by Lara Yokoshima

Chapter 6. Vision of a Friendship

Sitting down in the middle of the darkness, a body covered in a fine veil of black silk remained unmoving in wait of something. A great silence hovered in the room, surrounded by many curtains, so long that they were left to fall upon the floor in an almost artistic form.

“The human awaits his audience, my master”, a young male voice was directed toward the person covered in shadows.

“Show him in”, the figure that sat on a comfortable shrine responded quietly.

“Yes, my master".

With a reverence, the young Bastit took his leave, walking soundlessly through the open door, and shutting it smoothly.

Just a few seconds of silence had passed. The sound of a light, but elegant laughter filled the dark room, being dispelled in the same way as if it were a fine haze of cigarette smoke. Without moving, that mysterious character pronounced some words in a whisper, smiling to himself.

“Just wait a little more now…”

The afternoon was warm and, like many other times, the streets of Vadia were found full of people as any cosmopolitan city. Immense buildings, each one with its respective commerce and important business offices, had invaded the landscape. People entered the towering structures as if they were ants in an anthill, with the sole purpose of buying something, leaving always with their hands full of bags and boxes of merchandise.

Vadia was one of the few cities in the middle of a desert that had the possibilities to survive, since Vadia was the focus of international commerce, including the Quimaera Market.

The bustle of the streets impeded anyone noticing the presence of a small group of Sekmit, hidden in one of the many alleys of the city, dressed in dark, hooded cloaks. One of youthful appearance seemed to observe the streets, returning later to its hideout.

“And?” asked a feline with deep voice, approaching the other.

“The coast is clear", answered a Sekmit of green eyes, smiling at first.

“Then let's do it!” a female voice behind the two men said, approaching them quickly.

“Easy, Aviana…” one of them said, while he removed the hood revealing his sharp dark ears and long brown hair.

“But Isha… We must not waste more time! ” the female muttered. She was looking to the other Sekmit that had been quiet during that conversation, seeking for his support.

“I agree with Aviana, Isha”, said the feline of stronger appearance. Isha then agreed with a nod of his head, put the hood back on and approached the entrance of the alley.

“Fine, but you will go first, Caleb,” said Isha, barely turning to see to his confused friend.

“You are such an…” the other Sekmit attempted to curse, but preferred to remain quiet, after all Isha was his leader. Isha only smiled at him, grabbing Caleb by the arm and shoving him to the entrance of the alley, pushing his body towards the multitude.

Moving swiftly, the three Sekmit passed among the people who failed to notice their precise movements. Isha took advantage of this to pick pocket the packages and bags of a few people, while Aviana would look at him disapprovingly. Someone could find us and this fool is stealing from the humans, she thought, trying unsuccessfully to ignore Isha's tricks, who was indifferent to what anyone else thought of him. Caleb only followed them both, guarding their backs until they arrived at their destiny.

After walking what seemed like hours inside the crowd, the three Sekmit stopped, facing a gigantic concrete wall protected by electrified wired cables. Isha's eyes seemed to shine; at last, he would see that Bastit of white fur and golden eyes again.

“Umm, Isha?” Aviana shook the left arm of the feline, making him return to reality.

“Oh! Yes, yes! ” Isha almost shouted, looking at to both sides to be sure that nobody saw him.

Isha approached his friends, and in silence, he signaled them to separate so that each one could seek their own contacts. Aviana had one near the downtown of Vadia, a Bastit who was maid in a not-very-prominent household, but who was a good source of information and gossips that could provide trails to find Mason. Caleb's contact, on the other hand, was a Sekmit that lived like a hermit in an inhabited area not very far from there.

Isha then signaled the other two to leave at once. Although Caleb and Aviana did not know what Isha would do, they trusted him.

After that, the two felines covered their heads with the hoods and left.

Isha looked at the fence again. Swishing his tail, he jumped over the wall, gliding easily above the electrified wires. Just after touching the ground with the tip of his feet, he ran towards the same tree he used the first time he was in this place, quickly climbing and rising to its higher branches.

He removed the cloak, hung it in one of the branches of the tree, and turned his head towards the window, observing it carefully.

“Fuck my luck, it's closed!” muttered Isha.

Following the method of his first time in that Mansion, Isha jumped towards the edge of the window. I should find a way to get insid', he frantically thought, seeking with his fingers for any crack in the window's crystal that would make it easy to open. Without luck, Isha then took out his pocket knife, opening it quickly, slipping its blade into the lock of the window. But just before he did it, the door of the empty room was opened, revealing a Bastit of elegant air and snowy white fur.

Isha froze upon seeing that someone had entered, but being in the edge of the window he did not have much room to hide, so he remained there, motionless.

In that instant the young Bastit eyes opened wide and frightened; he could see the shadow of someone there in his window trying to enter. Daring to hope, Evania's heart started to beat faster.

“Isha??” the Bastit whispered, releasing a small gasp of surprise.

“Evania!” Isha said smiling, feeling relieved.

Gesturing with his hands, Isha tried to tell the youth to open the window and let him in. But Evania shook his head in negative reply; his eyes were still showing fear. Isha tried again, but he received the same negative answer from the other feline. The Sekmit began to lose his patience, he wanted to shout, but then he noticed that the young Bastit did a movement with his head, aiming to the door that was half closed. Isha then saw that the leash Evania was wearing had the chain on, and that this led outside of the room.

Oh, holy shit , thought Isha, realizing in that instant that Evania was not alone. It was then when the fearless Sekmit leader took an extreme measure. Isha hung off of the edge of the window with his strong claws, hiding and waiting for the danger to pass.

“Well, Evania, it's time to end your punishment,” the deep voice of the man told the young Bastit, who turned his face to see his master Aldrich, walk inside the room. “I expect you have learned your lesson this time,” the man said in a reproaching tone, Evania mutely answered with an affirmation of his head.

Aldrich began to reproach Evania, who would only nod meekly and kept his head low, looking occasionally by the corner of his eye towards the window, verifying that nothing bad would happen in that moment.

Finally, after long minutes, Aldrich freed Evania from the chain and hung it on a hook on the wall. Closing the door behind him, Aldrich left the pure Bastit alone again. Suddenly Evania remembered that he was not all alone. Isha! What's he is doing here now?

Evania approached the window, opening it completely. He popped his head out, and leaned in his arms over the window shelf, resting his serious face on a hand.

“Well, well… I did not think I'll see you so soon, Sekmit,” said Evania, looking down at the hanging feline, trying to keep his hold on the window's edge. Isha raised his head to look into Evania's eyes, laughing a little.

“Oh. Hi, Evania!” Isha greeted, his voice with a nervous tone, as he felt his claws could not hold him much longer. “Would you be so kind to help me? Please, pull me up?”

“And why would I do that?” asked the Bastit with a sly smile, raising an elegant eyebrow. Evania seemed as if he was enjoying seeing Isha in such a precarious situation, which of course, he was.

“I need to talk to you… please?” said Isha with notable effort in his voice. His grip began to slip, when he felt a pair of hands with fine claws grabbing the sleeves of his jacket, hauling Isha inside.

Evania pulled so hard and fast that in the last moment, when Isha also was pushing himself to get in, made them both fall to the floor noisily. The Sekmit ended on top of the young Bastit, pinning him down. Their sights crossed for a brief instant, neither of them could even blink. The air around them tensed, but Isha reacted immediately and rose from the floor, hiding a blush.

“Uhm... er... ” the Sekmit could not find words to apologize for falling on Evania, and he scratched the back of his neck nervously. Evania raised his fragile body from the floor, shaking his tail and mentally thanking that nobody had come to check on the noise.

“What do you want?”, asked Evania making his voice as cold as he could, trying to hide the light blush staining his porcelain cheeks.

Isha swallowed a few times, then clearing his voice he said, “Well, I have come to…" But Isha could not finish his sentence, he was at a loss of words for the second time that evening, lost in the beauty of the Bastit facing him.

Although it was already sunset there was enough light to faintly illuminate the room. Isha felt overwhelmed, in a spell of contemplation. The Bastit facing him looked like an Egyptian statue, waiting to hear Isha's prayers. The soft light of the sun lit Evania's perfect body, all his lines and curves were now more visible than that night when they met for the first time; he held his breath for a moment admiring it silently.

Evania began to feel uncomfortable, since the other feline was rudely staring at him without saying a word. Isha noticed this, blinked a few times and turned his eyes to the Bastit's golden ones.

“I have come to ask for your help,” said Isha recovering his composure.

“My… help? ”, asked Evania arching his eyebrows bewildered. Why would a Sekmit want the aid of a Bastit slave such as I, having the freedom that they posses? Evania thought immediately knowing that locked-up as he was, he would not be of much help to the Sekmit.

Isha began to walk around the room, raising his tail and swishing it, pensive. He looked at Evania again, who observed Isha in a questioning way. The dark haired feline did not know if he could tell Evania of his problem, or if he should only ask about that name his mother had confessed in a dream. It was a difficult decision, since Isha barely knew the young Bastit and did not know if it was safe to trust him such information.

“I want to know if you, umm…” Isha stopped again. Evania forced his stare on Isha so he would continue, whatever it was it seemed important.

"…If you… uhm... are ok?”, Isha finished the phrase, putting a foolish grin on his face.

“That's all?”, Evania asked irritated, crossing his arms over his thin chest.

Isha swallowed a few times, and tried to smile. The truth was that Isha could not avoid being so nervous. The simple fact of being in the presence of this specimen of incredible purity made him apprehensive. I cannot believe the stupidity that I've just said, Isha thought. Not wishing to look like a total idiot, Isha insisted.

“You have not answered my question", the Sekmit smiled confident.

Evania took a deep sigh, and turned around while trying to evade the stare of the other feline. “Well… I suppose I've been ok.” the Bastit lied, not wanting Isha to learn what had happened a few days ago.

“Good” said Isha, moving his leg nervously again. The room was soon filled with an uncomfortable silence. Both felines stood there facing each other, not knowing what to say. Finally gathering some courage, Isha broke the silence.

“Evania? Actually I want to know if you would be able to help me find someone.”

The young Bastit looked at Isha again, swishing his tail smoothly, urging Isha to continue. Isha cleared his throat, while his tail hung limp at his side, touching the floor with the tip.

“Do you know a man by the name of Irvin Mason?” Isha asked softly to the feline with pistachio hair, who looked at him with curiosity.

A sad smile was formed on Evania's lips but his look remained worried, as if not believing that Isha had come to ask him his help.

“You shouldn’t be here, and you know it,” was the only thing that Evania responded.

“I don't believe I have many options, Bastit", Isha replied, defiant.

Evania frowned. How he hated to be called like that. Although he knew that it was the sad truth, he wished that that word never had existed, nor the division of Quimaera's that separated them.

“Evania.” The white feline corrected.

Isha remembered then that the Bastit did not like to be called 'Bastit’. How curious. Isha smiled again, correcting his mistake, pronouncing the true name of the feline, and the other nodded with his head.

Evania turned towards the bed, walking slowly, his tail twisting to side to side in a very seductively way. He sat down on the edge, both arms supporting his body on the bed. Isha's throat went dry before the elegance and subtlety of the Bastit; he never had been so close to one, except for his own mother and father. Evania then turned his alabaster neck up to Isha, and answered his second question.

“No."

“Huh? What?” asked the Sekmit, awakening from his trance.

“I said 'no'” reaffirmed the white feline with his delicate voice. “I do not know any man named Irvin Mason.”

“Oh,” said Isha defeated, he sat down beside the Bastit, but keeping a polite distance. With a prolonged sigh, Isha closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He had been expecting that answer. And, even so, he wondered why the hell he had resorted to a Bastit that he barely knew.

Evania looked at the anguished face of the long-haired Sekmit. Compassion seized Evania's soul, but he did not understand why he felt that way for a Sekmit that had gone to visit him again, almost without a reason.

“Have you ever thought about escaping, Evania?”

The question came out of the mouth of the quiet Sekmit in an unexpected moment. The eyes of Evania opened wide; clear surprise was shown in his face. He did not know what to say. In fact, it was the first time that he ever thought about seriously escaping, after two years of being under the yoke of a human that had never appreciated him.

When he did not answer the Sekmit that suddenly stood up from the bed, walking towards the window. Evania supposed that he was leaving, but very deep inside, he did not want that the impure feline left so soon. Evania had never had someone with whom to speak besides Fiore, not even a Sekmit, which would be able to tell him a thousand things about the world outside the four walls of his elegant prison and more about what it felt like to be free. However, Evania could not find the words to ask the Sekmit to stay.

“I'll go now. This is not working," said Isha, convinced that his visit had been a waste of time. He climbed to the window, but not without looking again at the pure Bastit sitting down on the bed, who still stared at him with curiosity. Isha grinned, showing a white, sharp fang. He turned and took some impulse to jump towards the tree.

outed the golden-eyed feline desperately.

“Yes?" answered Isha, turning around quickly.

Evania felt silent again. Once more, he did not know what to say. He looked down to his bare feet, thinking quickly on something that would not sound stupid.

“Uhm… be careful, watch out for the Guardian Spheres.”

Isha was surprised by Evania's concern. He smiled warmly. “I know, I already had the pleasure to face one of them.”

“Oh? I see,” Evania said shyly.

“See you later! ” was the Sekmit's farewell, jumping outside just after finishing the sentence. Evania quickly raised himself of the bed, and went to the window, watching how the Sekmit leapt over the wall escaping from the mansion one more time.

Alone again , thought the young Bastit, who did not understand why he wished with all his heart that the Sekmit returned to visit him. Never before had Evania felt like that, and was a little frightened by it. However, a smile formed on his lips.

“See you later, Isha.”