Hordika Under the Bed
Waking up the next morning was...different.
Mostly since sometime in the wee hours if the night (or morning depending on how you look at it) Vakama had sifted closer. The result was that Mic would find herself being cuddled up against the Hordika himself under the blanket, almost completely wrapped around her with arms, tail and head over hers. Somewhere in the sleeping time he had changed to his right side so the injured left thigh didn't have any extra presser on it.
Still partly lost in her slumber, Mic tried to shift onto her other side... only the action seemed to have been halted by something. In result she moaned softly and tried again with no luck. Her mind was confused, but not exactly wanting to wake up and investigate yet.
The Hordika rumbled a bit louder than the softer sleeping sounds in a relative quite protest of the movement. Vakama shifted so the end of his muzzle was resting over Mic's neck.
"Mm?" Mic didn't open her eyes, but a small part of her mind was still trying to figure out where she was... and when the heat had been turned up. Usually it'd be only on rare occasion when they'd turn it up in the house. But it was rather nice anyhow.
This heat was different though, if she paid close attention it was increasing slightly by a degree or two before dropping back. In truth it was in time with Vakama's steady breathing.
'...wha?' She blearily cracked her eyelids open, vision blurred by sleep. There was red... lots of red blotches, a rather large one sitting on her neck. Blinking a few times, but still half-asleep, Mic turned her head slightly while watching the blotch.
The blotch formed into a somewhat ridged muzzle. Vakama didn't move, he was almost completely limp, not truly grasping like the night before.
Realization clicked in her foggy mind and she smiled softly. She had become something of a human teddy bear to the Hordika it seemed, and she noted his tail once more. Mic wondered what time it was since the blinds blocked out a good amount of light and she couldn't even see them very well from the floor. So she shifted her body from side to side, trying to see if there was any hope of escape.
If Mic moved slowly, and was careful of not to let Vakama's head drop unexpectedly, she could slid out of his 'embrace.'
She considered possible ways of doing this without disturbing the Hordika's sleep. The blanket might have served as a replacement for her neck, but it was tangled around her too much to get undone without moving a whole lot. She then wondered if she could just wake him up momentarily... the human sighed deeply and reached carefully into her pocket, having slept in her clothes, and slowly pulled out her phone which she used to check the time. "Nine... fifteen?" she mumbled.
A huff of warm air came from the Hordika, he shifted and then stretched out on his side suddenly. Half rolled over Vakama yawned widely as he flexed his claws out, arched his tail and neck and...
...and flopped.
He did all that without waking up.
At least this had given Mic the moment to slide away. Still feeling tired she decided to simply ignore getting up and ready for the day. Instead she climbed onto the nearby cough and lay on her stomach, watching the Hordika with a sleepy grin.
He didn't move again, other the little motions of a twitching tail tip, the rising and falling on his side in breathing. In the coming light of day, outside of the darkness, Vakama's form was more visible, as well as the darker stripes down the Hordika's sides. From nose to tail and on his legs it was like a loose tiger patter, the stripes were a bit bigger though and only 'aiming' downwards. Each was a darker red-ish brown shade, and worked to break up his outline in the dark.
Mic admired Vakama's new details, now that they were more visible than before. Honestly, she couldn't get over the Hordika. He was intimidating, especially the fangs, yet he had some sort of beauty that could only be found in a Hordika. Norik had said something about the 'beast within' having a better side in the books... for once they were right it seemed. As she thought about this she began to fall back to sleep, enjoying the rare feeling of contentment. And here she had thought the weekend would be lonely and boring...
Somewhere in the hall, the faint sound of a dog's whine and scratching at the door could be heard, but the human had zoned out too much to notice it by now.
Vakama twitched, not fully dead to the world, moving his head a little to listen and debate waking up to investigating.
The dog in the closed off room could sense and smell the creature in the house, and she was not thrilled about it at all, clawing at the door with a few warning growls, knowing her human was out there somewhere with the Hordika. The dog was protective after all.
Said Hordika slowly opened the outer lid over his left eye, making the eye itself look more silvery and slightly blank. A audible growl rattled out of him in and automatic response to what he had heard.
The black lab's ears perked and for a moment she was silent. Then her head lifted higher on hearing a moan. That was HER HUMAN'S sound out there, with that creature! The dog growled louder and scratched the door again, nearly on the verge of barking.
Vakama make a face in his sleep, rolling onto his back and wiggling in an ungracefully way, but still getting a scratch itched. He lay like that for a moment before opening one eye and rolling back over again. Only this time he rose silently up to his feet.
Abby kept up the growling, but she was also listening intently for her human. More than anything the dog wished she could somehow be granted the ability to open closed doors... and she needed to go outside, too. None of this was making sense to Abby, especially since her human never went to sleep out of her sight. In the dog's mind, that was NOT right at all.
Something was suddenly on the other side of the door, having made no sound it was a surprise. The something/someone sniffed at the bottom of the door where there was that crack between the wood and the floor.
Abby's ears perked again and she sniffed at the bottom too, growling a question. The scent was not... normal somehow. The dog backed up and actually rose up on her hind legs, her forepaws on the door as she scratched again with a small bark. She absolutely NEEDED to get outside and do her business!
The sniffing on the other side didn't stop, but rose a little higher. There was a pause before the doorknob turned and the door itself was nudged inward. Vakama stood there, balanced on his hind legs, making full use of his tail for counter balance. The Hordika tilted his head. Near everything about him screamed 'predator!' but he didn't move, nor made any predator-y moves.
He just blinked both sets of lids at the dog.
The dog had stepped back when the door opened, but when she saw Vakama she froze for a moment. Then her tail lowered, faintly wagging nervously as she lowered her head too and stepped back, as if suddenly realizing that the creature was very... big. Abby was clearly too scared to bark, so she instead showed him submission, meaning he was dominant of her. Abby sat and watched him, ears down.
After a few long moments, Vakama huffed and dropped down to all fours, making a slight vibration but no loud thud as he turned himself around and walked off in a 'okay, you're okay' way. Heading to the door to the backyard to take care of his own business, nothing would work with his body in this place anyways.
Abby waited a few moments, before trotting out of the room headed on a course for the screen door, but she soon saw Mic sprawled out in a deep sleep on the couch and went over to wag her tail and give her a few sniffs first, just to see if she was alright. Then the dog went after Vakama, seeing as he was nearing the door. Whenever someone nears the door, she could count on getting outside since they would usually open it. Even so, the dog whined to alert him anyway.
The Hordika was carefully turning the doorknob on the back door and nosed his way out of the screened door, his tail held it open as he hesitated long enough to let the dog out as well.
Abby trotted past him, head lowered and ears back, still quite uncertain and fearful of the new creature that had invaded HER house... but the dog knew the Hordika dominated her. The dog raced across the privacy-fenced yard growling softly at the Hordika's scent being littered all over her yard. A fog had settled in overnight as well.
Vakama rocked back and stood at his full height, peering around in the fog and trying to see over it. It was too heigh though, unlike some areas of his home island so he thudded down, took care of some bodily needs before vanishing into the fog to hunt. When he didn't come back later, using the fog as cover, there were no squirrels in the area anymore, as well as half the rabbit population would be missing.
Abby had gone back inside the house, only to do some more sniffing, finding Vakama's scent in all sorts of places. But what the dog seemed to be most upset about was that on coming up to her human, who could have passed as being dead on the couch, she smelled large amounts of the scent on her. Abby ignored the 'ABBY GET OFF THE COUCH!' rule, and jumped up and settled with her head on the human's legs, as if re-claiming her property. The dog stayed there until the Hordika returned.
When the Hordika did come back there was a clinging scent of fresh blood, not strong enough for a human to pick up though. Vakama sat down in the spot he'd been before, spending time on cleaning his muzzle and claws. Eyeing Abby and Mic the mutated Toa blinked both sets of lids slowly, wondering exactly how she'd gotten up there. Hadn't he been heat-leaching last night...?
Abby watched the Hordika right back, warily. Dogs were capable of feeling jealousy, and in this case Abby wasn't very 'happy' so to put it. She made a low grumble-like noise-if dogs were capable of that-and sighed. In turn Mic felt the movement and made a muffled noise between 'ugh' and 'no,' half her face in the couch.
Vakama snorted, shook his head before settling back down again in the spot he had been in. He didn't curl up but sprawled on his side, being full after all. Within no time he was out like a light again, almost like he hadn't moved, except that the wrap on his leg was scuffed and loosened.
At least half an hour passed where the three stayed like this. Then without warning, Mic's phone that had been set on the small table next to the couch went off; someone was calling. Abby made no move, having been used to the loud ringtone, but it was slightly different for the two sleepers.
With a jerk and a snarl, Vakama was yanked out of the dearly needed sleep, the Rhotuka launcher coming to life and humming with power. Startled awake to say the least.
Mic snapped out of her own sleep with wide eyes, and if she were an anime person she would have sweat-dropped when she saw the startled Hordika. "No, no, it's alright, it's," she flung her arm forward and caught the device, hurriedly trying to answer it. "...my phone."
Fangs bared for a moment, Vakama's eyes were briefly green before melding back to the less aggressive red and orange (strange how red can be considered a non-threatening). The Rhotuka launcher was still active and there was a half formed spinner, crackling with semi-transparent red-ish gold energy.
It was mostly the spinner that had driven Abby into fleeing the area and taking cover in Mic's room on the bed again. The human quickly babbled apologizes to the Hordika, in effort to calm him and because this was what she had been trying to avoid in the first place. Why in the world hadn't she thought of turning the phone's volume off? Mic answered the phone while getting up and backing into the hall in hopes that whoever was calling wouldn't be able to hear Vakama. He really did look rather unsettled after all.
Her eyes lost all sleep-heaviness on hearing the voice on the other end. "Oh, hi dad! Wha, no, I um, overslept..."
The partly formed spinner seemed to splutter and what shape it had was dissolved. Vakama half stood where he was, shaking his head in that way of someone trying to wake up in the mind but the Hordika's own exhausted body betraying him. Vakama struggled not to yawn and open his inner set of lids.
Mic let out a silent sigh of relief when the spinner vanished but her concentration was turned back to her father on the phone. "Huh? Yeah I was up late... sorry, I forgot to... everything's fine, just great, wonderful... well I just woke up!... Abby's doing great..." Basically dealing with the usual 'how-are-you-doing?' parent-mode. Having to stay silent about the large Hordika in the living room made it seem like more of a hassle though.
Being nocturnal did have draw backs, Vakama thought as he swayed from where he sat. His forelegs seemed to be locked into place and unable to bend the right way to let him go back to sleep since there was no threat. An involuntary yawn did push out of him fully this time as he stared at Mic, with the inner lids closed he had a seemingly blank look.
The human really felt like sweat-dropping, especially if she were anime. But right now all she could do was stand, or lean actually, against the wall and listen to her mother, who was now on the other end, talk on and on until she was certain that her daughter was fine.
Though Mic had a feeling she was safe as it was as she glanced at the Hordika. She finally said goodbye to her mother and hung up, slumping. Not your usual way to wake up. She shuffled back into the living room guiltily. "Sorry... I should've shut the sound off last night."
Vakama huffed at her words, hearing her voice more than the words.
Seeing that the Hordika was somewhat alert, but not all the way, Mic tipped her head as she sat on the edge of the couch. "Did you sleep well, Vakama?"
The mutated Bionicle blinked, shifted and collapsed back down in limp pile, making a grumbling sound in the back of his throat and a soft chirp. That was better, now he could go back to sleep!
Mic laughed softly and shook her head. She thought to herself for awhile before looking around, in search for something before spying it across the floor, next to the entertainment center-the remote control. She crouched next to it and pressed a button but nothing happened. Mic muttered to herself about dead batteries and had to settled with using the controls on the TV panel instead, making sure that the volume was low.
After a while Vakama's head was set down in Mic's lap, the Hordika curling around her without really waking up, drawn by body heat and the instinct to be near someone else.
Any feeling or urge to get things done left her, and she smiled warmly leaning back into him. As a few news reports flashed on the screen Mic moved her hand and started to stroke Vakama along the eye ridge again, knowing he liked it.
Even in sleep, Vakama responded with a purr. Lighter than it had been before, and the Hordika tilted his head more to the side to let Mic get a better angle. His tail tip, in sight this time, gave a little wiggle as well.
Mic giggled and gladly kept up the stroking, enjoying the sound of his purr since dogs didn't purr at all. She wondered just how long the Hordika could, and would sleep, seeing as now it would be hard to leave him again, and she wanted him to rest knowing Vakama had been through enough in his own world. A rather disturbing report came on about a kidnapping, and Mic stopped stroking for a moment to try and reach forward and change the channel without disturbing the Hordika.
The Hordika eventually went limp, his purr continuing though a notch softer. Oblivious to the world in general Vakama was content in his sleep for once. Mic could have played with his spinner patch and he wouldn't have cared in the slightest.
After a few minutes Mic finally sighed and checked the time again. It was a little after ten, but there wasn't anything that TRULY had to get done that day... other than change into some clean clothes perhaps. "I'm surprised you aren't hungry yet," she said to herself, looking at the Hordika, who remained limp. It was then that she took a good long look at his claws and noticed some dried stains before cringing sharply. "Ew..."