Strangers in the Dawn

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo didn't get angry very often, but when she did, her creativity spiked. She'd always felt that art was based on emotion, that the more you felt, the more you could create.

She'd gotten up before the dawn, skipped both breakfast and her tai chi routine, then made the drive to Las Vegas in the gloom before the sun came up. She had an idea for a new series of sketches, urban settings in Vegas, and she wanted to catch the Strip while it was deserted. She wondered if it would look uglier in the daylight, without the neon drenching everything to make it glamorous. If it was ugly, that would make it better, more stark.

She parked herself on a bench at the bus stop, set out her pencils and the new sketch pad she'd bought. It was so early that even the street sweeper hadn't come by yet, and there were random pages of a newspaper floating down the sidewalk like tumbleweeds. The sun was just starting to come up. Natural light was the best to draw by.

Big Bad Moon

[wolfs_daughter]

Takes place just after 'A Rare Visitor'

Despite the relative heat of the end of summer, the desert was chilly at night. Echo had driven a mile out of town onto the highway. She pulled the van to the shoulder of the road, killed the engine. The landscape beyond the vehicle looked barren, like a view of the moon.

There was a moon that night, high and silvery in the black expanse overhead. Stars glittered along with the shimmer of the larger orb. The hybrid opened the door, got out to stand next to the van. Would someone notice it parked here, like a State Trooper? If they did see it, would they search for the driver, or would they just have it towed?

Never mind. She couldn't worry about that. She would only be gone for a few hours, anyway. Plenty of time to get back before the sun came up.

( Practice Run )