Shy but chaotic

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OLD ARC 1

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ARC 1

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

EPILOGUE

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ARC 2

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

EPILOGUE

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ARC 3

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4.5

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5.5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6.5

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

EPILOGUE

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Art/Fanart/writings and Asks

Continuing to stand here wouldn’t make that any better.

“Yeah, you are right, I’d better bring these to him, hey you wanna try planting one too?”

I separated about five of the plants and held them towards him as he nodded. 

He gently took them and started putting his tools away.

“Well, i’ll be off then, good luck with the plants and see you later”

He waved and put a few more stones around the perimeter of the garden before continuing to put his stuff back in the toolbox he got from Barsen.

Speaking of Barsen, where was he anyway?

While he had the habit of finding everything in the Garden it was a nightmare to search for him as he sometimes just disappeared into the greenery.

Well, I still didn’t want these to wilt so I’d better find him.

Going methodical might be best here, so I would go back and see if he was near the rock anywhere.

He’d been there last i saw him, and it was likely he’d go back there to collect the plants he asked for.

And I hoped that at this point he finally went to get the wheelbarrow repaired.

Ducking under a branch back into the unobstructed space next to the rock I could see him, so I had been right.

He did come back to collect the plants he asked for, and this time he was not carrying a wheelbarrow on his shoulders.

He turned to face me before i could draw any attention to myself, Once again a bit eerie but he was the gardener and probably knew what made the different sounds in the underbrush.

He smiled when he saw me and the bluebells I was carrying with me and I gently passed them along when I reached him, but instead of once again disappearing like he did so often he looked at me with a serious face.

Uh oh, did I do something wrong?

Did I step on some prized plant as an Ardua?

But it appeared that I was wrong in that aspect.

“There is someone in the main hall that knows your name, your entire name, and he asked to speak to you.

He’s waiting somewhere in front of the throne for you, you better hurry i have no idea how long he’ll actually wait”

Someone that knew my name? My full name at that?

The only ones who I had told that were Robin, Arthur and Rikaad.

So who the fuck waltzed in here with the knowledge of my name?

Well, there was only one way to find out, and I couldn’t deny that I was curious as to who this person was.

And also ask how they knew my name, because that was very weird.

I knew I had not told anyone my name as there really wasn’t much opportunity to since Fae blooded people were basically hunted for sport.

Maybe it was an estranged uncle or something?

After all, claiming to be related to a Fae Bastard was not something people would have freely admitted just a month ago.

Still wouldn’t really.

But if the guy wanted to freeload on the fact that i lived in the castle i would tell him to fuck off.

I now had people that liked me for who I was and not because I was rich or whatever.

I wasn’t even rich either, the only thing I got here was shelter and the occasional sweet treat from the kitchen.

Well, feeding something the size of an Ardua would get fucking expensive really quick so it was good that i could live off of sunlight.

But there were still things I could not resist, like cinnamon bread.

The loaves made by the Castle were really good though.

Speaking of Castle there it was, including the, at least in my opinion, stupidly oversized door.

So the guy that knew my name was in there, I briefly wondered what he would look like but since I was about to go see for myself that wasn’t necessary.

Going in I could see that the room was almost empty, safe for Norrin who was talking to Rikaad and a few other Guards in one of the corners.

And of course the man Barsen had said that he knew my full name.

He wasn’t facing me, he was facing the throne instead and I could see he was tall and had long off-white hair.

Since I couldn’t see his face I couldn’t tell how old he was, but he seemed to be fit, an archer perhaps? Or a dancer?

Maybe the off-white hair threw me out of the loop a bit.

But I could also tell that he was tall, very much so, taller than Rikaad even.

I’d guess he was at least six foot something and he was clad in a weirdly sewn green tunic that had leaves embroidered on the upper part of the sleeves and light beige pants with sturdy boots.

So that was the guy that knew my name and wanted to see me, Well, I’d better greet him then.

“Hello, are you the one that wanted to see me?”

The man turned around and suddenly I wished Barsen would have told me beforehand that this was an Elf, an actual one and not a Bastard.

His pointy ears were even longer than mine so there was no doubt about that, and now it made sense why he was so tall too.

The strangest thing about him however was that he was the palest person i had ever seen and possessed a pair of red eyes that looked like dull rubies.

An albino then, huh, but on top of that he looked eerily like one of those expensive porcelain dolls that Noble children sometimes had.

Something was off about him though, but I couldn’t say what, just an inherent sense that something was weird about him.

His movements were graceful, but seemed overly practiced and his face was like an emotionless mask even as he smiled.

A perfectly symmetrical smile that did not reach his eyes and seemed almost painted on with practice.

He opened his arms in what was probably meant to be a welcoming gesture but to me it still seemed strangely puppet like and practiced.

Then he spoke in a calm and melodious voice, still smiling that weird and a bit unnerving smile of his.

“Hello little Brother”

“If you ever feel like stuff gets too much you can come to me and I’ll try my best to make time and help you, Does that sound good to you?”

He was silent for a bit and I worried if he even heard me but before I could repeat he finally spoke.

“That- you don’t have to do that, i can- i can deal with this myself”

He was clearly apprehensive about the offer and trying to disappear in one of the folds of my pouch.

“Well yeah, I guess so, but you don’t Have to deal with this alone.

Look, I’ve lived a majority of my life alone and I can tell you that needing help isn’t a bad thing, hell I would have loved to have had help sometimes.

I know what it’s like dealing with stuff alone and I think it sucks, Nobody should have to be alone when they need help.

Besides, I’m just offering you that if you do need help you can come to me and I’ll do my best to help and make time for you.

And now that we are at the castle i doubt i’ll have much to do anyway”

I patiently waited for his response, he didn’t HAVE to answer now though, He could take as much time as he needed.

And for whatever Reason, which I was going to blame the Ardua Bracelet on, being able to protect him like this felt right.

While he was there nothing could get to him unless it got through me first, literally.

And there was no way a spider could sneak in, so he didn’t have to worry about his phobia either.

He could just, relax and let someone else do everything, maybe that’s exactly what he had needed.

“Donovan? I don’t think i have enough brainpower to think about that today, Is it okay if I answer some other time?”

“Of course, take as much time as you need, i’m not going anywhere, at least not without you”

Adding a bit of humor at the end wouldn’t hurt right?

Besides he wasn’t feeling the best right now so maybe it would cheer him up a little bit at least.

He just snuggled deeper into my pouch and i had to keep from emitting a pleased hum, man, fuck those Ardua instincts.

This was NOT about me right now!

This was to help Robin, nothing else.

I carefully positioned myself so that my Pouch was shielded from all sides by my limbs and only my back and head were exposed to the night air.

This pose did have a lot of similarities to the loaf form I had taken earlier that day.

Now nothing could get to him, not even near him without me knowing.

Though, my self control really was being tested today wasn’t it?

For whatever godforsaken reason Robin had started rubbing the inside of my pouch, likely spaced out again even if I couldn’t see him.

The sensation practically made me melt like warm butter and I had to really fight to keep from letting out a delighted hum.

I did not want to startle him with a random sound, not when he finally wasn’t trembling anymore.

Instead I just froze on the spot, not moving aside from my tail swinging from side to side.

Then he started to knead into the walls even more.

************************************************************************

Robin had been right, this was helping.

He was just lying in a soft and dim room where the only noises he could hear, aside from Donovan speaking,

were the rhythmic whooshing of the lungs that somehow reminded him of a distant breeze through trees and the steadily thumping Heart that sent blood to every part of the Arduas body.

It was strangely soothing to be surrounded by something alive that had promised to never hurt him and listen to the muted sounds his body made just by being alive.

He briefly wondered why he had two hearts if only one was doing its job already so well, but he was a hybrid so things probably didn’t have to make sense.

And for some reason he actually felt safe in here, logically he shouldn’t, He knew that, but he also knew Donovan wouldn’t hurt him.

He’d promised that back when they were still in the forest, and he doubted he’d break that promise.

He was half Fae, and Fae was bound to their promises.

Somehow he didn’t think that the Fae thing was what made him keep this promise.

And after his… outburst, his energy was sapped, The soft and warm walls didn’t help that either.

He was more comfortable than he’d been in, well, ever, and the texture of the walls was like silk, if silk was even smoother and slightly damp.

Not that he minded that, at all.

And it was so, so soft.

Robin couldn’t help leaning into them and rubbing his hands over the surroundings just to feel how his fingers went over the smooth walls.

The texture really was like the smoothest silk had ever touched, if not better, so he steadily moved his hands over it from left to right, As well as up and down.

That got a reaction, the walls around him twitched in surprise for a second.

Robin huffed and rubbed at the wall again, causing the room around him to rumble and a new sound to surround him.

Donovan was purring… That was kind of adorable.

Encouraged by that nice sound that made his bones thrum, Robin pressed his hand to the wall and started rubbing in a circular motion, now with both hands, turning Donovan’s stilted vocalization into a steady purr.

Should he mention it?

They were all new to this, maybe it was something he wanted to know?

Besides, the sound was relaxing and made his bones buzz slightly.

He liked the sound, Donovan really was like a big cat in his Ardua form.

He decided to mention it and tell him that he liked the sound.

“You are purring”

************************************************************************

“You are purring”

What? What did the little ginger mean? I wasn’t a cat, I couldn’t purr, What was he talking about?

“No im not”

But even as i said this i became aware of the fact that there was a sound that DID sound a lot like purring, and the sound was coming from me.

“Yes you are,you’re doing it right now!”

He yawned as he said this and resumed kneading his tiny hands into the walls.

Damnit.

I really should ask Oakley if I could take a look at the book he mentioned.

“Go sleep already, i can tell you’re tired, and you just had kind of a bad time you should rest”

He yawned again and snuggled into one of the walls of my pouch.

“Hmmkay, i do like the purring though, its relaxing”

He did? Well, since there was no one else around I guessed I could just continue?

If the sound was calming for him maybe it’d help?

While I doubted that he was still shaken from his earlier panic, having some soothing background noise would probably be nice for him.

And I had to admit that this was actually pretty comfortable, somehow.

I was still lying on a rock outside at night while I had a living breathing human person IN my pouch.

Though while he was sleepily snuggled up in one of the folds of my pouch he was still absent mindedly running his hands over the flesh there.

Yeah, continuing to purr was not a problem like this.

Though he went slower and slower, likely falling asleep.

And somehow this was relaxing enough that I also got tired.

Well, it had been a long day, a weird one too, Now it was time for some peace and quiet, Fuck knew both of us needed that after the weird weeks we had.

I yawned and then felt Robin roll over, sleepily mumbling something and then curling up.

While I was kind of disappointed that the internal massage stopped, I was glad that he finally fell asleep, It was late and I knew he was not a morning person.

My own eyelids growing heavy, I let my head dip down to rest on the ground,

using one of my paws as a pillow and falling asleep content with the knowledge that my Friend was safe, even from his own fears.

At some point during the night I was briefly awoken by a rustling sound.

What now? I was tired, whoever this was could pester me with their bullshit tomorrow!

Still, I should probably make sure that this wasn’t a threat.

Looking over to where the sound came from I could see another silhouette stumbling over some bushes.

Oh, wait, in the dim moonlight I could actually see who it was after my eyes had adjusted.

It was Arthur, and he was stumbling his way over to me.

Man his eyes must have not adapted to the dark with how he kept bumping into things, then again it might be possible that Ardua just had better night vision.

Then he walked past me towards the cliff.

Oh fuck no.

I stood up as fast as I could while still being mindful of my worn out passenger.

I managed to snag the back of his shirt with a claw before he just walked off of the cliff.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

Then I noticed it.

His face was flushed pink, like a lot so, he must have had a few too many alcoholic beverages.

Goddamnit, I knew what I was doing when I avoided anything alcoholic.

And it was a good thing that i had been out here and woken up when i heard him.

He could be dead by now, impaled by one of the spikes or drowned in the ocean far below.

That was a very frightening thought, one I did not dare entertain further.

But fucking hell, how much did he have intus?

Well, i’d say not my problem but apparently it was now since it was clear he did not know what he was doing.

I’d better make sure he would not run off again, or worse, and potentially kill himself.

I used a claw to hook his shirt and drag him back to the spot I had been in before but he wiggled out of it with some slurred speech that I had no hope of understanding.

Well, the hard way it was then, I grabbed the back of his shirt with my teeth and dragged him like that.

I did not plan on swallowing him though, he’d only disturb Robin and that was the last thing I wanted.

Speaking of the ginger, I could feel him sleepily shifting and hoped he wouldn’t wake up.

Also he was drunk as fuck, that could be actually dangerous, for both of us as he could injure someone.

Also I doubted he’d appreciate that.

So I carried him by the scruff like a kitten and went back to settling where I was before.

I carefully set him down between my arms and made sure he could not escape, but instead of trying to get out and leave he just settled in the crook of my arm which I had previously used as a pillow.

He was just lying there but before I could ask him anything he shoved a hand against the side of my head and slurred out something barely coherent.

“No, shut up”

Well, i didn’t mind him there, but if he puked on me or disturbed Robin somehow i would put him in a tree.

But I did hope that this was it for nightly disturbances, I needed sleep too.

Settling my head on my arm again I made sure that Arthur couldn’t just get up and wander off.

I did not want him falling of the cliff in his intoxicated state, that would be horrible.

And he kind of already tried to do that sooo, this was for the better.

Checking one last time that he wouldn’t wander off and that Robin was still comfortable in my pouch I rested my head and finally went back to sleep.

And if someone else decided they would wake me in the middle of the night I would chuck them through a castle window.

Luckily I was not disturbed again and could just sleep through the night and into the morning where I got woken by a very confused Arthur who did not remember how he got there.

Yeah, this was gonna be fun.

And now I actually had friends.

Friends that did not mind me being a weird shape shifting Fae Bastard.

Though the fact that I could eat people was probably not something we would talk about, aside from Robin maybe.

But the little rusthead did end up taking my offer of helping when he had a bad brain day.

From this point onward things could only get better, and as soon as Rikaad found that stupid paperwork I could also go to the city and explore without being immediately executed.

I’d wait for a few weeks though, just to be sure that everyone got the memo.

But it was nice to finally know that things would get better, and not just for me, with Rikaad as king it would get better for everyone.

Yeah, I was looking forward to that future.

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It had been a week now since we had started living at the castle, and the protruding rock on the cliffside had quickly become one of my favorite places.

It was a nice sunspot too, as confirmed by a cat that had showed up sometime and then refused to leave.

I liked the cat, it somehow had no fear of me and even tried to groom my fur.

At some point I even followed it for an entire day as lots of people had said I looked cat like I thought I’d go and see what an actual cat did all day, That had been fun, and now I had a feline friend that sometimes showed up and tried to clean my fur.

While i had spent time with the cat Rikaad had found the papers that dictated how much taxes had to be paid by the citizens.

He was righteously angry at finding out that the wealthy people only had to pay two percent taxes while the poorer people had to pay up to ten or even more.

He immediately put it at five percent for everyone as he thought that rich people should not have to pay less than poor people who sometimes couldn’t even afford to eat, In the end he made it so that everyone had to pay the same percentage.

In his words everyone was worth the same, and that poorer people had to pay for everything while the rich just kept getting richer was not fair.

Of course some of the rich fucks complained while the rest of the citizens cheered.

He then told the rich fucks that complained that they could leave if they wanted, but they had to leave their stuff behind and were not allowed to take what was considered ‘kingdom property’ whatever the fuck that meant.

Sometime after that the funeral for the old king was held, almost nobody attended and i had stayed behind with Robin while Rikaad and Arthur went even if they didn’t really want to.

To be completely honest I really hadn’t wanted to see the corpse of the old git that was majorly responsible for a lot of Misery, and not just my own at that.

Instead I had Worked to renovate the shed for my Ardua form with Robin, that had been fun.

Another day I had helped Barsen out in the garden. 

He had asked for help in uprooting a tree that had rotted from inside out and was a safety hazard as it was near a frequently used pathway and could fall on someone.

I had ended up dragging the thing that was longer than I was tall to one of the walls where it was out of the way, maybe they’d use it as firewood sometime.

And best of all was that now that it was warm again all the flowers had come back in full bloom.

I could only applaud Barsen as the Garden looked absolutely stunning with all the colors.

And Robin made flower crowns with whatever he was allowed to pluck, which meant he befriended Barsen on the basis of talking about plants.

Barsen had even complimented Robin’s name as apparently he was named after his favorite bird which I found a funny coincidence.

While there were a lot of flowers in the garden, not a lot of them were blue simply due to the fact the old king had not liked the color, maybe because it reminded him of Maringand.

But there was one place where i had seen a speck of blue petals, Which led to where I was now.

Standing in front of the cliff near the rock and looking at the spike with the tree on it.

I could see something blue right next to it and I wanted to get it.

Not for me of course, but I wanted to get them for Robin so he could make a blue flower crown.

He said he wanted to, so I’d try and make it possible.

“Mrow?”

At the sound I looked to my right where a cream colored cat with rusty ‘boots’ and tail sat, She was looking as disapproving as a cat could.

“Don’t look at me like that, i know this is a bad idea, but i want to do something nice for my friend”

She just blinked and then walked away, clearly signifying ‘not my problem’.

Eh, whatever, it would be fine, I had practiced jumping just for this and I wanted to get to the flowers before they wilted.

I didn’t even know what kind they were so it was possible that they wouldn’t bloom for long.

Taking a few more steps back until I felt a tree behind me, I made myself ready to sprint like I had learned from the cat.

We should find her a name sometime.

Before I could start to sprint though I was interrupted by a now familiar voice.

“What are you planning to do?”

I looked over to Barsen and saw him standing there with a broken wheelbarrow on his shoulder, he really should get that replaced.

“You already know that anyway, ’m trying to get to the spike with the tree and get those blue plants”

“if you are sure you can jump that far, just make sure to be careful, and bring me a few with roots while you’re at it, i might be able to plant them somewhere safer”

I nodded at him and he carried on with whatever he was doing, hopefully finally bringing that wheelbarrow to get repaired as he had it like that since i’ve known him.

Making sure there was nothing in the way, I readied my muscles and pelted over the ground towards the abyss that was the end of the cliff and jumped at the last moment, feeling the edge crumble under me, and near flying through the air towards the spike with the tree.

I landed perfectly with all four legs on the little island right next to the tree.

The flat top of the spike itself was shaped like a malformed and bent teardrop with the tree in the larger part of it.

But now that I was finally here I could see all the blue flowers, They were bluebells, pretty big ones too.

Robin would love these, so I shifted back into my human form and plucked as many as I could, half of them with the roots still attached like Barsen had requested.

I still left a sizable patch of them so they could regrow next year.

Gathering the flowers in a bundle I went a few steps away to shift back into Ardua form.

As soon as I did that i encountered a problem though, I had brought nothing to carry the flowers, maybe the cat had been right about looking at me like that.

Well, maybe I could carry them in my mouth?

I’ve carried stuff like that before and as long as I was careful not to squish them it should be fine, right?

Welp, only one way to find out, so i put them in my mouth and went to the edge of the spike opposite from the cliff face to get as much runway as i could.

Making sure that I wouldn’t squish the flowers I ran across the limited space and jumped back to the cliff.

Landing with my forelegs on the cliff I tried to heave myself up before the rest of my body followed and failed as my hind legs tried to find purchase on nothing and almost fell down till I could put my claws into the wall of the cliff and hold on like that.

Well, that was really fucking close.

Climbing up the little distance I had slid down I was back onto solid ground.

Only to have the cat stare at me.

I just looked at her with an annoyed expression and walked past her, making sure not to step on her, she really was tiny compared to me so i had no idea why she wasn’t afraid of me.

Well, at least I didn’t have to worry about spooking her on accident with my size as long as I was careful.

Now to bring these plants where they belonged, carefully getting them out of my mouth I shrank back into human form,

sorting the flowers by which ones had roots or not.

Finding Robin was easy, There weren’t many spots he hung out and I knew for a fact that he was currently at Oakleys tower planting some herbs that he found out the winged man liked.

No idea how he managed to though.

Oakley himself wasn’t there at the moment as he was busy sorting through his old stuff in the run down hut he lived in before, throwing everything he didn’t need away and bringing the useful stuff here.

Yep, there he was, making a little space for Oakleys plants and pouring new dirt in a neatly stone enclosed patch.

“Robin! Hey! Looks good, i bet Oakley is gonna love it”

He turned his head to me and I could see a very big grin on his slightly smudged face, he probably scratched his nose with his dirt stained fingers.

“You think so? Oh wait, where did you get those?”

He had jumped up as soon as he saw the bluebells I was carrying and I held a bundle upside down in his direction which he gladly took only to sit down and immediately weave them into crowns.

Yep, as expected, and judging by the wide smile on his face he was very happy about finally having some blue ones to work with.

“Where did you find those? Did you go out and search for them?”

Of course, he HAD to ask, and now i had to tell him that i jumped over the cliff to that spike.

I couldn’t lie after all, but maybe I could omit a few things.

“I got them from that spike with the tree, but don’t worry i practiced jumping and as you can see im fine”

I would not tell him that I almost slid off when jumping back.

“If you are sure, but you don’t have to do something so dangerous for me!”

“Eh Barsen wanted some too, with roots of course, see?”

I held up the bundle that had the roots still attached.

“Oh, that’s nice, but maybe you should bring them to him before they dry out and wilt?”

Looking at the flowers he was probably right, some of them had bent a little too much while I had transported them and I had no idea which ones were good to replant and which ones weren’t.

Barsen could probably waltz into any room of the castle and nobody would deem him a threat.

Because he wasn't one, He was just the gardener and tended to all plants here, including the ones inside the castle even if those were just potted flowers and the like.

“Say how do you like the celebration party?

They throw one any chance they get so after a while its just boring”

He was probably right, being at a party was fun but at some point it was enough, also i was pretty sure the music had gotten even louder.

Looking over I was pretty sure some of the musicians were slightly inebriated.

“Well i liked the long yellow fruit”

It had been tasty, and cinnamon bread was something I already knew.

“The Banana?”

That surely wasn’t its name, was it?

“That’s what it’s called? Really?”

“Really, they grow on palm trees in bundles like grapes”

I just stared at him, I didn’t think he was making stuff up as he took his job seriously but at the same time the yellow fruit got more ridiculous by the minute.

Well he’d know better than me, I was no expert on plants.

But if they did grow on palm trees it was no wonder I had never seen one before, palm trees were more tropical plants as far as i knew.

Why was I thinking about the semantics of a damn plant anyway?

Man, my brain felt slightly foggy.

Maybe one of the many treats I ate contained some alcohol after all.

Also it was loud as fuck in here and stupidly warm too.

I’d get some fresh air after I found Rikaad.

Where was he anyway?

“Hey, have you seen Rikaad? Uh i mean the new King, I wanted to talk to him”

He was probably still guilty about the stabbing thing so I wanted to let him know that Oakley fixed it.

“Hmm, well i saw him last in the corner with the big punch bowl, i’m not entirely sure how coherent you’ll meet him though”

Eh, good enough, and knowing him he wouldn’t have had too many drinks.

“Really? Thank you! I’ll head over then, see you around”

He waved and went back to, well whatever he was doing before.

So Rikaad was in one of the corners that had a big bowl.

There were only four corners so that technically shouldn't take that long.

And one of the corners was occupied by the musicians that somehow managed to get even louder to cover the happy and drunk howling of some of the guests.

So that left three other corners to check.

And only two of them contained tables, so I only had to go through half the room.

Walking to the corner that was closest meant I wouldn’t have to walk through much of a crowd, a crowd that had gotten increasingly drunk over the course of the late evening.

Not the most pleasant company to be honest, but I bore it and did my best to avoid any sort of smalltalk from the inebriated patrons.

Weaving through the people was at least something I was already familiar with from my time on the street so I managed to not bump into anyone till I reached the corner.

No Rikaad here, hmm, but there was a plate of more cinnamon bread.

Yoinking one I went back to weaving through the crowd to get to the other corner while munching on the tasty bread.

hopefully Rikaad was still there and hadn’t left for some other table.

Oh wait, there he was, talking to Norrin who was pouring himself some of the punch with a ladle that looked way too fancy for my tastes.

Norrin just waved and gave a thumbs up as he saw me and I noticed that his face was slightly flushed pink, he’d had some of the punch for sure.

Whatever, it surely wasn’t bad if he still managed to hold a conversation.

Rikaad shoved his cup away, a cup that I was pretty sure contained alcohol that he didn’t want to drink judging by the face he’d made when he looked at it.

“Hello Donovan, how do you like the music?”

Back to smalltalk huh, not exactly my favorite part of a conversation.

Well, Norrin was here and until he left neither of us could talk about what we actually wanted.

“I think it’s Loud, like a bit too much so, but i’m gonna go outside later anyway”

The obnoxious music certainly wasn’t helping my brain defog and some fresh air would be nice.

At least the musicians could actually play the instruments, and where some of the better ones I’d heard.

Thankfully Norrin decided to leave at that moment.

“Maybe I can ask them to tune it down? I’ll be back in a bit”

He went up to the opposite corner to try and talk to the musicians.

I immediately turned back to Rikaad after making sure nobody else was within earshot.

“Uhh, well, about the stabbing thing;

Oakley managed to help me so it’s all good now, he used some magic paste or whatever it was so the stitches are gone too”

I didn’t tell him that Oakley had to rip them out, he didn’t need to know and besides it was good now, no pain no wound just like before.

Beides, hearing that what he had done in an effort to help me turned out to be dangerous just because he used the wrong items wouldn’t help.

Even if it had hurt as hell when they got ripped out.

I could see him slightly untense at the information and I hoped he would stop feeling so guilty about it.

“So you are okay now? No lasting damage?”

I nodded my head at his questions.

“No, I’m good, don’t worry, I just wanted to tell you that I’m fine now so you can stop dwelling on it.

Now you have fun at this party, i’m going outside for some fresh air, It's way too loud in here and the temperature is not helping my brain to stay focused and i wanna leave before i do something dumb or embarrassing”

“Your face does look a bit pink, just make sure you don’t fall of the cliff and avoid any Guards you don’t know, i’m not sure if everyone has gotten the information yet that you are a friend”

I nodded at him, I had planned to go back into the Ardua form and sleep on the rock Barsen showed us anyway, Since the shed was still a bit dusty and I had no idea how to navigate the castle, Nevermind that I had no idea which rooms were occupied and which ones were free.

As for falling off the cliff, I wasn’t THAT stupid and the atmosphere here was still somewhat tolerable for me, It literally was just a tiny bit too warm and loud that put a slight fog over my brain.

“I’m not that feeling that bad, it’s just a bit too loud and the air a bit too stale for my tastes, i’ll be fine, oh and if you see Robin tell him i’m back outside by the rock”

“of course, i’ll let him know should i see him”

At his affirmation that he’d tell Robin he saw me I left to go outside again.

As soon as the cool air hit my face I felt immediately better and the fog in my mind cleared.

After all, I was just a bit overwhelmed with that many people in one room, not to mention the overly loud music and way too many people heating up the room just by being there.

Eh, whatever, I already felt better and I wasn’t going to go back inside.

I decided that such events weren’t my thing. 

Aside from the tasty food, There wasn’t much to do anyway and I barely knew anyone.

Walking a few steps away from the castle so I was sure I wouldn’t bump into anything I twisted the gem on the bracelet and was promptly back in the Ardua form,

Shaking the stiffness out from my limbs.

Yeah, way better, and now i didn’t have to worry about anyone flipping out about my pointy ears.

By now word would have gotten around about the green beast that was friends with the king so this probably was the safer option to just hang around the castle as a whole.

There was also the fact that most people wouldn’t randomly attack something this big.

And the long legs were faster than my human form which was also a plus as I could get from the castle back to the rock in a matter of barely a minute.

By now it had gotten dark outside, it was still bright enough to find my way but I steered clear of anything I couldn’t identify.

At least the way back to the rock wasn’t that far and I made sure not to get too close to the edge as it probably was a lot more dangerous to get near in the dark.

Even if I found that I could see strangely well, but then again there was still light from the castle windows.

And the stars, they were actually very pretty even if the light from the castle made them a bit harder to see.

Just to be on the safe side I went to the spot where the boulder went under the dirt, so a good few feet away from the cliff itself.

I wasn’t keen on falling off of that should I fall asleep.

I’d end up impaled on one of those spikes, or drowning if the impact didn’t kill me.

No thanks, living is actually nice now.

Settling on the patch of grass next to the boulder I ended up staring out into the darkness for a bit.

This place was actually really pretty, the castle staff took good care of it even if the floorplan was absolutely moronic, like whose idea was it to build like this?

But so far the garden was my favorite place.

I briefly wondered if Barsen had any helpers or if he did it all by himself.

Surely not, he might be good but nobody could be everywhere at once, And just because I hadn’t seen anyone else working in the garden didn’t mean there was no one helping out.

At a sudden noise that sounded like a snapping branch I turned my head to whatever was disturbing the quiet that was here just a moment ago.

At first I saw nothing, which I attributed to suddenly looking at the light from the castle again, but then I could make out a human silhouette.

With the light coming from behind it was hard to tell who it was, especially since they were hunched over and seemed to have their hands over their ears.

The figure let out a high pitched whine and I suddenly recognized the voice, as well as the mop of red hair they possessed.

“Robin? Are you okay?”

I immediately stood up and went over to him to make sure he wasn’t hurt.

He was acting strange and only seemed to register that I was here after I spoke.

And he didn’t stop clutching his head.

I wished he’d step out of the bushes and into a brighter part so I could make sure he wasn’t bleeding.

“Donovan? I- i… what are you doing here?”

He sounded like hed been crying, oh fuck what happened?

I hadn’t been gone that long so what was going on?

I kneeled down, or at least what was the equivalent of that as Ardua and looked him over.

“Hey, are you okay? What happened? Why are you out here alone?

Are you hurt? Why are you holding your head like this?”

He didn’t seem to be bleeding from anywhere, but that still did not mean that he didn’t get whacked in the head.

He looked up at me and in the sparse light of the castle I could see half dried tear tracks that went down his face.

He was also slightly hyperventilating and trembling, What the hell had happened after I left?

Softening my voice as much as I could, I kneeled even closer to him, attempting to comfort him with my presence.

“Hey, talk to me, what happened?”

He suddenly wrapped his arms around the fluffy part of my neck and kept holding the fur while he trembled.

“I- I’m sorry, it’s just- just too much, way too much, it’s too loud, too bright and there are too many people! I- my brain can’t keep up, it’s just- ! “

He had started hyperventilating even worse as he spoke, and while I still wasn’t sure what was going on at least I knew now that he hadn’t been attacked or otherwise physically hurt.

“I’m not sure what exactly you mean, but if you want some peace and quiet you can just join me in lazing about out here?”

Since he was now very close to my vocal chords I took extra care to not be too loud and keep my voice soft for him.

He just mumbled something that definitely wasn’t words and shoved his tear stricken face into my mane.

Well, then I would have to figure it out myself.

Hooking one arm under him and holding him in the space between my neck and underarm I walked on three legs to the spot I had just left before and settled down again.

This time with a little ginger cuddled up to my thorax and hiding in the fur of my short mane curled up with his hands over his head as if to protect himself from some unseen foe.

The worst thing was that I had no idea what the hell was wrong or even how to help him.

I found it best to try again to get an at least somewhat coherent answer.

“Robin? I’m not sure what is going on right now, Can you tell me? I want to help but i don’t know how”

At first I thought he wouldn’t respond, aside from another high pitched whine, but then he finally gave me at least some information.

“My brain is screaming at me, that I need to go hide and that there’s too much noise, too much- everything right now! And it wont shut up!”

He sobbed out.

Oh, he had a bad brain day, err night, I've had some of those, shortly after my mother had died but they weren’t frequent and certainly not as severe as his.

Apparently all the stuff that had happened over the past month had just gotten too much as he attended the party where a ton of loud people were and not to mention that the room was stupidly hot too.

“Well, considering what has happened over the course of the last month that isn’t really a surprise, believe me my brain had trouble catching up at all!

And don’t worry, everyone gets overwhelmed sometimes, that’s just a thing that happens, you can stay with me for as long as you want”

He just tried to bury himself further in the fur of my neck, even if there wasn’t that much more to burrow into.

“S’not the first time, it happens a lot to me and i don’t know why, I don’t do anything that the others don’t, so why me?

Why’s my brain like this?

I try my best to keep it together but it never works”

He sniffled a little and continued to try and disappear into my fur.

Oh, so this was not a new nor unusual occurrence for him, no wonder he tried to ditch the party by hiding out in the garden.

And the fact that he hyperventilated must have been because he had a panic attack before me speaking snapped him out of it.

“Is there ANYthing i can do to help you?

If not we can just stay here for a while”

He curled up against my neck and mumbled.

“I just wanna hide somewhere till my brain is quiet again, but i don’t wanna be alone, but i also don’t wanna see anyone’s face right now”

Well, those were a tiny bit conflicting with each other, What the hell was I even supposed to do with that information?

With his form curled so close to my throat he couldn’t see my face, and it was sorta hidden, he wasn’t alone either.

But maybe that was still too exposed for him?

Or too loud as I could still faintly hear the party in the distance and see the stupidly bright light from the windows.

“I- well what can i do?

I’m not the smartest in such stuff so please tell me”

He pressed himself even more into the fur of my throat, if that was even possible and mumbled into it.

“I- i just want to Hide, somewhere were the outside world can’t get me”

“Hide? Where? Do you want me to bring you to Oakleys tower?

Oakley might even be able to help better than I did, but if he didn’t want to see more people right now then I would just try my best and hope that it would work.

“No, I- i want you to hide me, can you hide me again? Like in the snow?”

Like in the snow? What did he-

Oh.

Surely that wasn’t what he meant?

“i- like when you were cold?

Are you absolutely sure that’s what you want?”

feeling him nod i could hear the softest voice answer

“Mhm, i just wanna be somewhere where the outside world can’t get me, but i don’t wanna be alone either, and i know you wont hurt me”

He wanted to hide with me, go back in THERE of all things too.

And only because he thought it would help, and that he was absolutely convinced that I would not hurt him.

How the FUCK could i say no to him? I couldn’t, not when he displayed such an amount of trust in me that I would keep him safe.

“Only if you are absolutely sure, and if you get scared for any reason tell me and i’ll get you out as fast as i can, okay?”

He made an agreeing sound and slowly uncurled a little so he could reach my face.

While getting out of my mane he used one hand to brace himself on my face, and his hands were tiny, HE was tiny.

If he truly thought this would help him then i would do it, even if i didn’t understand it, i said i’d help him so i would even if it was rather unusual.

I carefully shifted around him so I had enough space to move my head properly and he wouldn’t have to awkwardly climb over my legs.

He just stood there for a second, hugging himself with his arms and slightly hunched over,

He was so small, he already wasn’t a tall human but with me as Ardua he was just so tiny, and with him standing there so vulnerable right now it was as if a breeze could knock him over.

I took a deep breath before looking at him again.

“Okay, last chance to back out, are you SURE about this?

If you don’t wanna say anything, tap three times and I’ll stop, okay?”

He was still shaking, and I had no idea how long such an episode usually lasted but I was sure that if he thought it would help then I’d do it.

He just leaned forward and put his slightly shaking forehead against my snout.

I could feel that his head was cold and clammy, yeah, he needed help.

“M’ sure, go ahead”

He mumbled out in a shaky voice.

That was probably all the confirmation I was gonna get from him.

So without further ado i opened my mouth, waiting for just one second in case he backed out at the last moment.

He didn’t, instead he reached out and grabbed hold of one of my teeth.

Admittedly that was a very weird sensation, but since he seemed to be okay with it I brought him fully into my mouth, making sure to shield my bottom teeth with my tongue so there was no chance he could get nicked by one.

I gave him a few more seconds before I closed my mouth and sealed him in, then I waited a few more seconds, sort of expecting him to tap three times and ask to be let out.

There was no tapping, instead he just kind of sunk into my tongue, relaxing the tiniest bit.

This was weird as fuck, but i didn’t do it for myself, I did it to help my friend.

If someone had told me a few months ago that i would actually have friends i’d have laughed at them, but now I actually did have people to care about.

And a lot of other unbelievable stuff happened too of course, like right now.

Since Robin still hadn’t asked to be let out I decided to slowly tip my head back, giving him one last chance to back out before I swallowed.

Robin just put his arms over his head, not in an attempt to stop though,

It was more like he tried to make himself slimmer.

He really was okay with this, well he had suggested it, weird as it was.

Tipping my head fully back I let him slide a bit before taking the first swallow.

I waited for one second to see if this would cause him to freak out but there was nothing aside from the trembling that had persisted since he walked into me.

I gently swallowed again, Placing my paw softly against my throat, I was barely able to sense the bulge traversing down before it made its way behind my collarbone and out of reach from my limbs.

Another swallow then sent him spilling into my pouch and I held my breath, there was still a chance that this could cause him to freak out.

He did not freak out luckily, The only movement he made was to right himself and get out of the sort of upside down position he had initially landed in since he’d gone in head first.

He was still trembling though, so I thought it best to check up on him in case he just froze in a fight or flight response.

“Robin? Are you okay? If you are scared i’ll let you out right away”

“No, I’m- i’m okay, i’m calmer now, this is actually helping”

Thank FUCK he wasn’t freaking out, and it really was helping? How?

At least he wasn’t trembling as much anymore, if that was from finally calming down or his adrenaline running out I couldn’t tell.

I hoped it was the former.

“Hey Robin? Not to pry but uhh, How is this helping?”

If he didn’t want to answer that was also okay, but I couldn’t deny that I was curious as to WHY.

I could feel him shift for a second before he answered, or at least tried to.

“I- well- i just-”

He seemed to flop over and I was pretty sure I heard an annoyed groan before he tried again, this time a lot more coherent as the words just spilled from his mouth.

“Sometimes the world is just too loud, there’s noise everywhere and- and if it gets too much I just can’t anymore!

And it’s so bright too! Some days it hurts my eyes.

And then it’s too quiet again which makes me really anxious that people don’t like me and don’t want to talk to me!

But here it’s- it’s sort of calm? Like it’s not silent, I can hear your Heart and everything and I know I’m not alone but-,

I- I feel like nothing can get me while I’m here, I feel like I don’t have to stare people in the face to find clues to what they actually mean!

I get it wrong most of the time anyway, and you’re the only one that always tells the truth so I don’t have to guess if you actually mean what you said or not!

And there’s no light to hurt my eyes! I mean it’s not completely dark.

Just sorta very dim so it’s not scary either.

I mean you’re not scary, at all, you’re nice to me even if you don’t have to.

I just- sometimes I feel like there is too much space and I don’t like it!

But- it’s nice to be able to escape reality, At- at least for a little bit.

I- I’m sorry for rambling, if you don’t want me here now i’ll leave!

I know i’m weird-”

“It’s okay, I’m weird too, I mean look at me, I’m a big green catlike creature with flowers growing on its back and a pointy eared bastard, and sometimes a giant”

I interrupted him before he could talk himself back into a less than ideal headspace.

How about I’ll promise you something? Is that okay?”

“Mmh?”

He seemed a bit confused that I would offer to promise him anything.

Well as half Fae it was binding, so i could not back out, ever.

Robin and Arthur also gave confirmation that the garden looked pretty and Barsen smiled widely.

“Thank you! I work hard to get it like this so hearing that I did a good job makes me very happy! Though, say what are you doing here?”

Oh right, we had wanted to look at the cliff.

“We wanted to look at the cliffside, the only places we know are the empty shed and the old tower that Oakley claimed”

I wondered what the tower would look like when Oakley was done, he’d keep the tree for sure but beyond that it was a mystery.

“Looking at the cliff? Well I know a spot where you can do that without having to worry about falling, want me to show you?”

There was an excited shout from Robin and Arthur agreed as well while I nodded.

So he waved to follow him and he went a bit towards the castle.

After just a few meters I could see a big boulder embedded into the ground that stuck about seven feet over the cliffside.

The boulder itself was very long but most of it was on solid ground and half embedded in the floor.

It even went into the floor so who knew how big it really was.

The top of it was smooth, probably from years and years of people walking over it to get from point A to point B.

I had to admit that was actually very cool, and since the longer part of it was anchored to solid ground there was no chance of it tipping over.

“Oh that is awesome! How come it hasn’t fallen yet?”

Barsen stood on top of the flattest part.

“I think the embedded part of it goes on for quite some time, see that tree back there? From what i know it goes all the way over there if not farther”

I looked in the direction he had pointed and saw a small birch tree about thirty feet away, oh yeah that stone slab was secure and I doubted it would fall any time soon.

The thing also wasn’t that far from the castle, hell I could see the building perfectly from here and wouldn’t have to walk more than a minute or two, at least in this form.

“Well you have fun, and don’t forget to be careful, I have to get back to work now, see you around!”

With those words he turned to walk into the trees that we just left and we waved after him for a second before turning to the cliff once more.

“I’m gonna look down!”

Robin jumped on the rock and walked towards the edge before I could react.

I went after him and closer to the drop where he had started to lay down on the floor and inch his way closer to the edge like a caterpillar.

that was smart, like this it was harder for a sudden breeze to knock him off or to lose balance.

A glance back showed that Arthur stayed behind like I had predicted so I focused forward.

I did want to know what it looked like without having the restrictions of a tiny window.

Inching closer and standing next to Robin I looked down.

And down and down, how tall was this drop-off? And there were tons of stony spikes jutting out of the water.

I had seen some of them before, a few of them were taller by enough that they were almost reaching the level of the main part.

There were even two that did reach the same height, but they were a bit too far for any human to jump to.

One of them even had a little tree growing on its flat topside while the other was right behind it and only had some grass growing on it.

I idly wondered if I could jump the distance as Ardua, I managed to go over the stream and the spikes weren’t That far away from the ledge.

I kinda wished that they were in front of the stone slab so I could actually try but no luck there.

Whatever, I didn’t even know if the spikes themselves were stable, maybe the one with the tree but that was it.

Aside from that there was just saltwater far below us gently sloshing against the cliff wall.

I decided to get back now and inch slowly backwards until I was sure I could turn without any problems.

Robin followed suit as he saw me leaving my spot and heading to the more secured part of the big stone slab a good fifteen feet away from the edge.

This part was almost completely flat save for a few bumps and grooves and I suspected that this was where most people had walked over it.

The stone itself was pleasantly warm from the sunlight, hmmm.

I was still a bit tired and I didn’t know if it was the Ardua speaking or just my body asking for rest while the teal stuff Oakley gave me took effect but I was very tempted to just loaf here and sleep for an hour or so.

I’m sure nobody would mind.

After all, this wasn’t in the middle of a road or anything and I was pretty sure the plants on my back would appreciate the sunlight.

I still didn’t know why the fuck i had those but my best guess was that they helped with gaining energy from sunlight.

Yawning, I sat down on the sun warmed rock and settled down.

“What do you two wanna do now?

I think i’m gonna take a nap that teal stuff is making me tired”

Arthur looked between me and the castle.

“I think i’m going to take a look at the castle again, maybe ask someone to explain the stupid floorplan to me”

While Arthur talked Robin had immediately jumped to burrow into the crook of my arm.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a bit tired too, he’d spent all day being like an energetic little cat.

And I wouldn’t mind sharing, even if I was sure that the only reason he wasn’t seeking out a bed was the fact that I was fluffy.

Not that I minded, company was actually nice when they weren’t trying to kill you or hunt you for sport.

Thinking about it my life had been really fucked up, at least not anymore now since Rikaad was doing the paper stuff for that.

“Yeah whatever, if you find out how to navigate that nightmare of a floorplan let us know”

He gave a thumbs up and left the immediate vicinity of the cliffside as fast as he could without running.

Poor guy, first motion sickness and then vertigo too, that must suck.

Eh, he could just do other things then, and i doubted we’d be climbing anytime soon.

Since there was nothing else to do now I decided to settle down and sleep till the teal stuff wore off and I wasn’t numb anymore.

Robin was still wedged in the crook of my arm so I decided to use that arm as a pillow and create a little hollow.

He fit in seamlessly.

Like that nobody would disturb him, or even see him, perfect.

Closing my eyes and listening to the waves crashing against rock far below, I fell into a peaceful sleep.

I had no idea how long I actually spent sleeping on that rock, but it was strangely nice to just laze about for once.

That wasn’t something I got to do often, especially since I used to sleep on the street which was very dangerous, specifically for me as a Fae bastard.

so I enjoyed it as much as I could.

At least until someone shook me awake.

At first I tried to ignore it and curled a bit more around the redheaded form right next to me who was also still fast asleep.

Whoever it was that had disturbed my slumber tried again, this time even speaking in a voice that was somewhat familiar.

“Donovan? Come on get up, when i said there would be a stupid celebration for our admittedly weird victory i meant it”

What? Oh right, so the one waking me up right now was Norrin.

I lifted my head and blearily looked at him, blinking a few times against the light.

It was quite some time later judging by the stand of the sun.

And the fact that my pouch wasn’t numb anymore, and just as Oakley had promised all the pain was gone, what a relief.

“What? Oh do you mean right now? Wait where?”

He laughed a little at that, the skin around his eyes creasing the tiniest bit.

“Not yet but in about half an hour, i thought id tell you beforehand in case you wanted to do something first and the celebration itself is in the castle, the main hall to be exact”

Ah, so I still had some time, good to know.

But I couldn’t stand up right now as Robin was still using my arm as a pillow.

He looked so incredibly small while he slept and I did not have the heart to wake him right now.

He fit in perfectly in the crook of my arm and I didn’t dare move more than my head.

Maybe he’d wake up in a few minutes and then we could go.

I did wonder what that celebration would all entail.

Well there probably would be food and music as that was pretty much a standard for such things.

Norrin had followed my gaze to where the little ginger was sleeping and peered over my arm.

He had to stand on his tiptoes to do that, and looked at the peacefully sleeping ginger.

“Ah so that’s where he is, and i was running around the castle like a headless chicken looking for both of you”

He shook his head at that and I imagined it must have been pretty funny to see the headguard run around aimlessly in search of two people that had been in the same spot for quite some time.

“Mhm, gimme a few minutes, well come in a bit to the big entrance door”

At least I knew where that was, and I strongly suspected that the main hall was right behind the throne through the two doors I had seen the last time I was there.

The older man nodded.

“Sure, i’ll be waiting there, but tell me if you don’t want to attend or i’ll be standing there for nothing”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know, but please make sure nobody stabs me when I appear in human form?”

I would prefer to stay in one piece and not end up injured, again.

He nodded once again in affirmation, eyes flicking to my ears for a second.

“Right, pointy ears, don’t worry i’ll let all of the guards know not to touch you”

“Thank you, now gimme fifteen or so minutes to wake Robin”

He nodded and then waved and left towards the castle where I could see the dull walls reflecting the sunlight and giving it a more orange tint.

Huh, it was already close to sunset, I’d bet that was pretty from up here.

Well, time to wake Robin, as much as i would like to let him sleep we had to get up sometime.

I gently nudged him with my free hand, paw? Whatever, but he just curled up even more and mumbled sleepily.

So I tried again, this time telling him softly to wake up.

“Robin? We gotta get up, come on we are invited to some celebration over the ice mage”

There still wasn’t much reaction other than some more mumbling.

Oh I had a good idea what would get him to get up.

“Don’t you wanna try the Royal food? And imagine the luxurious chairs”

That got his attention.

“Whu? Oh, wait, you mean they are throwing a party?

In the castle? I wanna see that!”

He sprung up like an excited dog and almost hit the underside of my face.

And now he was up, like predicted, well time to go then.

I wondered if I had to bring anything or if there was a dress code but Norrin Mentioned neither so it was probably fine.

Besides, he was waiting in front of the door, if we forgot anything he’d surely tell us.

Since Robin was awake now I could also finally stand up.

Shaking the tiredness of and stretching like a cat, much to the ginger’s amusement, I turned to look towards the castle.

“Norrin said he’d wait for us at the big entrance door, Are you okay to go or is there anything you wanna do first?”

The redhead shook his head.

“No, I’m good, let’s go! I wanna see what a castle party looks like!”

He was excitedly jumping up and down and I had to admit that I was curious about that too.

“Well then let’s not waste anymore time”

With those words I bent down a little and Robin immediately jumped to climb on my back.

“How fancy do you think it’s gonna be?

You think they have golden plates and cups?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a bit too expensive, even for the castle unless there are not a lot of people, then again i don’t actually know how much is in the treasure chambers”

Falling into a steady trott towards the castle it wouldn’t take longer than about two minutes to reach the big entrance door.

“Maybe, do you think there’s going to be exotic food?

I’m pretty sure they have some of the most expensive wine too!

But I’m not gonna drink that, last time I drank alcohol it made me puke, Have you ever drank alcohol?”

If I had drank alcohol?

Well, sometimes that was all I could get from sneaking around pubs when there was no clean drinking water, I wasn’t keen on getting dysentery after all so alcohol was actually the safer option sometimes.

Alcohol was used as a disinfectant too so sometimes I HAD to get it.

Even if it was causing headaches later and made me act weirdly, I’d better not drink anything alcoholic today since I now had the bracelet and who knew what I’d end up doing should I drink to actually get drunk for once.

“I have, when there was no clean drinking water, and I agree it’s kinda awful, Also, aren’t you too young to drink alcohol anyway? Did someone sneak some or did they give you some at the guard school?”

A valid question considering he was only around sixteen.

“Hm? Yeah they did, I think it was wine?

But it tasted awful so i’m not gonna drink that ever again”

To be honest I had no idea what wine even tasted like, aside from that it was made out of grapes and dark red.

Since beer was cheaper it was easier to steal that from the pubs, and it had less alcohol in it than wine too so I had never been absolutely drunk.

“Fair, if it made you throw up you probably shouldn’t drink it anyway”

I’d believe Robins account for how wine tasted and spare myself the trouble of getting sick from it like he did.

While we talked we had gotten to the castle and I could see that some of the windows were already illuminated.

Seemed like we were just in time, going around a flower bed that was planted right next to the wall to avoid stepping on them.

I saw that the big door had been propped open and was nicely illuminated from chandeliers and whatnot within and as Promised Norrin was waiting in front of the door.

He had cleaned his armor from mud and polished the gold accents so they shined in the light.

Well, I better shift down to human form so I could actually use the smaller doors and sit in a chair, as well as everything normal sized too.

There really wasn’t anything for big folk, Why should there be? This was a human place after all.

But first Robin had to get off so he wouldn’t fall from my back when I shifted into a way smaller form.

“Hey Robin? Do you mind getting off of me?

I need to go back to human form so i can use doors and stuff”

He leaned forward a bit and nodded.

“Sure! Oh if it has tables I wanna sit next to you and Arthur and Rikaad!”

I bent down and he slid off on the side, he was getting good at this I noted.

“I’m sure you can sit at least next to one of us, and if not maybe there’s someone we can ask for more chairs”

He just grinned while I twisted the gem on the bracelet that let me turn back into the smaller two legged form I was used to.

“So, ready to go?”

He nodded with a big grin on his face and zipped past me to chatter at Norrin.

The poor Guard looked very surprised for a second before he composed himself again.

I went after him as fast as I could without running, I was not keen on getting stabbed in the time it took me to walk the twenty or so meters to get to them.

Getting closer to the castle I could already hear music, as well as some people jowling in joy.

Must have started the party already.

Whatever the case, I decided to head inside and see if I could find Arthur or Rikaad.

It was quite possible that Rikaad was still sitting in front of the paperwork after all.

He was a very diligent man and seemed to rarely tire, he might just be a workaholic though.

I hoped that at least he’d take a little break, if only for a bit.

Coming up to the big front door and greeting Norrin he led us inside.

“Ah glad you decided to show up!

But i have to say that your human form takes my brain a second to recognize as it is used to the green form”

Right, he’d only seen me once in this form and that only for a short time.

“I guess so, don’t worry I’m sure you’ll get used to seeing me in my various forms, for now let’s see if they have any good food!”

Norrin laughed a bit at that and led us around the, overly expensive looking, Throne itself to one of the two doors behind it where a big hall was that fit a really big and long table and a few chandeliers that illuminated everything.

It was actually pretty, especially with all the decor around, but to be honest the thing that enticed me most was the food.

It was scattered all over the ridiculously long table and looked absolutely delicious.

Sure I didn’t have to eat thanks to the bracelet but I doubted that it would hinder my ability to taste things.

And there was an overabundance of expensive food around that i really wanted to try since i had never gotten the chance to do so in the past.

I had never even seen some of these, like what was this weird long yellow fruit?

I decided to try it and found that it didn’t taste bad at all, aside from the skin which had a tough texture.

Better peel it next time, which was surprisingly easy since I could just rip strips off of it and eat the inside.

I wondered what else there was and went around the table picking random stuff to test out.

All the while Robin followed me and stuffed his face with whatever he could reach. 

He seemed especially happy to stuff his face with something that looked like miniature cakes.

Trying one too I could see why he liked them, They were very sweet and tasted of honey melon.

Then I saw something I recognized, Cinnamon bread, oh I HAD to have that.

That was one of the few things I could rarely get while on the street and I even remembered my mother baking these once.

Also cinnamon was tasty as long as it wasn’t just the powder, the powder was just dry as fuck and could cause a coughing fit.

I learned that the hard way.

Regardless, these ones looked really good, they were even still steaming with warmth like they had just come from the oven, so I picked one up and sunk my teeth in.

Yep, just as good as I remembered, if not better as the castle probably had higher quality flour and better ingredients overall.

I really hoped I wouldn't get nauseous. 

After spending weeks eating nothing due to the bracelet it might very well be that I would have an upset stomach later from stuffing myself with whatever was on this bigass table.

That was a problem for future me i decided.

“Donovan!”

I looked around to the person that had called my name with half a bread in my mouth to see a familiar blonde framed face.

“Arthur! Hey, look at this, they have so much food!

I don’t think they are gonna eat most of it, at least not in one day”

I shoved the rest of the bread into my mouth and grabbed a new one.

He looked at the table and then back at me.

“Yeah maybe, however i think you should try using cutlery, saves you the hassle of having sweets stick to your fingers and face”

“Mhm?”

With a mouth full of bread I couldn’t answer but looking at my fingers I saw what he meant.

They were stained from the various treats I had tried and I probably should not shake anyone’s hand today.

The main culprit was probably the mini cakes.

Eh i could wash that, if i found where that was.

Looking around a bit for anything that I could use until Arthur tipped at my shoulder and pointed to a wall behind me.

“There’s a thing for washing hands, it’s just a fancy bucket really but who cares”

“Ah, thanks, hey have you seen Rikaad anywhere?

I mean he’s king now so surely he’s around, right?”

He nodded.

“Yeah I saw him like five minutes ago, he was talking to the cook, complimenting Her i think.

I have no idea where he is right now though, and I assume Robin is here also?”

Ah so Rikaad WAS here, i’d say hello after washing my hands, and then i could tell him that Oakley had helped me and that the stab wounds were gone.

As for Robin I pointed Arthur to where I last saw him, which was one table over and taste testing everything he could reach.

He went over to look at what the Ginger was doing while I went to wash the sticky sweets off my fingers.

Weaving between some other people that either talked or danced to the rather obnoxious music, I finally found what Arthur had pointed at.

Looking at the basin thing I saw that Arthur was right, it did just look like a fancy bucket.

Whatever, as long as it stopped my fingers from being sticky I didn’t care.

Sticking my hands in the water I scrubbed my hands together to get all of the stuff off.

Only after that did I realize that there was literally nothing to dry my hands with. 

Did someone steal the towel? Or was there just no towel?

Maybe I could unsuspiciously dry them off at one of the curtains?

Before I could move to do so another familiar bearded face appeared, holding out a piece of cloth I was very sure he took from one of the tables.

“Barsen! What are you doing here?”

He smiled and handed me the cloth which I gratefully accepted.

“I was responsible for putting flowers up as decoration, aside from that nobody in the castle cares where i go or not, i could sit on the throne and nobody would blink at it”

Huh, that was something, but I didn’t doubt him.

The last thing Oakley pulled out of the bag was weirdest of all a glowing roundish crystal.

This one actually made sense seeing as he would need light and at least that thing did not emit smoke.

I wondered if it emitted any heat though, I hoped not much.

“Hey where did the other two go? I wasn’t away that long, was i?”

Robin clumsily climbed over my arm again which wasn’t exactly necessary since he could have walked like four steps around it.

“Rikaad went back to sort paper stuff and Arthur is somewhere around the tower just looking how run down the thing is.

The winged man nodded.

“I see, and the little ginger decided to use you as a mattress I guess?”

Robin just stuck his tongue out at him.

“Eh maybe, don’t really care about that, also how the hell did you fit that much stuff in such a small bag?”

While I spoke Robin went over the said bag and peered in before managing to stick his entire arm in up to the shoulder.

“Why is it like this? There so much room? But the bag is small? Oakley?”

Him sticking his entire arm in had startled me but now he said that the inside was bigger than the bag was? How was that possible?

“Well you see, a little bit of magic woven into the fabric allows for quite a lot of storage!

Sadly it’s the only one i have as it’s quite expensive to make”

A magic bag, of course that’s what it was, Did he own anything normal?

He took the bag from Robin and stuck his tail in to rummage for something else.

Using his two pronged tail for that did make sense seeing as how wings would have trouble fitting.

It was interesting to see how he had adapted to the fact that he couldn’t do everything with his hands like most people and had instead found a way around it.

He pulled out something that looked like an oversized glass jar that was halfway filled with something teal colored and seemed to have the same viscosity as honey.

What the fuck did he need that for? Was that just medicine?

I never heard of bright teal medicine.

Robin also pointed at the jar confusedly.

“What’s that? I do like the color, what is it for?”

Oakley raised the container in the air so we could see it better.

“Basically a disinfectant, among other things, and i agree teal is a nice color”

He put the jar next to his bag and then took the rope to tie it around himself.

That confused me a bit, he probably knew i could get people out without help so why was he tying himself to a safety rope?

He must have noticed my confused stare as he told me what it was for.

“The teal stuff is basically a stronger version of what i gave Arthur, mixed with some other things as well, it WILL make you numb enough to not have control over the affected muscles for about four hours so i do need the rope”

Oh, yeah that made sense, but that meant someone had to stand at the other end of the rope to get him out, well both Arthur and Robin were here, the first of which was just coming back from exploring the tower and full of dust.

“Oh hey Oakley!”

He waved to the winged man who stared back.

“Perfect timing! I will need your help! You just need to hold the other end of the rope here!”

He tossed said end to Arthur who scrambled to catch it out of reflex.

He looked thoroughly confused.

“Wh- wait what do you need the rope for? The hell are you going to do?”

Oakley wasn’t really paying attention to him though and instead picked up the stuff he needed which included the glowing crystal, the weird box and the jar with the teal stuff.

While Oakley did that Robin was messing with the bag by sticking his arm in again, likely to test how deep it was.

After that he even stuck his head in, probably to see if he could make out anything visible.

He pulled it out quickly though and I wondered what else was in there that he had that reaction.

Maybe he saw something spider shaped and noped out.

Then Oakley had everything ready.

He was holding the glowing crystal with his tail and the rest was secured in either his pockets or his hands, The cloak he usually wore was abandoned off to the side.

So that meant the only thing to do now was-

Eugh, my least favorite part of this, Oakley had wings, and a tail, What if I damaged them?

What if one of those appendages got snagged on my teeth?

Oakley didn’t seem to have any concerns though, he was just standing in front of me expectantly.

My brain blanked on what to do for a second before i remembered, right, Oakley was gonna fix the stitches and to do that he had to get to them.

But I wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed, he was only mostly human shaped and I didn’t know what to do with the wings.

Should I tell him to tuck them close?

Or to have them spread out at his side so he’d be slimmer?

At this point he seemed to know what to do better than I did as he tucked his wings very close to his body and wrapped his tail around one of his legs.

“Well, open up big guy, no use wasting time now!”

My brain was still blanking on a lot of things but I simply did as told.

Lowering my head to the ground I opened my mouth wide enough for him to fit, and to my surprise he climbed right in, no fear or hesitation whatsoever.

Also having someone willingly climb into my mouth like this was extremely weird and i was not sure if i liked it.

And strangely enough he tasted of sawdust which did not make it better, At all.

Overall it wasn’t awful but i couldn’t say that i liked it either, frankly i just wanted this all to be over with.

Oh, wait, technically I had to swallow now but my mind was still a bit slow.

That changed when Oakley punched the dangly bit over my throat, the Uvula was it called? Causing me to swallow against my will.

Apparently he’d gotten impatient with me and decided to just go ahead.

At least he didn’t have feathers.

Yeah, now I was sure I didn’t like this, at least not when it was Oakley.

I just about stopped myself from coughing and instead swallowed again, feeling the safety rope that Arthur was holding slither over the groove of my tongue.

That was an uncomfortable feeling as it was like there was something stuck in my throat when it wasn’t.

At this point I just wanted it to be over with as fast as possible so I swallowed again and again till the odd shaped lump was all the way down to my pouch.

Oakley ‘dropped’ in with a weird squelching sensation and then I could feel him right himself, wings relaxing a bit and tail unfurling.

I kept as still as possible and was only breathing shallowly so I wouldn’t disturb him.

I still didn’t know what exactly he was going to do or what he needed the box for when he had the teal stuff but i was not about to fuck things even more up by moving.

So I sat still except for one of my paws which opened and closed repeatedly and dug grooves in the ground while Oakley seemed to get ready to do whatever it was he planned to do.

Arthur was just silent, holding his end of the rope and staring at the ground while Robin had started making flower crowns again with the daisies that grew around the tower.

Then there was an awful sensation, like Oakley had just ripped one of the stitches out by force.

“YOWCH! Oakley! What the hell was that?!”

And my pained shout Arthur almost dropped the rope and Robin did drop the flowers he was working on.

Then Oakley answered with a mildly muffled voice.

“Just as I thought! The flesh around the stitches started to grow over them! the sooner i remove them the better”

Grown over the stitches?! Grown OVER the stitches?! What the fuck!

I didn’t think that could happen, or at least not so fast.

Ughh why me? I only tried to help and now I was stuck with a possible infection risk and the stitches literally melding into the lining of my pouch.

There was another painful twinge that signaled Oakley had just ripped another stitch out and I dug the claws of my free hand into the ground.

A smaller hand suddenly grabbed my paw and I looked over to see Robin holding onto my fur.

I relaxed the tiniest bit until Oakley ripped another one out and I growled in a low tone.

The sound surprised even me as i didn’t know i could emit such a noise, And it had been completely involuntary too.

Worried that the sound had scared the smaller men, I looked at them.

Arthur seemed to just be surprised and Robin moved to hug my hand.

Well, it was possible that they had mistaken it for a sound of pain.

It kinda was if I was honest, and as long as they weren’t scared I could deal with it.

Oakley yanked another stitch out and since Robin was hugging my hand I couldn’t even dig grooves into the ground anymore to distract myself.

And I didn’t dare move the other arm out from underneath me.

There was the sound of a quiet and dull impact behind me as well as signals sent to my brain that indicated that my tail had hit a tree.

Since I couldn’t use any other limbs to fidget it seemed my tail had just started to swivel from left to right like that of an agitated cat.

Sure, whatever, I could deal with that, and there was at least one limb I dared to move now.

Robbin was still hugging my paw in an attempt to be comforting.

It kind of was even, his hands were warmer than the ground so that was something better to focus on than Oakley doctoring around.

I managed to just about contain a flinch when Oakley ripped yet another thread out.

How many were even in there? He had to be done soon right?

Another was ripped out and the hair on my back stood up.

Robin had at this point started to absentmindedly pet the upper side of my paw, it was strangely soothing, and way better than whatever the fuck Oakley was doing.

He had to be done soon right? I wanted him out of there, also-

“Oakley didn’t you say that the teal stuff numbs?

What the fuck are you doing?”

He answered almost immediately while ripping out yet another stitch.

“Well yeah, the ‘teal stuff’ numbs but it also accelerates the healing process by a lot, so if i put it on first the stitches would get stuck more and you don’t want that”

Oh so that was why, fuck me then, just sitting here with a weird Fae fucker abusing my insides even more.

I let my head sink onto the ground with another pained sound as he ripped yet another string out.

“How many of those are even there? Please tell me you’re done”

There was a brief weird numbing sensation that spread from where ever the fuck he applied the teal stuff.

“Almost, this one is done now to the other stab wound!”

The other one? Ohh nooo come on, How many stitches had Rikaad put there in the first place?

At least one was done now, and numb as fuck which i was actually glad for.

“Oakley? How many stitches are there anyway?

Please tell me it’s under ten”

“Well the first one had six, this one has four, So brace yourself, I’m going to remove them now!”

As soon as he said it he ripped out a stitch in the other place that got stabbed.

This time, now that I had a warning, and being used to it from the other stitches he pulled it was a bit less awful.

Still horrible and painful though.

While I tried my best not to move Robin had slunk away from my hand and was now next to me.

He ended up hugging my shoulder a good bit away from my throat or anything connected to it.

“Are you okay? What’s Oakley doing?”

”I’ll be fine, as soon as Oakley is done ripping the stitches oOOUT, Dammit Oakley, give a warning!”

While i Answered Robin Oakley had ripped another stitch out, catching me by surprise.

I really wanted this to be over with but at least there were only two more to go through.

I huffed in displeasure and glanced at Arthur who had sat down on the ground and was fiddling with his end of the rope.

I wasn’t the only one that wanted this to be over with apparently, He looked bored and unsure of what to do.

Well he couldn’t exactly help Oakley or me with this stupid situation.

The best he could do was keep holding the rope and then do whatever Oakley said.

Which was hopefully soon, I wanted him out of there and the rope hanging down my throat did not make it any better.

On top of that the stupid rope tasted like dust and I really wanted to spit it out.

Not to mention that it dug into the groove of my tongue uncomfortably.

Oakley ripped out yet another stitch, making me lash my tail against the trees behind me.

One more to go and then I was done, at least I hoped so.

By now the numbing effect applied to the first wound had helped a lot even if it did feel weird.

Or not feel? Whatever the case I couldn’t feel anything there right now, no pain but no touches from Oakley either which was kinda eerie.

He said it numbed for about four hours right?

Well I could deal with that as long as it was healed afterwards at least.

Finally Oakley ripped out the last stitch and then applied more of the teal stuff, now making the entirety of my pouch numb.

It was clear why he tied the rope to himself for this.

I couldn’t feel anything in my pouch anymore and I wasn’t even sure if my muscles would obey me now.

Yeah, the rope was a good call on his part.

As uncomfortable as it was for me it did serve a purpose.

Said purpose being that Arthur could pull him out with it.

“Heya! I’m done, so tell your blonde friend to tug at the rope and get me out!”

Finally! The entire ordeal had been awful and I was glad it was bound to be over in a minute or so.

“Hey Arthur?-

He looked up at me.

“- Oakley wants you to pull the rope and get him out, just please be careful that thing is literally IN my throat and having rope burn there is not something i want”

He gave a thumbs up and gripped the rope.

“Sure, brace yourself i’m trying to go slow, if you want me to go faster tap the ground or whatever”

I nodded and then lay down again to make my throat as straight as possible and minimize the choking risk.

Robin ran up to be behind Arthur and grabbed the piece of rope that was splayed on the ground behind the blonde man.

Then Arthur counted to three and started pulling.

It wasn’t fast but it wasn’t agonizingly slow either, It was a steady rhythm of pulling the rope and then gripping the bit in front of it to tug more out.

At first it was just more numbness but the more they tugged Oakley out the more I could feel that there was indeed something in my esophagus.

At this point instead of gripping more rope as he went he was just walking backwards, likely to avoid the parts of rope that had been drooled on.

I wasn’t really to blame for that one though, having something dry in your mouth just gave that response, not my fault at all.

Oakley was at this point halfway up and blocking my windpipe.

Good thing I had remembered to take a breath beforehand, and that I could hold said breath for about five minutes.

Feeling the wet form of Oakley slide into my mouth I wasted no time in leaning forward and letting him drop to the ground.

I immediately began coughing as the rope had irritated my throat the entire time and I was really glad that it was finally over.

Even if it felt weird to - well not feel i guess?

True to Oakleys word the entirety of my pouch was numb and would stay as such for about four hours.

Well, still better than before, and Oakley had brought all of his stuff back out so I didn't have to worry about that either, I flopped to the ground where I was and ended up kind of on my side but not really on my side.

Robin immediately took advantage of that to bury himself in the exposed fluff with an adorable squeak.

Glancing over to what Oakley was doing I saw Arthur handing back the slightly damp rope and Oakley tossing said rope into one of the broken windows of the tower.

Well that was one way to get it dry, probably.

whatever, not my problem.

Now I barely had any problems anymore, sure there was still the Fae hating thing, but Rikaad was working on fixing that.

For the first time in forever there was nothing wrong and I could just relax.

That was weird as fuck.

I decided to enjoy that blessing for now.

Just then Oakley came over, ughh, was there something else i had to do now?

“Say how are you? It is numbing as intended right? I just want to make sure i used enough and that there’s nothing else wrong now”

So he was checking up on his ‘patient’, well That was nice of him.

“It’s numb as hell, I don’t feel anything there so I’m pretty sure you used enough of that stuff, though it’s eerie to not be able to feel a part of my body.”

He just nodded in acknowledgment.

“Well if you need anything else i will sweep all the dust out of my new house! You might want to move though unless you fancy a dust shower”

A dustshower was not something I wanted, and I could somehow imagine that Oakley would use his wings to blow the dust out of his house like some oversized bird.

He was an oversized bird, at least in my opinion.

I ought to get a nice and shiny rock to test just how birdlike at some point.

I stood up which felt a bit weird due to the numbness in my core but since i didn’t fall over i didn’t care.

Oakley was now dusting his new place, So where else on the castle grounds could we go?

Aside from the shed and the tower I didn’t know any places, if there even was more aside from plants.

Eh, I could just chill between some of the plants then, as long as I didn’t destroy them I doubted that anyone would care.

Maybe Barsen, but he was who knew where right now.

A tiny hand grabbed at the arm that had the bracelet and I looked down to see a mess of red hair.

Robin was tugging me in a random direction, Well exploring was also something to do.

So I started to slowly walk in the direction he wanted so as to not trample over him.

Maybe we’ll find something cool?

Arthur joined us even if he didn't hold onto my arm like Robin did.

“Well, where to? Just randomly walking or?”

He shook his head.

And while passing the tower I looked into one of the windows and saw a familiar compass laying on top of a broken branch.

Rikaad must have returned the one Oakley gave us while he was here.

“I wanna go along the cliffside!

Like why don’t they have a wall there? Maybe we’ll find out why!”

“The cliffside? You sure? That seems dangerous, and i’m not keen on falling off of THAT”

Arthur interjected, and to be fair he was right.

It might very well be that there used to be a wall but it just fell down into the ocean.

I wouldn’t get too close to the edge in case the ground there was brittle.

Falling to my death after all this would be really fucking dumb.

“I mean we can look but i’m not sure how stable the ground there is, What if it breaks off? As Arthur said i’m also not keen on dying”

“We don’t have to get close! I just wanna look! Like the window in the castle!”

For a second I could have sworn that Arthur’s face went a bit green.

Well, not my problem if he had vertigo, poor Arthur though.

“Well I think that’s fine? But i’m not going to get as close as you are, Im bigger so the floor might just break off”

“Yeah, Donovan’s right, don’t get too close!”

Robin stuck his tongue out at Arthur and then kept dragging me as best as he could forward.

“It’ll be fine! I’m not gonna fall, I promise!

I’m not gonna stand directly on the edge! I'm not that dumb!”

I hoped he was right, but it was just for the sake of curiosity so what’s the worst that could happen if we were being careful.

As long as we kept a safe distance to avoid falling it should be fine.

Somehow I had the feeling that Arthur wouldn’t get anywhere close at all.

Oh well, then i had to make sure nobody got too close to the drop then.

Ducking under a low hanging branch we breached into free space.

Yep, there was the aforementioned drop down to the ocean.

How tall was it anyway? Then I saw something that made my heart, the working one anyway, stop for a second.

Barsen was plucking out weeds and the like while only holding onto a branch from a walnut tree.

He was basically hovering over certain death and did not even blink.

Did that guy know what Fear was??? By the looks of it not.

Still, screaming at him to get away from there might startle him into letting go.

So talking normally would have to do.

“Barsen? What are you doing?”

The other two seemed to only now notice there was someone else and gave surprised and worried noises.

“Oh what the hell man, get away from there! You’re gonna fall!”

Robin hid behind my arm again as if that would help the situation.

Barsen just looked up and waved with a handful of weeds while hanging on to that one branch.

“Hello! Don’t worry, I’ve done this a thousand times before, I’m not going to fall! I'm almost done anyway”

He stuffed the plants into a pocket of his work pants and climbed up the walnut tree’s roots back to safe ground.

Brushing Dust off he walked over to us.

“Nice to see you are all well! What do you think of the garden?”

I just stared at him for a few seconds as he acted like he hadn’t just hung over a multiple hundred feet high drop to death.

Then his question registered in my brain.

“Oh, I think it’s really pretty!

It doesn’t seem to cluttered with random flowers either i like that”

That was true, the noble gardens I had seen before all seemed to be stupid tryhard in comparison to this one, This was more subtle and not filled with eye bleeding bright flowers next to even more oversaturated stuff.

Arthur then made a gesture for us to stop.

“Arthur? Something wrong?”

He pointed at the window we just passed and both me and Robin looked out of the small thing.

We were on ground level right behind the shed, technically we didn’t have to walk to the door now since the window should just be large enough to climb out.

Which Robin promptly did, almost headbutting my chin in the process.

“I'm first outside!”

Oh well, The window wasn’t big but I had to be extra stupid to get stuck in it so I heaved myself onto it and jumped down the meter or so to the ground.

Arthur followed swiftly and managed to snag his foot in the windowsill and barely avoided falling onto his Numb face by bracing himself with his arms.

Heaving him up again i looked around to try and spot Oakley, the fucker was fast i gave him that.

Arthur gave me once again a thumbs up what probably was meant to substitute a ‘thank you’.

Robin had already run ahead and I noticed that Oakley was indeed walking right into the shrubbery of the less maintained part of the castle grounds.

So dragging Arthur behind I followed the ginger into the trees that stood between the castle and the protective wall.

Arthur mumbled something incomprehensible again but I guessed it was something along the lines of ‘I can walk myself’ so I let go of his tunic.

Considering the direction Oakley was going he was heading right for the tower, well it was his now and I assumed he’d have to do a lot of cleaning to make it livable.

Who knew how long that half broken tower had been abandoned, not to mention there was an Oak tree growing out of it which probably broke the wall in some places.

We caught up to Robin rather quickly but then stopped as we heard someone call for us.

Turning around I saw Rikaad, now free of mud, walking at a brisk pace towards us.

Robin immediately waved excitedly at him as he came up to us.

“Where are you going? And what’s with Arthur’s face?”

He sounded rather concerned at the last part, but since Arthur couldn’t talk I’d explain it instead.

“He got punched in the jaw and Oakley put something to numb his face and now we wanted to ask how long that works for”

He nodded in acknowledgment before looking at the bruise a bit closer.

“Why were you punched? What happened?”

Well this was about to turn really awkward in a few seconds.

I was in Luck as Robin started explaining what happened before I could open my mouth.

Spared me awkwardly trying to coherently tell him that people in the castle tried to kill me.

Hell, that could have gone so wrong if Arthur had been just a second slower.

Better not dwell on that grimm outlook.

Besides, Judging by Rikaad's face they were going to be fired very soon anyway so it was unlikely that I would ever have to see them again.

“I will deal with that as soon as i can, for now we can go to Oakley, i wanted to ask him what he plans to do with the tower anyway”

True, he said he’d wanted the tower but not what exactly he was going to do with it, and aside from that i also wanted to finally ask him if he had anything to make that absolutely irritating itching go away

Resuming to walk where Oakley had gone, I noticed that this part only looked less well maintained.

There were no bigger branches on the ground and none of the other signs that it was abandoned.

It looked to be expertly well kept even if these plants weren’t cut into fancy shapes.

Also most of the trees were apple or Pear and I guessed that they were planted for when the castle was under lockdown.

Between two trees the tower came into view and it was just as rundown as I thought it would be.

There were holes in the walls and the top half was missing completely so that it had only three stories at most.

It was also slightly askew as the Oak Tree next to it had pushed it aside a bit, getting shelves installed would be a nightmare for sure.

There was rustling from above and it seemed Oakley was sorting trash on whatever remained intact on the upper floor.

I didn’t dare stand anywhere near the tower itself as there could be a risk of falling bricks, especially with Oakley messing about up there.

So shouting up it was and hoping he’d come down without triggering a downpour of stone bricks.

“OAKLEY! HEY! DOWN HERE! WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU!”

A head popped up over the ledge of the tower, it seemed I had been loud enough, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Robin hold his hands over his ears, maybe too loud then.

Whatever the case it worked as Oakley just jumped down and used his wings to glide to the ground.

Yeah, the Air element was a very good guess.

He landed gracefully in front of us and then tucked his wingarms closer to his body.

“Something the matter? Anyone else gotten punched?”

Of course that would be the first thing he had to point out.

I shook my head.

“No, we wanted to ask how long Arthur’s Jaw is going to be numb for”

“And also how you like the tower!”

Robin butted in, pointing at said tower.

Oakley smiled and I could clearly see his fangs again, they were almost off puttingly white.

“Well it should be numb for about one hour total, but! It’s going to remove the bruise entirely and no it does not work on anything worse than that.

As for the tower, well it’s dusty for one thing but I’m working on fixing that.”

Ah, so as soon as the stuff wears off Arthur’s bruise should be gone, That was nice.

And I could plainly see that it was dusty as hell in the run down building.

Maybe i’d offer to help later, first i had to ask if he had anything to make the fucking itching stop.

I debated waiting until the others left but they knew about it already anyway so it didn’t really matter.

Well Rikaad might feel guilty again about stabbing me but right now I just wanted this uncomfortable feeling to stop already.

Maybe he’d give me whatever he gave Arthur to simply numb it.

“Hey Oakley?

Do you have anything that helps in dealing with a painful itch?”

Okay I definitely could have worded that better.

“Did you touch poison ivy? Or what did you do?”

Maybe I should have waited after all, because this was about to be extremely awkward.

Like how the hell was I supposed to explain the fuckery that had happened? And it was my fault too.

But before I could say anything else Robin had already started talking.

“Oh no, its for the stitches in his pouch that Rikaad made after he stabbed Donovan in a snowstorm”

Oh, that was probably too much information at once blurted out in a short sentence, I could almost see Oakley’s brain working to process this strange heap of information.

Then he turned to Rikaad strangely enough.

“Aside from the fact that you STABBED him, what kind of thread did you use?”

Oakley suddenly seemed a bit bigger than before if only due to being puffed up like an angry bird.

I was a bit confused however, why would he need to know what type of thread it was?

Did that influence what type of treatment he was going to use?

Rikaad himself looked rather uncomfortable.

“Just a normal sewing thread with a normal needle, why?”

He suddenly got a face full of wing as Oakley just opened the appendage in his direction.

“A NORMAL thread?!? Are you insane?

That’s way too frayed to be used for wounds!

That just amps up the risk of an infection!

And then a normal sewing needle! That is not sanitary!

Why would you even use that?”

Rikaad had shrank back a bit at Oakleys rant but I could clearly see that where the wing had struck him it was slightly red.

It didn’t look damaged in any way however, apparently it had just been a light smack and not intended to cause damage at all.

Rikaad himself looked stunned for a second before composing himself red face and all.

“I am sorry, i was not aware of this, i only wanted to help”

Well that was nice and all but apparently I had been running the risk of infection for a few days now, which was not good.

Oh no, what if the itching was a sign that I had already gotten one?

Somewhere to my left I could make out that Robin was hiding behind Arthur who also tried to stay out of the way as much as he could without outright leaving.

Oakley was still not very happy but he turned to face me anyway.

“Aside from how the hell you ended up stabbed There of all places, How bad is it? Does it hurt a lot?

And do you have any estimation on how big the wounds are?”

“Well it’s an annoying uncomfortable itch, i’m not sure how big it is but there’s like two places i got stabbed soo uhh”

Oakley just put his three fingered hand on his forehead in exasperation.

“Alright, you are aware that someone has to go get the stitches out right?

An infection risk like that needs to be removed”

Oh fuck, that meant Oakley would-

aww dammit my luck really had run out for today hadn’t it?

He grabbed at my shirt with the end of his two pronged tail and dragged me to the other side of the tower where there was more space as the trees grew further apart from each other here.

“You stay next to the tower and shift bigger, i need to get some supplies, you shouldn’t have shifted with stitches literally lining an organ but there’s nothing to do about it now, just wait here i’ll be right back”

Without saying anything else he spread his wings and then flew up into the sky to get whatever he needed.

Well, best to heed his advice and shift bigger for now.

I chose the Ardua form as people had seen that before and the sudden appearance of a Giant might scare someone into attacking.

Soon enough I was back to being a fuzzy green Beast.

Just as I had shifted the other three rounded the tower and I could see clear concern on all of their faces.

And there was the obvious guilt in Rikaad’s still slightly red face.

I hoped he’d not be too upset by it as it was an accident, I was also pretty sure the only one that knew anything about first aid in this group was Arthur.

Well at least Robin didn’t seem too down by it as instead he came over to my sitting form and hugged my leg.

Now I had to wait for Oakley to come back from wherever he went, which was probably his old shed, and who knew how long that would take.

Sure, he could fly but I had no idea how fast so I was stuck just sitting here worrying if I had an infection or not.

Rikaad came up to me and looked me earnestly in the face.

“I want to apologize again, not only for stabbing you but about the whole issue it turned out to be now due to me using the wrong equipment”

“It’s okay i guess, you didn’t know after all, also since when is there a special thread just to sew up wounds?

But really i should have explained better back then, maybe we wouldn’t have this problem then”

He still didn’t look happy, if anyone could even tell when he was, but he seemed to let it go, at least for now.

Well, now it was waiting for that winged fucker to return.

At least there was grass to sit on instead of just dirt.

I lighty shoved Robin, who was still clinging to my leg, out of the way so I could sort of lay down on the ground, even if I ended up looking like a tired dog.

That gave me an idea, Robin had compared me to a cat so just maybe i could-

Tucking my legs under me like I had seen some of the stray cats do, I ended up doing exactly what I hoped I could.

While Robin had been confused by being shoved away his usual spark returned when he saw why.

“Ohhh Loaf”

He immediately flopped onto the part of my arm that was not hidden underneath me and tried burying himself in fluff.

At least one person was sort of happy right now.

“Dude, you look like a big cat!”

Apparently Robin was not the only one that got joy out of seeing me Loaf, at least judging by Arthur’s amused, if slightly muffled, voice. Oakley's stuff was already slowly wearing off huh? well he did say it would be DONE being numb in an hour, not that he couldn't talk before that.

“So? I can kinda understand now why they do that, this is actually comfy somehow”

That much was true, my limbs actually cushioned the softer underside of my body from the ground and also kept it warmer than the cool grass itself.

Yeah, no wonder cats did this, and with the way my arms were positioned it didn’t put any pressure on my pouch either.

Now i just had to wait for Oakley to come back and do- Well, whatever would help me.

“You really are like a big cat, not that i mind as long as you don’t start pushing things of tables”

I glanced over to Rikaad and saw that he had spoken without looking at me and was staring past the tower towards the castle again.

That reminded me-

“Hey Rikaad, i had expected that now there would be guards around you at all times, did you tell them to fuck off for a bit?”

That gained the attention of Arthur who joined in on the conversation.

“Yeah, what did you tell them you were gonna do?”

Robin didn’t seem to hear anything as he still had his head buried in the floof on my upper arm.

Rikaad looked back at us then.

“I know that, and i didn’t tell anyone that i was going out, i just went out the door when no one was looking”

I just stared at him as he said this, Thus far he had not seemed the type to just do something like that.

And I wasn’t the only one that shared this sentiment as Arthur was also a bit confused by this.

“Don’t you think that’s gonna give someone a heart attack if you just vanish like that?

Also you said that there had been assassins in the past, Should you be walking around with barely any protection?”

That was a good point actually, while the assassin MIGHT have been that Vampire guy we didn’t know for certain, and I was pretty sure the one Arthur meant would get a heart attack was Norrin.

But yeah, if there was an assassin around somewhere being out in the open like this was a bad idea.

But by now i had learned that Rikaad valued his independency a LOT, And not being in control of his own actions was probably really uncomfortable for him.

Still it didn’t seem like us just telling him to go back would make him do it.

Then Robin piped up.

“Hey how far did you get with the paper stuff? Did you find the one that bans Fae folk? Oh and did you find anything cool? How much paper is it anyway?”

Oh right, I had forgotten about that, well at least i would get an answer now.

“Sadly i did not find the paper i wanted, there is so much of it and none of it is organized in any way, it looks like someone toppled the cabinet over and then just stuffed the documents back in, they aren’t even in stacks they are just shoved in and partially crumpled”

Wow, the old git really did not care about anything other than himself huh.

Well, at least Rikaad was trying to fix things now, even if it would be slow going.

“Well, since I doubt Oakley is going to need my help I will go back to try and sort that nightmare of a paper avalanche waiting to happen, and prevent Norrin from a panic attack as he surely has noticed me missing by now”

“Alright, don’t get buried under paper, and I mean that both physically and metaphorically!”

Arthur called to him, earning a rare smile.

“Don’t worry, i’m careful, and taller than the cabinet, see you later then”

And with those words he left to get back to the probably very boring task of sorting paper.

Arthur then turned to me, or more specifically Robin who had buried himself in the floof of my neck again.

“Good call! Bringing attention to the fact he’s got to do stuff in the castle was a fine idea!

If there is an assassin he won’t be in harm’s way out here anymore!”

Robin just blinked at him.

“I did want to know if he found the paper tho, i don’t want people to get stabbed in the city just cuz they have pointy ears”

That was, strangely sweet of him, and that Rikaad was back in the safety of the castle was a nice bonus too on top of that.

I turned my head so that he got a makeshift hug by squishing him into the crook of my neck.

“That’s nice of you, and i agree, nobody should get stabbed for their heritage”

He shoved at the side of my head and stuck his tongue out.

“You’re squishing me!”

He was laughing as he said it so i wasn’t hurting him by doing this, good to know.

Then I decided to be a little gremlin and moved my head away in one swift motion so Robin ended up sliding to the ground.

Before he could get up, I put my head over him and effectively trapped him under my jaw.

I made sure not to use any pressure though, I wanted to annoy him a bit and not hurt him.

A muffled

“Hey!”

Sounded from under me but then he started laughing again.

“I’m not a pillow!”

While shoving at the underside of my jaw lightly.

Arthur had heard that too and was now grinning from ear to ear.

He went next to me and got close enough that Robin would be able to hear him.

“Well now you are!-”

Then he looked at me.

“- just make sure he doesn’t suffocate, yeah?”

I gave an affirmative hum as I didn’t want to move my jaw at all.

Deciding that Arthur just grinning at Robin’s predicament wasn’t exactly fair, I unfurled one of my arms, front legs?, and sneaked it up next to him.

Just as he turned to look at what I was doing I lifted the appendage and softly ‘dropped’ it on him, trapping him beneath my lower arm.

“HEY! Get off you big cat!”

He was trying to crawl out using his arms that he had managed to stick free from under my arm.

Honestly seeing him flail like this was kinda funny, but I still made sure to be very careful so as not to squish him.

“You really are just a big cat! Now get off! This is stupid!”

He was grinning with clear amusement in his voice so I knew I didn’t overstep any boundaries.

I hummed again before slowly easing up on Arthur and lifting my head again.

“Fffffff man you could just fucking obliterate someone like that!

How heavy are you as Ardua anyway?”

Arthur got up and brushed off the dust he got on his tunic.

“No idea, and i don’t think that can be accurately measured”

Without looking I knew Robin hadn’t moved from where he was so I glanced down to what he was doing.

He was still just sitting there, and I knew he was conscious by the fact that he had his eyes open and was sitting upright.

“And what are you doing?”

He stuck his tongue out and then sprung into action.

Standing up abruptly he headbutted the underside of my jaw saying loudly with lots of amusement in his voice.

“BONK!”

The action surprised me and he managed to hit the soft part between my jaw bones.

“Ack!”

I jerked my head up and shook it like a dog which earned even more laughter from the redhead.

Well, i did just trap him under my head so-

“Yeah, i guess that’s fair for trapping you under me”

He was still laughing and had now draped himself over one of my arms like a sack of wheat.

I immediately put my head over him again, which made him laugh even more.

“While you have fun i’m going to poke around the tower before Oakley comes back, don’t worry ill be careful”

Arthur waved before he went around the tower after I gave a confirmative hum, likely to locate the entrance.

Well, there probably wouldn’t be much since Oakley had barely anything moved yet.

Maybe stuff from his backpack that he already put away.

The feeling of tiny hands brushing through my fur made my gaze swivel to the little redhead.

He had that distant stare again and was repeating the one motion over and over.

Spaced about again huh.

I let him, he was just brushing the fur so I saw no reason to stop him.

Besides, it actually felt nice, as weird as it was to admit.

I decided to blame the Ardua form for that, Entire new nervous system and all that.

So for a while I just kept still and let Robin pull his fingers through my fur.

I hummed again when the sun came out from behind some clouds which were probably a leftover from the snow madness and shone on my fur.

There was a small laugh again and it seemed Robin was done spacing out.

“Can you do that again? That humm i mean”

I wasn’t sure why he wanted me to do that again but I could see no harm in it so I did.

The moment I did Robin hugged my jawbone much to my confusion.

“That sound rattles all of my bones! It’s funny!”

Ah, so that’s why he wanted me to do it again.

Well, he could have that.

I trapped him again under my jaw and hummed louder than before which got me a laughing fit from Robin.

Somewhere near the tower I heard cursing and lifted my head again to see what was going on much to the ginger’s disappointment.

I could just about make out Arthur near the tower, He was holding his foot and insulting something I couldn’t see.

Peering closer I could see a stone brick sticking out of the ground and surmised that Arthur hit his toe.

I wasn’t the only one that had run out of luck today it seemed.

Looking up as a shadow passed over me I saw Oakley again, he was a really silent flier if he wanted to be.

I’d better remember that to avoid getting jumpscared in the future.

He landed and I could see a new backpack filled to the brim with stuff I had no way of recognizing all of it as some of it seemed like more magic fuckery.

“Oakley hey! You’re back already?”

He shook the backpack off before answering.

“Of course! Flying is way faster than walking, and I don’t have to maneuver over changing terrain or follow roads!”

He opened the bag and started pulling things out that should not have fit in it.

For example a really long and sturdy but smooth looking rope as well as a box that made a clattering sound.

Barsen Effortlessly Hoisted the ceramic vessel onto his shoulder he turned a bit to go into another hallway.

“It’s right this way, I assume you got lost for a bit?”

Walking after him Robin immediately started chattering his ear off.

“Yeah! And then we thought we could ask someone for help but they-”

Tuning his retellings of what happened out for a moment I looked to Arthur instead who was still holding his sore jaw.

“You okay? I’m so sorry that happened”

He Hmm’d and made a dismissive hand motion.

“Im fine, s’just a bruise, also i broke the guys nose so i won”

So the cracking noise i heard was indeed caused by a breaking bone, well cartilage actually if i remembered correctly.

Still, getting punched in the jaw wasn’t fun as I knew from experience.

“If you’re sure, but just as a tip don’t use the hurting side to chew, that just puts pressure on the sore parts”

He looked bewildered for a moment.

“Did you get punched in the face before? Or how do you know that?”

I nodded at his inquiry.

“Multiple times, beating the face of a Bastard is apparently fun for a lot of people, i’m lucky i never had it broken”

He looked a bit shocked at the admission, and had likely drawn the correct conclusion that all the Fae hating people in the town had used me as a punching bag in the past.

Thinking about it, I was incredibly lucky to survive that long.

“Fucking hell, well im pretty sure that kinda stuff is stopping now with Rikaad as king”

“Yeah, i mean he’s already going over the paperwork, so i’m sure it will get better from now on”

He nodded and smiled as best as he could with his slowly swelling jaw, Then winced a little and went back to holding the bottom half of his face with his hands.

I looked forward again to Robin who was still chattering on to Barsen, Now about plants.

Well he was the Gardener so talking about plants was the best topic to make small talk.

Listening for a few seconds I realized Robin was talking about the plants I had told him about after he asked what was edible and what wasn’t.

I felt strangely touched that he actually remembered all of it, and that he went to talk about it with an actual Gardener who was much more a plant expert than I was.

Walking around a bend i could see a door with a familiar sign on it, the infirmary.

We would really need to find a way to navigate this idiotic layout of the castle, Why would anyone build it like this in the first place anyway?

At least we were back at a point we knew and Arthur could get his jaw looked at by a medic.

“Here we are, if you boys ever need help again feel free to ask, i’m sure we’ll see each other around, I have to bring this to its new place now”

He gently patted the ceramic pot on his shoulder and turned to leave.

“Thank you for bringing us here, Barsen!”

I waved after him and Robin excitedly jumped up and down next to me.

“Bye Barsen! Thanks for helping!”

Arthur just waved as his jaw had swelled some more and talking would probably hurt now.

Since one of us was injured I felt like it wasn’t an unjust disturbance to knock on the infirmary door.

It took barely ten seconds for the nurse who had opened last time to open once again.

She took one look at us and especially Arthur before winking us inside.

“How did that happen? You were here not too long ago and i’m very sure you didn’t have that bruise back then, it looks pretty new”

Since Arthut had trouble talking with a swollen jaw I substituted the answer.

“He got punched by some card playing Guards for telling them off”

The Nurse let out an annoyed huff.

“Oh i know who you mean, they regularly come in here with a hangover and at this point i don’t let them in anymore, i hope the new king does something about it”

Oh, he for sure would, he had a strong sense of justice after all, he’d probably just fire them seeing as it appeared that they did not contribute anything at all.

Aside from that we could just tell Nea and she’d kick their asses.

Speaking of, I looked around the room to see if I could spot her.

While Arthur was led to a cabinet that smelled strongly of some kind of disinfectant and alcohol I saw a corner that was separated by white curtains.

Robin awkwardly stood next to me and it was clear he didn’t know what to do.

Neither did i if i was honest, Arthur was getting the medical attention he needed and i didn’t see Nea anywhere at all.

“Donovan? Do you see Nea anywhere? Do you think she’s okay?”

I looked around once more just to confirm I hadn’t missed her.

“No idea where she is but i’m sure-”

“Focking Hell! That stings! What are ya even doin?”

I was interrupted by a very familiar voice hurling mild obscenities at whoever was near her.

Nea had been behind the white curtain the entire time!

No wonder we didn’t see her.

Robin looked at me with big eyes.

“Nevermind, i found her”

“Shall we go and say hello? I have no idea how long Arthur takes with that bruise after all”

After a nod from him we went over to the curtain where I could still hear Nea cussing out whoever was with her.

“Hold still already! Or I’m going to sedate you again!”

Wait, I knew that voice.

“Oakley? Since when are you back? And what do you mean by sedating her again?”

A two pronged tail shoved the curtain aside and revealed the winged man standing over Nea and bandaging her foot with a weird smelling cloth.

“Hello Donovan! I had to drug her cuz she wouldn’t stop trying to punch me”

“And I’ll do it again! That stung! Ya coulda have warned me at least!”

Glad to know that Nea was already getting better, at least judging by her angry disposition.

“I did warn you! But you were busy cursing at the dead ice mage!

You could at least show some consideration to the people that help you!”

Nea just huffed angrily.

“Ya didn’t have ta focking drug me ovar that!”

Her weird accent was shining through a bit more than before I noted.

Was it because she was angry right now?

Whatever the case she glared at Oakley while he finished wrapping up her foot.

“Well anyway, remember what i told you about taking care of it, and for fucks sake don’t make it worse or im going to set it on fire to combat the ice magic! Be glad it didn’t freeze your foot off!”

“Yeah yeah, I'm not dumb im not going to do anything that could make me lose it after I got so close to having it amputated by that quack!”

Wait what!? Close to amputated?

Did the doc she was brought to attempt that?

Robin who stood next to me also had a shocked expression.

“Oh no! Are you okay? Why would they try to do that?”

Oakley looked at him.

“Well they have no experience in dealing with magic, so I guess they thought it best to remove it before it could spread the coldness even more? She’s lucky i got here in time”

Nea just crossed her arms and huffed unhappily.

“Imma kick their shins as soon as i’m fit again”

Yeah, she seemed to be well on her way to recovery if she was already threatening violence again.

“Well I guess my work here is done, Anything I can help you two with?”

Before I could come up with a way to ask for help about my aching Pouch without admitting anything, I didn’t want anyone to know about it. 

Robin had already started to tell Oakley that Arthur got socked in the jaw.

“Arthur got punched in the jaw, can you help him too?

It looks like it hurts a lot, he’s with a Nurse right now”

Well, since Nea was right here it probably was for the better that i didn’t ask him right now, Besides, Arthur would probably appreciate the help.

“What did he do ta get his face punched? Also yeah better help him lest one of tha doc’s decides ta amputate that too!”

She was definitely still sour that one of the medics here tried that.

Also maybe putting it out there that she could kick some delinquents as soon as she was better might lift her mood a bit.

So while Robin brought Oakley to Arthur I told her in simple terms what had happened.

“Some card playing Guards got angry when we asked for directions”

Since apparently a lot of people immediately knew who we were talking about when we said card playing guards she would probably know too.

“Those guys again? I ought to break their fingers! Every single one-”

She stopped to stare at me and I suddenly recalled that she had only known me in the Ardua form and I got nervous.

Well Barsen had known somehow that the Ardua and I were the same thing so maybe I would get lucky again.

“That’s what yer human form looks like? At least ye still have the same eyes, and Yer smaller than i thought, and tha hell is with yer ears?”

To exaggerate her point she bent forward and pinched the ear closest to her and lighty tugged down a bit.

That sent off a weird feeling to my brain and my fight or flight thing activated making me freeze on the spot.

Since Robin had dragged Oakley to Arthur already there was no one that could help me.

“Oww, Nea! Let go!”

She immediately let go and I carefully rubbed my ear where she had pinched it.

A sword lady for sure with strong fingers like that, I would have to remind myself to never arm wrestle against her.

“Sorry! Didn’t know yer ears where so sensitive”

“Im fine, you didn’t know, Just don’t do that ever again”

I grumbled out at her apology, still holding my sore ear.

“I do gotta ask though, which one are you?

Beast turned human or human turned Beast?”

What, well as unexpected as this question was, it was still easy to answer.

“I’m shifting into the Beast, which is called an Ardua by the way, and the form you see now is the one i was born with”

“Ha! you’re just a little gremlin!

If i coulda done that who knew what insane stuff i had come up with!”

Suddenly I was very glad nobody else could use the bracelet seeing as just the prospect of shifting made her admit that she would have done some rather idiotic stuff.

“I uh, I guess? To be honest i kinda expected to be stabbed as soon as the people here saw my ears but till now only those card players tried to”

Her gaze shifted into something I couldn’t pinpoint, but it sure wasn’t happy.

“They What? Oh imma break something for sure! Let me guess, Arthur got punched cuz he was in the way?”

I nodded at her correct assumption.

“Well he kinda put himself in the way, and he pulled me aside as one of them aimed for my face with a dagger and then blocked the doorway”

“So he saved ya, imma have to congratulate him for quick thinking i guess, eh later”

Right, Arthur saved me, and Robin too as I was pretty sure he’d have gotten caught in the crossfire.

“Oi don’t look so down! Yer all safe and that winged fucker is doing whatever to help the blondie, it’ll be fine!”

Ah, my apprehensiveness showed on my face, that or she was just good at reading emotions.

Considering she was surrounded by helmeted people a lot of the time it might be the latter, might.

“How’d ya get away after that anyway?”

I looked back up to her.

“The gardener, Barsen is his name if I remember correctly, calmly told them off then brought us here.”

“Ah yes Barsen, the guy is a godsend sometimes, and he’s always so nice, No idea how he manages that i would have been ticked off long ago!”

So the gardener was rather well known in the castle halls, and for being a good guy no less.

I’d have to really talk to him at some point just to see for myself.

“Well what about you? How are you?

Your foots been fixed and now you just have to rest for a while”

She sat up straight, with her legs still stretched out in front of her and I had to note that she was rather flexible.

“I’m out of commission for at least six weeks, That sucks so much! I can’t even kick tha slackers anymore!”

A fair sentiment, seeing as she was a rather energetic person that had to be especially annoying.

“Nea i have no doubt that as soon as you get crutches you are going to hit people with those”

“Damn roight ya are, I am gunna do that! Just cuz I’m out for a bit dun’t mean thay can just sleep on tha job!”

She had devolved into an accent i couldn’t place for the life of me, but it did sound angry.

“Oh calm down, I’m sure it’s not so bad! You could pick up a hobby or something!”

She just stared daggers at me.

“I’m going ta make it my hobby ta bite anyone that says shit about me being off duty just out of spite!”

I had to snort out a laugh at that.

“What? Did the vampire bite you that you want to bite people all of a sudden?”

The sentiment was funny because I knew she did not get Bitten.

“Nah, but what do ya think the fucker woulda done with our corpses had we died?”

Well seeing as it was a vampire that only left one option really.

“Probably eaten them, or at least sucked all the blood out, i guess you could call him a sucker cuz he sucked at his objective”

She actually laughed at my really bad joke before slapping me across the back making me lurch forward and my pouch started to hurt worse again from the impact.

Still i didn’t let anything of that show on my face, and what little did show could easily be mistaken as her hitting me in a sore spot.

“Ya know yer green form is big enough to do that i think”

I froze in place at her words, not sure what to do now.

She didn’t know that much was clear but she had correctly guessed what i was capable of and i could absolutely not let anymore people know about this.

“What? That thought never occurred ta ya?

Well i guess since ya are part plant ya can live off sunlight like plants do, So ya probably don’t think about such stuff”

Luckily she mistook my freezing up in panic as me just being uncomfortable with such a topic.

“Uh-”

“Eh sorry if that made ya uncomfy, i sometimes have a rather wild imagination, just ignore what i said”

Well at least she had correctly guessed the plant thing, but she was not dumb, at all, so i would have to be extra careful around her to not let anything slip.

And now I was nervous, great, just great, but it had probably been long enough that I could excuse myself and got back to Arthur and Robin.

“Well i should probably go back to the other two and let you rest, I wish you a fast recovery”

She gave me a thumbs up and I stood up, turning to face the rest of the room only to have a pillow fly by my ear and hit Oakley from behind.

He let out an extremely birdlike squawk and whipped his head around with an irritated expression.

I looked back to Nea who was just flipping him, ironically, the bird.

“Next time warn a gal before ya use drugs ya cunt”

“Well, next time i’ll just leave the drugs out and you can feel all of the pain then”

Oh, it looked like Nea was still very sour about the sedative, at least it was just a pillow as everything else that could be thrown was well out of reach.

Good thinking on part of the medics, well they were probably used to such antics by now.

I decided it best to get out of the line of fire and moved slowly away from Neas corner.

Though slinking away turned out to be unnecessary when Oakley grabbed a bag and just left out the door.

Fuck, now i had to search for him again, At this point I'd never get help.

Well at least Arthur seemed okay now, He was still holding his jaw but the swelling was gone and all that was left was some discoloration from the bruise itself.

Avoiding being hit by something in case Nea decided to throw something else I went over to both Arthur and Robin.

Arthur greeted me with a little wave and gestured weirdly to his jaw.

He was silent the entire time but luckily Robin filled me in on why.

“Hey Donovan! Oakley fixed Arthur’s jaw as best as he could but he said it would be numb for a bit!”

That made sense, if the thing that got the swelling down was also numbing it he wouldn’t be able to coherently talk.

“How long is a bit? A few minutes or like an hour?”

Robin looked to Arthur once before answering.

“Uuhh, we don’t know, we forgot to ask”

So Arthur was stuck with a numb jaw for ‘a bit’

which could be actual hours and not just a few minutes.

“Well we could ask him, I think he’s outside? I’m not sure but the tower he wanted seems the most likely place so we should check there”

“Oh right! And you wanted to ask more about Ardua! I bet he’s got some really old books!”

While I hadn’t seen Oakleys shed on the inside, with all the knowledge he had it was very likely that he owned some rather rare tomes.

Like the one about Ardua for example, Maybe I’d ask him if I could read it.

I was not a fast reader by any means but at least I could read unlike some other street dwellers.

“Yeah he seems the type to have that, and he did say he had one about Ardua so i’m just going to ask if i can read it myself”

Arthur looked at me strangely as I said this, what?

Did he think just because I grew up on the street for a majority of my life meant I couldn’t read?

Arthur’s confused staring was interrupted by Robin.

“Are you good at reading? I’m not, the letters start to shift when i look at them too long and it hurts my head”

Both me and Arthur looked at him concerned.

“I don’t think letters are supposed to do that, Maybe you need glasses for reading?”

The ginger shook his head.

“Already tried that, didn’t work and the glass warped everything weirdly, I don’t want that again, it looked like nausea feels”

That was one of the weirdest descriptions I had heard in my life but strangely enough I could actually picture what he meant.

“That’s weird, well i’m no expert to such stuff so i can’t say why its like that for you”

He didn’t seem overly bothered by it and just shrugged, Then his usual curiosity returned.

“Who taught you to read? I thought you couldn’t go to school with your pointy ears?”

Oh, right, that was true but I did hide on the roof of one occasionally and learn by just listening.

“My Mother showed me how to read, well before she died at least so i’m not very good at it”

Arthur tried to say something to that but only managed to mumble something completely incomprehensible due to his numb jaw.

“What? Oh wait yeah we should go to Oakley and ask him how long that stuff is going to numb your jaw”

Judging by his face that was not what he had meant to say but since he couldn’t talk right now we could only guess.

Despite having tried to say something else than what we assumed he walked towards the door of the infirmary.

“Oh, we can ask him what types of magic he knows!

Ooh maybe he can teach me a spell!”

We weren’t even out of the room and Robin was already excitedly jumping up and down.

“Haha maybe, i don’t know if all humans can use magic though, Well if someone knows that it’s Oakley”

His enthusiasm was adorable, and it gave me something better to focus on that my hurting organ.

Arthur also gave a thumbs up to Robin since he couldn’t exactly say anything about this.

“Ooohh wait, Elemental magic is a thing! What element do you think fits me best? What Element do you think fits you? I think Fire would be cool!

But that’s probably dangerous, uhh maybe air! Then I could use wind to grab stuff from the top shelves! What do you think?”

Right, elemental magic, well considering the Nature of the Ardua form the magic in the bracelet was probably Earthen.

As for what Element fit Robin best-

“Well with red hair like that Fire would be a fitting match i guess, but air could fit too, not that i know anything about that sort of stuff but i think you could find and twist stuff so every element fits you somehow”

Arthur made an agreeing Hmm and nodded while Robin just stared at the air before facing us again.

“Well what do you think you are? With the shifting i mean and-”

He gestured to the bracelet.

“-that? I mean it’s definitely NOT fire i don’t think at least”

I looked down again at the bracelet with the embedded green gems, Yep definitely Earthen considering everything.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Earthen, i mean come on i’m a big plant lion thing what else would it be?”

A goofy smile appeared on his face and even Arthur tried to to grin which failed as half his lips were still numb.

“You’re right! Big plant cat is for sure an Earth element!

And the gems on your bracelet are green too!

Hey, what do you think Oakley is element wise?”

Oakleys Element? Hmm that was trickier, he said he did not have an affinity for ice magic so it probably wasn’t water.

I Doubted that it was fire as I just couldn’t see the tailed man using flames for anything, and he had wings so it was very likely that it was air.

“Well he’s got wings, so I guess it’s Air?

He said he’s not good at ice magic so it definitely isn’t water”

While we went around the corner that led to the hallway with the exit door my mind went back to when Oakley had used the ice staff to melt all of the snow.

For someone who said they weren’t good at ice magic he had been very adept at removing the snow.

If that was what he considered bad then I was curious as to what he defined as good at magic.

“Not water huh, well I guess Air is the opposite? Or would that be earth?

I think Fire and Water are opposite but i don’t know about the other two”

Robin seemed very intrigued by the concept of magic, and to me fair being able to use magic did sound like it would be great.

“I don’t know about opposites, if that even counts in element magic, but im sure if you could use magic you’d do something cool with it”

Robin smiled brightly and now that we were at the same scale I could make out his chipped tooth perfectly, it looked like a tiny little fang.