I started this as a RP forum post. I've been thinking a lot about getting into RP again, but I just don't have the motivation any more. But anyway, this was the result of trying to get someone else on the forum to pick up my guys' trail and RP with me, damn it! If you know my characters, you'll be familiar with Baine. Andre is a new name for an old character. Dekarian was his original name. My brother named him, actually, when we'd tell each other stories to fall asleep. He probably doesn't remember. Anyway, here's the start. If that one person who views all my crap wants to RP with me, I'll do my best to keep the story going.

Andre turned off the TV. The news was so depressing. People fighting, women disappearing, crime, disorder, it was awful. The occasional uplifting stories were too few and far between. Besides, there was more fun stuff to do besides watch the same boring reels over and over again.

"Dude!" Baine objected from the other side of the apartment "I was listening to that."

Andre snorted, turning to his friend. "You can watch that some other time." Andre chuckled softly and made his way to the kitchen. "You want anything?" He called to his companion.

Baine, engrossed in fixing his decades old vacuum cleaner, grunted in affirmation. Andre fished out two sodas and lobbed one across the flat. It struck Baine squarely in the chest. Baine glared at Andre, wiping condensation from his shirt. "Why do you have to do that?" He muttered, drying his hand on his dusty jeans. Andre laughed musically and cracked open his beverage. He took a sip. He liked this brand. He couldn't hardly taste the chemicals that the artificial flavors were made from and they used real cane sugar. Little things like that went a long way with him.

"So," Andre set down his drink "I thought you said we were going camping this weekend. If I'd known you were going to be renovating the entire house, I wouldn't have packed the car, oh let's see, two hours ago!"

Baine sighed. "I'm sorry, man. It's just... when your folks came by to pick up Jonie... It's just really grungy here, isn't it."

Andre gave him a sympathetic smile. "No worries, bro. They know you're a busy guy. You don't always have time to clean"

Baine smiled back. "Thanks man." He wiped his brow and set down the screw driver. "I guess this can wait until we get back."

Andre grinned "That's the spirit! Let's go!"

Twenty minutes later, the two friends were in Baine's beat up old Jeep heading up to the mountains. Andre knew of a few lonely glacier lakes that would offer a quiet retreat from the stresses of life.

"Why are we going all the way out here?" Baine complained. It was so far out of the way and gas was not cheap.

"It's nice out here." Andre watched the countryside roll by, deep in contemplation. "Besides, you said you wanted to get away."

Baine scoffed "I didn't mean 'let's go hiking out in the haunted woods and get kidnapped'."

"No one said the forest was haunted," Andre smiled slyly "only infested with witches."

Baine glared approvingly at his friend. "Not funny, dude."

Andre simply smiled and toyed absently with his long, leaf green hair.

"Don't worry about it," he laughed "it's not like witches are real."

It was late in the afternoon when the two friends finally made it to their camping spot. They pitched their tent on the mossy bank of a modestly sized lake. They pitched their tent quickly. Baine set up their sleeping bags and began unpacking their gear while Andre dug a fire pit and got a small blaze dancing fairly quickly.

"Do you suppose there's ruins up here?" Baine asked, arranging their folded camp chairs next to the fire.

"I don't know," Andre replied '' maybe?" He shrugged and pushed a strand of his long green hair out of his face.

Baine shrugged and looked out across the water, his golden eyes ablaze in the dappled sunlight.

"Do you think there's fish in this lake?" He asked. Andre shrugged and wandered over to the water's edge. He squinted his jade green eyes against the glare. He could clearly see the shallow divots in the muddy bottom where Bluegill had made their nests, and the shadowy silhouettes of bass in the pond grasses deeper in.

"Yup, there's fish alright." He turned to Baine, still by the fire. "Gonna try to catch some?"

"You know it!" As urban as Baine liked to consider himself, one of his favorite pastimes was fishing. He hurriedly dug his fishing pole and tackle box form the back of the Jeep. "Gonna join me?" He asked Andre.

Andre didn't like fishing. He felt bad for the fish.

"Not this time," He replied. "I'll come with you anyway. Just in a witch tries to snatch you." He joked, but there was an unsettling stillness in the woods that he didn't like. He'd rather go with his friend than sit by the fire alone.

The boys made their way around the edge of the lake. Andre thought he heard soft footfalls behind them, but he shook it off as simply the wind rustling the underbrush. Besides, there were no other people for miles around, right?

They wandered about a quarter of a mile from their camp site. Baine cast his line in here and there, catching nothing. They came to a little outcrop of rock that jutted up out of the turf and down to the water, making a sort of natural jetty. Baine hopped along the rocks over the water to get a better vantage. Andre, still a bit unsettled took a seat under a nearby tree and tucked his knees up under his chin to watch his friend try to catch something.