Farsight Chapter 6: Golden Eye Part 12

    Against his best efforts, sobs snuck into Hikaru’s voice, his vision blurring.  Suddenly, a soft, smooth, wet tongue brushed against his hand that still held onto the bars.
    “You aren’t going to bite me or scratch me again?  Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?” Hikaru asked, turning to the white-furred creature.
    The elzorein chirped in response.  Reaching his fingers through the bars, Hikaru exposed their backs to the creature.  After a few licks, it began rubbing its head against him.  Hikaru smiled.
    “Your fur is so soft,” he said.  “May I… pet you?”
    For an answer, the elzorein nudged its head against Hikaru’s palm.  Gently, Hikaru brushed his fingers across the white fur.  White, but with a tint of blue, like snow, but warm, its eyes closed shut as his fingers rubbed under its chin, the light blue fur between its eyes forming a marking, and a long, pink scar down its left eye, marring the snowy face.  Hikaru moved his fingers to the scar.  At first, the small body tensed, but the boy’s tender touch relaxed the creature again.  When Hikaru reached halfway down, the elzorein’s eyes opened, the mismatched dark and gold eyes gazing, half-closed, at Hikaru.  He then began caressing the creature’s long ears, slowly running his fingers down to the tips.
    With watery eyes, Hikaru murmured, “You… really are gentle, aren’t you?  Yesterday, too, you were calming down before you were grabbed from me, right?  You’re only scared, right, after being hurt so much?  But it’s okay, I won’t hurt you.  You know that, right?”
    As if to confirm it understood him, the creature rubbed its head and shoulder multiple times against the boy’s hand as it chirped and purred.
    “Thank goodness!  That’s such a relief… such a relief!”  Hikaru could no longer conceal the sob in his voice.  Placing his forehead against the bars, he said, “I just don’t understand!  What did I do wrong?  Why do I always get things wrong?  I’m only ever causing trouble for Akumu-san, but still, she’s never been this mad.  Why?  Why did this happen?  I… I just don’t….”
    Before he noticed it, the elzorein came up the to bars and licked his face.  Then, with a soothing purr, it rubbed its own cheek against his.
    “Hey!  That-that tickles!  Are… are you trying to cheer me up?”
    Hikaru smiled and scratched beneath the elzorein’s chin again and then rubbed the blue patches of fur on its forehead.  “Thank you, elzorein.  I wish I could hug you, but, well, maybe you wouldn’t like that anyway.  Hopefully this will be enough.”
    Finally, ruffling the creature’s head, Hikaru said, “Well, I should probably be heading out.  I’ve got to find Akumu-san, after all.  Ugh!  No, don’t look at me like that!  I really need to go.”
    Hikaru wondered if the expression he saw before him might be translated as a pout.  Lowering himself to be level with the creature, Hikaru said, “How about I make sure to come see you one more time before we leave, okay?  I’ll make it back.  I promise.”
    With one last stroke on its head, Hikaru walked past the cage, short chirps and mews chasing after him until he slid through the exit.  Outside, the sun had lowered significantly, and the air looked warmer, signally the coming evening.  People still crowded the walking spaces, though the number of small children had dropped.  Seeing the crowd, Hikaru’s shoulders slumped.
    “What’s wrong now?”
    Straightening up, Hikaru turned and saw Akumu standing behind him by the exit.  “N-nothing,” he said.  “I was just worried it might be hard to find you.”
    “I see.”
     As Akumu moved away from the door flap, Hikaru’s chest tightened as his mind raced to string words together, “Uh… um… Akumu-s-san, um, just now… I’m not sure what happened, but I’m so-”
    “Hand.”
    “Huh?”
    “Show me your hand, the one that was scratched.”
    “Oh!  Yeah, I forgot about that.  Here,” Hikaru said, holding up his hand.
    Reaching into her pouch, Akumu brought out a small container and some rolled up cloth, murmuring, “If you get an infection, it will be irritating, so….  Take these.  I’ll tell you how to apply them.”
    Hikaru looked down at the items and smiled.  “Thank you.”
    “Stop talking and take them.  Okay, no first apply the medicine, not too much.  That’s good.  Next put some gauze over it.  Okay.  Now roll the bandage around your hand.  No, not like that!  Here, give me to bandage; I’ll show you.  See?  Like this.  Now try again.”
    For the next few minutes, Hikaru bound, removed, and rebound the bandage cloth till Akumu nodded, calling it “good enough for now.”
    After returning the medical supplies, Hikaru flexed his hand.  He said, “Thank you, Akumu-san, for the medicine and instruction.”
    “Hn.  I really should have shown you earlier.  It’s only practical that you know how to treat your own injuries.”
    “Yes, I suppose so….  By the way, Akumu-san, about just before, I’m so-”
    “DON’T!”
    Taken aback by the sudden harshness returning to Akumu’s voice, Hikaru clamped his mouth shut.
    “Don’t apologize,” she finished with a calmer but still frigid tone that sent fresh stings into Hikaru.
    “Wh-why not?  Apparently I did something wrong, and although I don’t understand everything, I regret making you angry, so why won’t you let me apologize?” the boy urged.
    Keeping her eyes away from his, Akumu replied, “Because… because I don’t want you to!”
    Such a response left Hikaru dumbstruck.  “Wha- huh?  Akumu-san, what- ah!  Wait!  Wait a second, Akumu-san!  Don’t just leave me behind!”
    “Come on!  We should get over to whatever it is you’re doing.  We don’t know what you’ll need to do or how long preparations will be, after all,” came the response, cutting off all prior conversation.

End Chapter 6