“You… you were both nice, and you didn’t have any kind of reason to be. I don’t remember ever saying thank you, or… pag-ibig you. I just stared and kept quiet and… did you hate me for it? I must have seem so ungrateful. I wasn’t, I really really wasn’t. I just became so mapait after that. If you were still alive maybe none of this would have happened. I could have stayed… not… killing, Va-Vault… There’s people I can’t face anymore. I can’t face Art, I can’t face Inxie or Zapix… I was going to see them but then they told me what happen with Ano. I keep try to do things right but I keep think about me. I keep feel like I should be justify and I’m not. I’m sure… I-… I’m sure you would have been the best parents… I wish I could have told you that.”
[“D-… David, there’s…” A tall human woman, with brown hair and brown eyes, aged to her late twenties, looked down at the collapsed child inside a bulaklak garden at her large golden wood-based house. It was early in the morning, which matched well with the magsuot ng bata the woman wore.
Coming up behind her was a dirty-blonde man with brownish-gold eyes, who was almost the exact size of his mate, and also with his age. He wore a magsuot ng bata as she did, and his expression was equally as stunned. “Is she breathing?”
They both had accents that were not originated from Supreta. They spoke in what sounded somewhat like Singskrit, but not quite the same. Their voices were more… still. They had been leaving in the country for quite a few years but where they came from before that was not known.
“I don’t know. Check! Before someone notices!”
The man fumbled pasulong and knelt in front of the unmoving person. A steady breath was felt as well as a heart-beat. She was alive, but clearly not well-kept. Some parts of balahibo had completely torn off, with the metal exoskeleton glinting out from under that.
“She’s alive.” The man picked up the battered sleeper and carried her inside, setting her down on a nearby couch. “Eph, we… how do we handle this?”
The woman shook her head with a finger cupped around her bottom lip. “I-I don’t know… I mean if she’s found then they’ll-“ She covered her mouth, squealing faintly at the image of what might happen.
“Then we have to help somehow. We can… Th-there’s the smugglers! Everyone knows there’s smugglers that take people to Ytaris.”
“How would we even contact, or find out how to contact, them?”
“Police might have records… but that may bring attention back here… For now all we can do is hope she’s okay enough… Maybe she has a family and got separated.”
“The Underground? Where would we start?”
“I don’t know…” The man stared at the coloring of the young Banshee’s fur. “Is that a normal Banshee color? Don’t they usually have black or white fur?”
The woman walked over to observe. “She looks very… lynx-like. Perhaps one of the parents was a lynx?”
“That might explain why she was alone. One parent doesn’t want to take care of it because of their position, and the other isn’t allowed to exist.”
“That’s a terrible thing to think.”
“It’s not impossible. It’s quite common actually. Tischary-“
“Please don’t bring him into this.” The woman cringed. “Just the thought is disgusting.”
“He’s done it before. Usually it’s birth-control that takes care of it, but not always. Many of them resort to that sort of thing to get produce.”
“I don’t want to talk about that anymore… can we just, leave her alone, for now? I can’t believe she’s still sleeping.”
“That… that’s a good idea.”
The small child eventually woke up and looked around the large room. It was like a waiting-room that people had in restaurants. There was a fireplace to her right, and many madami couches in the same room. Some hallways were seen and to her left was a telebisyon with a large half-painted canvas on an easel.
The young girl was not sure how she got here. Her memory was fuzzy. The house was very nice but was she a guest or an intruder? It would be best to leave. Whoever lived here would get in trouble if they found her.
She gathered… oh, that’s right, she had no belongings. All tht she wore were torn jeans and a yellow shirt. She started to get off of the sopa but footsteps covered her in a nagyelo state of the words “oh no”.
In her mind she had laid back down with her eyes closed again, but realized that in reality, she had not moved whatsoever. Her ears stood straight up, twitching back and forth at the sound.
“Is it hard to keep your ears up so long?” A woman’s voice asked from behind the girl. “It seems like it would be heavy.” The ears collapsed to the sides of the lynx’s head. She did not respond outside of a constantly repeated “I- I, I- I” pattern.
“You aren’t in danger,” Eph assured. “We found you in the garden… Do… you have… have someone taking care of you?” The girl shook her head. “Well… you can stay here for now if you like then.” Still the youngling kept silent, not moving to see the woman.
Eph did not want to bother the child but there needed to be some communication. “Are you hungry?”
It was the first non-Singskrit version of the word. “hunger” was the single word used for all versions. “I am hunger”, “I was hunger”, “I will be hunger”. When approached with this different-sounding version, the lynx mimicked it in a questioning tone.
“Yes… hungry.” Eph replied, assuming this was a progressive reaction. “Do you want to eat?”
“Oh…” The young girl felt her stomach. With her attention on the idea of food, it became apparent that breakfast was required. A mute nod gave the answer.
“…Anything specific?”
The girl shrugged. Eph was growing madami and madami uncomfortable. She did not want to pry, but the vague responses were not helping. It was understandable that the lynx would not be trusting, but now everything had to be based on guesses. Eph gave a simple “Okay” and moved to the kitchen.
David was inside, listening in. “What if she’s allergic?” He asked.
“Then we… I don’t know,” Eph sighed. “We make sure we’re there to take care of it. Banshees adapt. I don’t think it will be a problem.”
“That’s true. Alright, well we should start baking then.”
David brought the pagkain with Eph at his side. They expected the girl to be exploring the house at that point, but she remained on the sopa still. David carefully moved the tray of pagkain in front of a coffee mesa in front of the couch, but the girl apparently was not prepared for even this, and upon actually seeing one of her hosts, she jumped, kicking her feet against a cushion as to push herself back.
David nearly dropped the food, spilling a bit of gatas and water from the cups. He swiftly placed the tray down before any madami harm could be done and called out to Eph for a towel. “I’m sorry for startling you.” He said. “Most kids like pancakes. I hope that isn’t a problem.”
The small lynx didn’t seem to be comprehending what he was saying at first. She was gaping still, though her eyes were off to the far-right. “Are you thinking about something?” She looked over to David as he asked this question.
David braced his knees as he rose back up from wiping the floor. “When people are remembering something they usually look up to the right.”
“… Wh-…” The girl began, looking puzzled now. “What’s ‘ing’?”
“… I’m… sorry?” David now looked puzzled himself.
“You said..” She stopped after realizing the pagkain in front of her. “… that’s… m-..ine?”
“If you like it, then yes.” David replied. The lynx did not touch the pagkain at first. She instead would slowly look over at the human, then jerk back, hoping he did not notice, which he did. To relieve the tension she began tugging at one of her ears.
“You can eat it now if you want.” David added once past a good seven ear-stroked. The girl stopped messing with her ear and reached over to the food. The male human was not able to notice how the lynx stroked her ear from his angle, but seeing how shaky and twitching her hands were now seemed far too strange to be simple nerves.
When the lynx grasped a fork, she held it tightly. When she raised it, her hand still shook largely. She had to grab the silverware with both hands to keep steady, and was not completely successful even then. She managed to cut one side of the syrup-soaked wheat-cakes, and then a second, but when she raised the stacked tatsulok she had to lean pasulong to take the bite.
“… Are you alright?” David asked. The girl chewed, but between smacks she sagot “I can’t feel them…”
“Feel them? … Your hands?”
She nodded. The girl went on to her segundo slice with the same slow and worrying result. Her hands started to loosen uncontrollably so she pushed them against the table, with the fork now pointed at her in a flat angle. She slowly moved her shoulder and head down to reach it, but the bite fell off before she could reach it. The lynx tried to catch it but ended up jabbing her nose on the fork. She jerked up with a small squeal, which was followed sa pamamagitan ng several sneezes that she attempted to cover.
David’s first instinct was to get some tissues but she was nearly covered in mucus now. He walked out and came back with a warm wet towel. “Here.” He sinabi as he slowly began to wipe of the girl’s face. She was not comfortable at this initially, but she kept still until her face and hands were cleaned off.
Once clean again, the lynx reached for the fork once again. David intervened, grabbing the fork. “Here. Let me take care of that.”
“But…” She looked almost flustered. She clearly was not enjoying being babied.
“… Okay.” David placed the fork down for her and stepped back. The lynx did not raise the metallic handle. She instead spent a rounded twenty segundos starring at it shamefully. She placed a hand on the fork, and scooted it to the left of the table, towards David.
The human took the fork and slowly fed the young girl until the meal was finished. “You’ll want new clothes, right?” He asked.
The lynx looked down at her tattered attire and nodded. “Do you know your sizes?” David asked. She shook her head. “Alright, then we’ll get some various choices.”
The two adults attempted to coax out a name from the child. She simply told them that she could not spell, or read. This was of course not a complete answer, but they had not gained her trust just yet. Maybe she wanted to learn. Before they would do anything madami however, she needed new clothes, and a bath.
David nominated himself to get the clothes, leaving Eph home. While he went shopping, Eph decided to print out the Supretan alphabet. She showed this to the child and began going over the different letters.
The girl mimicked each letter and their sounds but when they came to the end, she asked “Where’s the ‘Y’?”
Eph, now surprised that a Supretan native would know an English letter, asked the lynx “How did you learn about the letter ‘Y’?”
The girl replied “They sinabi to put it in things because it sounds ‘cool’.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
The lynx girl began to shake her head. This started to worry Eph because the girl wasn’t stopping. “You don’t have to answer.” The lynx stopped shaking. Eph looked over the alphabet and pointed at the Supretan letter which made the “yuh” sound. “This is the Supretan way of ‘Y’.” She explained.
“But… that’s a start.” The lynx noted.
“In my language it sometimes replaces this letter,” she pointed at the Supretan Long-E, “and this letter” she pointed at the Supretan Long-I.
“It does? … Why does it do that?”
“My language changed a lot.” Looking over the letters and translations, Eph got an idea. “Here,” She pushed the letter-posters closer to the lynx, placing a piece of paper and a pencil susunod to her. “Why don’t you look over these, and choose how you want to spell your name?”
The young girl widened her eyelids, looking at the dozens of figures in front of her. “Do you think I can?”
“Of course!” Eph shrugged humorlessly. “If you need help you can call me and I’ll come over, okay?”
The lynx studied the posters in front of her, analyzing them for a moment. She rose her head and nodded to the human. “… The man called you Eph. Is that your whole name?”
“My full name is Ephphatha but that just got confusing, so I got sa pamamagitan ng Eph. My husband’s name is David.”
“Is his name short?”
“No it’s the whole name.”
“Okay.” The girl had stopped talking, giving Eph the assumption that it was time to leave. She moved to the kusina and began making a list. She was brainstorming mostly, adding things to it that would be needed for purchase in case she could call David to pick them up. The possibility of adopting this girl repeatedly went through her head, mostly when considering the many rooms that could be candidates for a bedroom. She had to keep that out of her head though.
She was pulled off-track when a small voice called out “I finished!” Eph made her way to the living room where the lynx held up a small word pagbaba “Rynk”. Eph took note of the capital English R’s placement, which had not been discussed in the posters. “So you know some about spelling?”
“I don’t think so,” The lynx shook her head.
“You capitalized the R, and you wrote it in my language.”
“Oh… I wanted it to be important.”
“Why?”
“I remember the R at the beginning. I don’t remember the others. Do I need to change it?”
“No, it’s fine.” Eph looked over the name a bit more. “You put a Y too. How do you say this one?”
“Well, you sinabi it can sound like an E, so I used it like an E.”
“So you pronounce your name as ‘reenk’?” The lynx nodded.
“I guess so.” The lynx shrugged.
Eph had many tanong she could ask the little girl but she was not sure of which might hit a nerve if attempted. She decided to start with something simple. “Do you want me to call you ‘Rynk’?” The lynx nodded silently.
The lack of communication afterward drew out madami tension from the human adult. She had little she found appropriate to talk about… no, it was appropriate but perhaps insensitive was a better word. This child was new to them and it was very likely she had gone through many tribulations. At the very least she had been alone, tired, dirty, and hungry, for a good while.
Apparently this girl who called herself Rynk was very tired still and fell back to sleep. Eph decided to stay with her until she woke up. She went back to Pagsulat her listahan which was cut short once again when David arrived back at the house with shopping bags.
“I’m b-“
“Shhh!” Eph held up her hands frantically while stepping carefully over to David. “She fell asleep. Let’s put them in the kusina for now.”
“Good idea,” David whispered in agreement as they made their transition. “When do you think she’ll wake?”
“A couple hours maybe. Let’s see what you bought.” Eph whispered back. David began to unload the attire. A set of underwear and a set of socks were the first to be pulled out, though these were of little consequence. He pulled out a few differently-colored plain T-shirts, various sizes of jeans, and a thin dark-blue sweater. “This was cheap so I thought she might like it.”
“She might…” Eph looked over the length. “It seems a bit long but she might still like it.
“Let’s hope.”
Now the couple began to silence. Eph knew she could ask her husband what she would not Rynk so she did so. “Should we let her stay? F-for good?”
David expected this tanong but he was not going to be prepared for it regardless. With a clearing of his throat he answered “If we send her anywhere else there’s no hope. I could try contacting some form of smugglers but they might track them back to us and get her anyway.”
“So we’ll take care of her until we have an opportunity.”
David nodded. “She at least needs to be ibingiay something for whatever journey she’s on.”
Eph looked out to the sopa where two tuffs of large ears stood up. She smiled faintly. “Well we did want children.”
To the couple’s fortune, Rynk did quite like the sweater. She sinabi little about the rest of the clothing, but enjoyed having clean shirts and pants to wear. David was not pleased to find the paliguan clogged with a large pile of brown balahibo but he subsided his anger when he saw that there was little balahibo left on the Banshee/Lynx after showering.
It had been a week now and the little girl had grown back her fur. It was very soft and smooth though the black areas with the glowing blue made it difficult to mask. David and Eph assumed she would become restless of staying in the house all the time, but to their surprise the small girl never requested to be out anywhere outdoors, save their backyard once or twice.
It was clear however that Rynk did want to go out to the world eventually. She would often stare at the flower-garden outside the house, noting that her paborito was a purple and light-turquoise one.
This was a rare occurrence where the supposed adopted child would initiate a conversation. Almost no information was shared. The most the couple received from her was her age, which was apparently around eleven. They were surprised sa pamamagitan ng this. She was so short for an eleven-year old Mobian, especially since Banshees were known for their height. Perhaps it had to do with her lynx heritage.
Rynk sinabi little to nothing about her room outside of “This is for me?”, “Are you sure?”, and “Okay”. They did not receive a direct “thank you” but they did not dwell on it. It was implied always and that was all they needed. Her room was not extravagant. It had a closet, a dresser, a bed. Nothing else was required.
David and Eph tried to think of things to do for the child. David would handle studies with her, and taught the lynx how to spell in her native language. Occasionally he would insist that she attempt writing, which she was sensitive towards and often regressed to a head-lowering state of shame. Each time this happened they did their best to lift her spirits, but it was clear she was going to remain upset.
Eph questioned why they did not teach her English as well, but David simply informed her that it would be too much to force on Rynk. Eph was not content with just letting David handle education however, and decided to help with explaining the history. Before she taught Rynk however she read through the textbooks themselves, and even the ones that did not speak out against Banshees were very dark. This was no literature for the child to learn about.
David and Eph often let Rynk stay at tahanan alone when they needed to. Rynk did not seem to mind, and spent most of the time walking around, practicing her letters, or sleeping. When she thought they were not looking she would also try Pagsulat with hand, which proved still very difficult. It was worrying to leave her alone with prowlers constantly around, but they had to keep suspicion from arising.
One araw the two were coming tahanan from work when they heard singing. It kept repeating over and over. Rynk was in her room so even with her ears they did not notice the door opening. The couple slowly made their way up to listen.
The warriors run down the small town,
They lay to rest all the men’s hope.
They burn and break all of the houses
The defender’s spears have all broke
And the king and his men,
With hearts of greed and sin
They watch and they lay down their swords
Like cowards they lay down their swords…
The kingdom is crushed now and weeping,
The people are all but slaughtered
The black Knight rises up his sword now,
Then the kingdom’s prey is slaughtered
For the King and the Knights,
Whose hearts matched not their words,
Only sealed what would make their end earned
They’d know that their doom was self-earned…
Cry, Cry
Tears, Tears,
The battle-cry and innocent’s tears
For they did not know why
It was them that should die
For the innocent blood spilt is cursed
The ones who spilt blood were now cursed…
Up rose the red knight
The single savior
Valiantly, selflessly
Our one protector
Down came the dragons
Metallic death
Then down came the red knight
Clinging to breath…
The last of the people were dead now
The soldiers all marched out with glee
The final words that were spoken
“Savior, oh please come save me”
The Refine… this was about the Refine. The small town was most-likely Rynk’s home-town… but she could not of been there during the Refine. She was too young. It must have been her parents. David recognized some of what was described. The protectors laying down their swords referred to Supreta lowering their defenses to allow the countries to come in and exterminate the Banshees and Nictrela. The Black Knight was probably symbolic for one of the Gei Si Heir smart-missiles. They were generally black, but perhaps it was just Gei Si Heir in general. The Red Knight puzzled him a bit though. The single protector? Usually that would be a White Knight.
David and Eph had not been living in Supreta too long. They read up on some of their history, but what was described here did not completely match with the textbooks. That was understandable considering the government. Oh Eph and David were treated well of course. Their kind were almost like gods to Mobocanians. Whatever they needed or wanted was provided. They never really asked for much, but the house alone that they lived in stood out quite a bit from the concrete buildings surrounding it. They knew how it was for the Banshees, and to some extent they agreed with the government. Banshees WERE dangerous… but they also knew about Ytaris.
Ytaris, the Nictrela country, was self-dependent, and completely off the radar. There had never been any signs of attacks from their government, with the only “illegal” acts being the smuggling of people out of Supreta. Nictrela were technically madami dangerous than Banshees because the majority had to take medication to keep their psyche level and not turn into rabid beats. And yet, nothing had happened. The same could easily be sinabi for the Banshees.
Right now they had a Banshee in their house, Eph and David. She was not hostile or dangerous-acting. She was simply introverted, and quiet. How they would play out the susunod minuto was a mystery.
The couple did not know what they should do. Would they enter and stop her? She sang rather well, which was not a surprise, her being a Banshee; sound powers and such. They could wait. When she was done singing, she would come out.
The couple made their way to the kusina where they began preparing dinner. David had made a salad and was now looking for noodles to have sent to their house on the internet. They were out and forgot to purchase the correct brand so he took imitative.
While going through a bakery website a notification appeared on his screen. “Eph,” He called over. “The movie is available now.”
Eph walked over. “That took a while. Which one?”
“300.” He answered. “Reminds me of the guy we saw in… somewhere.”
“I think it was… huh.” Eph chuckled. “Guess we’ll remember later. Anyway, go on.”
“You know. The professor… at the high-society school?”
“Right. He mentioned how things were ‘meant’ to be pronounced.”
They both chuckled. “Yeah,” David replied. “Funny how they got a completely different word from this movie.”
“Well you want to watch it tonight?”
“Uh… Let’s wait. I want to check a few things about that song Rynk was singing. It might take a little bit.”
“Okay… well we can’t wait for too long. It’ll be taken again.”
“We can purchase it now and wait.”
“Alright. Let’s go with that.”
Eventually Rynk was called down from her room to eat. What was placed on their plates looked and smelled scrumptious. Small chunks of white meat lay atop thick tube-shaped noodles, soaked in a creamy kamatis sauce with a thin bedding of kanin below it. “It’s pasta.” David explained. “It’s an Italian meal.”
“Italian?” Rynk asked.
“An old country. It isn’t around anymore.”
“Oh.”
The three dug in to their meal soon after. Eph cupped her hands before eating, which Rynk took note of, but she did not think much of it. She loved the taste of this meal. It was filling and tangy and bursting with flavor. It was chewy and slurpy and satisfying. She ate four servings, leaving no leftovers afterward. When asking for a fifth she was finally denied.
“I think that’s enough.” Eph said. “Eat too much and you’ll get stomach-cramps.”
Rynk nodded understandingly. David noticed her slowly taking small bits of noodles from the serving bowl but he did not address it. If she got a stomach-ache it would be a lesson about over-eating.
“We heard you pag-awit early today.” David informed. Eph stiffened, worried about what the reaction would be. The lynx girl was surprised definitely, with her ears drooping to her sides in embarrassment.
“It was very pretty.” Eph added quickly. “Did you make it?”
The lynx shook her head. “I remember it.”
“… O- W-well uh,” David cleared his throat. “I did some research and found out about the Red Knight in the song. I printed out the files if you want to read what happened.”
“But… I can’t read well yet.”
“We can look over it together if you want. Would you like that?”
The lynx thought over the situation and then nodded gradually. Eph started to clear the mesa and David soon returned to now uncovered furniture with a laptop. He pulled up a website where a picture of a red-hooded figure stood at the icon. He began pagbaba over the information to Rynk.
The information was filled with phrases such as “It is rumored that?” “it cannot be confirmed that” “We assume that”, but a series of matching situations formed a story.
It began with a comet that hit a hidden special ops base positioned inside of Rictisss. The comet was discovered to have been a species called “Identity”. The identity was found to be very docile, and highly intrigued sa pamamagitan ng the new world. She sinabi little but sought information constantly.
Eventually the identity, who went sa pamamagitan ng the name “Kaiya”, was recruited fully sa pamamagitan ng the special ops unit. Their mission was to observe and sabotage a special project sa pamamagitan ng the Rictiss empire, which was to escape Mobocan. The Organization informed her that leaving the planet would endanger the entire population simply sa pamamagitan ng opening a portal.
With false information fed to her, and a to the information acquirable about the world, Kaiya quickly infiltrated the project. The Op underestimated her intelligence however, and the identity quickly discovered intel concerning the portal-project, the government, and her employers.
Now refusing to let the Supretan Operation continue, Kaiya dismantled the infiltrators, and revealed them openly to the Rictiss Empire. With a strong fury towards the Supretan government, Kaiya made her way to the country of Supreta to lay waste to its leader(s) and plotters. Unfortunately she now underestimated them, and was captured soon after arriving.
The Supretan government attempted to reprogram the identity to no avail, but kept her as a mystery for the time. They knew that the Rictiss Empire would say nothing as it would draw attention to their project. So, for a series of years, Kaiya was the Supretans’ captive.
The identity gave up quickly on escaping for the time being, and decided instead to train herself more. She secretly researched the planet and while drained regularly inside of her cell, she kept a remote pool of Chaos Energy building up that she would draw from upon her escape.
Eventually the araw of the Refine arrived. Kaiya had freed herself at this point but remained in hiding as she secretly sabotaged the technology and shielding around Supreta. She was not aware that this helped the country when they let Gei Si Heir, and Nekai, in to destroy the Banshees and Nictrela of the planet.
Kaiya activated the energy pool she had been building up, and intervened on the conflict, saving as many Banshees as she could while also taking down as many hostiles as she could. Unfortunately, with the combination of her Nanites burning off from the overuse of energy, and the constant barrages of enemy fire, Kaiya was brought down.
The artikulo concluded sa pamamagitan ng saying that it is unknown whether the identity is still out there, but that all information provided has been passed down as directly from her. David was a bit skeptical of this considering the constant “rumor” statements, but it matched up with the events well.
Rynk was wide-eyed, but she did not seem negatively affected. “Maybe that should have waited till tomorrow morning,” David mentioned in hindsight. Rynk did not reply. She was too deep in thought. She seemed to react when the adult closed the laptop screen however, and asked “Are there any pictures?”
“I… uh,” David set the laptop back down and began to paghahanap for pictures of Kaiya. He found many but they were all drawings. Some people dressed up in hoods and used special effects to look as though they were something else, but comments in the pictures soon proved otherwise. When returning to the artikulo however, it was now gone.
Rynk had been watching and she saw David’s face. He had his hand cupped around his mouth, half pondering, and half worried. He refreshed the page but nothing happened, so he did it again, and again, and again, but the site did not appear. He spent a moment with his hands away from the computer, still starring at the screen, trying to decide on what this could mean. It could be an error… but it was probably something dangerous.
David began erasing all memory of the website encounter from the computer’s history, deleting cookies and all possible files with the word “Kaiya”, “Identity” and “Red Knight”. The young lynx was puzzled at this but kept silent; hoping that David had things under control.
The susunod araw David and Eph were supposed to go work but decided to stay home. They were worried. Rynk eventually got up the nerve to ask “What’s wrong?”
Eph explained “We just need to stay cautious for a little bit. In a few days things will be alright.”
The small lynx was not convinced but she did not protest. Eventually she was sent to bed, but David and Eph stayed up, wide-awake with tension. “Let’s watch the movie,” David suggested at 11:32 P.M. “If we’re going to stay up we might as well.”
Eph agreed and soon they were viewing 300. “2006…” David chuckled with a hint of melancholy. “Did your parents live from then?”
“Nuh-uh,” Eph shook her head. “Grandparents… during the 75 years.”
“It’s too bad film digressed since then.”
“On this world anyway…”
The two attempted to remain silent throughout the movie as it played, but various scenes caused them to be madami and madami appalled. The blood-spatter was expected from such a movie, but the nudity, and scene after scene of gore… it was not appealing to them. David finally turned off the movie and they decided at 12:49 P.M. to go to bed.
What the couple did not know, or expect, was that Rynk was still awake. She had kept from telling them that she got energy at night. She had slept at night here and there, but she was sent to kama too late often.
Rynk had heard about this movie from Eph and David, and she heard the noise from downstairs. So… she snuck out and turned it on. Because of her amazing hearing, the small lynx kept the volume at the lowest setting. She watched the entire movie, but fell asleep after it was over, with the TV-screen still on.
Eph was the first up that morning, and she found the collapsed little girl in front of the TV set. She turned off the telebisyon and began thinking over what to do about this. First thing’s first; she woke up the little Banshee-Lynx, shaking her gently.
Rynk moaned tiredly as she was lifted up on to the couch. “We snuck out last night, didn’t we?” Eph asked. Rynk blinked for a moment, then bursted her eyes open.
“I-I- I, it- I we-… mm…”
“You watched the movie?”
Rynk lowered her ears. There was no point in lying. She nodded shamefully. “Y- you didn’t say I couldn’t and I was awake… I- I’m sorry- I’ll go-“
Eph stopped her right there. “Wait… ‘Go’?”
“… I don’t have to go?” Rynk’s ears perked a bit.
“You don’t have to go… I want to explain something though… actually,” Eph walked over to the TV-screen and began deleting the movie from the memory. “How much did you watch?”
“A-all of it?” Rynk cringed, her head lowered so far that she began to resemble a terrified vulture.
“What do you remember?”
“There was a lot of fight… and the king sinabi ‘This is sparta’.”
“Is that it?”
“… The rest was kind of gross…”
“Well it’s good we know how you feel about that,” Eph sighed, turning back to Rynk. “Rynk… do you know what Rated-R means?”
Rynk shook her head. “It means ‘Restricted’” Eph explained. “They used to put it on pelikula that children shouldn’t watch.”
“… Adults are allowed to watch it though?” Rynk seemed madami curious than rebellious with this question.
“Yes.”
“But isn’t it bad? Shouldn’t they not watch it too?”
“… pelikula changed… ratings changed. It used to be about preparing for things we need to know… now it’s just things that hurt us… or that’s how it used to be.” Eph sat susunod to the lynx. “How do your eyes feel?”
“M-my…?” Rynk touched her eyes worryingly. “A-are they bleeding?”
“No but looking at a TV too long can hurt them.”
“Oh… Am I in trouble now?”
“I think you’ve had trouble enough. You should eat… then spent some time outdoors for a bit. Some fresh air will help with all that exposure.”
Rynk nodded obediently and started to get off of the sopa but halted. She turned to Eph again and started to raise an arm… maybe she was going to hug her. She did not go through with it. She went off to the kitchen.
David was awake now and took Eph aside in the hall. “I’m needed at work. Are you comfortable being here with just the two of you?”
“We should be okay,” Eph said, attempting to assure him. In truth she was very worried, but to not go to work would cause madami suspicion.
“Are you sure you aren’t needed too?” He asked.
“I can risk one araw of uninformed absence,” She replied.
“… Okay.” The husband kissed his wife and was soon out to the city. It was just Eph and Rynk. It was obvious the araw would be a long one when a crash went off from the kitchen. Eph jolted in to find a glass destroyed on the floor with Rynk apologizing one-hundred times a minute.
Eph tried to calm Rynk down with gentle it’s-okays but Rynk just kept apologizing. Eph finally yelled “Stop!” and Rynk went silent. The human pulled over a walis and began cleaning.
“… This STUPID hands!” Rynk slapped the backside of her left arm against the table.
“Were you trying to pour something?” Eph questioned as she poured the glass into a trashcan.
“I messed it up,” Rynk pouted. “It didn’t work.”
“… Didn’t work?” Eph asked.
“I… I was trying to use my hands right… I was practicing.”
“How were you practicing?”
Rynk led Eph into her room and showed her a bunch of papers scattered in stacks. Most of them were scribbles, with some torn, but a few were recognizable drawings and words. Eph held up one that had a full sentence. “Some of these are pretty good.”
“… How?” Rynk was astonished.
“Okay, they aren’t amazing but you’re at least literate.”
“I can’t draw anything though.”
“In time… Wait here.” Eph walked out and soon retuned with stencils. Some were circles, suns, moons, hearts, people, animals, and so on. “You can use these for practice.”
Rynk caught on to the idea quickly and began outlining with the stencils on some paper. When finished she had made a three-dimensional box. It was jagged in some areas, which upset Rynk, but Eph did what she could to lift the lynx’s spirit.
Eventually they transitioned to the backyard. It started out with drawings, then moved on to botany, specifically flowers. Rynk found out that the one she liked so much as called “Moso Lu”. She thought the name was weird but enjoyed how pretty it was.
From botany they moved to the backyard tree. Rynk loved climbing up and down from it. Eph told her she had to keep from being seen. Rynk did the best she could to obey but her large ears often stuck out from the leaves.
From there they went on the ugoy attached to the tree. From there they drew flowers. From there they went back to climbing. From there Rynk tore her sweater and nearly had a puso attack before Eph told her they could sew it to look just as good as it used to. After that Rynk insisted on helping and ended up stabbing her finger with the needle, which frightened Eph. After that, Rynk agreed to let Eph do the sewing.
Soon it was late and David had returned from work. The girls informed him of their araw and since the following araw would be free from work entirely, they decided to make it a special picnic.
Unfortunately that araw was spoiled when rain arrived. They attempted to have the picnic indoors but it simply was not as enchanting. The araw after this however…
Eph was pagbaba a book in the backyard… WAS…
David opened the door and there they stood; government agents. “Sir we’re from th-“ David interrupted the man very loudly “Government officials!”
The man took a step back from this walang tiyak na layunin outburst. He did not know there was a Banshee in the house… or that David wanted the Banshee to hear him. “You’re here about a website, right?”
“That is correct, Sir,” The official replied. This lobo mobian in front of David had no intention of seeming intimidating. David towered over him, and was clearly unaffected (on the outside) regardless of the armed men surrounding his front lawn. “May we see your computer?”
“Uh… yeah, ya’ can,” David motioned for them to go to the kusina and brought over the computer. “I already wiped the memory.”
The lobo widened his gaze for a moment. “May I ask why, Sir?”
“This is why,” David replied. “You think I want the government ransacking my house? He quickly developed a tired-sounding slur tone, trying as best he could to seem like too little a problem. “So I got a little curious about a website that popped up. When I saw it was taken down I knew something was up.”
“Mr. Quevil, you were the first to see the website before it vanished.
This piqued David’s curiosity. “Really? Well that’s timing. Look you have a field araw with my computer if you want, but when I’m found innocent, pay me back please.”
“If you have nothing to hide, Sir, we won’t be long.”
“Good! … Good…” David stumbled over towards the upstairs. Two of the armed officials began following. “Do I need an ESCOURT?” He asked angrily. “What, you wanna help paint the baby’s room?”
The lobo began to speak some madami but when David saw Eph being dragged inside sa pamamagitan ng madami guards, he started to become inwardly furious. “Get your hands off my wife, captain! … Or whatever your position is. You want a pregnancy test?”
“Actually we w-“
“That was rhetorical!” David yelled. “That’s not your business… Alright look, you can take the comp, but leave us alone. We’ve got immunity and you’ll get in trouble.”
The wolf’s ears perked up to this as his hands tensed. “I beg your pardon?”
David shook his head, then lowered the shoulder of his shirt. A dark stripe lay there. “You’ll find a few others on my back but… well that’s also none of your business. We’re a rare species after al-“
“HB SITUATION! RUNNER ON MY NOSE!” A voice yelled from the backyard. Screaming from both the man and Rynk went on as he yanked her off of a fence and drug her over. The mga baril rose at her, David, and Eph.
“Mr. Quevil, is that the baby you were talking about?” The lobo asked, still remaining emotionless facially.
David sinabi nothing. He was observing his surroundings and options. He could tank a few bullets if he needed to, but Eph and Rynk needed to escape. He wasn’t going to have an option for that without an opening.
One of the guards noticed that Rynk began to breathe in and out slowly and largely. “What’s she doing?” He asked, gaining the attention of the others.
While this hybrid did not currently possess the sonic blast abilities of most Banshees, she still retained a voice. She let out as large a screech as she could, piercing the surrounding people’s ears. David and Eph were affected but forced themselves to move, grabbing hold of Rynk and darting for the stairs.
Shots blasted behind them, one rather potent blast hitting the stove which was in use. A apoy started up. David kept to the back, and had already suffered a few bullets to his body. They entered Rynk’s room, but lacked a plan of escape. There were no windows, and they were not going to escape sa pamamagitan ng destroying the walls. That would take far too long.
David was pressing the door shut while Eph and Rynk slowly inched the kama to the door. Behind the kama however was a small air-duct. It looked barely large enough for Rynk to fit through, let alone anyone else, but it went directly outside, save for a generator at the other part of it.
The walls were already getting torn apart. Rynk was shoved into the pried-open rectangle, a painful experience to say the least. She instantly felt crushed, and it was hard to breathe, but David continued to push her through.
It hurt, it hurt so much. Rynk could feel her own Buto scraping against each other, but unable to break. She was crying and screaming, but she did not tell them to stop. She was forced against the generator and eventually it broke off but not before a barrage of gunshots went off, covering Eph and David.
David was so utterly destroyed that two of the bullets hit Rynk. They dug through her metallic bones. These people were prepared. Rynk fell through the tiny tunnel and on to the damo below. She was barely conscious at this point, and a green energy field was starting to appear around the now burning house.
Something grabbed her and she wanted to stop whoever it was but she was still too stunned. She heard a tearing and felt something wrapping around her ankle and leg. Whoever had pulled her away was using her sweater to bandage her leg. She was safe… but Eph, and David, were dead.]
“I guess it wasn’t… that special really. It was so brief but you were such nice people. It doesn’t do you any good now I guess but… I do pag-ibig you both… if I knew what you might have wanted from me in the future, I- I just hope it… m-makes you- w-would have made-… I’m sorry.”
Footsteps. She wasn’t alone. “Took quite a while to catch up with you,” [I know that voice… I KNOW THAT VOICE!]
The claws tore out and she slammed into Idolza, driving her sharp tips into his stomach as far as she could before he fell down. He was in pain definitely but laughing. “Got that off your chest?”
“WHAT DO YOU THINK!?” She screamed, preparing to cut his head off. She was yanked back, thrown into the air nearly one-hundred feet. When she landed, it was soft, as if gravity weakened for that single moment.
She plopped to the ground, and then HE addressed her. “My precious little girl. I need you for something.”
She did not recognize this voice… wait… yes she did… it was famila-…
Rynk tore her face up, eyes blazing and muscles aching to fight. “You’re Melcro…” She hissed. “YOU DID ALL OF THIS!”
“… Well I made all of you if that’s what you mean. Pleasant dreams.”
Darkness
[“D-… David, there’s…” A tall human woman, with brown hair and brown eyes, aged to her late twenties, looked down at the collapsed child inside a bulaklak garden at her large golden wood-based house. It was early in the morning, which matched well with the magsuot ng bata the woman wore.
Coming up behind her was a dirty-blonde man with brownish-gold eyes, who was almost the exact size of his mate, and also with his age. He wore a magsuot ng bata as she did, and his expression was equally as stunned. “Is she breathing?”
They both had accents that were not originated from Supreta. They spoke in what sounded somewhat like Singskrit, but not quite the same. Their voices were more… still. They had been leaving in the country for quite a few years but where they came from before that was not known.
“I don’t know. Check! Before someone notices!”
The man fumbled pasulong and knelt in front of the unmoving person. A steady breath was felt as well as a heart-beat. She was alive, but clearly not well-kept. Some parts of balahibo had completely torn off, with the metal exoskeleton glinting out from under that.
“She’s alive.” The man picked up the battered sleeper and carried her inside, setting her down on a nearby couch. “Eph, we… how do we handle this?”
The woman shook her head with a finger cupped around her bottom lip. “I-I don’t know… I mean if she’s found then they’ll-“ She covered her mouth, squealing faintly at the image of what might happen.
“Then we have to help somehow. We can… Th-there’s the smugglers! Everyone knows there’s smugglers that take people to Ytaris.”
“How would we even contact, or find out how to contact, them?”
“Police might have records… but that may bring attention back here… For now all we can do is hope she’s okay enough… Maybe she has a family and got separated.”
“The Underground? Where would we start?”
“I don’t know…” The man stared at the coloring of the young Banshee’s fur. “Is that a normal Banshee color? Don’t they usually have black or white fur?”
The woman walked over to observe. “She looks very… lynx-like. Perhaps one of the parents was a lynx?”
“That might explain why she was alone. One parent doesn’t want to take care of it because of their position, and the other isn’t allowed to exist.”
“That’s a terrible thing to think.”
“It’s not impossible. It’s quite common actually. Tischary-“
“Please don’t bring him into this.” The woman cringed. “Just the thought is disgusting.”
“He’s done it before. Usually it’s birth-control that takes care of it, but not always. Many of them resort to that sort of thing to get produce.”
“I don’t want to talk about that anymore… can we just, leave her alone, for now? I can’t believe she’s still sleeping.”
“That… that’s a good idea.”
The small child eventually woke up and looked around the large room. It was like a waiting-room that people had in restaurants. There was a fireplace to her right, and many madami couches in the same room. Some hallways were seen and to her left was a telebisyon with a large half-painted canvas on an easel.
The young girl was not sure how she got here. Her memory was fuzzy. The house was very nice but was she a guest or an intruder? It would be best to leave. Whoever lived here would get in trouble if they found her.
She gathered… oh, that’s right, she had no belongings. All tht she wore were torn jeans and a yellow shirt. She started to get off of the sopa but footsteps covered her in a nagyelo state of the words “oh no”.
In her mind she had laid back down with her eyes closed again, but realized that in reality, she had not moved whatsoever. Her ears stood straight up, twitching back and forth at the sound.
“Is it hard to keep your ears up so long?” A woman’s voice asked from behind the girl. “It seems like it would be heavy.” The ears collapsed to the sides of the lynx’s head. She did not respond outside of a constantly repeated “I- I, I- I” pattern.
“You aren’t in danger,” Eph assured. “We found you in the garden… Do… you have… have someone taking care of you?” The girl shook her head. “Well… you can stay here for now if you like then.” Still the youngling kept silent, not moving to see the woman.
Eph did not want to bother the child but there needed to be some communication. “Are you hungry?”
It was the first non-Singskrit version of the word. “hunger” was the single word used for all versions. “I am hunger”, “I was hunger”, “I will be hunger”. When approached with this different-sounding version, the lynx mimicked it in a questioning tone.
“Yes… hungry.” Eph replied, assuming this was a progressive reaction. “Do you want to eat?”
“Oh…” The young girl felt her stomach. With her attention on the idea of food, it became apparent that breakfast was required. A mute nod gave the answer.
“…Anything specific?”
The girl shrugged. Eph was growing madami and madami uncomfortable. She did not want to pry, but the vague responses were not helping. It was understandable that the lynx would not be trusting, but now everything had to be based on guesses. Eph gave a simple “Okay” and moved to the kitchen.
David was inside, listening in. “What if she’s allergic?” He asked.
“Then we… I don’t know,” Eph sighed. “We make sure we’re there to take care of it. Banshees adapt. I don’t think it will be a problem.”
“That’s true. Alright, well we should start baking then.”
David brought the pagkain with Eph at his side. They expected the girl to be exploring the house at that point, but she remained on the sopa still. David carefully moved the tray of pagkain in front of a coffee mesa in front of the couch, but the girl apparently was not prepared for even this, and upon actually seeing one of her hosts, she jumped, kicking her feet against a cushion as to push herself back.
David nearly dropped the food, spilling a bit of gatas and water from the cups. He swiftly placed the tray down before any madami harm could be done and called out to Eph for a towel. “I’m sorry for startling you.” He said. “Most kids like pancakes. I hope that isn’t a problem.”
The small lynx didn’t seem to be comprehending what he was saying at first. She was gaping still, though her eyes were off to the far-right. “Are you thinking about something?” She looked over to David as he asked this question.
David braced his knees as he rose back up from wiping the floor. “When people are remembering something they usually look up to the right.”
“… Wh-…” The girl began, looking puzzled now. “What’s ‘ing’?”
“… I’m… sorry?” David now looked puzzled himself.
“You said..” She stopped after realizing the pagkain in front of her. “… that’s… m-..ine?”
“If you like it, then yes.” David replied. The lynx did not touch the pagkain at first. She instead would slowly look over at the human, then jerk back, hoping he did not notice, which he did. To relieve the tension she began tugging at one of her ears.
“You can eat it now if you want.” David added once past a good seven ear-stroked. The girl stopped messing with her ear and reached over to the food. The male human was not able to notice how the lynx stroked her ear from his angle, but seeing how shaky and twitching her hands were now seemed far too strange to be simple nerves.
When the lynx grasped a fork, she held it tightly. When she raised it, her hand still shook largely. She had to grab the silverware with both hands to keep steady, and was not completely successful even then. She managed to cut one side of the syrup-soaked wheat-cakes, and then a second, but when she raised the stacked tatsulok she had to lean pasulong to take the bite.
“… Are you alright?” David asked. The girl chewed, but between smacks she sagot “I can’t feel them…”
“Feel them? … Your hands?”
She nodded. The girl went on to her segundo slice with the same slow and worrying result. Her hands started to loosen uncontrollably so she pushed them against the table, with the fork now pointed at her in a flat angle. She slowly moved her shoulder and head down to reach it, but the bite fell off before she could reach it. The lynx tried to catch it but ended up jabbing her nose on the fork. She jerked up with a small squeal, which was followed sa pamamagitan ng several sneezes that she attempted to cover.
David’s first instinct was to get some tissues but she was nearly covered in mucus now. He walked out and came back with a warm wet towel. “Here.” He sinabi as he slowly began to wipe of the girl’s face. She was not comfortable at this initially, but she kept still until her face and hands were cleaned off.
Once clean again, the lynx reached for the fork once again. David intervened, grabbing the fork. “Here. Let me take care of that.”
“But…” She looked almost flustered. She clearly was not enjoying being babied.
“… Okay.” David placed the fork down for her and stepped back. The lynx did not raise the metallic handle. She instead spent a rounded twenty segundos starring at it shamefully. She placed a hand on the fork, and scooted it to the left of the table, towards David.
The human took the fork and slowly fed the young girl until the meal was finished. “You’ll want new clothes, right?” He asked.
The lynx looked down at her tattered attire and nodded. “Do you know your sizes?” David asked. She shook her head. “Alright, then we’ll get some various choices.”
The two adults attempted to coax out a name from the child. She simply told them that she could not spell, or read. This was of course not a complete answer, but they had not gained her trust just yet. Maybe she wanted to learn. Before they would do anything madami however, she needed new clothes, and a bath.
David nominated himself to get the clothes, leaving Eph home. While he went shopping, Eph decided to print out the Supretan alphabet. She showed this to the child and began going over the different letters.
The girl mimicked each letter and their sounds but when they came to the end, she asked “Where’s the ‘Y’?”
Eph, now surprised that a Supretan native would know an English letter, asked the lynx “How did you learn about the letter ‘Y’?”
The girl replied “They sinabi to put it in things because it sounds ‘cool’.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
The lynx girl began to shake her head. This started to worry Eph because the girl wasn’t stopping. “You don’t have to answer.” The lynx stopped shaking. Eph looked over the alphabet and pointed at the Supretan letter which made the “yuh” sound. “This is the Supretan way of ‘Y’.” She explained.
“But… that’s a start.” The lynx noted.
“In my language it sometimes replaces this letter,” she pointed at the Supretan Long-E, “and this letter” she pointed at the Supretan Long-I.
“It does? … Why does it do that?”
“My language changed a lot.” Looking over the letters and translations, Eph got an idea. “Here,” She pushed the letter-posters closer to the lynx, placing a piece of paper and a pencil susunod to her. “Why don’t you look over these, and choose how you want to spell your name?”
The young girl widened her eyelids, looking at the dozens of figures in front of her. “Do you think I can?”
“Of course!” Eph shrugged humorlessly. “If you need help you can call me and I’ll come over, okay?”
The lynx studied the posters in front of her, analyzing them for a moment. She rose her head and nodded to the human. “… The man called you Eph. Is that your whole name?”
“My full name is Ephphatha but that just got confusing, so I got sa pamamagitan ng Eph. My husband’s name is David.”
“Is his name short?”
“No it’s the whole name.”
“Okay.” The girl had stopped talking, giving Eph the assumption that it was time to leave. She moved to the kusina and began making a list. She was brainstorming mostly, adding things to it that would be needed for purchase in case she could call David to pick them up. The possibility of adopting this girl repeatedly went through her head, mostly when considering the many rooms that could be candidates for a bedroom. She had to keep that out of her head though.
She was pulled off-track when a small voice called out “I finished!” Eph made her way to the living room where the lynx held up a small word pagbaba “Rynk”. Eph took note of the capital English R’s placement, which had not been discussed in the posters. “So you know some about spelling?”
“I don’t think so,” The lynx shook her head.
“You capitalized the R, and you wrote it in my language.”
“Oh… I wanted it to be important.”
“Why?”
“I remember the R at the beginning. I don’t remember the others. Do I need to change it?”
“No, it’s fine.” Eph looked over the name a bit more. “You put a Y too. How do you say this one?”
“Well, you sinabi it can sound like an E, so I used it like an E.”
“So you pronounce your name as ‘reenk’?” The lynx nodded.
“I guess so.” The lynx shrugged.
Eph had many tanong she could ask the little girl but she was not sure of which might hit a nerve if attempted. She decided to start with something simple. “Do you want me to call you ‘Rynk’?” The lynx nodded silently.
The lack of communication afterward drew out madami tension from the human adult. She had little she found appropriate to talk about… no, it was appropriate but perhaps insensitive was a better word. This child was new to them and it was very likely she had gone through many tribulations. At the very least she had been alone, tired, dirty, and hungry, for a good while.
Apparently this girl who called herself Rynk was very tired still and fell back to sleep. Eph decided to stay with her until she woke up. She went back to Pagsulat her listahan which was cut short once again when David arrived back at the house with shopping bags.
“I’m b-“
“Shhh!” Eph held up her hands frantically while stepping carefully over to David. “She fell asleep. Let’s put them in the kusina for now.”
“Good idea,” David whispered in agreement as they made their transition. “When do you think she’ll wake?”
“A couple hours maybe. Let’s see what you bought.” Eph whispered back. David began to unload the attire. A set of underwear and a set of socks were the first to be pulled out, though these were of little consequence. He pulled out a few differently-colored plain T-shirts, various sizes of jeans, and a thin dark-blue sweater. “This was cheap so I thought she might like it.”
“She might…” Eph looked over the length. “It seems a bit long but she might still like it.
“Let’s hope.”
Now the couple began to silence. Eph knew she could ask her husband what she would not Rynk so she did so. “Should we let her stay? F-for good?”
David expected this tanong but he was not going to be prepared for it regardless. With a clearing of his throat he answered “If we send her anywhere else there’s no hope. I could try contacting some form of smugglers but they might track them back to us and get her anyway.”
“So we’ll take care of her until we have an opportunity.”
David nodded. “She at least needs to be ibingiay something for whatever journey she’s on.”
Eph looked out to the sopa where two tuffs of large ears stood up. She smiled faintly. “Well we did want children.”
To the couple’s fortune, Rynk did quite like the sweater. She sinabi little about the rest of the clothing, but enjoyed having clean shirts and pants to wear. David was not pleased to find the paliguan clogged with a large pile of brown balahibo but he subsided his anger when he saw that there was little balahibo left on the Banshee/Lynx after showering.
It had been a week now and the little girl had grown back her fur. It was very soft and smooth though the black areas with the glowing blue made it difficult to mask. David and Eph assumed she would become restless of staying in the house all the time, but to their surprise the small girl never requested to be out anywhere outdoors, save their backyard once or twice.
It was clear however that Rynk did want to go out to the world eventually. She would often stare at the flower-garden outside the house, noting that her paborito was a purple and light-turquoise one.
This was a rare occurrence where the supposed adopted child would initiate a conversation. Almost no information was shared. The most the couple received from her was her age, which was apparently around eleven. They were surprised sa pamamagitan ng this. She was so short for an eleven-year old Mobian, especially since Banshees were known for their height. Perhaps it had to do with her lynx heritage.
Rynk sinabi little to nothing about her room outside of “This is for me?”, “Are you sure?”, and “Okay”. They did not receive a direct “thank you” but they did not dwell on it. It was implied always and that was all they needed. Her room was not extravagant. It had a closet, a dresser, a bed. Nothing else was required.
David and Eph tried to think of things to do for the child. David would handle studies with her, and taught the lynx how to spell in her native language. Occasionally he would insist that she attempt writing, which she was sensitive towards and often regressed to a head-lowering state of shame. Each time this happened they did their best to lift her spirits, but it was clear she was going to remain upset.
Eph questioned why they did not teach her English as well, but David simply informed her that it would be too much to force on Rynk. Eph was not content with just letting David handle education however, and decided to help with explaining the history. Before she taught Rynk however she read through the textbooks themselves, and even the ones that did not speak out against Banshees were very dark. This was no literature for the child to learn about.
David and Eph often let Rynk stay at tahanan alone when they needed to. Rynk did not seem to mind, and spent most of the time walking around, practicing her letters, or sleeping. When she thought they were not looking she would also try Pagsulat with hand, which proved still very difficult. It was worrying to leave her alone with prowlers constantly around, but they had to keep suspicion from arising.
One araw the two were coming tahanan from work when they heard singing. It kept repeating over and over. Rynk was in her room so even with her ears they did not notice the door opening. The couple slowly made their way up to listen.
The warriors run down the small town,
They lay to rest all the men’s hope.
They burn and break all of the houses
The defender’s spears have all broke
And the king and his men,
With hearts of greed and sin
They watch and they lay down their swords
Like cowards they lay down their swords…
The kingdom is crushed now and weeping,
The people are all but slaughtered
The black Knight rises up his sword now,
Then the kingdom’s prey is slaughtered
For the King and the Knights,
Whose hearts matched not their words,
Only sealed what would make their end earned
They’d know that their doom was self-earned…
Cry, Cry
Tears, Tears,
The battle-cry and innocent’s tears
For they did not know why
It was them that should die
For the innocent blood spilt is cursed
The ones who spilt blood were now cursed…
Up rose the red knight
The single savior
Valiantly, selflessly
Our one protector
Down came the dragons
Metallic death
Then down came the red knight
Clinging to breath…
The last of the people were dead now
The soldiers all marched out with glee
The final words that were spoken
“Savior, oh please come save me”
The Refine… this was about the Refine. The small town was most-likely Rynk’s home-town… but she could not of been there during the Refine. She was too young. It must have been her parents. David recognized some of what was described. The protectors laying down their swords referred to Supreta lowering their defenses to allow the countries to come in and exterminate the Banshees and Nictrela. The Black Knight was probably symbolic for one of the Gei Si Heir smart-missiles. They were generally black, but perhaps it was just Gei Si Heir in general. The Red Knight puzzled him a bit though. The single protector? Usually that would be a White Knight.
David and Eph had not been living in Supreta too long. They read up on some of their history, but what was described here did not completely match with the textbooks. That was understandable considering the government. Oh Eph and David were treated well of course. Their kind were almost like gods to Mobocanians. Whatever they needed or wanted was provided. They never really asked for much, but the house alone that they lived in stood out quite a bit from the concrete buildings surrounding it. They knew how it was for the Banshees, and to some extent they agreed with the government. Banshees WERE dangerous… but they also knew about Ytaris.
Ytaris, the Nictrela country, was self-dependent, and completely off the radar. There had never been any signs of attacks from their government, with the only “illegal” acts being the smuggling of people out of Supreta. Nictrela were technically madami dangerous than Banshees because the majority had to take medication to keep their psyche level and not turn into rabid beats. And yet, nothing had happened. The same could easily be sinabi for the Banshees.
Right now they had a Banshee in their house, Eph and David. She was not hostile or dangerous-acting. She was simply introverted, and quiet. How they would play out the susunod minuto was a mystery.
The couple did not know what they should do. Would they enter and stop her? She sang rather well, which was not a surprise, her being a Banshee; sound powers and such. They could wait. When she was done singing, she would come out.
The couple made their way to the kusina where they began preparing dinner. David had made a salad and was now looking for noodles to have sent to their house on the internet. They were out and forgot to purchase the correct brand so he took imitative.
While going through a bakery website a notification appeared on his screen. “Eph,” He called over. “The movie is available now.”
Eph walked over. “That took a while. Which one?”
“300.” He answered. “Reminds me of the guy we saw in… somewhere.”
“I think it was… huh.” Eph chuckled. “Guess we’ll remember later. Anyway, go on.”
“You know. The professor… at the high-society school?”
“Right. He mentioned how things were ‘meant’ to be pronounced.”
They both chuckled. “Yeah,” David replied. “Funny how they got a completely different word from this movie.”
“Well you want to watch it tonight?”
“Uh… Let’s wait. I want to check a few things about that song Rynk was singing. It might take a little bit.”
“Okay… well we can’t wait for too long. It’ll be taken again.”
“We can purchase it now and wait.”
“Alright. Let’s go with that.”
Eventually Rynk was called down from her room to eat. What was placed on their plates looked and smelled scrumptious. Small chunks of white meat lay atop thick tube-shaped noodles, soaked in a creamy kamatis sauce with a thin bedding of kanin below it. “It’s pasta.” David explained. “It’s an Italian meal.”
“Italian?” Rynk asked.
“An old country. It isn’t around anymore.”
“Oh.”
The three dug in to their meal soon after. Eph cupped her hands before eating, which Rynk took note of, but she did not think much of it. She loved the taste of this meal. It was filling and tangy and bursting with flavor. It was chewy and slurpy and satisfying. She ate four servings, leaving no leftovers afterward. When asking for a fifth she was finally denied.
“I think that’s enough.” Eph said. “Eat too much and you’ll get stomach-cramps.”
Rynk nodded understandingly. David noticed her slowly taking small bits of noodles from the serving bowl but he did not address it. If she got a stomach-ache it would be a lesson about over-eating.
“We heard you pag-awit early today.” David informed. Eph stiffened, worried about what the reaction would be. The lynx girl was surprised definitely, with her ears drooping to her sides in embarrassment.
“It was very pretty.” Eph added quickly. “Did you make it?”
The lynx shook her head. “I remember it.”
“… O- W-well uh,” David cleared his throat. “I did some research and found out about the Red Knight in the song. I printed out the files if you want to read what happened.”
“But… I can’t read well yet.”
“We can look over it together if you want. Would you like that?”
The lynx thought over the situation and then nodded gradually. Eph started to clear the mesa and David soon returned to now uncovered furniture with a laptop. He pulled up a website where a picture of a red-hooded figure stood at the icon. He began pagbaba over the information to Rynk.
The information was filled with phrases such as “It is rumored that?” “it cannot be confirmed that” “We assume that”, but a series of matching situations formed a story.
It began with a comet that hit a hidden special ops base positioned inside of Rictisss. The comet was discovered to have been a species called “Identity”. The identity was found to be very docile, and highly intrigued sa pamamagitan ng the new world. She sinabi little but sought information constantly.
Eventually the identity, who went sa pamamagitan ng the name “Kaiya”, was recruited fully sa pamamagitan ng the special ops unit. Their mission was to observe and sabotage a special project sa pamamagitan ng the Rictiss empire, which was to escape Mobocan. The Organization informed her that leaving the planet would endanger the entire population simply sa pamamagitan ng opening a portal.
With false information fed to her, and a to the information acquirable about the world, Kaiya quickly infiltrated the project. The Op underestimated her intelligence however, and the identity quickly discovered intel concerning the portal-project, the government, and her employers.
Now refusing to let the Supretan Operation continue, Kaiya dismantled the infiltrators, and revealed them openly to the Rictiss Empire. With a strong fury towards the Supretan government, Kaiya made her way to the country of Supreta to lay waste to its leader(s) and plotters. Unfortunately she now underestimated them, and was captured soon after arriving.
The Supretan government attempted to reprogram the identity to no avail, but kept her as a mystery for the time. They knew that the Rictiss Empire would say nothing as it would draw attention to their project. So, for a series of years, Kaiya was the Supretans’ captive.
The identity gave up quickly on escaping for the time being, and decided instead to train herself more. She secretly researched the planet and while drained regularly inside of her cell, she kept a remote pool of Chaos Energy building up that she would draw from upon her escape.
Eventually the araw of the Refine arrived. Kaiya had freed herself at this point but remained in hiding as she secretly sabotaged the technology and shielding around Supreta. She was not aware that this helped the country when they let Gei Si Heir, and Nekai, in to destroy the Banshees and Nictrela of the planet.
Kaiya activated the energy pool she had been building up, and intervened on the conflict, saving as many Banshees as she could while also taking down as many hostiles as she could. Unfortunately, with the combination of her Nanites burning off from the overuse of energy, and the constant barrages of enemy fire, Kaiya was brought down.
The artikulo concluded sa pamamagitan ng saying that it is unknown whether the identity is still out there, but that all information provided has been passed down as directly from her. David was a bit skeptical of this considering the constant “rumor” statements, but it matched up with the events well.
Rynk was wide-eyed, but she did not seem negatively affected. “Maybe that should have waited till tomorrow morning,” David mentioned in hindsight. Rynk did not reply. She was too deep in thought. She seemed to react when the adult closed the laptop screen however, and asked “Are there any pictures?”
“I… uh,” David set the laptop back down and began to paghahanap for pictures of Kaiya. He found many but they were all drawings. Some people dressed up in hoods and used special effects to look as though they were something else, but comments in the pictures soon proved otherwise. When returning to the artikulo however, it was now gone.
Rynk had been watching and she saw David’s face. He had his hand cupped around his mouth, half pondering, and half worried. He refreshed the page but nothing happened, so he did it again, and again, and again, but the site did not appear. He spent a moment with his hands away from the computer, still starring at the screen, trying to decide on what this could mean. It could be an error… but it was probably something dangerous.
David began erasing all memory of the website encounter from the computer’s history, deleting cookies and all possible files with the word “Kaiya”, “Identity” and “Red Knight”. The young lynx was puzzled at this but kept silent; hoping that David had things under control.
The susunod araw David and Eph were supposed to go work but decided to stay home. They were worried. Rynk eventually got up the nerve to ask “What’s wrong?”
Eph explained “We just need to stay cautious for a little bit. In a few days things will be alright.”
The small lynx was not convinced but she did not protest. Eventually she was sent to bed, but David and Eph stayed up, wide-awake with tension. “Let’s watch the movie,” David suggested at 11:32 P.M. “If we’re going to stay up we might as well.”
Eph agreed and soon they were viewing 300. “2006…” David chuckled with a hint of melancholy. “Did your parents live from then?”
“Nuh-uh,” Eph shook her head. “Grandparents… during the 75 years.”
“It’s too bad film digressed since then.”
“On this world anyway…”
The two attempted to remain silent throughout the movie as it played, but various scenes caused them to be madami and madami appalled. The blood-spatter was expected from such a movie, but the nudity, and scene after scene of gore… it was not appealing to them. David finally turned off the movie and they decided at 12:49 P.M. to go to bed.
What the couple did not know, or expect, was that Rynk was still awake. She had kept from telling them that she got energy at night. She had slept at night here and there, but she was sent to kama too late often.
Rynk had heard about this movie from Eph and David, and she heard the noise from downstairs. So… she snuck out and turned it on. Because of her amazing hearing, the small lynx kept the volume at the lowest setting. She watched the entire movie, but fell asleep after it was over, with the TV-screen still on.
Eph was the first up that morning, and she found the collapsed little girl in front of the TV set. She turned off the telebisyon and began thinking over what to do about this. First thing’s first; she woke up the little Banshee-Lynx, shaking her gently.
Rynk moaned tiredly as she was lifted up on to the couch. “We snuck out last night, didn’t we?” Eph asked. Rynk blinked for a moment, then bursted her eyes open.
“I-I- I, it- I we-… mm…”
“You watched the movie?”
Rynk lowered her ears. There was no point in lying. She nodded shamefully. “Y- you didn’t say I couldn’t and I was awake… I- I’m sorry- I’ll go-“
Eph stopped her right there. “Wait… ‘Go’?”
“… I don’t have to go?” Rynk’s ears perked a bit.
“You don’t have to go… I want to explain something though… actually,” Eph walked over to the TV-screen and began deleting the movie from the memory. “How much did you watch?”
“A-all of it?” Rynk cringed, her head lowered so far that she began to resemble a terrified vulture.
“What do you remember?”
“There was a lot of fight… and the king sinabi ‘This is sparta’.”
“Is that it?”
“… The rest was kind of gross…”
“Well it’s good we know how you feel about that,” Eph sighed, turning back to Rynk. “Rynk… do you know what Rated-R means?”
Rynk shook her head. “It means ‘Restricted’” Eph explained. “They used to put it on pelikula that children shouldn’t watch.”
“… Adults are allowed to watch it though?” Rynk seemed madami curious than rebellious with this question.
“Yes.”
“But isn’t it bad? Shouldn’t they not watch it too?”
“… pelikula changed… ratings changed. It used to be about preparing for things we need to know… now it’s just things that hurt us… or that’s how it used to be.” Eph sat susunod to the lynx. “How do your eyes feel?”
“M-my…?” Rynk touched her eyes worryingly. “A-are they bleeding?”
“No but looking at a TV too long can hurt them.”
“Oh… Am I in trouble now?”
“I think you’ve had trouble enough. You should eat… then spent some time outdoors for a bit. Some fresh air will help with all that exposure.”
Rynk nodded obediently and started to get off of the sopa but halted. She turned to Eph again and started to raise an arm… maybe she was going to hug her. She did not go through with it. She went off to the kitchen.
David was awake now and took Eph aside in the hall. “I’m needed at work. Are you comfortable being here with just the two of you?”
“We should be okay,” Eph said, attempting to assure him. In truth she was very worried, but to not go to work would cause madami suspicion.
“Are you sure you aren’t needed too?” He asked.
“I can risk one araw of uninformed absence,” She replied.
“… Okay.” The husband kissed his wife and was soon out to the city. It was just Eph and Rynk. It was obvious the araw would be a long one when a crash went off from the kitchen. Eph jolted in to find a glass destroyed on the floor with Rynk apologizing one-hundred times a minute.
Eph tried to calm Rynk down with gentle it’s-okays but Rynk just kept apologizing. Eph finally yelled “Stop!” and Rynk went silent. The human pulled over a walis and began cleaning.
“… This STUPID hands!” Rynk slapped the backside of her left arm against the table.
“Were you trying to pour something?” Eph questioned as she poured the glass into a trashcan.
“I messed it up,” Rynk pouted. “It didn’t work.”
“… Didn’t work?” Eph asked.
“I… I was trying to use my hands right… I was practicing.”
“How were you practicing?”
Rynk led Eph into her room and showed her a bunch of papers scattered in stacks. Most of them were scribbles, with some torn, but a few were recognizable drawings and words. Eph held up one that had a full sentence. “Some of these are pretty good.”
“… How?” Rynk was astonished.
“Okay, they aren’t amazing but you’re at least literate.”
“I can’t draw anything though.”
“In time… Wait here.” Eph walked out and soon retuned with stencils. Some were circles, suns, moons, hearts, people, animals, and so on. “You can use these for practice.”
Rynk caught on to the idea quickly and began outlining with the stencils on some paper. When finished she had made a three-dimensional box. It was jagged in some areas, which upset Rynk, but Eph did what she could to lift the lynx’s spirit.
Eventually they transitioned to the backyard. It started out with drawings, then moved on to botany, specifically flowers. Rynk found out that the one she liked so much as called “Moso Lu”. She thought the name was weird but enjoyed how pretty it was.
From botany they moved to the backyard tree. Rynk loved climbing up and down from it. Eph told her she had to keep from being seen. Rynk did the best she could to obey but her large ears often stuck out from the leaves.
From there they went on the ugoy attached to the tree. From there they drew flowers. From there they went back to climbing. From there Rynk tore her sweater and nearly had a puso attack before Eph told her they could sew it to look just as good as it used to. After that Rynk insisted on helping and ended up stabbing her finger with the needle, which frightened Eph. After that, Rynk agreed to let Eph do the sewing.
Soon it was late and David had returned from work. The girls informed him of their araw and since the following araw would be free from work entirely, they decided to make it a special picnic.
Unfortunately that araw was spoiled when rain arrived. They attempted to have the picnic indoors but it simply was not as enchanting. The araw after this however…
Eph was pagbaba a book in the backyard… WAS…
David opened the door and there they stood; government agents. “Sir we’re from th-“ David interrupted the man very loudly “Government officials!”
The man took a step back from this walang tiyak na layunin outburst. He did not know there was a Banshee in the house… or that David wanted the Banshee to hear him. “You’re here about a website, right?”
“That is correct, Sir,” The official replied. This lobo mobian in front of David had no intention of seeming intimidating. David towered over him, and was clearly unaffected (on the outside) regardless of the armed men surrounding his front lawn. “May we see your computer?”
“Uh… yeah, ya’ can,” David motioned for them to go to the kusina and brought over the computer. “I already wiped the memory.”
The lobo widened his gaze for a moment. “May I ask why, Sir?”
“This is why,” David replied. “You think I want the government ransacking my house? He quickly developed a tired-sounding slur tone, trying as best he could to seem like too little a problem. “So I got a little curious about a website that popped up. When I saw it was taken down I knew something was up.”
“Mr. Quevil, you were the first to see the website before it vanished.
This piqued David’s curiosity. “Really? Well that’s timing. Look you have a field araw with my computer if you want, but when I’m found innocent, pay me back please.”
“If you have nothing to hide, Sir, we won’t be long.”
“Good! … Good…” David stumbled over towards the upstairs. Two of the armed officials began following. “Do I need an ESCOURT?” He asked angrily. “What, you wanna help paint the baby’s room?”
The lobo began to speak some madami but when David saw Eph being dragged inside sa pamamagitan ng madami guards, he started to become inwardly furious. “Get your hands off my wife, captain! … Or whatever your position is. You want a pregnancy test?”
“Actually we w-“
“That was rhetorical!” David yelled. “That’s not your business… Alright look, you can take the comp, but leave us alone. We’ve got immunity and you’ll get in trouble.”
The wolf’s ears perked up to this as his hands tensed. “I beg your pardon?”
David shook his head, then lowered the shoulder of his shirt. A dark stripe lay there. “You’ll find a few others on my back but… well that’s also none of your business. We’re a rare species after al-“
“HB SITUATION! RUNNER ON MY NOSE!” A voice yelled from the backyard. Screaming from both the man and Rynk went on as he yanked her off of a fence and drug her over. The mga baril rose at her, David, and Eph.
“Mr. Quevil, is that the baby you were talking about?” The lobo asked, still remaining emotionless facially.
David sinabi nothing. He was observing his surroundings and options. He could tank a few bullets if he needed to, but Eph and Rynk needed to escape. He wasn’t going to have an option for that without an opening.
One of the guards noticed that Rynk began to breathe in and out slowly and largely. “What’s she doing?” He asked, gaining the attention of the others.
While this hybrid did not currently possess the sonic blast abilities of most Banshees, she still retained a voice. She let out as large a screech as she could, piercing the surrounding people’s ears. David and Eph were affected but forced themselves to move, grabbing hold of Rynk and darting for the stairs.
Shots blasted behind them, one rather potent blast hitting the stove which was in use. A apoy started up. David kept to the back, and had already suffered a few bullets to his body. They entered Rynk’s room, but lacked a plan of escape. There were no windows, and they were not going to escape sa pamamagitan ng destroying the walls. That would take far too long.
David was pressing the door shut while Eph and Rynk slowly inched the kama to the door. Behind the kama however was a small air-duct. It looked barely large enough for Rynk to fit through, let alone anyone else, but it went directly outside, save for a generator at the other part of it.
The walls were already getting torn apart. Rynk was shoved into the pried-open rectangle, a painful experience to say the least. She instantly felt crushed, and it was hard to breathe, but David continued to push her through.
It hurt, it hurt so much. Rynk could feel her own Buto scraping against each other, but unable to break. She was crying and screaming, but she did not tell them to stop. She was forced against the generator and eventually it broke off but not before a barrage of gunshots went off, covering Eph and David.
David was so utterly destroyed that two of the bullets hit Rynk. They dug through her metallic bones. These people were prepared. Rynk fell through the tiny tunnel and on to the damo below. She was barely conscious at this point, and a green energy field was starting to appear around the now burning house.
Something grabbed her and she wanted to stop whoever it was but she was still too stunned. She heard a tearing and felt something wrapping around her ankle and leg. Whoever had pulled her away was using her sweater to bandage her leg. She was safe… but Eph, and David, were dead.]
“I guess it wasn’t… that special really. It was so brief but you were such nice people. It doesn’t do you any good now I guess but… I do pag-ibig you both… if I knew what you might have wanted from me in the future, I- I just hope it… m-makes you- w-would have made-… I’m sorry.”
Footsteps. She wasn’t alone. “Took quite a while to catch up with you,” [I know that voice… I KNOW THAT VOICE!]
The claws tore out and she slammed into Idolza, driving her sharp tips into his stomach as far as she could before he fell down. He was in pain definitely but laughing. “Got that off your chest?”
“WHAT DO YOU THINK!?” She screamed, preparing to cut his head off. She was yanked back, thrown into the air nearly one-hundred feet. When she landed, it was soft, as if gravity weakened for that single moment.
She plopped to the ground, and then HE addressed her. “My precious little girl. I need you for something.”
She did not recognize this voice… wait… yes she did… it was famila-…
Rynk tore her face up, eyes blazing and muscles aching to fight. “You’re Melcro…” She hissed. “YOU DID ALL OF THIS!”
“… Well I made all of you if that’s what you mean. Pleasant dreams.”
Darkness
