Chapter Text
A horse's vision encompasses nearly a full 360 degrees. There's just a single 10 degree blindspot directly behind them.
But when seven year old Yafya ran, he didn't bother looking behind him, because his parents were right there. They had his back.
Yafya's whole world was lost in that 10 degree blindspot.
They were a normal family, out on a normal day. Years later, Yafya wouldn't even remember what they were doing, or what they were talking about.
All he'd remember was the roar that suddenly shattered the calm atmosphere, and the panic that ensued. And the glimpse of a massive form lashing out with huge claws as his parents told him to run.
So Yafya ran until he couldn't anymore. It wasn't until he stopped that he realized he was alone.
At the time, the grownups didn't bother to really explain what had happened. All they told him was that a large carnivore, a brown bear, had gone berserk and attacked the crowd. No one ever talked about why. But he heard a lot of people talk about the terrible strength and devastation large bears can cause.
For years, people would talk about the Aspen street massacre. Over a dozen injured, 5 killed, and several gun clips emptied before the police were finally able to put the bear down.
Yafya's parents were among the dead, which grownups always seemed to talk about whenever they met him.
Having no other family, the young colt was put into foster care. Due to his good breeding, as he often heard, the government paid a decent stipend for his care.
For some reason, that pissed Yafya off.
But then again, a lot of things pissed Yafya off. But being reminded of what he was ‘worth’, seemed to top the list, right along with how lucky he was to have survived the massacre.
It was also made abundantly clear that neither his ‘worth’, nor their pity translated to actually caring about him. It also turned out that his black coat could hide a lot of bruises, something of which a few foster parents seemed to be acutely aware.
It didn't matter. Nobody cared. He was just labeled as an angry kid that caused problems and got into fights. And the truth was, Yafya was angry. He hated the smelly mattress he slept on. He hated the old hand-me-down clothes he had to wear that never fit, the fact that he was almost always hungry and was never given any fresh produce to eat. He hated the smell the black garbage bag left all over his scant belongings whenever he moved foster homes.
Most of all, he hated his own weakness and inability to do anything about any of it.
The world was cruel and lonely, and to be honest, Yafya was pretty much always looking for an excuse to fight. And didn't really care about what happened to him.
So taking his frustrations out on bullies was a no-brainer. He didn't care how many there were, how big, or if they were herbivores or carnivores.
Whether it was his current foster father bullying the little mule boy who was the other foster kid in the house, or kids on the school yard, he'd jump right in, swinging full force.
So, when he saw a group of older kids throwing rocks and insults at someone who wasn't even fighting back, he didn't hesitate.
“Knock it off!” The pre-teen colt landed a punch directly to a cheetah's face. Before the rest of the kids could react, Yafya swung his leg into the stomach of a teenage boar.
“What the hell?!” A badger snarled and lunged for the horse.
Yafya let loose a flurry of blows. Hitting anyone within reach, and not caring about the minor scratches and bruises he got before the pack of bullies ran.
“That's what I thought! Cowards!” Yafya yelled as he kicked dirt after them.
“I hope he eats you! You freaking psycho!” The boar called back.
Yafya snorted, wiping the sweat and blood from his face. Only once the others were out of sight did he turn his attention to the one they'd been assaulting.
All the horse could make out about them were green scales covering their arms, still shielding their head, and their tail that was wrapped around them as they stayed curled on the ground.
Based on the boar's last comment, it was probably a carnivore. The bullies had included herbivores and carnivores, which was odd.
Oh well.
“Hey, you okay?” Yafya walked over to the cowering reptile.
There was just a muffled whimper.
“They're gone now; you can get up. Are you hurt or anything?” After a moment of nothing but some whining sounds, Yafya reached out to touch the kid's shoulder.
“No! Stay back!” The young reptile pulled away quickly, still covering his face. His voice sounded muddled, like maybe his mouth was bloody.
“I ain't gonna hurt ya. But if you're hurt-”
“It's not that!” He scrambled away again as Yafya, again, tried to reach for one arm to pull it away from his face. “It's my venom!” The reptile turned and finally looked at him, still sitting on the ground and clasping both hands over his mouth. There was clear liquid oozing out between his fingers.
His mouth was full of venom, not blood. And he looked terrified.
“Oh…” Yafya leaned down with his hands on his knees to get a better look. His scales had a few scuffs and scrapes, probably from being hit by rocks, but otherwise he didn't look too hurt. “So…you're a komodo, right?”
“Mmhmm.” He nodded. “And my venom starts to flow really bad when I get upset…”
He wasn't kidding. Yafya had never seen a komodo dragon up close, but he was pretty sure they didn't walk around with venom pouring out of their mouths like a fountain all the time.
“Ok…so you just need to calm down…then we can clean you up.” Yafya looked around.
They were by an underpass that was between the middle school campuses for herbivores and carnivores. The athletic field was just on the other side of the dry canal they were in. Yafya could jump the fence pretty easily.
“Just wait here, I'll be right back…”
“Okay…” The komodo nodded, still looking uncertain and sniffling a little as he tried to keep his venom from spilling out.
Yafya ran as quickly as he could. It took a few minutes, but he returned pretty quickly, considering. The komodo was still huddled on the ground, taking some deep breaths. At least it seemed like he wasn't crying anymore.
“Heads up.” Yafya unceremoniously dumped a bucket of water over the komodo's head. The water was cold but it was a pretty warm summer day. “There. How's that? The water should've diluted the venom right? At least enough that you can walk home?”
The other kid blinked a few times, staring up at the horse. It was kind of hard to tell since he wasn't very familiar with reptiles, but Yafya was pretty sure he was a little older than him.
“I'm Yafya, by the way. I'm a first year in middle school. How ‘bout you?”
“I'm Gosha. A third year.”
“You live around here?”
“Kinda…”
“Do those guys bother you a lot?” He thumbed over his shoulder in the general direction the bullies had fled.
“Not…too often…”
So, yeah.
“Well, you good to get home on your own?”
“Yeah…” He glanced around, “but I better clean this up better…it's not good to leave venom all over the ground.” He stood up carefully.
“Oh…alright, come on. I think I saw another bucket near the spigot by the track.” Yafya gestured and started heading back towards the fence with his bucket.
“You don't have to help!”
“It's fine. Got nothing better to do.” Yafya spared a glance back to see the older kid hesitantly follow after him.
“But, don't you need to get home? It's getting late…”
“Foster family don't actually give a crap. And I don't care if they get pissed.” He shrugged.
“Foster…family…?”
“Yep.”
“Oh…I lost my parents too…”
That made Yafya look back.
“What could happen to venomous carnivores?”
The other boy's head lowered.
“Sorry, stupid question.” Yafya didn't mean it like it sounded.
“It's okay. There was a fire…”
“Sorry.” Yafya could see the question on the reptile's mind, so he went ahead and answered. “Mine were killed in a carnivore attack, years ago.”
All the color drained from Gosha’s green face.
“Don't go gettin’ upset all over again and spilling more venom.” Yafya commented as he started climbing the fence.
“Aren't you…scared…? Being with a carnivore?”
“Nah.” He jumped down on the other side and waited. “If you try to eat me, I'll just kick your ass.”
“I'm a venomous reptile! Don't you understand how dangerous that makes me!”
“And yet, I'm the one who saved you from a bunch of pathetic bullies.” Yafya smirked.
“Well…I didn't want to hurt anyone…”
“Exactly. I think I'm safe. Come on.” He gestured again as he started walking.
Eventually, Gosha did catch up.
“So, you with a foster family or you got other relatives?”
“Not family, exactly…but there are other komodos who knew my parents…I kinda bounce around between their homes. I'm grateful…it's just…not…”
“Like a real home?” Yafya filled in.
Gosha nodded.
They found a second bucket and filled both with water (getting back over the fence with full buckets was easier with the two of them), and they washed the affected area. There was actually visible erosion where the most concentrated venom had dripped.
“Impressive.” Yafya looked up at the komodo and nodded. “I didn't know dragon venom was that potent…”
“Yeah…” Gosha ducked his head. “We gotta be really careful.”
“So it's hard to fight back because you might actually kill someone.”
The dragon nodded again.
“Okay. Well, if those guys mess with you again, I'll just fight ‘em for you.”
“You don't have to do that! It's dangerous! What if you get hurt?”
Yafya shrugged as he stood up. “I'm pretty tough. Which way you headin’?”
Gosha gestured.
“Alright, I can walk that way for a little ways.”
They ended up chatting on the way home. Yafya had never really talked to a carnivore before. Well, he didn't really talk with anyone very often. Yet with Gosha, it just felt…easy.
After that, Yafya made it a point to be on the lookout for the komodo and his bullies. It turned out, there was more than just the one group. Over the course of just a few weeks, Yafya learned that it wasn't uncommon for random animals that didn't even know Gosha to be rude or even throw rocks at the ‘dangerous venomous monster’ just for being near them.
Yafya had no idea that kind of treatment was so common for animals like Gosha.
“Why don't you just hang out with other komodos? There have to be some at your school?” Yafya asked one afternoon, fresh bruises on his knuckles and face after getting into a fist fight with two third year bovines for dumping ice water on Gosha.
Stupid jocks.
Now they were sitting in the sun so Gosha could dry off and warm up.
“There are a few others…I just…don't want to…”
“They jerks, or something?”
“No…it's not that…”
Yafya looked over at the dragon. He was a little lethargic because of the ice water, but this seemed like a little more. “What is it?”
Gosha looked at him with a nervous expression. “It's just…as a komodo, because of the way we're treated…everyone just expects me to…live a certain life. Most komodo in the city do…because there is safety in numbers…”
Yafya wasn't stupid. Or ignorant. They lived in a pretty shitty neighborhood, not too far from the back alley market.
“They want you to join the Dokugumi, right?”
Very slowly, Gosha nodded.
“So why don't you want to? You'd be protected, right?” The horse snorted. “And you are a carnivore. You'll have to use the back alleys eventually, right?”
Gosha's eyes went wide. And his face turned a paler shade of green. He suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth
Yafya rolled his eyes, taking off his shirt and handing it to the dragon. “Use this. It's already torn pretty bad.”
“Thanks…” Gosha tentatively took the shirt and dabbed his mouth dry.
“It's not like I don't know how the world is.” Yafya stated plainly. He had no illusions that the carnivore next to him would be some sort of anomaly or pillar of righteousness and never turn to eating meat.
“I know…but I don't want it to be that way.” Gosha sighed. “I don't wanna eat meat. But even more than that…I don't wanna have to fight in stupid, endless gang wars…” There was a low growling undertone to Gosha's words. There was real anger there. The kind that comes from hurt.
Yafya recognized that kind of hurt.
“Is that…what started the fire?”
Gosha's head lowered. “Yeah. My folks were Dokugumi. There was a turf war. They were fighting in this old warehouse. Maybe a shot hit the old wiring or something, but the place caught fire.” He sighed. “It took forever for the fire department to even show up, and when they did…well, they were worried komodo venom would corrode their protective gear…”
“So, they just left your parents to die?!”
Gosha shrugged. “My mom ran in to try and get my dad ‘cuz she knew no one else would…but the smoke must've got to her…I dunno if either of them were alive by the time the firemen went in…but they pulled out some of the other animals that were there, and they lived…but all the komodos were left.”
“I'm…sorry. That's beyond messed up.”
Gosha shrugged. “Our venom is dangerous. It can burn through clothes…” He held up Yafya's shirt, which now had sizzling holes in it. “I can't really blame the firefighters for not wanting to risk themselves even more…”
“But still…” Yafya shook his head. “There has to be material that would be resistant to stuff like your venom. Why don't they use that, or treat the firemen's suits somehow so they won't erode?! I swear, grownups are stupid! They don't even try to fix problems that should be easy!”
Gosha just…smiled at him.
“Why aren't you more angry!?” Yafya spread his arms wide as if gesturing to the world at large.
“I am angry. But that's why…I want to do something different…maybe when I grow up, I'll be a fireman. Or design new materials that won't corrode as easily…or work in construction so buildings are safer…or something.”
Yafya stared for a minute, then a small smile tugged at his lips, for the first time in who knew how long. “Yeah…maybe we can do something to actually make a difference.” He snorted, almost amused by the idea.
“You definitely can!”
The komodo's bold declaration made Yafya stare at him again. “Huh?”
“You're an herbivore, but you actually bother to help…well, someone like me. There's a lot you could do!”
Yafya scoffed. “I dunno about that.” Yafya definitely didn't see himself as a hero or a particularly good or righteous person. He wasn't even a very good student. All he was good at was fighting. But the least he could do was throw his fists at those who were hurting others. But how much could a single horse really do?
*
Months went by. Summer turned to fall. The fairs grew shorter. And yet Gosha found himself spending more and more time with the younger black horse.
Yafya was a good fighter, but it didn't take long for the komodo to realize there was a lot of pain and anger behind his actions, or to realize that he didn't seem to value his own life very much.
He never hesitated to jump into a fight, no matter who it was against.
A couple high school moose harassing a girl? Yafya did give them a warning, but when one guy shoved him against a wall, he came back swinging. It didn't matter that he was half their size. Once the girl ran off, at least he was willing to run when Gosha ran in and grabbed his hand to pull him away.
But one day, they came across a group of canines that were beating up a much smaller fox behind a convenient store. Before Gosha could think, Yafya was landing a flying kick to the back of a dingo.
These were not school kids. These were adults. And they were pissed, and ready to take chunks out of the young herbivore, if not worse.
Gosha's tail connected with the right side of a jackal's face as he lunged for the back of Yafya's neck while the colt was dodging a coyote's claws. Pulling Yafya back from the fray, the komodo spun around to face the group, fangs bared, venom dripping.
“You damn punks!” The wild dog snarled.
Gosha wiped his mouth and flicked a bit of venom at his feet. The drop that landed on the canine's shoe sizzled.
“Oh shit!”
Gosha gathered more venom on his fingers with a hiss.
They ran.
So did the fox.
“Wow…you're a badass!” Yafya chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder, while he still had venom on his claws. “Thanks for having my back.” The horse smiled at him and casually walked off. “Come on, let's go wash up.”
Even after seeing him fight, the young horse still wasn't scared of the komodo. Not even a little.
From that day on, Gosha never hesitated to jump into a fight right alongside Yafya. He didn't want to use his venom on anyone, but sometimes just the threat was enough. But for good measure, he started practicing how to fight so he wouldn't need to rely on his venom.
Yafya trained and even sparred with him. They'd spend hours after school running around, building endurance, and practicing moves. It was actually kind of fun. They even started doing these breathing techniques they'd seen on tv that's supposed to help martial artists stay calm and in control during a fight.
Yafya thought it might help Gosha control his venom. Gosha thought it might help Yafya control his temper.
And it seemed to work, for both of them.
Gosha found that he wasn't getting upset as easily and his venom wouldn't start pouring out of his mouth nearly as readily. And Yafya…seemed…happier. Lighter. Not always looking for a fight, and actually willing to just relax sometimes.
It got to where they were spending all of their free time together. Sometimes they'd even do their homework, though it wasn't either of their strong suits. And sometimes, especially when it was raining or really cold outside, they'd just go to the public library and read manga where no one would bother them.
It was nice, but it was hard to ignore the fact that Yafya never wanted to go home. He didn't really talk about it, but it wasn't hard to piece together that his foster father was cruel. But he said it wasn't the worst foster home he'd had, which was its own kind of disturbing.
Gosha's homelife, if you could call it that, wasn't bad. No one was technically his legal guardian, so nowhere was technically his home. He was already enrolled in middle school when his folks died. For high school, he was sure someone would sign his transfer papers. But there was a pretty set culture in his community that Dokugumi take care of their own, and don't involve the government or anyone outside their community.
That meant no legal adoption, foster care, or any official paperwork that required government oversight. He was just invited to stay with different members of the gang. He pretty much had free range. Reptiles tend to expect their youth to be pretty independent, so no one seemed to think it was strange. He'd just go wherever he felt like he wasn't being a bother. And no one really kept tabs; if he wasn't at their house by a certain time, they just assumed he was at someone else's.
Which meant it wasn't a big deal for him to stay out with Yafya as late as he wanted. Which also helped him avoid the individuals who were pressuring him to join the gang. That wasn't the life that he wanted, and as naive as it may have been, hanging out with Yafya, it actually felt like he could choose a different life.
And he wanted to hold onto that, for as long as he could.