Savage Kingdom

Inside of a hut was were silent, calm breathings of two beings sleeping entangled in blankets on the bed. Clara was using Kito’s head for a pillow, her arm under the cover and sealed around him along with her leg over his waist. He was sound asleep with slow breathing, laying on his back with his head on an actual pillow.

Each was exhausted from the time they spent tangled and the lack of sleep they gathered in the cave. This was the most sleep they had for a while, peaceful and quiet. Clara herself before in her world didn’t get an opportunity for silence like this. Safety. After the heat temporarily sated, that they finally gave in to their bodies' exhaustion. After a short pillow talk their bodies were determined it has had enough.

The emotional relief was nice. A huge lift of pressure from her shoulders. Deep inside her, she felt no worries about him being unfaithful, she still wasn't sure about how this drive was going to last forever. Could it? She couldn't imagine herself anywhere else other than him right now. Being positioned just like this.

She also didn’t mind the lovemaking. Even if they call it mating here, she knew she would never have such a nice experience in her world as pleasant as he made it. Or with any other guy. He sure didn’t act as if he was a virgin, perhaps too much confidence. No, definitely too much confidence.

That was the last thought that blew through her mind before sleep had claimed her.

They were like this for hours. Letting night buzz on, their minds shut off to regain the energy they had been sacrificing for days.

She unconsciously cuddles closer to him when a small cold breeze fills the room. The cold was easily fixed with his warmth and the sheets around them, enjoying the comfort in her dreams.

A small hand touches her bare shoulder and gently rocks, a young voice fills her ear from the side of the bed. “Sissy,” he whispers. “Are you awake?”

At first, she thought nothing of Kane’s voice and his gentle nudges. Waking up halfway and grunting. “Sissy?”

“Kane...” She didn’t move her lips. “I’m sleepi-”

It strikes her mind like a streak of lightning of her current exposed position on Kito. She springs frantically to cover the rest of herself to face Kane.

She blinks, the light from the fire was able to give enough light for her to see that nobody was there. Especially her little brother who was recently nudging her. Her quick movement woke up Na’Kito and he lifts his head and scans around frantically.

“What’s wrong?” He surveys his surroundings one last time before staring at her. “Are you alright?”

She sees the door from across the hut to understand that it was still locked shut and any signs of disturbance around weren’t seen from the mess on the ground. Her heart pounds at the experience. She sets her hand on her chest, “I just swore Kane was right here,” she points beside the bed. “H-He was talking to me and he touched me, it was him,” she blinks twice. “I’m probably crazy.”

He didn’t smell Kane nor was the door unlocked. To make her feel safer he climbed out of the bed, taking a cover with him as temporary clothing, and opened the door to look outside of it. Kane’s was still faint from earlier and from how silent the village was he knew that Zeta would have him sleeping. He could not have come in here...

He shut the door and didn’t bother to lock it this time, “Kane has not been here, mate. Are you sure it wasn’t a dream?”

Clara opens her mouth to speak until suddenly his perks his ears and snarls. Having the sudden aggressive behavior thrown her way made her skin white and her heart ache, “Kito? What’s wrong?”

She felt a phantom hand touch her exposed back and she yelps. Jumping out of the bed like a needle in the butt, she turns to see a dark shadow figure in the wall. Or on it, it was strange seeing it faded against it with no master. Kito was snarling at the figure and waves Clara over to him and she went quickly without turning her back to it.

The shadow moves, walking across the wall without the need for any real light. When she saw it she recognized it was the dark silhouette that led them through the cave, watching them with a sideways glance with its movements. A shadow that belonged to no one.

“What is it doing?” She questions. “How did it get in here?”

They were in a situation that she was very uncomfortable with. She didn’t have any clothing on and the only thing keeping it from seeing her was the blanket over her, and Kito kept himself covered with one too.

He did step in front of her to hide her further. “Go away... Thing. You’re not welcome here.”

It happens fast.

The shadow burst from the wall and, like a streak of darkness, pushes Kito back against the wall behind him. The impact even knocking Clara to the ground. He screams, the darkness somehow disappearing within him and he rolls over on his hands and knees and shook his head rapidly, and grabs his hair. His eyes shift from pure yellow to hints of red.

Flashes of bloody scenes trickle through his mind he knew that the strange thing was in his head. He could feel it seep it.

Clara panics when she saw him banging his head against the wall in an attempt to get the blood and death that took over his mind. Consuming it. He shrieks a second time and she rushes to his side and wraps her arms around his head to stop him from hitting it further. A dark growl that didn’t sound like him erupts deep from his throat and she saw the specks of red in his yellow eyes. It looked like drops of blood that plunged into it, spreading.

“Kito!” She shook his head. “G-Get out of him!"

Someone who was nearby heeded the screams of terror and hurried to the door and found it unlocked and slipped inside. Just as he steps a foot within the darkness left Kito, a fast gush that had enough force to throw the Kikera from the door of the hut and over the edge, falling through trees and hitting the ground from harsh distant fall.

Clara manages to see who it was before he was thrown and her heart wavered. She sped to find something to wear, even grabbing Kito’s trousers for him to put them on. He had a major ache in his head from the sudden attack. He was dizzy.

He was alert when Clara brought him back into focus from the spinning world, “Caji fell!”

Caji was screeching in agony and gripping his hair, his screams grabbed the attention of any who was near. It was even heard inside the huts of Kai, Ruro, and Dahl who peeks over to see him squirming from the ground.

The Kikera was rubbing his head on the hard ground and squirming painfully, the same visions that Kito saw was now streaming forcefully through his mind. Blood and death along with bloodshed, but unlike Kito, the darkness was seeping into his mind much further like a parasite. His memories of death, rape, and anger intrigued it more than the Xutashi. It latched on.

He rolls, shouts, whimpers, and repeatedly hit his head against the tree to try to get the darkness out of his mind that was clawing its way into his private past. He didn’t know what it was but it sure did made him aware something was digging through for what it wants. When banging didn’t work he resorted to snarling. The Kikera cast a savage, primal roar that none would think would come out of him so furiously and loud.

“Caji!” Mia ran to his aid with Kai not so far behind her and others had come. Zeta, Ruro, Dahl and Tina, and others who near came to see the horrid battle he was fighting to free himself of.

Before Mia can place a hand on him he struck so fast there wasn’t even a blur. His hand was there in Mia’s neck faster than she could blink, his eyes more devoured with red than Kito’s was. Rage. His fangs were bare and her heart stills at the pure emotionless beast that is shown in his eyes.

It was nothing like Caji.

Mia fell to the ground when Kai flew forward and tackled him and each of them tumbled on the ground. Caji wasn’t deterred, bouncing up and pouncing Kai with another deep, hefty roar that threw each of them again on the ground. The two began battling, Caji using his teeth and nails to draw blood. Which worked when he was bitten, but couldn't latch on. He pried him off and throws him to the ground. Shinto appears.

This couldn’t be the Caji that he had known, never would he dare grab Mia in such a way.

And the redness of his eyes... Something wasn’t right.

Holding a Kikera down was not an easy task. Many came to try to contain him, most were Kikera and even Shinto who knew how to hold down their own better than anyone else.

Shinto was the one who successfully pinned him, holding the young Kikera and using his knees to press his wrists to the ground and held his head down by pushing his arm against his throat. Caji bit it before it could make contact, and his fangs digging deep and blood escaped messily. Shinto winced but didn’t dare let the pain relinquish his hold on him. “Caji,” he pants and used his free hand to hold his throat since his other one was occupied. He wasn’t even feeding on the red liquid covering his chin, his intentions dangerous. Violent. “Not you. Stop this.”

“What’s wrong with him!?” Mia cried hysterically. “W-Why is he doing this?”

Na’Kito rushed into the scene with Clara behind him. His first sight of Caji in such a vicious state made the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end, the sight was something he never thought he would see before.

“Get out of him!” Everyone was confused when he went to his side. “I know it’s not you, Caji. It’s that shadow. And it needs to leave you right now!”

“I agree.”

Everyone looks up, when others were frightened Kito just stared in anger.

Standing in an empty spot was the stranger. The tall, strange being that was like him and yet not. Different. His ears pointed and yet round and his strange almost slender tail except for the smaller excess of fur on the end, and his eyes that he recognized. The black eyes with red streaks in them made staring into them unsettling.

He was standing nonchalant, uncaring for the Warriors around that were either growling, snarling, or stood in a defensive position. He didn’t smile either. His face kept that gloomy, dark expression that was never changing. His eyes were set on Kito in return, his arms crossing and he leans against the tree, his tail swaying to show his lack of care as the Warriors approach him.

None spoke for a while as they observe the male. Different. That was what everyone noticed about him. He looked nothing like any around them.

Ruro steps forward, “Did you have something to do with this? Who are you?”

He blinks slowly and lazily drags his eyes to him, sizing him up from his feet to his head. “I did not do this. I am here to stop what is doing it.”

“Just do what you need to!” Mia shouts, wiping her years from her cheek. “Just do it!”

He notices this human was the one he watched before. His gaze looked at Caji who still had his fangs in Shinto’s arms, his eyes blazing with his natural yellow coloring to match fire and coals. He made a stern scolding rumble deep in his chest, “Shade. Enough.”

Caji whins.

He didn’t ask again. The Kikera’s body went limp under Shinto and his fangs left his arm, and the shadow seemed reluctant to leave his body. Something that caught the stranger secretly off guard when the shadow suddenly appears behind him and on the tree. The image of the conscious shadow kneeling on the ground with its ears low causes everyone to stare. It was a bewildering sight to see. To everyone.

Caji’s face shifts back to its natural ways, his eyes now it’s normal yellow-green. Shinto felt it was safe enough to move off of him and when his weight left the Kikera turned its body on its hands and knees and shakes his head. Holding it.

Mia, and everyone else, was relieved. “Are you okay?”

He snaps his eyes and looks at the shadow and hisses, fangs and all. He stomps away into the crowd of people holding his head, and afterward, she went to Kai’s aid. He wasn’t as battered as she thought he would be, only a couple of scratches and the bite on his shoulder. It seems Caji had still fought it, he didn't take the easy access to his throat.

She was surprised Caji would even have the power to hurt anyone.

Except it wasn’t him at all.

Kito stands and seems to be the only one that didn’t seem afraid to step forward, “I thought you left.”

“I came back to have questions answered. He only misbehaves when he is hungry. Like we all can be,” the stranger says. “I saved you two from that Gods forsaken cave, Na’Kito. I deserve that much.”

He wasn’t going to ask how he knew his name. He didn’t want to know. He turns his head to look at Kai, Zeta, and Ruro who were giving him suspicious looks. Cautious. Questioning.

His family didn’t know that this stranger escaped from the cave and something else. He didn’t know which was more dangerous. Him, or the creature with wings.

Kai knew. He told Kai everything before he entered the hut to join Clara, so he spoke with confidence when he asked his question, “This is the man who left the cave?”

At Kito’s nod, he stands and hands Mia to Ruro, knowing he would keep her safe, and steps forward as well. “If you are not here to harm us then we will answer your questions.”

“Whoever said I wanted to harm anyone here?” He looks sideways towards the shadow on the tree. “Shade has a mind of his own and a wicked way of greeting anyone, very secluded to only me. I do apologize to the Kikera,” he noticed Caji watching them intently behind Kai, his head low and soft growls that left him. He could tell his growls were not as practiced as the others. “He seems to like you more than the Xutashi, he has not fed off of anger in some time. He perhaps wanted to fill himself with him, he must have a lot to enjoy.”

“Alright...” Kito didn’t find anything about him good. He didn’t feel any better about this. He was still angry that he bit Clara and the horrid visions that crammed his mind when the thing was in his head. He could feel the energy’s uncomfortable feeling towards his memories and past, it even violated his memories of his time with Clara. It must be how the stranger knew his name. “Then let’s talk,” his ears lower and an angry look crossed his face. “I am sure you have many questions to ask.”