Month of Wyvern Moon - Of Feasts, Wyverns, and Some Kind of Deer
Chapter 37
We broke camp the next morning, with everyone pitching in the best they could so that we could return to the monastery. The announcement that there was a feast planned to celebrate everyone's achievements and a battle well fought aided in helping heal the bruises and bumps in egos and relationships across all houses.
My broken ankle and arm were mended by the healers to ensure travel wouldn't be a complete hassle, but the holes in my leg would have to wait. The wounds had received some attention however so they were nowhere as critical as they were a few days prior. So I was up and walking around the next morning, abet very stiffly and I was still heavily favoring my leg and I was warned to not over exert myself.
Hobbling to my tent location, I found someone had already packed up my tent and belongings so literally the only thing I had to do was saddle my wyvern and wait for the signal to move out.
The healers had also seen to Zu's care while I was in critical care. The giant wyvern was in a foul spirit, clothed in swaths of white bandages he snapped and hissed at me as I attempted to bribe him with treats.
"Come on Zu, the sooner we get back the better." I pleaded in vain as the colossal wyvern continued to hiss at me.
"He probably just isn't hungry, try giving him scratches instead."
I checked behind me to see Claude wandering down the path. My house leader certainly looked worse for wear after the battle, but he was grinning as normal. The golden deer had his hands shoved deep into his uniform pockets as he approached nonchalantly.
"Morning Claude, can I help you with anything?" I greeted him back as I ducked a tail swipe from my wyvern who stopped mid-strike in order to turn around and start roaring at the approaching male.
Claude stopped a fair distance from Zu and looked him up and down with a critical eye. "He is really grumpy, isn't he? By the way, I fed him this morning for you. I wasn't sure if you were going to be discharged from the medical tent today so I figured I would just keep this bruiser company while you were incapacitated."
"Huh, thank you. That was very considerate of you." I scowled as I flung the goat leg back into the wheelbarrow and washed my hands as Claude wandered over in my direction. He proceeded to look me up and down as I managed to get under Zu's guard and began rubbing the soft spot under his chin. The wyvern continued to give Claude a threat display as I softly began to reassure him that the golden deer wasn't there to harm him.
I must have been doing something right, because Zu's snorting and stomping subsided rather quickly and he began to turn into my touch, giving off short clicks and whistles of pleasure.
As the golden deer watched us I felt a lot of things at the sight of my beaten and bruised house leader. Obviously he wasn't in that much better shape than the rest of us, and if I was to judge, the normal twinkle in his eye had given way to an aura of just barely hanging on to his sanity.
Pursing my lips and mulling over the uncomfortable idea that I was being analyzed, I tilted my head towards him with a playful smirk. "Who said I was actually discharged? I slipped away while they were checking Hilda over."
The golden deer's eyes lit up just a little, as he picked up on my playful banter. His grin became a little less haggard as he leaned on one foot. "Oh! So you were collaborating with Hilda to make your grand escape, huh?"
"Whatever got me out of bed and moving." I nodded to confirm his hypothesis and continued rubbing the tender skin under my wyverns chin. My actions earned me a fresh click of pleasure as my wyvern settled his wings down onto the ground. "Did you need something else from me, Claude?"
My house leader shook his head. "Na, I simply observed that you were up and limping around so figured I would come over and see what you're up to."
I gestured to my Wyvern. "Just need to make up with Zu here and get him saddled before we leave..don't you have something better to do, or plans to scheme? Like say sneaking a poor field mouse into Edelgard's tent or saddle bags?"
He chuckled at my offhand comment. If I didn't know better he might have been tucking the idea away for some rainy day entertainment. "Na, I don't have a death wish right now. Hubert would murder both me and the mouse if he caught us. So, I'm all packed up and not causing any trouble right now. Here, do you need a hand with him?" My house leader's offer came unexpectedly as Zu preened under my scratching.
I blinked a few times in surprise before coming up with an answer. "I think I can manage. He is just being grumpy, probably sore and upset about being injured."
My house leader nodded in agreement to my assessment. "You are probably correct, but boy he sure is looking content right now."
The conversation trickled off for a second as my wyvern attempted to switch which side I was scratching. As he moved around and resettled I chewed on my bottom lip. "By the way, thank you for looking after him while I was out. I hope he didn't give you too much trouble."
"He wasn't too much trouble once I used some of my tricks." The Golden Deer admitted sheepishly, as I began to scratch under the other side of my oversized flying lizard's chin.
"You tried scratching him under the chin too?" I inquired, wondering just what tricks Claude had used to manage my wyvern that I didn't know about.
"Oh, nothing like that! I hid in a bush and tossed the meat in his general direction. Then I waited until he was eating those tasty morsels and ran the other way before he could chase me down." My house leader's eyes danced as he admitted to how he had taken care of feeding my wyvern.
I blinked at him. Once, twice, three times in growing comprehension of the Golden Deer's antics, trying to decide if he was serious or just messing with me. The mental image of Claude hiding in a bush and throwing hunks of meat into a pile for my wyvern amused me so much that I started laughing despite it being unrealistic. "You...haha...hid in a bush and then ran away from a hungry wyvern? Oh, ooohhh, you are sooo lucky he didn't decide you were breakfast!"
"I calmly informed him beforehand that I would not make a good snack. I lack a proper freshness at the moment." Claude slyly responded as Zu headbutted me.
The huge wyvern's sudden display of affection knocked me clean off my feet, my still recovering leg unable to take the sudden weight difference.
Claude read my wyverns movements and quickly moved in to catch me as my wyvern butted his head against me a second time. "Woah there, gotcha!"
I felt a strong heat rising in my cheeks as a not so subtle quip filtered across my mind. The golden deer smiled as he helped me to regain my balance while I struggled to contain my thoughts.
Nonchalantly the Golden Deer rubbed my wyverns neck fondly. "See! He was just worried about you, isn't that right grumpy?"
I found myself unable to meet my house leaders now sunshine bright smile. "Err, sorry about that..."
My embarrassment must have slipped through as Claude picked up on the change in my voice. "Oh! Is that a blush, Petal? Are you really blushing right now?"
I hurried to try to try to hide my face as I grabbed Zu's saddle off the ground next to me.
"Oh that is totally a blush, isn't it?"
I refused to admit my vulnerability and the total inappropriate thought that had just crept into my head as my house leader had held me . "Maybe I am?! Why does it matter?"
I heaved the saddle over my wyvern's back flustered, as Claude's face popped up on the other side of Zu's broad back. A sly grin tugging at the corner of the Golden Deer's lips. "Why are you blushing, petal?"
I ducked my head down and started fastening buckles and muttered something under my breath.
"Toss me that strap." I instructed as he passed me the primary strap to hold the saddle in place.
"What's got you so flustered, hmm?" Claude continued to tease me mercilessly as he pulled the strap away at the last second.
I growled as I made a half-hearted attempt to grab the harness strap from the conniving Golden Deer who sensed something interesting was being hidden from him.
"Not so fast!" Claude flicked the strap up away from my grasping fingertips at the last second.
Zu shifted and snorted as I lunged for the strap a second time, this time with more gusto pleading. "Come on Claude, stop playing around and just hand me the strap please?"
"Not until you tell me why you're so flustered." He grinned, apparently thoroughly enjoying giving me a hard time.
I ducked under my wyvern's neck intent on grabbing the strap from my house leader at the same time Zu shook himself. The massive shifting caused the unsecured saddle to move, the large seat coming down on top of me as my recovering leg crumpled under the new weight.
There was enough time for a quick "Watch out!" before I was falling again.
However this time Claude wasn't in a position to catch me. On instinct, I threw my elbows out to stop myself from hitting the ground. The next few seconds were a mess, but much to my surprise, I didn't end up hitting the ground as hard as I thought I was going to.
Something softer and warmer protected me from hitting the ground as the saddle hit my back and slid down. I let out a wild hiss of pain as Claude pushed up from underneath me, using just enough force to tilt us to the side. The shift in weight was enough to move the saddle off my injured leg.
"Come on, breathe Petal. You alright now?" He continued to lay under me as I saw stars, my breathing hitching as pain shot up my leg. I nodded limply and attempted to push myself up, but my leg refused to cooperate.
"Uh? Lilianna, can I ask what you're doing?" The golden deer under me inquired as I watched the pink bloom of a blush start to spread over his own face.
"Oh, look who's blushing now?" I snapped a sarcastic reply while trying to get my pain under control long enough to sit up.
Realizing my body wasn't going to respond to the demands I was asking of it was a bittersweet pill for me to swallow and as the seconds seemed to stretch on. Looking down at the frazzled golden deer under me I bit my bottom lip. "Err, could you give me a hand here?"
My request only seemed to throw the young lord into a deeper mortification as he averted his eyes and snuck one hand between us in order to scratch the side of his face apprehensively. "Uhhh…are you sure about that?"
"Well unless you want to lay here until I can feel my leg again, I am going to need a hand getting up." I sneered, not sure why he suddenly was having a problem now. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth trying to hold back the pain.
Noticing I wasn't joking, Claude slowly slid his hands behind the back of my thighs and sat up, forcing my legs to fold as I was forced to sit on his lap. I was nearly in tears from the exertion as my house leader released me and shuffled his hands behind him to support my extra weight on him.
The golden deer was a lot more business oriented as he realized something was very wrong. Only the faint tinge of pink on his cheeks revealed any sign of embarrassment as he gazed up at me studiously. "Do you have it from here or do you need me to help you stand up?"
"Help, please." I begged unceremoniously as I felt something ripping with tension. A rouge tear slid down the side of my face as I pleaded. "I can't get my leg to move at all and I think my wounds just ripped back open."
Claude's eyes flashed in alarm and he started moving. "Alright, hold on to me. I got this."
Claude shifted again and put his arms around me. "Ready?"
I nodded meekly as I put my arms around his neck as the edges of my vision began to turn gray.
I clung to the golden deer as he stood up in one fluid motion, the pain continued to lance up and down my leg making it shake.
"Better?" Claude inquired as he set me down on the ground. I leaned over and grabbed Zu's horn transferring my weight from Claude to my sturdy wyvern as my leg continued to wobble under me.
"Maybe you should head back to the medical tents if you're still having this much of a problem." My concerned house leader offered as I wiped away the errant tear and began inspecting my bandages.
The crisp white dressings were starting to tinge pink already and I groaned in pain and annoyance. "You are my problem Claude. If you had just handed me the strap…."
"Ya, sorry about that. Here, I'll make it up to you."
Claude grabbed the fallen saddle from the ground and threw it over Zu's back with a smooth, practiced, motion. I stood there watching him work on securing the straps and knotting them in silence. It was more than a few minutes of me watching him that he looked over his shoulder and caught me.
"I am still interested in knowing why you were blushing the first time." The Golden Deer inquired as he dipped under my wyvern and started on securing the harness from the other side.
I pursed my lips and thought about how to answer my persistent house leader, knowing he would not let the matter rest until he got an answer that suited his curiosity. "Oh…."
I hung to Zu's horns as I let out a weak chuckle. Half of it was due to the thought that had got me into this mess, the other half was the understanding that my house leader would drag the information out of me now or later. So I might as well have some fun with it.
"What's so funny Petal?" He muttered darkly as I looked away with a smirk starting to creep up into the corner of my mouth.
I leaned over my wyverns neck and got the weight off my leg completely as the smirk split my lips. "That's…hmm, whatever, if you really want to know I suppose I'll tell you."
He poked his head up with interest with a buckle and strap in each hand. I finally noticed both his hands, particularly his fingers, were heavily bandaged. A by-product of the last will and testament of an archer on a harrowing battlefield.
Realizing just how absurd this whole thing was, I looked away and began twirling my messy hair around one finger nervously. "Alright! I was blushing because I was feeling a bit peckish myself, so I was going to tell you...that you kind of looked like a snack to me."
There was a gutted laugh from under my wyvern that soon turned into a full blown hysteria. "Ahahaha!"
Claude and I were able to smooth over everything after that, and he finished saddling Zu while I strongly debated over returning to the healers tents to get my leg looked after again. However, I realized that if I did concede I would probably be stuck in the back of a wagon listening to Hilda chatter and Linhardt's snoring. So, I risked opening the bandages up after the Golden Deer made his exit. Looking it over, it did not look that bad, so I applied some healing salve over it before rebinding it and hoped for the best on the return trip.
Our trip back to the monastery could not have gone any slower. Or at least it felt like it was taking forever. With most of our class supporting some type of injury, the movement by the ground units was slower than normal. The professors encouraged us as we limped homeward, some of us in higher spirits then others.
The long trip home often saw me riding the thermals waiting for the wagons and heavy units to catch up, contemplating my next course of action. Two of the biggest things on my mind was the end of the school year, as was the ever approaching winter. Our trip home became steadily cooler as we continued northward. The wild wyverns that we saw flying high were migrating further south and to the east. They called out to Zu and a few of the other wyvern riders, but my mount paid them no mind.
Over the course of several days my future weighed heavily on me. It ate at me and I decided the topic was something I needed to speak with archbishop Rhea or Seteth about.
My thoughts drifted to inevitable escape routes and alternative options if Lady Rhea or Seteth chose to turn me away. The merchants I had been visiting in my frequent trips into town made for a decent escape plan. Claude had come through a few months back with his proposals for trade routes, and now I had an established, sizable network of caravans and merchants to work with from all over Fodlan. Trade in the monastery city was starting to pick up and I could easily pick up a merchant contract if Rhea was going to dismiss me or allow me to go exploring again.
Another part of me wondered if the archbishop was going to induct me into the Knights of Seiros. Thinking about being made a knight made me apprehensive at best, Navan certainly wouldn't like it. My turbulent thoughts for the future kept me preoccupied for a while even after we reached Garreg Mach.
Life back at the monastery after the battle of the Eagle and Lion was slow, everyone was recovering and recapping on the events. We all had a feast the night we returned to celebrate the grand battle and everyone's achievements. Not normally one to turn down a good meal, I found myself focusing on a growing unease in my gut. I became more illusive and intent on exploring town, chatting with my merchants to gauge an interest and knowledge that if I needed to leave before snow started to fall I had that option.
It was on one of these chats that I was told by my merchant friends that several students had both purchased and snuck alcohol into the celebration. The next day as I was passing between classes, I heard there were rumors of food poisoning and someone had wound up in the fountain professing grand poetry and love to the moonlight.
Shaking my head at the absurdity, and realizing the rumor might have some level of truth to it, I continued to Professor Byleth's class on strategy and tactics. It was in this class in particular that the enterprising Golden Deer drilled us endlessly over what had happened during each of our battles. With enough cross examination and information digging, we began to uncover the tactics for each team and how they had played out.
Our class bickered bitterly about what could have gone differently. I tried to stay out of Lorenz's way who insisted that he had the best solution in every scenario and kept nagging at Claude whenever he proposed a thought or observation. Lysithea would interject and break up the fights while I simply sat back and analyzed the makeshift battle grounds. Noticing my lack of participation except under questioning, Claude did make more of a habit of asking for my opinion in between the arguments and general banter as our general classes grew steadily more difficult.
Hanneman kept special training sessions set aside weekly for my magic lessons and Navan continued to train me ruthlessly on axes. My flight classes were taken over by Seteth, for which I was amazed and somewhat grateful. My downtime in between chores grew more interesting as I found new entrances and secrets to the monastery, which allowed me to explore deeper into the caverns below.
I also began to spend a lot more time with Sylvain. My occasional lunch dates with him seemed to turn into full out dates without me realizing it. I grew attached to the smooth talking Heir of Gautier, and he in turn would occasionally bring me roses and small trinkets. The general trivial things he gave any girl that showed interest in his over the top showmanship.
I rolled my eyes and turned away expensive necklaces, bracelets, rings as he attempted to shower me with affection, and pointedly informed him that I would start selling them at the market if he continued with this nonsense.
At one point the things were so bad that Sylvain even inquired if I would consider piercing my ears so that he could give me earnings as well. I politely informed the knight that I was not considering it and that I would not be swayed with fancy jewelry. Things were quiet for a few days after that much to my relief, but my respite did not last long.
I wasn't sure who he consulted, given I had told him no I wasn't going to pierce my ears just so he could bejewel me either, when he brought me a pair of earrings anyway. An inspection of the sparkling ruby and emerald set that appeared in a black velvet box revealed that he had listened to my request about not piercing my ears, but not about the part that he should stop sending expensive trinkets.
The earrings he gifted me were clasps. I found out a little later it was Hilda who had suggested the clasps and even had a hand in picking the elegant, dangling, style out.
Realizing the knight was attempting to court me the only way he knew how, that evening he presented me with the earrings, I was shocked and in awe that he had put some honest thought and tact into his overbearing gift-giving. Reluctantly, my face flush with embarrassment, I allowed him to clasp my earrings to my sensitive ears. The short kisses to my neck eventually made it to my lips and the Heir of Gautier showed me exactly how experienced he was at both sweet talking and kissing.
Author Notes:
Hi hello again! I promised more timely releases and that this one would be a bit of a shorter chapter! Hopefully it's an interesting,(much fluff), little filler episode to wet your appetites with as I flesh out what happens after the battle and how Lili's life at the monastery is progressing.
We have cute little scenes for both Claude and Sylvain finally - after how long was that Hiatus? (Entirely too long.) So I hope you enjoyed those, and I sprinkled in some of Lili's pressing concerns. Now that the Battle of the Eagle and Lion is over, what will Rhea and Seteth do with her? Will that induct her into the knights? Leave her in the academy, where she clearly isn't doing that well, or will they let her leave?
Not one to leave things to chances, Lili gets right down to making plans before winter sets in, ever resourceful and keen on keeping her freedom, she is working with the merchants to bring in more goods and resources, while also making sure it would be very difficult to track her down if she had to leave in a hurry.
We start to get into a bit more of my own spin on some story arcs here in the next few chapters, so it's going to be set up and more lore! Statistically speaking, this upcoming month would be the month of the Remire calamity but I have a slightly different path in mind.
You might notice how I keep hinting on the Abyss? Are we ready to meet the Wolves of the Abyss yet? Look forward - next time - to whenever I put that next chapter out. Will this update be out in Feb or March I do not know - so hit that follow button if you don't want to miss those random updates. Also drop a like/kudo or comment to show your support! I do love to read those, and it helps encourage me to put out updates! That is all for now! See you in a few weeks!
