-The Forest-

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Tsukishima Kei was starting to panic. He had never been this far away from his brother or home.

"Akiteru!" He wailed out, fresh tears forming in the corners of his eyes. Clutching his small plush dinosaur, he scrambled back and forth over the wild under growth of the forest. Searching wildly for any sigh of his brother. As the suns light was slowly leaking out of the sky his chest started to rise and fall in uneven movements.

"Brother... I'm here!" Tsukishima's voice broke as he called out again.

Tsukishima started running, barely seeing through his tear-filled eyes, he aimlessly ran in what he thought was the direction of home. Flashes of green and brown blurred past in a flurry of movement as Tsukishima ran. His small yellow wellies staggered along the overgrown earth slipping every few seconds on damp moss or large sticks. A harsh yelp left his mouth as his boot got caught and sent him tumbling down a steep slope.

Tsukishima landed harshly on his front. He had landed on a leaf covered ground which had done little to brace his fall, twigs and other mud coated debris filled the remainder of the ditch. His entire body ached as he slowly came to shakily sitting up, he looked around the dark muddy pit he'd fallen into, sobbing quietly Tsukishima hung his head and stared at his shoeless foot. It was twisted at the wrong angle; he was too shocked to notice the pain however.

"F-find me, Akiteru" he choked out as a fresh wave of tears poured out uncontrollably.

Everything stopped however when a deep cat-like purr said, "You're not alone. You don't need to be frightened.".

Tsukishima's head shot up at the sudden sound of a soothing voice. He franticly searched for the source of the voice from his position on the floor. But no one came to view.

"W-what?" Tsukishima's voice quavered slightly, "Who said that?"

Once again the voice softly travelled towards him, "I'm right here Tsukishima."

Tsukishima slowly lowered his head to find an abnormally large black cat sat a couple of metres away from him.

"Wa-was it you...?" Tsukishima stared into the golden irises that stayed trained on him.

"Yes, it was I." The cat replied smoothly, Tsukishima's breath caught in his throat as he stared anxiously at the strange creature in front of him. The cat's eyes widened slightly, it stood and slowly approached Tsukishima.

"Please don't be frightened of me Tsukishima. I'm not here to hurt you." He said cautiously, "You've heard of spirits have you not?".

Tsukishima could only nod his head; all words had lost him completely.

"I am a spirit of this forest Tsukishima."

The boy swallowed harshly and opened his mouth, "L-like the ones in the stories?"

"Yes... Just like the ones in the stories."

Tsukishima took off his dirty glasses and wiped them on his top, which did little to clean them, before placing them back onto his nose. This cat wasn't ordinary. It was at least the size of an adult lynx, unnatural golden eyes that seemed to swirl with life and he had the ability to talk. Tsukishima confirmed this cat was definitely a spirit of the forest.

"Did you, um, come for me spirit?" Tsukishima asked quietly, not wanting to overstep his boundaries.

The cat nodded and stepped in front of the small child; the spirit was just taller than the sitting boy. Tsukishima reached out unsure, his hand stopping just as it grazed the soft fur of the spirit's head. When his fingers lightly touched the fur, bright golden tendrils grew from out from under his hand and wrapped their way around the cat and himself. Encasing them in a soft glow of gold, they wound their way up across Tsukishima's arm gently and around his broken ankle. He jumped slightly when a large hand replaced the soft fur which had disappeared from under his fingertips. He was staring into the same golden pools as before but they now they belonged to a man.

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