icarus and the sun / deaths

[Eris]

Death was an odd concept to Eris. He saw it often, when he killed a moth or a mouse, but he never paused to take it in, that a tiny life had been eliminated. He was too busy doing some living of his own. If he had witnessed anything bigger than a rabbit die before, he might have understood death better. But it didn't seem like a real thing. It seemed impossible. Not something to worry about. It wasn't like Eris would die anytime soon, or anyone close to him. He pushed the very thought out of his head when it popped in there. That could be the reason for why Eris had never considered that his parents might die. The possibility of Junji's dismissive behavior being because of a disease briefly crossed his mind, but other possibilities came swirling after it; Junji was working on a big project of some kind and just didn't want to be bothered, Junji was exhausted for some reason and needed to nap for a while, or he was tired of him playing around and with him. All on the verge of impossibility, but Eris was grasping for some reason for Junji to be sending Eris and his siblings away every time they tried to see him. Whatever it was, Eris was sure that things would go back to normal soon. He would get done with the project, he would catch up on sleep, he would remember it was fun to play with them, he would get better if he was sick.

Right? Wrong.

Good luck made Eris not the first one on the scene. He had been prowling nearby, trying to find something anything interesting going on, when he realized he wasn't far from Junji's hut. He suspected he would be turned away once more by the white feline, but what if this was finally the time he wasn't? Eris headed toward the home, and that was when he heard Goldenluxury. Her voice was familiar but not warmly so; he knew her as the quartermaster only, but that was fine. Only her words mattered.

"Junji and Luca... need help!"

That was enough for Eris to start running. Then, there were more voices. More horrified voices. Something was wrong. Eris's legs were still short with childhood and too slow for his liking, even when he didn't need to get somewhere quickly. He cursed them as he flew over the shorter and shorter distance to the hut. Eris's stop was so sharp that it was a miracle the kitten didn't fall over. He swung around, skittering to stand beside his siblings. His ears only heard bits and pieces of what his brother was saying. Eris was so focused in on the two bodies.

The dark puddle around them was disgusting. Tar-like. It didn't look only like blood. Something else? He didn't have time to think about that. Pink-tinted eyes swept over Luca and Junji a few times before he could speak. "No." Like Stella, he uttered that word, full of denial. Whatever was going on wasn't real. He thought he could identify dead things, but Eris doubted himself there. He doubted everyone. If they would just wait a second, his fathers would get up and laugh and say it was a cruel joke, and Eris would never forgive them, but they would be alive. Stella was right- they weren't regular mortals. They were an angel and demon. Eris had thought part of the point of being one was to be immortal.

Apparently not.

"no, no, no, no, no!" eris babbled quickly, shaking his head. "no, no, no!" he surged forward, recoiling momentarily when he felt the tar-like substance touch his paws. he continued on, skittering over to stand near his parents. what had been his parents. "get up! get up!" he touched junji's body with a soaked paw, further sullying his once-pristine fur. "get up... they're not dead." he snapped, in case anyone had been thinking otherwise.

he knew, in his heart, that they were dead. when he touched junji, he had felt it. his denial was temporary; within a few days, he would come to accept it, grudgingly and with rage and sadness. for now, eris paused, brow furrowed and eyes shiny, and fell silent, shaky and unsure.