Part One -- A Partnership Is Formed
Chapter One.
Catori shivered and pulled eir shawl closer around eir shoulders. It wasn't necessarily the weather that was bothering em, but the gloom of anxiety, hunger, and exhaustion. The feelings were swamping em, seeping into eir pores and trembling out of em in a shivering gush of sweat and deep breathing.
And blood. Catori couldn't forget the blood.
Limping, Catori set eir sights on the road that was beginning to form in front of em. Ey was just glad that there was something more than a break in the over-grown brush around em. Each step was dragging Tori's leg against small branches, eliciting a small groan of pain from the two-spirit's lips.
Ey'd been mugged, only miles outside of the town ey'd been aiming for. Thankfully, the robbers had only been after eir cash. Not that it had stopped them from pounding the daylight out of em – until one of their group saw who, or, rather, what Catori was. Fearing some sort of retribution, they'd let Tori go with eir life. And ey'd been limping towards town ever since, trying to beat the slow whistle of the dusk birds around em.
If ey was to have any hope of finding a local inn before nightfall, ey'd have to hurry eir steps. Exhaling slowly, Catori No-name picked up the pace – and the strength with which ey was gnawing through eir lower lip.
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Catori's fingers were covered in dirt, as was the rest of em, as ey sat back on his haunches and stared through the gloom at what ey'd uncovered in the grave. It was the same as the last four he'd uncovered. A fox bone, fused with the finger of a human.
And no matter how hard ey tried, ey couldn't extract the souls, couldn't set them at peace. Instead, Catori shivered in the early spring air, praying that the gods would stop the soul's shrieking that only ey and other deathworkers could hear.
Gasping, Tori's eyes shot open, still hearing the howling that the bones sang to em that night. Slowly, ey blinked and ran a hand through eir short, chestnut hair – which was already coated in a thick layer of sweat, and what Catori saw was blood.
At least ey was warm, and comfortable. Struggling, ey pulled eirself into a sitting position, realizing several things at once. The first was that ey hadn't remembered ever making it to town – the pain had been too strong, and ey'd curled up on the grass, instead. The second was that ey most certainly was in the town, or at least something resembling one – because ey was in a comfortable bed in a decently cool room.
And the third, and perhaps most unnerving to Tori's suddenly thundering veins, was that one of eir muggers was sitting right across from em, eyes tracking eir every move.
“Good, you're up,” the man said. His voice was low and even, and his pale hair hung into his eyes, only broken up by the spikes of the horns that framed his face. A mountain dragon, Tori would swear it. “I was almost beginning to consider worrying.”
The fourth observation happened when Tori's muscles stiffened at the sight of the strange man. Eir leg was stiff and numb – moving it was like dragging along a branch: nearly impossible to bend, and a complete load of dead weight.
“I know a bit of first aid,”the stranger explained as Catori peeled back eir thin blankets. Ey took in the heavy, gauze-style wrappings that covered all of the gash that the stranger had sliced into eir, plus a good quarter more of eir leg. “But I wouldn't move it too much, not until you see a healer.”
“What's going on?” It was more of a croak than a question, and the stranger raised a pale eyebrow at the sound.
Rising, the mugger disappeared into a barely noticeable room on Catori's left, returning only seconds later with a glass of water. Just the thought made Tori's mouth ache for the liquid – and wince internally.
“You were passed out in a field outside of town. I took a guess, and figured that you didn't exactly want to stay there and bleed to death.”
He was explaining slowly, an almost annoyed expression masking the mountain dragon's face. Catori half-expected him to finish the statement with an 'obviously.' Instead, the man handed Tori the water and perched on the remaining spare-inch of Tori's bed.
Catori would've been lying if ey'd tried to pretend ey wasn't thirsty – and with the pounding in eir skull, the stiffness in eir leg, and the confusing mugger sitting opposite em, Catori didn't exactly think he was up to lying through his teeth. So, instead, ey took the suspect cup with only slightly trembling hands.
“You're the one who put me there,” Tori countered. Eir eyes danced along the worn and dusty summer leathers that the mugger wore, and hung on the smirk that tugged at his chapped lips. “But thanks, I guess.”
The water was cool and crisp, and it brought an involuntary tremor to Catori's already-burning skin: which, despite all of the time Tori'd spent outdoors on eir travels, was still paler than the skin of the mugger at eir side. A mugger which wasn't moving as he watched Catori guzzle the drink he'd been offered.
Ey tried not to squirm under the penetrating stare of the thief. Tori spent too much time around bones and in isolation – ey was having trouble deciphering just what the shifting expressions behind the dragon's sweeping gaze implied.
“You're a two-spirit, aren't you?”
The question came from left field and was uttered so softly that had there been any noise in the room other than eir own labored breathing, Tori doubted that ey would've even heard it at all.
As it was, ey wasn't sure that they were glad to have such quiet – ey didn't exactly think it was prudent to answer. While those who were blessed with both the spirits of a male and female in one soul, a two-spirit, was supposed to be as respected as any other spiritual authority, that wasn't always the case – not when a two-spirits blood and come could bestow unique abilities upon whoever tasted them.
It was worse the farther from home a two-spirit got, and Tori was definitely more than a hop and a shake away from eir home.
But Catori didn't really have a choice in answering. It was part of eir vows that ey'd taken, upon officially receiving recognition as a tribe-sanctioned two-spirit – to always answer questions as truthfully as Catori was able.
“Yes,” Tori answered, in just as soft of a voice.
“That's what I thought.”Something slid behind the blonde's eyes, and then he was up and standing besides the door. He gestured to something on Tori's right with a jerk of his spiky skull. “I grabbed your things back from the guys. It should all be there – including something to make up for all the trouble.”
“Thanks.” He was half out the door when he heard it, and stopped, pivoting to lock Tori in his pale gaze.
“Look, I've got enough shit raining on me without dealing with whatever punishment the gods would give me for messing up one of their chosen. The room's paid for a week, and I'll send up a healer on my way out of town. Let's just call it even, okay?”
“If you tell me your name.” It didn't matter, not really, but curiosity would always be Catori's downfall. It was why ey was here, after all – miles from his home, chasing a trail of shrieking bones.
“I'm Ezhno,” the blonde answered, as he let the door swing shut behind him. “Ezhno Dumas.”