Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

“Run!”

“Faster!”

“Extend your stride!”

“Lift your fucking knees, girl!”

“You’re too slow!”

Ren sat against the cottage, his sword leaned up against the wall next to him, watching Sakura sprint from one end of the yard to the other, the girl pushing herself harder and harder as her temper rose higher and higher.

She was pissed.

But so was Raz.

Ren had never seen his uncle so furious, his face and neck a blazing scarlet, spit flying from his mouth as he screamed at the thirteen-year-old girl. The man had warned her until he was blue in the face to not go after the pest that had taken up residence in the woods on the other side of the river. The creature had dug down under the trees with its long, pointed claws and teeth, uprooting everything above its smooth, monstrous body. Two people from the neighboring village had already lost their lives to the creature, and there had been talks of sending representatives from both villages into the nearest town to attempt to recruit enough people to form a small group to exterminate it.

The girl had spent several nights whispering in the boy’s ear, trying to convince him to come along with her. The pest only came out at night, and she was confident that they could sneak out and back in without Raz being any the wiser.

As much as Ren wanted to go along with her plan, his uncle was right. The pest was dangerous, much more dangerous than anything Sakura had ever gone up against before. It would be foolish to encourage her to terminate the pest when two fully grown men with more experience couldn’t even do so. After trying fruitlessly to talk some sense into the demon, the angel got fed up and put his foot down, refusing to go and threatening to stop her by any means necessary if she chose to go it alone. And then, just like most nights, Ren promptly fell asleep, exhausted from the myriad of attacks from the girl throughout the day and the exertion from his own ever-growing body.

The boy hadn’t been concerned when he first woke up alone, assuming the girl was around somewhere. Not until he saw Raz sitting at the table, his hands and jaw clenched tightly, vibrating with rage, did Ren realize where she was. He quickly rolled out of bed and grabbed his sword, swiftly going for the door.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Raz growled, not even looking at him.

“I’m going to get her,” the boy told him, reaching for the doorknob.

The man flew up, slamming his hands against the table. “You’re staying here! If she wants to act like a fool, then she can do it on her own!”

Ren froze momentarily, conflicted. He had gone against Raz before, mostly at Sakura’s insistence, but it was difficult to do so with the man only few strides away.

His uncle stormed past him into his room. “In the yard,” he demanded. “We’ll spar until she gets back.”

The boy opened the door, stepping outside, having decided he’d go after the fox whether or not Raz allowed it.

But he didn’t have to.

The girl had already returned, a huge smile slapped across her proud, messy face as she pranced from the trees, scratched and bruised, plastered in a black mud, another newly bought dress hanging from her in shreds. She held a single dagger high above her head, waving it back and forth, and cheered, “Told you I could do it!”

Sakura wasn’t skipping and smiling and giggling now though. Not after having ran for the last two hours while the man hurled demands at her. Now, she was barely containing her increasing outrage, the cord of her already little self-regulation twisting tighter and tighter, preparing to snap.

“Don’t you slow down!” Raz yelled. “Run faster! You think killing that shitty pest makes you strong?! You’re weak!”

The words were the knife that severed the fraying strand, unleashing the havoc within.

The girl slid to a halt before whipping around and running full blast at the angel, fangs bared and emeralds ablaze. He stood there, undaunted, as she plowed her shoulder into his gut, screaming and trying to knock him off of his feet.

The man didn’t so much as budge. “Pathetic! You’ll never get anywhere if you can’t get past that temper of yours.” He snatched the back of her ruined dress and threw her effortlessly to the side.

The demon landed on her hands and toes, knees close to the ground, pushing herself back up and rushing towards him again. She leapt into the air, twisting her body, her legs spinning at his head. The angel grabbed her ankle, whirling her once around his head before flinging her forward.

“Give up before you get yourself hurt, girl!” Raz warned. “I’m getting real tired of this shit! I won’t tell you again!”

Ren watched the girl land on her feet, one in front of the other, drifting backwards through the grass. Something boiled up inside of him, unmanageable and tumultuous. The always present unintelligible mutterings tucked away in the back of his mind now howling and impossible to ignore as they clawed their way to the forefront. For years he’d repressed it, fearing the outcome that would come with accepting it.

That didn’t matter now.

Not when he knew exactly what was going to happen next.

He wouldn’t resist it this time.

Sakura recklessly flew at the man, jumping up and pulling her arm back, hand clenched. Her fist just slightly grazed his cheek as his hand wrapped around her throat and slammed her to the ground with his large body hoovering over her much smaller one. The older angel knew he only had a few fleeting moments to immobilize the girl’s limbs with his own before she’d be able to squirm her way out of his grasp and they’d be at it again. But before he could make his move, the hysteria in her eyes morphed to disbelief.

That wasn’t good.

Raz barely pulled his glaive from his back in time to block the sharpened edge of the over-sized sword from going into his shoulder. He looked up at his nephew standing over him, his eyes dark and enraged, lips curled into a snarl that was foreign to the boy.

“Is this what you really want to do, boy?” he barked, pushing against the sword.

It was.

Without a word, Ren pulled back but wasted no time in continuing his attack, swinging the large weapon over and over, forcing the older angel onto defense as he pushed him further and further from the girl.

He knew what he had done, what disobeying the man who raised him would entail. The boy had spent his life carefully walking the fine line, following each and every rule set for him, never wanting to disappoint. He strove to never be more of a burden than he had already been forced to be.

But when it came to Sakura, he didn’t care. He wouldn’t sit idly by while she suffered, whether or not she deserved it. He would allow himself to be taken by that which he constantly suppressed.

For her.

Anything for her.

Even if it meant destroying it all.

Raz managed to block every hit but found himself struggling against the younger angel. He hadn’t been in the right set of mind, consumed by his anger with no time to clear his thoughts and think about his next move. He hadn’t expected the boy to snap, to come at him so fiercely and rashly. Raz was accustomed to Ren overthinking every one of his movements, but now he flowed without a thought, his body moving instinctively without a care of consequence.

The older angel was so preoccupied with the boy before him that he didn’t notice the thumping of bare feet working their way quickly around him. He barely registered the thin arms and legs that wrapped around him from the back. He, however, definitely felt the fox’s sharp fangs sink into the flesh in between his neck and shoulder, hot blood running like streams to soak into his shirt. He yelped and grabbed at the girl.

“Leave him alone!” Sakura screamed in his ear just as he snatched the back of her dress and pulled her off, throwing her away from him.

Ren swung his sword sideways, slamming into the underside of the glaive’s blade, ripping it out of Raz’s hand. The boy used the momentum from the swing to spin his body low, sweeping out his uncle’s legs with one of his own. The man slammed onto the ground, his head connecting after his body. He opened his eye to the gleam of steel, the tip of the sword scratching against his throat. His gaze ran up the blade and stopped on the face twisted with malice above him.

“Don’t fucking touch her.” The boy’s voice almost not his own with eyes like deep, dark, threatening waters. “She’s mine.”

“You won, Ren!” Sakura cheered as she suddenly launched onto Ren’s back, her arms hugging around his shoulders, cheek pressed against his, and looked down at the defeated angel, the same giant smile from earlier having returned. “I can’t believe you beat Raz!”

Ren pulled back the sword, his irises clearing to bright blue, and gulped. “Shit,” he mumbled. “I’m so sorry, Raz.”

The man stared at the two children that weren’t his own that he had chosen to raise, one beaming with giddiness as the other tried to contain their unease. What an alarming sight the girl and boy were, two ends of the same destructive spectrum.

Like chaos and calamity.

And both of them had been delivered to him.

An abnormal sensation rumbled in his chest; one he hadn’t felt in so many years. It grew until it could no longer be contained and escaped his mouth.

Laughter.

Ren and Sakura looked at each other in complete shock. They had never heard the angel laugh. They hadn’t even known that it was an option that was possible.

But now that they were hearing it, they realized that they were totally screwed.

The man got to his feet, the last of the laughter dying away. He looked down at them, his normal, stern demeanor returning. “Put the sword down. You two can run until bed. At first light, you’ll get the wheelbarrow and take it to the next village over to the farmlands and gather manure for the garden.”

“That’s not fair!” Sakura was able to blurt before a large, calloused hand clamped over her mouth.

“Don’t,” Ren warned in a whisper. “Just don’t.”

“Don’t you two worry,” Raz continued. “I’ll have more for you when you get back. Now get out of my face.”

The young angel and demon sighed, the girl slipping from the boy’s back, and started to run laps.

The man watched the two children carefully as they crossed the yard again and again, bickering and taking shots at each other's arms and legs along the way.

Raz could no longer continue trying to convince himself otherwise.

The Kingdom had been right in fearing the boy.

But fortunately for them, the Fallen One’s sights were set on obtaining something far from the heavens.