Endling - Chapter 1

Kaito checked his data assistant discreetly and then held back a sigh. Forty more minutes left. The teacher keep droning on and on at the front of the class about the importance of critical reading. Identifying the thesis of a paper, summarizing, keeping a good dose of skepticism, and everything the man was saying was completely obvious.

Maybe a second or two of closing his eyes wouldn’t be that bad. It wasn’t like he would miss anything with the great slideshow his teacher had put together, nothing but black words on a white background…the man was obviously under the impression they were back in the twentieth century…

“Wouldn’t you agree, Kaito?”

Kaito opened his eyes with a jolt, but wasted no time in replying, “I’m sorry sir, I didn’t hear you the first time.”

“You don’t say,” the teacher replied sarcastically. A couple of people in the class snickered and the man’s eyes focused on one of them. “Ah, William. Since you seem so energetic, maybe you can tell Kaito in your own words what we were talking about?”

William hesitated, turning red. “Erm…”

“This isn’t kindergarten. If you don’t want to be here, go outside.” The teacher waved towards the door, but no one moved. “No? Well then, try to stay focused.”

Kaito made an effort to keep his eyes open. He liked reading well enough, although he vastly preferred historical novels and folklore to dry academic papers. Nevertheless, he was quite sure he could analyze the required texts without all this meaningless talk. And the worst part is that the rest of the lectures of the day were likely to be just as exciting.

But this is the state of the world nowadays, isn’t it? We came on top armed with rationality and science, and shaped reality into our own image. It just happens to be a very boring, self-satisfied image.

It had been a successful strategy nevertheless. Kaito could go to classes without fear of being hunted by spirits or burnt down by a dragon. He had no need for amulets or ancient rituals. There were no strange sounds in the night, no uncertain figures in the mist. Humanity was alone in this earth…or at least, almost alone.

***

Minutes crawled by, hours slowly melted away and finally the last bell of the day chimed.

Kaito was reading his backpack when Hiroshi, one of his classmates, shoved a leaflet under this nose. “Hey, Kaito! You like this freaky stuff, don’t you?”

Kaito examined the sepia-colored paper curiously. It was an advertisement for a ‘House of Zoological Marvels and Other Biological Oddities’ in the entertainment sector by the beachside. It had several illustrations of mounted animals and humanoid beings, bones, artifacts, and one color photograph, advertising their latest piece.

“An endling…” Kaito muttered. He looked to be some kind of wind fae, if the oversized wings on his back were any indication.

“Do you want to come with us?” Hiroshi gestured towards the group just outside of the classroom’s door. It was comprised of his girlfriend and some of her friends. With Kaito, they would be six people; three boys and three girls.

“Akane is trying to set me up with someone again?” Kaito asked with a small smile.

“She just wants you to have some company.” Hiroshi turned around and gave his girlfriend a smile, which she promptly reciprocated. “And this chick might be up your alley. From what Akane says, she loves old timey stuff.”

“Uh-huh,” Kaito replied distractedly, examining the photograph on the leaflet more closely. Under the disheveled purple hair, the endling seemed to have some sort of feathery protrusions instead of regular ears, and there was a hint of pearly scales on the sides of his face. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a full body image, but Kaito spied the beginning of a scaly tail peeking out from the back of the endling’s baggy white pants. In what was an amusing but understandable reaction, he seemed to be giving the camera a dirty look.

“So…?” His classmate waved a hand before Kaito’s eyes. “Wake up already, class is over.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Kaito got up and shouldered his backpack. “Yeah, I’m in.”

***
The House of Zoological Marvels and Other Biological Oddities was a surprisingly somber building almost completely overshadowed by the fairground attractions nearby. It seemed slightly out of place, yet Kaito guessed an institution dedicated to the beings humanity had combated for so long wasn’t welcomed in the City of Enlightenment. That area of town was the exclusive dominion of museums exalting the achievements of one single species.

“The proper study of mankind is man,” Kaito recited.

“Excuse me?” The girl walking beside him inclined her head slightly. Erika, as she was called, was a small, pretty girl, completely innocuous and insubstantial, that happened to like dressing up in vintage clothes.

“Never mind.” Kaito smiled. He noticed that the other four had fallen slightly behind, as if expecting Kaito and Erika to start making out at any moment.

Erika followed his eyes. “They don’t look too eager to go in, do they? We should try one of the rides instead.”

“Maybe later. I came here to see him, after all,” Kaito pointed to one of the posters on the outside wall of the building. It was an elaborate illustration of the endling, flying in the sky amidst colorful birds of many types. As he had expected, the picture seemed to indicate the endling had an extremely long tail, with more feathers at its end.

Erika looked at the poster without any enthusiasm. “Doesn’t that kind of thing creep you out? Seeing a live one?”

“Not really, why should it?”

“What if he weaves a spell or something?”

“They keep him muzzled, from what the leaflet says,” Kaito waved the leaflet around. Small wonder he seemed so annoyed in the photo, given how much fae liked to sing.

Erika played with the strap of her cute little bag, unconvinced.

“I’m going in. Maybe you guys can go to the roller coaster, and we can meet later at the food stalls,” Kaito said lightly and marched into the building, without waiting for a response. In the crystals covering the sides of the entrance, he spied a reflection of Erika shaking her head vigorously while an exasperated Akane gestured towards him. The other three were shaking their heads in amusement. Kaito shrugged inwardly and went in after slipping his data assistant over the payment sensor at the door.

The inside was very dark; only the different displays with photographs and artifacts were illuminated. Kaito was the only person around, and despite his earlier flippancy, he couldn’t help but find the odd silence somewhat unsettling. Not even his footsteps resounded, since a thick carpet covered the floor.

After the initial corridor, Kaito turned left and saw the impressive sight of a humanoid skeleton, staring at him with empty orbits from the other end of a big room. It was apparently a member of the endling’s species, if the huge skeletal wings behind the body were any indication. In fact, the whole room seemed to be devoted to them, with glass cases displaying masks and ragged outfits, examples of art, assorted bones, hair and feather samples and more. There were two screens; one displaying what appeared to be a general documentary, the other showing images of the hunt for the endling. All in all, it seemed quite a big effort. The owners of the museum were clearly banking on this being the main attraction of the building.

Kaito circled the room examining all the items, until he finally stopped before one of the screens. It was currently showing a naturalist with an elegant goatee; Kaito took out his data assistant and keyed the appropriate code to hear the matching audio track. He held the device next to his ear; the man appeared to be in the middle of his description of the hunt.

“It was quite the runaround, for sure,” the naturalist laughed. “He kept escaping even after we hit him twice with the disruptor.”

His image was replaced with shaky hand-held footage of the hunt over mountainous terrain. The endling was flying away from the camera, against the backdrop of a cloudy sky. His path was erratic, sometimes almost brushing against the trees below.

The vehicle the cameraman was riding on gradually gained on the endling, until suddenly the fae turned around, as if to launch a desperate musical attack against his pursuers. Without noticing it, Kaito held his breath.

From the right side of the screen, something attached to a long line shoot out in his direction. It sunk its metal teeth around his right arm, and the endling’s song turned into a scream after the first notes had barely left his lips. He convulsed briefly as if electrocuted and then went limp. If not for the metal jaws around this arm, he would’ve fallen to the ground below. Kaito cringed seeing the red gashes the device carved into the pale skin, as the unconscious fae hung from the line. He shut off his data assistant and walked away from the screen, frowning.

“It happened who knows how long ago, he must be cured by now,” he mumbled out loud. Even so, he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. But what was he supposed to do, in any case? The naturalist and the museum owners were well within their legal rights to capture and house a non-human creature.

Shaking his head, he headed towards the far end of the room. The exit was hidden behind the skeleton display, but there were arrows at both sides, helpfully pointing the way towards the ‘live specimen’.

The next room, after a short hallway, was wider and considerably longer than the one Kaito had left behind. The walls were painted to resemble the landscape of the footage, and the roof was made of glass, allowing the tones of dusk to peek in.

There were only three things inside the room: two long benches at both sides of the door and a massive cage, which occupied almost all the space available. The prospective visitors were granted just enough room to walk by the wall at both sides.

Inside the cage, there was an artistically arranged ‘den’ created with a few rocks and the dry remains of a tree, presumably so the endling could perch on its branches. A small artificial pond completed the habitat. The fae was sitting hugging his knees on the ground outside the den, with his tail curved around him. He was dressed in the same white pants of the photograph, and seemed very much un-muzzled.

Kaito gasped and was surprised to find himself voiceless. A moment later, he realized that there had to be a system in place to keep sound from carrying inside the hall, so that the endling couldn’t use his magic. Very clever, he had to admit. Modern technology always was the Achilles’ heel of non-humans.

Despite the lack of sound, the endling seemed to sense Kaito’s presence, because he opened his eyes and gave him an unexpressive stare. Despite his unfriendly attitude, Kaito approached the cage, fascinated. He had never been so close to a sentient magical being before.

The creature in front of him was very attractive, for sure. Magical humanoids came in varied sizes and degrees of fairness, but the endling belonged to a very aesthetically pleasant species. Aside from the long pinkish scars on one arm, he was as impressive as the old tales claimed. His hair was even longer than in the picture, wild and unkempt, with colorful beads woven into it. A necklace of twisted fibers rested over his naked chest. The delicate features were very human-like, aside from the small scales in his temples and the sides of his lower jaw. Of course, the massive dark wings and tail completely shattered any chance of confusing him with an actual human. Interestingly enough, what at first Kaito had taken for mere feathers seemed more silky and insubstantial, almost reminding him of flower petals.

Akane might have more success hooking me up with him, Kaito thought admiringly, wishing he could touch the creature’s wings and run his hands through his hair. The endling stared at him with reproach, as if he could read Kaito’s thoughts. Then again, maybe he was capable of such a feat. Kaito leaned on the railing around the cage and tried to project his thoughts towards the fae.

‘Hello, my name is Kaito. Can you hear this?’

There was no spark of recognition in the endling’s eyes, so Kaito gave up after a minute and contented himself with absorbing the sight before him. The fae seemed mildly interested in him as well. It truly was a pity that they couldn’t trade experiences…

Kaito almost jumped when a hand patted him on his shoulder. He turned and found Hiroshi and the rest behind him. Apparently, they had managed to convince Erika to come in. Hiroshi grinned and pulled out his own data assistant. He typed into the screen and then held it in front of Kaito’s eyes.

‘How about a photo?’

Kaito nodded. After some deliberation, he crouched down so as to be at the same height as the endling, who was looking at the proceedings with a nonplussed expression. Hiroshi took the photo and immediately mailed a copy to Kaito. After that, Akane pushed Erika into the frame, so she could pose next to Kaito. Erika reluctantly turned her back to the cage, as if she was almost expecting the fae to jump out and grab her, and daintily knelt by Kaito’s side.

Give me a break. Kaito almost rolled his eyes, but managed to keep a polite smile on his face.

After the picture was done, Hiroshi gestured for everyone to gather in front of the cage. However, before he could get a shot he was satisfied with, he suddenly frowned. Kaito looked over his shoulder towards the cage and laughed voicelessly. The endling had turned around and was studiously ignoring his visitors. His tail was twitching, like the one of an angry cat. Hiroshi vainly tried banging on the railing and then jumping up and down. By now, everyone but Erika had joined Kaito in shaking silently in laughter.

Abruptly, a small projectile, which appeared to be one of the cheap rubber toys from the stalls outside, impacted the back of the endling’s head. Kaito turned to his right in shock, and say Terry, the third male in the group, pumping his fist in the air with a triumphal gesture.

The creature’s reaction was as swift as it was surprising, giving his early stoicism. He jumped on his feet and spun around to face them; then, he grabbed the bars of his prison with a jump and stared at them viciously, beating his out-stretched wings from time to time, agitated. Everyone took a few steps back, and to Kaito’s complete lack of surprise, Erika fled the room entirely.

But there was nothing the endling could do to them, and he knew it just as well. He spat in their direction after a few moments and then sullenly withdrew to the den, curling up inside with his wings cocooning his body. He clearly wasn’t going to come out any time soon. The visit was over.

Without any remorse, Kaito dope-slapped Terry in the back of the head before storming out.

***

That night, Kaito tossed and turned in his bed, unable to fall asleep.

It was those eyes. The beautiful, scornful eyes of the endling, managing to look down on him like the gaze of a king on his throne, even if he was nothing but a prisoner.

But it made little sense. Pretty as he was, the endling wasn’t a person. Kaito might as well be attracted to a cloud or a rosebush, for all that he and the purple-haired creature had in common.

Despite his rationalizations, the deeper part of his mind cared little for such distinctions. When he finally fell sleep, he saw himself floating inside a thick mist in the arms of the endling. The attractive fae smiled at him and opened his mouth to sing, but Kaito’s brain was unable to fill the silent vacuum. The dream shifted, taking a distinctly less coherent form, and he tumbled in the air, falling through a slow cascade of feathers. The ground far, far below was sandy, like the bottom of the cage, but it spread out in all directions until it touched the horizon. The desert was covered in the bones of mysterious humanoids. Instead of being afraid, Kaito began laughing and the voice coming out of his mouth seemed distorted and distant.

Long before he could crash into the ground, the alarm sounded. Kaito opened his eyes and turned towards the nightstand with dismay. How could it be six already? He groaned and turned the device off. The light of the room turned on mercilessly; a short melody played and the screen on the far wall lit up, showing his schedule for the day and a blinking mail notification icon.

“Voicemail, please.”

There was a pleasant chime acknowledging his command, and the icon unfolded, showing a picture of his father.

“Hello, Kaito. How are you? I hope you have everything you need. Remember you can always ask for more money if you run short. Thankfully, I’m doing fine. Lots of job offers have come my way this season.” Mr. Fuuga’s voice, mild as always, echoed slightly, as if he was recording the message in a vast hall. Maybe he was at the university.

“The cherry trees are blooming spectacularly over here. Maybe you can take a week off next year and come see them with me.”

Kaito finally gathered enough energy to roll out of bed. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the door of his bedroom slid open and the corridor outside was flooded with light. The voice of his father followed him seamlessly into the bathroom.

“With this message, I’ll be attaching some old texts from the guild that you might find interesting. I discovered a great store recently; it has many old manuscripts scanned into modern formats. Let me know what you think.”

“Well, I won’t bother you any longer. Have fun, son.”

After the shower and dressing up, Kaito headed for the kitchen, where the western-style breakfast was already waiting for him over the small counter. He sat on a stool and raised the steaming mug to his lips. He activated his data assistant and looked at the picture of him and the endling Hiroshi had taken. With a movement of his fingers, he zoomed in on the endling’s irritated face.

“I could go back after class…” With the semester barely started, he didn’t have much to study just yet. He had missed it during his previous visit, but the map at the back of the leaflet claimed there was an automated booth to buy treats for the endling inside the building. It was somewhat silly, but since the endling was illiterate, at least according to the leaflet, it seemed like gifts and non-verbal gestures were the only way to apologize for Terry’s actions.

Maybe he’d like some jewelry too. Most fae did, from what Kaito had read. He didn’t know if the owners would let the creature keep it, but it was worth a shot. Energized by the idea, Kaito quickly devoured his toast, looking forward to seeing the smile of the endling, this time outside of his dream.

***

There were several stalls selling accessories of all kinds by the seashore, mostly made by hand. Arts and crafts were still the dominion of human artisans, despite the growing robotization of the world. Kaito perused the wares for a while with a smile. He ended up buying more than he expected: a small comb of carved wood, an indigo hair ribbon with intricate patterns sewn with silver thread and a round turquoise pendant, hanging from a simple black cord. With everything in a small purple gift bag, he marched down the main road of the entertainment sector.

Kaito felt really happy, for whatever reason. It was the kind of mood that made him smile at strangers and hum a gentle tune, no matter the strange looks he received in return. The day matched his excitement accordingly: not too hot and with a slight breeze that played with the ends of his muffler. The screams of the people on the rides at each side of the road only fueled the energy that made him almost dance with every step.

Finally, the House of Zoological Marvels and Other Biological Oddities came into view. This time around, there was a small crowd outside of it. Truth be told, Kaito had been wondering if it actually was a successful business. Perhaps the previous day had been a fluke, in terms of attendance. He joined the line of people going in and soon after he found the automated booth of foodstuff for the endling, at the right turn he hadn’t explored the day before. The machine was decorated with cutesy drawings of the endling himself in cartoon form, with more birds and musical notes. Kaito took a photo of it, chuckling, and bought some sweets that reminded him of the rice cakes back home.

Then, he doubled back and took the left turn, quickly reaching the exhibit dedicated to the winged fae. He made a face at the naturalist gloating in one of the screens and neared the door at the back. He peeked beyond it cautiously, hoping there would be no guards to question him.

None, just as yesterday, and it made sense, since most places relied on remote surveillance nowadays. The only people in sight were a family of four watching the cage up close, and a couple sitting on one of the benches. The pair seemed more interested in one another than the fae, though it seemed like an odd place to have a date, given the enforced silence of the room.

That same lack of noise gave the children having a tantrum in front of the cage a rather comedic look. They were pulling at their parent’s clothes, pointing at times at the creature perched on top of the dead tree. Kaito had no way of knowing what the problem was, but thankfully the father dragged the children outside after a while. It was rather jarring to suddenly hear the screams in the next room over, like a movie switched on in mid-sentence.

“-ride, I want a ride!” A high-pitched voice whined. Kaito boggled. Did those kids expect the endling to take them for a flight? There was no way a potentially dangerous creature would be allowed to fly freely over the city, not in a thousand years.

He huffed silently and walked into the room. The endling watched him, undoubtedly recognizing him from the previous day. He frowned with suspicion, looking past Kaito for signs of the rest of his group. Kaito tried to indicate that he was alone with hand gestures; as a result, the endling’s face became the most perfect expression of befuddlement he had seen in ages. After a while, Kaito gave up and simply approached the cage. The side facing the entrance had a couple of informative panels welded into the railing, and a small chute for the treats. A plaque reminded the public that they were being filmed, that any outside food was forbidden, and the chute was calibrated to sense dangerous materials. In the event anything was entered that could damage the exhibit, police would be alerted.

Let’s see how lenient this thing is, Kaito thought.  He gave the couple of the bench a side-glance, but they were too wrapped up in each other to care about him; that suited him just fine. The paper bag was small enough to fit through the chute, just slightly crushed, so he put it inside, and then followed it with the ‘rice cakes.’

The endling hopped down his tree and examined his end of the chute with a tilted head, then peered back at Kaito. The young man smiled widely, gesturing with his hand towards the gifts.

After a moment, the fae grabbed the paper bag and candy and sat down. The food was obviously familiar to him, because he centered his attention right away on the bag. He carefully pulled out the comb, the ribbon and the pendant and laid them on the ground of his cage with reverence. His fingers caressed the items almost like a blind man would, before he raised his surprised eyes to meet Kaito’s.

Kaito smiled again, waiting with baited breath.

The endling looked down, almost shyly. One of his hands went to this hair, and almost immediately his fingers were caught in a knot. He picked up the comb and began the long process of fixing his hair. For a second, that made Kaito wish to imitate Terry’s fist pumping. He sat on the floor next to the cage, and patiently watched as the creature groomed himself.

You know…he might not be human, but is he really a ‘creature’?

The question popped into his mind, abruptly. He had no way of guessing the fae’s intelligence, but he seemed on par to a regular person. Putting aside the exotic parts of his body, he looked like a young man. Was it so wrong to think of him as such?

Kaito tapped the data assistant in his hand. He did have a way of communicating with the endling, at least on a rudimentary level. Maybe the youth wasn’t illiterate, just unfamiliar with the alphabet. After all, who said fae like him used the same writing systems as humans? If he could get the endling to write his name down, maybe he or his father could find the matching language.  With a dictionary uploaded to his data assistant, Kaito and the endling would be able to talk. Immediately, he began typing a message to his father, explaining the situation. He attached the picture from the day before. Perhaps someone at the university would know what kind of language that type of fae used.

Kaito sent the message, downloaded a few useful images and then looked up, excited. The endling was still brushing his hair, but at one point he had decided to put on the pendant. As Kaito had hoped, it matched his eyes perfectly. When the endling noticed his stare, he again looked down, swinging his tail.

Come on, smile; let me see you smile…

And he did. It was a small, grudging smile, but it made Kaito’s heart leap in his chest. Who would’ve thought the most bewitching person he would meet since he began studying abroad wasn’t technically a person at all?

Kaito stood up and patted his chest, and then showed the endling the screen of this data assistant. ‘Kaito,’ it read in big letters. After that, he pointed at the endling, and to the sandy ground of the cage. Kaito then loaded an image of a man drawing in the beach with a stick.

After a moment, the endling nodded. He carefully traced three symbols in the sand with his hand, and then moved aside to let Kaito see them. It didn’t look like any writing system Kaito was familiar with, unfortunately. Still, he photographed the symbols and sent a copy of the file to this father. He didn’t expect much to come from it, but he also ran the picture through the recognition software installed on the device. In all likelihood, it was going to suggest he upgraded to the premium version before doing anything. A moment later, the nagging message appeared, suggesting just that.

Once his long hair was sufficiently tamed, the winged youth hid the comb inside of his den, along with the sweets and the paper bag. To Kaito’s surprise, he then proceeded to tie the ribbon around his arm, over the scars. It was too narrow to completely cover the ruined skin, but he seemed very pleased with the result nonetheless. Once he was finished, he showed his arm to Kaito, again with a small, almost hesitant smile.

Yeah, it suits you.

Kaito mimicked taking a photograph, and since the endling didn’t seem to object, he managed to get one of the lovebirds on the bench to snap a photograph of the two of them. Kaito immediately made it his wallpaper. He proudly showed the endling the screen, which the youth observed with surprise. He then pointed to himself, questioning Kaito with his eyes. It seemed that it was the first time he had actually understood what ‘taking his photograph’ entailed.

Kaito loaded the photograph from the day before. He imitated the endling’s grumpy expression on it, while pointing repeatedly at the fae and the screen. The endling actually pouted for an instant, before adopting an exaggeratedly silly grin and pointing at Kaito, making him burst with laughter.

Kaito was so used to technology that he had seldom remembered what a useful thing he had on the palm of his hand.  But now, as he showed the fae different images, he felt tremendously grateful for having been born in that place and time. The smile never left his face for the rest of the afternoon, as they worked together documenting more words of the endling’s language. Some images (mostly of industrialized life) left the endling at a loss, but he wrote down several names that seemed to belong to various animals and plants. Abstract concepts proved more difficult, but at the end of it, Kaito was reasonably sure he had the words for ‘fight’, ‘love’, ‘family’ and ‘death.’

It was surprising that the people that captured the endling had made so little effort in communicating with him. Even if the owners of the attraction didn’t care, Kaito would’ve expected the naturalist in charge of his capture to make the attempt. If a mere student like him had accomplished so much in one afternoon, it had to be an easy job for an actual scientist!

Which means they simply don’t care about anything he has to say.

That sour thought was unfortunately the obvious conclusion. That particular kind of fae was gone, except for one last individual. A lonely relic, waiting in silence to join the rest of his kind in oblivion…and humanity would keep on walking, without turning their head to look at him. The memories of a lifetime, gone to waste.

The endling was looking at him with an eager expression, waiting for the next image and completely ignorant of the dark thoughts inside of Kaito’s head. He looked so engaged that it was clear this had been the most exciting afternoon he had experienced in a long while.

They were alone. The couple had departed hours ago, and while other people came and went, the trickle had almost dried up, since they were near the end of the day. For a few, wild instants, Kaito saw himself breaking the lock of the cage and letting the endling out. But then what? Take him home? Just picturing the fae inside of his small apartment was hilariously ridiculous. And they would never make it that far in the first place, not with his unusual looks.

His data assistant suddenly vibrated, interrupting his thoughts. It was an automated message, requesting him to exit the premises before closing time. He looked at the endling, wondering how to communicate that he had to leave. Would he understand waving a hand? He tried it, and the endling tilted his head before imitating the gesture. It wasn’t clear to Kaito that he knew what it meant, though. He’d know soon enough.

…I wish I could let him know that I’ll be back.  

Kaito slowly backed towards the entrance, which seemed to clue the endling about the meaning of the previous gesture. The fae turned away quickly, but Kaito caught a glimpse of the disappointment in his face. It made him feel like a complete jerk.

I’ll be back, I swear!