"Alkymi And Chaosi"

by Jade Griffin/cheets

03.06.01

Note: Chaosi is pronounced "Kay-awe-sai". Odd, I know, but.. well, you'll see:)


middle time –

A voice roused him. His name called.

"Alkym?"

A voice he'd known for a very long time. Alkymi Gummi opened tired eyes with a grin. "Dozed off again."

"Hm. You weren't working very late last night. Pushing yourself too hard isn't healthy." The other crossed his arms and quirked a brow at him.

He kept his grin, having played this teasing game before. "Well, since you won't tell me the secrets of the universe, I have to discover them myself!" He stared on expectantly.

"Always the same excuse. I told you I don't know the secrets of the universe."

"Always your excuse." Alkymi pointed phrase and finger at his best and only friend; but he let off some, rising and stretching. Not noticing the gummi hurrying past his open doorway.

He was talking to it again... It being himself. She shook her head pityingly. He may be the smartest gummi in the city next to Channi but Alkymi certainly was the strangest. Most cubs grew up in a group of like-agers, or at least with siblings. Alkymi had the first, but they say he was even a loner then. And now? He was older than her! And the only gummi with an imaginary friend.

"Chaosi, how long have you known me?"

His friend cast him a lop-sided grin. "All your life."

"Have I ever taken it easy?" He started out, ignoring the looks of the few gummies in the hall.

"Only when I make you! You know, Alkymi, perhaps you should have stayed with magic."

Alkymi shook his head. "Too rigid, and simple. Magic is a set discipline. Science is unexplored. I need a challenge. Science is my life." He shrugged, then grinned. "It would make things easier if you'd tell me at least one secret." His eyes glinted with the glee of a child.

Chaosi rolled his eyes. "I told you..."

"I know, I know."

*******************

early time –

Channi looked on the sea-furred cub standing before her. "Alkymi, do you know why you were sent to see me?"

His eyes looked away from hers. "Yes. My friend."

"Would you like to tell me about him?"

The cub's eyes went to hers and back to nothing. "…No."

His 'friend' was speaking to him. She had no doubt. But what was it saying? "Why not? He doesn't want you to tell me?"

"No. I don't want to."

"I see." Her own eyes fell away as her brain paused to think it through. He was so intelligent for his age… Unusual even for a child twice his age. She rarely got the opportunity to observe the cub, as her duty to the Council held highest priority, but he'd been brought to her attention recently by concerned adults over the matter of some unseen friend he was often chatting with. Channi admitted that, for now, she was stumped. It wasn't unusual for a cub to have an invisible friend, in that the gummi figure was make-believe, but even the older cubs claimed that this case was something more. One thing stood firm, however. She wouldn't find anything out unless she could get him to talk.

"What if I promise not to tell anyone else?" She also knew not to press anyone, even a cub, too far.

"But they want me to tell you so you'll tell them. They didn't listen the first time."

That last was muttered to himself. "I see. They sent you to talk to me, Alkymi, because it's unusual to have a friend like yours. They're worried about you."

"But why? He can't hurt me. He wouldn't."

"You're very young. Even if he doesn't mean to, he might be able to hurt you." She didn't want to mention the real reason for their worry: that Alkymi had made friends with an evil spirit, or something worse. Not unreasonable thinking, given the circumstances. "What if you were too busy talking to notice someone coming through a doorway and that someone was carrying a hot tray. You might bump into them and get burned."

He listened to her but had nothing to say to that.

Alkymi's silence disturbed her. She tried something else. "I don't eve know how old you friend is."

"He's as old as me." the cub muttered.

"What?"

Alkymi glanced again at his friend. Maybe… maybe she could understand, if he told her. Because she wanted to. He looked at the seated, orange-furred Channi. "He's as old as me."

"What's his name?"

"Chaosi."

"Can you tell me what he looks like?" she asked carefully, though it looked like Alkymi was beginning to relax.

"His fur is all colors."

"Like a rainbow?"

"No. Like… like the sky, and how it changes. Chaosi doesn't look like a regular gummi."

So it was a gummi… but with a terribly odd name and an appearance that changes? This may not be a spirit at all… "What do you and Chaosi talk about?" She decided it was safe to ask tougher questions.

"All kinds of things. The other cubs, outside, how high we can jump…"

Alkymi paused. It was easy to see he was listening to something she could neither see nor hear.

He even nodded. She waited until his eyes found her again.

"What did he say?"

"He never knew you'd be so interested to know. About him, he means."

"I must say, he sounds very unique." Now was the time to dig deeper. "I wish I could see him…

There's no way I could?"

He looked again to that space and she noted the approximate location.

Alkymi regarded her and shrugged his answer.

"He can't pick things up, or talk so that I can hear?"

Again to the blank at his right the child looked. But the cub's eyes moved with the unseen gummi and when they stopped, Alkymi giggled, looked at her.

Channi blinked. "What?"

Grinning, Alkymi stepped closer. "He's like this," The cub stood next to her and leaned forward, knocking on the air near her head. "HellOoo? Can you hear me? HellOOOoooo!"

If she could see it, too, she would probably be laughing with Alkymi. But there was absolutely nothing between the cub and herself.

He wasn't laughing anymore. He was listening.

She'd learned much but there was one thing more to see. The cub hadn't spoken a word to this 'Chaosi'. "Alkymi? I'll return shortly. Will you wait here?"

The sea-furred cub nodded.

Channi quietly stood and left the room.

Chaosi watched her go. "See? She is trying."

Alkymi sank with puzzlement. "But why can't anybody hear or see you?"

"Should they?"

"And why can't you touch anything? Chaosi, you don't eat or sleep or get tired like me. Everybody else does."

Chaosi shrugged.

Beyond the door, Channi listened, fascinated. Though only the one cub's voice she heard, the one-sided conversation told volumes. He really saw something, either created from his mind or … or actually there! If only she knew its responses to his queries.

"She's probably listening at the door." Chaosi commented thoughtfully, heading that way.

"Is she?" Alkymi stayed and waited.

Channi came back into the room, walking right through the smaller Chaosi, but only they knew that.

Chaosi grinned. "Yup."

Alkymi held his own grin. It was funny sometimes, but he'd prefer it if Chaosi could be seen and heard by everybody else.

"I'd like to talk with you more, about Chaosi,"

"She doesn't even consider talking to me."

Alkymi glanced at Chaosi, then back to her.