Chapter 49: Varian's Tears

Everyone, I apologize again for lettting you wait. RL caught up, and prevented me from updating much on anything. I hope this new chapter might be of any satisfaction.

Varian wasn't sure of what was going on.

Nothing was clear inside his head right now.

The sudden pain in his bumped arm, no matter how casual it would appear, took over his whole being and made everything around him dissapear. His head went spinning, everything went black, and then…

Yellow?

Then some rather frightful pictures appeared inside his head. What was it? A deja vou? Had this happened before?

Inside Varian's mind, all the black was slowly replaced by this strange yellowish, he couldn't detect what it was, but somehow he was aware of it. But he found himself… He had turned around, rather fast for some reason, and managed to accidentally bump the very same elbow into whatever it that yellow stuff was. It was sharp, and didn't only cause him a painful elbow impact, but scratched his arm as well, making him cry out loud.

But he cried not only in frustration and pain. There was something else as well. Something inside the yellow...

What was this? Was he scared? Terrefied?

No! He was angry, very angry.

But for what? That yellow stuff hurt his arm, but what was it that… He tried to look at it, detect it, but as he tried…

He wanted to scream, he wanted to shout out lout for the anger of geting his arm hurt… or something else… All he knew was that he was hurting.

#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#

As Varian sat on the floor, clenching his hand around his wounded elbow, partly growling and partly stiffling painful sobs behind clenched teeth, Violet felt at sudden that she had to fight with herself. Should she go to him, or should she let Phineas handle it? But then she turned to Phineas, who looked concerned, but just stood still and observed, with no intention of going to him at all. His almond shaped black eyes squinted and stared at the boy on the floor.

«Phineas? What's happening? What are we gonna do?» she asked concerned.

His forehead frowned and his lips became a thin line. «I think we should wait.» he answered low.

Another chocked sob made Violet turn back to the boy, who was now shaking, his long, black bangs of messy hair dancing in front to of his face, partly exposing his painful expression.

And the tears on his frecled cheeks.

Violet looked at the boy, suddenly feeling her heart growing heavy. The other day, everyone had been terrefied of this boy whom everyone said had done such horrible things that had sent him down the dungeons. She herself had been dreadfully afraid just to be in the same room as him a moment ago, wondering what was wrong with a boy who would do such things.

But seeing him looking so poorly and feeble made her wonder what was wrong with her. All of a sudden, she didn't see the dangerous criminal that she had been so afraid of a moment ago.

Now, all she could see, was a child. A crying child.

And no woman with a mother's heart would even consider turning her back on such a sight.

She was about top take a step towards him, leaning forward, but Phineas' grip tightened. Looking up at him, she saw him shaking his head at her.

Suddenly, Violet change from concerned to angry. At first the Physician had insisted that she stayed near him and even stood close to him, but now at sudden when he looked hurt, the Physician did nothing? And he even had the nerve to hold her back?

A wimp and another sob, sorer this time.

At last, her inner mother took over. With a force that was to her benefit considering her big, strong appearence, Violet ripped herself free from Phineas' grip, making him loose ballance a moment. She gave him another scowl before heading over to the boy, kneeling by him and grabbed a hold on his lanky shoulders.

«Varian! Are you alright? Answer me, lad!»

#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#

«Varian…»

A voice called for him. Far away, or was it… He turned to his left.

Was there a presence there with him? Someone there? Was someone watching him? He tried to focus and… spotted something… purple?

«Varian…»

The pruple figure was reaching out to him. But what was it? Who was she?

Varian wasn't able to figure out what it was, because all of a sudden everything arouind him with foggy, and this world was spinning again. The pruple figure faded and was slowly replaced with something orange in front of him. And the voice… it kept calling…

#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#

«Varian, snap out of it! What is wrong with you?»

Violet shook him so hard to wake him up from his curious state and get his attention that his head almost went back and forth. Phineas finally reacted and ran towards them.

«Are you isane, woman? We have to handle him carefully! He has a concussion!»

«Oh hush with you!» Violet gave him a short scowl before she turned back to the boy. «Varian boy, wake up now!»

Behind her, the Physician himself paled from where he stood. He seemed uncertain of what would be the next best move as he didn't really know what was going to happen. It could be anything. And now, Violet was involved. Inside his silent mind he cursed himself forgetting her involved.

What do I do? I feared this would come, but I had no idea when! How could it be that it would come so soon? I thought I had more time…

Back on the bed, Ruddiger had been hiding his behind his tail, his eyes staring with deep concern for his master reaction. But now he got concerned for what the plump woman was doing with him and he reached closer.

Violet on her side felt she grew impatiant. Rather out of this than of fear, or maybe a bit of both, she moved her right hand and gave the boy a good slap on right left cheek.

Then suddenly, something happened. The boy seemed at last to respond. He jerked up and finally let go of his wounded arm, and his head head went from shaking to panickly looking around as he whimpered confused. «Whh-wh-wha… What…»

«Varian? Look at me lad!» Violet said.

«Wh-what?» Varian blinked, and kept blinking as he looked at her, as if he had woken up from a dream and ha tried to actually wake up. «W-whohoho… who… who…» he kept stumbling, not really managing to say a word properly.

«Varian?» Violet said, almost lifting him up by his shoulders.

The boy looked confused around and tried to make out his surroundings, but the boy ended up stared out without really staring at anything, looking lost as he started to hyper ventilate, panicked breathes that only cebeme worse as they went on.

Then suddenly, Ruddiger had enough. Sensing his master finally somehow awake, he crawled forward and looked at his panicked master. Close up, the raccoon reached out a paw and gave his master a short tap on his cheek, clas a bit out, but making sure he didnt' give his master more than a short woundless scratch.

The boy made a yelp, and looked like he just woke up form a sleep walk. The raccoon gave a deep croon towards him to keep his attention with his own concerned eyes, as he was asking if he was alright. Varian turned towards the critter, at first looking rather confused before he opened his mouth.

«Ruddig-ger…» the boy stumbled helplessly and Ruddiger crooned again, this time of delight from getting some kind of contact with him.

«Varian?»

The boy jerked again, and looked up, facing Phineas looking down at him rather concerned. Then he became aware of Violet in front of him, deep worry written in her brown eyes. But the boy kept on searching the room for something else, something that wasn't there no matter how desperatly he looked.

«What's… going on…» Varian's huge, blue eyes were filled with fresh tears within seconds and blured out the sight of the room. «Where's… Dad…»

All of a sudden he had no control over himself or his actions. The scared and confused expression on his face turned into a painful grimace as the tears from his eyes ran over and mixed themselves with his already wet face.

«Where's… D-d-aad…» he whimpered, panting panically, and he managed to draw his choking breath and screamed out. «DAAAAAAD…»

The sudden outburst broke his dam completley, and the next moment he was dissolved in harsh, violent crying. The sobs came out loud like water breaking from a dam, echoing in the large room. "Daaaa-ah-ah…" he whimpered and cracked down in another sobbing fit as he wrapped both his arms tightly around his body, his head shagging and his long bangs jumping at each sob and clenching to his already wet face.

"But Varian, what in heaven's name..." Violet sat and watched with disbelief. She gently grabbed a hold on both his upper arms and lifted him up. Slender and lanky as he was, he didn't weigh much, and it was no big deal for her to lift him up and get him in sitting position on the bed. But she didn't' like the way he suddenly started shaking all over.

"Daddy,,," he sniffled. "Where's-my-daddy…" he stumbled between the sobs, his nose stuffing up as he cried and made his speech impossible to understand. After a deep gasp, he cried out. "Idodow whatsapenig..."

"Now now..." Violet folded her plump hand around his jaw and lifted it up to face him while she stroke away the bangs that sticked to his already tear stained face making him look even more messed up than when she first met him the other day. He bit his bottom lip in a faint attempt to keep the sobs back. But it was his eyes that struck her deepest, those large eyes, already harshly red, with the blue pools in the middle of them. But it was the look in them that struck her.

It was fear.

Helplessness.

It was the eyes of a child. A child in dire need.

As a mother and grandmother, the feeling of motherhood wasn't new to her, and this was the feeling that filled her heart by seeing him like this. Suddely she forgot what she had gotten to know about him, and at the moment it wasn't a dangerous prisoner she was dealing with, but a helpless and strongly neglected young boy not much older than her own grandaughter. All of a sudden, Violet found herself smiling at him, and before she knew it, she was stroaking away some of the moist from his cheeks with her chubby fingers.

«There there now, dearie. It's gonna be alright, you see.» she said as gently as she could.

Her words seemed to be a little unexpected to the crying teen, and it was like he lost strength to stay up sitting, as he suddenly collapsed and fell forwards in her arms, grabbing a hold on her dress like it was for life while he gave her the most desperate, helpless look she had ever seen in her life.

«Don't leave me! Please Don't leave me,! I don't wanna be alo-o-one…»

She wrapped her huge arms around him and let him lean on her, while she stroke a hand over his back to sooth him the best she could while he sobbed violently.

«Where am bI? Why am bI eben ere?» he sniffled. «Where's my dad? Why isn'd he ere? Wy isn'd by dad ere? I wand by da-ddy-y…» His words were already muffled in all the choking, but eventyually they drowned in a new wave of sore sobbing. Violet put a hand on his shaking head, stroaking her fingers in his hair to remove it from his face.

«Hush now, dearie. Wait till you're all done. It's gonna be all better then.»

«I wand by daddie…» was the muffled, sniffling answer as he kept of clinging to her. «Where is he…»

«Hush now!» Violet replied gently. «Just let it all out, and you'll feel better.»

Phineas had gotten a bit concerned when he saw his reaction at first, but when he saw how Violet was handling him, he decided to just stand still and let her do the work. And it seemed like his intuition was right. Violet looked allot calmer now than moments ago, and Varian, even in his painiced condition, seemed to be in good hands.

«Don't you have a Princess to attend to, Violet?» he asked with a little tease in his voice.

Violet looked up, facing his eyes as she suddenly recalled the Physician was still there. She just gave him small eyes back and turned her attention back to the sobbing boy.

The older maid scoffed. «The Princess can wait!»