Arrowhead

    The clouds, the stars, and the rays of light in between. That's where we'll live; that's where we'll play.

    "Huh?"

    Gorian felt warmth. He opened his eyes and watched the flames entertain the night air. Normally there would be a cool breeze blowing onto his backside, but at the moment he felt nothing of the sort. He spied Kaelin stretching her paws over the fire and relaxed.

    "Did you say something, Kaelin?" Gorian asked.

    "I'm always saying stuff," she replied, "Since when have you ever cared to listen?"

    "I've always listened," Gorian assured her as he sat up. He watched as she turned to face him a little. He could barely see her colours, but he knew that there was an array of blues and greys. Her white chin reflected the firelight, but no more than her hilted blade protruding ever so slightly from her black hooded cloak. He rarely saw her in this cloak; only when she was prepared to defend Meovanni. And just like those other times, her hood laid on her back.

    "Am I not just an old relic to you?" she asked him, "Just your parent? Someone who doesn't understand what it's like to be in your life?"

    "I never thought that. You're not even old."

    In fact, Gorian thought, he could not remember her aging at all. While it was true, he may not have noticed the subtle changes over the time he spent with Kaelin, he still felt that Kaelin was no worse physically or mentally than when he was a kid.

    "I had so much to teach you, Gorian. There are things in this world you were supposed to know. Evil sleeps in every shadow, dances in every sun beam, and attacks every soul. But you go out on a friend's lost vendetta. Mar had a destiny too, but that destiny is no longer his. One after another, furres waste their lives on regret, pity, denial, remorse, and hatred. They slip through destiny's hands and are lost for years in a void of forgotten. Eventually Dark Harvest will impale their souls and keep them in his garden cave."

    "I don't understand."

    Kaelin sneered, "You never listen."

    "I listened!" Gorian plead, "I wanted to understand! I want to understand! But I'm not like you. I'm not a warrior. I can't solve riddles. I don't have your years of experience outside Meovanni."

    "But you felt your destiny?"

    "Felt it?"

    "You sense it!" she shouted. Gorian's guardian stormed toward him; her eyes were glaring into his skull, "You hear music and you see your destiny. You watch the stars and you see your grandfather. You see years of experience in your mind, but you refuse to listen."

    Kaelin stopped and stared down into him, Gorian stood and matched her eye level. There was something, he thought. But it was usually dismissed as a careless thought.

    "The song in Slen," he whispered, "I heard it before. Mar did too. But I can't remember when I heard it. And the shield... I bought it without hesitation. It was as if it belonged to me. Kaelin, you must tell me what's going on."

    Kaelin blinked. She reached back with her arms and pulled the hood over her head. As she brought her paws to her side, her physique changed. She was melting and falling apart.

    "Kaelin?!?" Gorian yelled.

    She was nothing but water now. Her cloak was the only thing still real as it landed on the ground. The water rushed away, carrying the black fabric with it. And Gorian felt it again. Destiny was moving away.

    "Kaelin!" he shouted. He dashed off into the darkness, following the water and cloak. He had already lost them, but he continued to run in their direction anyway. Gorian needed answers. He needed to listen.

    He spotted shimmers of light and slowed. They were not so much lights but actually small reflective objects swirling around a dark presence in the centre. He studied the presence and halted. It was a cloak. But the colour seemed different.

    The cloak turned and Gorian saw whiskers, but only at first. As the figure stopped, facing him, Gorian saw a nose and dark indents of what he concluded were the eyes. He approached the figure and it's surrounding swirls carefully.

    The reflectors stopped motionless. There, hung in midair, were dozens of arrowheads. The cloak was visibly purple and inside the hood, Gorian saw a smirk.

    "We've met before," she said.

    "We have?"

    The figure's pink paws reached her head and pulled back her hood. She was feline too ... with purple hair ... but he still could not see her eyes.

    "What in Ayem are you?" Gorian asked.

    "I am Damoxte," she answered, "And I have a lot of time on my paws. But you don't, so let's get started."

    Just as Gorian remembered her name, she impaled him with her arm. In his last frightened gasp, his surroundings glowed. He saw shadows of hundreds of furres, each motionless and hung to large thin poles.

    "Can you hear me?" someone asked.

    Gorian moaned. He watched as a canine dipped her paw into teal dye. She took it out, her fingers dripping with colour and approached his face above her.

    "You have the makings of a vamp," she said, "I could make you one of us if you wish."

    Gorian could only moan in response.

    "I'm glad," the canine smiled, "I'll get started."

    She stroked his nose with dye and sang a sweet melody.

    Gorian blinked and found himself in strange surroundings. He smelled sap. It was as if it were all around him. Gorian coughed. It was not that pleasant to choke on such a strong smell.

    He felt someone holding his paw. He looked and spotted his guardian over him. In the background he could see Damoxte and Mar looking on at the side of a wooden wall.

    "Gorian," Kaelin whimpered, "I don't want you to die. How are we supposed to continue without you?"

    "You must keep going, Commander," he replied, "You must find the other demons. You must destroy them."

    "It would be difficult," Mar said, "Particularly without the sky."

    "Whenever you need help, just look up and I'll be there," Gorian continued, this time looking into Mar's black hair, "Whenever you require rain, just ask for me. Eventually we will all be together again as one."

    "Who will command the mission?" Mar asked.

    "Kliam, you are a skilled archer, but you're no leader. Damoxte will continue in my absence and you two will follow her. The Kingdom of Xte must be preserved. The demons must be destroyed."

    Gorian coughed again. Kaelin squeezed his paw. He looked into her blue eyes and smiled. Gorian blinked and the face changed. She still had blue eyes, but her face was pale white.

    "Gorian," she whispered, "The stars are coming out."

    He shook off his fatigue and stood. Moonlit pulled his arm and giggled. The smell of sap was replaced with the smell of pine. It was dark, but her red hair shone brightly with only the aid of the crescent moon. Moonlit tugged on his arm arm, indicating it was time. They ran to the clearing and glanced up. There shone a star, only one, but brilliantly lit nonetheless. The star of the Warrior Gorian, a furre who lived a century ago.

    "I love this time of night," Moonlit commented.

    Gorian stood behind her and wrapped his arms around Moonlit's warm body. Her paws crossed and met his as she leaned back into him.

    "You still love this after so many years?" he asked.

    "You act like we're old," she laughed, "We're only seventeen."

    He leaned against her face and kissed her cheek, "I could stay like this for years."

    "Mmm," Moonlit sighed, "At least until sunrise."

    "Lets wait for sunrise."

    Moonlit lifted her paw and stroked under his chin. She started to purr as they watched the stars come out. Soon constellations were recognizable and the stories began again. The sweet air danced until sunrise.

    "Gorian?" his father called, "What are you looking at?"

    "The stars," he replied as he looked up from the window. He could only see his father's shadow, but he recognized the figure well enough. Gorian's bedroom would not be lit until morning anyway.

    "It's almost sunrise kiddo," his father said sternly, "I thought you were asleep. Were you up all this time?"

    "You said I was big!" Gorian protested, "I'm four years old."

    "That's not big enough I'm afraid. Your older sister is sound asleep. You should do the same. We don't want you cranky tomorrow."

    "I'm not cranky!"

    "That wasn't very convincing, now go to bed."

    Gorian sulked and dove into his bed. His father scolded him for doing so. It was an old bed, he lectured. Gorian soon tuned him out. Without even realizing it, he had fallen asleep listening to his father's voice.

    But by morning he awoke to his shaking room. Gorian tried to sit up, but couldn't. He managed to roll onto his side but froze. Mud was pouring into his room. The door gave way with a loud crack and he screamed for his father.

    Gorian heard a crack behind him and he dove under his blankets. He felt mud sweeping against his covers but he remained very still. His blankets suddenly pulled back and Gorian found himself facing a stale ragged black feline.

    He screamed.

    He was the last of his officers to receive an element from Pidth. Gorian had watched his colleagues cry out in agony when the canine gave Damoxte and Kliam the elements of time and land respectively. Elements were not suited for adults to gain possession. Their bodies had to adapt to them.

    "Are you okay, Gorian?" Kaelin asked.

    Gorian nodded. This was necessary. How could they defeat demons with only swords and arrowheads? He glanced back up at Pidth as the slightly aging canine smiled.

    "Good luck, Gorian the Warrior," he said, "May your quest be successful."

    The canine returned to the fire and prayed.

    "What are you doing?" Gorian moaned.

    The vamp looked back up to her patient, hanging in the hammock above her. She kept praying as she dipped her paw into light blue dye. She approached Gorian, with colour on her fingers, and started to massage his scalp.

    "We're about halfway done," she replied as she lathered dye into his hair, "You'll be a vamp by morning."

    "But I don't... I don't want..."

    "Shhh..."

    Gorian sobbed. He could not stop crying. He was in this strange woman's arms after she told him that his family was dead. And now she rocked him on her straw bed. His eyes were too blurred with water to see her, but he did not want to anyway. He kept his face buried in her lap. He almost did not notice the fading smell of stale air coming from the scary furre. Perhaps he was not so big after all.

    The fire popped something with a loud noise. Gorian looked up at his friend and grinned with mischief.

    "Smell that air, Markliam!"

    Mar took in the wind for himself, but ended up coughing it out. He gasped and waved the smoke away, hoping that the clean air would fill in.

    "Smells like wood burning."

    "It's the same air that our ancestors breathed years ago," Gorian told him with eyes full of wonder, "And here we are breathing it now."

    "Hmm." Mar replied with a cough, "I've known you for four years now. You don't talk about your family much."

    Gorian stared back into the fire, "There's not much to talk about. I don't remember them."

    "Maybe you're lucky that way," Mar suggested, "I remember mine everyday... sometimes I think about them for hours. From my earliest memories to when the vamps came and killed them."

    "No," Gorian sighed, "You're better off with any memory of your family. I know nothing except some random legend of my warrior ancestor. He has a star so I can only see him at night - if that according to season. And so what if I do see it? A star doesn't tell me anything. It just shines there. Kaelin tells me nothing but riddles and she's disappointed that I don't get them. But sometimes .. sometimes I feel something. Like a strange melody in my head or a group of clouds... sometimes I feel something in the wind. I dunno. I just wish someone would tell me."

    "Maybe the wind will tell you," Mar said.

    Gorian sat there in the wind. He knew it was cold, but he could not feel it. Actually he could not feel anything. It was so bizarre. Here he was, sitting in what should be three feet of snow. And he felt nothing. He wondered how long he could keep this form.

    Finally he spotted her walking, almost naked, hunched over for warmth. She was determined and stupid, he thought. Who would keep going after losing their supplies? Mount Kuisp was a dangerous mountain.

    "Damoxte," he called.

    The commander looked up to her superior officer and stared. She did not look shocked to see a dead furre. On the contrary, she appeared to have expected it.

    "Gorian," she panted, "Are you a hallucination or a ghost?"

    "It doesn't matter," he said, "I would say you were out of line either way ... and out of uniform."

    "I can't stop for you ... I have to reach the top. I need Pidth to give me another element."

    "You can't do that. You can only have one element."

    "I can have more."

    "You are obsessed," Gorian stated, "You became as dangerous as the demons we seek to destroy."

    "We destroyed them all!" Damoxte shouted.

    "Not all. You were lead by one."

    Damoxte shivered, "Ayem... Kliam is demonized?"

    "Yes. And you have wasted your life and lost your destiny. You will be dead when the hour is over."

    Damoxte knelt and huddled her knees under her chin. Gorian watched as the almost naked feline slowly ceased her twitching. She was a fine officer though occasionally he was not too thrilled of her tactics. Now there she was, curled up and dead. It was too bad. It would be difficult to complete the mission without the furre of time.

    Gorian awoke and his surroundings darkened once more. Damoxte pulled her cloak back over her head as the arrowheads swirled around her body again.

    "Do you understand now?" she asked him.

    Gorian replayed all of the memories. There were so many and they all went by so quickly, almost like flashes of light. There were melodies and smells, friends and enemies... it was difficult to remember who was who.

    "Do you understand now?" Damoxte asked him again.

    Gorian shook his head, "No."

    "Then you weren't listening."

    "That's not true!" Gorian shouted, "I tried! I just don't understand."

    "You did not listen. As such, you won't remember any of it when you wake up."

    Gorian awoke. That was an agonizing dream, he thought. He tried to remember it, but it soon faded away. His attention was diverted to his tail. Someone was painting it. He craned his head to see behind him. His body was teal. It was as if someone added green pigment to his fur.

    "Take him down Tka," a familiar voice said.

    "He wanted to become a vamp," the painter replied.

    "No he didn't," the voice continued, "I can tell. His blood is not cursed. If he wanted to become a vamp on his own free will, his blood would have changed. You're just painting him for now. Let him down."

    "You are out of favour with us. Rumor has it you don't care about being a vamp."

    "Quite right, I don't care. If you won't let him down, I'll do it myself. Brace yourself, Gorian."

    She knew my name, Gorian thought. His mind started to clear from the early morning fatigue and he was able to place the voice with a name. He almost called to her, but felt himself falling suddenly. He hit his chin on the floor and the rest of his body followed. A paw held his chin as Gorian cleared the remaining fatigue away.

    He was looking into the eyes of Espio.