[center][b][color=007FFF]Abel Fulgurate[/color][/b][/center]

Though Abel was the one who ultimately retrieved Sapphire's things, he in truth wanted nothing more to far away from her.  Several minutes after her outburst, ascending the stony staircase to the Shelter's main building, his mind still resonated with the girl's words.  They harbored such incredible cruelty!  The guardian lacked the words to properly describe the ruthlessness with which she had slaughtered Shiro's self-confidence.  The faunus's mood was easily discernible from his body language: utterly distraught.  Right now Abel assumed Shiro was thinking the worst about himself and his teammates, not spiteful but totally sorrowful.  He hated it almost as much as he hated himself for not being able to come up with the words to help the poor guy feel better.  When Shiro left, Abel couldn't help but notice the remorse on his face as the team separated.

[i]For God's sake,[/i] Abel seethed.  [i]He doesn't blame her in the slightest.  He's going to let this crush his soul![/i]  A powerful urge to throw Sapphire into something hard swelled within him, but despite his anger, Abel couldn't bring himself to do that either.  If he performed such a thing, his principles dictated that he was no better than her.  Normal people didn't brutalize allies, physically or spiritually, even immature ones.  Since day one Abel knew he didn't like Sapphire, but he had gotten along with her out of necessity, trying in his own stiff way to kindle friendship, or at least an understanding.  Now, however, Abel found himself hating the girl.  A spiteful glare was sent Gren's way momentarily, but Abel redirected it to the approaching building when he realized that he had done exactly what Gren had: nothing so far.  Without announcing his intentions, Abel stormed ahead, easily covering greater distance with his long, unencumbered strides.  

The door of the Shelter was unlocked, and the entry area devoid of life.  Abel looked around warily, carefully considering each brown single door and the large, gray-green double door that likely led into the facility proper.  Knowing that Sapphire would arrive any moment now to tell him what to do, Abel made for the double doors.  As he approached, he heard a senseless blend of noises from the next room, and immediately guessed they were made by animals.  Already the mission had taken on an aspect of stealth in his mind; whether the guardian was paranoid or simply jumping to conclusions was anyone's guess.  Clearly he was preparing to enter, but against his wishes, he elected to wait sullenly for the others to arrive.

[center]-=-=-[/center]

Shiro's mournful quest for solitude brought him along a narrow path that skirted the building's wall, and as he padded around a corner he happened upon a little grassy knoll, ringed with a natural fence of rocks that had made it invisible from below.  The grass in itself was an oddity for the rocky island—perhaps it had been imported as sod and allowed to grow into a crude, backyard-esque zone.  More interesting that the unexpected location, however, were those present in it.  An scaly, regal, green iguana sat in the grass, and sitting beside it was a young boy roughly seven years of age, doughy of body and dark of skin, with cupped bear ears protruding from his curly, tawny-gold hair.  Almost instantly those ears picked up Shiro's footfalls, and the boy waved.  “You s'posed t'be inside?”  he asked inquisitively, eyebrows raised.  “If one-a the coats saw ya, they'd get mad.”