Plague rat

by **Raeyn** on August 1st, 2018, 1:52 pm

88th of Summer 518AV

The world beneath his eyelids pulsed like a heart beat as Raeyn's senses came back to him one by one. First the relisation that he was indeed alive, as if awakening from some long, drawn out dream. How long was he out? Who knew? Next, a bitter taste on his tongue. Once the alchemist began slowly growing aware of his body once more, it became apparent to him just how sore he was. Bones he didn't even knew he had were on fire beneath his bruised flesh. But one thing was the most unnerving of all. Two objects were shoved so deep inside his nose it felt like they were borrowing into his scull, obstructing his breathing. So infuriating was this inexplicable feeling that alas it forced the alchemist's lids to part. Slate eyes stared into the void as the fuzzy world around him began to regain some semblance of shape and form.

"Don't move." A sickly sweet voice echoed inside his head. Certainly male and flavoured with a sense of nostalgia but where had Raeyn heard that voice before? No matter how much he attempted to recall a distant fleeting memory, the Inarta couldn't quite do so. He felt a hand on his shoulder. A caring touch of a stranger.

The aching shell that was now his body felt like it wasn't his own. Something inside him dulled the pressure of a thousand knifes, made him sluggish and uncoordinated. Even his breathing was slow, laboured, every breath feeling like a feat in itself. Beneath blankets he was still so very cold but lacked the strength to even shiver.

Helpless, Raeyn felt someone lift him a little, shoving a bunch more pillows to support his back. A glass of water pressed against his parched lips. And the moment the Inarta felt the water, an animalistic instinct took over him, gulping it all down and almost choking on the cold, soothing liquid. Was he hungover? How long must he have been out to become quite this dehydrated?

Struggling to maintain consciousness, Raeyn did his best to focus on just about anything. But the dark tendrils of sleep pulled him back into the dark mercilessly.

The next thing he knew, Raeyn was still in bed. But how many times he had awoken only to fall back to sleep, the alchemist truly wasn't aware of. None of it made sense. As if enveloped in some dense, black fog, he heard voices, shuffling from time to time, the soft cooing of his chicken. So he must have been at home. This couldn't have been a simple dream. So dream would be quite so cruel. Was he dying then? Was this the only explanation for the state of him?

Suddenly he felt his stomach tie into a knot. A pressure on his abdomen that lifted his body from bed and over the side before taste of acid glided past his teeth. Raeyn heaved and coughed violently. His whole body trembled, delicate like the last leaf of fall about to be swept away by winter breeze. Tears dripped from his lashes. He was confused and in agony but he wasn't alone. The touch of another comforted him. Soft words, most of which he could barely make out, caressed his senses as the injured mage puked his life away.

Word count: 552

by **Raeyn** on August 1st, 2018, 3:14 pm

"What in the name of...?" was all Raeyn could muster. His voice far more raspy than usual, broken and splintered. He was given enough glass of water to wash out the foul taste of vomit. He hunched on the bed, curled up like a helpless child, beaten down by the world with no clothes, just blankets to keep his modesty.

Once he cleaned up everything that came out of the poor wreck that was the Inarta, the kind strander returned to sit by him. Seeing Raeyn a little more awake even if not quite so lucid lifted the weight from his heart a little. He couldn't quite explain it but over the past two days that he had staid and looked after him, the Kelvic found himself growing quite fond of the beautiful man, even if the beauty was obscured under red and purple bruising and bandages.

He put both hands on either side of Raeyn's face, stabilising his neck a little and looking into his eyes. The dilation in his pupils seemed to subside a little. It came as a relief to the worried Kelvic who had watched the alchemist suffer with a concussion and dizziness for the better part of the day. He smiled sweetly, satisfied that in spite of his worry the red head was gonna make it.

"My goodness, you look like a thousand shits." he said in jest. "How glad are you to be alive? Your welcome, Raeyn. Don't worry I'll find a way for you to make it up to me."

Nothing but confusion manifested in the slate eyes of the hunter as he looked upon the boy's face. He must have been in his early twenties, maybe late teens even. Plump faced and radiant with eyes as black as obsidian and a mop of curly hair, adorning that pretty face. He was wearing Raeyn's white tunic. Why? The Inarta cdouln't even begin to guess. There was something so charming about him, a bright demeanour, a toothy grin. Even the way he spoke seemed so full of life it was enough for the two of them. Everything about the boy drew him in at a time it would be most natural for Raeyn to withdraw, to yell and tell the other to piss off. Maybe even a thread or two. But in spite of how embarrassed and helpless he felt, how every fibre of him wished to hide the shame of such a sad predicament, Raeyn's curiosity with the stranger was stronger.

"Who are you?" he asked, pain underlining every word.

"I'm Sasha." he grinned. "You don't remember a thing do you? I'm not surprised you were out cold for a few days. The doctor said you had a pretty bad concussion. She's given you quite a few painkillers, patched you up good too. Good as new, she said. But you're gonna have to be in bed for a while to get good as new. You poor bastard."

The boy sat beside Raeyn, far too close for comfort. But he seemed to have little regard for such things as personal space. And Raeyn's aching body did little to help create a comfortable bit of room between them. Visible discomfort painted the Inarta's face but it seemed Sasha blamed his current state for it and took no notice. Blowing a few strands off hair out of his eyes he continued, merrily as ever. "Let me fill you in. Unless you'd rather get some more sleep."

Raeyn shook his head slowly.

"Alright. So I don't know who started it, but you were in a street fight and the men who did you in both swore on their mothers that you threw the first punch. Don't worry. I could smell they were full of shyke. You don\t exactly look like someone who'd just start random fights... no offence. I mean, I'm sure you could handle yourself in any normal situation but, well... Regardless if I hadn't been there only gods know what they might have done to you. Two kind city guards helped me carry you home and well, I've staid by your side since. Doctor's orders and all that."

Word count: 693

by **Raeyn** on August 1st, 2018, 4:13 pm

It took some time for the Inarta to process all this information. But eventually snippets, just snippets, of that night came crawling back to him like a broken film. He remembered the faces of the two men. He remembered the feeling of cobble stone, shattering the cartilage of his nose. He remembered the taste of his own blood in his mouth, metallic and bitter.

"Your welcome." repeated Sasha, hinting once more that perhaps some thanks could be in order. He revelled in the attention of another. He yearned for praise of his efforts. After all he had done his due to deserve it.

"But... why?" mumbled Raeyn, so very much confused as to why a completely stranger had put so much effort into helping him out.

"Why not? You needed someone there."

"My sister..."

"You have a sister? No... no one else had been around but me. Well... and that seagull. She was worried about you. She gave me the creeps though, that one."

A brief flash of Zeva's copper locks flowed before Reayn's eyes and he felt his body slump against the other. His head pounded still, but the nausea subsided a little. Affectionately Sasha brought a cool hand to the Inarta's cheek, petting him gently. A touch so soothing it felt otherworldly to the injured hunter who usually so hated to be touched.

"Maybe once I can be certain you're not going to choke on your own sick, I can go find her for you. Now that the streets have been cleared after the storm it's a little easier to move around you know? Some weird shyke's been going on in this city, it'll tell you that much. First that storm and then I find you. How strange is that?" said Sasha.

Something else seemed much more strange to Raeyn however. For a man who was as prickly as a hedgehog in all his social encounters, it was hard to understand why Sasha seemed so relaxed around him. The way he talked to him lacked all formality that a stranger would have towards another stranger. There was no caution, no awkwardness in his voice. The warmth was that of a century old friendship rather than two people who had just met under such unfortunate circumstances. And on one hand Raeyn was grateful to be spared the awkwardness. On the other it maddened him that this boy had paraded himself around his house, in his own clothing and made nothing of it, not even a shred of acknowledgement. How very dare he.

"So... when are you planning to leave?" asked Raeyn, not quite wishing to be alone yet but wanting to get that part of the exchange out of the way sooner rather than later.

"I'm not." smiled Sasha jovially. He hadn't quite caught on by the underlying hint to Raeyn's words. "I'm planning to stay right here... You're in no shape to be left alone."

Word count: 487

by **Raeyn** on August 3rd, 2018, 1:06 pm

Raeyn had grown far too tiered to argue. Though old habits die hard, and in spite of all that his brief friendship with Narifa had taught him, there was still that little part of him that wanted to shut his saviour out against the best of his interest. But for the first time in his life the Inarta had no fight left in him. Not even an ember of remained lit in the extinguished fire of his soul. The rain and the thunder of the red storm had quenched his temper.

And so, defeated as he was and so very conflicted, the alchemist broke down. It took him a season but alas he had burnt up in his own fire. There was nothing left. A pile of grey ashes.

An unfamiliar sting took his sight as tears forced themselves up though his tear ducts and onto his cheeks where forking streams flowed against bruised skin. A rain of silver tears fell from his chin onto the sheets. In the tiny reflections was the swollen face of the alchemist. A bandaged up nose, bruised cheekbones and bloody little cuts where his skin had split from the impact of knuckles. A particularly angry wound ran from the centre of his bottom lip to his chin like a valley though the centre of his face.

A little drop fell, cold to the touch, onto the Skin of Sasha's hand. A little confused the Kelvic looked at it for a moment before realising the man in his arms was weeping silently and uncontrollably.

"Hey... hey, hey, what's the matter? Raeyn? Why are you crying?" Sasha's voice was in a state of momentary panic. His heart ached to soothe the other, to calm him and provide him with all the comfort he could. The Kelvic acted on instinct, drawn to Raeyn by a powerful force, wanting to serve him like he had never quite felt before. Thumbs glided across Raeyn's skin gently, wiping the tears away, bringing his face to look to Sasha. Jet black garnets looked back at the wide eyed Inarta. A little shaken and profoundly worried, Sasha himself looked a little like he as about to burst into tears himself.

"Please. Let me help." said the Kelvic. Desperation underlined every word.

For a moment that seemed to last an eternity the two exchanged a look that said a thousand words. Neither of them had truly understood each other though this unspoken language before a fragile whisper alas Escaped Raeyn's lips. "You have." he said with such sincerity that seldom carried on his breath. Sincerity he knew not that he was capable of. "You have. Thank you Sasha."

Feeling his heart beat in his throat, the Kelvic smiled, lips parting to show a row of white teeth for a simple smile could hardly contain him. The words were affirmation, acknowledgement that he did something right. A little personal victory. Finally he had gotten the thanks he deserved and few things made Sasha quite as happy as being useful to another.

Word count: 507

by **Raeyn** on August 3rd, 2018, 1:37 pm

Shasha rested his forehead against that of the alchemist. Affectionately he plaid with his hair, avoiding any patches on his head that could still be sore. With the sleeve of the tunic he wore, he continued to wipe away Raeyn's tears until the alchemist was just about cried out. Not a drop left in the wells of his eyes.

"Forgive me if it's too early to ask but, why were you in that fight. I've been trying to figure it out for days. Do you remember... anything?" asked the Kelvic, his voice brought down to a whisper. A presence of comfort and affectionate tenderness.

"I... Little bits. I'm afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"You'll think I'm mad if I tell you."

"So what if I think you're mad? Everyone's a little mad. I've seen you work. I know you're mad in the best way."

That little bit of information Raeyn was not expecting. He had seen him? But where? Had he been following him. All of a sudden alarm bells want off inside of Raeyn's head. His eyes widened questioningly, growing quickly suspicious that the stranger in his house wasn't the altruistic samaritan he had portrayed himself to be but a rat ready to take advantage of his fragile state.

Without even thinking Raeyn placed a hand on the cute male's chest, wishing to push himself away from his grip but the action did little more than send a sharp jolt of pain though his whole body. Some rubs must have been broken. That was the only explanation for how much he was hurting. His archer's musculature became useless to him. And with a whine of agony he collapsed into the Kelvic's arms once more.

"Why have you been following me..." Raeyn asked though gritted teeth. An abrupt tone shift from solemn to angry and fearful like a caged animal. His helplessness made him anxious.

A little confused by the alchemist's sudden suspicion Sasha tried to answer as calmly as he could. " I haven't been following you." He once again reached to touch Raeyn's cheek but his hand was slapped away. "No, no, you misunderstood... at the Twilight Tower in the alchemy labs. I've seen your work there... with Orath. He's a friend."

"You're an alchemist? Why have I never seen you?" Raeyn demanded, still suspicious.

"No... well yes. But I clean." Sasha's expression was that of a scolded puppy who didn't quite understand why their owner was yelling at them. Brows pulled together, eyes glossy. "You've passed me in the hall ways on more than one occasion. You just never bothered to remember me. I've snuck into the lab when you and Orath were working once but that was just once."

"You're lying."

"I'm not! Those labs aren't air tight. There's plenty of knocks and crannies a rat can squeeze though." he protested defensively. Anxiety grew in him like a tumour. A resentment spilled form his lips like wine. "Look I'm not new to it. I'm good at it too, magic that is. Alchemy. Maybe you'd know if you'd ever bothered to look at me or say hello to me, even just once. The other students do. Not you, though. Not you."

Word Count: 532

by **Raeyn** on August 3rd, 2018, 2:50 pm

At that exact moment Raeyn felt a little overwhelmed by information. They were certainly speaking the same common language but it was as if the concepts which Sasha was referring to were completely foreign ones. Perhaps some strange code that needed to be decipher. Perhaps he was just talking in nonsensical metaphors or simple nonsense all together. He refused to feel bad for the Kelvic, who'se true Kelvic nature he had yet to find out about. And gods only knew he was about to.

"What do you mean ' a rat'?" Are are you even talking about?" he asked so distraught by all this. Only inches from kicking the other out of his house, prompted by all these revelations he was so very suspicious of.

"I'm a rat." replied Sasha equally as confused. To him the statement was so very clear it surely must have been impossible to misunderstand. To a Kelvic that had spent his whole life with the undeniable truth of his many shifts, the body of a rodent was as comfortable as that of a human. He stood up from the bed and faced Raeyn. His skin ripples and a in a flash of light the white tunic fell to the floor, the body beneath it having disappeared.

A little nose poked out of one of the sleeves. Soon enough the rest of a curly furred, droopy eared rat slithered out of. Immediately he brought his little paws to his mouth and licked them, proceeding to drag them though the fur on top of his head, sorting it out a little. He had not thought it thought it all though. So often did he shift in and out of his animals form and so few times did he wear clothes when in the comfort of the four walls that he didn't quite anticipate the fabric falling on him. A moment of panic was over however and soon enough his beady little black eyes looked to the alchemist who stared back at him with wide eyes and open lips.

A Kelvic in his own home was something Raeyn had not anticipated. Truly he had little knowledge about the intricacies of the beastly race outside of the name they went by. He had withstood many surprises on this strange day but this by far was the greatest.

Satisfied he had proved his point, Sasha shifted back into his human form. Suffice to say the sight of a naked Sasha was something else Raeyn hadn't been quite mentally prepared for and thus the attempt to avert his eyes in order to preserve the male's modesty was met with yet another sharp jolt of pain from his head to his toes. Little did he know there was little modesty there to preserve. The Kelvic didn't care for such human things as shame. He wore clothing only in an attempt to fit in his home city a little better. And beautiful he was. A little on the short side and lean but of an agile physique in his human body.

Black eyes blinked for a moment before a lightbulb went on inside of Sasha's head. Quickly he scurried to retrieve the tunic off the floor and haphazardly threw it back over himself. "Forgive me, the prudish ways of you humans are lost on me sometimes." he giggled, doing his best to lighten the tension in the air. Subsequently he returned to sit beside Raeyn and almost immediately to touch him. The Kelvic enjoyed contact. A reminder that he wasn't in the open and had nothing to fear. Pray's instincts had a habit of making him overly cautious even in a city as safe as this. The protective presence of another made him a thousand times bolder. The true curious little creature that he was.

"Are you still angry?" he asked. "If I knew it was going to bother you that much I'd have never snuck in on your business. I promise."

Suffice to say Sasha misinterpreted Raeyn's stunned expression a little. For the Inarta's whole face soon enough became the same colour as his hair. He wasn't a man of frequent romance and thus knew nothing of what to do with himself when the charm of another caressed his sense of sight. So prudent, was Raeyn. And in his eyes Sasha was truly a wonder of profound beauty, perhaps far more than to any other. More so than Haneht even, perhaps, and gods only knew how much the Raeyn had lusted after the golden Eypharian over the past season. None of that compared to what he felt now. Some invisible magnet drew him towards the Kelvic in spite of his suspicion, his anger, his confusion or his pain. No matter how hard he tried to resist it, he could not.

Rummaging his brain to try and figure out some sort of coherent reply, Raeyn could do little more than stumble over some hardly complete words. His anger and suspicion forsake in moments, replaced by fascination with the Kelvic's body. But Raeyn wasn't just the worst flirt in the world. He hated himself. He truly did. He wasn't worthy of even being in Sasha's presence.

The recent season had seen damage to the alchemist's mental state. He had gone from a self assured, competent man to a wreck who believed himself a monster. And the street fight that proceeded the storm was proof of just that. No more could he hang onto such a beautiful creature in his home. He didn't deseve Sasha's help and care. He didn't deserve a shred of kindness after all this. And though the voices had quietened down to nothing, it seemed, he feared their return more than he wished to get to know the Kelvic.

"You should leave." alas came his somber words. And the moment Raeyn spoke them he immediately regretted them. But he said them none the less.

Word count: 983

by **Raeyn** on August 3rd, 2018, 4:37 pm

Suffice to say rejection was not something Sasha dealt with well. So sure was he that he was going to see the red haired alchemist for a while yet. So sure was he of his own capabilities to nurse the Inarta to health. Yet there he was, stubborn as a goat on a rainy day, Raeyn was sending him away. Confused and so painfully unaware of all that had brought the poor bastard to this point, Sasha felt like collapsing where he stood and bursting into tears. But he wasn't planning on going down without a fight. Raeyn had another thing coming.

"You can't possibly manage alone. Not in the state you're in." he protested, choking
back desperation.

Raeyn remained quiet. His eyes drifted off, away from the Kelvic's pretty face. His head still pounded mercilessly like a bell being struck by a thousand clappers. Unrelenting was the pain he was in. It obstructed his focus, made him want to give it all up. And so it wasn't at all surprising when, persuaded by Sasha's incessant nagging alas he did.

"Fine! Fine." he snapped a little though the bark was that of a wounded animal, weak and not at all as fearsome as it once could have been. There was no bite behind it. "You should leave but if you want to stay that badly then I suppose... well I can't get rid of you, can I? Although I'm sure if you just thought hard enough you'd find a myriad of better things to do with your time. I could manage alone just fine."

"I'd like to be here to make sure of that." Sasha replied, feeling the anxious moment pass. So it seemed that with enough conviction in his voice he could change the mind of the red head. That was something Sasha was going to remember. File away in his memory for next time of which he was sure there will be more of. After all, Raeyn wasn't the only one who felt a certain intense attraction towards the other. Sasha felt it too.

The Kelvic was a kind soul. He really was someone to help out a stranger in need but Raeyn was a little more than a stranger to him. Altruism wasn't a reason he was so very filled with determination and unable to take no for an answer. For a man who was so used to being able to find his way into just about anything, Raeyn's heart was the first one he felt truly barricaded over. But even there were cracks in that facade he was prepared to exploit. For, as mentioned, Raeyn wasn't just anyone. He was a crush of a sort. A magnet for the Rat's attention who had yearned for it since the first time he laid eyes on that head of red, divided in half by a white stripe of thunder.

Word Count: 481
Total W/C: 4235 words