The Raion

Six

THE RAION

Children of the Nekoka Book One

 

SIX

 

Several minutes ticked by as Akio laid there in shock.  When he realized their lips were still pressed together he quickly rolled Jun off him.  He felt a little panicked and slightly embarrassed.  He hoped it didn’t offend Jun.

 A Kiss.  

 His first kiss and it was with a guy.  It was an accident.  It would have been awkward if he had accidentally kissed a girl but what did a guy do when he accidentally kissed another guy. Was it Jun’s first kiss too he wondered. Was Jun upset about it?  Well, it wasn’t really a kiss so it shouldn’t count right? He wiped his mouth, and winced.  It hurt, it actually felt bruised.   He noticed the blood on the back of his hand and wiped at his mouth again this time more carefully.  They must have smacked into each other pretty hard he thought.  It was definitely not his most graceful landing. He heard a moan from Jun and snapped out of his thoughts.  He moved over to him and Jun appeared to be unconscious.  He thought about wiping Jun’s blood smeared lips but decided against it.  It was all awkward enough as it was and the small amount blood on his lips was hardly noticeable when compared to the rest of his face. He shook his shoulder gently and called his name. Nothing.  He checked his breathing and felt for a pulse.  They were faint.  Jun’s face was paling and his icy skin had a cold sweat.  Shivers started to rack his body.

He didn’t pause to think as terror rooted in his gut.  He tore off his jacket and wrapped it around his limp form. Then snatching Jun up, he bounded towards the direction of the Sentaa.  He had gone out his way to find Jun but he was still less than three miles from it.  He could make it in about fifteen minutes if he pushed himself.  The cold no longer bothered Akio as all his energy poured into moving with as much speed as possible.  He dashed down the street as he tried not jostle him too much. He focused on the quiet sound of the slow beat of Jun’s heart to reassure himself.  Thankfully it hadn’t become so faint that he couldn’t hear it  but he was starting to notice something that was even more disconcerting. Jun was starting to smell weird.   

Most people would hardly notice a person’s natural scent but the Nekokas’ sensitive noses was bombarded with it all day long. It allowed them to depend on their sense of smell a lot more than a human could. Jun’s natural scent was changing somehow. And it was more than just his own scent from his coat wrapped around Jun. It was odd, after sharing a room and spending large amounts of time with Jun all week he was absolutely positive he knew what Jun smelled like.  

People’s scents varied slightly with their change in mood and frame of mind.  And Akio knew severe sickness could cause the scent to almost sour and become even rotten in death but it was essentially still the same. Thankfully Jun smelled neither sour or rotten but something was happening   As far as Akio knew people’s scents could not change outright,  at the core it always stayed the same.   It was like Jun’s was slowly fading and being replaced by something else.  If Akio didn’t know better he would have thought he was in fact holding someone else.  He breathed in deeply, testing it, and had to work to resist an involuntary shudder.  It was sort of heady almost intoxicating. It felt bizarrely familiar. The word for it was on the tip on his tongue and yet he still couldn't place it.  It was becoming all the more vibrant and intense. He could feel the answer looming over him like a dark cloud.

He shook it off, he had to be wrong. It couldn't be real. Jun had been fine in the tree. Maybe he hit his own nose when they collided or something. Maybe the nerves were in shock and were sending mixed signals.  He refocused on the task at hand, doubling his effort to get Jun to the Sentaa as fast as possible. When the building was finally in sight Akio was working on convincing himself that the changes in Jun where just his imagination. He slowed his pace as he went up the walkway to the doors.