Spoiler (Click to Show)
He’d explored most of the buildings around his restaurant, and sometimes he’d come across a personal belonging or two. They were human items, but each one had a forgotten story tied to it, desperately trying to attract the attention of any being that passed by. It was items like these that made Spune wonder sometimes why the humans had left this area in the first place. From what the rock and ground told him, it didn’t seem like this area was too bad to live in at one point. Now, all buildings had nothing but trapped space within them, atmospheres holding whispers of lives once lived.
Oddly enough, not a single structure had been made of wood. All he had sensed was stone, glass, metal…some plastic, but no wood.
Voices drifted through the air, interrupting his thought stream. Curious, Spune peered around the corner, and a small group of black and yellow uniformed humans vanished down another alley. Fortunately, they were getting further and further away from him. He felt it would be better if they never saw him at all. Who knows what would have happened then.
Spune looked down at his body, noting how many bruises and scrapes he had from clambering around this rubble all day. He grinned. He was getting tough! The youngling raised his spoon, watching the glitter of the sunlight dance along its surface. Slowly, Spune relaxed and looked at the burning star, letting its light fill his eyes to their limits. His pupils expanded, reflecting the solar orb, and all of a sudden it was over. Spune blinked, feeling invigorated. Yup. One look at the sun and he was home free.
Unknown to nearly all allies Spune had hung out with (which weren’t very many), Spune’s Stick type could survive off solar and lunar energy. They got this by taking a good look at either the sun or moon each day. Even if they didn’t get to see one, the other would be enough. However, if they spent too many months without this sustenance, they would soon weaken and die.
Not that these sources were going anywhere.
His mind drifted back to the wRHG regulators. Those guys didn’t usually come here. Did they lose someone to the rocks or had he finally been found out? The youngling frowned, remembering the time when he met a powerful, yet somewhat disgusting, gladiator named Larry. He had been attacked by these guys, and Spune had helped him escape. Was there any chance that any of them were looking for him now?
A sudden scratching sound caused him to turn. There was a flicker of movement in a dark alley, and then…nothing.
Curious, Spune began to creep slowly towards the source of the disturbance. His feet moved cautiously; hands clenched around the handle of his weapon. His vision expanded, and the shadows of the alley were replaced by sharp clarity. There was a thin Stick figure in there! The sight made him stop short. His body relaxed slightly, and his movements slowed even further.
“Hi.” he whispered. “Don’t worry…I won’t tell them you’re here.”
The figure seemed to relax, but only a little.
“Can you talk?” Spune continued. “My name is Spune Swiftwing. Are you new here?”
The figure began to crawl out of the dark towards him. Spune stopped, and his eyes blazed intensely, gently warning the creature that he wouldn’t take kindly to a fight. But the figure didn’t seem interested in that. It raised itself up on its own two feet, and looked at him.
Or, at least Spune thought it was looking at him.
The creature had two grey, backwards-facing spikes on its head, one after the other. Its brown hair reached just below the center of its back. As Spune watched, he noticed that the strands of this strange hair were semi-transparent. Its body was thin and black, and it had a white head. Its fingers were replaced by three blade-like claws, each one as sharp as a razor. The claws all came to a point at the wrist, so no palms were visible. But the thing that confused Spune the most about the Stick figure was that it was wearing a blindfold.
This blindfold was dark grey, and stained with dirt and something else, blood probably. Then the creature reached up and removed the cloth, tying it around its left wrist in a tight knot. It grinned at him, showing off its sharp teeth. Not a single one of them failed to be pointy. Spune swallowed and put his hands behind his back, rocking on the balls of his feet.
“So…you can’t talk?”
The creature’s eyes suddenly began to change from black with red pupil slits, to full blue. The pupils vanished, and then the figure seemed to relax. The tension in the air snapped clear, and Spune felt himself let out his breath.
“My name is Raylar.” the creature said.
Its voice had a slight hissing edge to it, like some sort of snake. Spune smiled nervously and held out his hand.
“Come on then, Raylar. They won’t stay away for long.”
The Stick figure stiffened when he looked at Spune’s hand, and he took a few steps backwards. Spune frowned. “Don’t worry; I don’t like those guys either. I won’t let anything happen to you…I promise.”
“I’ve been promised too many things in my life.” Raylar snapped, lifting one foot, and then the other, as if trying to decide whether to fight or flee.
“It’s going to be different now.” Spune insisted. “By the way, we have something in common.”
“Is that supposed to reassure me?”
“You tell me.”
With that, Spune stretched out his hand, showing his spoon to Raylar in full view. The warrior looked on, confusion beginning to creep across his face.
“So…” he said at last. “That’s your weapon?”
Spune nodded. “Yup. And I’m guessing that your blindfold is also nothing to sneeze at, if you get my meaning.”
Raylar seemed to relax a little. Then he stepped closer to Spune.
“Alright. You’re probably more agreeable than those black and yellow creatures.”
Spune nodded. “You can count on it. If you’ll be my friend, I’ll die to protect you!”
Raylar’s eyes widened. “Really?”
Noting the genuine surprise in the warrior’s voice, Spune smiled as they began to sneak among the ruins.
“Isn’t that how it works?” he asked over his shoulder.
Raylar sighed. “I suppose. It’s just that I…well…never really had friends.”
Spune tried to keep the shock from his voice. “None at all?”
“There was a snake once.”
Spune laughed quietly, but just loud enough for Raylar to hear. “That’s the coolest thing ever! Did you carry him around with you everywhere?”
Raylar frowned as he picked his way among the rocks.
“Not really. He was kind of big.”
“Oh.”
The two continued on in silence, and soon they reached Spune’s restaurant. Raylar eyed the entrance suspiciously. Spune halted before opening the door, noting the tension in the warrior’s position.
“What’s the matter?” Spune asked.
“This is where you live?”
Spune looked the structure over, and a small smile spread across his face.
“It may not look like much now, but it is home to me!”
Raylar smiled a bit. “I’ve never had a place of my own before.”
Spune opened the door, motioning that Raylar should go first. “Now you do!” the youngling answered.
Raylar hesitated again, but suddenly he walked right through, confident. Spune stared after him, and then he followed, closing the door behind them.
The Stick figure whirled suddenly, his claws twitching. The blindfold on his wrist undid itself and slithered up his arm. Of its own accord, the cloth tied itself over Raylar’s eyes. Spune took a few steps backwards.
“Raylar?” he asked, his voice trembling a little. “Are you alright?”
“The shadows!” Raylar hissed sharply. “They’re speaking to me!”
The warrior fell to his knees, covering his ears and moaning. Spune rushed over, unsure of whether to give him a reassuring pat or not. Suddenly he understood. The youngling dashed to the darkest corner of the restaurant. He slowed as he approached the dark, holding his hand out in front of him.
“Sssh…” Spune hushed. “It’s alright. You can come out.”
Raylar rose up behind Spune. He could see his reflection ally next to the dark spot, thrashing in agony. The warrior’s fists clenched, and he slowly began to creep up behind the youngling. Spune whirled, sensing danger. Raylar lifted his claws, a chilling cry coursing from his throat.
“You keep shadows as your allies!” he screamed. “You tricked me! This is a trap!”
Pure horror filled Spune’s face.
“No! I’d never do anything to hurt you!” he cried. “Raylar…please don’t!”
The maniac snarled. Spune began to sweat. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to make friends with this thing after all. Just as Raylar was about to strike, a pair of red eyes blazed bright behind his prey, right in the center of the shadows.
Fear surged through Raylar’s body, and he trembled a little.
“Oh…no…not one of those…”
The shadow shrieked angrily, breaking off in a savage hiss. Suddenly Spune remembered what it was. It was the same type of creature that had been following him a few weeks ago. Raylar dropped to his knees, shivering and whimpering as if he’d just been heavily injured. The shadow formed into a sinewy quadruped, crouching for a spring.
Chills zapped through every inch of Spune’s body. He put his hand up, trying to touch the creature’s face. “He…won’t hurt you either.” the youngling whispered. “I won’t let him.”
Suddenly Raylar straightened up, unafraid somehow. He sprang for the crouching shadow as it recoiled away from his claws. Time slowed. Spune put himself between the two monsters, and Raylar slammed into him. The two Sticks tangled into each other, skidding across the floor and into a brick wall.
The shadow rose and leaped out an open window, completely silent.
***
Spune woke to the sound of silent sobs. Something was crouching over him. The youngling blinked, finally able to make out Raylar’s shape. His blindfold was soaked in moisture, and some of his tears had fallen on Spune’s body. The young gladiator slowly moved his arm, catching the creature’s attention.
“You’re alive!” Raylar sputtered, sounding very relieved.
As if noticing for the first time, he turned away quickly, wringing out his blindfold. Spune took a couple of deep breaths and sat up. He had been lying in one of the beds he had upstairs. The youngling looked around quickly, noticing that the other bed’s mattress had been shredded to bits. Some of its metal frame looked like it had been bitten out of shape multiple times. Raylar followed his confused gaze, put his blindfold back on, and scratched the back of his head.
“Yeah…um…that was me being upset that you died. Sorry.”
Spune stretched a little. “No problem. We’ll go find another bed together tomorrow.”
He had a sudden thought, and then added. “If you want to go that is. I could go all by myself. I’m used to that.”
“No, no. It’s fine.” Raylar insisted, shuffling into a more comfortable position on the wooden floor. He smiled a little.
“I need to get used to having friends too.”
Spune smiled back, and that’s when he noticed that there was a strange tightness around the skin near his eyes. When he scratched at the disturbance, crusted flakes of blood came off on his fingers. He stared at them in shock.
“What…?” he started.
Raylar cut him off quickly. “I’m sorry about that too. You see…I kind of defend myself by making my attacker bleed out of its eyes and mouth. I only tried cleaning your chin, so you won’t feel it that much there.”
Spune rubbed at his face, thoughtful. “Anything else I’m supposed to know?”
“Not much, except that I use my mind to attack a lot, so if you ever feel woozy during a battle, tell me…okay?”
Spune twirled his spoon in his fingers. “Sure.”
Raylar crawled a little closer to the youngling, and put one claw on Spune’s knee. His body radiated seriousness.
“You have to do it. You can remember that for me, right?”
Spune shrugged. “I don’t forget things that easily. Especially not life-threatening stuff like this.”
Raylar grinned and rose. He walked to the window and looked outside, lost in thought for a moment. Spune shoved off from his bed and rushed to join him.
“You know…” Spune began slowly, causing Raylar to turn. “It looked to me like you knew what type of shadow I owned.”
Raylar stiffened.
“You own it?” he snarled, an edge of fear in his voice.
Spune shook his head quickly.
“Nope. It tried to kill me before, believe me. But then when I defended myself, it looked…I don’t know…kind of surprised. I tried to calm it down, but it jumped out of my window and I never saw it again.”
Spune frowned a little at the memory, a slight chill running down his spine.
“Except for now.” he added.
Raylar shook his head and looked out the window again. “They’re called NightCaria.”
“Caria means “flowing like water” in Turkish!” Spune suddenly said, remembering what the magic box said.
“That makes sense, since the creatures like to turn to liquid. Where’d you hear that from?” Raylar asked, cocking his head at the youngling.
“Oh…um, see, the humans here have these boxes that run on the electricity element. They show all sorts of things with a powerful magic that pulls signals from the sky and makes them into moving pictures! I was watching a history show and it said a bunch of stuff about Turkey. That’s where Caria comes from. It’s Turkish…meaning it’s from Turkey.”
Raylar rubbed his chin with his left claws.
“Interesting.” he replied. “I heard Shadewing talking about that. He said the boxes were called TVs.”
“Tee-vees?” Spune queried. He smiled to himself. “That’s kind of a cool name.”
“Well, if there are a lot of them, they’re called TVs, but if there’s just one, it’s called a TV. TV stands for ‘television’.” Raylar explained.
“That’s awesome!” Spune cried, his eyes sparkling with a new light. “Do you want to see one?”
Raylar was surprised.
“You can see one around here? Where?”
Spune took him by the hand. “Sure, well, not here, I don’t have the lightning element running in the taming strands I have in here.”
“Cables.” Raylar corrected. “They’re called cables.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
***
The moon blazed bright in the sky. Its light cast itself down on the world below, washing it in a thin layer of silver. Spune basked in its glow, his pupils expanding, reflecting the white orb in both. Beside him, Raylar waited patiently, slightly awed by the sight. Soon, Spune was finished, and he relaxed, smiling at his ally.
They were sitting on the roof of one of the houses near the outskirts of Cansad City. Spune had chosen the house that was the closest to the border, just in case that if someone saw them and reacted in a ho