Maybe (COMPLETED)

Chapter Twelve

"Isaak. Isaak, c'mon, wake up!" the concerned voice leaked into my hearing.

"God, why did he faint? It was just a knife to his arm."

Another person sighed. "It wasn't the knife which made him faint, Mekhi, it was probably my chorren. It was used directly on him, practically."

"Still, he's weak. We would be safe by now if he wasn't here." 

"Don't be so cruel Mekhi." muttered the first one. "I think he can hear us, don't you, Archer?"

"Probably. His mind is most probably not yet fully awake. I would assume he can hear us, but is not completely acknowledging who we are or what we are saying." 

Something brushed against my forehead. Something soft. "Wake up Isaak. Please." 

I was lying on something hard. The ground. I was cold, very cold. My whole body was damp, my clothes were soaked through. A slight breeze bit my cheeks. The hand lingered against my cheek. It was warm. I slowly opened my eyes, to be immediately faced by another greeny-blue set. "Isaak!" he turned away. "Archer, I think he's awake!" 

Blue eyes leaned over me. "So he is. Come on now," Archer heaved me up, "it's prime time to leave."

I wobbled onto my feet unsteadily. "I'm sorry." I whispered. Mekhi was right. I was useless, pathetic. 

"Don't be sorry!" Exclaimed Ash. "It's my fault you're here. Plus, you're faster and quieter than all of us, and your senses are better. You could actually help us a lot, if we taught you what to look out for, couldn't he, Archer?"

Archer shrugged. "I guess he could if he wanted to. But right now I don't really give a shit. We need to get a move on!"

He grabbed me by the collar, dragging me forward. We walked down a messy, trodden path, with Ash behind us and Mekhi at the tail. I eventually pulled away from Archer and walked by myself. I listened to my surroundings, looked around, smelt the air and wondered if I really could do these things better then them. Then my thoughts wondered to Jackie. My best friend. Was he really oblivious to my existence right now? Had he really forgotten me?

In all my life, I'd never had a better, closer, more understanding friend them him. He was always there for me. He was never late to anything, never forgot anything we had planned. 

Wait.

I froze in my footsteps, causing Ash to bump into me. Mekhi groaned. "What now?"

"My best friend. Jackie."

Mekhi sighed. "Can't remember you. Move on."

"No! Listen to me!" I looked over at Archer pleadingly. "We always made plans to meet places, like at cafes and stuff, and he never forgot. I didn't have to remind him by text or anything."

Archers eyes narrowed. "Were they places he went regularly?"

"No, sometimes they were really random, like outside a certain shop, or at the beach... This means... this means Jackie remembers me!" A grin spread across my face. "Oh my god!"

Archer looked concerned. "That's not good. That's actually quite disturbing."

"Why? Jeez, for crying out loud, it means he remembers me! It's good! I have a reason to go back!"

"That's not what it means." Said Mekhi. "It's means your friend, Jackie, is not human. Now that could be good, but it could also be bad."

My arms dropped to my sides. "Oh. Jackie's... not human?" I thought of him, brown eyes and curly blond hair... crazy smile and constantly bubbly attitude. "What could he be?"

Archer looked around the forest we had been walking through for hours. "Let's walk and talk." We all turned and continued the formation we had before. "Do you think he was an onama? Like you?"

"Well... I don't really know how to tell... but... I don't think so. He's... pretty strong for his size... he's always crazy happy... and sometimes he seems..." I thought about the time we first met. It was at high school, and he was the popular gay guy, but he always stared at me. He always watched me, I found it creepy at the time. Then once we bumped into each other - literally. And we... just clicked. From then on, we were best friends. Now I think about it, he still stares at my sometimes. When we were getting to know each other I thought he had a crush on me, then I got used to it. It was always a curious, confused sort of look.  "Sometimes he seems a little creepy. I mean, now I think about it, I catch him staring at me sometimes, like he's trying to figure me out. Like he doesn't understand me."

"Interesting." Murmured Archer.

"Sounds like a seer." snorted Mekhi. "Always trying to figure things out."

"I was thinking more along the lines of one of my kind. Or a jade." Archer mutters.

"A jade? What's that?"

"Similar to a seer, I guess. They like riddles and puzzles. And like you said this Jackie is, they are generally overly happy and very eccentric. They're not normally dangerous, unless you did something for them to put you in their bad books. But... he could be my kind, because we tend to be intrigued by lost souls, we seem to want to help people, and an onama stuck on earth... that seems like something to keep us busy." Archer sighs. "If he's one of my kin though, that could be bad, because he might be protective of you. He could potentially be mad at us."

Ash's soft voice rose up. "Could he be an okirima?"

"What?" Mekhi looked shocked. "Why would be by an okirima?"

Ash shrugged, glancing at his feet. "I don't know. Don't they like onamas? As in, find them sort of... interesting? Or attractive? I don't know," he blushes, "I heard it somewhere. Especially onamas who have okirima blood in them. They particularly like them. And we don't know what blood Isaak has... so..."

"Well..." Archer murmured, glancing back with a worried, sarcastic grin, "wouldn't that be great. An okirima following us."

Mekhi snorted. "Yeah, how awful." 

"What's an okirima?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"They're the breed that makes up the majority of our enemies, the Odriscians. We're Vandalinds. You came very up close and personal with an Odriscian just before. At least, I think he was an okirima... The thing with okirimas is that it's really hard to tell what breed they are - they carry traits of every breed, so it's easy to get confused." Suddenly Archer burst out laughing. "So if your friend was one of them, and he turned up out of the blue, we'd have no idea what he was and no idea how to deal with him! Perfect!"