Thank you to Mizuna Kurenagi for review last chapter.
Chapter XXII: The song of the Flower Maiden
"Log #39, Name: Alura Degre…"
A plump, hairless face.
Wide pupils not made for hunting.
"It has been two months since Lord Darcia the third returned to the lab with subject 01001101-our 13th test subject in regards to recreating the flower maiden from a more stable base…"
Clawless paws unfit for speed or fighting.
A mouth that couldn't open very wide.
And within… flat teeth not designed for tearing meat.
There were four fangs, two on the top row and two on the bottom but they were small and feeble.
"It has been a month since subject 01001101 was cleared as healthy enough to begin testing on basic functions. As the overseer, i've found that the subject is in perfect health for her assumed age and just a week ago we began injecting DNA from the flower maiden into subject 01001101. I will be using this log to note any observed changes as well as the personality of the subject"
The fur atop her head was long, it framed this tan, plump face and didn't do much for warmth.
All and all, this human shift was useless.
Or atleast Miakoda thought so.
She stood before one of numerous glass tubes that surrounded a room Miakoda had grown familiar with since joining Darcia's pack. The tank reflected the image of the young pups shift-something she had grown fascinated with.
Was this what humans young looked like?
They looked so...breakable.
"So far, the subject has shown no negative response to the flower maidens blood or it's poisonous properties...the only visible change is the color of hair in what she calls her 'human shift' from brown to pitch black. Daily check up reveal the subject is in no pain nor has her health declined since we began the injections. Perhaps the poison in Cheza's blood is canceled out by something in wolfblood?"
Bored with looking at her human shift, Miakoda took in the room and her surroundings once more. At the moment, she was forced to drag a long metal pole with wheels everywhere. One of those curious human contraptions they called an 'IV' was hung from the top before being attached to Miakoda.
At first, Miakoda had bared her teeth at the contraption that humans tried to stab into her arm. However, Darcia, this packs alpha, was stronger than Miakoda and the only thing he couldn't stop the first time around was the pups defiant screaming.
The...IV's green content though...it smelled like that girl-Cheza, it felt like Cheza too and drowned Miakoda in a calming sensation nothing short of pleasant to the pup.
It had made the future six treatments easier on the human's charged with watching Miakoda.
...speaking of those humans.
"Socially, Subject 01001101 has been… reluctant to interact with anyone within the lab. Though not outwardly hostile anymore, she seems to hold contempt for our presence-being defiant when tested unless Lord Darcia or myself is present…" The voice across the room paused mid speech prompting Miakoda to look back.
Degre is what the other humans called this was an average height woman with long blonde hair who smelled of ink and artificial flowers-perfume she called it. Almost every day she did this, it was her routine.
Show up in the morning and ask the night watch about Miakoda's condition.
Stab Miakoda with the IV
Speak with Darcia if he stopped by.
Then, she would sit before her odd looking device and speak to it.
Degre stared back at Miakoda before speaking on.
"Based on wolf behavior, I can only theorize that she has begin to view us as a pack and because Darcia is our Lord and I am head of the department she must view us as the alphas that she must obey"
'Only because your Alpha is strong' Miakoda couldn't help but think as she offered Degre a blank expression. 'If it weren't for him, I would have ripped your throat out by now' but Miakoda wasn't a fool. The last time she'd tried to kill Degre the pup was effortlessly slammed against the tile by Darcia, knocking the wind out of her and nearly crushing her windpipe in the process.
Darcia's golden wolf eye bared down on Miakoda in that instance-challenging the pup to try that again.
Miakoda never did.
She complied because of him.
He was the reason Miakoda was stuck here. She hated him.
'I want to go home…' Miakoda thought turning away from Degre's gaze to stare at her own sorrow filled expression. 'But… do i even have a home anymore?'
The stench of blood and ash. The ringing of mournful howls.
Even after two months Miakoda still felt that night like fresh wounds across her small form. After so much death and destruction, was there even a home to go back to?
It had all been destroyed by Nobles like Darcia.
Her home, her pack, her family. Everything that belonged to Miakoda was lost. Even with Cheza's esense slowly tricking into Miakoda, the pup hung her head in sorrow for the ever present feeling of loss. It threatened to drown Miakoda in an abyss of guilt and regret when suddenly…
Shailoh Shailoh, Yatreet ka…
...singing?
Miakoda perked at the sound that drifted into her ears. A faint smell of lunar flowers followed and Miakoda was suddenly aware that something was in the glass tube she stood before.
Shailod shna...otvit ka…
Pale hands pressed against the glass and a lovely face smiled at Miakoda. Her hair was pure white and seemingly endless as it took up most of the tank. With her rose colored eyes and scent, this creature felt somewhat like...Cheza. The only difference was her deeper voice and that her presence was weaker.
It was like staring at a fading after image of Cheza.
Still her song spoke to Miakoda
Shailoh washnee...fortee ney…
"..." Reaching out, Miakoda pressed her hands on the glass over the maidens hands and let the weaker presence come to her.
"I stayed in hiding for a long, long time and before I knew it I was left alone…"
I do. I know you very well indeed…"
'Voices?..'
"The flowers, they're singing...they are alway...singing… but people...never seem to notice…"
Images crossed Miakoda's mind as she listened to the maidens song. Images of an old, decrypted woman sitting alone in a room in sullen acceptance. A tear fell from Miakoda's eye at the vision but as she stared up at the one she was sure now was called Hanabito, the pup's voice was coming to her.
"Though the subject seems to comprehend basic human language she rarely speaks-"
"Shailoh...Shailod… Yatreet...ka" Miakoda's tiny voice drifted into the air stopped Degre's rambling that it bothered Miakoda. The pup's gaze was fixed on Hanabito as she tried to echo the song. "Shailoh...shna...otvit….ka…"
"She's...singing?" From her seat, Degre observed the shifted wolf curiously. Her eyes grew wide when she finally noticed that the wolf pup was singing to a Hanabito and it was responding to her? "But...The Hanabito are shells...how?"
It mattered not how to Miakoda.
As she sung on, a new voice had joined hers and Hanabitos. Miakoda knew this voice, it was Cheza singing along with them.
"Shailoh...washnee...fortee ney…"
Soon three voices because four, then five and eventually Miakoda couldn't tell how many echoed around the room. It was a beautiful song, countless voices singing in harmony.
Others sounds soon joined however these were anything but pleasant. Alarms monitoring Cheza went off and dogs around the keep began howling. The sounds became louder and louder but Miakoda kept singing as her human mouth became more familiar with the song. She would have kept singing too but the loud bang of the room door swinging open cut the sweet song short.
"M-My Lord Darcia" Degre was started out of her seat as silence came to the room again.
Cheza had stopped singing.
Hanabito had stopped singing
The room was quiet once more, though not at all settled.
When Miakoda looked towards the doorway she was met with the sight of a frenzied looking Darcia clutching a hand to his covered wolf's eye.
"Is… Is something wrong, Lord Darcia?" Degre spoke up nervously but Darcia paid her no mind.
"Little one…" Darcia's voice was deep and the edge that came with it left Miakoda unsettled. "That song…" he approached the pup, his face etched in ether pain or euphoria "where did you learn...that song…"
"..."Miakoda didn't speak as the male kneeled before her after a few steps.
"Little one" Darcia spoke on , reaching a hand to stroked Miakoda's head "will you sing it again for me?...My precious little key…"
"Log #158. Name: Alura Degre…
It has been six months since the subject arrived here in the lab and four since our test began.
It's pleasing to see that subject 01001101 has still shown no negative reaction to the flower maiden's DNA though minor alterations to her human appearance should be noted:
The subject appears to have reached adolescent age. Today her 'Human shift' looks… older, less like a toddler and more like a young child. I can only conclude that the subjects 'human shift' ages with her body. I suspect it will change again by the time she reaches canine adulthood.
Furthermore, The flower maiden's DNA has changed subject 01001101's skin tone from tan to porcelain pale. It's almost as if...the subject is turning into Cheza herself…
Even Lord Darcia seems to think this though he hasn't said such things-"
"Little one…" that all too familiar deep voice rumbled out breaking Miakoda's focus and the sounds of Degre's voice doing her reports from the other room faded into a background noise.
Blinking lazily, Miakoda's gaze shifted to the head resting on her lap. That gold wolf's eye fixed its gaze on her.
Since the day Hanabito had taught Miakoda that song, Darcia had changed.
What had once been an aloof, Mildly curious man was now an almost constant presence in Miakoda's monotonous life. He had moved her to a room all her own, lavished with beautiful furniture, a wardrobe full of dresses, a massive vanity and a plush bed.
Though out of all of it Mahina only ever used the bed. It was like Darcia had forgotten that Miakoda wasn't human.
But she wouldn't complain, the soft comfort of the bed was prefered over her previous caged living. Degre was stationed a room away and watched Miakoda boredly.
But then Darcia's visits-which before this were varied and few-grew to everyday occurrences.
Then he began staying for hours-days even. Resting his head on Miakoda's lap with a simple request.
"Will you sing for me?" the baritone of his voice rumbled against Miakoda and his left eye stared unblinkingly at her.
Of course Miakoda would comply. What choice did she have in the matter?
So she sang that song she learned letting it echo through the room as she ran a soothing hand through his hair. She sang for Darcia for what felt like hours, not once did the male ever look away from her. His gaze was fixed, as if Miakoda's very existence commanded him so but even the most stubborn must rest and eventually the young she-wolf watched as her captives wolf's eye slowly closes and Darcia eventually fell asleep.
"..." the song stops and the room falls into silence for a time before Miakoda, tired from these treatment now more tired from the constant singing leaned back on the bed and closed her own eyes, sleep soon took hold.
When Miakoda eventually woke up later she wasn't sitting up on the bed anymore but on her side curled up against Darcia's much larger body. His chest rose and fell slowly under Miakoda's head as he slept on unaware of her stirring. The changing in position left Miakoda disoriented and caused her senses to slowly take in her surroundings beyond where she lay.
Her IV was gone and the room echoed with the clicking Alura working hard on her computer from her observation room.
The was no one here to bother Miakoda, making her look this way or that way or probing her for their test and the needed moment of silence to herself was a good one.
Miakoda didn't know what these humans wanted with her but she knew she wanted no part of it, not anymore. The presence of Cheza and the threat of Darcia's might had been enough to keep Miakoda here earlier but…
"..." silently her blues eyes looked down at her hand, the human hand her shift had fabricated. It had been tan before, a browner shade that had seen once before when her father had shown her his own human shift. Her father's human shift had been tan with brown hair but Miakoda's illusion was different, it had changed since these humans had begun their test.
She didn't like it, she didn't know what they were making her into but most importantly did want to stick around and find out.
She needed to escape. It didn't matter if she would be alone, trying to survive on her own would be better than whatever fate awaited her here.
Slippings out of Darcia's long arms and large hand grasp took the most time. He held onto Miakoda's smaller frame like she was his reason for breathing and when she shifted to move away from him he moved with her breathing in deeply through his nose before let out a sigh and falling even deeper into sleep. After two failed attempts to be free of the male Miakoda did, somehow, managed to gently wiggle her way out of his grasp and off the bed without waking him.
Alura was too focused on her work to notice the small pup sneak out of her room.
The halls were empty of any sign of life which was honestly more that Miakoda could have possible hoped for when it came to trying to escape this place. She stayed by the doorway just in case though, trying her best to make herself look small just in case someone did pass by, but nobody came. This was it! Her chance to escape and be free!
Miakoda doesn't waste another second, she makes a break for it running down the hall as fast as she can go on these feeble human child legs of her illusion while keeping an eye on any sign that someone is near.
Miakoda rans for a really long time, rounding corners and ducking into rooms when her nose catches a human scent. She kept running, sure that eventually she would find open air, catch the smells of the outside world and follow the trail to her freedom.
But this place…. This cage
The halls smelled of cleaning products that burned Miakoda's nose. Each corridor was long and winding and most importantly identical. When she retraced her steps it was just more of the same.
It felt like she was just running endlessly in a circle and any progress she did make-in the brief times Miakoda thought she'd catch the scent of rain or the breeze of fresh outside air- it felt like the walls themselves were shifting and changing so she was quickly thrown back into this endless maze.
It was frustrating, infuriating, hopeless
Was she trapped here forever?!
Pausing to lean against a nearby wall Miakoda runs her fingers through her hair in frustration. She couldn't trust her instincts in this place, the humans were using them against her. She was trapped!
"No no no…" her soft voice sounded so much louder in the empty hall.
And so she pushed on, wandering aimlessly, lost in a seemingly ever changing maze. Eventually, the endless hall produced the first door Miakoda had seen since she had begun this fruitless attempt at escape. Miakoda didn't hesitate, she quickly shuffled into the room dropping onto the tiled floor as fatigue was starting to set into her being.
Her moment of reprieve would not last however as the rooms scents came to the pups nose and she realized she wasn't alone. Someone was here. Miakoda braced herself ready to be shouted out, her body tense and ready to fleet before any attempts to recapture her could be made but… sillness met her...the person in the room with her doesn't move from where they're laying…
How...curious…
"..." Miakoda inched closer to the person who lay so very still despite the pups entrance. A woman with long blonde hair lay still on a bed before Miakoda's approaching form, the woman's eyes were barely closed but she didn't seem to be aware of Miakoda or even awake.
The woman has numerous tubes connected to her form, tube Miakoda recognizes as looking just like her IV.
Was this woman stolen like Miakoda had been?
Was… was this Miakoda's fate if she remained here?
For the moment, though, Miakoda would let herself relax and recollect herself. Sighing out, she leaned against the woman's bed and watched her. She looks like she's sleeping but it's no ordinary sleep, of that Miakoda is certain. She was so very pale and her body was lifeless but the smallest rise and fall of her chest told Miakoda that this woman was very much still alive.
Was she a wolf? Miakoda focused hard on motionless blonde trying to see past any illusions but found none.
She was human.
How did she become like this?
As these questions float about Miakoda's mind a tall figure soundlessly appears beside where she sat. Miakoda didn't even bother to look up at the person, she knew who it was. She could smell him when he entered the room… sense him even.
Darcia makes no attempt to grab Miakoda either and the pup in turn makes no attempts to flee. They both knew it would be meaningless to try, Miakoda had worn herself out running through those halls and even if Darcia didn't manage to snatch up quick before she got to the hall they both knew she'd only get herself hopelessly lost again.
Besides this woman is….curious
There's something about her scent that keeps Miakoda there.
"...she is" the pup speaks up, the sound of her voice strange and hautly against her unfamiliar human tongue "...sleeping?" when miakoda turned her gaze to look up at Darcia he was staring down at her, his wolf's eye was covered again.
"..." the male doesn't answer Miakoda for a while settling for staring down at her before returning his gaze to the blonde woman "...she is" he says finally.
"She…" Miakoda questions on "will not wake?"
"Not for a long time…" Darcia shook his head
So she had been here longer than Miakoda? But for what purpose?
"...who is...she?"
"..." slowly, Darcia's one eye fixed itself on Miakoda and for a moment the pup is sure he isn't going to answer. His usual blank and disinterested face seems to slowly twitch to life with what looks like.. .grief? But why? Was this woman important to him? "she is" Darcia spoke "...your mother."
"Mother?" the word felt so foreign to Miakoda now but the implication of the males words hit home. Socked out of her brief moment of relaxation, the pup was up on her feet immediately. She backed away from Darcia with a shake of her head and a snarl as both her body and her mind denounced the revelation.
This woman is not her mother.
Her mother was a wolf not some feeble human!
Miakoda's mother would never stay here passively while these humans did things to her!
Her mother was…
Her mother was…
"..." Miakoda's hostility faltered, her snarl lessened as she scanned her mind for the image of the great she-wolf that was her mother. A void answered Miakoda, vague sounds made up what the pup could recall of how her mother sounded.
The she-wolf's face and even her scent no longer existed in Miakoda's memory.
She couldn't remember her own mother!
"No…" the pup whimpered gripping her head in hopes that maybe she could force herself to remember again "no no no no no no" nothing came, the void of darkness in her mind granted Miakoda nothing for her desperate searching.
There was nothing…
"A few months ago" Darcia's voice break through the panic, he speaks calmly despite Miakoda flinching away from the sound of his voice "our pack was attacked by Nobles."
Yes… yes Miakoda could never forget that night. Even the void could not completely swallow the heat of the flames and the sounds of mournful howls. Miakoda had been with her mother when she had been taken… she could just make out a shadow of her mothers large form descending upon a terrified human but when Miakoda tried to recall the details of the she-wolf a sharp throb of pain sho through her skull and she grunted at the feeling.
A tall imposing wolf figure was being clouded by a slender body and long blond hair...
"I did all I could to save our pack" Darcia spoke on "but I could only save myself, you, and your mother from the blaze."
The forest had glowed with the orange hue of the fire. Miakoda remembered her mother calling to her… the the humans caught her and she howled for her father.
...Her… father…
Miakoda grunted through another throb of pain as she tried to recall even her father human illusion. He was tall and strong looking with tan skin and brown hair…. No… His hair had been long and dark as night… right? Shadows blanketed Miakoda's memory until she could only see the faintest silhouette of her parents. But her father figure… she had seen it after her had been captured right?
She remembered a shadow looming over her when that car crashed and the figures golden wolf's eye… just like Darcia, her father…
The pain settles when Miakoda is at the very least able to recall this information and as her features settle Darcia becomes her with his hand and Miakoda, relieved to remember her father, quickly returns to his side.
"Thankfully, with the help of these human's, i was able to revive you" Darcia goes on to explain running an affectionate hand along Miakoda's head "...but your mother has yet to wake…." Darcia turns his gaze back to the blonde woman fast asleep before then and Miakoda looks as well.
But something just felt so… wrong… it pulled a frown from Miakoda's face. There was just something off about the body before her. Miakoda could sense that the woman, that her mother, was alive but then she also...wasn't? Miakoda wasn't sure what is happening to her slumbering mother.
Paradise
The word is soft as a breeze a whisper from Cheza that floats into the room before finding Miakoda's ear.
Paradise? That place those elders told her about so long ago? Was that where her mother was now?
"Para...dise…" Miakoda lets the word come to her and beside her Darcia flinched.
"What?"
"She has gone...to paradise…" Miakoda spoke, she lifted her gaze to Darcia only to find him staring hard at her. "...Paradise" she speaks on "...took her...she is in...good place now…"
"How...how do you know this?" The question earns Darcia a confused look in response. Did he not hear Cheza? The angelic woman bound in water had spoke it so clear just a moment ago? Did that mean only Miakoda could hear her?
"...Cheza…" Mahina spoke the name to answer the pointed stares her father was giving her. Darcia didn't question her further instead he watched Miakoda as she leaned against him. The pair sat like this in silence for until Miakoda, completely tired from her escape attempt, drifted to sleep against her father.
When Miakoda woke from her sleep sometime later she had been moved from the room where her mother rest. Now, the soft sheets and warm blankets of her bed surrounded her form as she drowsily opened her eyes.
Darcia is not far away, she easily spots him walking towards her bedroom door with Alura by his side.
So than the test today were done?
"My Lord?" Alura spoke up as the two stopped at the door, she turned to Darcia "You won't be staying with her tonight than?"
Silence answered Alura at first lingering just long enough to give off the illusion that Darcia either did not hear or had no plans to answer. He turned his head back to the room, his uncovered wolfs eye gleaming in the darkness as it stared at Miakoda before Darcia faced forward again. "…I have a few things to think about regarding her."
"I see…" Alura mused "W..Well her progress has been positive so far. She's still showing no reaction the poisonous properties of Cheza's blood and…" the woman fidgeted with the clipboard in her hands as she spoke but her voice trailed off as Darcia didn't bother to offer the scientist so much as a look as she spoke "...but that's all minor details I suppose…"
Miakoda didn't blame him, Alura did have a habit of rambling. Still the blonde powered on as clearly these things were very important to their future goals.
"what matters is after a few more transfusions we can move onto the next set of testing… er.. Examining her DNA to note any small alterations Cheza's blood and essence has made to Subject M and…" the woman clutches her clipboard close to her chest now "but the main point is everything appears to be going just as planned."
"Tomorrow," Darcia finally spoke "double her treatment."
"D-double?!" Alura nearly dropped her clipboard at the request, already she was shaking her head in protest to the very idea "But Lord Darcia-"
"We're getting closer to our goal… I can feel it."
"But my Lord, doubling the treatments…" Alura's voice raised in volume for a brief moment before she faltered glancing into the room and at Miakoda. The pup remained still, trying to even out her breathing so neither adult realized she was wide awake and listening to them. "…" Turning back to Darcia Alura's voice dropped to a soft whisper "Too much too soon may have the opposite result!" the woman was shaking her head again "The team and I carefully calculated how much to introduce to her system so that it wouldn't attack not only the foreign DNA but it's own system! This could kill her my Lor-"
But it seemed Darcia had heard enough of the woman's protest.
He didn't want to hear no and he made that much clear when his hand reached out faster than light and gripped Alura by her throat lifting her clean off her feet. The woman let out a sharp squeak that morphed into a strangled gasp as Darcia's grip tightened
"M...m-my lord.. Dar...cia…" Alura abandoned her clipboard, the clattering sound of it dropping to the floor echoing across the room as the woman favored gripping the hand currently strangling her.
"I don't want excuses" Darcia's voice was stern and cold, his more dominating aura was showing and even from this distance Miakoda can see that golden wolfs eye of his burning a furious glare at Alura "make whatever adjustment you need to...just make it work. Tomorrow, her treatment will double… am I understood?"
"y-yes my Lord." Alura gasped out clawing at the vice grip on her airways "I-i understand! I understand!"
And just like that he let her go, Alura let out a loud gasp as she was dropped back on her feet only to coughing and fall to the floor. Wordlessly Darcia left Alura there, holding her throat as she struggled to regain her breath. Alura left some time after that, her once excited aura now overshadowed by what Miakoda could only describe as a sense of fear and dread.
The door clicked softly shut behind her and Miakoda listened as her heels clicked against the hall floors while she walked away.
Miakoda was alone now, left to gather her own thoughts about what she had just heard.
This was all for her mothers sake, they needed to find out if whatever saved Miakoda could save her mother so in truth Miakoda didn't mind the test anymore now that she knew what they were for.
Or at least she hadn't minded, but now? Now that she knew it could potentially be killing her?
Why?
Slowly, Miakoda sat up in her bed, blue eyes staring blanking infront of her.
"...Cheza?" her soft call barely echoed in the room before the room's feeling shifted. The silence gave way to the muffled sound of bubbles and invisible water filled her senses submerging Miakoda. Cheza was here if just barely. Though she did not speak, Miakoda could feel her presence. The maidens blind eyes watched Miakoda and an odd swirl of curiosity circled the pups being.
"Will you...hurt me?"
Cheza's presences shifts to a feeling of bewilderment at the question
"I do not… understand their words." Mikaoda spoke turning her gaze upward, before her eyes she could almost see the gentle maiden floating before her "are you going to….hurt...me?"
Cheza's response was curious, it swayed from bewilderment to distress. Though her physical form was both bound and in a different room than Miakoda, the pup could feel Cheza leaning down, her slender arms circling Miakoda in an embrace. A wave of calm followed the hold and Miakoda's nose cold smell nothing but the scent of Lunar flowers.
Cheza's desperate, Miakoda could feel it, the maiden was trying her hardest to convey something to Miakoda but the pup could only stare blankly back. She didn't understand, there was a tightness in her chest a ache mixed between longing and remorse. But when Miakoda showed no sign of responding to the feeling Cheza almost seems to sigh.
No
Miakoda furrowed her brow. How can she be sure she can trust Cheza? Could she even trust Cheza?
The maiden's presence grew stronger until Maikoda could feel her body pressed against her. Miakoda closed her eyes nuzzling her face against the barely there feeling of Cheza's body. She supposed there was no point right now in worrying too much about it and even if there was the waves of comfort Cheza sent Miakoda were doing a good job of coaxing the pup into complacency, before long Miakoda was laying back down.
"Cheza?"
Cheza's presence flickered in attention.
"Will you… sing… for me?"
Silence. Cheza does not answer for a very long while and this makes Miakoda frown. Perhaps that was too much to ask for, she wouldn't blame the Maiden for not wanting to sing especially after Miakoda had just accused her of trying to cause her harm. Heaving a sigh, Miakoda pulled her blankets up to her nose rolling onto her side in an attempt to sleep.
Shailoh Shailoh, Yatreet ka…
"..." Miakoda takes in a small breath and sighs as her senses are blanketed by Cheza's very being. As she closed her eyes began drifting to sleep the maiden sent her a mental image of Cheza sitting beside Miakoda's form on the bed. Cheza's body glowed in an ethereal light as she reached out a hand and cards it through Miakoda's hair. Miakoda could almost feel it as she finally drifted back to sleep.