Kei felt his eyebrow quirk in surprise when the boy suddenly laughed, he didn’t think he had seen the boy smile yet, let alone laugh. He felt a soft rush of blush over his cheeks as he then realized that Niall was laughing at his inept ability to even lead them in the right direction let alone survive as a human traveler. He placed a hand at the base of his base sheepishly and looked down, the heat in his cheeks still there. “Honestly, how did you survive out here by yourself? You would have been walking in circles.”
“I don’t really have a destination when I travel, I just go where I feel I’m needed.” Morbidly enough, where he was needed to send innocent lives to their damnation, but he had always been able to follow his purpose. Without it, he felt blind. The strange urge that told him where the doors to the underworld were was still strong, but to walk away from them felt almost vulnerable. “But I am always open to learn, maybe you could give me a few pointers once we pass through the village? I always enjoy obtaining new knowledge.”
He decided that he didn’t like the feeling of vulnerability, and if he was going to stay in the mortal world for an extended amount of time, learning their customs and survival skills could be beneficial to him. The dark haired man looked down at Eos as she scurried between them, she had the energy of Hermes, the young trickster, and he could only hope that her current reincarnation would not succumb to a mischievous nature. He doubted he could handle trying not to kill unnecessarily and worrying that the little phoenix was up to something sneaky. Kei was pulled out of his thinking Eos shot underneath his footfall and he had to divert his momentum at the last second to keep from crushing her. The jerky action sent him stumbling forward and his gloved hands connected with a tree, barely keeping the exposed flesh of his nose away from its bark. He felt his heart race as he stared at the lucky tree for just a moment, his eyes flickering towards Niall for a brief second before he pushed himself away “Alright Eos, enough, we are almost to the village… probably.”
He bent down and managed to snag her on one of her passes between the two men and held her for a moment. Niall was right about keeping her hidden, a phoenix was a rare and heavily priced treasure that would no doubt bring out the worst in the people of this village at the moment. They were all still wrought with thoughts over revenge and a hatred for Thantos and the greed for this bird would no doubt explode. He stroked the feathers of Eos’ back, calming her, before placing the little bird gently into one of the pockets sewn to the inside of the jacket. She would be safe from sight, and although he could already feel beads of sweat pearling at the base of his neck, it would be worth it to keep Eos safe.
The moment the two reached the village, Kei could feel the hostile atmosphere. No doubt the villagers had seen them approaching as they walked the road Niall had led them to, but the moment they got close enough Kei could tell all eyes were on them. It was eerie, most of the people seemed tired, bags under their bloodshot eyes, but with a distinct undertone of hate. He scanned the village, a few faces stood out amongst the rest. The people that had chased Thantos deep into the forest, it was their grief and thirst for revenge driving them after him. The bloodlust in the village was strong, they looked upon Niall and himself with suspicion, one wrong move would break the dam of their aggression. As they got closer Kei could see them more clearly, as the people’s gaze fell upon him he could almost feel them shudder.
His eyes were dark, which was not unusual for humans, but the color of his irises made it nearly impossible to differentiate them from his pupils. They were flat, devoid of the light and sparkle usually present in a human, they were the eyes of the dead. He stared at one woman for a moment, the contact enough to make him stop walking as their eyes connected, he could see the realization dawning on her as she stared into his eyes. He cringed as her mouth seemed to open in slow motion to scream his identity, but someone beat her to it.
“That silver haired one! Look at his eyes, one is impure! Thantos’ mask has a scar over one eye, that man is Thantos!”[/color] The village seemed to scream to life, the overstrained dam of aggression surging forward and it seemed Niall was taking the brunt on it. Kei somehow became invisible, people surging past him to get to his companion and Kei stood frozen. His eyes drifting to the woman who knew, she had yet to move from her place, her eyes still locked on his figure. He turned away from her to see Niall being bombarded by the villagers. He was being beaten into submission by fists and farm tools and Kei could do nothing but look on in horror.
“Kill him! Avenge our brothers and sisters unjustly taken!”
“Lock him up to rot! Burn him in the morning!”
“Be wary! One touch of his skin will strike you dead!”
“Give us back our people!” It was chaos. Absolute madness and he could feel Eos squirming inside in coat in distress, as if she knew Niall was being harmed. He pressed her warm body against his chest and ran, he couldn’t do a thing for the silver haired boy without causing more causalities. Although beaten, they were already dragging the boy off to what appeared to be a lodge for criminals. He would be able to rescue Niall once things died down, when the people had settled and he could sneak to where they were holding him.
~
He returned after spending much of the day in the forest bordering the village. Eos had been restlessly crying nearly the entire time, but he was able to get her to quiet after promising to rescue the other man. He popped the collar of his trench coat and rushed down the short clearing to the building Niall was being held in. He was chained to the wall, beaten and bleeding, with three men standing around him, and a pig on a chain in the middle.
“This will prove it.”
“Thantos kills anything his skin touches.”
“We will know for certain he is Thantos once the pig dies.” Kei felt his heart rate increase, what would they do the boy they had tortured when they realized he wasn’t Thantos? Would they still blame him in a desperate attempt to justify beating the innocent? Would they accuse him of suppressing the power to kill? He adjusted his grip on the heavy branch he had found in the forest and snuck around to the front entrance. It seemed many of the people had been dispersed, but he could feel many eyes on the building. Creeping back, he realized that charging in would not be an option.
“Eos, darling, light this branch on fire for me, please?” The little bird looked at him curiously, but spat a small ball of fire onto the branch and it lit immediately. It must have been the special fire of the phoenix, because a thick piece of wood did not generally combust with that amount of fire. He creeped over to another building he had noticed, it was run down and he hadn’t seen anyone come in or out of it, and he threw the flaming log into one of its broken windows. He crawled back to the jail house and waited. It took only minutes for people to be screaming about a fire, and he could hear the footfall of the men in the building leave Niall alone. Crawling forward he slipped into the house unnoticed and was by Niall’s side immediately.
“Niall, are you ok? Of course you’re not ok, but don’t worry, I’m breaking you out of here.” He looked around the room and blessed his luck that the people it don’t think that ‘Thantos’ would have someone coming to his rescue. The key to the cuffs sitting on a table very out of reach of Niall and he grabbed it, fiddling with the cuffs until the boy’s hands were free. “It’s ok, everything it going to be alright, we are getting out of here.”