Ashsib and the Cat Beast

Chapter Fourteen

"Ashsib? Ashsib!" Elian was seriously worried about the man. Unnaturally still and he wouldn't draw breath. The doctor took Ashsib by the upper arms and shook him.

Ashsib gave a very slow blink. As if he was coming up for air after a dive, he gasped air. Coughing and choking on the oxygen, Ashsib fell to his knees, cradling his hand to his chest.

"Dammit, what is wrong with you?" Elian shouted.

"Karihyou." Ashsib managed to say, pointing at the fog, "It will help us find Namere."

"The sword? What- wait, hey!" Quinn tried to get answers, but Ashsib boldly strode away. "Ash, what are you doing?" He grabbed the injured man's arm. It was normal that Ashsib's clothes and hair be a mess, but he didn't even seem to notice the blood running down either side of his face. He'd even lost the limp from before. Ashsib always had a complaint, at least.

"I said it already, Karihyou is trying to help us." Ashsib muscled away, single mindedly determined.

"Ashsib, you're not acting yourself." Challah voiced several others' opinions in a wavering tone.

Ashsib paused at that, then winced before he could respond, "Ow!" His hand reflexively closed against a throb, "I don't have time to think about that." He continued to stalk through the fog.

His crewmates had no choice but to follow. There was another storage house, no different than those around it, Ashsib bee-lined for it. Then he did the most un-Ashsib thing yet, he kicked the door in.

Quinn approached the man and gave him a hard slap across the face.

Ashsib reeled back a moment, but turned to return to his search, trying to enter the building.

Quinn bent his knees in a snap, knocking Ashsib off balance from behind.

Ashsib glared over his shoulder, but righted himself.

Quinn pinched the man in the butt.

"Will you quit it? That hurts, Captain." Ashsib rubbed the cheek, sulking, "What is it? I hurt enough right now."

Quinn sighed, "Phew, it is Ashsib."

"Who else would it be!?" Ashsib shouted, his eyes nearly bugging out, "I'm sorry for yelling at you Captain, but I'm a bit on edge."

"I was worried the Beast had you, I was taking preventive measures." Quinn pinched at him again, this time in the arm.

"Ow! Seriously, Captain!" This time, Ashsib's voice held its usual whine, "It's not the Beast, it's Karihyou."

"Karihyou is a sword, a blade, an inanimate object." Quinn pointed out.

"No, if you touched it, you'd understand." Ashsib shook his head, "It's alive."

"And you're going to find it. In this building." Quinn gestured past Ashsib to the piles of moldering goods inside the building. Some of it looked dozens of years old. None of it was even partially used, despite the many men who'd been in the initial games they'd all played. It didn't seem to be in any kind of order, either. Some recognizable items from their ship were thrown in here and there, too. Challah's set of copper pots were shining in a crate with some very begrimed shoes. A keg of powder held Vel's unbroken weight seal on top a nightstand missing it's drawer and stuffed with matchboxes, almost toppling it. It was a maze of mess.

"I can feel it." Ashsib held out the hand he had cradled close, using it as a divining rod. He walked past a row of dolls who's lifeless eyes watched passively, and there were shelves of dishes so covered in dust their pattern was too obscured to even guess at. Ashsib had no problem navigating it.