Takumi woke. The room was semi- dark, with a small, yet bright lantern set on a table near his bed allowing him to tell he was in his room in Castle Shirasagi. The curtains near the window were drawn, and the lack of light told it that at least the day was already gone by. He turned his head and winced. A healer that had a shift in one of the infirmaries was sitting in a chair nearby, his thick hands placed lightly over each other, and a small, almost dreamy grin on his face. His short, thinning white hair shone somewhat in the dim light, and his usual oddly-shaped rod leaned against his chair. Of course, it would be this healer.
"I would think that it is a good sign that you did not sprout tentacles during this time," the healer stated, a bit absently. "Nor cat's paws, but I suppose that that would be a sign of Ginger Fluff Dencores, you know." He smiled a bit, as if he really knew what they were.
Takumi, though, knew just to ignore him. The healer, Jocho, was just plain odd, but certainly knew how to heal. He mostly glad that the healer assigned to him was not Azama. The estranged teaser had a "slight" mean spirit sometimes. Sometimes it seemed like other than healing, his chosen existence was to torment others to no end, his own liege, Hinoka, included. He was a good healer, yes, but why in the world Hinoka had chosen him for her retainer was beyond him. Takumi was just glad that due to this position, Azama wouldn't be chosen to watch him.
It was rather irking to have to be watched in the first place. Which reminded him of the skirmish, the rain, and . . .
Takumi sat up, still feeling weak, but definitely not as much as he was earlier in the forest. Shamed burned in him as he remembered that the entire army that had been with him had seen him down, after he had failed to even touch the enemy. Not only had he been unconscious, but he had been changed. . .
"I would think that my socks would be suddenly jumping in meadows again, the ones that had those giant butterflies, if it had been both you and your younger sister suddenly growing fur. You know those winged things that fly around and bite you when you are not looking," Jocho went on. "My socks did, jump, that is, the other day when I fell down the stairs, three times in a row, in fact. I found them in my room, all drenched in dew and with giant holes everywhere. Such a shame, really," he tsked.
Takumi doubted that his socks had really jumped anywhere, and did not correct the odd healer about mosquitos, which were definitely not giants. He was disheartened, however, about the mention of his younger sister.
How could he have been so wrapped up in his own shame that he had forgotten that his siblings could also have been targeted? The healer had mentioned that Sakura did not have fur, at least.
"What about Ryoma?" he asked urgently. "And Sakura? Is she fine?"
He could not, unfortunately, know about Hinoka about the moment. The sky knight was off on a few days mission to help a small town with some bandits. She had insisted that she could handle it alone with her retainers, and with a noble friend that had also been in Corrin's army in Valla, and was from the besieged town. Of course, there could be a message sent if something had happened . . .
Takumi was suddenly aware that he did not know how much time had passed since he had fallen unconscious in the forest. Hinoka could already be at the castle already, and it would be known if she was attacked.
The healer held up his hands. "Though I cannot say for Lady Hinoka, the others are fine, fine, as a little sword in the meadows- not the same that the butterflies- butterfrees? Butterflees, were they? Now I forget." He stroked his chin, as if it really mattered. "Oh, yes, dargonflews, the ones that bounce off the walls and go to the meadow to rally the little quirrels to go to sleep at night. Quite a sight to behold, really."
Once again, the peculiar man was just plain . . . weird. Most of what he said was nonsense, but if he could go by what the healer said before, Hinoka had not yet returned.
Takumi looked down at himself. He was in his night clothes, and surprisingly, even though there was rain earlier, the fur was not damp in at all. How long had he been unconscious, anyway? It had to be perhaps less than a few days. He sort of wanted to ask Jocho, but didn't want another answer full of cats going through walls, kotos singing or something equally absurd.
At least his siblings were fine. Takumi was particularly glad that Hinoka was not at the castle yet. Ryoma, of course, would have known about the attack and his failure to even get close to the enemy.
And now, the people in the castle would find many more things to snipe about. First, he was part Vallite, and could turn into a dragon. It did not help that his sister, Corrin, had been, according to some accounts, rampaging through the cratered center of the capital and a large area surrounding it after the attack that had killed many, including his mother. Maybe even the one that had done all of the killing. And now this. It would not surprise him if the gossip twisted into him always being this creature type-looking thing! He just hoped- really hoped- that they would leave Sakura out of it as well.
"The healers were not really sure about this furriness of yours, you know."
Takumi looked up again at Jocho. "And yes, I know of the ones in Shirasagi and Hatlenburg that jumped from the moon. But, then again, they did not say anything useful about tantavles, but of course you have not those- but I already said that, correct?"
Tentacles, really, but it did not matter.
"Now really, it would matter if it were the type of tantovles that quite love to pick up soldiers and throw them into flowerpots, but thankfully that does not seem to be the case. Nor with anyone else, either. Little Lady Sakura was particularly distressed when she saw you, but of course it was not with tantivles."
He laughed, and then stated, raising a thick finger, "Oh, yes, she is right over there. Fell asleep when I started telling her about the time that I was in a forest and had forgotten my raccoon."
Takumi looked, surprised, in the direction that he had pointed. There, fast asleep, curled up in a soft chair by a wall of his room, was his little sister, her short pink hair having fallen over her face. He winced at the thought of Sakura having seen him with this transformation.
Jocho continued. "She was mighty adamant in waking her if you woke up when she was asleep in here. Funny, it is night when people do that, though you were already conked by that time. Why, the night flees fly through the night in search of their prey, and are the vicious monsters that little creatures fear! Ravaging through the trees, all little creatures flee in pursuit of their happy acorns. Of course, it does not matter if the acorns are ones that have ants in them. The ants that come from those bounce all over the place and the poor little creatures have to find some other home elsewhere. Poor things," he said sadly.
He then got up from his chair and Takumi saw him start for the place where Sakura was currently asleep.
Takumi winced. "No, don't wake her up. She should just stay asleep," he hastily added.
"Oh, you think that this chair is that comfortable and has a little powder from fettle leaves added for comfort?" Jocho asked, turning around slightly. "Surely not. They are quite hard to come by, being from a forest full of vicious thargs."
Takumi winced again. Yes, Sakura should go to her bed, but he was not ready to face any one of his siblings yet.
He took out his hands from under his covers, and clenched his right fist, feeling and seeing the black fur. A constant reminder of the consequence of his mistake. Of course, there were his wings behind him, as well. Such shame, such shame, such shame . . .
Jocho laid a hand on his younger sister and shook her gently.
"Oh, look, see? Your brother is all right after all, and no tantuvles to be seen," he said brightly.
Sakura lifted her head, and her hair fell from her face as she turned her head toward Takumi's bed where he was currently sitting up. Her eyes widened as she saw Takumi, and she got off the chair and ran to him, enveloping him in a tight hug.
"Bi-big brother!" Sakura cried. "You're all right!" She held onto him, wings and all, though she was trembling, and Takumi could feel her tears fall on his clothing.
Sakura stopped holding him, and climbed onto Takumi's bed.
"Ja-Janyun had said that you were attacked and I wanted to help heal you, and I saw how you-you had changed, and I tried to heal you. I-I tried, but it didn't do anything!" she stuttered, closing her eyes and looking down. "May-maybe I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry!"
Takumi placed an arm around his crying younger sister. Seriously, Sakura blamed herself for him being in this state? He only had himself to blame. Maybe it was the shock of the seeing the transformation in the first place that had Sakura so tattered.
"It wouldn't have mattered, anyway," he said softly to Sakura. "This. . . all of this weird stuff is what those people did. You heard about them, right?" he asked.
Sakura nodded, still crying.
"So it's not a wound, or anything like that, so simply healing it won't make it go away." He did not want to particularly want to think about that- what, if anything, could reverse the transformation?
"I'm all right, really, though. Even like this." He winced inwardly at that. "It will be fixed, somehow."
His wings, seemingly in denial of him being all right, fluttered and pushed outward a little, one of them brushing against Sakura on the side. Takumi flushed and tried to pull his stupid wing back to where it had been again, but it accidently jerked to the right and hit Sakura in the face. Startled, she almost began to fall backward, but Takumi caught her arm before she fell, and pulled her forward slightly. He quickly let go of her arm, definitely noticing the unfamiliar feeling of fur against skin.
He blanched, but then tried to think about his wings in dragon form, and managed to awkwardly bring these wings back to where they had been both by pulling on the right one and using foreign muscles in his back and the wings themselves. The wings fluttered slightly, but stayed put otherwise.
"Sorry," he said, flustered. He looked down at his furry hands, very much obviously not pale skin as they should be. Sakura followed his gaze.
"I-it's fine," Sakura said, not crying anymore, but her voice carried her sadness.
"Yes, and not any flowers in the curtains or those cerulean perkit cats crawling on dusty side of the underside of the dresser like they were yesterday," said the jolly voice near them.
Takumi looked at Jocho. The healer's eyes were mostly closed, hands clasped as he nodded, looking at the window as if he could and normally saw blue cats crawling there.
". . . Huh?" Sakura asked, looking at Jocho, then Takumi again.
Takumi actually smiled some. "Yeah, I don't really get him either."
He turned to Sakura, surprisingly feeling a bit better. "You should get to your bed. It's late."
Sakura looked at him sadly, and then suddenly looked determined. Takumi looked at her in confusion as she ran lightly to not the door of his room, but his closet and pulled it open.
"Sakura, what are you-" he started, before she came out, half-carrying, half dragging a small cot out of the back of the closet. Sakura, deaf to his stammers, still pulled the cot closer to the bed.
"But-" he began.
Several times, years ago, he and Sakura would have sleepovers in his room with Sakura using this very cot. It had been fun when they were kids, but it had not been used for that occasion for quite a while.
Jocho, instead of telling her to put the cot back, said excitedly, "Ooooh, fun on the moon time!"
The healer helped Sakura by taking most of the cot's weight and helped her put it near Takumi's bed. They laid some blankets on the cot, also from the closet, arranging them on the small bed. Sakura was mostly helping in the neat part- Jocho was fluffing the edges of the blankets, muttering things such as 'Little bouncy flowers: fun!'.
Takumi was reminded of the time on a boat when he had been a part of Corrin's small growing army. Sakura had then also dragged a cot, with Subaki's and Hana's help, near Takumi's after she had gone into his room after a nightmare. Takumi had seen Hana's face as if she could not believe that she would go to Takumi rather than her, but she had also helped her liege with the cot.
The next morning, he and the rest of the small room were awoken by Sakura's scream again from another nightmare, and Takumi, since he was so close to the unexpected yell, had been so startled that he had jerked upright and whammed his head against the wall. Both noises had not gone unnoticed by yet more of the army. The situation was quite embarrassing, but he had managed to try to comfort Sakura at least a little, and her retainers did also.
Cringing a little at the memory of the incident, he could not still be mad at Sakura for wanting to be near him again this night. His sister was sitting up on the cot underneath the thick blankets, and she reached near him over the space between the cots and grabbed his furry hand. Takumi winced, but noticed that his sister did not flinch once at the feel of fur.
She laid down, still holding his hand, and whispered, "You'll be all right," her voice mostly steady.
Strangely enough, it was Sakura trying to comfort him instead of the other way around.
"Yeah," he said, laying down also, facing her worried face, and she smiled.
His wings were a little hard to get comfortable with sideways, but after shifting a little, he managed to get them in a semi-comfortable position. Takumi was very glad that Sakura was not mad at him for letting the enemy attack. He was not looking forward to facing others in the castle, especially Ryoma, in the morning. He would definitely have to see Ryoma . . . Takumi thought of Oboro and Hinata, and really hoped that they were all right, but did not want to bother Sakura, who was already breathing steadily.
After Takumi was mostly asleep, he heard Jocho say, "Oh, now I remember what was in the meadow. It was dragonflies!"
Takumi fought the urge to roll his eyes, and just hoped that he might get some actual sleep that night.
Thanks to again to Starsoarer.