Takun started towards the countryside as soon as he and Sora left the restaurant. He was surprised that she stayed and didn't question where they were going, especially since she seemed to have a question for everything.
"You aren't curious to know where we're going?"
"I don't even think you know where you're going," Sora said. He smirked.
"See if you can keep up." He took off into a sprint.
He heard her footsteps trailing behind him. He saw the flash of her purple hair go past him as he started to slow down, panting for breath. She stopped suddenly and her jaw dropped.
“This is beautiful,” she said. Takun caught up to her, bending over with his hands on his knees. He spit a ball of mucous that lodged itself in his chest. He duly noted not to run immediately after eating a large meal.
He heard the rush of water and looked over the edge of the cliff. Small little houses were carved into the plateau. A gushing waterfall split the rocks in half with even more houses carved on both sides. The water flowed into a river that led to the ocean between Rashia and Crescendo.
"Wow." Sora stood close to the edge. The mist sprayed against her face. She looked over and saw that the water stretched out forever. "I want to see what's at the bottom."
Takun looked over the edge, the white foam of the waterfall dissipating into the black below. He turned to her with a smirk. "Wanna find out?"
Sora smiled. "How?"
Takun grabbed her hand and took a leap. Sora followed him and together they fell.
Sora let out a scream. "Don’t let go of my hand. Don’t let go."
"I won’t, I promise."
"Close your eyes," Sora said, her eyes tightly shut. "It’s like flying."
Takun closed his eyes and laughed nervously. He couldn’t stand the darkness. He opened his eyes and saw the skyline sinking quickly. Sora was laughing and screaming, tears falling from her eyes being so tightly shut. Takun held his breath and braced himself for impact. This was by far the stupidest idea he had ever had.
They hit the water with a loud splash and Takun sunk like a rock. Sora never let go of his hand and was struggling to pull them both up to the surface. Takun propelled himself forward and attempted to dog paddle until they both got their heads above the water.
Sora was up first and she sucked in air like a newborn. "Oh my gosh, Takun, you’re insane."
Takun broke through the surface, spitting out water and sediment. "That was quite a rush," he said. He tread water as the current carried them both downstream. Takun pushed himself toward the shore with a lazy dog paddle, Sora casually floating on her back towards him.
"We should do that again," Sora said.
"Nah, that’s the kind of thing you do once," Takun said. "Or at least plan to do it when you have a change of clothes. We're soaking wet."
“That’s what happens when you decide to jump off a cliff into a waterfall,” she teased, sticking her tongue at him. Takun pulled himself on the shore and Sora did as well.
Sora unwittingly took her shirt off and squeezed the water out of it. She seemed to have forgotten that Takun was there watching her or she simply didn’t care. Takun took his shirt off and rung it out, then shook the water from his hair and tilted his head to the side to get rid of the water in his ears.
Sora twisted her hair and the water dripped off, leaving her hair in a puffy mass of small curls. She went to put her shirt back on.
“Leave it off,” Takun murmured, approaching her. He ran his fingers through her hair, occasionally getting them stuck in a small mass of tangles. She blushed and turned her back towards him, exposing the clasps of her blue bra. She braided her hair into one ponytail and turned around.
Takun tipped Sora's chin up and bringing his face lower. He kissed her nose and her cheek, brushing his lips against the curve of her jaw.
Sora turned her head away from him. "You always make things so complicated."
"Complicated? I didn't make things complicated!" Takun growled. Sora backed away. He took a deep breath and sighed.
"You don’t fight for anything anymore, you just gave up. You aren't entitled to anything just because you're a cursed wolf and your parents were killed," Sora scoffed, putting her shirt back on. Takun looked at the ground, thinking of the 90% of people who raised their hands when asked if someone they had loved was killed in the war. "I wish you didn't just settle for the things people give you," Sora said.
Takun tried to think of a comeback, something to explain that he didn't lose his fight. He couldn't think of anything. He did lose his fight, the way an animal could be broken into submission. He wasn't aware that he lost that tenacity and it was replaced with this submissive complacence, just bending to everyone's expectations of him. He was expected to take over the family business, something that he vowed he would never do, but what happened? He was in college, getting a degree he didn't want to take over a company he could care less about.
"I'm going to fight for you then," he said. "Not in the way you think. You deserve to be happy and whatever it takes, I want to be the one to do that."
Takun smiled at the look of surprise on her face. He looked into her blue eyes and kissed her.
His hand crept up her wet shirt, feeling the coolness of her skin and the goose bumps that his touch induced. He pushed her back into the grass and caught her mouth again, his other hand skillfully unhooking her bra clasps through her shirt.
"You're shaking," Takun said.
"I'm kind of nervous."
"Don't be." He silenced her with a kiss, but she pulled away.
"Where do we go from here?" she whispered.
"If we're going to try to make this work, you have to see all of me," Takun said. "We have honest with each other."
She smirked. "What are you implying?"
"I meant a friendship," he said. "We have to see who we truly are."
"Are you going to show me your truest form?"
Takun didn't answer. He bit his lip and as she flicked the golden bell on his neck. "You wouldn't like what you see."
"I've seen a lot of things that I haven't liked," she said. "But I had to accept them."
He took off his golden bell and placed it in her hand. He rolled off of her and transformed into his interim form, the black and white wolf like creature.
Takun felt sharp stabbing pain in his feet. He looked at his huge deformed paws. He never really noticed the way his digits twisted themselves to accommodate his retractable claws. Maybe that's why he was having trouble running and putting all that extra weight on it wasn't making things better. He wondered how long it would be before he couldn't run anymore.
Sora's face was full of concern, twisting her bra around so she could hook the clasps together. "Are you okay?"
I'm fine, he said in the canine language, hoping that she understood. He watched as Sora removed the purple collar around her neck and quickly hung it on a stout shrub branch. She transformed into a wolf-like creature, with white fur and purple tipped ears, paws, and tail.
This was the first time that he had ever seen Sora in her true form. It was discouraged by the government; for fear that someone would just revert to animal instincts and attack someone.
"Wow," Takun said.
"I'll probably be sore in the morning," Sora said, stretching and popping her joints. She did understand the canine language. Of course, in true form, one could only speak in their true language or not at all. (unless they were hybrids) "If we're going to be honest and all, I might as well take advantage of it. They don't let us transform into our true forms that often. Only on True Day, but they are thinking about stopping that because the animari population always goes up after that."
"Well, it is mating season after all," Takun said.
If animals could blush, Sora would have definitely been bright red.
"I'm not implying anything between us," Takun replied quickly. "I'm just saying, if they just picked a time when animals aren't prone to mating. Well, that's dumb, because I guess in human form they could mate anytime they wanted."
"Maybe you should just stop talking," Sora said.
"That's probably a good idea," Takun said.
"So what are we going to do?"
"Each other." Sora jumped away from him.
"No, I didn't mean that. Well, I did, but I didn't mean it literally. Well actually I did, but I didn't mean to say it out loud." Takun found himself rambling.
"I don't want you humping me by surprise," Sora said.
"I wouldn't do that," Takun said. "Unless you wanted me too. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I've never been around a female that was in true form before, at least someone who wasn't family."
"Isn't most of your family inbred?"
"Touché."
Crickets chirped and the hum of various bugs filled the silence.
"Now what?" Sora asked.
Takun's ears perked up and his eyes darted around. He caught the scent of an animal, though he couldn't tell what it was.
"What are you doing?"
Takun sniffed the ground, his tail wagging as he caught the scent and followed it. He followed it around for a while before for finally tracking it down. He inhaled deeply when he reached a purple tipped paw connected to a furry white leg.
"You smell."
"I smell?"
"Not bad," Takun said. "It's kinda of hard to describe. It's like something about the way you smell makes me wanna..."
Sora's blue eyes scanning him over. "Like this primal urge to just go at it."
"You feel it too?"
"A little," Sora said, but the look in her eye said otherwise.
"I guess we are animals after all."
"We're only animals if we give in," Sora replied.
"Do you want to give in?" Takun said.
"I do," she said breathlessly. "But it's risky."
"Yeah I guess," Takun said. Having sex in true form almost always led to offspring and was incredibly risky. Not only would a girl have to stay in true form, but she ran the risk of having a litter of offspring, instead of the one or two that occurred in human form. He didn't really want to put a girl in that situation. "Maybe we can burn off this energy."
"How?"
Takun's ears twitched at the sound of small feet scurrying through the grass. He filtered the scent, trying to ignore the natural pheromones that wafted through the air, he caught the scent of a rat.
"Hunting."
* * *
"Next on Wild Safari," Takun narrated, as he watched Sora crouch down in a low position. "The huntress spots her prey."
"Where?" Sora whispered.
"Pretend it's in the distance," Takun whispered back. "In the distance, a creature stirs unaware of the huntress' presence. The huntress takes off in a sprint towards her prey."
Sora focused her eyes ahead and didn't move.
"I said, the huntress takes off in a sprint towards her prey."
"Oh right." Sora took off in a sprint before stopping short and screaming.
"What is it?"
"Eeeeekk," she shouted, skipping and hopping in a frantic dance. "There's a mouse!"
Takun sighed and took his time walking over to Sora. He forgot that sometimes animari had the same fears in true form as they did in human form. It was weird to see a fox-wolf mix afraid of a mouse, but if she hadn't been in true form for a while, then instinct would take a while to kick in.
"That's not a mouse," Takun said, watching the gray rodent dart through Sora's legs as if it were teasing her. "That's a rat."
Takun's gray blue eyes followed the rat before pinning it to the ground.
"You're not going to eat that thing are you?"
"I suppose I could let it go."
She watched the raggedy gray rat struggling to get away from Takun's grasp.
"You do what you have to," Sora said, her ears flattened against her head and the fur on her neck and back bristled with disgust. "I just don't want to watch." She turned around and sat, her ears still down.
Takun looked at the creature, then back at Sora, then back at the creature who had stopped struggling, a "If you're going to eat me, do it quickly and painlessly" look in its beady black eyes. For a while, Takun tried to force the guilt out of his system, hoping that instinct would take over.
"Would you be mad at me if I let instinct take over and killed this thing?" Takun asked.
"If you have to do it, do it," Sora said, her voice still teeming with disgust.
"You won't be mad though?" he said. He didn't wait for an answer. He grabbed the rat by the neck and trotted away, crushing it in between his teeth. He tried to be gentle, but he tore into it voraciously. He finished the rat off, bones and all. He caught the scent of other vermin, and followed their trails. He found their den and dug.
He could feel all logic leaving his mind. He didn’t care whether Sora was watching or what she thought or how she would feel after this. His only focus was more food. The primal cursed wolf inside of him was begging for souls; it couldn’t be satisfied with blood of lesser animals. He continued anyway, ripping at throats and tearing at entrails.
Blood and dirt covered his muzzle as he pulled out of the hole, panting heavily. He fought to gain control of his senses. The air was filled with the scent of the wild, the ground slick with blood. There was a piercing hum, like the sound of a small bell being rung continuously. He saw lights flashing and whizzing towards him.
The lights spun around him, nicking his fur and screaming while they did so. He swat them away with a bat of his paw and a growl, but they continued. He knew exactly what these balls of light were. They were souls torn away from their bodies by a cursed wolf. He caught one in his mouth and bit down.
Lightning jolted through him.
He took off after the light.
"Where are you going?" Sora yelled.
He didn't know. He really couldn't explain. Sora ran after him.
"Don't follow me," he said.
She ran into him, causing him to trip over his feet and fall. He slid across the forest floor in a daze, wondering how Sora was able to do that. He was so much bigger and bulkier than she was.
"What the hell did you do that for?" he yelled. She didn't respond. He laid there on the floor seething. He saw bloody paw prints, then looked at his own paws. His claws had torn through the pads of his paw.
"Shit," he grumbled. He whimpered as he got up.
"We should call it a night," Sora said, running back to where she had left her collar. She came back as a woman, her hair wild and filled with leaves and twigs. She took the golden bell out of her pocket and attempted to hook it on. He moved away when she got close.
"Will you stop?"
No, he barked. She grabbed his muzzle shut and tried to put the bell on again. He moved away, bucking and swatting at her hand. She didn't let go and quickly snapped the bell on.
"Why did you do that?" Takun growled, looking at his hands. They were scared and bloody, but they would probably heal as long as he didn't go back into true form.
"We have to go," Sora said. Takun looked at the time on his portalphone. 2:24 in the morning. He looked at the cliff and realized how hard it was going to be trying to get back up.
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