Sebastian [1]

Liam suddenly froze. He heard a raspy inhale, as if someone was struggling to breathe through a throat coated in blood. He took off to his left, shocking Luna with his sudden movement.

In his hurry, Liam gave no thought to decorum or propriety. Smashing through a building made of pine and straw as if it were made of match sticks, Liam bent down to a body in front of him.

It was a cat man, and he was mangled. There were savage bite marks all over his body and his throat had been savagely bitten. It had only barely missed his carotid on the left side, but still his lifeblood was ebbing out of him slowly. His once proud smokey black and grey fur was matted with dirt and blood, and his yellow eyes were listless as they slowly scanned over to Liam.

"Hang on, we're going to treat you, just be patient." Liam said as he began to pull apart his pelts he was wearing as if they were made of nothing more than paper. He wrapped the makeshift bandages over the larger wounds, and wrapped a tight tourniquet around the most severely wounded left leg. The Shanmao man's eyes widened as he took in a sharp breath from the pain, gradually gaining a clarity born from pain.

Luna looked upon the pitiful body of the Shanmao man before her. She knew there was no saving him, if Liam had been only a couple minutes late, that man's death would have already arrived. Why would an Ancestor try so hard to help a complete stranger from a race he hadn't even heard of before?

As Luna's cold eyes watched what proceeded before her, she was startled to see that Liam neatly dealt with every major wound on the body of the Shanmao. She was furthermore stunned to see Liam pull out his flask that contained some of the precious Gene Water she had consumed previously, and pour it down the throat of the man.

Luna reflexively wanted to shout and disparage such a waste of nature's gift, but considering who was administering it, she held her tongue. Who was she to say what an Ancestor could do with his own possessions? Plus, he was trying to save someone, which in and of itself is a noble agenda.

The Shanmao seemed to choke on the water for a moment before getting it down. As he did his breathing seemed to steady and Luna watched in awe as his face regained color. Before she could ask him any questions, the Shanmao's eyes fluttered and closed.

At first she thought he had died, only to see his gently rising and falling chest. He had fallen asleep. Feeling better about the situation, Luna's thoughts were shattered once again by Noona's urgent voice.

Liam immediately started pushing on the Shanmao's chest with both hands. Then, to Luna's horror, he put his hand over the nose of the Shanmao and put his lips on the lips of the Shanmao man.

Luna's fur on her two tails and her ears immediately bristled, standing up straight. Her pupils narrowed and a wisp of killing intent could be felt from her. 'So this was his taste was it? Have the heavens blinded his eyes?' Just as Luna was about to unleash her indignance, she saw a peculiar sight. Liam forcefully exhaled and the Shanmao man's chest rose with it.

Liam then went back to pressing on the man's chest and after a few seconds, pushing breath into his mouth. Luna's perceptive ears even picked up what Liam was muttering under his breath… "ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive."

'Staying alive? Is he using some art of the Aphidians to keep this Shanmao alive?' Luna restrained her judgement. Perhaps Liam wasn't spoiled goods just yet. She had no idea that her thoughts had completely deviated from normal and that she was focused completely on the wrong thing.

"Gu…uaaaaaaahhhhh!" A sudden gasp came from the Shanmao. He opened his eyes widely and before he could struggle, he was immediately wrapped in Liam's powerfully built arms.

"Brother, you are safe. The battle is over. We'll talk about what the results are later. You fought bravely, just focus on recuperating."

With those few words it was as if all the tension left the cat-man's body. He finally truly fell asleep.

Liam checked the bandages on his body and wiped his own perspiration as he turned to Luna.

"Um, there's no enemy here." Luna seemed confused at Liam's seemingly random words.

"Ok? I know that." She said with a look of befuddlement on her face.

Liam scratched his rugged and stupidly good looking chin before saying, "So…why is your fur all sticking up?"

Luna looked at her tails and realized what Liam was talking about. Quick on her feet she spouted the first thing that popped into her mind.

"There's many dead people here and you were completely focused on saving his life, how could you know there's no enemy here?"

Feeling smug about her response, Luna smiled slightly as she focused on relaxing so as to not give away her emotions so easily, but Noona's next words ruined her perfect save.

Luna was utterly mortified. Why was this tiny monster able to read her thoughts so perfectly? A woman's mind was too hard for even the woman herself to fully understand all the time, so why was Noona so good at understanding hers?

Without thinking about what the ramifications of her words were, Luna spoke spitefully, "Oh, you seem to be quite knowledgeable about how a woman's mind works. If you had your own body one day, you might make a man quite happy."

Luna's eyes suddenly widened as the weight of the needlessly disparaging comment she said suddenly dawned on her. Just as her horror set in, one of the worst statements she could have ever envisioned in her life was suddenly spoken.

Liam had been so focused on the cat man in front of him he missed the full claws out cat fight going on around him. "You got it Noona, just remind me." Liam muttered as he focused on trying to stabilize the person in front of him.

Luna felt a shudder of horror flow through her body. What had she done?