Savage Kingdom

Kito was finished.

He steps away from the human and grabs a cloth off the table in the corner of the room to wipe his hands with. He needs a moment away so he could collect his thoughts in order and keep a distance from her, not realizing how touching her even a little and stepping away would be hard to do. He places his rag on his hand and twisted it slightly, shutting his eyes and sucked in a deep breath of air he had denied himself a lot around her.

She was abused. Purposely hurt and... He wanted to go to the next world and find him. He could. Oh, Gods, the lack of trust he will have to face with this woman.

Caji was at the end of the bed where the woman lays and looks over it to stare at her. She rests underneath the covers the side of her left leg wrapped and her deeply cut arm, all wrapped and clean. The other cuts were completely healed, her face was just as before and the minor cuts on her body that he could see. She was warm now, all curled up as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.

The Kikera narrows his eyes to Kito and creates a small noise to catch his attention, not saying a word when he finally got the Xutashi’s curious look. Caji was trying to speak with his expressions, the amber emerald eyes, and neatly cut brown hair.

He could imagine what Alira had said before in his gaze. “Is she the one?”

He trembled at the question. He sat down where he stood, finding the sensations that hit him like a large rock almost too much to bear at one time together. Striking him deep just at the mere realization alone. His blue eyes softened. “Oh, Goddess, yes,” for the first time since he was a child he was purring. Purring. He could feel it overcome him as the happiness fills him like water flowing into a cup, filling each crevice. “Caji...” Although he calls his name he looked at the girl. “I have a human.”

The Kikera shakes his head and looks in the corner to see where the little boy had passed out, laying on the ground while using his hands as a pillow. Seeing this Caji stood to grab the sleeping boy, sliding the strange bag off of his shoulders and back to take him over his bed and to keep the child warm in his covers without sleeping on the ground.

Kito watches him, smiling when Kane exhaled deeply with his head on a soft pillow. “You’re right. I have two humans. One is a male boy-cub.” He didn’t know if that would be a problem for him or not. He was sure he wouldn’t have a problem, the boy was the only male. Young. He was not set in any way yet and still had a lot more to learn in his growing mind. Smaller than the cubs in the village.

The boy may not be his, but if Ser’avi wishes it of him he will take the child in along with his sister. “But what do I do with a boy-cub?”

Why was he speaking to Caji like he was going to answer back? He only stares at the sleeping child and hands out the strange pack that he brought back to hand to Kito for him to look through. It was halfway open so pulling the zipper open made Caji jump skittishly at the strange sound.

Kito didn’t give it a second thought as he rummages through the contents, sitting at the table in the middle of the hut to place boys the extra clothes and strange other belongings on. The clothes were something that he knew would not help here with the weather, he was getting warmer just staring at them.

There was nothing else to the bag, so he put everything inside and handed it to Caji. “Put this elsewhere.”

He nodded and took the bag and slid it on a shelf.

Now the tired Kikera turns to look in his bed and his ears down, unsure of something. Kito knew what the look meant now. “You can sleep next to him. That is the easiest thing with small cubs,” it shouldn’t change with them being human. They do not think quickly about things harming them, they trusted everything, and Caji was the best one to put that trust in. He took his word for it and laid on the open section of the bed and relaxed. He was exhausted himself.

Kito looked at the bed with a more complex problem. Women are different. Much different.

Especially this one.

He decides to use this time sacrificing sleep to clean up his hut of all of the things that he had crafted before and discarded them outside. All the things he could finally see clearly, the awkward colors forced to merge that quite didn’t come out right. He was getting rid of it all, everything except his wood carvings that seem to be in fine condition. Color wasn’t needed to make wood carvings. And his white candles could stay on their shelves, throwing out only a couple to make space.

He was happy at the thought of having the space filled with the woman and the child. He knew their names as well thanks to the boy, Kane, and Clara.

Clara. He wanted to purr at the name. Clara sounded very feminine and when he said it once to himself he was once again dazzled that he sounded like he had said it a thousand times before. It felt too natural.

He had a feeling this one will do to him the same he had watched Mia affect his brother. That wide grin as he leaned on his staff, his head low with his eyes sparkling, soft, and tender. When she first came to the village his expressions turned hard to soft in a second just when Mia appeared or when she said something. He was always under her charm and tangled in their tether.

He was going to find himself under her power soon. He could feel it pulling him in already, deep within the unknown sections of him he didn’t know was there before. The half of him that has been missing all this time.

He finally understood it all now.

Seeing her for the first time changes everything.

The first change, he sees color. The gray world comes to life. Second, the world freezes and melts away smoothly and emotions that were once locked within him are stirred. The third is something he didn’t see but felt, that half of himself that he never knew was truly empty until the very sight of her causes him to realize that all the pain that he felt in the past was worth it, just like Kai had told him. All forgiven because for that moment he realizes that it was all for her.

He keeps his eye on her through the night as his mind ran away with the ways of how he was going to make this happen and who she was going to be. This would be his biggest task yet.

The tone of the bird’s loud musical songs woke Kito up, forcing him to lift his head from the side of the wall and stretch his stiff body. His exhaustion compelled him to sleep in the corner of his hut with nothing while the others sleep in a bed.

He would rather sleep here than take the chance of Clara waking up in the bed beside him, a stranger, and risk hurting herself again to get away from him. It was too much of a risk.

He woke up before Caji or Kane was up, the two sleeping on the bed comfortably with each other for now. Kito stood up from the ground and leaned both palms of his hand against the wall to stretch and arched his back to try to get the stiffness from his sleep out. Once done he went to the bed with Clara just to see if any of her bruises turned out alright. He was relieved when he took the bandages off and found it much better, rewrapping it to cover it again to let it continue its process. He preferred her bruise to be healed all the way.

Caji looked up from his bed, trapped by the boy who was sleeping on his arm. He gave Kito a small noise to let him know he was awake, the Xutashi turned to see the little situation he was in. He whispered, “Do not worry about it, Caji. Let him sleep. He is tired. Watch over the two while I go and gather some things. If he wakes up just watch over him. If she wakes up, come get me.”

Caji didn’t nod or respond, but he knew he had heard him when he laid his head back down on his pillow and decided to hold the boy who was shivering with the lack of blankets. It made Kito realize that he had never even given Caji a blanket before and inside he felt bad about that. He never gave it a thought.

He grabs a blanket off of his bed and went over to the two and gave it to them and it earns him a soft purr from the Kikera.

He left the hut. He took the things that were in front of his door and stuffed them all in a basket he brought outside too so none would see that he had trashed his items. They were never worth it anyway, all strange and even ugly, but hopefully with color, he could make some that are worth a second glance.

When that was finish he went to leave down the steps but was stopped short with the sight of Kai walking up, freezing himself when he saw Kito already there. And, truthfully, a bit suspicious.

When was he up this soon?

“Kito?” He tilts his head. “I was going to come to wake you for today, but... You seem to already be awake.”

He always slept into the day. It was his normal routine. “Today is the celebrations of the Gods,” how does one hide the fact that their whole world changed in one night? “I would not want to wake up later and meet Zeta’s wrath. It is easier this way.”

Kai knew his brother well and the normal motions of his tail. Usually calm and steady was now moving into a new place each second, curling, and his eyes were brighter than he remembered them before.

And then there was the amazement that Kito tried to hide from his face at the first sight of his own brother’s luminous yellow eyes that were a light grey before. He had heard that his brother had yellow eyes but never was able to see it for himself. He was truly seeing his brother for the first time.

Kai stood straight with his hand on the grip of his staff and watched him for some time. With a half-raised brow that gave the good Xutashi a nervous shiver. Of course, it would be Kai that would figure it all out immediately. He could find out when a person’s attitude changes from the last moment he meets them. He was practically trained for this.

“I know you’re hiding something,” then there it was. He was now on the path to trying to figure it out and Kito knew he would search until he found the answer. The fool always thought he was so smart... Maybe he was. How can Mia stand to deal with that?

He rubs the back of his neck with his hand attempts a casual manner with his eyes away from him. His ears low. He was a cub again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“And yet you amaze me with your attempt to play dumb,” he went for the hut door. “You can usually talk your way out of many things, I’m surprised I’m not hearing some made up realistic story.”

His mind instantly went to Alira coming to meet him again last night, but he didn’t smell any scent outside. Caji must have kindly hidden it. He walks over to Kito’s balcony while his brother remains in front of the steps beside the front door.

He opens the basket to see what he had just thrown away, shutting it a second after opening. “What is inside this hut, Kito?”

His ears couldn’t impossibly lower anymore, but his head eases for them. “My business.”

He places his staff against the hut so he can put his hand on the handle. “And if I-”

“No!” He was quick to shut the door before he could open it, his speed even slightly shocking Kai. He didn’t show it. He frowns at his brother with a small growl. “Is Alira in there?”

“What, Gods no-”

“Has she been here last night?”

He was silent.

Kai’s growls increased. “I am looking inside of this hut, Kito. If you like it or not.”

He shut the door again when he opened it, this time slightly louder, “Stop, Kai. I... I don’t want to wake them up...”

Them? “Then let me enter.”

He opens the door again with force. Kito didn’t want to wake any up inside so shutting the door wasn’t an option, but he did reach for his brother’s arm who just moved it away at the last minute so he could see what he was trying to hide. Inside was cleaner than what it has been before without all of his things in the way, and from the looks of it, everything was normal.

Except for the blankets that were breathing on the bed.

When Kai approaches and had his hand hovering over the blankets that he was once again taken by surprise that his brother darkly growls towards him this time. A deep rumble of a warning that he knew instinctively what it could have been when his spine shivered upwards to the noise. It was a strange natural knowledge between their kind that way, the spine always ruffled and their mind could inherently process, their bodies knew from deep within. By instinct. He turns to see Kito’s stern expression, one that he couldn’t help himself. It was a red signal. “Don’t touch those blankets. She is fine. You don’t need to see her.”

He lowers his hand away and respects his warnings, wondering if his brother might attack him. From just looking at the bed alone all he could see of who was laying under it was the feminine figure and the long, wild mess of black with hints of blue hair that was scattered.

He looked at his brother with wide, glowing eyes. “Where did you find her?”

Another noise came from inside the hut. Caji’s small whimper as Kai turns and saw the Kikera staring at him from his bed in the corner of the room, and he could also see the small arm of a cub around him. Yet, looking closer, it wasn’t a cub at all.

“Kito,” he whispers his name, the shock was too great to speak any louder. “This is...”

“We will talk about this outside,” Kito motions to the door. Kai follows him back to the front of the hut and Kito shuts the door tightly.

“Where did you find them?” He repeated.

“I found the boy by chance in the Jungle, sitting in front of a large tree waiting. When I came by he hugged and praised me, telling me that he was placed there by some other little child and to wait for me. He has had dreams brought to him of me from the other world by Ser’avi, and now he is convinced I am his hero. A savior. He led me to his sister, who was hurt, and I found her. She...” He paused. “She is mine.”

Kai was reminiscing the time Mia had told him what Sooda had told her long ago, about Kito’s luck being greater than he realized. Now the little girl’s word was coming true. He grins at his younger brother, a wide smile to show his humor. “You have always been impatient. I guess that is why Ser’avi made you wait longer than the rest,” he grabbed his staff. “But this is a happy occasion, why hide it?”

“Her injuries,” just the mere thought of anyone else placing a hand on her in a harmful way angered him. Was this what the human males were like? Bradley, the human male that was brought here with the twelve females, was a nice man when he met him that once. “The boy told me a human male called Richard was hurting her. He will give me no more than that. He does not like speaking of it, but I noticed something in his words that he is too young to understand.” He swallowed a growl. “The man wanted her. He wanted to hurt her to have her. I am angry inside yet I don’t know how to stop it. Perhaps I should go to the human world and kill him, that should ease it.”

“It would be a better idea if you stay,” Kai said. “We are all much too busy to stay at the cave and bring you back, and how would you find the one who did it? ”

“I have tracked others before, I can manage a human. Is that how you will react if someone had done Mia-”

“Do not compare her to that situation,” His words came back with a small bite and a half growl. “Do not think that I don’t understand your situation, all I am saying is that you have more important things to tend to right now-”

His own words broke at the loud terrified shriek from inside of the hut from a woman, a scream that made Kai smile at the hut with a loud chuckle. “Like that.”