The Vanishing Horizon Looms

Dray turned his head, and found Stov's eyes watching him, a massive floffie crammed into the entranceway with Neri's worried face peering around it.

"Sorry I took so long. Had to figure out some things at the nook. Looks like we'll have to run out there sooner, anyway."

Because she'd scuttle straight back home and call them. Because there were officers looking for him, crawling the streets....

"You look terrible, by the way."

"Feels like it," he croaked, and Mum's hand rubbed his shoulder gently. Probably looked like lukewarm death.

"Is that a giant Likkle floffie?" Atia piped up.

'Tia. The gift. He straightened shakily, attempting to throw a smile at her as she stared at it, wide-eyed. "Yeah. It's a moving-up gift."

"For me?"

"Yeah, for you." Pushing himself gingerly up, he ruffled her hair. "It's kinda early, but...."

He swallowed a lump. She was a little young to make it out to the nook, or the ruins if they had to go that far, and he didn’t know when he’d be back. If they were going to give it to her, it’d have to be now.

"Behold, the moment you've all been waiting for," Erold announced dramatically, jarring him out of it. "The myth, the legend, the homemade gift Dray spent way too much time on, and roped the rest of us into doing as unpaid slave labour."

Dray rolled his eyes at him, the tension curled in his chest unclenching slightly. "That's not true. You've getting paid in hugs, like I said."

"Yeah but where's my stip? Where's my cover to pay for the broken ribs?"

He shrugged. "Should've read the contract before you signed."

Erold turned to Dad as Atia vibrated up to the floffie. "He's a terrible employer."

"I have to say that would count as exploitation," Dad mused.

"Hey, it's volunteer work." Dray held up his hands. "They knew that going in. It's a labour of love. And I'm broke."

Dad's eyebrow lifted, and his face looked not... not right for a moment, disconnected. "I thought you had plenty stored away."

Dray aggressively shook off the feeling that he wasn’t even looking at a face, forcing a sheepish smile. "The materials cost more than I thought they would."

"He's so fluffy!" Atia squealed, squishing her floffie in a hug strong enough to deflate it and nearly engulf her, voice muffled. "He's so cute! He's just like life-size! He's a real big Likkle!"

"The biggest." His smile threatened to slip as Stov flicked him a meaningful look.

"We should—"

Their MIPs pinging interrupted him.

Dread swelling in his stomach to wrap around his throat, Dray opened it. A neighbourhood-wide message blared onscreen, the picture they'd taken for the start of courses that war smiling back at him, his entire profile—

<Dury is in emergency lockdown due to a therrolf breach. For your safety, stay inside and cooperate with force members until further notice. If you see or have seen anyone matching this description (or anyone displaying strange skin patterns and animal-like or aggressive behaviour), please—>

"Dammit. Quicker than I thought. You've still got your howler fit from last year, right?"

He snapped the screen shut, staring through the cover. "...Yeah."

"Go get it. We'll go out back—take some shortcuts through the crowds. Should help us fit in and hide your face."

"But I gotta hug you!" 'Tia pouted, still holding onto Likkle.

"Have to collect my payment later." He took in a shuddering breath and threw her a wan smile, shuffling away from Mum and Dad's concerned eyes. Why were they looking at him like that? Their MIPs were open, they must've seen— "Sorry. Gotta change."

"But...."

He left, closing his eyes briefly, the words "dangerous, do not approach" glaring in the dark, creeping along his spine. A hunched-over, almost humanoid figure with glinting eyes and jaws too wide flickered behind his lids.

The glimpse of a too-pale, too-bare face flashed in the dim bathroom, a hint of the whites of eyes and teeth flitting past like a ghost.

Stepping into his room, he shut the door, his open hands trembling. There were no veins. Nothing. Just strange patterned wrinkles at the joints. Pale, smooth, with faint green and blue lines branching underneath.

He clenched them, sweeping the curtain shut against the shaded garden outside and any staring eyes, his skin crawling against the jean-tracks he forced himself to drag on. Even his lightest jacket felt like it strangled him, shirt scraping uncomfortably. His stitches had disappeared, too, injuries gone like they’d never been there. Like it’d all been a dream. A nightmare.

It was fine. Couldn't worry about it now. Gritting his teeth, pulling at his shirt-collar, he opened the door and turned for the closet, digging out a ragged cloak. His fingers touched the back of a mask, flipping it over—

And it fell out of his burned hands, the snarling, frozen muzzle with long black teeth and horns twisting out of the forehead tumbling onto the floor.

"Um, Dray?"

He twitched around. A pale oval met him, framed by wild brown strands streaked with gold, long and curling. Bright eyes—blue ringing round black pupils—watched, a quick pulse fluttering under thin skin. Pale skin crinkling around those eyes, forming strange lines. "You look kind of—"

"Wait."

A taller figure shoved her back, eyes hard and muscles tight under its thin eyelids, looming over her and the big fuzzy shape she was holding onto.

If he hurt her— A low rumble filled the room, and he bared his teeth—

No. What? No— Dray blinked, stumbling back, his heartbeat abruptly thudding in his ears. Stov went still, Atia's eyes wide, and he.... More stares watched him from the hallway as his feet rooted to the floor, trembling.

"Dray? What happened?"

A gentle voice snapped his eyes to a shadowed face he didn't— Mum. Mum slipping in behind Stov and Atia, her gentle hand making him flinch. "It— the mask...."

"Sh— niff," Stov's voice growled. Not a real growl. Pacing across the room, he snatched it and Dray flinched, half-expecting something to happen. Nothing did. "I should've thought of that."

He hiccuped a weak laugh, and the hand on his trembling shoulder slipped into a quiet side-hug, Mum rubbing at his arm. "They aren't very pretty, are they?"

A soft grating whine escaped him, and he clenched at the collar of his jacket as everyone twitched, shaking his head violently. "I-I'm sorry I— niff, it shouldn't have— I don't know why—"

He'd just— Dangerous, do not approach. Clenching his eyes shut, he dragged in a shuddering breath, squeezing at the side of his neck as a jagged throb pulsed through his shoulder.

"It's fine." He opened his eyes to Stov holding out the mask, inner side facing him. "Put it on and let's go."

Dray tensed. "I'm not wearing that thing."

"It can't hurt you when it's on your face and you can't see it," his friend explained patiently. "And it's only until we get to the nook."

His fingers twitched, some part of him hissing at even touching it, crawling up between his shoulderblades and clinging to the back of his neck.

A knock thudding through the house made him jump. The force? He snatched the mask before he could rethink, clenching his teeth. Niff. Couldn’t wait around balking at stupid niffing fake faces. Even if—

"Good, put these around your neck and wrists too." A pair of wristbands and a throat-warmer joined it, Stov brushing past to yank up the window, Erold and—Neri?—stepping in. "Come on, Dray. We have to go."

He didn't have time to speak before Atia clamped onto his waist. Mum's arm slipped away as he stumbled back, his little sister's mumble almost too quiet to hear. "I don't want you to go. You looked really sick, and you're acting kinda weird, and what if you get lost?"

He swallowed. Kneeling down, holding her tight, he pressed his face into her hair, fighting not to scrub the itch in his jaw against it. "It's okay. I've just got a Likkle in me that wants to come out. We're just... we're just finding a good place for it."

"...Really?" She pulled back to search his face.

He shrugged, trying to smile. "Close enough."

Her face scrunched, and she burrowed into him with a soft sound. "Then you can be like Likkle. You'll be a good canid. With cool antlers. And cat claws. And if me and Erold are ever in trouble, you'll come to save us."

A lump coiled up in his throat, and he squished her back. "Yeah."

"You'll be okay." Dad stepped forward and crouched down. Warm hands squeezed his shoulders, a small smile meeting him. "We love you, Dray. Don't forget that."

Dray swallowed, hesitating, and Mum gave him a gentle hug. "We do, very, very much. Now come back to us soon, alright?"

"I will." He tried to smile as he pulled back, a louder knock echoing through the house, and dragged in a shaky breath. "Gotta go. Love you too."

Turning, climbing out over the windowsill, he left them behind.