The night he arrived in the tavern had been a night where he thought he would just collapse from sheer exhaustion, and he almost had. Luckily he'd been seated quick enough by Valorius and 'Meerah. Between happening upon his Alpha, her husband, and even Zalika, he thought he was in the midst of a -really good- mirage. He looked rough, unshaven, his clothes a wretched mess from the sand storms he'd endured in crossing the desert just to get here. From the ocean to Drybrush he had walked, crossing Heruin. Rather than use magic, since he was vastly unfamiliar with the world still. He was in pitiful shape, but he had survived both wars, crossed oceans, and now a desert.
For a temple-born Satyr/Hybrid, who had enjoyed some traveling back home, this whole ordeal of fighting in and surviving in a war had really hit him hard. He had made it through two wars, and while he was sure there would be plenty more fights in his future, seeing the effects of the wars on the people had struck home. Every aspect of people's lives were affected and the death toll was hardly believable. While part of him wished it was all a really long nightmare, he knew it wasn't. Folks had to pick up and move on with their lives, and now that he was in Drybrush, he had to do the same.
He'd been given some sorta drink which helped him relax, but he'd then had...several bottles of other various liquors. Admittedly, the brews could be better, but he just had to get used to them. Maybe he could import some from home, like he'd intended to do before those plans got thrown into the 'fail' pile.
How he got to his room, which happened to be on the same hall as Zalika's, he wasn't sure. Somehow he managed to strip down and flop on the bed bare-ass naked too. He didn't remember that part, nor falling asleep. Could it have been days he lay there face down on that bed? Even he wasn't sure how much time had passed. Between an acute hangover, coughing fits which left him feeling like he was going to cough up a lung, and the extreme exhaustion mingled with the dehydration and the agonizing cramps which ripped through his muscles, he was in dire need of recuperating. His body had finally shut down and forced him to seek rest, so whether anyone or even himself liked it, he was resting. More like dead to the world due to being in the darkest abyss of all; unconscious.
Someone had been coming and leaving him meals, but other than that, no one had entered his room besides the maid who brought those meals. Maybe a healer had been brought in as well if he'd been discovered, which was likely, because the maid might've told a healer friend of hers. The meals hadn't been touched, so had always been taken away to prevent danger of spoiling. Even his wolf was tired enough to sleep and not bug him with its usual trouble-making. Thank the gods, he knew little of!
He had stayed in bed for almost four days.
It just so happened he'd been half asleep that fifth morning when a particular feisty Angelic girl had burst into his room and all but obliterated his door. And before he could rouse himself enough to see who was bursting in his door, he had a girl throwing herself at him! Naturally his arms came up while she was screeching, beseeching him to wake up and his eyes widened once they flew open, cause not only was she screaming at him to wake up, she had her knee in his lower ribs and it had driven the breath from him. Gasping for a breath, he rolled half way over to his side, facing her. Red hair..and those eyes.
He raised up, half way and blurted out, groggily. "Gahh....what the hell did I do...I didn't do nothing, I swear! Frigging hell, girl, I ain't buggered no one lately!" Naturally he thought he'd pissed off some girls papa and he was here to whoop his ass when he'd caught Aidan out of the corner of his eye. Or maybe he'd pissed off some girl and she was intending to bloody his nose or worse.
Before he could think a clear thought, he realized that he was quite naked and only his lower torso was covered up, just barely. Good thing, she probably didn't wanna see his ass or man-bits no ways. Her boisterous good mood made him grin. "Alright, alright...I'm up." Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and raked his fingers through his chestnut hair, which was still horribly tangled. A quick sniff of himself made him grimace. He needed a bath, -badly-. But she seemed to be in a rush to go somewhere and be up to something, so he hurried to wash up once he found the basin and pitcher. The water was blessedly cool and he doused his hair in it and scrubbed his face, figuring he'd have to shave later.
He grabbed a towel and dried his mussed up hair and then raked it into some semblance of order and then turned to scour the room. Clothes, he needed clothes...he couldn't go racing after his cousin in the nude. Well....he -could-, but he might scare her off. He found the pouch of coins 'Meerah had left him and he found some clothes that had been left for him on the trunk at the foot of the bed. They were clean, brand new, and well made. Grabbing the clothes, he took a few moments to dress himself and even found a pair of new boots which seemed suited for desert life.
It felt pretty damned good to have some clean clothes and boots, but some other things would have to be acquired in time. Spotting his pack, he eyed the dusty thing and went over to brush it off, feeling only a little bad the cleaning ladies would have to be sweeping up a pile of sand. He dumped everything out on the bed and rummaged through it, salvaging the locked box where the rest of his money was and tossed out the old ruined clothes; he wouldn't need them anymore.
What few precious things he had managed to save from back in Grand City were in that pack and he wasn't leaving it lying around, so he dropped the locked wooden box inside and took a few moments to send it to a dimensional space he alone had access too. No one knew it was really a Never-ending Satchel, as he called it, and whatever treasures he possessed, great or small, he kept them there. It could hold quite a lot and so with it safe, he double-checked the room and then snatched up his key and looped the chain around his neck. Stepping out into the hall, he propped his broken door closed as best he could and then smoothed out the new clothes, shifting a bit to settle into them.
He eyed the door and frowned slightly. He supposed it was a good thing he knew magic, though mostly he summoned things from places most might never go or might ever see otherwise. Or he used his Charm magic. Once the door was positioned, he stepped back and then extended his right hand out. Channeling the power required, he cast a 'Make Whole' spell and watched as the door repaired itself. Unsure what their reactions might be, he hoped neither was spooked by magic, and it wasn't something he told everyone about usually.
With the door soon repaired, he looked to Aidan and then Lika, head tilting curiously. "You want to shadow 'Meerah? Why do you want to shadow my Alpha?" he asked peering at the two of them, as of yet unaware his cousin was right before him. Aidan seemed to be trying to convince her otherwise. He then remembered something and pulled out the letter he had tucked into his pocket. Turning partially away, he just stared at it. It had been a long while since he had received a letter of any sort, and he felt a pang of agony within himself. He hadn't written back home in a while, but he didn't have so much as a quill to his name anymore.
Slowly, he opened it up and unfolded it, hoping there was no horrible news within it. After reading through it, he re-read it again and then folded it back up and tucked it away. Thoughts blurred through his sleep-fogged mind and flashes of memory rifled through too in flickering images of the red-head before him. Every time he'd seen her, he had had no idea she was family, yet something had always nagged at him, though he couldn't place it. Every time he'd thought of her, it hadn't been as family, but simply as he would any other girl he found himself attracted too.
Now here he was with proof she was a cousin, -family- and she needed him. Oh yeah, Aidan was still there, he hadn't forgot that, but he was suddenly hit with a tidal wave of mixed emotions. He had not only found his pack, his family, but fate was a bitch. The pretty girl he'd met some months ago and who had been uninterested in him was family! 'Meerah had no clue they had met and he found that amusing, cause she was usually well informed.
A grin broke into laughter as he leaned back against the wall, fairly sure they would be confused why he was laughing.
After a couple minutes, he cleared his throat. Well, wasn't this -aaawwwwkkkkwwwaaarrdddd-!
"Don't worry about it, I thought she was about to give me a shiner, to be honest. Or was bringing you to whoop my ass. Seems instead that for -once- I have known something before my Alpha has." Seeing that they might be confused or curious, he leaned off the wall and straightened to his full height. "She doesn't realize that I've met Zalika before, only I didn't know at the time, or the other times thereafter, that she was family."
How this news had affected his cousin, he wasn't entirely sure, but as for how it hit him, it was like a blow to the gut and yet, some of the best news he's had in a while. He still had the feather and it was safe in the pocket of dimensional space.
"Seems I have a cousin." he whispered.
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:39 pm