Hybrid
Disclaimer:
Doesn’t belong to me!
Warnings/Notes:
Um…yeah, I know. I suck at trying to write people in character. --;;; This is
going to be completed soon so…
Part Three
A week has passed since they had encountered the river, the last water source they have seen. Everyday, Eiji would lead them through thickets and trees, leaving the humans tired and exhausted from a day’s travel. Everyday, Eiji would hurry them on when they would start to slow down. Being persistent was one of Eiji’s good points, or extremely annoying points. Either way, they made good speed to climb the mountain. The path they took got steeper and steeper by the day and mile that they would walk, each feeling the pull of gravity upon their legs as they lifted them to climb upwards. Eventually, they came to the foot of a rocky peak that stretched for miles and miles wide, farther than the eye could see. Going up was the only option.
“We’re…going to climb that…” the split-personality human said disbelievingly. He looked tired and fatigued, as did the rest of them, minus one hybrid that was already climbing upwards, not stopping one second for the humans as he found hidden grips upon the rocky wall.
“We’d better not fall behind” the smiley-faced human commented. “This is going to be a difficult climb.”
“Obviously” someone muttered under their breath.
“I just hope he knows where he’s leading us.”
“Tezuka! Don’t be so mean!”
Eiji looked back down at the conversing humans. They were tired—obviously, and didn’t seem too ready to climb this rock. With a hiss of frustration, the hybrid snatched a pebble and tossed it downward. It didn’t seem to catch their attentions. It wasn’t until a rain of tiny pebbles came pelting down at them did the humans looked up. Rolling his eyes, Eiji continued his climb onward. If they weren’t going to follow him, then so be it. Once he gets to the top, he’ll just start throwing good-sized rocks down at them.
“We’re coming, we’re coming” came the voice from below. By that time, Eiji was already sure he was half way there to the top of the stones. With a sudden inspiration to get there waaaaaaaay before the humans, Eiji started to jump to whatever leverage he could find to get up there. Of course, when Eiji looked up again, he saw that there was still a long way to go. The red head looked back down at the humans, who were halfway behind him. Sucking in a breath, Eiji looked back up. He shouldn’t have looked down…
Calming himself, Eiji continued his upward trek.
It was late afternoon when Eiji had gotten to the top, taking practically the whole day to climb up. By then, Eiji was drained. His arms were sore and his legs hurt from where he accidentally scraped it against the stone more than once. Looking up to the sky that was pink and already turning into a dark shade of blue, Eiji laid on his side and curled up, with his back to the edge where he came climbing up. “Unya…” Slowly, he closed his eyes, deciding to just rest them a bit. After all, the humans were going to be up soon…
It wasn’t until Eiji heard yelling when he woke up. Blinking blearily around the darkness, the hybrid turned around to face the edge of the peak. It seemed that the first of the human had arrived. It was the stoic human and it seemed that he needed a little help in getting up. “Nya…” Eiji sighed and reached over, grabbing the human by the shoulder, unaware that his claws dug deeply into the human’s skin, making him flinch in pain. The hybrid managed to pull him up over the edge to safety. When the hybrid looked over, he saw that the split-personality human was not far behind with the gentle-faced human behind him. However, furthest behind them all was the smiley-faced human that was not smiling any more. He had stopped at a protruding edge that was wide enough to sit on.
Eiji cried out sadly for him, urging him in his own way for the human to go on. But the human did nothing but gave a wave in return. When the rest of the humans had climbed up, Eiji was still over at the edge, looking over at the remaining human that was sitting there. “Don’t worry” said a voice. Eiji turned around to glance over at the gentle faced human. “He’ll climb up when he’s regained his energy. He doesn’t have the strength like we do to climb it all in one go.”
Understanding only half of what the human had said, Eiji still did not leave the edge. Even when the others had decided to go to sleep, Eiji was still sitting there, unmoving except for the occasional swish of his tail. Eventually, sometime during the night, Eiji fell asleep as well.
Scritch. Scratch.
Eiji’s ear twitched. Such a small sound was capable of waking the half cat-half human hybrid proved of an amazing sense of hearing. Lifting his head from where they laid on his arms, Eiji looked around for the source of the noise.
Scritch. Scratch.
Blinking, Eiji’s luminescent eyes scanned the scene before him. There was no one there, but the sound was continuing.
Scritch. Scratch.
Was the sound coming from…? Eiji looked downward and with the help of the crescent moon he saw a solitary figure climbing upward steadily. He’s coming! Eiji immediately got out of the way for the human to climb up. The hybrid helped and pulled the other up. The human collapsed in a heap, breathing heavily. “Thank you” he said after he regained his breath. He took off the rucksack that was on his back and placed it down on the ground, away from the edge. “Come here. I don’t think you would like to fall off, now would you?” he said softly to the hybrid, not daring to wake his sleeping friends. Happily, Eiji bounded over to the smiling human.
“Nya!” was the happy sound Eiji made as the human allowed him under the blankets. Although he didn’t really need a blanket, it was still nice. He felt a hand reach up and stroke the sensitive spot behind his ear and Eiji purred. That instigated a small chuckle from the human as Eiji tried to curl up to him.
“Look up at me” the human said as he suddenly stopped stroking the hybrid and lifted his head upwards to face him.
“Unya…?” Eiji blinked as he stared into the depths of cerulean colored eyes that seemed ever deeper by the glow of the crescent moon that hung low in the sky. Dawn will be arriving soon.
“Even though you may not understand, I will try,” the human said before pausing for a bit, as if thinking what else to say. “I do think it’s time we became properly acquainted. I am Fuji.” The human said as he pointed to himself. “Fuji.”
Eiji watched as he repeated it again and gestured to himself. Something in his mind clicked and he knew the human was telling him his name. The smiling human’s name is Fuji.
~*~
The next day
came and went with the humans deciding to take it easy and rest their sore arms
and to nurse some of their injured knees, since they weren’t able to do so
last night. Eiji, however, went ahead to ‘scout’ the area out. But what he
was actually looking for was a good place to nap. The top of the peak was
bare—with little inhabitants and living plants. No birds sang up here and the
wind was bitter and cold. Eiji shivered a bit at the bleak sight. Dead trees and
plants were littered about the place with weeds growing wildly. The thing that
worried Eiji the most was the horrible stench coming from the east of the peak.
With a small sigh, Eiji departed back to where he left the humans.
“There you are!” came a voice as Eiji came into the human’s sight. It was the split-personality human that called for him. Giving a questioning look to the human, he slowly walked on over to the human and sat down in front of him and rubbed against his leg like a cat. “You’ve been gone for a long time, did you know that?” Eiji looked over to the human that was speaking to him, but Eiji didn’t really care what he was speaking about. With a yawn, the hybrid settled his head onto his arms, curled up, and went to sleep.
“He’s certainly alert even when he’s asleep.”
“Yeah…I still wonder what was he doing all the way out here in the wild. He could be one of those runaways.”
“So you’re going to turn him in?”
“Of course not!”
“It’s really none of our business what he was doing out here.”
“I know…but…”
“I think he’s untagged. What do you think, Tezuka?”
“Untagged, not a runaway. He was born free.”
“Really? That’s rare these days.”
“Yeah…usually they’re tagged moments after they’re born. I wonder how did he end up free?”
“Who knows? It’s a mystery—just like why he doesn’t speak and doesn’t understand words.”
“What about the collar? The collar itself is made of high quality materials and the words engraved are in sapphire.”
“Maybe…it was stolen?”
“Not likely. Someone had to have placed it on him when he was very young. He must have had grown up wearing it because it’s nothing but a fancy loop.”
“Haha. Leave it up to Tezuka to point such things out.”
“Hn.”
~*~
“Alright, we’re not forgetting anything, are we?” Fuji said as Eiji yawned. The sun had just risen an hour ago and the half cat-half human hybrid wasn’t too eager to get up. Ever since Eiji had learned Fuji’s name, he hung around the always-smiling youth more often for reasons unknown to them. Maybe it was the fact he was the only one to ever bother telling the hybrid his name, something the others still hasn’t gotten around to doing.
“Nope! Let’s go, Fuji!” the gentle faced human said. At the sound of Fuji’s name, Eiji looked over to the Fuji. The human only smiled and patted Eiji’s head before walking after his human friends. Eiji was still sitting down when the humans disappeared from sight. Ah well…he’ll catch up later. It’s not like they really needed his help up here…all they had to do was go straight and they’ll reach the large remains of a tree and from there it was pretty much self explanatory. Or…just to make sure
Eiji got up and stretched in a cat-like fashion before dashing off in a surprising speed at the direction the humans had taken off at. He quickly caught up to them and passed them, running at his full speed in the direction of the dead tree. He was pretty sure when he dashed passed the humans; they were very surprised by his burst of speed. It was all too soon when he arrived at the foot of the large remains of the tree. Although there were no leaves upon the remnants of the tree, it still casts a large shade over a portion of the place—especially in the direction they were going in, as if it was guiding lost travelers to the right direction.
When the humans had caught up with the hybrid a short while later, they set off together through the almost nonexistent path that was going through the dead grass. Eiji made the path yesterday during his ‘scouting around.’
“Wow…this place sure is desolated. I wonder what happened here…” the split-personality human said with a low whistle. “It was like a drought or something happened here…”
“It does look it, doesn’t it?” the gentle faced human agreed, looking around. His clear olive-green eyes reflected the surroundings of a drab and colorless place. “This almost looks like…a plain.”
Eiji blinked and stopped from where he was at the front of the group. Something is wrong, his senses told him. His careful eyes surveyed their surroundings, noting that there was nothing alive out there except them and perhaps a few insects that dared to come this high in the terrains. His ears picked up no sound besides them. That was another thing that worried him. When there is no sound, there is danger.
“What’s wrong?” Fuji asked, coming up beside him. Eiji just stared out at the barren land for another moment before hesitantly taking another step forward, but immediately stepped back. It wasn’t like this yesterday…there’s something here…something very dangerous.
“Oi, what’s up with him?” the stoic human said, also walking up to them. He looked around, but saw nothing wrong. “Let’s go” he said, pushing Eiji forward. But when the hybrid was forced a step forward, he jumped back with a frightened squeal and hid behind the gentle faced human.
“There’s got to be something that’s making him so nervous like this.”
“I think we should trust his instincts. After all, he’s led us this far. We should be able to trust him on this and not go forward for now.” The ‘for now’ part was not lost to anyone, not even Eiji.
So the humans decided to go and sit down under the shade of the dead tree while Eiji determined whether or not it was safe to continue or not. The hybrid just sat there, at the same spot they’ve stopped at, staring at the empty land before him. It wasn’t until practically two hours later did Eiji move.