Boundless ep-2
"Ha! You have failed to kill me once already, what makes you think you can do it now in your weakened state?! Your nothing but bugs waiting to be crushed by me!" Said the robed man who now stood still, a few yards away from me.
"Stay behind me." Said the shadowed figure moving a few feet towards the man. "I won't allow you to harm him." That voice, I remembered now, it was Shadow's voice, the voice from my dream.
"I'm aiming to harm you first, then that stupid human." he replied quickly charging towards Shadow with the knife in hand. Shadow quickly dodged the attack rearing his hand back to attack, but before he could close his fist, the man had already stabbed Shadow with a different blade in the other hand; it had slid straight into his gut. "Now, how about I let you watch as this idiot boy dies before you." he said moving away from Shadow and started walking towards me. Shadow tried to turn and move towards the man, but soon fell to the ground as blood surrounded his body.
"Shadow?!" I called out to him but he didn't answer. What was I going to do? What was even going on? Why was this happening?
"He wanted to protect you, even though he was already dying when he came here. How pathetic!" he said with disgust as he charged towards me with the knife in hand before swinging it downwards at me. I didn't have time to think all I could do was roll off the bed and out of harm's way. "Ha, how pathetic. This might actually be more amusing, won't it spirit? To watch this weak human try and escape his death." he swung the blade at me again, this time I didn't move quick enough and he cut into my arm slightly. I couldn't think straight of what to do, so I turned my back and ran towards Shadow only to fall beside him.
"Shadow?" I asked as I looked over his body, now that I was closer I could see him better, he was naked, only covered by the black fur all over his body, some of which had been matted together with the dark red liquid surrounding his body, as I looked over the rest of his body more carefully I could see a tail that was attached to the lower part of his back right about at his butt. His hands had a sort of pad on the bottom of them, and short claws at the top half of his fingers, he also had a short muzzle, he was like some kind of half dog half man, it was weird, but in an odd way seemed to fit him. I didn't have time to think of what he was or how he came to be, I had to save him but how? I never knew anything about medical stuff, and the man was only a yard or two away. I had to do something.
"How sweet, choosing to die together. Have it your way." he said with a perk in his voice as he relished in the sight of my panic, walking ever so slowly to savor the moment.
A thought rushed into my mind, maybe CPR? What am I saying? I don't know how to give CPR to a human, let alone a half dog person. But it was worth a try, so I did my best to role him on his back, his wound quickly caught my eye, it was bleeding uncontrollably, I began to look over the front of his body without realizing it, he was nicely built, even through his fur you could see the firm muscles that covered his body, my eyes slowly dragged down his body before I snapped back to reality and turned my attention back to bringing Shadow back to life, I slowly bent my head down gently, placing my hands on his chest. His heartbeat was fading, I had to act quickly. I closed my eyes and placed my lips on his not knowing what to do. Suddenly a cylinder of light burst upwards from below us, as his heart started pounding fast.
"What the hell is this?!" said the man stopping suddenly.
My body felt strange, like it was on fire, I couldn't explain it but it felt amazing, it felt like I was overflowing with power. I still didn't understand what was going on, but I didn't even care right now. Suddenly our lips were separated as Shadow stood up picking me up with him.
"Forgive me." Shadow said as the light was still coursing around us, making his black fur shimmer. He was holding me close to him as the cylinder of light began to fade. His wound and mine were both gone now.
"Sh-Shadow." I said suddenly feeling like my energy was being drained quickly from my body. "Don't let go."
"I won't I promise. I will protect you." he said holding on to me tightly.
"Ha! Simple light shows won't help you! So you can stand?! Your still going to die!!" the man said in a fury, charging quickly towards me and Shadow.
"Banished into darkness by that of heaven's shadow; shadow prison!" Shadow called out as if casting some sort of enchantment, suddenly a shadow appeared, and creating a huge ball that surrounded and engulfed the man.
"What is this?! Spirits unbound to earth can't use spells like this!" the man panicked smashing the knife into the dark walls of the shadowy sphere surrounding him.
"Pierce the waking demons and fade into eternal darkness; dark spikes!" Shadow said pointing his hand towards the ball, as he did shadowy spikes formed outside the sphere, shortly after forming they shot inside the sphere completely destroying every trace of the man. After the ball and spikes disappeared he looked down at me picking me up gently. "Thank you Ken." was all he said before laying me on the bed.
"I... feel so tired." I said trying not to fall asleep. "Wh-what happened?"
"Shh, I'll explain later." he said gently looking into my eyes. His bright green eyes were the last thing I seen before I fell asleep.
//
"sir! Come look at this!" said a lieutenant.
"What is it?" asked the elder captain who walked over to the man sitting in front of a large computer.
"This spirit, his rank was only level 2, and he was just minutes away from death, but now look." he said clicking a few buttons before the screen changed showing a black anthro wolf's face and an assortment of stats below it, and at the very bottom was a list of current stats; heartbeat, brain patterns, energy levels, all of which were blank. "The spirit X-7, otherwise known as Shadow, has broken the summons we placed, and has somehow eradicated the tracers put in his body."
"What was the last reading you got on X-7?" The old man asked with slight anger in his voice.
"The only reading we could recover was an overly high surge of power, power I've only seen Rank 7 Generals emit." The lieutenant responded nervously.
"Yes, I see, is there any instances that relate to anything like this?" The captain regained his composure and looked away from the screen.
"no sir."
"very odd, send in a recon group to see what's going on." he said gripping his cane tightly. "Could it be...?"
"What is it sir, what do you think could do this?"
"I'm not entirely sure. To be on the safe side send out recon group 3 to survey the area and the anomaly." he commanded as he left the room. "Also, send out a few hell raisers to aid in our recon mission."
"Sir, yes sir!"
\
"Hey, it's time for lunch, you need to go." said the nurse waking me up.
I bolted out of the bed quickly not realizing what I was doing. "Where am I?!"
"Infirmary still, where else would you be? Not like you go to class anyways."
"But... Shadow? The man?" was it all just a dream? Was I going insane? Could I honestly not tell the difference between dream and reality? "Oh sorry. Right, well see ya around thanks." I said signing out and leaving towards the lunch room.
[Oh well it was probably just another crazy dream.] I thought to myself
[it wasn't a dream Ken.] Shadow said making me look around for him.
"Where are you?" I whispered.
[I'm hiding for the time being, I'm talking to you through your thoughts.]
[What?! You can read my mind?] I asked in a bit of shock.
[No I can only hear what you call out for me to hear.]
[What is that supposed to mean?] I tried my best to put an annoyed tone in the thought.
[I can't see what's in your mind; I can only hear you when you cast your thoughts to me.] He replied. [We are bound together now for the best.] He said which didn't comfort me at all.
[What do you mean 'bound together?] I asked a bit confused.
[When you kissed me, you bound our souls together.]
"What?! I didn't kiss you!!" I yelled aloud not realizing it till it was too late. "My bad." I said giving a slight fake laugh, everyone shortly brushed it aside going back to their own conversations. [It wasn't a kiss! It was CPR! And what do you mean by bound? I better not am married to a guy!]
[Marriage is between two people whom love each other. You do not love me, therefore it's not marriage.]
[So what does this binding do exactly?] I asked as I input my ID code into the computer and paid for my lunch.
[I was sent to this world to simply destroy demons like the one you ran into the other night and today, who had escaped from the spirit world, but after failing to destroy the demon the first time I was being summoned back for.. something, but when I heard you call my name, I knew I had to help you.] As he said that his voice seemed to echo in my head causing a headache to form.
[That still wouldn't explain why you can read my mind, before you said you could only talk to me through my dreams, now it's 24/7. This is all so confusing, I'm at school, and I have a life to live. Just please leave me alone.] I said sitting at a table, trying to rub away the headache. I couldn't even find enough minds to pay attention to my friend's conversation.
[I understand.] Was all he said before my mind only heard the sounds of surrounding chatter of nearby friends. Even though my mind was quiet from his voice I couldn't get him or anything that had happened off my mind, it was becoming harder to focus on even simple things like eating.
"I'm gonna go home early you guys, I'm not doing so well, fever I think." I said aloud as I picked up my tray of untouched food.
"Skipper." Lakey said from behind me, placing one of his hands on my head. "You feel fine."
"yea I know, but school sucks so I'll see you guys later." I said walking to the schools main office. "I'm going to use the phone." was all I said before walking behind the desk and dialing a number a few rings later mother picked up. "Hey, I'm not feeling so swell after all. Can you come get me?"
"Sure thing hunny, I'll be right there." she replied before hanging up.
[Shadow?] I asked as I sat outside the office, slightly curious to test the limits of his ability to hear me or catch my thoughts when I want.
[Yes? What is it?] He replied almost instantly.
[I have a few minutes, I want to know more. What are these demons and what are you?]
[I am a spirit, a being like yourself but of another world, we exist in rank, law, and power, but above all we exist for the peace of this world and our own. Demons, are the same but the opposite; spirits just like me, but corrupt with evil and hatred that live on the life of another, and sometimes even just their thoughts. There are different jobs for us spirits, like that of your world, I am an exterminator a low ranking spirit sent to the human world to get rid of low ranking demons like the one you had encountered. Since I was unsuccessful in destroying the demon, I was ordered by law to be summoned immediately back to the spirit world to be remodeled.] Shadow took a short break from his thoughts. [When you had called my name, I heard it in my heart, I couldn't let an innocent soul be taken.]
[Thank you.] I asked feeling slightly guilty, his injuries and pain, I was to blame. I quickly tried changing my thoughts out of fear of him hearing me think something. [So what is Rank? Like a form of grading?]
[Rank is something that signals a demon or spirits charge and strength, having a higher rank allows one to also cast stronger spells. Right now my rank is about level 2. As you fight more, your rank rises allowing you to cast stronger spells, but the stronger the spell the longer the incantation is, and the more charge it will take to cast it. If your rank is high enough, you can perform low rank spells without an incantation but they won't be as strong as the full spell.]
[Wow, after today I'm definitely checking myself into a mental hospital.] I thought aloud, not really caring if he heard.
[You're not crazy. It's just a part of the worlds you never knew about. No one does.] Shadow's thoughts seemed to echo in my head as I seen my mother's tacky blue truck drive up to the pick-up area.
[I'm still really confused about all this, and have a lot more questions, but mother's here, so be quiet.] I said as I walked to the truck as she walked in to sign me out.
[She can't hear us.]
[But I can't hear her when you're in my head. So be quiet.]
[I understand.] He said as my mind was once again put into silence.
"So what's wrong hunny?" mother asked making her way back into the driver seat before placing a hand on my head. "You don't feel like you're running fever."
"My stomach is really messed up today and I feel real sick." I lied as I turned on the radio to some random rock station hoping to blare out my headache.
"Ok, well I'll drop you off and pick up something from the store to help you." she said before becoming silent.