"You'd best be waking up right now if you know what's good for you, what what!"
Whatever that nurse mouse has given him has worn off, for he aches all over once again. He groans as he tries to sit up, and feels a splitting headache pierce his brain. He looks around to find himself crowded with creatures. They're all a hazey blob of shapes, only discernible when he focuses incredibly hard on one creature. Slowly, he makes out a grey hare, a badger, an old mouse, a mouse he assumes to be the Abbot and... him. The mouse from his dream. Shadow keeps his face blank, though the mouse boy makes him weary. He closes his eyes from the blur. Luckily, the Abbot provides a much needed distraction.
"My son. We have taken you in and cared for us as if you were one of our own, choosing to overlook what you have done for the time being. Please, tell us why you would turn against Cluny and beg for the help of us forest dwellers, after taking away that which is precious to us?" His voice is hard to hear over the ringing in his ears but he can tell it's stern, and he knows that any slip up could result in his death.
"I..." his voice is cracked and dry "...death is very motivating." He lets out a dry laugh that turns into a coughing fit.
"And how do we know we can trust you?" Constance questions.
Shadow doesn't respond. His eyes stare blankly at the ceiling as his vision swims.
"RAT!" Constance snaps. Shadow winces, covering his ears to the sound.
"I'll tell you the truth. I haven't the foggiest memory of what I'm supposed to be here. I know I was sent to get the mouse knight, but I know not why. Besides I am in no position to sit up, much less mess with Abbey." At this moment, his already sore stomach growls in hunger. He curls in on himself, realizing that the only thing he's eaten since the night of the fall was the pain relief potion. "Right now... all I want is some food and sleep..."
There's some murmuring between the group. He stares at the swimming mass of the A whispered argument ends
"We will bring you food, and return later when you're in better condition" The Abbot says with a curt nod. "Basil, you will stay with the rat and see if you can gather any useful information from him. Mathias, Brother Methuselah, you shall return to your return to your investigation"
"What? The great Basil Stag Hare reduced to nothing more than a common guard!" The hare cries dramatically with fake despair in his voice.
"It was your idea after all" The mouse boy, Mathias, chides playfully back with a grin.
"I suppose you're right, what what. Well get on with it. You don't have to sit here and keep me company. You've got important work to be doing. Basil shoos them out."
He sits down on the empty bed next to Shadow and leans back. Shadow stares at the ceiling.
"So. Now that we're alone... or, as alone as we'll get. Why are you actually here." Basil narrows his eyes at the vermin.
"What reason have I to lie? I am on death's doorstep, as well as at your mercy" He winces as the ringing in his ears flares.
"Well that's precisely why, my boy. You would say anything to save your skin." Basil sounds unconvinced at his own statement.
"I truly can't remember. I remember not how I became so injured, how I came to the Abbey, or why I was sent for the mouse knight-"
"Martin." Basil cuts off "Martin the warrior."
Shadow doesn't reply. It seems he didn't hear. Cornflower appears in the doorway carrying a bowl of celery soup and spoon. She weaves her way through the beds and stands beside Shadow.
"How goes the interrogation?"
"Chap won't spill a word tsk tsk. Claims he can't remember"
Basil feels a tug on his coat, and sees Shadow desperately reaching for the bowl.
"My dear I would love to stop and chat, but could you give the poor sap his food? No beast should be deprived of food, I say what what."
"Of course YOU say that Basil. Your stomach is bigger than a horse's" Cornflower sets the bowl. Ignoring the spoon, Shadow puts the bowl to his lips and chugs. "Well I've have to be going now."
"I understand! We've all got our jobs to do." As she departs Basil turns back to the rat and crouches down "Woah, you might want to slow down a bit. Don't want ya eating the bowl with it."
Shadow ignores him, noisily slurping his food.
"I'm serious chap. It's not good for your stomach to get food so quickly after having nothing for a while."
As if on queue, he shakily pulls the bowl away from his mouth. Basil only just manages to save to bowl and its contents as Shadow throws his head over the side of the bed and wretches. Basil jumps back in time to avoid getting splashed by the undigested soup. He wretches until his stomach is completely empty and he's left dry heaving over the mess. Basil gently sets Shadow back up in bed, wiping the sick from his lips with a hankie.
"I did try to warn you chap. Here, I'll help you with the last of this." Basil picks up the spoon, which has been knocked onto the floor, and dips it into the soup. He lifts the dripping spoon to Shadow's maw, which remains firmly clamped shut. "Come on, now's no time for stubborn pride. You nearly puked all over me, we're well past that. Besides, you need the food."
Slowly, his jaw works open, and he lets himself be fed. The two are silent as his empty stomach starts to get filled up. When the bowl is nearly empty Shadow feels an ache in his chest, but it's gone before he knows it. He turns his head away from another spoonful of food.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Well this is an Abbey after all. Helping is what we do."
"No, I get that. Why are YOU helping me? I could have fed myself."
"Then why didn't you?" When Basil gets no response, he continues. "As you said, you are in no position to even sit up. But you know what I think? I think you would've let me even if you could, what."
He gives him a grin and a wink. Shadow feels his temperature skyrocket. The worst part is, he's probably right.
"Fool. I would never let you make a mockery of me if I had a choice."
"I think you might be coming around to me, what what."
"What is it with you and those 'what whats' anyways?"
"Trying to change the subject, are you now? Now that's not very gentlemanly of you."
"From what I can remember, not much of me is gentlemanly at all." He grins cruelly, showing off sharp yellow teeth.
"By joves do you ever clean those gnashers?" Basil eyes the teeth with not fear, but disgust.
"What?" His lips relax back over his gums in startled confusion.
"Your teeth! They're hideous!" Basil reaches his hand out to lift his gums back up. Shadow is too shocked and weary to stop him."You really must take better care of these things. The first thing we're doing once you're better is giving them a good scrubbing what what."
"Shouldn't you be... doing... something? Why are you here again?" Basil pulls his paw back.
"Well, I was supposed to be interrogating you, but you either can't remember, or won't talk. Now, I just think you could use the company."
That can't be true. Why would the hare want to spend time with him, the enemy? It must be a trick to lower his guard. Make him slip up and spill. But his mind is so muddled, he couldn't give him any information even if he wanted to.
"You don't even know my name"
"I just assumed you forgot that too, what what. Though I suppose I have neglected to introduce myself. I am Basil. Basil Stag Hare, at your service sir." Basil doesn't for his name. He gives it anyways.
"Shadow...just Shadow" He finds his eyes drawn to Basil's whiskers, barely visible to him, bobbing up and down. To his round cheeks and wonderfully large teeth. They must be great for chewing through things.
"Awfully deary name ain't it? Who gave it to you anyways."
"Cluny. And it describes what I do. It serves its purpose."
"Typical Cluny. All edgy and war. No flare at all."
"At least my name makes sense."
Basil leaps up and puffs his chest out. "My name makes perfect sense! Basil means brave and chivalrous, which I am! Stags are noble creatures, and so I christened m'self one, with two toads and a newt as witnesses. And Hare, well as you say, is descriptive and serves its purpose."
"Alright alright. It makes sense or whatever, now will you please lower your voice." He wrinkles his nose in pain as the ringing has started again and fatigue is settling in again.
"Sorry chap. I tend to get a bit carried away." He sits down on Shadow's bed, right next to him. "Are you doing alright?"
Shadow barely hears him, and the words get lost in his mind. After he doesn't respond, Basil gets up to leave, but is stopped by claws gripping his arm with what little strength is left in them.
"Alright, I'll stay."
Basil settles himself down next to him. The last thing that passes through Shadow's mind before sleep overtakes him is just how soft Basil's fur is.