Kittle Chronicles - You're My Only Friend...

*This is not a full story, but rather just a brief and quick excerpt of a bigger idea just to portray a relationship between two characters!*

*A thunderstorm raged hard in the surrounding area. Lightning was striking frequently around the land within Kittlescor, specifically a few miles out from Fortee’s Haven. The Tide was rising high during the storm day and small floods were occurring due to the heavy influx of rain.*

 *Running through the damp, slippery land and constantly tripping over himself was a Noivern. While running, he clutched a necklace tightly in his claw. He was bleeding quite a bit from the mouth, nose, and many other places, and also held one of his wings in injury and pain. His breathing was uneven and sloppy while running as fast as he could.*

 *Following close behind the Noivern were plenty of pirates, keeping pace with him and even gaining on his lead at an alarming late. They had swords and all the like all while chasing the Noivern, clearly having the intention of harming him.*

 *The Noivern huffed while trying to stay upright on his feet. However, what felt like a blink of an eye later, he was on the ground in pain. One of his legs, around the ankle, was slashed and bleeding, now causing him severe pain. The Noivern scrambled onto his back and tried to back away from his pursuers, letting out a shriek in fright and pain.*

 *The pirates immediately began to slash at him, going in directly for the kill.*

 *However, their attacks were blocked by a sudden defense. Another figure, one of a Zoroark with a sharp, curved weapon unlike the Noivern had ever seen, had saved him. The Zoroark stood in front of him, facing the pirates. He said something to the Noivern, but he was too dazed to understand what he was saying.*

 *Then, the pirates wasted no time, moving in all at once. They moved in with their swords up, all ready to cut down the Zoroark at once…*

“N-no…!”

Suddenly, the Noivern bolted upright. He immediately sat straight up in his bed, quickly flicking his head around to check his surroundings. No longer was he out on the coast during a storm, but in a tiny house with barely one room. He was also in his bed, and not injured whatsoever.

“T-that...dream a-again…”

The Noivern began to tear up, letting out a sob as he rubbed his eyes a bit. It was morning, and time for him to get up anyway. He began to get out of his bed, rubbing his sore arms and body now as he tried to control his tears.

Going over to the small makeshift kitchen area found within a corner of the house, he looked over at one of the decorations in the kitchen: It was a small label for something from his old job in a tavern. The name “Junjou” was plastered on it, although a bit faded now. Junjou couldn’t even remember what the tag was for, anyways.

Junjou let out a sniffle and began to look around for whatever materials he had left. Food was pretty scarce for him at the moment, and he never had enough ingredients to cook a full meal.

*I...never...feel right after that dream…*, he thought to himself while looking around at the food he did have.

Once Junjou had snacked on a berry for breakfast and gotten ready for the day, he walked out of his house. The Noivern let out a shiver as he did, locking the door behind him, as it was cold out. However, he didn’t have a jacket or anything, just the clothes he had been wearing for years now.

He did not have a stable job at the moment, nor consistent income. If the ports didn’t have day work for him to take part in, Junjou would go into any of the nearby towns to see if anyone else was looking for extra help for the day. It was a pretty rough experience as he never made as much money as he should for the work he did, but such was life.

Junjou began to reminisce on the dream from last night again, as he normally did whenever this dream or one with a similar scenario came up. Despite making him cry pretty hard every time it happened, he at least tried to control his emotions for the meantime.

The dream was based off of when Junjou first came to Kittlescor from his life in Ryukanshi. He was alone and afraid, roughly about 15 years old around the time. He wasn’t even highly proficient in common at the time, just his homeland dialect that he knew from back in Temdiin. A lot of the memory was lost during the event itself, as somehow Junjou had become hunted down by a band of pirates. They had attacked him and roughed him up pretty bad, however he was able to briefly escape. And then, next thing he knew, he was on the ground. The pirates were going in to kill him when suddenly he was saved by the Zoroark. From there, they hurt the Zoroark pretty badly as it was an uneven five-on-one battle. And yet, somehow, the fox managed to fend them all away despite injuries.

That Zoroark ended up being a citizen among Kittlescor named Raven at the time, and later renamed himself Cuervo for personal reasons. Cuervo had saved Junjou’s life despite being a complete stranger, and even to this day Junjou has forever felt indebted to him.

From that day years ago, Cuervo ended up taking a bit of a liking to Junjou. They became quite close after that instance when they met, as Cuervo felt they had some similar loneliness in common. At the time, Cuervo was 20, so the age difference between him and Jonjou made the Zoroark feel almost like an older brother to him.

With Cuervo being a friend to Junjou now, he helped the Noivern learn how to speak common and eventually taught him some important skills that would later help him get a job in a local tavern--which was now closed down.

Close as the two had become, they did not see each other very often. Junjou had a ridiculous amount of adjustment to make in his new life in Kittlescor, while Cuervo had both a demanding port job and some...other miscellaneous stuff he would do on the side; This stuff would sometimes make it unsafe for him to be around others for a few days until the coast was clear.

Then, one day at the tavern, Junjou was working and Cuervo was drinking at the bar. A few mercenaries came up to Cuervo and asked to talk to him privately outside. Junjou nervously asked Cuervo to be careful, as this did not seem like any sort of normal situation or scenarios for mercenaries to come to him with a job.

After the job that night, not only had Cuervo become associated with someone else who Junjou didn’t know at all, but he also stopped going out into public as often after that. At that point, and to the current day a few years later, Junjou would be lucky to see Cuervo once every two months.

…

Time went by, and before Junjou had even realized it, his day at the port working had gone by faster than ever before. He was really dwelling on this dream, and he hoped that he did his work correctly.

Junjou collected his small wage for the day and was returning to his home. While walking there into the sunset, he noticed a familiar figure walking in a similar direction as he was. A figure about a foot taller than him with long hair in the center and two side ponytails…

“C-cuervo…?” Junjou asked to himself quietly, his pace automatically starting to quicken so he could catch up with the figure. The closer that he got, the more it seemed like his friend. It had been months now since he had last seen him…

“..C-cuervo…! Is that...y-you…?” He called out louder this time, still moving closer.

This time, the figure heard the call and turned back to face Junjou. Surely enough, it was a Zoroark, and one whose face Junjou recognized all too well.

Junjou immediately ran up to Cuervo and hugged into him as tight as he could. Unable to control his emotions, he began to let out a heavy, bottled-up sob while holding into his friend.

“Junjou…!” Cuervo said, a bit shocked at the sudden hug out of nowhere. However, after a moment of processing, he caringly wrapped his arms around the Noivern, trying to comfort him as he cried. “Hey...everythin’s gonna be alright bud...jus’ settle down…”

Cuervo took on a much softer tone than usual, managing a smile down at Junjou. A slight wave of guilt began to wash over him, as he had a feeling he knew what this sudden emotional outburst was about.

“I...C-cuervo…” Junjou cried quietly. “I...I-I’ve...been s-so worried...a-about you...I-i haven’t seen...y-you in months…”

“I...know...I’m sorry, bud…” Cuervo sighed.

“I-i missed you...you’re my...o-only friend...y-you’ve always been...like m-my brother…”

“...”

“...I...I-I don’t...w-want to be a-alone again C-Cuervo…” The Noivern admitted, taking a small step back.

The Zoroark yet again offered a smile while looking down at Junjou. There was a certain voice and tone that he took on that was only for the Noivern, being someone so close to him that he considered him family. Cuervo, being a foot taller than Junjou, knelt down on a knee and smiled at him. Doing this, they were closer to the same height and eye level now.

“Jun...listen. I’m sorry...tha’ i’ve disappeared...I shouldn’t’ve jus’...left ‘ya alone like tha’ for so lon’...” Cuervo apologized. “But...thin’s are lookin’ up Jun...i’ll be around much more often again. ‘N I will visit ‘ya as much as I can, I promise. Okay…?”

Junjou sniffled and teared up more, giving a small nod. Despite his crying, he couldn’t help but let out a small smile. He moved a little closer and hugged into Cuervo again, who reciprocated the hug as tightly as he could.

“...’ya...had the dream again, didn’t ‘ya…?” Cuervo then asked in a whisper, making sure he kept the hug as tight as he could.

“...a-again...I-I...can’t stop...dwelling..o-on it..” Junjou sighed, sounding awfully tired now. “I...J-just...w-want to live a...n-normal life a-again...and not w-worry everyday about...the o-only person I-I call family…”

“‘Ya won’t have ‘ta worry ‘bout me anymore, bud...I’ll always be ‘round for ‘ya now…”

“O-okay...t-thank you..Cuervo…”

Cuervo chuckled and rubbed Junjou’s back a bit comfortingly, noticing his fatigue.

“Hey…’ya look exhausted...let’s get ‘ya home so ‘ya can rest, okay…?” He suggested, to which the Noivern nodded.

Despite agreeing to start heading back, they stayed in the hug for another moment, as it was something that was long overdue for both of them. Cuervo smiled and continued to rub Junjou’s back comfortingly, giving him all the support he needed.

“Junjou...no matter wha’ happens…’yer always gonna be...my little brother...I promise.”