Daniel had no idea how long it'd been when he finally woke up, but he felt like shit. He vision swam and he felt close to vomiting. He lay his head back down, closing his eyes to stop the world from spinning. This time, he opened them much more slowly and his eyes adjusted to the bright light. He still felt terrible, but the nausea was less overpowering. If he didn't know better, he'd swear he was hungover -which wouldn't make sense anyway since he was only 16.
He slowly turned his head, examining his surroundings. He was in a recovery room, probably at a veterinary hospital or clinic, on the floor. There was a blanket draped over him, but it wasn't really necessary with his feathers. The room was mostly empty, a few chairs around the edges. They had probably taken out the bed to make more room. It wasn't a small room, though the Gryphon was edgy about the enclosed space.
His eyes suddenly flew to the window and he was fully awake as he realized it was nighttime. How long had he been asleep? It was early morning when he passed out!
He was immediately on his feet...and staggered, almost instantly falling back to the cold floor. The nausea came rushing back and he hacked, vomiting up what little was in his stomach. He slowly lowered his head to the floor, avoiding the liquid, and regained his senses. Finally he raised his head slowly and examined his body.
His feathers and fur, he noticed, had been thoroughly groomed and his claws trimmed - not dulled, just manicured. His plumage, now fully cleaned, had taken on a far more distinct blue color, though still very dark. His torso was bound in bandages, as was his left fore-leg. The pain was dulled, obviously the effects of painkillers. They had probably cleaned him up to keep the wounds from getting infected. It wouldn't be a great idea to move, but if the veil wore off while he was in this condition...
His eyes shot to the fore as an older man entered the room through the large double doors, probably having heard Daniel moving around. He stopped dead, seeing the huge Gryphon alert and staring straight at him. Without a word, he left and soon returned with a woman and a young girl. The latter immediately grabbed Daniel in a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. "Danny, I was so worried about you!" It took him a moment, but he finally realized this must be Claire in a human glamour.
"Hey, Claire," he said, pushing her back gently. "How long's it been?"
"One-and-a-half days," the older woman answered as Claire translated. "My name's Jessica. I'm an intern here, but I was working the desk when Claire showed up." She paused. "She's been really worried about you, you know. Not much has happened yet. Several Hunters have been seen in town but ignored the Mystic residents. We're fairly certain they're looking for someone or something specific, but whether the incident was isolated or the first of a serious of attacks is still under investigation." She paused again. "Of course, no one really knows what happened to the other attendees of the party. Ethan showed up yesterday afternoon..."
This immediately grabbed his attention and he was fully alert. "Ethan's here?"
Claire looked at him surprised. "You know Ethan?"
He hissed angrily, "I wish I didn't, but yeah, we're acquainted. I need to speak with him, though." He tried to stand, but the unnamed man quickly crossed the room and pushed him back down.
"That's a bad idea," he warned. "The gash on your foreleg is minor, but you reopen the wound on your side and your condition will only worsen."
"We'll find Ethan in the morning and you can talk to him then," Jessica said, "but in the meantime, Chris and I have some...questions." Claire had readily relayed his words, but the curiosity in her eyes was clear as day.
Daniel lay back down, figuring it would be quick. "Ask away," he said simply through the Kitsune.
Claire exchanged a glance with the doctor. "You're unregistered," the latter finally said, looking at him. "In light of everything that's happened, it's been swept under the rug, but there's no record of your existence anywhere. In fact, we even looked through unofficial records and still couldn't find anything. By all accounts, you never even existed before New Year's."
Daniel chuffed, looking away. "That's actually not surprising..." he muttered. He remembered hearing about that: the government wasn't forcing it, but they had insisted Mystics register so the US Government could keep track of its non-human citizens, especially potentially-dangerous ones like Class 3s - which, come to think of it, he was one of for the time being. It was basically a national census, but it would cause no end of problems for him when he turned back.
Claire hesitated before repeating it, something obviously eating at her. "Danny, you...you never did tell me who you are. You're...you're not dangerous, are you?"
"A Class 5 Mystic?" Chris asked. "I doubt it. They're hard to classify because they're not a specific set of species, but it'd be a lot more obvious."
Class 5...Daniel had heard of those before. The government was supposedly keeping those Mystics, the 'truly dangerous' ones, a close secret until people started to become more accepting of Mystics in general. They were allegedly criminals, Mystics who hated humans and weren't afraid to kill to show their superiority. In hindsight, he realized it wasn't all that different from how many Hunters viewed Mystics as a whole.
"Tell ya what," he finally said, looking at the doctor, "I'm obviously in no condition to undergo the process at the moment. Give me a day-and-a-half to recover and I'll undergo the procedure."
"The tracker's already implanted," Chris responded, gesturing to Daniel's leg. "But it shouldn't be a problem to wait to do the rest."
It took Daniel a full 5 seconds to register that first sentence and he immediately looked down at his leg. He realized the aching came not from a wound but from an implant, inserted directly beneath the scaly skin. His heart skipped a beat. ~Oh, shit...~ That just made his post-veil future a lot more complicated. He could probably have it removed, but removing it was illegal and no doctor would do the procedure and face such steep fines...
Chris, seeing the change in expression, quickly said, "It's just a normal part of the process. It's required that all Class 3's have one for safety reasons, but none of them have actually been used yet. Yours isn't even activated yet, but it can be remotely activated."
That made Daniel feel a little better, but he didn't like the idea of people being able to locate him at the flip of a switch. He absently scratched at his left leg, feeling a yawn coming on. He had been sleeping for over 2 days, but for some reason he still felt tired...did they sedate him?
"Is he alright?" Claire asked Jessica, noticing Daniel's drowsiness.
"Couldn't risk him waking up mid-procedure," she answered. "A minor anesthetic, to ensure he would remain unconscious." She knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be right as rain in a few hours, definitely by the time you wake up tomorrow morning. You should get some sleep, let the sedative run its course. We'll talk again in the morning."
Lacking the energy to argue, the young man lay back down on the floor, watching them leave. He quickly fell back asleep, though he was never able to recall how long it was after they left the room.
—
Claire lay awake in a recovery room next to Daniel's in her true form, trying desperately to fall asleep. She was exhausted, it was nearly midnight, but the lack of information given by Daniel kept her up. Jessica insisted she sleep in an actual bed rather than on the floor in the waiting room, and while this one was meant for a dog, it was amazingly comfortable while she was a Kitsune. Her mind, however, just wouldn't let her drift off.
She didn't have a chip herself, she opted to decline since Class 2s like herself weren't even pressured to get chipped, but she clearly saw fear in his eyes when they told him they had already put it in him. He was terrified, and she could tell it wasn't about the fact that they did it without his consent. She started to suspect he was running from someone or something - something other than Hunters.
She perked up as the door suddenly opened and the veterinarian from before, Chris (she didn't know his last name) stepped in. He regarded her for a moment, then pulled up a chair and sat in it, gazing at the floor in deep thought. "I've been studying the blood sample, the one from before the blood transfusion," he finally said, looking at her. "There's something you should know about 'Daniel.' There's a number of abnormalities in his blood, making it drastically different from a normal Gryphon's blood..."
She sat up, quickly entering a glamour so they could talk. "Is he sick?"
The man shook his head. "Not sick, but his blood is..." He stops, then looks her dead in the eye. "...he has distinct traces of human blood, Claire."
In all truthfulness, she had no clue what she expected him to say, but 'human blood' WASN'T it. "But that...". She stopped as something suddenly occurred to her. It was highly unlikely, but... "Are you saying he's a veiled human?"
He shook his head again. "I've operated on a veiled Mystic twice, and once on a veiled human. It's sometimes necessary if it's too dangerous for them to revert first, as doing so could cause permanent damage if their condition is severe enough." He paused, lost in thought for a few seconds. "But there's something...different about his blood. The blood transfusion was a success, which shouldn't have been possible unless he's a full-blooded Gryphon. If he was veiled, his body would've rejected the new blood. There's evidence of human blood, but there's also Draconian in his veins and very little Gryphon."
She looked down, trying to wrap her head around all this information. "That...doesn't make sense. What the hell is he, exactly?"
"I'll run more tests, but there could be a serious problem if he's part Draconian: there's a strong possibility being near him would put you in serious danger."
She was immediately on her feet, angry. "He'd never hurt me!"
He put a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back into a sitting position. "Claire...by no fault of his own, he could put you in serious danger just by being near you. There's...groups out there, 'Dragon Hunters' as they call themselves, that would hunt him down and butcher him just for a drop of Draconian blood. Those people are dangerous, Claire. The more pure samples are the most valuable, but they're getting desperate with how rare dragons are becoming - a fact they're the primary contributors to."
She wanted to argue, but as she thought about it it started to make more sense. She'd heard of those Hunters. Hex had been on the run from them at one point. They were the absolute worst kind of Hunters, driven by greed and nothing else. Draconian blood was, after all, extremely valuable. "What exactly should we do, then? If he's veiled, it should wear off soon - in fact, it should've warn off already."
"There IS veil in his system," he confirmed, "but i can't tell more about it until the full bloodwork comes back. It'd have to be a powerful veil to last this long without more doses, though."
Claire looked away, deep in thought. "And the tracker?"
"Legally, I can't remove it...but I won't activate it, either. It might come in useful later on." He paused. "You should get some sleep, he definitely is right now. He's in no condition for an interrogation, and he's unlikely to spill his guts (figuratively, obviously) if we just approach him out of the blue."
Claire hesitated, unsure of what to make of this information regarding her avian friend. None of it really made sense; it almost sounded like...like he had 2 halves genetically in his body. Yeah, they'd have a lot to talk about in a few days.
The vet rose to his feet. "I can only hypothesize without more tests, but worrying about it right now probably wouldn't be best. It's really late and there's no telling what tomorrow might bring." He slowly closed the door behind him, hitting the light switch. Claire took almost half an hour longer to fall asleep, but she felt considerably more at ease now - and admittedly a little scared for Daniel.