Sebastian [2]

Liam finished binding the wounds on the cat man before him and sighed. It would be tough, but if he could make it through the night he should recover enough stamina to make it. One thing Liam had to acknowledge about these 'Fera'…they all seemed to have a much more tenacious vitality than the humans of the past.

Liam got up and began to scout the remnants of the town as Luna sulkily followed behind him with her head down, seemingly muttering incoherent things from time to time. 'Noona what did I miss?' Liam didn't know what was up with her, but since they stabilized the cat man, Luna had seemed despondent.

<Oh, she just got a little snippy with me and I gave her a reality check. No big deal, she's just lacking some confidence right now.>

'Snippy? Luna? When has she ever been…' Liam's thoughts trailed off as he felt a faint wave of earthen energy. Focusing his attention, he realized it seemed to be coming from the town's central well.

The well was fairly large, it would take at least five large men holding hands to encircle it. For a village of this size it was probably the only necessary stable source of water. For there to be Blockade coming from it was unusual. With his guard up Liam coldly formed a blade on his wrist and jumped atop the well, scanning below for signs of danger.

What Liam saw surprised him. At the bottom of the well, floating in a large drawing bucket was a little cat person. As the little cat person shivered in fear he squeezed his eyes shut. Instead of tears coming out of his eyes though, sand appeared to be cascading down his face. This display surprised Liam, as it seemed the little boy was completely unaware of the phenomenon.

'Noona, is he…crying sand?' <Yes, it looks like it. Perhaps that's the manifestation of his gene power at his age?>

Liam nodded thoughtfully and cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting down into the well. "Hey kid, it's safe up here now, hold on to the bucket carefully and I will pull you out."

The little boy was startled as he looked up and saw the person at the top of the well wasn't a Shanmao, but also wasn't one of the dreaded Shu that had terrorized him. He sniffled a little bit and wiped his eyes. As if the sand wasn't bothersome to him at all he looked up and gripped the rope on the bucket tightly with both his little hands.

Liam gingerly pulled the rope up to keep the boy from losing his balance, and soon the bucket hit the lip of the well and the little boy scampered out. The boy's eyes darted around the town quickly before he bit his quivering lower lip and took off in the direction of the square Liam had seen when he first approached the town.

Liam followed behind the boy with interest. His behavior seemed to be quite rational despite his fear. He had a good head on his shoulders judging from how he had managed to hide during the fighting.

Now that Liam could get a good look at him he noticed the boy was probably around ten or eleven years old. He had a small stature, but he carried himself like he was a little too big for his body. His shoulders slumped forward and he nearly touched the ground with his arms he was pumping as he ran. It seemed rather comical, but the rotation of his arms seemed to help drive his legs more powerfully. He moved quite fast. His tail was limp as he pulled it behind him, nearly touching the ground with every step.

The boy didn't make a sound until he laid his eyes on the central square and saw where the powerful Shanmao lay dead surrounded by Shu bodies. With a sudden wail, he sprinted over to the devastated body and cried out over and over "Brother, no…no you told me it would be ok, we would be fine as long as I hid! Why? Whyyyyy….." As the boy's tears spilled, Liam seemed…disconnected.

It was a heart wrenching scene of a small child's sorrows. Yet all Liam felt on the inside was that this display wasn't helpful and mourning the already dead was a waste of time. Liam had always been self-aware and he realized that this line of thought was odd…and inhumane. He furrowed his brows and asked Noona 'Noona…have I seemed more distant since the Sage protocol was temporarily lifted?'

<You have not had human interaction in ten millenia. I think it just takes time to adjust. Empathy isn't your strong suit. Are you going to help him?>

'I don't know. He's alive, and if I'm lucky the guy I saved will be able to care for him after recovering. Let's get him and Luna and head back to that house.'

Liam cleared his throat, which the boy paid no attention to in his sorrow. Liam finally spoke after seeing no reaction "Hey kid, come with us over to this house over here. We found a person alive and treated his wounds. Maybe you know him."

Seemingly shook awake by the words of the strange man in front of him, The boy stood up. He looked at Liam and asked with a tone of distrust, "Did you take my brother's core?"

Liam's eyes widened slightly. That's right. These 'Shu' and 'Shanmao' should have all had cores. Where did they all go? He spoke quickly though, lest the kid think he was some kind of shameless bastard.

"No, we only just arrived at this town a couple hours ago. I hadn't noticed all their cores were gone until you said something. You're quite perceptive aren't you kid? Do you have a name?"

"Yes. I'm Sebastian. What's with the weird look?"

Liam broke out in a wide grin, his eyes uncontrollably filled with mirth. A certain someone he knew would be dumbfounded to know that not only was there a cat man named Sebastian, but that it was this cute kid instead.

"It's nothing. Just feels like I've known you for a while. I won't bite, just come on. Let's go check on that guy together, ok? Maybe he can explain to us everything that happened."