The evening air was crisp, alluring to the nose, but almost tart to the tongue. It was heavy with the scent of mountain lilac and lily of the moon, and tasted of salt, making clear the sea to the southeast wasn’t too far off.

The sun was setting somewhere off in the south – that’s the way things were in Phantasmia, the sun rose in the north and set in the south. Stars were faintly creeping up over the horizon’s rim, and it was assured that tonight was going to be clear enough to see every single one of them, the sky had been clear all day – almost cloudless. The sun threw its violent colors across the sky like Picasso with his watercolor brush. Magentas, pinks, violets, oranges, and blues, all mixed in a pleasant array around a solitary yellow inferno.

The Ecliptic Ridge laid to the north, obsidian rocky cliffs, pouring out into a meadow of wildflower grandeur. To the further north were the river and the only other city in Phantasmia other than Idyllic Town on the eastern shores. This was the wilderness, few dared to travel out of the cities, and Pariah Village and her sister to the east seemed to have everything that anyone would ever need. There was simply not a reason for anyone to come out here. This was the main reason that so little of this area was known about and mapped – because no one had ever bothered to explore it. Or at least if they had they kept the information to themselves.

So it was rather unusual that two creatures could be spotted almost at the base of the cliffs.

“Delrej…”

A high-pitched voice rang through the air and hit it’s companion’s ears hard, yet it failed to earn a response.

A snowy white body of fur turned its head in the direction of the one the call was intended to. The bloodied bandages over hid eyes marked him as Wynn Whiteblood, and it was clear that he hadn’t changed, the bandages around his paws and legs were still as blood-spattered as ever. But then again – Wynn never changed, he was the same suicidal puppy that he had always been, and it seemed that Canoi never changed. They were each created as an emotion, or state of mind and lived like that immortally even when they were no longer felt or experienced.

“Delrej!”

The ashen body inclined into the other’s charcoal grey one. Black and purple optics flew in the direction of the annoyance.

“Wynn, must you really lean on me? Honestly, you make it fairly difficult to walk.”

The voice was deeper, and followed by a heavy sigh as the eyes were closed, revealing the darker pigmentation around his eye and over his eyelids. The mask line and double hearts on his face as dark as ever, along with the crowned malformed heart on his shoulder announced his name. Delrej – King of Hearts. The amethyst rims of his ears and mane of the same hue were gently shaken as he placed gaze on the path ahead of him.

“Will you carry me then?” Wynn inquired moving away, only to jump up and place his paws Delrej’s back.

“Wynn… While you are as small and light as you are you are a pain in the ass to carry. No.”

The smaller of the two wasn’t satisfied as he plopped back onto the ground. There was only one thing left that he could do, and he was sure that this time it was guaranteed to work, they were about fifty feet from the edge of the field anyway.

“Oh Delrej…” Wynn sighed as he ran his nose, and soon his whole body underneath Delrej’s, until he was walking between his front legs.

This was enough to win his reluctant companion over.

“Yes, Wynn, will you quit doing my job? YOU’RE the one I’M supposed to have to convince to play with ME.”

“Well… You didn’t do it last night… So…”

“Last night I was dead, you would have been too if you had to carry your little carcass around all day, in ninety degree heat no less.”

“I can’t help—”

Delrej cut him off by tackling him into the wildflowers in front of them.

Within moments there were not two wolf-like creatures laying in the grass, but two men, clearly the same two in a different form.

“Let the games begin…” Delrej whispered before attacking one of Wynn’s more sensitive areas – his neck.

The smaller man flailed about like a small wooden boat lost in the middle of a vast lake. Thrusting his body up to get his lover off of him, but honestly only encouraging him more. Delrej liked challenges.

Moans filled the air, but it wasn’t long until they turned to yips. Delrej always added a new level to the game every time they played and this time was no exception.

The grey dog was back, licking and playing ay Wynn’s neck just like he used to in his human form. It wasn’t long however, before that Wynn was back into his original form and he slipped out if Delrej’s grasp. He was taking off across the field, Delrej watched him for a moment, after all, it would only be fair to let his prey have the advantage before he was caught.

Wynn was caught again mere moments after Delrej began his pursuit, he knew anyways that Wynn was only trying to make his life difficult, not avoid their play session. The larger just reached out with one of his long legs and tripped up his white companion and pounced effectively pinning him, yet again.

“You didn’t really think you’d get out of this did you Winnie?” he taunted, positioning himself to ensure that Wynn would not be able to escape again.

“Maybe.” Wynn loved that answer. Delrej was a person of answers and ‘maybe’ or ‘because’ were not answers to him.

“Well just be a good boy and stay right here. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt now would we?”

Wynn didn’t get to answer that one as his body was thrown into a fit of turmoil. Delrej had no mercy; not even for the blind. But just as Delrej was going to reach his main goal of this whole exercise Wynn thrust him away and turned his back on him.

“You WILL leave my bandages alone Delrej, or I may not be able to play with you any more.”

“Wynn. Listen,” the bigger dog came closer wrapping his massive paws around Wynn’s thin physique, “There’s no one out here except you and me. And because of that you should have nothing to hide. No amount of scars will make me love you less nor will the color of your eyes.”

“The bandages stay on. That’s where I draw the line.”

Delrej looked down on his partner, nuzzling him.

“Oh Wynn,” he pulled the smaller one closer, “No matter what I will love you, you know that right? Tell me that you know that, please, tell me that you know that.”

Wynn leaned into Delrej pushing him over this time, before snuggling down into him.

“Yeah, I know that.”

“Please will you show me then?”

Tender human fingers pried at the ends of Wynn’s bandages, as the first one was removed form around his ankle Delrej began to comfortingly stroke his beloved’s neck. It wasn’t that Delrej liked looking at all the scars; he knew that Wynn remembered what each one of them was for, even the ones you could barely see and the ones who were less than two days old. He was more than sure that it hurt Wynn to look at them too.

“I have a lot to hide Delrej. I have a lot that no one knows about me. Like how I know that when Metaphora died was my fault – I replaced her. If anyone else knew…”

“Metaphora is not dead Wynn, She merely went to live in the northern forest. Don’t go blaming yourself for something you played no part in.”

“You’re wrong, I was the one who pushed her away.”

Wynn’s ankles were covered in scars, ranging form ones you could barely see to ones that Delrej knew would still bleed if the scab were rubbed the wrong way. There seemed to be no flesh around his wrists and ankles that was safe form his blade. But still the gauze over his eyes remained. The thing that Delrej was the most curious to see Wynn refused to show him.

“Would you look at me Wynn? Just once? Would you stare at the stars with me? Please?”

“Delrej, you have to understand. Not even I can stand to look at them, how can I expect you to?”

“Please?” Delrej’s request was backed up with a little positive reinforcement.

Wynn moaned, raising his pale human fingers to the knot before beginning to undo it. He was tugging at the one thing that had been there for over two years. The bandages had never come off because even to Wynn his eyes were horrible. Even in his vanity streak he never looked at them, they were that hideous. He felt Delrej’s hand clasp his wrist.

“I’m right here, we’ll do this together.”

The smaller man paused for a moment, taking the time to fully appreciate Delrej and how close he was. And in that moment, he heard Delrej breathe, he felt his heart beat, and he knew that no matter what that if he hid this from him that Delrej would be bothered by it until he actually showed him. He felt the constant pressure from the bandages loosen, and then finally go away all together. Wynn felt the bandages brush his nose as they fell the to the ground. Even though there was nothing to keep him from seeing, He didn’t open his eyes; he couldn’t stand to look at Delrej right now.

The King of Hearts was bewildered by what he saw, Wynn’s eye markings were like none that he’d ever seen before. They were so crisp, and was it possible that they were even double? Not only did Wynn have a shadowbox of light grey under his eyes, but also, dual mask lines, something that was rare, even for Canoi. He stared at them in wonder, and it was only as he brushed his fingers against the younger man’s cheek that he realized that Wynn was crying. But there was one thing that Delrej also noted that was different from any of the other Canoi – Wynn had scars over his eyes, two over his left in a misshapen X and three over his left. One of the three was diagonal, and the other two were vertical. It was clear to Delrej that he had tried to do away with them.

“Wynn, look at me.”

The other man made no move to open up his eyes and show the inner monster he could not control. He instead buried his head into Delrej’s chest, thrusting him down onto the ground once more.

“Wynn, I said look at me.”

Slowly Whiteblood forced his eyelids open, they seemed extremely heavy, and after all, he hadn’t opened his eyes in over a year now. Whenever he had, he only found himself in the dark.

Delrej found them strangely beautiful; in fact he found Wynn’s eyes to be some of the most beautiful that he had ever looked into.

He lifted his head form the ground, and kissed Wynn’s forehead.

“That’s my baby.”