Birds of a feather

‘The sun, real sun’ Kato was in shock a very real part of him didn’t believe his eyes. He’d been tricked before; but even if someone suddenly appeared, bleeding and screaming “don’t walk toward the light”. He would be more inclined to hit them, than listen, injured hand or not. He was leaving this place, and no one was stopping him.

He took a step forward, and his right leg shot out from underneath him, his sole catching on the slippery floor. He came down hard on his back. “You’re lucky I'm in a good mood or I might have had to have a word with the head of this fine establishment.” He laughed too himself, remembering a belligerent gentleman in his past who had the same spiel. ‘What you’re blaming the floor for not giving you a warning.’ He shook his head to himself, mirth evident on his face, before tilting his torso to the side and pushing himself up with his uninjured hand, wincing slightly.

Kato stood up grinning, he had defeated the cavern.

He strode forward.

The rhythmic beating of his feet on the cold stone floor that he had grown accustomed to gave way to the gentler thud of earth. He was free.

He half expected the voice to make an appearance. ‘I told you we would prevail’ but of course it did not. Either because its vocabulary was too limited, or it just had never existed in the first place.

Kato looked up, taking in his surroundings. The sterile cavern walls faded away into a vibrant picturesque landscape. Rolling hills, blue skies and genuine clouds. ‘What a time to be alive.’

He breathed in deeply, and just enjoyed the sun warming his pale skin.

“So, this is what the outside world looks like, huh, guess it would have been foolish to think Redusk would have just been in front of me.” He had never, not once stopped to think that Redusk wouldn’t just be there, standing proud, in all its glory and most importantly visible. Yet it was not. In hindsight it seemed foolish of course it wouldn’t be here, he didn’t even know where here was.

‘This changes nothing’ he thought to himself, firmly pushing down the disappointment that aimed to spoil the mood. Even if he had considered it nothing would have changed. ‘I’m not that powerful… yet’ a wry smile touched his lips, that type of power was only for the gods, bending fate as they saw fit. “You egomaniac” he laughed again, if the Vandots knew of his ambitions he would surely have been sent in for ‘corrections’.

With nothing else to do Kato entered the real world again, leaving the gloomy cavern and the false salvation the orb had attempted to present itself as behind. It had only been a couple of weeks, yet he felt like a different man, hardship had built strength, he was glad Kray was not here to see this, just from looking down he could see the merits of his preaching. As twisted as Kray had managed to interpret the saying it stood no less true.

Where previously little muscle had clung to Kato’s skeletal form, now there was slight definition, his battle against the very world was starting to pay off. It wasn’t his choice to go against well… everything, but he would not sneer at the benefits.

Strange symbols suddenly flew across his vision, and he pawed at the air in surprise. It had been a while since this had happened and he still did not understand why. The symbols faded seemingly dejected after a moment. It couldn’t still be the mushrooms, could it?

The bag strapped to his leg vibrated slightly, and Kato’s eyes snapped on it, he waited for an item to fly out as had happened before, but nothing did. With a sigh he pushed the strangeness out of his thoughts, isolation must have got to him worse than he thought.

‘The earlier incident with the items flying out of the bag must have been the tricks of a feverish mind, stuff like that just doesn’t happen.’ He shook his head slowly, ‘eyes flying into a person? That’s crazy’ it was a convincing argument, but it did little to ease him. “Man, I really need to get back to civilisation.” He said the words, softly, they were bitter on his tongue.

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Kato forced himself to focus on the present this was a new environment, and it was not the time nor the place to have an existential crisis. It was getting easier and easier to ignore stuff.

Kato wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but hey at least he was out in nature, that had to be good for his mental health, right?

He inhaled deeply this felt right. Being locked up all of his life and then with the whole ordeal that came afterwards, there had never been an opportunity to really enjoy nature in all of its beauty. Without the artificial constraints put on a city park or the death that had followed him in the orb world. It was really something.

He’d never experienced anything like it, grass stretched as far as he could see and there wasn’t a building or person in sight. Yet something felt off, he was on edge and uncomfortable, he scanned the ground looking for anything that may have caused the sudden uneasiness but could not find anything. He paused listening intently; a sharp trill pierced the air and he flinched.

Kato had grown so accustomed to the relative silence of the cavern he had forgotten other life existed and it had completely thrown him off. A small bird scampered across his vision hopping forward its claws embracing the ground warmly before it gently sprung off.

It was beautiful, a soft white bird about the size of his hand. It tilted its beak forward as it foraged in the grass, ‘good job little buddy’ Kato thought with a smile. He stood there watching it for a minute he’d never seen this type of bird before, he must be really far from home, either that or the bird was. Just as he was preparing to turn and leave the little fellow to his own devices, there was sharp crack.

The bird startled, and tried to flap away but a lizard, as long as Kato’s forearm and as thick as his calf, was faster. With a sickening snap the bird was gone, the only sign that it had ever been there were a couple of feathers picked up by the wind and already departing.

The lizard gazed at him coldly, as if sizing him up. Its dark green scaly skin gleamed in the sun. With slit eyes and blood-stained lips, you would have thought it would have attempted to subdue these features. But it did not, instead opting for the opposite, leaning heavily into its role. The creature made eye contact and slowly licked its lips, its long-forked, polished black tongue ran along the blood removing the last traces of the attack, arrogance radiated off of it.

Kato glowered at it; this would not stand. He surged forward with a primal roar and jumped atop the lizard his hands wrapping around its rough body. It bucked violently attempting to throw him off, but it was far too small, even if Kato was comparatively weak against another person, he was not weak here.

The creature bucked again, and Kato’s injured hand throbbed in pain, this may have been a mistake, but he was too committed now. He looped his fingers around the lizard, and it dug itself into the ground, but it was not to be, Kato pried it up tearing clods of dirt free in the process and then proceeded to brain it against a nearby rock, with a high-pitched squeal the thrashing creature went still, and Kato let the small animal go, its body falling against the ground with a soft thump. He had won, but felt so hollow why had he just done that?

“This world it is changing me.” He muttered the words softly and a profound sadness settled on him, he barely recognised himself. Kato leant backwards, knees on the dirt ground, just waiting. For what he did not know.

The sky chose to oblige his melancholy and opened up, drenching him in rain. He just stayed there motionless, letting the cold rain flay his exposed skin.

This was the first thing he had killed intentionally, and he barely understood why he did it, it was only trying to feed itself.

Shaking himself off, Kato stood up pushing himself off the sodden ground, this would not be the first creature, nor would it be the last, a man had to eat after all. Kato warily looked at the beast so arrogant in life, yet so innocent in death. He slung it over his shoulders, the heavy weight resting against him, its death would not be meaningless.

Kato began to walk forward, picking a direction at random. The symbols crossed his vision again, apparently waiting for him to make peace with his actions. This time they were accompanied by a surge of adrenaline, it felt as if his muscles expanded and contracted all at once, but physically, he appeared the same.

Kato, a pro at ignoring this quirk by now, just continued walking. Minutes later a soft white feather blew into his face, obstructing his vision, and stuck there firmly. He pulled it off and stared at the plume. Tears filled his eyes. “You are not forgotten” he said tenderly, tucking the quill behind his ear he continued on, it would be dark soon and he needed to find somewhere to wait out the night.