Haruki, Pt. 10
#10 of Haruki
Okay furs. After this chapter, I am probably going to take a long break from this. I have a hell of a lot going on in my life right now, and I have hit a dry spell.
Just so you know; Haruki means "radiant sun" and Akakios means "innocent".
Enjoy.
Drake B.
"Why are we going to the pride?" Akakios asked, quickly gathering his items.
"I have my reasons" I stated simply, beginning to pick up my stuff.
"But brother-"
Before Akakios could finish, I spun around and growled at him. "Do not question me."
Akakios stared at me a few seconds, and then nodded sadly, his black tail coming up between his legs.
Sighing, I dropped my gear and held my arms open. Wordlessly, Akakios walked over to me, and we embraced. I was careful to prevent the hug from advancing beyond one shared between two brothers, despite the intense urge to kiss my younger brother, and mate, on the forehead.
"Akakios, I have no plans for what I am going to do now that you are safe. I have no home, but I am fine with being a nomad, travelling endlessly. But that is not a life for a puppy like you. You need to be around people your own age."
Akakios jerked away from me and stared into my eyes, horrified. "You mean you are going to leave me with the pack?"
I nodded slowly. "It is for your own good." I said
"Bullshit," Akakios growled, "You do not want to have me as a burden on your little quests. Which way are we supposed to go?" he asked, then slung his pack over his shoulder and began walking in the direction I silently pointed in. I was too dumb-struck to defend my reasons.
I watched my brother walk for a few seconds then sighed again and began to walk after him. I kept my distance from him, allowing him to cool off.
As we walked, I began to enter a trance, simply placing one foot in front of the other. I did not notice that Akakios had stopped in front of me until I had bumped in to him.
"Sorry, Akakios" I said softly, not sure what kind of mood my brother was in. He did not respond, however.
"Akakios, are you okay?" I asked, placing my paw on his shoulder.
"Abandoning me will not prevent my death by your hands, Brother." He whispered.
"What?" I asked.
"I am still going to die, soon. It is just a matter of time" He said.
Growling, I spun my brother around, only to gasp and step back from him in horror.
My brother had taken his knife and slit his stomach open. He was gently grasping his intestines, moving them around in his paws. He was looking down at them and chuckling softly.
"Gods Akakios, what have you done?" I yelled, frantic, and quickly grabbed him.
"I shall die by your hands, and you shall die by mine" he growled, and suddenly his paws were around my throat.
Gasping, I grabbed his hands and attempted to pry them free; my brother had somehow obtained incredible strength, however, and I could not break his grasp.
"Ahriman blesses me with the power to feel your life drain from you with my bare hands, brother. You cannot fight it" he growled as I felt his grip become tighter. My vision began to blur, my thoughts become cloudy. Out of desperation, I grabbed my bone knife and pulled it from its sheath. Slowly, and with great effort, I raised it to my brother's wrist, and slit it open, cutting the tendon.
Howling in pain, my brother picked me up and effortlessly threw me ten feet away. As I landed on the ground, an extreme pain shot through the right side of my chest, and it became hard to breathe. My brother had squatted down and was cuddling his wounded arm.
"You faggot bastard," my brother growled.
"What is wrong with you?" I gasped, tenderly touching my right side. I realized horrifically that I had broken at least one rib upon landing.
"My eyes have been opened by the Grace of Ahriman! He has shown me the light, the error of my ways. You have deceived me into acts unbefitting to those following His Dark Word, and I have been given the power to show you the error of your ways, by means befitting those of your caliber of filth" my brother said, smiling savagely. He then held out his cut wrist, and looked at the wound.
I gasped as I saw the blood pouring from the wound begin to take shape. Standing painfully, I grasped my bone sword and drew it from its sheath. Akakios was now laughing as his spilled blood began to form a spear balancing on his wrist; easily six feet long, it had large protrusions about a foot below the tip, which looked almost like bat wings.
"Now, Follower of the Light, you shall die by my hands!" my brother screamed, and twitched his arm so that the spear jumped off his wrist. Grasping the weapon mid-shaft, he jumped at me, aiming for my heart. With great effort, I managed to dodge the attack. Every movement was hurting my chest greatly, however, and I was not sure how long I could go before I collapsed.
"Akakios, think about what you are doing," I groaned, raising my sword slightly. I did not want to hurt my brother any more than I had already, but I may not have a choice. As he attempted another pass, I swung at his spear, and hit in right above his hand. There was a sickening sucking noise as my sword cut through, but I was elated to see I had broken the spear.
Or so I thought. As I continued to look at the spear, the two pieces grew back together before the head of it even had a chance to fall. Smiling evilly, Akakios swung the spear, the point of it cutting into my chest and grazing the already broken ribs. I gasped in pain, and fell to my knees.
"There is nothing to think about, my... brother," he said, spitting the last word out as if it had a bad taste. Slowly, he pointed the spear to my throat. I raised my heard slightly, and looked down at the tip.
"Why do you feel that you need to kill me?" I asked softly.
"You are filth; worthless trash that needs disposed of." Akakios growled.
"Why am I filth? Because I love you?"
Here Akakios faltered. "Because, because you seduced me into atrocious acts with you."
"You asked me to, brother. 'Take me, please.' That is what you said. Do you not remember?"
Akakios blinked, then growled as I felt the tip of the spear touch my throat.
"If you really think Ahriman is leading you to the truth, and killing me is what you want to do, then do it, brother. I give my life to you," I said, and raised my chin higher. I was careful to keep an eye on my brother, however, hoping to see the smallest window for me to make my move.
Akakios stared at me and lowered the spear slightly, doubt in his eyes. Acting quickly, I reached up and grasped the spear. Yanking it away, I brought my sword up and the tip on Akakios' chest. I now had the upper hand, but my actions had caused me great pain, and I could feel my side getting soaked from the spear wound.
"I do not want to hurt you, brother. Please do not make me," I said. Smiling, Akakios grabbed the blade of my sword and began to push it into his chest. I tried to pull it back, but I could not; the mixture of my weakness and his extreme strength stopped me.
"I shall die by your hands," he whispered, and jerked the sword, ripping it from my hands. It easily penetrated his chest, and stuck out the other side. I could see blood dripping from the tip of the sword behind his back. Wordlessly, he fell to his knees in front of me, and began to lean forward. With much pain, I raised my arms and caught him as he fell into me.
"Haruki?" I heard his whisper. I tried to answer, but could not speak, unbearable sadness crushing my throat.
"Haruki, answer me, please!" he continued to whisper, sounding desperate for my acknowledgement. I squeezed him, but he did not seem to feel it.
"Haruki, please come back! I need you!" it sounded almost as if Akakios was screaming, yet it was muted, and if from far away. I closed my eyes and sobbed.
Suddenly, I felt an intense pain in my cheek and my eyes shot open.
I was lying on my back, with Akakios cradling my upper body. He was crying, his eyes closed, and I felt his rocking us back and forth slowly.
"Please Haruki, do not leave me alone. You are all I have left..." he sobbed, and a tear hit my nose. Reaching up slowly, I rested a paw on his cheek. His eyes shot open, and he looked down at me.
"Thank the Gods! You are awake!" he said, smiling broadly and quickly wiping the tears from his eyes.
Sitting up, I opened my mouth to speak, and something hit my lap. Looking down, I saw it was a branch.
"What happened?" I asked as pain shot through my head.
"I do not know. We were walking. I was in front of you. Suddenly, you fell. When I came back to see if you were okay, you were shaking wildly, and you were exposing your teeth, like you were growling, and clenching them so hard your gums were losing color. So I put the branch in your mouth so you would not crack tooth. As I picked you up to hold you still, foam started to come out of your mouth. You urinated all over yourself, too," he said, trailing off towards the end; he was beginning to cry again. He was clearly highly shaken up by the ordeal.
"It sounded like a shaking," I said, feeling it best not to mention the vision I had.
"I thought only sick people had shakings," Akakios said, holding back a sob.
"All the more reason we need to get to Fallon's pride as soon as possible," I said, getting up.
It took another three weeks to get to the pride's territory. During that time, I had at least one seizure every other day. Each time, I had visions about Ahriman and the silhouette from the nightmare. After the episodes had passed, I would be left with a pain in my head worse than the pain from the last seizure.
The winged, scaled creature with horns would walk up to me, and say Ahriman was eagerly awaiting my arrival into his temple. He would then turn and walk away.
As we entered the village in the center of the pride's territory, we were greeted by several lions, all of whom were overly glad to see us. They had feared my pack totally eradicated, and had even erected a shrine dedicated to us in the center of our territory. They had even posted a fairly large to protect out land, and prevent neighboring groups from claiming it as their own.
"Our leader will be most excited to see you!" one female lion was telling us as we were walking toward Fallon's abode. We walked slowly, and she was holding Akakios' paw in one of hers and mine in the other. "If someone had told me two years ago I would be walking around in my territory holds hands with two moves, I would have laughed in their face," she said conversationally.
I was genuinely happy to reach Fallon's quarters. As we entered, Fallon was sitting behind a piece of cloth that had been draped in front of her sleeping mat.
"Leader, Haruki and Akakios have returned," a young male lion, slightly older than Akakios and standing in a corner, said softly. As he looked at Akakios, he blushed slightly and looked away.
"The Radiant Sun has returned; along with the Innocent one." It was clearly Fallon who had spoken, but her voice was raspy, as if she was just getting over an illness that had affected her throat. Upon inspecting her silhouette, however, I could see that see that something was not right.
"You may leave, young one," Fallon said. The young male lion bowed slightly and, with one more hurriedly look at Akakios, quickly left. I looked down at my brother, silently asking the reason for the lion's behavior. Returning the look, he shrugged.
"Forgive him. He is just reaching that lovely age where we can reproduce, and has shown signs of a liking for other males for years. Not that I can blame him for taking a liking to the either of you, such handsome canines as you are," Fallon said softly, standing. Slowly, she walked out from behind the piece of cloth, and Akakios and I both gasped in shock.
The once graceful leader of the lion tribe was a husk of her former self. She had lost much weight, and her skin hung loosely from her frame. He once bright eyes were dull, as if she had lived long beyond her allotted time of life. She appeared to have difficulty bending her right knee.
The most shocking sight, however, was the lack of certain parts of her body. The left arm was gone below the elbow, as was her left ear and tail.
"I know I am a sight. Some, thing, tried to attack us not two months ago; my healing has been miraculous, thank the Gods. I managed to kill whatever it was, but not before it managed to do this to me. It appears whatever was attacking your pack also targeted us," she said slowly.
Akakios fell to the ground, holding his head in his paws. Kneeling, I rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Fallon, we have much to discuss," I said sadly.