As Kôra tried to catch up with the taller person, the inside of his nose tingled. The sensation was akin to all its hairs getting subtly pushed upwards by a dash of damp air. It got stronger as he finally walked aside Izky. Kôra had no idea of how senses are perceived in this realm, yet he was convinced that something about this was inimitable. He wondered if this was this the “smell” Izky talked about? These things of this realm behind were of an incomprehensible experience.
Izky looked alerted, he might heard a noise from a direction. Even though Kôra heard nothing, his sudden change in demeanor broke the boy's thoughts. He hid behind Izky. Some moments later the person continued to walk in a more relaxed manner, while a figure approaching.
“Izky Bryowa!” a child-like synthetic voice called from afar.
Kôra saw a humanoid child running towards them. They looked like a long-haired female of whitish color, which covered the right side of their face. That child was wearing a pitch black coat and boots while holding an umbrella too big for their size, which is strange since it was not hot nor raining. Closer that being was, Kôra remarked the lustrous silvery complexion like a pale polished metal. “Done beauty sleep and drinking coffee? Give explanation why those come here!”
“Cut me some slack! I’ve just cleared them.”
“At least answer call! Now get angry, always complain,” the short metallic being muttered. Izky summoned back the orb which turned out to be pulsing with light, much to his embarrassment. “You the worst hunter.”
“Then, stop asking me shit, you best trash!”
“Did she run from monsters? It is dangerous,” Kôra muttered from behind Izky. He was more concerned about this new kid; smaller and younger than him. “Show some gentleness and care! Do not swear around kids!” the boy criticized.
“He’s a man twice your age, Agian the sardine can,” Izky corrected while continuously derided his mate. “We don’t always look like what humans do. Get used to it.”
Kôra’s jaw dropped, while Izky reacted with a slight smirk of amusement. Agi’s feminine appearance to his masculine gender was better understood, yet Kôra still had a hard time believing that Agi is an adult. The childlike voice and the carefree way of carrying himself caused more dissonance in his mind.
“This feeling, what in fuck?” Agi noticed Kôra, who has been hiding behind Izky since the creature talked. “Bryowa, stop bringing weird shit for bait. They fail like your relationships. This one disturbing sight. What in fuck this thing?”
“It’s a person, he can talk.” Izky jabbed Kôra with his elbow, “Say something.”
“My name is Kôra, I am not disturbing because I am a human,” Kôra said.
In Kôra's point of view, Agi’s appearance was more disturbing. He looks like a life-sized doll of a juvenile female humanoid made from metal, complete with the neotenous facial proportion. His big eye in specific was unique: the sclera is black, the pale iris takes most of the space on his eyeball while the pupil is something alike to a mirror. Looking closer, the body's joints were ultimately inorganic-looking; adding more to his doll-like impression.
“Insane! Human doesn’t feel like this,” Agi derided. His voice’s loudness was disproportionate to his size, Kôra started to find it annoying. “Why it can talk? What you doing with this? You not stupid, you just use it as bait, right?”
“I’m returning him to the material realm.”
“Now, you insane! Check your mental illness! We not just bring weird things and lunatics outside using portals,” Agi ranted. “This thing harmful! Illegal! Criminal!”
“But I am a human! I am not crazy and I did not do any crime!” Kôra reasoned to the person who looked bored already. “Before calling your friend mentally ill, please hear my explanation first. I am suddenly lost here and just need to go home. Test me whatever you want, I can prove I am human! I—”
“I saw him in human form. Some humans who frequently interacted with us can have unfamiliar smells,” Izky stepped in with a composed speech. “I won’t claim any pay for returning him, and I’ll be responsible for any damage my actions would cause.”
“Not the smell!” he barked. Agi approached Izky and pulled him into a kneeling position so they were equal. “Stop trying to be action hero! You stay pathetic and your mental disease won’t heal!” he grumbled.
Kôra seethed hearing that again. He clenched his fist as if he could crush Agi's head right now. Izky raised his palm to prevent the angered boy from approaching.
“You can’t tell, but I can,” the being whispered in Izky’s ears. “Very subtle, but atmosphere around it feels like those of spirits. It could be one in disguise.”
Izky glanced at Kôra who in return glared at them. He felt nothing. Yet, the being was not attuned to the spirits that he trusted Agi. “He said he’s followed by one.”
Izky continued to whisper. The metallic person froze awhile with eye widened. Afterwards, Izky took out his orb device and pointed at it. They continued the talk by its messaging function.
Kôra itched even more to know what they were talking about. Talking in such way is one of the worst manner people can have in Tôryaemaen culture; that if Kôra forced himself and kicked them both in the face, nobody would condemn the boy. To him, Agi had the most outrageous manners out of everyone he had ever encountered; even Talst was better.
“Well, then! Let’s get it out of here!” Agi decided, his voice was hurried. “You, come with us!”
“I appreciate the kindness, Agi,” Kôra responded with begrudging expression. "I will be cooperative."
“You better be. Once you act off, I dispose you to.” Agi pointed at Kôra. His face was close that Kôra needed to hold the urge of shoving it away. “Ew! It smells weird too!”
“You just noticed?” Izky was surprised. “I’ve never smelled something like that, probably that’s why the reds are into him.”
What red?
“They never swarm a human like that, they got fucking huge,” he continued.
Red? The black things? Those giants used to be small?
“Somehow an appealing prey,” Agi noted. The two hunters are familiar that some smaller beasts such as the one they faced will fuse with each other or eat each other to secure a valuable prey. “Good, we can easily feed him to them if something happens.”
Prey. . .? Kôra regretted how he took the beasts too lightly.
“I have a physical body, there is no way they can eat me. Is. . . Is that correct? Right?” Kôra asked with a nervous laughter. “Right, Izky?”
Izky cynical grin silenced Kôra. The boy remembered what he told; if he could not transport his projection to find his physical body, it will never awake. That was when a realization crept upon him. Firstly, it was a life or death situation. Second, the metal person did declare another death threat at him.
“We use him as a bait along our way to the nearest portal, take the path to avoid drawing the reds to settlements,” Izky explained. “It’s far, but safer and we can reap more of them."
“Very nice, Bryowa,” Agi approved. “And it, what can it do? Just sit on its ass?”
“He’s a hospital patient. Cut him some slack.”
“Then human, now hospital patient? What the fuck fictional stories you make?!” Agian ridiculed. “Just say he can do nothing! What 'Hospital,' anyway?"
“Sorry,” the boy apologized. He wished he could do a show after being scrutinized and dehumanized. In his fantasy it would be satisfying; not only to own Agi, but to lighten Izky's burden. "Sorry. . . I do not know if I can do much. I will be cooperative."
“Damn, weak and useless,” Agian muttered. “Bryowa, why you insist on saving it for nothing, you can pick creatures to save that manageable and don't talk. This looks disturbing and makes me uncomfortable. Hopefully we could ditch it soon."
“Do you have something personal against me?”
“No, I just don’t like you.”
In the background, Izky played with his orb, trying to pay zero attention. As long as everything stay verbal, no need to step in. Arguments should quickly cease, he thought to himself while periodically diverting his gaze to the horizon.
“Why? Did I ever insult you or hurt you? I never.” Kôra could not take it anymore. He puffed his chest preparing to give him a mouthful. “You are the unlikable: having no manner, picking on someone, on top of those saying your friend is insane! Was your mother fail to kill you so you have this brain damage? Or do you have brain at all? This world will benefit if people like you have enough self-awareness to kindly kill yourselves. You are poison to society."
Izky sighed.
“Right, my parents tried to eat me," Agian told with a poker face, before he realized Kôra meant to insult him. “Izky, tell it to shut up! I hate when it gets noisy!"
Izky frowned.
“I am not 'It'!” the boy protested. “Treat people with respect, old loser! Stop bossing Izky around like that! He is your friend."
“What?” the metallic being argued. “We teammate, not friends. You know nothing. You don’t know how Izky Bryowa! He has mental disease and a pitiful person, truth!"
Izky winced. The orb almost slipped from his grips.
“Unlike you, Izky actually saved me and has good personality,” Kôra replied. “What good thing have you done, hag? I will not let you talk bad about him!”
Izky retched, and the ensuing sound of his coughs struck them silent. Agi combed his hair and showed no gesture of concern while gazing expressionless at him. Kôra immediately noticed Izky's liquified lower jaw dripping as he walked. “Izky, are you okay?”
He had enough. Izky walked on, in the middle, separating the two who stared at him. Before they could react, the being melted and evaporated himself into a blast of black smoke. The force sent the two small people flying.
Izky the turned into a gigantic beaked reptilian with wings in just a lapse of seconds, he towered over the other two, with the long neck which spanned four meters. Kôra recognize the creature was similar with the one in paleontology book he read; a kind of pterosaur. He remarked that Izky keeps a black coloration with his signature eyes in every beast he turns into.
“I saw none of the aerial types yet,” the shape shifter communicated in his beast form, which shocked Kôra. “You can kill each others later! Now ride, fuckers!” Izky commanded.
Kôra and Agi stared at each other while standing up.
“Quick, climb!” Izky saw the beasts approaching from the horizon. By the moving dust cloud, it was apparent they came in hordes. North, south, east, west; in each direction existed a varying intensity of dust clouds rushing. “Tin can, cover us!”
“Eh, they still far” Agi shrugged it and turned his back.
Izky prodded Agian with his beak; so that he would turn around and see in what kind of speed the beasts were running in. They were almost halfway approaching the three. Kôra shivered and almost lost his footing halfway on climbing Izky. Was it his perception, or they looked bigger than those before?
“Holy something! Why they quick?!!” the metallic man exclaimed. Agi turned to Kôra who had already climbed on top. “What thing you, actually?”
“Now!!!” Izky and Kôra shouted in sync.
Agi leaped to a height. He jets a modest amount of metallic fluid from his mouth to help with the elevation, then secretes more amount of solidified metal balls when was in air. The balls exploded on contact into a flooding liquid, perhaps enough to fill a lake. That view stunned Kôra in awe, he could not find an explanation of how it fits inside the creature’s small body. No wonder that being called him weak; astral creatures are fantastic.
The being gradually descended from the height by opening his umbrella, then landed on Izky. He controlled the separated liquid to sweep and drown every monster approaching, Agi could also compress some into a solid form which throws as a long-ranged attack. The overall action set a barrier to clear any astral monster which tried to climb and reach them.
“Hold tight!” the shapeshifter instructed.
Agi recollected the fluid into compressed balls of metal and swallowed them down. He steered the remaining liquid near them and solidifies it into flattened strips; to strap both of them on Izky. “Launch!”
The being crouched in a launching stance, vaulted with his hind limbs, then catapulted himself to the air using his strong forelimbs. Izky launched with high power as he opened his membranous wings, although a bit shaky. He had never flown with a weight this heavy before. Kôra clumsily screamed due to the violent turbulence of their takeoff, although being secured safe by Agi’s metal.
Kôra could not help but whimpered a little seeing some of the monsters trying to fuse or jump to reach them. Some almost reached them, if not for Agi interfering or Izky dodging. The shape shifter seemed to watch his movement meticulously, Kôra noted on his smooth flight. Izky was going steadier as he gradually gained elevation.
By the wings of the flying reptilian, to the sky they rose.
Comments (9)
See all