//------------------------------// // Quest 8 – Obligatory Fetch-Quest // Story: Wolf-cubs // by Orrm //------------------------------// “Hmmmm, better than I’d thought you have,” “Beg your pardon? -” He was quick with his words. “-This place is better than ah expected” Sunset was Sunstunned. Her abode looked like the cleanest half-demolished apartment one could find. If two of her laid flat they’d reach her ‘bed’, in two steps she’d reach her ‘kitchen’ and no bathroom could be found. The community one was not a good idea, better the Sunbucks four blocks down. Hence, her palpable shock at his genuine approval of her living situation. What kind of a life does one have to live that… this… was ‘better’? “Ha!” He giggled like a child who’d stolen someone’s candy, holding his shaking stomach as he stumbled around in search of clothes. “Everybody’s git ta start from somewhere, Sunny. We started from a cozy lil’ house, then the street, then down the bifta, then the gavvers, then…” Eyes. Chestnut eyes with biting deep blue, reaching out like circles of teeth in his iris. He stared past her, farther and farther away at something she knew him to hate and love. How, though? How did she know that… His voice petered out to an amused wheeze. He walked forward, grabbing a clothes pile and shoving them it the black trash-bag. The passive rumble of a car sounded a floor or two below, odd, no tenants of this place were well-off enough to have cars. Nor was there space to park one. She snapped out of her thoughts and realized, she ignored him, dumbly lost in her own mind. She grimaced. “Eventful…life?” She asked, hesitantly. Something was off about them, if it wasn’t obvious enough from the get-go. But, right now, they were all she had. Right now, they were the only people who’d not hurt her. Right now, they were infinitely better company than her… h-her…… … …. … ’friends’? She toted one of the bags, a smaller one, to her chagrin and tossed it in the van. Using all her mental fortitude to refrain from questioning the identity of their balaclava-clad driver. She yawned, She witnessed Orthros struggle his way through a particularly heavy bag, spinning it round and round unsteadily strung across his shoulders until he let the bag shoot off his back and into the trunk. “Strong kiddo, aint’cha” she remarked, a wry smile curling half her lip. He giggled, rolling his shoulders and… dislocating… them? “I wish. Everywan’s str’nger t’an lil’ole me, ” For a split second, his hair had a moss-green tint to it. Must be the lighting. “Now den, let’s go ‘ome, ay? Miss Shimmer,” Home. It was almost funny, she thought. That a place colored like an emo’s wet dream could beam such warmth into her heart. “Let’s,” Her ward rolled into the back seat, she followed him, sinking into the soft seats. Orthros passed her something and she absent-mindedly took it, the smell sent a ripple across her stomach. “Gyro, shrimp,” He said simply, daintily nibbling his own roll. She took a cautious bite, wary due to how sparingly Orthros was eating. He took bites like a mouse. Unbearably slow, if he kept that up, he’d be biting for the next four hours. The shrimp was pleasant, tender and popped in her mouth. Flavor gushed from it’s soft insides and slathered her tongue in salt and sweet. Her eyes brightened and hairs stood on end. There was but one thought left in her mind. ‘Good food, Eat,’ It was all gone in four heartbeats. “Christ girl, ye eat like a horse,” Certain things, had been left out of her story. Like the fact that she was an adult alien horse transformed into a teenage girl. Or the fact that she didn’t have a green card. Or that she had the same legal rights as the average rock. She could feel the blood leaving her face. “Ha-ha-ha-ha,” She was locked into his unmasked gaze. Orthros eyes brightened at the centers. The world turned dark and darker around her, fading into a hazy blur where she could only see blindingly blue eyes digging into her soul. She felt empty. Her head was an empty pool, clear and still. Tranquil, endless shiny surface of water unbroken by even a single ripple Her eyes turned inwards, her mind was the skin of a drum stretched around an intruding finger. Black, black sky and white, silver water far as the eyes could see. She could see. She could turn, but no matter how she turned, where she looked, all was black space. All was white, silver water. She would huff, but she couldn’t. Then she huffed. Her brow knit, then, it did. An idea formed. Her not-body willed itself a hundred miles away, it shot sideways. She didn’t feel like she’d moved. She willed again, but to the west. She moved up, but the scene did not change. So it was the same, so samey and similar that nothing seemed to change. She shot past endless black sky containing nothing to mark her position. She passed endless silver sea, with no ripples, waves or otherwise to tell from where she’d left. Why was she here? Where was here? Her breaths came fast, hard, fast and short. Her eyes, her sight darted everywhere. Up. East. West. South. She looked Down. Two dull, blue lights spread continents apart stared up at her from beneath the endless ocean. She beheld the submerged shadow of a beast whose crown and maw stretched down to each horizon. She fell. She fell, the windshield racing past her eyes as gravity took over. “You a’right?” he was under her before her head cracked against the steel door. What… He pressed her head into his chest, arms wrapped around her shoulder and head, a palm on her forehead. “Yer sweatin’ sometin’ fierce too, let’s head home yeah?” She grunted, head sluggish and groggy like she’d knocked back three bottles with the girls. “Stop at th’ café tew, might beh sugar, kin never know,” She knew she nodded, but why didn’t she feel it? Her head ached. “What’s yer choice a’ sweet, eh?” Thunder echoed in her ears. “Frozen mango dragon-fruit lemonade,” Thump. Thump. Thump. ... “That exists?” She could still hear it’s heartbeat.