Strayborn

by E E Rawls

  “Eh, I don’t get what the point is,” Aken shrugged, unmotivated to climb. “I mean, it’s not like I’m gonna go jumping off cliffs or anything—”

  “You fly at incredible heights with that swallow, don’t you? What if you fall and an enemy takes Limitless away from you? What then—Ker-Splat? Could your body Heal fast enough to save you?”

  Aken crossed his arms. In truth, he was being stubborn because he didn’t want to risk looking like a failure in front of Cy. But failure was a necessary part of learning.

  “I’m sure you’re aware that Draev Guardians travel by rooftop to avoid hampering civilians? So yes, Aken, this does have a point. It’s called Leaping and Landing Technique—and if you ever hope to be a Draev Guardian, you’d better master it.”

  Aken folded his hands behind his head and leaned back to eye the sky.

  “Leaping,” Cy contemplated. “That’s what you used to jump over the city wall?”

  Maru nodded.

  Aken leaned close to Cy’s ear, “Hence the name Leaping—I’d imagine Leaping would have something to do with leaping.”

  Cy’s cheeks burned. “Don’t make me smack you!” Aken chuckled as the redhead boy scratched at his ear. “You pudding-head.” Cy focused his attention back on Maru.

  There was a ghost of a smile on Maru’s lips as he watched their banter, though it vanished and his back straightened. He pointed to the oak’s third branch up, “Climb to there.”

  As they finally climbed, Mamoru instructed: “Leaping and Landing both use essence. All lifeforms have a surplus amount of life-energy, and that surplus is what we call essence. In case you were wondering, Cyrus, a Draev’s essence is different from that of regular vempars and other races—they can’t use theirs in the same way we can.” Mamoru tapped his chest, “That’s why we call it a gift, or Ability.”

  “But all vempars Heal.”

  “Healing has nothing to do with essence. That’s an entirely different subject.”

  Once they were both perched on the branch, he had them close their eyes. “Now, imagine all of the energy—energy from the core of your being—collecting and flowing like a stream through your veins. Flow that stream down, down to the soles and heels of your feet.”

  Long minutes of trying passed. It was easier said than done.

  “Once you have essence gathered in your feet, it will act as a cushion—a cloud—to slow your fall and soften the impact of landing.” Mamoru lectured. “Remember: the more essence stored in both feet, the stronger of a cushion you’ll have, and from a greater height you’ll be able to land safely.”

  Aken’s eyes closed. He pictured the flow of energy running through his core and limbs. His mind strained, and beads of sweat dripped.

  He knew what Maru was saying. If he wanted his dream of becoming the world’s greatest Draev Guardian to come true, he had to master this basic technique. Something so basic that every student could do it by now—even that smug Denim.

  Aken let his eyes pop open, hoping he’d gathered enough essence in his feet. ‘All right, time to test this out!’ Observing the ground below, his legs unsteady on the oak branch, he jumped.

  The ground rose to meet him. His hair whipped back.

  He fought but his legs wouldn’t stay under him, instead splaying out like flags. When he impacted the ground, it was flat on his stomach, slamming the air out of his lungs—GUh!

  Pain roiled his insides. He yanked his chin out of the ground, and watched as Cy faltered but landed on his knees—a fail, but at least Cy had managed to keep his legs under.

  “Decent for a first try, Cyrus.” Mamoru clapped, then turned to Aken as he scrambled to stand. “Your essence-cloud was off-balance: too much in one foot and not the other. Stabilize it,” he ordered. “As for posture: keep your knees closer together and bent slightly forward. Anticipate the land. When you’re about to touch ground, stretch your legs and bend to meet it.”

  “I was anticipating,” Aken muttered. “But I’ll get it right this time, Puppeteer. Watch and see! I’ll be the best darn Leap-Landing vemp you ever saw!”

  Back aboard the branch, Cy was rubbing at his knees.

  “You okay?” Aken asked.

  Cy nodded. Sunset light cast gold flecks into the lilac pools of Cyrus’s eyes, just like the human princess in the starlight orb.

  The human princess...the Swan... Why did they look so similar?

  “Hurry up!”

  Aken jolted back to his senses. What was he just thinking? Something about a swan? What the heck. What a time for him to space-out. Cy had already jumped and Landed—and better than the first time.

  ‘Focus, pudding-brain!’

  Aken jumped—this time hitting the ground with his knees before falling flat on his stomach.

  It was well into dusk when Mamoru ended their practice session, the first stars emerging overhead. By then Cyrus was able to Land on wobbly feet. But Aken...well, he was able to Land like a flying lizard: arms and legs splayed down, catching himself with hands and feet before slamming against the ground. At least it wasn’t on his stomach anymore.

  “Yes!” Aken pumped a fist, “I’ve mastered Lizard Landing Technique!”

  Maru wiped his brow. “There’s no such thing.”

  Aken tutted, “There is now.”

  Maru snorted, his frame silhouetted in the fading light. “Now that you get the basic idea of Landing, practice until you can Land down from the city wall, as I did.” Finished with them, and waving back a hand, he turned on his bowtie shoes and headed for the city.

  Aken put on a dark, theatrical façade, waving a hand and pretending to toss an invisible cape over his shoulder. “Land down the city wall, Aken-Shou, as I did. The Great Mamoru, the mysterious and creepy anti-hero.”

  Maru’s head turned slightly, one mulberry eye gleaming at him darkly.

  Aken hurried to get on his clay swallow before Maru decided to make a mannequin out of his skin. “You coming?” he held out a hand for Cy. But the redhead was still by the oak and peering off into the woods.

  “Hm?” Aken leaned sideways, trying to see what Cy was looking at. But, scanning the treeline, there was nothing he could make out. He opened his mouth to ask, when Cy quickly spoke: “Go on ahead. I...want to practice some more.”

  He looked back, checking that Maru was gone. “I don’t mind waiting. Maybe I’ll pract—”

  “No! I mean,” Cy’s voice caught. “Dinner’s already started. I need someone to save me food before it’s all gone,” he spoke in a rush. “You know how gluttonous we boys can be, haha.”

  That laugh was so forced.

  “True enough,” Aken played along. “Okay, but don’t take long. It’s not safe out here in the dark alone.” A piece of him hesitated before steering Limitless away, taking one last look over his shoulder.

  A troubled feeling grew in the pit of his stomach.

  ‘It’s not like Cy can’t take care of himself, though. I’m just being paranoid,’ he thought.

  It was silly to worry, and yet he couldn’t help the feeling, after having lost so much already. The madman stirred restlessly inside the cage of his mind again.

  Chapter 20

  Cyrus watched Limitless disappear over the city wall before she turned to face the night-shadowed trees. She took several steps forward.

  She was sure there’d been a presence observing them from the shadows as Mamoru left. Someone well trained in the concealing arts of the Argos Corps, that even a vempar as vigilant as Mamoru had missed. It was clear she never would have noticed the person unless they’d meant for her to.

  Could it be someone from Elvenstone, come to bring her back for sentencing? Maybe she should’ve had Aken stay...but if this was an Argos, she couldn’t put his life in danger. “What do you want from me?” she asked the darkness.

  Warm breezes rustled the grass, and blinking fireflies drifted away. A shape emerged from the trees, the outline of a boy not much older than her and clothed in Argos gear.
/>   “Huntter! How in the world did you find me?” The silhouette came into clear view of the moonlight. The boy known to her as an elusive wolf regarded her, his eyes twin copper coins, his brown bangs swept forward.

  “I’ve come to take you home,” said Huntter, to the point. “People say you left willingly, but I know better.” His hard gaze softened a fraction. “I know you didn’t... you wouldn’t just leave. That vempar prisoner forced you to come here because of your Ability.”

  Cyrus’s chin dropped a fraction, guilt upsetting her stomach. Huntter, the one person in Elvenstone who had never resented her for what she was. The shadow who had watched over her from a distance over the years, yet rarely ever spoke. He was the last of the Shoshana Clan—a breed of humans said to have the strength to rival that of vempars. He must have been away training with his mentor the day she fled from Elvenstone.

  Moonlight played across his angular features and furrowed brow.

  “I had to leave...” she said, unsure how to answer him. “I’m sorry.” She gripped the hem of her shirt to stop her hands’ trembling. “They were going to kill me, and— I can never go back.” She swallowed. “But that’s fine. It’s not like I ever belonged there.”

  She met Huntter’s gaze, though it wasn’t easy. “You know how the town treated me when I was just a half-blood. Now, with my Ability awake, can you imagine how they’d...?” She couldn’t finish. “This city is where I’m staying. I can’t be anywhere else but here. That’s just the way it is.” It hurt to say the words which rang true, and watch as any hope Huntter held inside faded.

  “But to live here?” He couldn’t speak Draethvyle’s name, not without disgust. “Why not choose the Human Republic’s capital, instead? It’s our largest city—nobody will know who you are there.”

  She had thought of that, many times while walking Elvenstone’s streets. But it’d only be a matter of time before her secret got out again and she’d have to move on. Even if she could move from house-to-house, place-to-place, within the city, what kind of bleak life would that be? Hiding her Ability, never learning more about Mother, never exploring the vempar side of herself...

  Here, among those who shared the same blood and gift as her, she was accepted. Not feared or loathed. She could belong, have a life. Aken, Bakoa, Mamoru, Master Nephryte, Zartanian—she finally had something like friends. Friends she could cry and laugh and train with, some who even shared the same beliefs. This was where God had led her, even if she wasn’t sure she could be brave enough to become a Draev Guardian.

  Cyrus’s heart beat fast and she rested a hand on her chest. Until now, she hadn’t realized how strongly she felt about them. How did that happen? When?

  “Huntter,” she spoke past the pain, “You don’t want me here because you fear I’ll become like them, don’t you?”

  The crease in his brow told her she’d hit the mark.

  “I tried being human, and I failed miserably at it. Now, I’m turning to the other half of me.” She watched his controlled expression, and said quietly, “Vempar blood will always run in my veins.”

  His jaw worked.

  ‘Darn, why do you care?’ she wanted to ask.

  “As will the blood of humans,” Huntter countered, “which is the race you take after most. Lacking fangs and Healing, vempars won’t consider you one of them. Do they even know, yet?” He neared, and she shrank back a step. “Do you think they won’t shout Enemy when the truth comes out? The only human they like is one drained of life.”

  Her hand moved to her throat instinctively.

  Fangs...shrieks...a woman with scarlet hair slumped in the grass...

  “They’ll suck your life away. Drain every ounce without a care.”

  Scarlet hair...

  “They will always need essence from others. A vempar’s need never ends.”

  Mother...

  “Stop it!” she shouted. She clenched both sides of her head, trying to shut out the nightmare’s images. Tears blurred her vision. “I can’t—” A sob caught in her throat.

  Huntter fell silent. The grass rustled and crickets chirped. He took a hesitant step closer, raising a hand as if to console her.

  “Back off, human!”

  She and Huntter both looked up, just as a figure fell down from the sky and landed between them.

  “Aken!” she cried. How much did he overhear? Would Huntter give her secret away?

  Aken’s gaze glowed fiery blue, as Huntter’s flashed fierce hate. Each sized the other up in one cutthroat scan.

  “You.” Aken’s hands fisted, his tone a threat. “Stay away from my friend.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do, vempar.” Huntter’s tone was an equal threat, the last word spat out like rotten fruit. A gun was already in his hand.

  “A weakling human is threatening a vempar? Seriously?” Aken’s voice rang superiorly, and the veins in his hands glowed lava-red.

  “Vempars are not immortal,” Huntter coolly replied. He held the gun expertly, as if the weapon were a part of him. “Let’s see you Heal from a black silver bullet through the heart.”

  Aken smirked, ready for action. “If you can aim it right.”

  Click.

  K-boom!

  The instant Huntter’s gun clicked, the ground erupted under his boots in a bright flash of lava—dirt melting to burning liquid as it spouted upward.

  Huntter back-flipped away from danger, landing in a crouch and ready to move again. “So that’s your Ability: Terravis, soil to lava.”

  Aken sneered. “Oh, I can do much more than that, human.”

  Huntter grimaced. “Don’t you know anything about combat? Never give away what you can and cannot do, until you know what your opponent can and cannot do.”

  “Like I got time to care about battle strategies. I’ll whip your butt to Kingdom Kong!”

  Huntter’s frown tightened at Aken’s misplaced choice of words, then he spotted the clay bird that was coming at him from behind. The bird exploded in a firework of yellow, and Huntter somersaulted high, landing neatly on a branch clear of the blast.

  Blam!

  Aken barely had time to whirl out of the way as a black silver bullet grazed past his cheek. The human had just alighted the branch, which meant he’d fired the shot while in midair—a good aim, and unexpected. Aken’s hands glowed in red aura.

  Huntter alighted a branch above the vempar. That Ability wasn’t one to take lightly, but his gun Bloody Thistle could do more than fire bullets. “You have to be ready for anything when facing those monsters,” his mentor always said. This vempar seemed like an idiot, though, so it shouldn’t take much to finish him off.

  A flock of clay birds swooped toward Huntter’s left and right sides. He leaped from branch to branch, avoiding the blasts, and used the next branch to launch himself head first, gun-arm held straight at Aken. A dark blade protruded above the gun’s barrel.

  Aken readied essence through the ground beneath his feet for another lava spout, hoping to strike the human before either the bullet or blade reached his chest.

  Huntter pulled the trigger—

  Ground bubbled up red—

  “Enough!”

  The shout rang. Cyrus’s forearms became metal: one fist knocking Huntter’s aim off, the other knocking Aken off his feet.

  Both boys hit the dirt.

  Cyrus felt a sting in her hand and saw a cut across one finger. Huntter’s gun blade had cut her skin before the metal formed. She hid the injury behind her back, fisting the hand.

  Two surprised faces blinked up as Cyrus planted herself between them. “Stop trying to kill each other!” she growled. “It’s wrong, and it could start a war, you dolts! Argos and Draevs hate each other enough without you adding more bloodshed to the cauldron.”

  She knew what Aken was about to say and cut him off, “I know you think you’re protecting me, Aken, but stop. This person wasn’t hurting me; he was just asking questions.” She could only hope that he hadn’t overheard her
and Huntter’s conversation.

  Aken’s eyebrows drew down and he side-eyed the human boy. “Snooping around our city, were you? Looking for weaknesses you could report back to your Argos Corps buddies?” As he rose, Aken clearly made an effort not to rub his sore backside. “Get back to your giftless race, while you still can,” he spat.

  Huntter snarled, ready to beat the cheeky vempar to a pulp. Cyrus sent him a pleading look, and he refrained. “I’m sure we’ll meet again, idiot vempar,” he replied instead. “Do be more of a challenge for me next time, will you?”

  In three strides, Huntter melted into the woods like a shadow, leaving Aken to fume. Cyrus looked on, guilt sagging her shoulders. Huntter had come all this way to make sure she was safe—all this way into Vemparic territory for her. She let the metal vanish and fought off a wave of fatigue.

  “THAT—that—!” Aken’s face scrunched up. Taking a deep, cooling breath through his nose, he half-turned toward Cy. Had Cy seen the human nosing around and stayed behind for that reason? But then, why not say so? Why keep it secret? It was odd. Everything about it was odd.

  “You sure surprised me with those metal fists.” Aken barked a laugh. “Y’know, I almost didn’t come back to check on you. Glad I did. Erm, that is, I know you’re tough enough to take care of yourself and all, but you shouldn’t take on dangerous humans on your own... I’m not saying you aren’t capable or anything.” He waved up his palms. “Just that...that...” He searched for the right words. But when he looked again, he could tell Cy was only half-listening, staring absently beyond the trees.

  He gave up talking.

  “So much for dinner, huh? It’s too late,” Cy mumbled suddenly.

  Aken broke away from his thoughts, and couldn’t hide a wry smile at the redhead’s appetite. “Heh. Yeah. For a small person, you sure eat a lot, y’know?”

  Chapter 21