Daniel couldn't sleep - for a long list of reasons. Guilt was very high on that list, but above all else he was afraid. His life was basically over; he was never going to be human again and there wasn't a god damn thing he could do to fix that. Maybe if he had befriended Mystics instead of driving them away it'd be different, but with Claire gone he was completely alone.
He wasn't entirely sure EXACTLY what she thought of him; he saw neither hide nor hair of her in the 6 or 7 hours after she ran from the room. Unfortunately, that uncertainty was worse than KNOWING she hated him. He had no idea what he was going to say to her when and if they finally talked, but it was going to be a VERY long conversation.
As a plus, Dr. Morris did explain to him exactly what a Descendant is. It was a one-sided conversation, to say the least, but knowing exactly what he was was at least a start. He explained that it was in fact permanent, but once Daniel was well enough he could safely use any veil potions - even human veils. The problem would be getting more: the 4 Morris was going to give him wouldn't last long and would be hard to transport. Maybe he could get a bag he could strap to his foreleg, maybe even a backpack, but without an interpreter he'd have trouble communicating. On the upside of that, even tho he had gotten used to using his beak, his talons were amazingly dexterous: the new position of his thumb made gripping things a LOT easier and the range of movement significantly wider. A bird's talons were, after all, MADE for grabbing onto and holding things. Even with the size difference, it was easy to use his talons as both hands AND feet.
He didn't even look up as the door opened. Probably Dr. Morris again.
"Danny...?" he heard a familiar voice ask - and it WASN'T Dr. Morris'...
With a jolt, Daniel raised his head and turned to look at Claire. She was leaning against the wall, looking off to her right. She wasn't making eye contact, but he could see the uncertainty in her eyes.
"Claire, i..." he began in a rush, but she cut him off.
"How long?"
"How long?" He had a feeling he knew what she meant, but...
"How long had it been when we met?" She finally looked him in the eye. There was pleading in her voice.
He lowered his head back to the floor, looking away. "Not even 2 hours," he muttered. "Ethan took me to that house after knocking me out, then forced me to drink a veil." There was a long, uncomfortable silence. "I thought this was just temporary, that you and I would part ways after we left the forest and I could hide somewhere until it wore off..." another pause, nearly as long, "...then I got hurt and ended up stuck here."
"Is that why you attacked me? Because I'm a Mystic?"
He shook his head firmly, looking back at her. "I tried to eat you, Claitr, because my stomach had just quadrupled in size and I hadn't eaten anything for hours BEFORE the transformation." It felt great to finally talk to her. He should never have lied to her; it would've been better to tell her the truth right from the start, though she probably wouldn't have believed it at the time - or run away. Probably would've been for the best for her if she did the latter. "I was literally starving and didn't see your second tail until you yelled at me, I thought you were just another fox."
Claire looked away, processing this. "I..." she finally said, hesitantly. "After what happened that night, it wasn't hard to escape, at least for me. If she's alive, Jess probably got away the same way: with all the noise, all of the animals were running away from the area. I just went with them." She was silent for a long time, then chuckled suddenly. "Ya know...it's kinda funny."
Daniel chuffed at this, unamused. "Yeah, fucking hilarious," he scoffed.
She shook her head, looking back in his direction. "That potion Ethan used? The enhanced Gryphon veil? We were gonna use it to prank you, before all this shit happened."
"A prank?" The gears slid into place in his head. "You thought turning me into a Gryphon for 4 days would be FUNNY?"
She shrugged. "In hindsight, not really...but Jess always had a twisted sense of humor when it came to pranks. We Kitsunes have a mischievous streak that's in our blood, but this definitely would've crossed the line." She paused for a few seconds, then gestured with her hand as she started explaining: "We convinced one of the workers in the cafeteria to slip a delayed veil into your usual order. He didn't like the idea but also disliked the way you treated Mystics. It would've activated while you were in the halls, creating an incident like when Karen unveiled in the middle of school. Well...not exactly the same; SHE knew what was happening."
Daniel closed his eyes. "You wouldn't believe me, but I DIDN'T hate Mystics."
"Bullshi-"
"The truth is...I was AFRAID of Mystics."
Claire started to object to this notion, but stopped as she really thought about it. "What do you mean, 'afraid'?"
He took a long time to respond. He had been thinking about it for a few days at that point. It took him a while, but he realized it had very little to do with hate. "I saw the way you look at Ethan," he pointed out. "Something about him scares you, doesn't it?"
"Not him," she admitted with a shrug, "undead in general. You've never seen his eyes, but I have: they're solid black, rotting away with his decaying body. I asked him once and he said it's the first sign of decay. He can't stop its progress, but he hides it with a spell that makes his eyes bright orange."
"I didn't want Mystics gone because I hated them, I wanted them gone because of what they're capable of. Basilisks...dragons...Gryphons...gorgons...how long would it have been before something happened? Even if by accident? A dragon the size of a house unveiling by accident in a crowded mall? A Gryphon losing its temper and striking someone in anger? They wouldn't even have to TRY." He broke eye contact, but only for a few seconds this time. "I just wanted to get rid of that uncertainty, to send Mystics back to the shadows where they can't hurt humans."
"By KILLING THEM?" she demanded, anger entering her voice. "Fear is natural, it's normal to fear bad things happening, but those things are hardly our fault! Accidents happen, it's horrible, but we can't just stop being what we are!" She glared at him for a long time. He couldn't even look her in the eye; as always, she was absolutely right. He was finding it harder and harder to maintain his old way of thinking as the days passed...but now he was trapped this way, that was probably for the best. "Ethan was right: you really are a piece of shit."
Claire didn't know exactly what to think of Daniel. She WANTED to hate him, to have someone or something specific to direct her anger at, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. If Ethan hadn't told her about his past, she never would've believed this soft-spoken Gryphon, who treated her so kindly, was the same kid who treated Mystics so horribly.
She never personally knew him as a human, she only ever saw him from a distance, but now she really thought about it, he DID have the same voice. Hearing him was...hard to explain. She could hear the chirps and squawks he made, but at the same time she heard them as words, like her undertrained telepathy instantly translated his attempts at words into speech as they entered her ears.
Dr. Morris didn't tell her why yet, but they were going to keep him under observation for a few weeks. He was to be discharged the next day (he recovered more quickly than expected), but it seemed there was something else going on with him.
Claire glared at the Gryphon for a long time, a silence that stretched on for nearly 10 minutes. She didn't know what else to say; she had plenty more questions but was deciding which to ask next. Suddenly, Daniel made a very low sound in his beak, a low trill that didn't register as words but sounded almost...
With a start, she realized he was crying. They were mostly hidden in his feathers, but tears had started streaming down his face and beak. "Danny...?"
"I just..." he said very quietly, barely above a whisper. "I don't even CARE about the Hunters anymore. I just wanted to go home and be done with all of this. That promise, that it would wear off in 4 days...that was literally the only thing keeping me going. I don't know what to do anymore. All I wanted was to be human again!"
She felt anger rising up, the furious words rising to her lips that he got what he deserved, but they died on her lips as she saw the fear carved into his face: he was shaking violently, clutching his head in his talons and eyes clenched tight. He WASN'T faking it; his fear was completely real. She couldn't stop herself: she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. He didn't respond at first, but eventually he calmed down, leaning into her embrace. "You COULD still go home. Karen took a long time to return to her old life, but..." she shook her head, "it wouldn't be easy, but at least YOU have a family to go back to."
He was silent for a long time. Finally: "Maybe you're right." He looked back over at her, gratitude in his eyes. "But first, I'm gonna need to learn HOW to live like this. Except for how to walk, I don't know the first thing about being a Gryphon."
She nodded. "You're gonna be discharged tomorrow, I'll talk to Dr. Morris about teaching you to fly." She turned towards the door, but Daniel called out to her as she opened it.
"Claire, i...thanks." She looked back at him, surprised. "I know you hate me, but...I've needed to get that off my chest for a while. I never should've lied to you about who I am."
She didn't say anything and left the room.
—
Claire was lost in thought as she strode down the hall, almost running into the veterinarian. She was about to apologize when he said, "Claire...we need to talk."
Her response faded as she saw the look on his face: it was solemn, something obviously had happened. "Hunters?"
He shook his head. "They've made threats and accusations to the police, but they won't bother you while you're in a hospital. Unfortunately, though, they aren't the problem - Daniel is."
"He's getting a lot better, he should be fully healed already," she said.
"It's not his physical health that worries me, it's his mental health." He looked her dead in the eye. "He's suffering from a rare condition called 'The Overdrive Effect' - Instinct Overdrive, some call it."
She'd heard of that condition, though she'd never seen it. Supposedly, certain humans had a reaction to veils that made them lose control of the instincts brought on by veils - and never regain control. It eventually stripped them of any and all sentience, making them completely feral. "He seems fine, though."
"it doesn't happen overnight, but changes in personality are the first and most obvious signs at the beginning. The symptoms, however, are going to get worse if they aren't fixed."
She looked away, processing this. She obviously noticed how different he was acting as a Mystic, but... "Can it be reversed?"
"He still has his wits for now, but as it gets worse it's going to get harder to reverse the damage. Oh, it'll work as long as he still has his sentience, even a miniscule fraction, but the problem, if it reaches that point, will be getting him TO drink it." He hesitated, then sighed. "I almost wish he was a basilisk. They can be dangerous to deal with unless they're blindfolded, but they're mild-mannered on their worst days. You'll never find a more agreeable and less violent Class 3." He paused again. "Ethan won't brew the potions. He was adamant - and, in all honesty, it's hard to blame him for his reasons, cold as they may be. We need to find an alchemist or mage to make the potions."
She shook her head slowly. "The best alchemist around is Luc, but...I don't know where he is now, he never lived in the camp." She glanced back at the door to Daniel's room. "Should we...?"
"Until we find a solution or it's clear there won't be one, I think it's best he not know about this." He paused, thinking something over. "You know...before I met him I had never met a Gryphon with blue feathers."
Claire shrugged. "Doesn't mean much. They prefer to keep to themselves."
He considered something for a few seconds. "I've been doing some research and I believe he isn't a Gryphon at all."
"Well, he's obviously a Descendant."
He shook his head. "Yes, but...I believe he's actually a Royal Gryphon - a Lesser Draconian."
She thought for a second. "Never heard of that species."
"Not surprising, since they're extinct. However, they were known for their enormous size and blue feathers. Female Gryphons are larger than males, yet he's several inches taller than Karen at least. If he really is a Royal, then that would explain his mental condition; except for Basilisks, Draconian instincts are EXTREMELY potent."
She thought about it for a few seconds. "He needs more veils, it'd be a good excuse to go find Luc." She paused, suddenly uncertain. "Just how...bad is Instinct Orverdrive?"
"Right now, the instincts are pretty normal, constantly at the back of his mind. An annoyance at best. Eventually, over time, it's going to be the other way around, and it will only get worse from there. He will eventually be incapable of higher thought processes, driven by instinct and instinct alone - an animal in every sense of the word." He hesitated. "Gryphons can be unpredictable when angry, but if he turns feral...let's just say Avery Daniels will no longer exist - for better OR for worse."