Characters: Seath the Scaleless, Crossbreed Priscilla, Artorias the Abysswalker, Dragon Slayer Ornstein
Summary: After Seath gets hurt in a scuffle while in human form, he is not only stuck in it, but also in bed.
(Author's note: The prompt "Confined to bed rest" managed to sneak a second time in my bingo card, but I don't mind writing about this again.)
"Do I have to do EVERYTHING myself?" The voice of the paledrake, Seath, boomed through the archives, making his servants and even his channelers cower in fear from his rage.
"It were very simply instructions. Unbelievable...", Seath muttered to himself while preparing a spell. He just wanted to have a specific snack that helped him concentrate during his research. He had told his servant the exact location of the store, what to get in what order and even had given them the exact amount of money needed and they still had failed. Seath could hear a muttered apology while the spell engulfed his form, a blinding white light emitting from him and after a few moments his form as a dragon had been replaced by that of a tall slender human with skin as white as snow and red eyes. Two of his servants quickly ran to him, handing the duke some clothes.
"Out of my sight.", Seath snapped to the failed servant while getting dressed. "I'll do it myself. You better don't enter my study room again until you learned to follow orders."
With this, Seath strode out of the archives, heading for the busy market place of Anor Londo. He was lucky that he had managed to create a transformation spell which gave him a human form, cause in his dragon farm he was far too large to go out. He still kept his horns and wings in this form, to show everyone his true heritage though. The clothes he had been handed today were some simple pants and a tunic woven from linen, hardly a fancy choice, but suitable for the task he had to fulfill himself. Seath sighed. Why was he surrounded by incompetence? He had been granted dukedom by his Lord Gwyn and he couldn't make him proud when he had to go out and get a simple thing like a snack himself instead of spending every waking hour at his work desk.
When Seath was about to enter the town square, he heard some noises... voices screaming, some pained grunts, some people clearly in an argument. Curiosity drove him nearer to the noises and he saw a small group of people making a ruckus while two silver knights hurried up to them, trying to separate them. Seath watched for a short time and then lost interest, he should get going. That was when he felt an impact in his chest area, it felt like the air was pressed out of his lungs and the paledrake fell hard on the pavement, tasting some blood, seeing a few stars.
The next thing Seath heard, was a gentle voice asking him: "Sir, are you alright?" while picking him up and supporting his weight, Seath hissed and gasped from the pain blooming in his chest. He recognized the voice as the one of Artorias, one of Gwyn's four knights. That probably meant, that the dragon slayer wasn't far away and in fact, Seath could make out his golden form screaming at the silver knights, scolding them to be more careful when taking care of a ruckus, they couldn't involve innocenter passengers in this. After he had sentenced the silver knights to extra guard duty, the dragon slayer walked over to Artorias. "Artorias, have you secured the passenger?", he asked and then stopped dead in his tracks. "That's the duke."
Seath wanted to sigh, but it only came out as a pained whimper. Of course it had to be this two who found him. Knight Artorias was the kind who would stand in front of the archives with a plate of cookies and expect to have tea and a friendly chat with Seath, like it would be the most normal thing of the world. Seath had just send him away, but had to admit, that the cookies had been quite tasty. And the dragon slayer, Ornstein... even with his helmet on Seath could feel the poor mistrust the knight captain had for him. Sadly Ornstein was the only one who could keep up with Seath in chess. If not for that, Seath wouldn't have had any trouble to never see the knight again.
Seath could hear the dragon slayer sigh and his posture felt like he was saying "Let's get this over with." He addressed the paledrake: "Duke Seath, I am very sorry that my silver knights have gotten you in this situation. You appear to be hurt. May we escort you back to the archives?"
"...What happened?", Seath finally managed to say, still gasping. The pain in his chest was really bad. He could feel how the dragon slayer took one of his arms and helped Artorias support him.
"My silver knights had to use force to quell the ruckus and one of the thugs got pushed right in your direction and his kick has hit you...", Ornstein explained.
"It is probably none of our business.", Artorias said. "But, uh, can you change back into your dragon form like this...?"
"...", was all what Seath brought out. He hadn't tried to change forms when hurt, but he only could imagine how bad it could turn out. The magic needed his body to be in top shape, so that everything would be at the right place after the transformation and when there was even only a tiny thing not as it should be, his body could deform even more than it already was.
"...Probably not.", the duke finally answered and had to hiss and wince in pain once again. "By the lord, this hurts..."
"Don't worry, we will get a physician over to the archives right away.", Ornstein reassured him. Seath knew that all this politeness was just acted, a thing the dragon slayer was awfully good at. He didn't want people to know his true face. But alas, even with their strained relationship, Seath knew how it was to keep a secret and had decided to respect the dragon slayer's boundaries. At least he had been awfully good at getting rid of the race that only had scorn and mockery left over him.
They had entered the archives and one of Seath's channelers came running when he spotted the trio: "Mylord Seath, what happened?"
"Long story. Prepare my bed please, I need to lay down. The bed for this form of course.", Seath said. The two knights escorted him to his private rooms where the servants had prepared the bed and carefully laid him down.
"Get a physician over here, Duke Seath needs medical treatment.", Ornstein ordered while Artorias seemed to stare at Seath with large puppy eyes, as if the knight would beg the paledrake to ask for emotional comfort. Seath only shuddered at that thought.
"Several rips appear to be bruised.", the physician said after arrival. "There isn't much that can be done other than putting some ice on the injured spot, bandage it and moving as little as possible. You should stay in bed for at least a week."
Seath heavily sighed, which turned into breathlessness right away. "I can't even change back into my dragon form like this.", he murmured. "How am I supposed to pass the time?"
"We can read to you.", one of the present channelers said. "Or we could play some chess."
Seath huffed. "A whole week like this? I want to go back to my studies. Get out of my eyes, all of you."
"Just ask for one of us if you experience additional pain.", the physician said after she was done with the treatmant and then followed the knights who had already left the room. The channeler stayed a bit longer but hastened out of the room when Seath glared at his direction.
Sighing, Seath laid his head down into the pillows, cursing when he felt the horns get stuck at them. Normally he didn't need to sleep in his human form. Now he regretted keeping the wings and horns, they really would come into the way. He considered maybe using his magic to change his body a bit more, so that wings and horns would vanish, but he couldn't risk it. Every ounce of transformation magic at his own body could leave him with permanent damage. It felt like he had to live with this now...
He heard the tapping of bare feet coming into the room and supported himself to get into a sitting position. "Prilla?", he said. "Is that you, my dear?"
"Daddy?", a high pitched voice came from the little girl in the room. "Is that you? You are looking like me." She giggled and came running to the bed, jumping on it with ease.
"Easy, Prilla.", Seath said, gasping from the impact. Even at her young age Priscilla was already pretty big, what was to be expected from a crossbreed. She was his most proud creation, his very own daughter. He had taught her how to use the scythe from a very young age and he knew that she had amazing powers in her. He couldn't wait for her to grow big enough so that he could introduce her to Gwyn, as a new weapon for the dragon war.
"Daddy, are you hurt?", Priscilla said, he could hear the worried tone in her voice and feel her fluffy tail curling around one of his arms.
"It's nothing, Prilla. I just got into a scuffle by accident. You better go back to your studies.", Seath said and as on clue, a channeler barged into the room, shouting: "Lady Priscilla, you can't just sneak away from your studies like this. Oh, mylord, I am sorry that she escaped me." The channeler bowed deeply to Seath, who normally would have shouted at him, but Priscilla's presence soothed him too much.
"Before you go, Prilla, can you do me a favour and get me the egg of your sibling?", Seath asked his daughter.
"Of course.", Priscilla said, jumped down from the bed and ran over to the shelf where the egg was stored. "I wonder when they will hatch.", she asked when she handed the egg to Seath.
"I already told you, dragon eggs are moody. It can take them years to hatch, sometimes they just want to open for the right person.", Seath explained. "Now go back to your studies, dear, we can talk about this later."
He made sure to give the channeler a last glare when he took Priscilla's hand to make sure that he wouldn't let her escape her studies once more. Still, it has been nice that she was around. Priscilla was Seath's very own sunshine. He nestled the egg in his arms and dozed off to sleep.
"You idiot, that isn't the meal I wanted!", Seath shouted, making the servant cower at his booming voice. "And this, this isn't the book I wanted to hear during mealtime!", the channeler stayed calm however, answering to Seath: "I am very sorry, mylord, I will get the right book immediately."
"And while you are out there, make sure to let my servants know that I wanted to have my blankets change twice a day! They are 10 minutes late already!", Seath shouted behind him.
He grumpily laid down back into the pillows. It had been three days and he was in pain and massive discomfort. Such a tiny injury would have been nothing to his dragon body, as malformed as it might be, but it was still better than being stuck in his weak human body. He didn't despise to transform into his human form, but he usually wasn't stuck in it for that long and it started to go on his nerves. Especially the damn horns, they would get stuck EVERYWHERE when he tried to turn around in bed. If he even managed to do it, his injury was letting him know that it was there every waking moment, often giving him trouble breathing. Like right now. Maybe he shouldn't have shouted so loud, but if he wouldn't have done it, he probably would have already exploded because of the incompetence around him. He had to make sure to get some of his servants replaced. And the channelers seemed to have become lazy, lately they barely had brought new stuff to experiment into the archives.
While Seath had been lost in thought, he noticed that the failed servant had come back with the replacement dish, placed it down and left the room without another word. Shortly after, the channeler came back, Priscilla in tow.
"Excuse me, mylord, is Lady Priscilla allowed to join your meal?", he asked. Seath's mood instantly lifted.
"Of course, come here, dear.", he said and pointed for her to sit down on his bed, where the girl quickly came running, giggling with joy.
"Which book are we going to hear today?", she asked and the channeler opened it while Seath took his meal.
"This is a book about the history of titanite.", the channeler said. "A subject our duke is very interested in, especially in the form of twinkling titanite."
Seath would have liked to been able to read the books himself, but alas, he had been born without eyes, one of his malformations, but he didn't consider it as bad as his missing scales. Even in his human form, where he possessed eyes, he still was blind. And while he was able to feel his surroundings very clear with the use of his magic, reading letters in a book wasn't something he could do. He was thinking about inventing a way that a blind person could read... maybe it would be able to make the letters touchable? However, for now he was left with his channelers reading to him. At least they did a good job at it, as long as they would bring the right book. And in this situation, with a good meal, his daughter at his side and a story to hear, he was able to relax.
"And checkmate.", Seath said. "Next!" The beat channeler strolled away, head drooping down when the next took place.
"I won't make it easy for you, mylord.", he said and positioned the chess figures on the board.
"I sure hope so.", Seath said and a grin showed his sharp teeth.
Ten turns later the channeler was beaten and Seath sighed. "I now have beaten ten of you in a row, isn't there anyone be able to be a challenge?", he grumpily said. His channeler just stared at one of his companions who just had come into the room, probably to be the next challenger. "...Don't tell me, the dragon slayer is the only one up to par in chess with me."
"...I am afraid that is the case...", one of the channelers said. "Shall we bring Sir Ornstein here?"
Seath huffed. "Of course, you think the dragon slayer just follows you to the archives for a friendly round of chess to ease my boredom. We all know how he thinks about dragons, even the ones who are on his side.", he groaned. "I just take the challenge from the next best of you. At least it will pass the time for around another hour." A deep sigh escaped his lips. He was more than ready now to be done with laying in bed.
"Alright, that looks all healed.", the physician said after she had removed the bandages from Seath's chest.
"Are you serious? I don't have to stay in bed anymore?", Seath asked, as if his ears had deceived him.
"Yes and try to not get into a scuffle anymore, Duke Seath. Your channelers all look like they are ready to barge in the infirmary.", she said as she packed her stuff.
"That wasn't my fault.", Seath grumbled and watched as the physician left the room.
Finally, finally he would be able to change back in his dragon form. Oh how long he had waited for it. Seath felt the magic seeping through his bones, felt how it engulfed him, felt how his body grew, felt how his head hit the ceiling... Oh, maybe he should have changed back in a larger room than this... He noticed how his tentacles had knocked several things over. Sighing, he changed back into his human form, strolled out the door, ordered the next best servant to clean up this mess and changed back into his dragon form once he was back into his study room. Ah yes, that felt much better. Now he could continue his studies.
He heard the familiar tapping of the bare feet behind him. "Prilla, come in.", he said. He could feel how the girl stared at him.
"Daddy, you aren't looking like me anymore?", she said. Seath turned around to face her.
"Oh, dear, that is simply my true form. But you know what? I don't mind staying a bit longer in my human form, if it is for you."
And with this he had changed back and picked his daughter up, which nestled and cuddled into his embrace.
(Author's note: Priscilla is supposed to be around 6 years old.)