance of the sun beneath heavy grey clouds. Didn't notice, that is, until the rain started falling and the fire went out with a small
hiss and a few last wisps of smoke.
Growling in annoyance but knowing there would be no way he could restart the fire now, the Smili took one last glance around the clearing to check that everything was in order and left for the ruins at a small jog. By the time he'd reached the outskirts of the Pompeii Smili territory, he was already soaked, his fur becoming lank and heavy, almost black when wet, and by the time he'd reached his small den he was chilled to the bone. Despite Greece's warm climate the rain could get very heavy without any warning at all.
Farero curled up underneath the roof of his den, what remained of it anyway. He'd taken residence in a room of one of the villas but most of the roof had caved in years ago, leaving him with one corner left that still provided shelter. He curled up further, wrapping his tail around himself for more warmth, and closed his eyes, comforted by the soft sound of the rain pattering on the cobblestoned ground.
~Next Morning~Farero opened his eyes blearily, uncurling himself and stretching with an accompanying yawn. He sat up and examined his fur, noticing that it was almost completely dry: the rain must have stopped some time during the night. He made his way out of the den and onto what had been the main road. It was still early, but already there were a few more Smilis emerging from similar dens to his, blinking in the early morning sunlight.
A sudden growl from his stomach reminded Farero that he hadn't eaten in a day. Knowing he was too tired to catch anything now, the Smili made a quick trip back to his den to pick up something to trade with Enzo. Although he kept most of his collection up in the clearing, he always made sure he had a few things in his den for emergencies. Picking out the first shiny thing he found, he held it in his mouth and started off for Enzo's den.
The walk didn't take long, most of the Smili's dens were relatively close together, and soon Farero padded up the entrance of Enzo's den, still holding the object in his mouth. Dropping the object, Farero stuck his head through the entrance and called "En?", hearing his voice echo slightly. Soon enough, a large Smili approached the entrance, smiling when he saw Farero and the object at his paws.
Enzo was very big for a Smili, with sleek ash-grey fur, dark brown eyes, black markings around his face and paws and an almost constant solemn expression. However, despite Enzo's rather imposing appearance, he wasn't cruel, just logical and with a magpie-like inclination towards shiny things. He was one of the only Smilis with a real understanding of economics and he used that to his advantage.
"Now, what can I do for you Ro?" Enzo asked in a deceptively soft voice, the smile remaining, though not quite reaching his eyes.
"Food" replied Farero "Don't care what." He batted the object towards Enzo, who stopped it's movement with paw. The grey Smili nodded and disappeared into the darkness of his den, taking the object with him and returning with what looked like a bundle of black feathers in his mouth.
"Crow" he said for explanation "It's all I've got." Farero nodded and took the crow in his mouth, giving a small nod of thanks to the other Smili before exiting the den. He made his way back to his own den, noticing that more Smilis had emerged now. He didn't bother to greet them, deciding to forgo politeness for the moment due to his ever more acute hunger. He entered his den again, sitting in a patch of sunlight and consuming the crow as fast as he could. He finished it in a matter of minutes and licked a few stray drops of blood from his muzzle.
He returned outside and shook his now-dry pelt, enjoying the feel of the sun on his dark fur. The ruins were now quite crowded with other Smilis, some of them just milling around, some of them setting up their little 'stalls', most of which were piles or rows of assorted object laid out in front of said Smili. Farero shook his head at the absurdity of it: the ruins looked like a miniature human town. That was one part of their civilisation he'd never understood. Why did it seem like all vaguely intelligent animals always tried to emulate humans?
He sighed and turned in the other direction, deciding to return to his place for a while. It was better up there: less chaotic... less crowded. There wasn't any proof of civilisation, only the echoes of an ancient one. He could just be
him up there instead of 'part of the community. He could be alone with nothing but the soft sound of birdsong and the whispering of the trees.
(Final word count: 1841 )
Finished, huzzah!
by Rainbow Dash » Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:39 am 
