What to do
The next morning I wake up to some arguing and the feeling of Rayla rubbing herself on me.
“My goodness Rayla, can you stop grinding on him? You’re starting to make me feel uncomfortable.”
“Sorry John, no can do. His scent changed, so I need to both get his smell on me and mine on him again. I also need to get used to his new scent.”
“And why…Do you have to do any of that?”
She Aka’s voice echoes, “It’s important for Beastfolk. If you take someone's scent away it’s like taking their face away from them. They also mark their family and friends with their scent for similar reasons.”
I then open my eyes and still a bit drowsy say, “It’s way too early to be this noisy…”
“Thoma! You’re awake! How are you feeling? Are you okay!?”
“Yeah, I feel fine, just a bit tired.”
“Thank goodness I was so worried about you after-”
Rayla stops herself mid sentence and just stares at me.
“After what?”
She keeps staring at me weirdly, “E-Ehm…After you…Oki can you see well right now?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Uh…Well…John? Sher Aka?”
“Yeah?”
“Yes?”
“Oki, could you look over to them for a sec?”
“Sure?”
I look over to them and they go silent too as they just stare at me.
“What? Is something wrong?”
John just stammers, “Y-Your eyes…”
“What about them?”
Sher Aka quickly pulls out a small pocket mirror and hands it to me.
I take a look inside and almost drop the mirror because I scare myself. Taking a second look it seems like my eyes have changed. They are now crimson red with some yellow stripes in it similar to a burning fire, just like Sally’s. My pupils have also changed from round ones to slit one's like Rayla’s fox eyes and the whites of my eyes are completely gone.
A bit confused, I ask, “John, are these…Permanent?”
“I have no fucking idea, why are you asking me?”
“Because you know a lot about medicine.”
“This has nothing to do with medicine! This is some weird spirit magic mambo jumbo!”
“Hmm…To be honest I kind of like them! Now our eyes match, ane!”
“I-I guess…But are you really fine with that?”
“Yeah, it’s a little different and it will take some time getting used to but the color is pretty and we now look more like siblings!”
She stares into my eyes, thinks for a second, then answers, “You know what, you’re right. It looks weird to me because you had human eyes before but they do kinda look like Foxkin eyes. It will take some getting used to but the color is really pretty.”
“Right!? We’re like fire and water now. I think both our eyes look a lot more pronounced now when we’re next to each other!”
“That’s a good point!” Ralya puts her face right next to mine and looks at John, “What do you think?”
Getting up and letting out a loud groan, he answers, “I think you’re both out of your damn mind! This party is like a circus. Am I the only normal person here?”
Sher Aka chuckles, “You know usually, when you are the only normal one surrounded by weirdos, that means you were the weirdo all along.”
“Nope, no way! I’m not accepting that I’m the weird one. Although at this point I might as well be. I mean we literally saw two spirit kings yesterday. Two!!! The only surprising thing is that I keep getting surprised.”
He then takes a deep breath, “I swear I’m going to have blood pressure problems when I get old. Either way, Thoma Ahad can you see just as you did before? Is the vision different? Better or worse?”
“I’m not sure it just seems normal right now.”
“Normal huh…You guys should just delete that word out of your vocabulary…Anyways, come here I’m gonna do some checks.”
Following his orders I get closer and John does a thorough examination of my eyes and some vision tests.
“You seem healthy. Your vision isn’t impaired so as long as you don’t mind the look it’s fine. It’s probably mostly an aesthetic change. But just in case, Rayla you know his body the best. Can you go check if anything else has changed?”
“Sure.”
I undress behind some bushes and after a short checkup Rayla yells, “Nope, all normal. No changes.”
I then get dressed again and return to the group where John lets out a big sigh, “Alright… Now that we know Thoma Ahad is fine can we talk about yesterday? Like, I’m not crazy right? We met two spirit kings yesterday, right?”
Rayla nods, “Yeah, I punched one of them.”
Giving her a pissed of look, he ignores her then asks Sher Aka, “Sherry, you know more about this sort of stuff than me but this was some sort of event that people would usually preserve forever in some book of myths as a miracle right?”
“Yeah…I mean, there are many people that claim that they have seen Spirit Kings before but these are usually very unreliable sightings like, ‘I was drinking and saw Gaia tending to the flowers’ but this, it’s basically a divine intervention…”
“So…Does that make Thoma Ahad a prophet?”
She seems almost a bit scared when she answers calmly, “No. My apologies, I spoke a bit too colloquially there. Spirit Kings aren’t gods, they don’t need to be worshiped and they aren’t divine either, it’s different. If I had to put it into words then it’s closer to an unexplained natural phenomenon. Essentially the personification of fire has taken a liking to him and so she gave him a gift. However, that doesn’t mean that she’s going to stay interested in him like a god would, it’s probably more something she did on a whim.”
“On a whim, huh…So was the thing she told us after Thoma passed out a prophecy or something?”
“I’m not sure but I think it was a bit more literal. Prophecies are about seeing the future and I don’t think Spirit Kings have that ability.”
“Wait, what did Ifrit say after I passed out?” I ask.
“She gave us instructions on where to go and what to do to make your wish come true.”
Rayla's ears perk up, “Wish? What was your wish, oki?”
Somewhat shy, I answer, “I…I said my wish was to have a family that loves me and a home to come back to. Rayla…Do you think maybe that means I’m going to turn into a Foxkin like you?”
“Why would it mean that?”
“Well, you are my family so maybe she made it so we’re actually blood related now and that's why I have those eyes! Maybe I’ll grow a tail soon!”
She cogs her head, “Is that something that’s important to you? You’re my family whether or not we’re actually related.”
I lower my head, “I know but it would still be nice if others could see we’re family too…I don’t like that people think we aren’t…”
“Who cares about these ‘people’, the ones that matter know we’re siblings.”
“Your family didn’t think so…”
“Aww oki…Does that still weigh on you?”
“Maybe…”
She gives me a hug, “I’m so sorry that happened. Please forget everything these crazy people said, they’re not right and they’re not closer to me because we’re blood related. I didn’t choose to be related to them but I did choose you to be part of my life and that makes you a hundred times more special to me than them.”
“Are you sure…?”
“Yes I’m sure. You’re my family Thoma and you will always be my family whether you stay the way you are, turn into a Foxkin or become a completely different person once your curse is lifted. It doesn’t matter, you are my family and you will stay my family.”
“Thank you ane.”
“I love you Thoma, never forget that.”
“I love you too, ane…”
John interrupts, “Uhum, to get back to the topic. I wrote down everything Ifrit said in the memory notebook. Apparently we need to get to a hot spring town called Murago and we have three weeks to do so. I have no idea what’s going to happen if we don’t make it in time. Also she said we should try to avoid the police, which is what they call guards here in the NU.”
“Why would we need to avoid the guards?”
“Beats me but I tend to trust the literal personification of fire when she tells us to avoid them.”
“Alright, let’s go then, if this is going to make Thoma’s greatest wish come true we’ll have to give it our best.”