Chapter 5- Do I Know You

Odin shot up in the bed, sending Rheias off the edge.  “What … the?”  He was out of breath, his heart beating like crazy.  Odin noticed a lack of Rheias on the bed and saw him on the ground, “Oh, sorry Rheias … nightmare again…”

Rheias rubbed his back and base of tail, “Ow … must’ve been one hell of a dream…”  He crawled back onto the bed still rubbing his back.  “Lets not do that again, that really hurt…”

Odin pulled Rheias to him and licked his muzzle, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to launch you off the bed...”  Odin laid down and pulled Rheias down with him.

“It’s okay Odin, we still have some time to rest, so let’s.”  Rheias scoot closer and rubbed his muzzle under Odin’s.

It wasn’t long till Odin started to dream, but yet again he was in a different spot.  He was in the middle of the ruined city again Lea was panting.  “Lea you didn’t have to run so fast...”

Lea was sweating even more than he had been. “Sorry … I didn’t realize you were friends with demons...” he stood up after he caught his breath, “You really should tell people that kind of stuff...”

Odin scratched the back of his head, his hair feeling much different than his fur he was used to.  ”Sorry, things happened so suddenly that I didn’t remember to share that little tidbit of knowledge.  You should know how much I forget things.”

Lea was tired, “look we’ve been running around all day. Lets find a Gargoyle Haven and rest...”  Lea led the way to a church with Gargoyle fixtures, “we’ll be safe here.”

Odin scoffed, “You’re kidding right? Gargoyles will do nothing to Gabriel, He’s an Angel remember?  He’ll just stroll right in and murder us to death...”

Lea chuckled, “well I guess that’s true, if he wasn’t out to kill us. the Gargoyles will protect us from demons and any Angels who wish to harm humans ... they work in the human’s favour, not the Angels...”

Odin went over to a Gargoyle statue, “Oh, okay...” Odin looked at the statue and everything began to fade, he was waking up.

Odin opened his eyes, the sun had risen and Rheias was drying off when he noticed Odin staring at him.

“Um,” Rheias stopped moving, “morning... can you stop staring at me?” Odin got up and moved closer to him, causing Rheias to step back, but he slipped, sending the towel flying towards Odin and his butt to the floor.

“Ah!” Odin rush over to help Rheias but only managed to slip and land on top of Rheias.  Luckily Odin caught himself and ended up bent over Rheias.  “Um, you okay Rheias?”

Rheias had shut his eyes upon hitting the floor, but upon hearing Odin’s voice he opened them. “GAH!” Odin’s face was centimeters from Rheias’ face, Rheias freaked out from the surprise, hitting Odin’s arm out.  

Odin fell face first into Rheias’ chest, “Rheias …  What did I do to deserve this?”  He managed to look up at Rheias,  “I’ve told you I won’t do what Kexin did...”

Rheias looked down at Odin, then started to tear up,  “Odin … I-I …”  Sobbing, Rheias squirmed out from underneath Odin and crawled into the bathroom, shutting and barring the door.

Odin got up and sighed, “Rheias ... I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you so much...”  Odin decided to get dressed himself, as he finished there was a knock on the door.  “who could that be?  If they’re anything like Kexin...” Odin growled but went and opened the door and was surprised at who the visitor was.

The visitor was a dragon, but Odin recognized it somehow, he was about a head taller than Odin with onyx scales all over.  He had charcoal on the underside of his tail and under his chin leading down to his chest.  His Ruby red eyes were fixated on Odin, his breath much warmer than Odin’s, “Do … I know you?” Odin and this dragon synchronized their speaking perfectly without trying.

Odin shook his head, he couldn’t know this dragon, but he did seem familiar.  “No, I’m Odin, I actually don’t remember anything past 4 days ago … Can I help you?” He stepped back, judging the dragon, then it hit him, this dragon was a Gargoyle.

“Oh, um I’m Raz … is Rheias around?” Raz knew the name Odin, but he had never met this one, or any Odin for that matter.

“Oh, yeah I’ll go check in on him...”  Odin went over to the bathroom door and knocked, “Rheias … are you okay?” Odin was worried, he could hear Rheias sobbing lightly but he had started to move towards the door.

Rheias opened the door fully dressed and suddenly hugged Odin, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”  Rheias was still crying and buried his face in Odin’s fur.

Raz had snuck inside, and was growling at Odin, “What did you do you Ass?”  Raz was protective and seeing Rheias crying triggered his defensiveness.

Rheias shook and nearly collapsed, “R-raz! He didn’t do anything!”  Rheias knew Raz would easily put Odin through a wall.

Raz was still growling, “that’s the same thing you said about Kexin, and you still won’t let me skin that damn-”

“Raz! Enough!” Odin interrupted Raz, “Kexin’s dead and we don’t want to revisit that...” Odin was holding tightly onto Rheias who was shaking like a leaf.  “I scared him and he slipped, then when I went to help him I nearly fell on him. It scared him okay? He’s terrified already ... we’re not going to help him by fighting...”  Odin lead Rheias to the bed and Rheias collapsed on top of Odin, passing out.

Raz eventually calmed down before he tried to talk, “sorry, I overreacted … it’s just after what happened with Kexin I don’t want to see it happen to him again.”  He went over and leaned against the wall, “he really trusts you … don’t hurt him...”

Odin pulled Rheias fully on top of him and held him close, “I … L-l-ove ... him … I can’t purposefully hurt him Raz ... seeing him so scared really hurt me...” Odin licked Rheias’ face and groomed the fur messed up from the tears.

“So what exactly happened with Kexin? I just got back to the village ... so i apparently have missed something...”  Raz started to relax, seeing Rheias being treated so nicely made him feel better, he could swear he heard Rheias purring.

“Well we ran into monsters over by the forest, and Kexin got cocky … then he got smashed and splattered everywhere...”

Raz cringed at the thought, “yikes … no wonder he’s so shaken up...”  Raz looked down at the floor, “I doubt I could handle watching something like that alone … he’s lucky he’s got you...”

Odin nodded, “yeah, he was terrified after it all happened … we washed off, and came home … then he told me what happened with Kexin...”

“Oh... well, I’ll come back later, I wanted to go out into the field and hang out, but i’ll let him rest for awhile... he needs it...”  Raz showed himself out.

“Rheias, why was it so hard for me to say it...”  It had been on the back of his mind ever since he struggled to say it, “I really do, but i don’t know if I could say it to you...” He cuddled Rheias and slowly fell asleep again.