No time for Goodbyes
Kei and Tadashi have been friends for a few years now. Since that day where Kei helped him, they had been close. Tadashi following him around pestering him until they became friends (not that Kei didn't mind).
You see, he was intrigued by the boy, the "freckles" on his face glittered and seemed blinding to him while no one else seemed to notice. No one else seemed to care. (not that Kei cared) And his hair looked really soft and floofy but Kei couldn't bring himself to run his fingers through and find out. And his eyes were bright, so so bright. They sparkled and glowed and were everything his own eyes weren't.
Kei didn't understand why is belly fluttered whenever Tadashi looked over at him. Why his heart beat that much faster whenever Tadashi spoke. Why he wanted to reach out and hold him whenever he stood close. Kei didn't understand.
As he grew older he dismissed these feelings as nothing, maybe a side effect of befriending an elf. I mean, he had never even spoken to one before, let alone formed an emotional attachment to one, so that was probably it.
They were happy in those years spent together. Almost every waking hour in each others company, from the sun glaring high in the sky until the moon glowed above them. When they were little they played silly games, Tadashi not needing to persuade Kei to play. They ran under the sky, playing chase and moonball and sundash.
When they grew a little older they started to compare notes on schoolwork, complain about teachers and laugh about classmates. They wished they were in the same class.
They had fun.
And then Kei started his moon cycle.
He was locked away in the darkness, unable to come out for weeks on end. Everyday Tadashi would wait at their bench, hoping today it would be over and they could be together.
The moon cycle was painful, any Goblin would tell you. Your skin stretches and distorts, peeling away and regrowing at different rates. Your eyes felt like spikes everytime you blinked and painted strange colours across your sight, dropping and changing making you dizzy and sick. You nails grow, toughen and sharpen becoming stronger but bleeding greatly as the previous nails have to fall off to inhibit this change. Everything is sore and bruised as you pray you make it out alive.
And then just when you think it's all over, the horns push through.
They break through the bone, remodeling your skull, elonggating and creaking as they force their way through. Ripped skin blistering and painful, spewing the thick red liquid. Blood runs down into your eyes, dripping everywhere as you writhe in agony. You beg to pass out, to let the pain overwhelm you to the point where you no longer have to feel it. But by this point your body is stronger and you have to endure it awake. Painfully aware of every spike in this torturous cycle.
Each cycle varies in length, some taking days while others months. A Moon Goblin could easily die during this process, but if they survive their strength increases almost ten-fold. [Some even try to chemically engineer a second wave to become even stronger, so far none have survived the process and the experiments were promptly banned by the ruling monarchy. Any found practising this cruel process would be arrested and thrown into prison to rot.]
Kei's cycle lasted 7 weeks, 2 days and 4 hours. He was left immoblie for 3 days afterwards, his family fearing for his life. When Kei finally emerged from his room no one realised what was wrong, preoccupied by the fact that he hadn't perished in the process. It took several weeks until his brother noticed, face paling as he realised why Kei seemed to still be in pain.
The Tsukishimas moved out not long after, moving far north to the cold embrace of the goblin homeland.
Kei never even got to say goodbye.
Tadashi stopped waiting at the bench.