Hybrid
Disclaimer: Doesn’t
belong to me!
Warnings/Notes: Alternate
Universe! Boy…do I have a thing for writing these…Oh yeah! Out of
character…haha. And sorry if I confuse you! I tend to be very confusing at
times…
Part One
A pair of azure eyes surveyed its surroundings. A sensitive nose sniffed the air. A furry ear twitched. One hungry Eiji leapt.
Quickly snatching the cooling pie from the windowsill, the half cat-half human hybrid ran, hearing the angry screams of the baker. Leaping over a seafood stall in the piazza, a free hand snatching up one of the fish. There were even more loud screams and shouting that followed the hybrid as he ran, leading a chase across town. Eiji laughed, speeding a head of all the shop owners. No, they were never going to match his speed! He was always going to be much to fast for them. Using the momentum he’s gained, Eiji jumped onto the roof of the smallest building and then proceeded to jump onto the taller ones. The red head gave another laugh and settled himself on the current roof he was on.
With a clawed hand, Eiji
decided to eat the pie first, knowing that it wouldn’t taste good when it got
cold. Devouring the pie quickly, Eiji moved onto the fish. Without another
thought, he bit into the bloody flesh of the dead fish. It was delicious. He was
careful with the bones, knowing that he could choke on it. But with deftness
that only a cat would posses, he managed to avoid biting into the bones. With a
satisfied smile upon his lips, Eiji leapt from the roof to land on all fours.
There were several screams and yells of surprise when someone jumped from the
roof, but that did nothing to stop Eiji from moving. He was immediately on the
move, running yet again. It was time to leave this town.
He’s already been here a month, in this nameless town at the foot of the mountains. The townspeople were getting angry and restless. It won’t be long before they call for help to get rid of him. After all, they’ve all come to recognize him. Him with the red hair and cat ears and tail, wearing dirty clothes two sizes too large for him with a black collar around his neck. He’s heard some of the humans call him ‘a thief that dresses up like a stray cat,’ but Eiji didn’t know what that meant. Running to the outskirts of the town, Eiji headed for the slope in front of him. The half cat-half human hybrid had decided he would climb the mountain. It shouldn’t be that hard.
A day later found Eiji hunting—something that he detested to do. However, he was going to have to do so if he didn’t want to starve. Chewing and crunching on the bones of the mice he caught, Eiji climbed onwards, his tail swishing excitedly the whole time behind him. The red head climbed up onto a tree, deciding to rest there for now. The sun was high in the sky, nearly scorching for the hybrid. The shade of the giant leaves and branches were cool, unlike the spots under the sun that seems to be on fire. Devoid of any other thoughts, Eiji fell asleep quite peacefully, with the calls of the birds lulling him to sleep.
That night, Eiji awoke to strange sounds. It was dark out, the sun had fallen and the moon had rose, an almost fully round shape hidden behind the clouds, casting a dark shadow over the mountain. A furry ear twitched in the direction of the sound as Eiji blinked, opening his azure eyes wide to examine what was going on around him. He heard movement. Eiji lifted his head, his body tensing. His tail was rigid as Eiji felt his ears pressing down low against his skull, hissing at a low tone. His sensitive ears heard voices. Human voices.
“We’ve been wandering around for hours! Let’s set camp already.”
“I couldn’t agree more. What do you say, Tezuka?”
Eiji’s claws dug into the branch he rested upon. He saw the light the humans were carrying, hidden before by the thickness of the shrubs and trees. It was a lantern that illuminated the entire place. The humans in front of him startled when they saw him. After all, who wouldn’t be startled? Azure eyes that glowed in the dark, a creature settled in the confines of a tree, hissing down at them, who wouldn’t be?
“Stay back” one of them said, going to the front of the small group of humans. Eiji nearly snarled at them while baring his teeth. Sharp pointed teeth were seen, as well as the claws that dug deeply into the wood. Jumping from where he rested, Eiji crashed into the one that seemed the most threatening to him. The one that stood in front of the humans, their protector.
“Tezuka!” someone shouted. Eiji rolled off of the human he crashed into and attacked the other one that was closes to him. Although it was night, Eiji was able to see the humans as clearly as day. He had reached out and swiped at the human, but all it did was mar the surface of the delicate human skin. The next thing the hybrid knew was happening was that someone had hit him on the head—hard. It was obviously an attempt at trying to knock him out. Dazedly, Eiji turned around to face whoever it was that dared to do that. But he never got to it. The red head had collapsed and darkness over took him.
~*~
Eiji stirred, unconsciously reaching to the back of his head to rub the spot where he was hit. It hurt. The hybrid sniffed, taking in the scent of campfire. How did he know that? He heard the human voices around him. If they were still around, it had to be a campfire.
“Are you alright?” a voice that rang loud and clear through everything. Eiji opened one eye lazily, vision rather hazy. He looked at the speaker, a gentle faced human with green eyes. Without saying anything, Eiji curled up into a ball, tucked his tail, and closed his eye. In no time, he was asleep again.
~*~
It was early in the morning when Eiji woke again. Azure eyes opened to a gray setting; fog was everywhere. But a sniff of the nose and a twitch of the ears, Eiji knew that the humans were still there. In fact, they were all awake, standing up. One of them had doused the fire that had been kept on going for the majority of the night. Two of them were conversing in quiet tones, looking over at Eiji occasionally during their conversation. The last one, the gentle faced human with the green eyes, was also looking at Eiji.
With a hiss, Eiji tried to shy away, only to find that his head was throbbing painfully.
“Careful, careful…” the human near him said. Eiji flattened his ears against his skull, feeling very intimidated. “It’s alright, no one’s going to hurt you.” With calm and soothing tones, the human started to reach for Eiji. His hand had touched the red head’s ear when Eiji clawed at him, drawing blood. The human hissed with pain, his companions come running. Eiji quickly ran for the trees, climbing up to the highest branch he could to rest there. It wasn’t until the late morning till the hybrid moved again, startling several crows that had also chosen that tree to settle in.
Climbing down carefully, Eiji touched the ground gently and let go of the breath he was holding in. He was glad he didn’t fall from that height. The red head walked at a leisurely pace, his head still throbbing, but not as much as it was earlier. Considering that the sun hadn’t reached its full height into the sky yet, Eiji was determined to set his will to climbing the mountain. The sooner he was off of this mountain, the sooner he was away from those dangerous humans that threatened him. With a gleeful bounce in his step, the red head quickened his pace towards his goal.
Several hours later found a very happy Eiji near a small stream. The hybrid had drunken some of the water and was now just happily pretending that there was fish in the water to catch. No, Eiji didn’t like to get wet, but he liked the occupants of the water. Occasionally a water strider would flow pass, startling the happy red head into a silent curiosity as it watched the spider ‘walk’ on water. Of course, it seemed the water striders was equally curious about him, as well, having never seen or met a hybrid before.
It was later in the afternoon when Eiji decided to go onward again, this time traveling on the trees overgrown branches that just seemed to reach everywhere. That way, Eiji traveled from tree to tree, seeing all the inhabitants that lived there. Once, the hybrid passed a small fox that was on the ground and was very shocked to see Eiji. It disappeared quickly after that.
By the time that night has fallen, Eiji was now walking on the ground again. He had no trouble seeing in the dark, but what if he ran into the humans again? Humans have an awful sense of direction, he knew. Eiji’s ears perked when he heard something. It sounded like laughter. Human laughter. Eiji quickly dashed up a tree and ran forward blindly and silently, reaching the spot where the humans had made camp. They hadn’t started the fire yet; hence there was no smell of smoke. They had their lantern with them that emitted a lot of light. When they did make the fire, Eiji had settled onto the branch in a rather cat-like fashion with his tail dipping downward flicking back and forth slowly. None of the humans noticed he was there, nor did they know a pair of azure eyes watched them throughout the night.
Eiji looked down at the sleeping humans, wondering if he could put the fire out. If it was left alone any longer, it was definitely going to attract attention—such as the mountain boars that roam about during the night, or maybe the monkeys that scatter whenever Eiji comes along. Or it could be something else, like the bears and such. Otherwise, if not any of that, the forest might catch fire. Wondering why he was thinking of these things, Eiji leapt down from the branch he was on and landed softly on the earth. Creeping over to where the humans had the water, Eiji dumped it over the fire, making sure that it was completely gone before placing the container to where he found it. The termination of the fire had caused a lot of sizzling and crackling, but Eiji doubt any of the humans had woken up. Quite content at his handiwork, Eiji was about to go back up to his branch to rest, when movement caught his eyes. There was some sniffing by the bushes and Eiji knew immediately the hulking form that was there. The full moon came out from behind the shadows.
There, on its four paws, was a bear. Eiji felt fear grip him. A bear is powerful, and although it lumbers about, there is no doubt that when it wants to be fast, it can be and there wasn’t a lot that Eiji could do about it. The red head was literally frozen to the ground with the humans about him, still asleep completely unknowing that there was danger. Maybe the bear would go away and it wouldn’t do any damage. Eiji prayed that it was the second option, of where it was just curious to know what was there and would go away soon. Sadly, that didn’t happen.
It turns out that the bear was actually very hungry. There was no fish in this forest and berries didn’t fill its belly. The meat would run from him, and the bear, old and tired, couldn’t catch things that were so fast. But this one…this…human-beast in front of him didn’t seem that fast. It was scrawny, dirty, but there was meat. He could sense the human-beast’s fear. As he approached closer, the human-beast had its ears pressed down upon his head and hissed. The old bear growled back, but in a much louder sound. The bear then rose to his haunches, reaching its full height. Yes, that scared Eiji a lot.
Eiji bared his teeth and started to back away from the bear, ready to dash when he accidentally stepped on one of the humans. He looked over and met dazed green eyes.
“What are you doing here?” asked the human in a soft voice, completely oblivious to the danger that he was in. But Eiji did not listen to the human. He turned back to the bear, baring his teeth and hissing, warning the bear to stay away. The bear did not heed this warning and instead came closer; its jaws open and tongue lolling to the side of its mouth as it lowered down to its forepaws. Eiji, suddenly having a need to do something—anything, to get the bear to leave, took a running leap and landed on the broad back of the bear. The bear had no sense of what was going on, but a sudden weight on his back seemed to settle everything. The bear stood up again
With a little shriek, Eiji dug his claws into the bear’s back, and he kept clawing to get a good grip through the thick fur of the bear. When the bear took a step though, Eiji almost fell of the back, but he hoisted himself forward, grabbing onto one of the bear’s ears roughly. That elicited a roar of fury as the bear took a swipe at the red head that was at its back. The roar had no doubt woken the humans.
With a hiss of pain, Eiji brought himself up and clawed at the bear’s eyes, blinding it. However, the bear dropped down and Eiji fell off, due to this sudden movement. He landed right in front of the bear’s jaws. There was only blinding pain as when the bear had set his jaws onto the hybrid’s shoulder, but it was removed almost immediately. One of the humans had skewered the bear through the neck with one of their metal shafts.
“Are you alright?!” was the worried voice of one of the humans. Eiji looked up dazedly at the one who spoke. It was the usually smiling boy with the bright blue eyes. “Taka! Do you have anything for his wounds?”
“Let me look!” came the reply. Eiji struggled to get up, but his body wasn’t cooperating with him. He was feeling weak and tired and dizzy. He reeked of blood and the foul scent of the bear.
“Hold on, you’re going to be alright” said a voice. Eiji knew that it was the gentle faced human. Despite the fact that his vision was blurring, Eiji saw the worry in those green eyes.
“Nya…” was the only
thing that escaped Eiji’s lips before he fell unconscious.
To Be Continued…