вlood & peтalѕ [ ĸoтlc - тιana ]

ch. xxiii

Yet another new POV!! *winks*

Think you can guess who's? *'subtly' points at the comments section*

(Keep scrolling down.)

To say that Tiergan was worried was an understatement.

He and Magnate Leto/Mr Forkle had spent every spare moment they had managed to scrape together in researching a cure for Tam. The others members of the Collective had had to, on several occasions, forcibly part them from the alarmingly high stack of dusty old journals about various human myths, only for them to abandon whatever meal they'd been shoved towards or whatever bed they'd been thrown in to return to their work.

"Why?" Wraith has asked. "Why do you insist on running yourselves into the ground like this? Surely you could bear to at least eat something from time to time?"

Tiergan had raised his head from where he'd been poring at the fine print for a seemingly magical Indian cure for pimples, and had simply said, "Because."

Wraith had thrown his invisible arms up in frustration. "That isn't a proper explanation!"

Blur had shaken his head- or rather, what was visible of it. "You don't get it. I sort of do, but...." he'd trailed off with a shrug. "To each their own, I guess...?"

"In a way, yes, you're right." Magnate Leto scribbled down a note on one of the crumbling pages. "For me, I do not wish for Miss Linh to go through what I went through when my brother died. Mr Tam is her everything and vice-versa, and at least I was old enough to be able to successfully move on rather quickly."

"That's one reason," Tiergan pointed out, uncapping a pen with his teeth. "For me, it's somewhat personal as well. Of course, we want to save Tam's life, but....I don't want Linh to be all alone in a world that hasn't been very kind to her for all the time she's lived in it. Her parents have already proven that they're not fit to be called parents at all, and while it does seem to help her to have me and Wylie around.....it would still be too much. I saw how much Wylie struggled when he lost both Prentice and Cyrah-" here, he paused as the other members of the Collective all bowed their heads in unison. "When he lost them. And he would agree with me when I say that no one, whoever they are, deserves to go through something like that. Ever." He dropped the pen and turned to Wraith's now silent cape. "Get it now?"

The cape bent slightly at the place where it lay along his shoulders, which was the only way Tiergan knew that Wraith was nodding. "I do. But.... this isn't healthy. For the maximum efficiency, shouldn't you two be well-rested?"

"He's right, you know," Squall cut in from where she'd been leaning against the doorway, eyes narrowed. "It does wonders for my family. Of course, the triplets are all thrice as energetic after a nap, but, well...." she shrugged. "It's worth it to see Kesler without black circles covering around half his face."

Tiergan ignored them all as he shoved the Indian journal aside, instead grabbing a rather well-thumbed little encyclopaedia of Japanese fairytales. Flipping it open to a page marked 'sicknesses'.

It was all mythical stuff, he thought, as he dragged a finger down the page. Why were there so less of what he was looking for?

Suddenly, his finger stopped at the word 'Hanahaki'. 

Thanks to several almost fruitless hours of research, he knew that 'hana' meant 'flower'. Curious, he flipped over to that section of the book. Magnate Leto peered over his shoulder. "Oh, you've actually found something on the disease itself? That's good. Very good."

Tiergan refused to take his eyes off the book as he asked, "that's what it's called?"

"Yes. Is there anything new about it in there?"

"Give me a second." Faster than he could recall himself ever doing, Tiergan skimmed down the page until his eyes snagged onto a paragraph written in particularly bold script. "Leto.... I think I've found something."

Magnate Leto, currently weighed down under several heavy volumes, sighed. "Give me some time."

Meanwhile, Squall had reached over and idly plucked out the journal from under his nose. "Let me see."

When she read it, all the blood drained from her face. "Oh no....."

I don't think anyone's ever written a Tiergan PoV, have they? Well, it was fun. I especially LOVED including the rest of the Collective, since I feel they need more time in the spotlight.

Also....

Now I get the reason Shannon likes cliffhangers so much.

(Don't worry, the story's getting closer to the ending anyway! So there'll be lesser of them!)

Time for English homework now. Bye all!

-miyu