Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

“Get up.” Raz gazed lamely at the boy who was crouched on the ground on his hands and knees, darkening eyes bulging, his breathing heavy and shaky, teeth gnashing and grinding before another bout of dry heaving began.

What a pathetic sight he was.

How tired Raz was with the theatrics.

“Quit your shit, boy.” Raz pulled his glaive and struck Ren at the back of his head with the flat of the blade. “You’re not weak. Don’t act like it. And wipe your fucking mouth. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

The young angel’s breathing began to steady, and he fell back to seated, wiping the spittle from his lips and chin before staring down into his hands in his lap.

The man observed him closely. The boy had gotten better at learning how to control himself, but he still had a long way to go. Though Ren was typically easygoing and courteous, it was all a facade, a veil carefully placed over his true nature to make it more palatable for the world around him to consume. And he was good at maintaining that mask for the most part. But, when push comes to shove, everyone reveals who they truly are.

An erratic wheeze drew the man’s attention, and he sighed at the pitiful creature beside the boy. What had been a massive bull-like beast made up of muscle and hooves and teeth a short while earlier was now little more than a gaping mouth and half a shattered skull with the brain kept expertly intact preventing the pest’s body from returning back to the land.

Raz said not a word as Ren raised his sword and let it fall limply on the remains, crushing it into sand.

The boy hadn’t exactly tortured the pest this time, but he hadn’t put it out of its misery efficiently either.

Still, it was progress.

And that was something.

Finally.

Raz had tried to start training him earlier, but every time they came to the mountains, Sakura would jump the gun and kill whatever pest was around without warning. Raz had told her until he was blue in the face to behave herself beforehand, and the girl would promise up and down that she would, but she never did. He wasn’t completely sure if she just couldn’t help herself, or, as he suspected, she was doing it so that Ren wouldn’t have to.

But Ren needed to do it himself.

There was no other way.

So, Raz was able to convince the girl into working for Torg and Okag on occasion. Sort of. It wasn’t exactly her choice, there were plenty of threats on his part, and she would still whine and beg and complain to come. But the promise and lure of coin made her disappointment a little more tolerable, and she would ultimately head into the village only after a moderate amount of fuss. By the end of the day, she’d always come bounding back with a brilliant smile and Ren in tow to show off how much she had made for her troubles.

The first time the man brought the boy into the mountains alone, the young angel had been so nervous that he expelled almost everything he had eaten that morning at the base. Then the rest of it came up as they made their way higher. By the time they got to where they were going, he was dry heaving, having nothing left in him. Raz had to physically push him towards the pest; a four-meter-long lion like beast with three eyes and razor-sharp claws the size of bananas.

“You either kill it or it kills you,” Raz had told him without an ounce of sympathy.

But Ren didn’t kill it.

He made it suffer.

And he enjoyed every moment of it.

All it would have taken was a puncture through its middle eye and the pest would be no more, back to the land it would go. But the boy had torn it to shreds and stood over its head as it mewed and cried for salvation.

Raz had allowed it, watching in silence the whole time.

The boy was a threat.

He would have to stamp it out.

While there was still time to do so.

When Ren made no attempt to finish that which he had started, his body tightening with each breath heavier than the last the longer he loomed over his victim, the man hit him with the glaive and watched the light return to his eyes, the harsh realization of his barbaric actions becoming clear. He made the boy kill it.

And Ren did.

Then he vomited again.

Such a weak stomach.

A weak constitution.

That wouldn’t do.

That would need to change.

It went that way for weeks, but every time got a little easier, the pest exterminated a little quicker. It was going to take time, but Raz had no doubt that the boy would be able to control himself. He just had to figure it out.

“Come on.” The man started to walk off. “We still have light. Let's find another one.”

Ren was silent and made no attempt to move.

“Now!” Raz barked.

“I don’t want to,” the boy said quietly, still staring down hopelessly at his hands. “I just want to go home.”

The older angel could feel his irritation starting to grow. He wasn’t exactly having a great time either and would like to go home himself. But that wasn’t an option. There was no way he could sit back and just hope for the best and pray that the boy didn’t completely lose it one of these days and end up doing something he couldn’t come back from. He’d already come close once.

And if he did, Raz would have to fulfill his promise to The Kingdom.

Word is word.

But how could he do that to the child he had loved since the very first moment he held him?

He didn’t want to ever find out.

“You think I give a fuck what you want, boy?” he growled, ready to snatch him by his hair and drag him up the mountain, if need be, because one way or another, it was going to be done. “You think I wanted any of this? That I asked to be put in this position? That I’m having the time of my fucking life?”

“No,” the boy’s voice barely there.

“And yet here I am, doing it. And so will you. Get up. Now.”

Ren didn’t argue any further, just did as he was told.

It didn’t take long to find another pest, a bear the same deep shade as the huckleberries its two heads were gorging on. It reared up on two of its six legs, unwelcoming of visitors in its territory.

“Go,” Raz demanded. “And make it quick.”

The boy looked at him, his eyes pleading for mercy, but did as he was told.

Mostly.

He had still toyed with the creature, making it suffer more than necessary, but he had actually terminated it relatively quickly in comparison to all the others. Raz watched its body crumble like stone as the boy stood there, lost within himself.

“Pull yourself out.” The man was tired of doing it for him.

There was no movement, no sound.

“Pull yourself out!” The command was louder, laced in agitation. He pulled his glaive and made his way to the boy, grumbling over the inconvenience. He raised the weapon and brought it down swiftly. But it didn’t connect with the boy’s head.

It connected with his blade.

“Oh,” Raz growled. “You little shit.”

And the fight was on.

The man pulled back as the young angel swung at him, his eyes dark and savage. Raz blocked his blows, noting the increase in force and skill behind each one. The boy really was something else. He was always improving, always getting better, stronger, faster. It wouldn’t be long until Ren would be able to completely overpower him with little effort.

That is, if he could control himself.

Which he couldn’t.

Ren toppled forward as Raz twisted to the side, bringing the end of the handle down on the back of the boy’s head, slamming him into the ground. The boy laid there, staring off into the distance, trying to catch his breath as the man crouched down next to him.

“You’re pathetic.” There was no malice or anger behind his words, just stating a fact. “You think there’s always gonna be someone there to hold your hand? You think I’m gonna be there to knock the shit out of you each time? You expect Sakura to always be around, whispering her cute little words in your ear, making you chase after her tail like a fucking idiot? How long before the next asshole kid is deceived by that pretty face of hers and pisses you off? You gonna kill someone just cause you’re jealous that they have the guts to say to that girl what you’re too chicken shit to?”

Raz didn’t really blame Ren for what he had done in town weeks before. Word had gotten around quick about the tall, dark-haired boy that had beaten a young frost demon to almost an inch of his life. It was more than severe enough to have been made an issue with the town, and it should have been. However, the demon and his friends were well known for their behavior towards the young ladies in the town, intimidating them into things they wouldn’t otherwise do. Most considered it the boy getting his just desserts for his actions, and there was little else done about it.

When the two had returned home that day, Sakura was quick with a story, saying that she had done it, it was her fault, and Ren had pulled her off and brought her back. She had gotten upset when the boy told the truth and quickly stepped up to Raz as if she could be a real danger to the man and screamed at him, threatening him, putting herself between the two angels to protect the younger the way she always had. But her rage quickly turned to tears under the man’s unfazed gaze, and she cried and begged for him to leave Ren alone, to just forget about it, let it go.

Raz couldn’t just let it go.

He had to try to prevent it from happening again.

Otherwise, no amount of screaming or tears or fighting from the girl would save the boy.

“I get it, though. It feels good.” The older angel pushed himself to standing, still looking down at his nephew. “Having control of another’s life. Being the one to decide whether to give or take. It’s a hell of rush, isn’t it? But it doesn’t last. It’s always gone as quickly as it comes, but what’s left over from it never goes away. I may have been lucky or unlucky enough to be put in a position where I could get away with making that decision, but you won’t be. You know what I’ll have to do if you go too far.”

Ren nodded, having long accepted the possibility. “You’ll have to kill me.”

“You think I want that?”

He looked up at the man, eyes so blue, so clear. “No.”

“Then don’t do that to me. Don’t do that to her. Don’t do that to yourself. Get up, it’s getting late. Let’s go home.” He watched the boy stand and start making his way.

But he didn’t head down the mountain.

He headed up.

“I said home, boy.”

Ren continued on, dismissive of the man’s words. “Then you go. I’m not done yet.”