"It's just a bit of a cough, child," Mom promised with her human hand stroking the scaly cheek of her adoptive monster child. It didn't manage halfway before she was forced to retract it to cough into the bend of her arm. The cold that returned to the light-blue scales hurt like frostbite, and the lips which had promised themselves to stay still and not to quiver in the mirror just before parted with a harsh sob.

Monsters couldn't be sick like humans! Mom could still stroke without risking infecting her monster kid! Why didn't she do that? Why! Why! Sarbor had been gone for so long now! He promised he'd be quick! He promised he'd been home soon again!

It wasn't fair…

"Oh, Idyll," worried Mom with her eyes watering. "You know that the miasma could still stick onto you even if you're a monster. My soul hurts that I'm so afraid to touch you, but what would happen if your brother got sick too?" She turned her head to watch Dad cough feverishly in his bed stained with cold sweat. "We'll make up to the both of you when we get healthy, my dearest child."

"Do you promise?" trickled out between the uneven teeth and quivering lips. "You gotta promise!" The demand was childish, in both its purity and the panic behind it. Pure, overwhelming emotion had the monster child's arms glowing a bright orange as the sense of unfairness burst out of her soul and aura into a raging and unstable display of magic. It surged inside of her, pushed against her scales from inside, and stretched them apart. It didn't hurt her, but it was unmistakable as a feeling. It made her more aware of her own emotions, which in this case pushed her teeth together so hard the gaps between them disappeared into a solid barrier of anger.

It wasn't fair!

Before the child could reel back and cry out her confused frustration her outburst was soothed by the returning hand of her mother stroking her cheek again. Knowing that it was fleeting, the child caught it with both of her own hands to hold it in place. "I promise, Idyll," Mom again promised with her smile lifting up her hollowed face. The sunken shadows over her eyes disappeared for just a moment before her coughs attacked her again.

With her eyes as yellow as the skin of her sickly mother, the monster could see that it hurt her parent, so she let go of the skinny hand to have it help alleviate the pain that twisted the frail body with each loud hack expelled with agony.

The monster child pushed her hands against where her ears would be had she been human as she walked out of the room smelling thick of miasma and sick. Immediately she went outside into the sunny summer day to have the miasma leave her monster form. Her long, bright hair lifted horizontally like a defeated flag as a breeze passed her by. The tears in her eyes were sheared away as well, breaking up into minuscule shimmers that disappeared into the poorly maintained garden next to her.

Feeling faint, the monster child jumped up on the bench where just a week and a half before she'd sat in her father's lap and listened to his singing. As her form touched the hard wood of the bench she wondered if he could ever sing again after the way his coughs had turned his voice into nothing but gravel.

It wasn't fair…

The sun had managed to move across the sky and hide behind the house's brown roof when the monster child heard footsteps on the road. She lifted up her hair to see underneath it who it was, and her soul flustered to life as she saw who it was.

Sarbor!

And someone else.

Who that was didn't matter to the monster, who jumped down from the bench with haste and ran to meet her human brother before her hair had time to settle after her landing. "Sarbor!" she shouted with open arms. "You're home!"

Sarbor put down a bag he was carrying and kneeled down to catch his little monster sister rushing up to him. Her hair whipped around his face and head when he caught her lunge into his awaiting embrace, and he spattered and sputtered as it tangled around his mouth, nose, and ears. No sympathy was found from his little sister though, who laughed and laughed with naked glee as she burrowed her muzzle underneath her big brother's chin. The evacuating raspberry he blew tickled her.

"So this must be Idyll," said the someone else with a chuckle of his own. His voice was deep and soothing, albeit a bit muffled. "You weren't kidding about her hair, Sarbor. She'll grow into it though with time. Monsters usually have that one exaggerated part of their body that they grow into."

Sarbor's neck was pulled forward by his little sister's hair when the curious little monster leaned her head back to see who the someone else was. "Who are you?" she asked as a curious demand. The sight of what he was wearing intimidated her a bit which made her voice spurt into the frightened demand. Black, flowing garbs with white striping at the seams that obscured his body and gave him an almost other-worldly form insinuated by the emphasis of his sewn-on white fabric. His face was obscured by a beaked mask that smelled of strange herbs. Even though she'd scream and cry if she saw him standing at the edge of her bed in the middle of the night, the child still felt that he was friendly and could be trusted. She knew that he was smiling earnestly with a slight humorous accent to it even though she couldn't see any part of his skin. "Are you not a monster?"

The someone else's chuckle inside his mask had a slight echo to it. "You're both correct and wrong there, Idyll Fech." He brought one arm forth from being clasped behind his back and angled his forearm in front of the small monster. She only caught a quick glimpse of it before her hair fell before her eyes as her human brother managed to free himself from it. She brushed her hair aside again, and to her surprised gasp she saw that the someone else's sleeve was glowing gently.

Added to that was an...aura.

An aura!

That meant that…

"I'm a human mage," revealed the someone else. "And I'm also a doctor."

A doctor! A human mage doctor! The monster's mouth opened wide, baring her uneven teeth into a smile that glistened in the midday sun. She wanted to hug that someone else, but at the same time she also wanted to hug her brother for finding him. She leaned in to each of the humans, side to side, almost like a dance.

It again summoned an echoing chuckle from the human mage, who squatted down and placed her blue arm in his hand. "You've been very brave and strong monster, Idyll," he said with a hard nod to show how much he meant of it. "Even more so, you've been a very brave and strong child." He placed his other hand on her chest. "There's a human soul inside of you, that's how strong I feel that you are."

A human soul? Wow! The someone else was really nice by saying that! Was he staying for long? That would be really fun. If he can do magic maybe he can teach some too? Help the child to learn magic that can help with cooking? Her magic was really good for chopping up the wood for the fires, but not so much for cooking over the fires. She had done the best she could while Mom and Dad had been sick, but…

...But...

But her lips began quivering again.

The someone else's beak moved down towards her hand that he held. "Here." The monster child looked down to see, and feel, a whirl of icy magic dance inside her palm. Not long after the opaque blizzard gave way to a glistening cube of ice. "A little gift to you for being so strong and taking care of your human parents all on your own. Lift it up and look through it."

What the child saw stunned her. Through the ice she could see colorful patterns that changed and turned as she spun around with it held up towards the sky. She began to laugh as looking through it her brother became all mushed and angular. "You play with that one while the doctor and I do some work, alright?" Sarbor asked his little sister with his mouth morphing funnily as he spoke. Idyll nodded, and received a gentle and warm pat on her head as Sarbor and the someone else passed her by.

A drop splattered against her ice cube, freezing solid as it did. It made the refraction through the magically conjured ice a bit murky, which didn't please the child.

It wasn't fair…

"You have to listen to me, Idyll."

It wasn't fair.

"Please, come here to me."

It wasn't fair!

"You know already, don't you?"

"It's not fair!"

Anger. Hate. Confusion. Sadness. Grief.

Bereaved of not just one parent.

But both.

"You said that the doctor would help, Sarbor!" screamed Idyll with her clamped throat making each syllable feel like she was choking. "He was a human mage and a human doctor! Why didn't he help?"

The face of the monster child's brother was as morphed through her flowing tears the day when the family of four became only two as it was the day when the someone else handed her a magical ice cube which she looked through with laughter. "He did everything he could, Idyll," said her brother with his throat as clamped up as his sister's was. "But mom and dad… They..." He tried to be strong for his little sister. "They..." But there's only so much grief one can take on their shoulders. "...T...h...e...y..."

Before the weight makes them collapse.

The two siblings fell into the others arms in the kitchen of their house. Just across the hallway through the bedroom door opened askew their wails and cries fell on faces pale in the moonlight. It was serene, the best outcome considering, but not a good one. The faces looked like they were sleeping, and the paleness could've been explained by the moonlight.

They were fair.

But for Idyll it wasn't.

For her brother it wasn't.

And their lament roared throughout the village. There was no sleep to be had that night. The village stayed awake to hear the cries of the children left without parents. They all knew how strong the kids had been, how proud their parents had been to have such wonderful children. Most of all, the village knew the anger and hate the parents had for knowing that they'd leave their children because of their illness. That they'd failed in their duty to be the ones protecting instead of being protected.

So the village stayed awake since it knew that it would be the ones to take care of the human and monster siblings. They stayed awake to hear how much they had to comfort later. If they could even comfort enough?

From what the village heard mourning from the house that'd been so deathly quiet for weeks on end, not even it would be enough. Still, they listened. For there was still strength left inside the screams of heartache and bereavement when they together quieted into a restless fatigue on the cold kitchen floor.

The moonlight did all it could to warm the children. The village spoke of it pushing aside clouds to not cast yet another shadow over them. Over the human child with his monster sibling in his trembling arms, and over the monster child who's arms trembled with the same emotion, but through magic. An orange magic that helped so much in life and spring.

But was powerless in death and fall.

Her parents had fallen down.

The monster child did her all, but her parents still became fallen down. She did everything she was told, and did everything to help.

For nothing.

It wasn't fair…

"Sarbor Fech, was it?"

Why did he have to leave for his studies?

"I bring word from Bonny Sallus. One of his apprentices told of your quick learning during the treatment of your parents."

And for what? To learn about medicine? Mom and Dad were already dead!

"I also bring his and his apprentice's deepest condolences for your loss, Mr. Fech. Same to you, Idyll Fech."

Sarbor wasn't a mister! He was Idyll's brother! Who was this monster to just take him away from her?

"Truth be told, Mr. Fech, your parents' condition wasn't as rare as we thought it was. We suspect an epidemic here in Xoff in the near future, and Bonny Sallus has opened up more apprenticeships in order to deal with it."

Just because he had those fancy robes like that someone else had? Just because he had a beak himself and not on a mask?

"Your sister using her magic to surround your arms to help protect from the miasma we've already begun utilizing ourselves. However, we need humans of a later generation and with exposure already to magic to properly integrate that into our procedures. I'm sure you're aware that with each generation of humans the affinity for magic has increased? It's another reason of you being wanted for this."

So he was also gonna be someone to experiment on?

"I've been entrusted to offer both of you positions at Bonny Sallus clinic. You'll be lodged and given study to become part of the Royal Court of Healing and Medicine operating in Xoff by the grace of both kingdoms for the betterment of health and treatments. This is a personal request from Bonny Sallus and has been approved by Queen Toriel of Monster Country and the King of Xoff."

But no one asked Idyll and her brother for any approval…

"The newly appointed Monster Mage Kurant will see to it that your travels go smoothly and to also show how much you accepting this offer means to us."

Without considering for a single second how it would feel to the ones asked…

"She will arrive in a couple of weeks time, on the change of the month. Please be prepared by then."

The siblings watched in silence as the corvian monster took a bow with his left wing over his chest with its dark-purple and chromatic feathers spread-out wide. His arm returned behind him with his other as he bent down underneath the door frame, filling it completely as he passed through it. In the hallway he stopped to look at the locked bedroom door with his robe gently lifting up to then quietly relax back down in rhythm with his slow and methodical breathing. His head swerved around, and Idyll could feel a genuine sorrow spread in his aura. "My deepest condolences as well," he said respectfully before bowing again. "May Ebott's shimmer shine within your souls, siblings Fech."

"You wouldn't mind checking in at the village inn before you leave, doctor?" requested Sarbor to the monster doctor before he managed to the front door. "A child is about to be birthed there, and they could have use of some healing."

"Certainly," answered the monster doctor calmly and with subdued authority. "I will do what I can if need be."

Like how that human mage promised...

Sarbor bowed his head back as the corvian exited the house which had become at risk of being emptier yet again. A similar quiet fell between the two siblings as they stared together at the locked bedroom door through the emptied kitchen door frame while the gravel-perturbing footsteps of the dark, avian monster faded into an equal silence. The tea Idyll had boiled for the visitor turned cold as Sarbor finally took a deep breath through his nose.

"I promise I'll come back to visit as often as I can. I'll ask both the monster and human royals about it if I have to, Idyll."

Sarbor couldn't read Idyll's aura, yet still he knew exactly what her answer was. For he was her big brother, and that he'd been his entire life. Affinity for magic didn't matter in the damnedest slightest to him knowing. He knew his monster sister better than a monster ever could. Better than a human ever could.

And he knew that her answer wasn't the same as his.

"If not, then I'll send for each and every Monster Mage to personally take you to me."

And he knew that both wouldn't change what they had decided.

"If not, then I'll ask Ebott to move for you and I."

For he knew his sister.

"We'll always be together, Idyll."

But what he feared.

"I love you with all of my soul."

Was that his sister knew him as well.

"When was the last time you visited Mom and Dad without me telling you to, Sarbor?"

About how much he had changed after those perilous weeks.

"Why do I always have to bring you there with me? Why do you say no when I ask?"

About how he had never really truly enjoyed what Idyll's learned to cook from the families that have taken care of them ever since.

"Do you really love me as your family? Do you still love them?"

Idyll knew that he did.

"Of course I do, Idyll!"

That was why she asked.

"But what if I fall ill the same way Mom and Dad did? What if I make this house even emptier with only you left in it?"

Because Sarbor was always one step ahead for his own good.

"It'll be just me here when you leave for that apprenticeship, Sarbor..."

And it made him turn around for his others.

"I..."

It made him stumble.

"I..."

It made him stop.

"I don't want to leave you, Idyll. But to do that I have to leave from here. I can't do good on that promise here."

It made him weep.

"Everything's tasted like nothing after Mom and Dad...died. I've seen you so happy when you're cooking, but I can't taste anything of it. I can't be happy with this fear. I hate it, because it makes me afraid of you. You cooked for Mom and Dad before they fell ill and left us, and since I don't understand how they succumbed even with a human mage specialized in healing I can't..."

It made his sister weep.

"I know it's not your cooking, but I have to figure out what it really was. I'll eat anything you serve when I come back, Idyll! I'll figure out what happened to Mom and Dad so that I can taste again. And I'll think of it as the tastiest meal I have ever had!"

They both had their different answers.

"And I will make it the tastiest meal you'll ever have! I promise you! I'll make you come back to me!"

So that they could have the same one in the end.

For that to happen though the house had to be empty. The human brother and monster sister decided that. It was what they told their parents buried underneath a nearby aspen tree. The leaves had sprung anew in a lively green when the children explained to their parents that they were finally ready to leave into the world and make their own life.

"We sold the house," said the monster sister. "I...I kept the pots and pans though."

"We'll be back," said the human brother. "Just...we wish that you'd meet us when we do."

The siblings looked at each other with tempered smiles. They knew that it would be difficult, but there was a slight relief in saying it. It meant that they felt right about their decisions, finally. They felt like they were moving on, but not moving away. They'd never forget their parents, but just like the leaves made green from their fallen down, so had the siblings go and make their own life from their parents deaths.

Even if it took them so long to do it.

"I'm heading nearby Mt. Ebott to study for Bonny Sallus," revealed the human brother. "To figure out what it was that...took you." The grip around his father's old leather bag hardened. "I'll make sure that no one else goes through what you went through. I promise that."

"I'm heading to Jarasevo to work at its castle," revealed the monster sister. "So that I can cook a meal for Sarbor when he gets his taste back." The grip around her mother's old basket hardened. "I'll make sure that it will be a feats he will never forget."

"We'll be back," said the two in unison.

"Together."