A Soul Seeker's Tail
It was turning out to be the coldest winter he'd ever been through he concluded, watching the world of white dance around like a swarming hive of angry bees outside his upstairs window. The yellow square of light on the ground brought enough illumination to the Willow tree he'd raised and cared for himself to see that the weather was also having its terrible affect on it too. The roots facing the wind had been pulled up leaving the tree wilted in the direction of its travel. He set his mug down on the sill and began to pinch the skin on his chest into folds in his paws; the cold weather always intensified the pain he felt from the scar in his chest and the with it being especially fierce this season tremendously made the pains sharper and deeper. "Mmm... ugh!" He fell to lean against the wall with his gaze still peering down at the yellow snow bellow clutching his pain till it subsided and numbed. This cabin had always been a place he could come to feel at peace with himself and free from all his internal battles, like the wars raging inside him took a temporary ceased fire so that he could enjoy a bit of solitude. Not this time though, from the moment he'd arrived it had felt like the coldness had finally reached this sanctuary and infected it with it's darkness. His breathing labored and increased and his heart began to pump more rapidly in harmony with his growing anxiety. That was it! He couldn't stay here any longer, he had to run and find another place, another place of solitude not yet infected by the invertible looming darkness which shadowed him. As quickly as his paws would carry him he grabbed the keys to his Defender 90 and bolted for the basement as if running from a vicious predator.
The truck started after several heart stopping minutes had passed and his anxiety had grown to an almost unbearable level. He didn't even wait for the garage door to open, the truck blasted through it backwards and flew up the inclined driveway jumping it like a ramp and landing into a snow embankment on the other side of the single lane road. The Crushing of metal and snow barely fazed him as he shifted into first and pressed on the gas with the steering wheel torqued as far as it would right. The supercharged engine brought all wheels to a sudden spin and almost faster than he could correct the steering, even with four wheel drive, the truck fishtailed out of the embankment and forward side ways down the road. There were no signs no road markings and no lights just a partially snow spotted road littered with negligence in the form of fissures and pot holes. The truck bounced with the subtle hills and bends in the road and the speedometer rose to dangerous and possibly uncontrollable speeds, his only warning that it would only end badly. Snow piled up on the windshield faster than the wipers could clear it and then without warning they stopped frozen in place in the forty below temperature but some pounding on the windshield seemed to persuade them to keep going. He was putting himself in danger and he knew this; it wasn't like he was being tracked down and hunted again, yet, he couldn't stop running recklessly. After a while the road came to a level and flattened out between a row of trees that went on for as far as he could see. He'd never been out this way before but it was time to run in a new direction again and so he did, he felt that his indecision to travel this road in the past may have been some kind of subconscious intuition that it would be needed for this exact purpose in the future. To his surprise the warmth from the heater suddenly stopped emitting from the vents and the cold was right behind it ready for its failure. The blast from the sharp unexpected cold made his scar burn so intensely he half expected to see the fur on his chest engulfed in flames. He rubbed vigorously at it clutching and wrenching at his skin trying to match the pain with another but this time it was too strong.
The car started to veer into the shoulder and the bumpier ride only managed to steal his attention for long enough to jerk it back into the lane. His divided attention between his pain and the road continued for several miles per hour as the truck continued to gain speed. Doubled over against the steering wheel his eyes began to focus on something dark moving as fast as he was through the trees along the right side of his car. That was impossible! The car began to veer again as his attention remained on the object swiftly dodging trees and gaining even more speed to move ahead of him. The object disappeared ahead of him and from his angle he could no longer, despite his best efforts, see it. Absorbed in curiosity and the pain kind of numb he allowed the scar in his eye to activate becoming the window of his soul and in that second the world through that eye changed drastically. To an Untrained viewer the world would be seen as rainbow of the brightest and most vivid colors some so bright it was certain to give the viewer the worst migraine ever felt before. Immediately and to his horror the object turned out to be a creature as it contained a subconscious governing soul over its physical embodiment and was now travelling perpendicular to his car headed for a collision just a few feet ahead. Panic set in and not thinking he yanked the wheel to the left and slammed on the brake pedal sending the truck sideways into the hill of snow on the shoulder at speeds over one hundred miles per hour and then into the wall of trees at eighty. The first tree landed into the front right wheel well with the truck facing into the forest with all the tires some several inches off the ground. From there he watched the ground become his only view through the windshield as the truck rotated vertically in the air against the trunks of the trees, then one savage blow knocked the truck upside down on its roof on the ground sending it skidding across both lanes of traffic into and up the other embankment finally coming to rest right-side up.
Slowly a constant wailing sound began to increase in volume and as it did it became recognizable. His eyes fluttered open to reveal a fuzzy blurry world through one eye and what looked to be the liquid mesh of many colors, as if some one had poured water over the canvas of a freshly finished acrylic painting. He groaned and attempted to pick his head up off of what ever it head come to rest on. As it lifted, for a brief moment the noise in the background stopped, but as his strength gave way the sound came back instantly, blaring loud and continuous. He realized that he was laying against his horn and delicately he moved his head off of the button trying to find some relief in the silence. His head throbbed and his right shoulder felt like it was pulsing with high voltage electricity, in fact the more he tried to compare it's pain the more it began to feel like it was burning, and when the stinging suddenly sharpened it snapped him up. Something prevented him from lifting any more than a few inches and made the pain deepen bringing out the beast suppressed within him in the form of a very primal roar. He laid there pondering his situation and what possibilities could have him pinned down... he wasn't being smashed down and with the roof being reinforced with roll bars it couldn't have collapsed that much; and what of that creature where was he, had he struck him? He was a blinded animal snarling and growling, a truly threatened beast with it's back in a corner. He possessed no logic or reasoning power just the knowledge that he was injured and unable to move. There was a twig snap to his left and the connection was immediate, his sensitive and superior ears honed allowing him to recognize the details of it down to proportions, the weight and force exerted to snap it and he snarled knowing it was the blatantly placed footstep of that creature who'd caused his accident. "You have NO idea what you're messing with! Release me at ONCE!" His voice roared thunderously carrying out into the cold still air of the night and returned as an echo in the sky reverberating for several seconds. Another step towards him and he wrenched under the pressure of what ever was holding his shoulder. The pain put him in his place and he remained still again but not silent. "I will banish your soul from the realm of eternity if you do not cease immediately!" He snarled at the pain once more as he tried to pull away to stare the creature in its face. "I know what you are." The voice's casual tone stuck a nerve within him and he lashed out driving the claws of both his paws despite the pain into the seat. "You FOOL! Then you know very well what I will do to you!' The creature chuckled and went from a casual to a now more disdain tone making it seem as if the creature was mocking him. "I know what you are, and I also know that once you've lost any amount of blood no matter how small the chain of energy which feeds your power here in this realm is broken. You're bleeding PsycKorious... "
He was stunned that he knew so much about him even his name. "You've been following, no, stalking me!" "I also know the where abouts of a particular stone and who possesses it, the only fool here is you! And you dare try to threaten me! Peh! Who are you to threaten me? Especially when you know of your situation just as well as I do, you're in no position believe me!" The voice coldly laughed again and was right. As his mind began to wonder considering the different plans and scenarios he was able to come up with on how to free himself and fight this enemy; the voice spoke out again interrupting his scheming. "Besides... I think you have more to fear from the car you're pinned in than from me, the innocent outside observer, .... at the moment." He thought about what he said or more or less the way it was said and the lengthy pause before making the prompt statement hinting at just how temporary his innocence might sustain. "Are you saying that you have nothing to do with this?" "That I am, I am also intimating that you might better think that pain you're feeling, connect the dots and such. Ya know... utilize that natural god given intelligence you've been graciously vested." 'Cocky bastard,' he thought before taking his advice. It was clear the pain was deep and as he wiggled slightly he felt something from the tip of that pain all the way up and out of his body. "Have you figured it out yet?' "Yes! Why don't you leave?! Unless you plan on helping some time soon your presence is just a distraction." His patience for the being's arrogance was wearing thin. "Ya know? You should be more considerate of how you talk to a possible friend and even more so to a possible enemy. I could make you die a slow and terrible death and would never have to lift a finger seeing is how you've half done the work for me any ways." Instinctively he snarled and began to carefully pull his body in different directions to see if one would offer a way out. Who ever this creature was he sure as hell knew how to put himself on his shit list. However, he recalled the creature talking about how he knew about the blood curse of his family, he was sure if the creature still believed that, that it had no idea that he unlike his brothers sisters and Ancients was the only one who'd learned along side an Aestoss to harness the power into special storage cells only his body possessed. He was a walking battery so even with out the damn stone he had reserved energy to power his ability. If this creature thought it had him with just the blood then he was not so cursed and doomed like it was confident he was. "Stranger may you be warned, foe or friend alike!"
He'd struggled for several minutes amidst the ticks of the settling wreck and the howl of the wind between the trees. Now what would he do? He had nowhere to go! A single tear he let slip overflowed the dam that was his eyelid in the assumption that it was hidden from the guest outside. Every time he safely found a destination he would reflect on how he'd gotten there and the carelessness that drove him without regard, on all the near misses and instances that could have been. He was still alive and now this was his sign to stop running. While relaxed against the steering wheel tears flowing more frequently but still slow letting the ambiance circulating him sooth him he noticed two things, the guest stopped talking and moving and that his pain had numbed from the outside temperature which had comfortably crept its way in undetected. This was not the life he'd imagined for himself, he was at one time richer than he knew what to do with money and power wise but as far as to society and life it self he held an un repayable debt. No matter how much good he spent his life doing for others unselfishly he'd never even come close to forgiving himself.
The blades of grass were so perfect and soft like a bed of down as they lay there in each other's arms under a warm mid day sun. The breeze would blow slowly at times creeping its way between each strand of fur on their bodies and then fast at times blowing his ears over in that goofy way that they did when Syke would first wake in the morning. It was a simple pleasure that he looked forward to every morning because there was nothing he could figure was better than waking with a smile or in some cases even a giggle. He loved the way Syke would wake up so innocently and almost every time forget that that was what he was giggling about. It was cute for sure. They lay there staring into each other's eyes looking past the fur and physical flesh to the beauty for which they both held inside. Reading each other's thoughts like books. That was the beauty of them, he'd always thought, they never shared too many words but only because they didn't have too. It felt like that they were connected on a subconscious level and, he chuckled as he thought about it, the main reason why they barely spoke was because they were always finishing each others sentences or ending them with "I was just thinking the same thing," half way through saying them. Knox brought his paw to meet Syke's face and like he knew he would Syke leaned in, closed his eyes, and nuzzled the pads of his very warm paw. And there it was the first words of the day, "I Love you Nokturous!" He placed a single finger to Syke's lips and spoke softly that it was matched by the volume of the lazy breeze that was blowing at that moment. "No need to waste words, besides, I'd prefer to FEEL your love the way I do. Words are merely words my love, but then, you already knew this." Syke smiled and gingerly licked the pad which was pressed against his lips and watched Knox' face express the warm tingling sensations that his tongue sent through his body. All he could manage to that was a small gasp for the suddenness of it and then a moan as the tingles did their job through every nerve ending in his body, it was when Syke did this that he felt completely awake and energized and it never failed.
They had fallen asleep holding each other under the stars, watched the sun start a brand new day, and had since found no more important reason to get up and leave the beauty in which they were surrounded themselves included. It was a beautiful picturesque scene a grassy meadow with scattered trees surrounding a crystal clear lake on one side and snow capped mountains on the other but for them with out the other in it, it was just that, a beautiful picture; it was only a reality with the other present. The purring of his mate brought Knox back and then to realize there was a face buried within the fur on his chest. Everything about Syke made him smile, it was like that from the beginning and four years later it was still there like every time was the first; he couldn't really say that it surprised him especially since they were more than just mates. They're souls were perfectly matched opposite-to-opposite and similarity-to-similarity. Knox ran a paw through the soft long fur on top of Syke's head. He loved doing that but when he'd put up his Mohawk it made it impossible to do. He looked over his shoulder behind him at their clothes they had hung to dry on a low-lying branch and noticed Syke had done the same. "What's the rush my wolf?" He looked down and smiled into his soul. "You looked too, curiosity win?" Syke stuck his tongue out at him and furrowed his brow in that cute sarcastic way. "I'll use it on ya again if you're not careful!" "You know it's not my cup of torture..." "It's ok Wolf, I'd never want to torture you for - 'It would be the real thing if I did." They smiled and looked at each other as if they hadn't expected they'd both say it at the same time.
He shivered and had all but given up hope when the voice abruptly interrupted the ambient silence. I suppose I could help you if you asked nicely. He sat there watching the color of his breath through his soul eye as it formed clouds exiting his muzzle. "Please Sir? Would you mind lending a paw? I apologize for my behavior earlier I'm currently beside myself and not in my logical state of mind." Which was true and accounted for many years prior to now but the accident gave him an excuse to be of his state. "Well there's a start, Sir... I like that, and as for your apology I'll accept it this time but I won't be expecting that behavior to appear again." "You're too kind..." He felt something inside him churn and he retracted his soul from his body leaving it behind where it lie to see from high up in the air above the wreck, the creature behind him outside of the car holding an object of color which he recognized without hesitation! He returned to his body and lunged upwards into what was pinning him forcing it through more flesh and out through a fresh hole in his chest. It hurt far more than he expected it to and for that, the rage that fueled him took the hit and calmed quite a bit. He had nothing left to do anything so drastic again with. "HOW DID YOU GET THAT!?" "My my, It would seem that I've struck a nerve and all I've done is possess this! Calm down Kitten you have no Idea who I am or what side I'm on! Remember at this point I could be a friend or foe." He growled and snarled viciously. "You have no right to possess that! Not for what troubles, trials, and hell I've gone through to finally get that back!" "He was right when he said you'd never learn, I'll bet you still don't know who he is or what part he plays, hell at this point I'd bet my life you don't even know he exists!" "Who is he?! Tell me! What does he want?!" "All in due time PsycKorious... "