Felinis: Here is a fresh roasted chapter hot of the word doc. I recommend pairing it with a nice Riesling
When Estelle sees him that morning her face turns red. "What are you doing up?" She scolds and he momentarily juggles his cup of water.
It's well past sunrise and close to noon and Yuri will admit he feels like shit. He hasn't slept more than maybe two hours in the whole night and still hasn't recovered entirely from yesterday's fiasco. He gives a wide sleepy smile. "It's fine. We gotta get moving to Aspio."
"No it's not!" Karol flinches. "I've never seen someone try so hard to destroy their own health." Clearly, Estelle has yet to see Flynn drink. She snatches the cup from his hand and glares at Yuri. "You're going to sleep at least three more hours! And, no fighting! It's obvious that your body is exhausted Yuri."
He brushes off his pants and stands up. "We don't have time to waste on stuff like that." He yawns. "Once I get that core back can sleep in. Besides, if I we stick around here we'll miss our chance to catch up with Flynn."
"YURI stop being an idiot and sleep! Aspio can wait!" Her voice pierces through and he cautiously gets back down on his sleeping mat. "Good now close your eyes and sleep."
Yuri lies down and closes his eyes. He tries to stay awake, but the tiredness he's been feeling takes a hold and he finally drifts to sleep. When he wakes up it's been long enough that the day's heat has peaked and the hours of daylight left are few. He huffs in annoyance partly because he did need that sleep and partly because the day has been lost.
They travel as much as they can before stopping for the night. Karol has been giving him odd looks the who day.
"Um... so Yuri I was wondering..." The boy continues prodding a stick in the soft earth. "Are you half-Krytian?"
Yuri nods. "Yep. What gave it away? My ears?" Yuri's ears had gotten long and more pronounced over the last year. The people in the Lower Quarter kept asking if this was illness or natural. Or worse. People started avoiding him on sight when they saw the ears poking out from behind the hair. It seemed ironic that it was his ears that made him look like a monster.
"Isn't it hard living in Zaphias?" Karol asks never quite looking at his ears. "I mean, the empire hates Krytians."
Estelle is listening too. "I've been wondering that as well."
Yuri leans back. "Where was I supposed to go? If you're an orphan you either die in the streets or get lucky and find someone to feed you." Yuri had considered running away many times, but there was always someone worth staying for. Be it Olive, Norien, Hanks, Flynn, or anyone else. "I can't let being a half-breed ruin my life."
"But, you were in the knights! Wasn't that awful?"
"Well, there were a lot of jerks…" He chuckles to himself. "During training, some guys tried to wheedle me out, but I held on." Because, even when those assholes tried their best to put him down through cruel pranks and insults Yuri found more reasons to stay.
"Then why'd you quit?" Karol said with a raised brow.
"I realized sticking around wasn't getting me anywhere. There's not enough you can do as a knight…" and Yuri had needed to find out things about himself. He needed to start asking questions. He needed to get away from people whose biggest question was which one of his parents had been human. A silence took over the group as they started eating their simple meal.
"So why did you get sick last night?" Karol slips out casually and Yuri looks at an angry Estelle.
"I also would very much like to know this."
"Not this again." Yuri huffs. "I told you I'm allergic to aer."
"That's bull." Karol says flatly as he bites into his dinner. Estelle gives the boy a scolding look for his choice of language, but stays silent. "If you were allergic to aer you wouldn't be breathing."
"Yeah, well, when I'm around thick aer I get sick. It's simple." Yuri lies, but he can tell it's not working. He sighs in frustration as they both glare at him. "Look I can't explain it. It just happens to me sometimes." He turns away from their prying eyes with a huff. "It's no big deal so leave me alone."
"Yuri, just tell us!" Estelle says placing a hand on her shoulder and he pushes it off.
He turns back and he glares. "Shut up and leave me alone!" Yuri huffs bitterly and walks away from the camp with Repede trailing behind him. He wishes that he could explain what was wrong, but Yuri has no words for his condition. He just knows he's a monster and that's it. He walks for miles and lays on the grass clutching his head in the spot those horns sprout from.
"Repede?"
"Yes?"
He sighs. "Do you think I'll ever find an answer? I only have one clue right now… and I don't even know how much I can trust it."
The dog sighs. "For someone who always claims to accept that you're not human you fret about it so much. It's rather silly. You'd be better off just not thinking about it. You could just live with it."
Yuri closes his eyes and thinks back to that night he laid down with Flynn to stare at the stars. Flynn's stories filter through his ears and Yuri still thinks they're stupid. The stars don't look like anything more to him than simple dots on a web of black. Yuri remembers the stories of monsters and beasts in far off lands. Of myths that Repede has come to read extensively about over the years. Of how Norien used to tell them stories of fanciful heroes and terrifying beasts. He used to love those stories until he found himself thinking that perhaps Yuri was one of the monsters in those stories. That he was the horrific beast that terrified people.
Yuri thinks of Norien brushing his hair and telling him that he was a good child. A sweet child. Even when she started falling apart in illness she still brushed his hair and spoke fondly of him like Yuri was normal.
"Miss Norien?" Yuri had never been comfortable calling the woman anything else even though the word sat there on his tongue wanting to be used. Her hands once strong and rather large for a woman where now so spindly as they drifted through his locks.
"Do you think…" He swallows. "Do you think they'll me let be a knight with Flynn?"
Norien chuckles but the sound is pained and husked. "I can't see why not? Why would you say that?"
"Because… I'm a monster and knights kill monsters." Yuri mutters sadly as Norien's hand touch his horns that had grown back in the night.
Norien sighs. "All right you little silly." She pulls him further into her lap and starts tickling him. He laughs before Norien has to stop to cough again. Yuri looks at her with worried eyes and grabs her hand tightly. "I'm fine." But Yuri sees and smells the blood drip down her mouths. She looks at him softly and runs a hand on the horns. "No matter what anyone says you're just you Yuri. My precious little boy."
"What about Flynn?" Yuri says with a raised eyebrow as the boy is still fast asleep at the edge of the bed snoring away.
Norien waves him off jokingly. "Oh, who cares about that kid. You have horns!"
Yuri smiles leaning back into her as she embraces him in the warmth that his mother have had. The happiness fades. "Miss Norien…" Yuri clenches his teeth bitterly. "I really want to know what's happening to me… Are you sure there isn't anyone to ask?"
The woman has tears hiding in the corner of her eyes as she looks at him. "I'm sorry Yuri." Yuri didn't know about how any Krytians found in the city over the past few years had their antennas cut or had been executed for false crimes. He didn't know that Norien had been searching up till the point she couldn't leave her bed for someone who could tell Yuri anything about what was happening.
"Maybe… if we found my mom I could figure something out." Yuri says softly.
Norien smiles but not in that angelic way of hers. This is sad and lonely. "I'm sure you'll figure out the answer some day. But, no matter what you're still you." But what if one day Yuri no longer was himself? What if one day Yuri never returned from that place he goes. He just wants to stay himself.
Now though, he wants answers just to understand why. He just wants that. Because, even if Yuri is going to continue to change he wishes he knew why. He wants to know that answer. If he is the beast in stories people fear or if he's just something else.
"You should get heading back." Repede says and Yuri finally heads back and no one says anything to him. Estelle and Karol look away the whole time never speaking to Yuri.
As their minds are curious of the horns they found inside his bag. Estelle knows that those weren't in the bag when they started. Karol knows that those horns don't belong to any monster he's ever heard of. He tries to think of answer for what it could be. They didn't look like insect horns. It resembled in texture closer to those on creatures related to the Rhybgaro family only they were far smoother and weren't a single horn. The thought haunted Karol as he dreamed of where and how this item came to be in Yuri's possession.
Felinis: I figured the story needed to slow down a bit before continuing on.