Chapter Six
T'Kai's head was slightly askew and his expression was puzzled as he looked at T.K. "I am still not entirely certain that I understand, my Lord," he said with a frown. The human boy nodded. At the young a'ladon's request, he had been trying to explain the evolution which he'd just had forced upon him during the battle against the Saurians.
"That's not surprising, T'Kai," T.K. answered. "But only because I'm the one trying to tell you about it, and I don't completely understand it myself. I wasn't even sure that I could get you to do it... but then, if you hadn't--" he stopped short. Both of them knew what the consequences would have been if the young human hadn't been able to effect the change in his little partner. There was no need to speak of it.
There was an awkward silence for a moment. "Does that mean that I was somebody else for those few minutes? Like... possessed?" the young creature cringed.
The human shook his head quickly. "No. Your evolution doesn't change who you are as much as it changes what you are... or better yet, what you can do. Think back. During that time, you were still the T'Kai we know, right? Still had the same memories? The same emotions?"
"Now that you mention it... I guess so," the furry creature answered. He appeared to turn the subject over in his mind for a few moments before he was completely comfortable with it. "And that can only happen to me if you want it to?"
T.K. pressed the Crest of Hope, which he had still not placed back beneath his shirt, into T'Kai's paw. "If all three of us want it to, T'Kai. You, me and our holy little facilitator there. Our purposes must be entirely the same for you to be granted that kind of power. It's not something that comes easily."
T'Kai looked across the camp to where Kari and Kiara were tending to Davis' eyes. The group had waited around for several hours, hoping that the brown-haired boy's sight would return naturally. It had not. And now the two girls were fashioning a bandage of sorts to wrap around the eyes of the sullen child. "Are you entirely certain that it's safe to leave them alone with him?"
"Do you still think that he's an incubus? After what just happened to him?"
The a'ladon's brow furrowed in puzzlement.
"Or a D'aevis, as your people call it?"
"It could still be a trick," the furry creature murmured, his deep distrust of the other human not having been diminished by its part in the battle.
"T'Kai, you've got to trust me in this. He's no demon. And if he was... well, what you think he is, I'm sure that he would have chosen a much more, uhm, tempting form to take."
T'Kai chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip. "The ruses and snares of the D'aevis are said to be many," he replied with a frown. "Who knows what tricks he may still employ to try to seduce Lady Hikari away from you. You are aware that he's already been trying, Lord?"
T.K. placed a hand on T'Kai's head and ruffled his reddish fur. "He's been at that for a long time, T'Kai. Don't worry about Kari. I trust her with everything that I am, and she does love me. She's been trying to get him to see that for a long time without directly coming out and telling him about it. I think she's afraid that she'll hurt his feelings or something. Davis can be... well, kind of obsessive sometimes."
T'Kai frowned as he continued to look at Kiara, carefully tending to the brown-haired human's eyes. "I think I'd better go get her before she actually starts caring about what happens to him," he murmured, a slight touch of apprehension in his voice.
T.K. placed a gentle hand on the other boy's shoulder. "T'Kai, don't get like that. Nothing good has ever come from getting suspicious of someone who's honestly trying to do good. If you feel for her what I think that you do, then putting your trust in her would seem to be a good place to start showing it."
The look that the a'ladon returned was almost charming in its sheepishness. He hadn't realized that he was being that obvious... but then, he was speaking with a god. "I guess you would know, wouldn't you?"
T.K. smiled as the pair stood, T'Kai accepting the human boy's hand to help him up. "Common sense sort of thing."
A moment later Kiara came over to join them. "The Lady Hikari wishes to see you, my Lord," she said softly and with a delicate curtsy, lowering her eyelashes demurely in T.K.'s presence.
The blond-haired human nodded and quickly trotted over to where Kari continued to tend to Davis' eyes. T'Kai moved to follow his mentor, but Kiara moved to stop him by gently taking the boy's paw in her own and pulling him close. The young creature turned back to her in surprise, then felt the breath as it caught in his throat in a silent and powerful adoration of the girl.
Both stood there silently for a few moments, enveloped in the simple yet impossibly profound joy of one another's presence. Though they had first laid eyes on each other the previous morning, and consciously a mere two hours ago, the reality was that each had been aware of the other since the moment of their respective births. "H... hh... hello," the young boy stammered nervously, tripping over the word. "I'm... I mean, my... my name is... T'Kai," he continued, finally able to get the words past his lips. He might have been angry with himself for behaving like a fool if he were not so focused on Kiara's presence.
"Yes, I know," the girl whispered soothingly, the musical quality of her voice coming through even though she was not singing. T'Kai was somewhat embarrassed. She didn't sound nervous at all as she reached forward and caressed his furry cheek. "I've known that for a very long time."
At that moment, T'Kai became very aware of their paws as they remained tightly clasped together, and he tried to swallow the nervous lump in his throat. He hoped that the girl couldn't feel him shaking.
T.K. sat down next to Kari on the other side of the camp, and together the pair watched the two young, love-struck a'ladon. "What did you need?" the blond-haired boy asked.
The girl glanced over in response, blinking at being drawn away from the pending scene. "Mmm? Need? Oh!" She stopped, and a tiny pink flush colored her cheeks. "Nothing really, I guess. I just thought that those two could use some time by themselves to get acquainted. Kiara wanted to get him alone."
The boy echoed her smile. "I kind of thought that you might have had something like that in mind."
Kari gave a brief glance over to where Davis sat sullenly, then quickly leaned forward and gave T.K. a soft, lingering kiss on his lips. The blond boy looked surprised, but just as quickly gathered his thoughts and returned the girl's gesture, quietly, so as to not upset Davis. After a few breathtaking moments, Kari pulled away and the boy blinked open his eyes. She leaned forward against his chest and rested her cheek on his own. "And I wanted to get you alone to tell you how brave you were this morning," she whispered, her lips just inches away from his ear. "You always make me so proud of you, T.K." She slowly pulled away, then gently caressed his other cheek with her hand before returning to Davis' side.
T.K.'s body felt limp as he watched Kari return to the crippled boy, and he bowed his head to revel in his love for the girl. And to consider her words as well, which in a strange, wonderful way were almost as delightful to him as her kiss.
With that the boy turned again to look back at T'Kai and Kiara, who were still holding paws and speaking quietly to one another. The human gave a good-hearted smile at the pair, particularly at T'Kai, who was fumbling around quite awkwardly and seemed uncertain of how to behave. Oh, yes, Kari did understand very well what was happening between those two.
And then the smile on his face saddened just a touch. He had seen for years now just how much that love could overcome, but he wondered if it would be enough to prevail over the girl's destiny. or the creature that she was on her way to meet. The blond-haired boy hoped for their sakes, he prayed that it would be.
************
The gray-skinned Saurian bellowed loudly as he raised the broken body of his frail former employer over his head and preceded to send it crashing into a large tree at the opposite side of the clearing where he and his two remaining minions had tracked the creature to. He'd brought shame on them all by leading them into that battle with the promise of a defenseless opposition. But they had not killed the a'ladon without first obtaining the information that they had wanted from it.
Again the creature turned and spat blood from his mouth, but he was pleased to see that it was no longer a very substantial amount. His people were known to heal very rapidly, and if given another day or so his tongue would have regenerated to the length at which it had been before the audacious a'ladon child had severed it.
"Where to now, my master... my brother?" one of the slightly smaller creatures murmured at his back. Both of them were ashamed at having been driven off by the modestly armed group during the perfectly planned ambush, but at least they had escaped. Who knew what that band of outlandish creatures had done with their three companions after the battle had been finished?
The leader paused, his thin eyes narrowing. "I think that I am beginning to understand this journey now," he hissed in response. "The female creature that they are bringing with them is meant to be an offering of sorts for some manner of fiend which dwells on the lower slope of this mountain. Our friend here," he indicated the body of the priest Karel, "has said that a great many of his people believe that if the sacrifice is not made, that fiend will go berserk among their lands, obliterating their race down to the newborn infant."
The other creature nodded, understanding completely.
"I think," the grayish creature said with a horrid grin, "that it would be a novel idea for us to find out if that particular belief is correct."
************
T.K. walked at the head of the group as they trod down the grassy path in the midst of the thick forest that enveloped them. At his side marched T'Kai and Kiara, still holding tightly to one another's paw. T.K. watched the pair with a gentle smile on his face. He was uncertain as to whether the two had released their grip on each other even once during the day. If was if they were determined to share what little time they had together in as close proximity as possible.
The human boy felt a deep sympathy for them. They'd spent almost their entire lives searching for one another, and now were destined to be forever parted within days. If it had been he and Kari in such a situation... he wasn't sure that he could bear the thought. He craned his head over his shoulder and looked back to where she walked, Davis' hand on her shoulder as she led him down the path. Sometimes he wished fervently that the two of them were not always seemingly required to be in the midst of one extraordinary adventure or another. He made himself a silent vow that once they finished whatever it was that they had been called here to do that he would make time for the two of them to just be alone for a while. His heart desperately longed for that time, and Kari certainly deserved it.
Davis smiled at the feel of Kari's warm skin beneath his hand. Though his blinded eyes could no longer see her, he still had a picture of the brown-haired girl affixed firmly in his mind. It seemed to the boy that she had been paying quite a lot of attention to him during the past day, and he smiled at the thought that she might finally be coming over to his side.
"Davis, stop that," the girl said as she felt his fingers begin to caress the flesh of her shoulder, then the nape of her neck.
The boy's grin instantly crumpled into a frown. Nice going, idiot. Of course she doesn't want anything to do with me now... I'm a cripple... a freak. "Sorry," he muttered, giving himself a swift, mental kick.
They walked on in silence for a while longer. "Kari?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I ask you something?"
The girl turned her head sideways. "Of course. You know you can always talk to me, Davis."
The boy swallowed, then reached up and scratched at the skin beneath the makeshift bandages which the others had fashioned for his eyes. He didn't know if it was a reaction from whatever it was that the lizard had spit into his face, but the skin up there was quite dry and tender for some reason. "How do you... feel about me?" He was afterwards never certain exactly how he had gathered up enough courage to finally ask, as opposed to trying to goad the girl into some sort of spur-of-the-moment response.
Kari winced. Oh, boy. "What do you mean, Davis? You're my friend... one of my best friends. You have been for a long time now." She trailed off, hoping that it would be enough of a response.
A hope which proved to be unfounded. "That's it?"
The girl gave a brief, almost imperceptible twitch. "What do you mean, 'That's it?'? You are my friend. What else do you want me to say?"
Davis steeled his courage, biting down on the inside of his cheek. "How do you feel about T.K.?"
Kari flinched. "Davis, why are you--"
"Kari, please." The girl turned, astonished at what she heard in his voice. This was a side of Davis that she hadn't been at all prepared for. The tone of his words was almost... sad, or pleading. She knew just from listening that he knew, or at least suspected the truth; he hadn't always been blind, after all. But still she was hesitant to answer. She didn't want to hurt Davis, particularly not now when he had just lost his sight. But then T.K.'s admonition from a few days ago came back to her. You know you're not doing him any favors by letting him pine over you like this.
The girl gave a quiet sigh, then looked ahead at T.K.'s back. Apparently Davis was finally ready for the truth from her, but how much of the truth did he want? Did he want to hear how she felt a deeper connection with T.K. than she ever had with anyone else? How so very much she admired his goodness and quiet nature? That his well-being was always foremost in her thoughts, and that one loving glance from the blond-haired boy could leave her heart pounding against her chest for hours on end? Probably not. So instead she made the simpler choice. "Davis... I love him," she replied simply.
Davis swallowed audibly. "Like... like a brother?" he asked, the shallow, false hope ringing conspicuously in his voice.
Kari pursed her lips together. "No, Davis. Not like a brother. And I would know, because I know what it's like to love a brother."
Tears welled up in Davis' sightless eyes as he finally allowed what he had known for a long time to sink in. Soon the inside of the bandages covering his eyes was quite damp, further irritating his withered skin. "I never really had a chance, did I?" he murmured, swallowing deeply and choking on the words.
"That's not your fault, Davis. You just don't know what it's like between us... you can't. I was in love with T.K. a long time before I had any idea what the word really meant. It's no good for me trying to explain it to you now, because I've tried, and no one else understands what I'm trying to say. Not Tai, not even Sora or Yolei, who are supposed to understand love as well as anyone. T.K. is just a part of me... as much a part of me as my arm or my leg or my head."
"Just tell me one thing, Kari."
"Anything."
"If T.K. wasn't around... would I have had a chance?"
The girl spread her hands. "I don't know, Davis. Maybe. But if it wasn't for T.K. I don't even know if I'd be interested in that kind of love yet."
Davis gave a low, almost inaudible moan. "What does he have that I don't?" he whispered quietly, begging with the words for a response and with the tone to be ignored.
But if this was going to come to a head now, better to get it all out in the open at once. She'd dodged it long enough. "Davis, please don't compare yourself to T.K. That's not fair to either of you. You're a great guy with a lot of special qualities, and some day I'm sure that you'll make some girl very happy. But it can't ever be me."
"I guess that's blunt enough," he mumbled, his head bowing and his numb fingers slipping from her shoulder.
"Davis, give me your hand," Kari said, fumbling to regain a grip on the boy. "You'll trip and fall or something."
"What do you care?" he asked sullenly, letting his legs fall out from underneath him and dropping to his knees on the trail. "It's almost time for us to stop anyway. I can feel the sun beginning to set."
Kari looked at the sun dipping below the western horizon, wondering if that was what he'd truly meant or if the words had a more introspective meaning for him. "T.K.!" she called ahead to the blond-haired boy.
The other looked very contemplative and troubled as he turned back to her. "Can we stop now?" she asked.
T.K. looked at Davis, kneeling in the center of the path and then at T'Kai and Kiara, who were apparently still lost in one another's company. He nodded. "I guess this is as good a spot as any."
************
The green-skinned Saurian dragged the twisted and broken bodies of the a'ladon women from the cave which Karel's instructions had led them to. That had been a fight more along the line of what they had expected before. No losses, not even any resistance, just some loud screaming and the quick death of the six females.
Five of the bodies the creatures buried in a shallow grave some fifty feet from the entrance to the cave. The last one was made a meal of by the three, since they had not been privileged enough to eat fresh meat for some time before that. "They will be here early tomorrow," the gray-skinned leader said to the others, stripping the flesh away from a small bone and gesturing with it. "And according to that priest, without these women to instruct her the girl will have no idea what she is supposed to do. We will do away with the remaining four, and then..."
"Then we will see for ourselves just what this demon of theirs is capable of."
************
Kari grabbed T.K.'s hand and led him firmly away from the light of their camp, first making certain that the two a'ladon would keep their eyes on Davis and look out for any trouble as well. Kiara responded for both of the little creatures with a conspiratorial smile, then watched as the Lady Hikari led her Lord away to a more private locale. The young priestess had seen the determined look on the face of the other girl, as well as the confused expression on that of the boy god. How could he be both divine and yet so impossibly naive? He appeared to have no idea what was about to happen...
Kari almost dragged T.K. away from their companions and into the solitude of the nearby wood. After her talk with Davis and the violence and evil that she'd seen that day she needed desperately to have her belief in life and love renewed, and had been waiting the entire day to have it done. She could no longer bear witness to everything that she had without having some reminder that there was still good in the world, and she fully intended to cling to that good as tightly as possible.
The girl stopped the blond boy some distance from the camp, though they were still close enough to see the fire and certainly close enough to hear any calls that the others should make if their assistance was indeed needed. Making time to be alone with T.K. was one thing, but she was not going to endanger the others in case they should need help.
T.K. turned about, a frown on his face as he decided that she'd pushed him quite far enough into the forest without an explanation. "Okay, Kari, we're here, but you still haven't told me what you... mmph!'
The boy's words were interrupted in quite possibly the nicest way that he could imagine as Kari grabbed the back of his head and pulled him down for a kiss that was startling to him for both its suddenness and its intensity. His blue eyes popped open in astonishment for a moment before slowly easing to a close as he became enfolded in the tangible bliss of his affection for the girl. Then, slowly and so as to make certain not to break the bond of their lips, Kari guided the boy down to the ground and positioned him up against a nearby tree. With a certainty of purpose she lifted the hat from his head and placed it to the side, then wrapped her thin arms around his neck and pushed her body forward against his until T.K. felt crushed between the little brown-haired girl and the tree at his back.
It was easily the most delightful crushing that he could have hoped for.
After a few moments of much fondling from the girl, it suddenly occurred to him that Kari was taking this much further than either of them ever had before. Early on she had slipped her tiny hands beneath his golden shirt, and now those hands were tenderly caressing every inch of skin on the boy's slender back. Such attention from her was making his heart beat rapidly and his hair almost literally stand on end, and at her seeming insistence he placed his arms around her as well.
The boy chanced for a brief moment to ease open his eyes as he felt the sweat begin to form on his forehead. A great many tendrils of his golden hair were now well intermixed with the girl's, and her eyes were closed with the clear onset of what might best be described as a feverish passion. The now irrefutable knowledge that Kari was indeed serious about this pending elevation of their romantic bond should have excited him greatly. Should have, if not for...
Something tickled at the back of T.K.'s mind now... something important that he was supposed to remember. But whatever it was it was drowned out by the wildly romantic notions that raced through his head, reminding him that there was nothing more that he could possibly want at this moment than this, with her. Everything else could wait.
Now Kari straddled his lap, and she took his hands and moved them down to her waist. The boy wasn't entirely certain just what she wanted him to do until her fingers guided him through the process of untucking her shirt from her shorts. Now as he embraced her his hands were free to work their way up her bare back, his trembling fingers delighting in every new inch of skin that they found and every new goosebump that they encountered.
He leaned back, sighing in contentment as the girl's kisses trailed off of his lips and down the side of his face to the curve of his neck. At that moment he was certain that he was now feeling more alive than ever before, and he reveled in the emotion. There were no troubles with the world and no responsibilities to bear now. No promises to keep nor rules to obey. Just the two of them and the fierce love that was finally being allowed to bloom between them. Everything else could be secondary.
But then, just as passion drummed that last incorruptible thought from the boy's mind, the Crest of Hope around his neck and its counterpart of Light about Kari's wrist each exploded into a brilliant, cautionary aura.
Kari fell away from the boy in alarm, and T.K. stared down at the golden light on his chest in consternation. He was keenly uncomfortable as he suddenly became all too aware of the flush of passion on his cheeks, and he bowed his head as the holy little Crest chastised him repeatedly with its shimmering aura. Without even being called it forced upon the boy a closer bond between them, then shoved the hesitant little tickle that had been in the back of T.K.'s mind to the front and made him keenly aware of it. "My promise... My Vows..." the young human murmured quietly, forced to suffer the shame of having the Crest scold him for several more moments afterwards. As closely intertwined as the emotions of the pair were, it knew well what had just almost taken place and what he'd nearly surrendered to allow it to happen.
Then T.K. tucked in his shirt in embarrassment and watched as the girl did the same as the closing rebuke of his Crest trailed off into silence. Obedience, Takeru, is one mark of what you will become...
Then the boy took a single deep breath to make certain that he was again in control of himself, stepped forward and took the girl's hand in his own. Shamefaced, he bowed his head and dropped to one knee in front of her. "I'm sorry, Kari. So sorry. I shouldn't have let it come so close to that... to taking from you something that I have no rights to. At least, not yet," he said, looking up at her with self-consciousness in his innocent blue eyes and his heart very nearly broken within his chest. How close he'd come to failing her... "Please... please forgive me."
Kari swallowed deeply as she stared into those eyes, and she realized that she'd just done the last thing on earth that she ever wanted to do. She'd hurt him. She knew how important it was to the boy that they not be drawn into any overtly adult expressions of their love just yet, if she was not certain just why. But she also knew that she'd come too close that night to making him go beyond that unspoken limit that he'd sworn to, and it saddened her. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Wasn't she supposed to be the one to keep him from going too far?
And now he was there on a knee, ashamed and blaming himself for this when he had to know that it was she that had planned out the whole scene. There was a strange sort of murmuring in her ears, and she glanced down at the Crest of Light that was bound to her wrist. It was almost as if the little relic was trying to tell her something. But that was simply not possible, of course. So now she took his other hand as well and pulled him to his feet, and smiled gently. "No, T.K.," she insisted. "You forgive me. I guess I'm the one that started all that. I just wanted some quiet time with you to prove to you how much I-- but I hadn't planned on it going that far."
And then something awful occurred to the boy, and he looked at her with concern etched on his young face. "Kari? You... you do know that this doesn't mean that I don't love you, right? I mean... I mean..." He paused, stammering, as if searching for words that would not come to him and then looking frustrated when he could not find them. "Kari, I'm sorry. I don't know why I don't want to do this, 'cause I do want to do this, but I just... there's just..."."
The girl smiled and placed two fingers across his lips to silence him. "T.K., be quiet. You don't have to explain, or apologize for being right, either. But... well, I just wanted to tell you that... you know... someday... "
The boy nodded, understanding what she was trying to say. And the Crest... it was well satisfied with what he'd said and told him so. Love was another mark of what he would be, but he could not disregard the rest in his anxiousness to prove it. "I know, Kari. There's so much to do between now and then. But I promise... and I really promise... I will wait."