Kit Love:
Chapter 4- My Other Half
He awoke several hours later to a dull roar beneath him that shook the room slightly and caused his bed to shiver. Yawning, he managed to pull himself to a sitting position and rubbed unconsciously at his arm. The pain was gone now, and he felt rested and revived. Springing up, he stretched and threw open the door, figuring that the noise below was from a crowd of hungry demons awaiting their dinner.
And upon entering the common room, he found that his hunch was correct. The room was packed with bodies and as he let his slender form be pulled into the hustle and cacophony, Shuurai felt the temperature rise several degrees. After shoving his way through the sea of demons, by some miracle, he managed to find a seat and before the hour was out, had a plate of steaming food in front of him.
Wolfing it down even faster then the older patrons sitting with him, Shuurai begged for seconds before they had even finished half of theirs. Grinning at their surprised stares, he downed most of the pitcher of water at their table and finished his second plate of food only slightly slower, then awaiting dessert with glee. Shaking their heads, his tablemates exchanged secret smirks amongst themselves as memories of their younger days flitted through their heads.
After, as soon as he had licked up every last scrap of his meal, the young fox retired once more to his secluded room and fell into a deep, restful sleep unlike any he had known for weeks.
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Groaning as the morning sun shone down brightly on his face and lit his eyelids on fire, Shuurai rolled over and buried his head beneath the soft pillow, burrowing even further into the warm blankets covering him. His jaw cracked loudly as he yawned and he heaved a sigh of content, happy just to lie lazily in the warm bed and enjoy the feeling of actual comfort.
A few minutes later, however, he managed to pull himself from the warm recesses of the bed and walk over to the water pitcher, where he proceeded to throw several handfuls of water on his face, gasping when the cool liquid startled his senses.
Grinning like a fool, he left the room and swaggered downstairs, asking a table girl to get him some breakfast. Lounging in a chair, he watched languidly as other demons came and went, talking to acquaintances and shouting curses to their rivals. He chuckled when a young looking female demon who couldn't have been more then 20 years Shuurai's senior managed to out-cuss a shriveled old serpent demon, his forked tongue not helping him any in their battle of profanities.
Eating his meal with gusto, the young fox sighed inwardly as his mind began to prickle again. Clamping down on the tickling in his head, he forced it out and ignored it, vowing not to let anything such as that ruin his day.
Finishing his food and wiping sticky lips off on the back of his hand, he left a few more precious coins on the table and walked away regretfully, watching them glitter out of the corner of his eye. He did not have much money left, and what he did have he must now use sparingly.
Sunlight and heat assaulted his senses as soon as he stepped out the door into the already stifling morning. Flicking his dusty hair over a slim shoulder, he set off at a brisk pace, heading towards the opposite end of the village from where he had entered. He might as well keep following this road and see where it led. He was, after all, a wanderer.
As soon as he left the outskirts of the town, the crowd thinned and soon dwindled to nothing. Once again, Shuurai found himself alone on the road. But it was nothing to him, this was the way it had always been, and this was how he liked it. Other people were only distractions, pulling him away from his one purpose and steering him off course.
Humming once more, he felt another tickle in his unconsciousness, but this one was different from the other one he had felt the day before. With a start he realized he did not know the tune he was humming, had never even heard it before. Yet there was something familiar about it, something that tugged at his mind and toyed with his memory, yet stayed just out of reach. Something . . .
"Hey! Watch it!"
The warning came too late as both Shuurai and the other form tumbled down in a heap of arms, legs, and claws. Howling when his head cracked off the hard dirt, Shuurai was surprised to hear a twin howl echo his own. Looking over dizzily, his vision finally focused on the slight form of the other demon, and he almost choked in surprise. The other demon was a kitsune. And not only that, he looked almost exactly like Shuurai.
The other boy looked up, his angry eyes meeting Shuurai's own befuddled ones. But the anger faded instantly as he took in Shuurai's face and features, changing to a look of astonishment that matched the golden fox's own.
Warily, the other kitsune lept to his feet and shifted into a ready stance, one hand straying absently to his silver hair. But Shuurai remained on the ground, staring up at the other, his bewilderment only growing by the moment. He took in the silver strands that were tipped with gold, the exact opposite of his own and the hard, emerald eyes that seemed to carry the whole world within their depths. The face that stared back at him resembled his own more then was normal and the slender body still shifting uneasily mirrored his in more ways then one.
"Just who are you?" he asked, wonderingly.
" Enrai," came the reply. "I'm Enrai . . . Who are you?" The wariness had faded a little from his gaze and stance and the tense muscles Shuurai had sensed beneath his clothes loosened up slightly.
But instead of answering, as would have been proper, Shuurai only gasped.
"What?!" came the annoyed reply. "What's wrong with you?!"
But Shuurai still couldn't find his voice. This was just too weird. He very well knew that his own name meant 'Lightning' but this boy's . . . this boy's name meant 'Thunder'. Not only were their bodies nearly identical, but their names matched as well.
Finally working up enough spit in his mouth, Shuurai answered, "I'm Shuurai," and watched as a look of utter shock covered Enrai's face.
"No way," he breathed. "Holy shit . . ."
Chapter 5- Companion
