Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

The End

Warm sunlight streamed into the room spilling onto the floor in a golden cascade. As the sun moved, the golden pool crept its way across the floor and up the side of the untidy bed. Sometime during the night sheets and pillows had been thrown to the floor by the rows of a restless sleeper, and now the occupant lay face down atop a small mound of pillows face partially obscured. The light continued its creeping trail upwards, sliding onto the bed and across the occupant's face.

It was only a little at first, but it wasn't long before light was spilling down with full force, and the occupant of the bed groaned and turned his head inward. At the far end of the room the door opened a crack allowing two furry forms access to the room. The first dog was large, with glowing blue eyes and a coat as black as tar. The second was no more than a puppy, still trying to wrangle in its huge paws and oversized ears. Its fur was as silver as gunmetal, almost blue in the light and unusually uniform. Together they trotted across the room, tongues lolling and leaped onto the bed.

Their mission was clear.

The first dog proceeded to step onto the bed's occupant with some amount of gusto, while the other just went straight for the face, pink tongue lolling and flapping with excitement, tail sweeping back and forth with enthusiasm as it licked the occupant from hairline to chin.

With a muffled shout of protest, the figure flailed, grabbing a dog with each set of arms to try and force them away, but the enthusiasm was simply too much to contain. The younger of the two dogs lunged forward, the thick skin at the scruff of its neck affording it just enough wiggle room to lick the bed's occupant across the eye socket.

"HEY Pancake! Doughnut!!" The shout was not one of anger, but laughter, the dog's tails wagged even harder, "Alright I'm up I'm up."

Ka'Leen sat up, shaking himself and shooed the dogs off the bed eyeing them both reproachfully, "Did dad let you in here? I bet he did" The dogs didn't answer, but danced around his feet looking for ear scratches, which Kay happily gave to them. There was no better reason to have two sets of arms, than being fully able to pet two dogs with equal gusto at the same time. Eventually they grew tired of him, and he let them out into the hall, going back into his room to get dressed.

Kay was Sixteen almost seventeen and didn't remember Armageddon though it was the one greatest defining moment of their generation.

He hopped into the shower, music on in the background singing loudly without fear of anyone being bothered, he was usually the last to get up anyway.

As far as most things went, he was mostly average for his age.... Well maybe that wasn't quite right.

He was anything but average, but he mostly blamed his parents for that.

Kay was nearly six two at sixteen, his father was a human and his mother was a Drev. What resulted was a tall, lanky teenage boy with four arms instead of two, or at least he had been lanky. Arcadia offered an endless supply of weapons training in its public schools, and what Resulted was hours of physical training and discipline taught by the most brutal of Neospartains and Drev warriors.

Over the past year or so he had finally started packing on the pounds, and fancied himself a little in the mirror as he looked.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

He stepped out of the shower and flexed at his reflection glad that the door was locked so no one could catch and make fun of him. Again, Kay was tall, a trait he got more from his father than his mother, and short cropped golden hair that he kept in a way that he personally thought was artfully messy. His skin glowed gold, and his mother said he looked a bit like his grandfather. His eyes were green just like his father. He didn't look much like his mother, but he had a couple octaves of human vocal range others would kill for. He could sing anything from bass to soprano without batting an eye: both the men and women's parts.