Beautiful Eyes

Cold. Curled up. Withdrawing into one’s self. It didn’t help.

It woke up with its breath frosting in tiny puffs. Crystals shimmered into being before it and hung glinting upon the air. It raised a hand to bat it away but more crystallised about its hand, drawn by its warmth.

It got up, its motion triggering its warm carapace-like bed to flow smoothly open. It emerged like a moth, its dark chocolate skin unblemished except for a neon glowing tattoo curled down its arm and blossoming into flowery script on the back of its hand. Gasherize. That was its name.

Gasherize shivered and bounded along to where its master hung, draped in silks and surrounded by curious dimly lit spheres that swayed in the still air. It curved around the spheres and nudged Master. The spheres shuddered, then blinked brightly awake, dispersing swiftly into the corners of the room and illuminating all within the pentagonal den.

Master slowly uprighted itself, claws grasping the floor and its spindly limbs creaking as it bore the weight of gravity coupled with its own mass. Its translucent webbed wings unfolded and great luminescent eyes peered out sleepily from an oval face. It surveyed Gasherize with some degree of confusion and irritation, its mouth yawning into three undulating rows of teeth.

“Wrual yehy Gasherize yupoeto aro?”

Gasherize slanted its head, trying to understand Master. It knew that wrual had something to do with waking - Master always repeated this after he awoke - while aro was likely morning, since it only heard Master and Master’s Pack saying it during times when the air was chilly and its skin was racked with shivers.

“It’s cold Master.”

Gasherize whined softly as Master’s wings slumped to the floor, an indication of confusion. It pawed again at Master and attempted to speak Inutslaggecaen.

“Wrual ksu. Ksu.” It heard Ksu being used when the air was warm and when it was let out to play.

Master laughed, sending ripples along the fluid scales that made up its body. It waved its spindly limbs into the air and wove threads from the crystallised air, compressing it into a little spiky sphere. The air grew warm, as if the coldness was leached away into the sphere. Master’s teeth crunched into the sphere and it gleefully chomped away, bits of crystals drifting onto the floor and soaked up by purple fibers that made up the carpeted floor.

Gasherize stretched now, feeling strength return to its limbs. It groomed its hair, a long silky cascade down its back. Then, it felt gentle hands grasp its sides and it was lifted into the air, staring into Master’s eyes. Master was now straightened into its full three metre height, standing on its two slender limbs while another four currently held Gasherize tenderly and carefully. Gasherize twisted around into a more comfortable position, blinking almost solemnly at Master.

Master sighed, its wings fluttering happily behind it and glowing a light green. It studied Gasherize’s eyes in a dazed manner, as if cast under a spell. It muttered softly in rapid Inutslaggecaen that Gasherize could not catch. As time passed, Master eventually put Gasherize down, but only after much tussling and fussing over its eyes.

Gasherize always wondered what its eyes looked like. Why was Master so obsessed about it? If it could see its own eyes, would it also be so utterly captivated as Master was?

Gasherize shook its head and continued grooming. It watched as Master plucked strands of fiber from the floor, its six limbs quickly weaving it into a tightly woven basket large enough to carry Gasherize’s forty kilogram bulk, with dimensions sufficiently large for Gasherize to stretch fully from hand to feet.

Gasherize nudged one of Master’s glowing wing, “Jalwo, jalwo.” Quick, quick. It was impatient to be out of the small and narrow space where it spent a majority of its time sleeping and watching Master.

Soon, the carrier was ready and Gasherize ducked into it, bumping its head into the carrier as it entered. The carrier’s door made a fizzling sputter and the fibers crept about the entry point, temporarily sealing it shut. Master grasped the handles alongside the carrier and lifted both of them airborne. They glided towards a panel on the left of the room that glimmered in glowing letters of Inutslaggecaen. These fizzed as they passed through it, reforming only shortly after they cleared the panel.

Gasherize breathed in fresh air, humming as the cool wind cradled and rocked the carrier in gentle rhythms. Master’s enormous billowing wings cast flickering shadows upon the carrier as it swiveled, fine tuning the direction of their flight. Gasherize watched their home, one among many of the cocoons dangling from the branches of a great tree, fade into little specks. Master rose, heading into the lower heights and warmer air. Gasherize stared as the familiar looking play area appeared - a little platform that was magnified as they approached it. Fences of intertwined vines enveloped a small cluster of romping figures who either played vigorously with each other or chattered with the same energy to those who were tired of playtime. Gasherize tapped the top of the carrier fervently and Master rumbled with laughter, swaying the carrier slightly.

“Enpatt kellite Gasherize.”

Gasherize sped out the carrier the moment they touchdowned onto solid ground and the entry point fizzed open, a stringent and smoky smell wafting from the fibers. Master led them towards the entrance of the play area. Along the way, another figure - Gasherize recognised it as One-of-Master’s-Pack - alighted and swerved into their direction, intercepting Master. Its carrier released another creature, one whom Gasherize bounded towards in excitement.

Gasherize exclaimed, “Are you headed for the play area too? I - ”

A face wreathed with purple blossoms peered at Gasherize, silently scrutinising the creature who approached it so enthusiastically. Gasherize halted, heels digging into the soft cushioned ground. The creature said nothing, only giving a bitter twist of its smile to Gasherize. It was a short creature, barely cresting a metre in height, with agile hands and short hair that protruded in tufts from its scalp. More curious were the flowers that enveloped its features, beginning at the face and extending to engulf the entirety of its face. It covered every facial feature, leaving only bountiful flowers whose petals wilted slightly as it surveyed Gasherize.

Gasherize stammered, “Sorry, I - ”

The creature nodded absentmindedly. Gasherize wondered if these creatures could understand the language it spoke. It couldn’t see any ears to hear with, mouths to speak, noses to sniff nor no eyes to see.

Gasherize wondered what species they were.

Master finished its conversation with One-of-Master’s-Pack and gestured at Gasherize with a spindly limb. Gasherize bounded to Master as Master exchanged a few white spherical spheres for a sweet smelling substance held in a bag. Gasherize’s mouth watered at the scent of food emitting from the bag, paying no attention as one of the spheres rolled off Master’s claws and beside Gasherize. Gasherize glanced at the sphere, a mostly white object with a beautiful jewel-like object encrusted on its side that he barely glimpsed before One-of-Master’s-Pack snatched it up.

Gasherize followed Master as they approached the entrance of the play area. Gasherize wrinkled its nose from the presence and scent of the fences that smelt strongly of a disgusting, detestable smell. A stink that did not affect Master whatsoever, seeing how Master approached the fence unhesitantly and uttered several difficult sounding phrases in Inutslaggecaen. The entry fence swung open and Gasherize leapt in, pausing only to give Master a goodbye yip before looking for its friend.

Gasherize romped about the play area, ducking under the leafy bridges that others of its kind balanced upon, mischievously nudging some of them off. They howled and nipped it playfully, inviting it to a game of tag but it sighed and shook its head so vigorously that they started to tease it instead. Gasherize capered off, refusing the advancement of a fellow kin - reminiscing the way it so provocatively snuggled towards Gasherize - detouring around several groups of its kin that groomed each other and heading towards a section of the play area sheltered by huge leaves that hung drooping to the floor.

Carefully Gasherize made its way into the centre of the Quiet, a place where the more introverted of its kin dwelled in the day. The rustling of wind through leaves was a soft, gentle rhythm that lured many to sleep, snoring noises drifting lazily away with the wind, and Gasherize blinked away the beginning of sleep as its eyes rested upon the silhouette of another of its kin.

Cazshori gazed afar through an opening in the Quiet, illuminated by the streaks of light from the gaps between the leaves. Cazshori was fair haired, its heart-shaped face and its well proportioned slender limbs a delight to the eye. It was always dressed more elaborately compared to the standard jumpsuits their kin and Gasherize itself wore: plain navy fabric that covered up to their mid-arms and thighs. Today it seemed dressed in white flowy petals, thin slivers of fabric cascading down its sides and brushing against the floor, which stained its ends a light purple. Braided into its lustrous hair was a lilac flower, but as Cazshori turned to face Gasherize, Gasherize couldn’t help but admire what he had been pining over since it met Cazshori: its eyes.

They were a beautiful and yet harrowing sight to behold. Such depths concealed within twin spheres - the happiness that lit it up in flames as Cazshori saw Gasherize, the subdued tones of coldness as Cazshori regained its composure, the bubbling of affection as Cazshori embraced Gasherize. Such eyes, simply described, were blue orbs with a white iris. But Gasherize, who knew not many words nor was apt enough to speak worthy praise of it, could condense it into only this: beautiful eyes which it loved and thus, loved Cazshori for them.

“Gasherize, shall we start?”

Gasherize met Cazshori a few weeks ago after deciding to take a nap in the Quiet. Cazshori was in a turmoil - two of their kin fought over Cazshori, lust-sick kids newly arrived in the play area - and Cazshori cowered, already bleeding from two wounds to the arm from attempting to interfere. Gasherize, being older, much larger and stronger than the both of them combined, defeated them with much ease and dragged them out of the Quiet. Empty threats were given from the kids who slunk away to other sections of the play area. Gasherize returned to Cazshori, who surprisingly enough, had attracted yet another one of their kin.

“Well, I was thinking of teaching you something easier, since you had a hard time understanding last time.”

Eventually, Gasherize was accepted as the victor of the various battles over Cazshori and the only one Cazshori ever approached willing anyways. In thanks, Cazshori taught Gasherize about the things that only those who were caught in the wild knew - their native language, some Inutslaggecaen, things about their Masters and things about their own kin.

“It’s called gender. I think you’d get it more easily than learning about Inutslaggecaekatian currency.”

Their kind was called Praeteritus, a species domesticated by an upper tier species Cazshori said was known as Inutslaggecaekatian. The Inutslaggecaekatian - a term Gasherize spent hours trying to pronounce but failed miserably - were beings who favoured the Praeteritus immensely for their eyes. Cazshori explained something about biolumiscence and photoreceptors that Gasherize didn’t understand, but the gist of it was that the Inutslaggecaekatian were crazy over their eyes.

“Listen Gasherize.”

Cazshori grabbed its hand, jolting Gasherize out of its daze, “Do you know the difference between you and me?”

Gasherize shook its head, frowning. Cazshori continued, “When others of our kin approach you, did you notice that they had scents that you liked and smaller bodies? While when others of our kin approached me, they had scents that you disliked and were around your size?”

Now that Cazshori described it, it seemed apparent to Gasherize. Even though they were the same kin, they were…not the same. Cazshori was kin, but it was not just kin.

“Gasherize, the Inutslaggecaekatian don’t differentiate our species by gender because their language has no word for it. But in our native language Sapien, you are a male. He. His. Him. That’s how others refer to you.”

Gasherize attempted to understand, “I am he? Gasherize is a he name?”

Cazshori laughed, a sound that blended in with the blissful atmosphere they were enveloped in. Gasherize couldn’t help but smile and stare at Cazshori.

“Well, in a way, yes. For example, this is your hand.”

Gasherize realised that Cazshori was still holding onto his - Him? He? - hand since it grasped it when getting his attention.

“If others see us, they would say ’Cazshori is grabbing his hand.’ ”

Gasherize had another realisation. “If I am a he, a male, then Cazshori is a - ?”

“I am a female. She. Her.”

There seemed to be something odd today. Cazshori inching towards him. Her breath warm on his neck, his cheek, his lips. Her eyes growing closer to his, those aquamarine eyes that glowed dimly were so bright and flushed now. He was entranced.

Her hands slipped into his naturally, as did their tongues. Sweet. Sweet like the liquid golden food he had every meal time. They came up for breath, faces reddened but their hands grasped each other tightly.

“Cazshori - ”

She sealed his mouth away with another kiss, but he gazed into her eyes and knew that there was sorrow there. She didn’t want him to ask. He still did.

“Cazshori, are you - ”

“No. Before that happens, I will escape. But Gasherize - ”

He released her hand. “I won’t see you again? Cazshori…I - ”

She grasped his shoulders with a strength that shocked him and forced his eyes to hers. “Gasherize, it’s not me who you love. You love only my eyes…

Quieter, she muttered, “Just like the Inutslaggecaekatians. Maybe it’s your Master’s influence…you seem just like your Master…”

He protested, despite knowing that there was truth in it, “Cazshori, I’m of your own kin and I do love - ”

“If you really love me Gasherize, then let’s escape together.”

He hesitated. The silence between them stretched. Longer than those painful days he spent once, when he was just the new kid with no friends in the play area. Longer than when he was first beaten up by a senior twice his age and slumped along in the corner of the play area, nursing wounds and grudges.

Cazshori had a woeful smile. “I miss the wild, even if I hunger and thirst for days on end. In the wild, our clan was called the Storytellers. We know much about the Inutslaggecaekatian…and why they are so besotted about our eyes. I know what awaits me at the end of this tamed life. Gasherize, for the last time, do you love me enough to escape with me?”

He thought of Master. Master, who always patted him asleep. Who fed him good food. Who treated him tenderly. A warm bed, a home, a Master. The wild had none of that. But the wild had Cazshori. Cazshori who he…whose eyes he…

Cazshori turned, threading her way through the leaves and out of the Quiet. Gasherize followed her almost devotedly - no, now that he knew he didn’t really love her, it wasn’t appropriate - and watched as she stood by the fence of the play area. The fence with a stench that violated his nose roughly, yet Cazshori breathed it in as if it were the sweetest scent.

“The Inutslaggecaekatian fenced us in the play area to keep us from breaking out. Scattered a scent that we hated so that we would avoid going near the fence. But we’re so close to the wild. The real ground, not a tree we’re stuck in because it’s the home of the Inutslaggecaekatian.”

Cazshori faced him, the last she would bear as she took in his grief-stricken face. “My Master will take me to the Teakerfandreeineyr tomorrow. In other words, you would never see me in the play area again. So I’m escaping.”

A bell tolled and the sound drowned out some of her words, but Gasherize heard bits of it, “lunch hour is the most lax…avoid the gate guards…if I see you again…goodbye…”

Cazshori squeezed through a gap in the fence, which he noticed had significant scratching and tearing marks. She gave him a last glance before she disappeared from his sight.

Then it was just Gasherize, as alone as he was on his first day at the play area. He had much to think about. He was not unobservant, only he now knew what he observed had a certain logic and pattern to it that he never thought of before.

What happens to those who come to the play area one day, and are never seen again the next?

He ate lunch, which for once tasted bitter. He left half of it on the plate and the Play-Area-Master eyed him with some concern as the plates were collected.

What happens to those who are taken to the Teakerfandreeineyr?

When Master came to get Gasherize, it noticed his more subdued mood. He watched emotionlessly as Master approached the Play-Area-Master and they conversed in swift Inutslaggecaen.

When will this same thing happen to me?

Gasherize flinched as a long spindly arm hovered into his field of vision. Then he relaxed and nuzzled against Master’s arm, guilt and doubt wreaking havoc in his mind. He caught a look of deep concern and confusion flash on Master’s face - a mixture of squinted eyes and a frown with teeth - before Master patted him and led them out of the play area.

He tried not to think more about Cazshori and the unsettling thoughts she roused in him. He forgot it the moment he glimpsed the creature with purple flowers. Only, this time it was a corpse.

Those purple flowers which adorned its face were rotting brown, revealing glimpses of skin beneath the petals and leaves. The petals curled in upon themselves, all three petals a distasteful mix of turd brown and bleached purple. It lay in a curled posture, almost as if cold and huddling for whatever warmth it could obtain. The tips of its fingers were blue.

Its Master was staring at it, silent, still. Then swiftly it scoped the creature from the ground and delved back into the crowd. Gasherize detected nothing, not a single emotion that it expressed visibly on its features or actions from the time it saw the creature dead to when it picked it up.

It was only when Master picked him up that Gasherize realised he had halted and stood still for many seconds, staring at the duo. He looked up to see Master looking almost sorrowfully upon him. He wondered then again about how much Cazshori knew when she spoke, “you seem just like your Master.”

The journey home was shorter than he recalled. He was too immersed in his thoughts. Was it a revelation? Or simply him seeing past his ignorance? Or perhaps it were thoughts that his subconscious concealed from him as he knew that simply knowing would be too much pain?

That night, he lay awake. He studied Master’s actions - you seem just like your Master - who went through the same procedure of opening a flower embroidered bag, taking out a sphere and carving intricate patterns into it with a curved scalpel. How does Cazshori know about my Master?

Master repeated the process: open the bag, take out a sphere, carve it, admire it in the glint of the light and place it into another bag which was embroidered with pots of curled up, spherical flowers.

Maybe I should escape.

Gasherize whined softly. Master put down its tools and hurried to him, patting him and casting an eye over him. After checking that there were no abnormalities - the only thing abnormal is my thoughts - Master returned to its work.

Gasherize sighed. He padded towards his bed and as it wrapped about him, the last thing he thought about were Cazshori’s eyes.

Blue-green. Jewel-like. How do my eyes look like?