Handle With Care

Confusion

"You can shift back now..." Elric's voice said softly, and much more closely than I last remembered hearing it. I flinched, snapping my eyes to him to see he had come from his spot on the porch, to nearly directly beside me. And here, I hadn't even noticed.... Honestly, I'd have to stop getting lost in my head so often. One of these days, it isn't going to land me in a very pleasant situation. Speaking of, I could say the same thing happened with those hunters.

I looked down in embarrassment due to the fact that I had flinched just at the startlement of realizing Elric had drifted over to me unnoticed. I knew they must all see me as some sort of disarrayed fool. How had they not bothered to get rid of me?

Though I remembered Elric's observation to my current state, and although I felt more at ease in my wolf form, and more in control at the least, I thought it would come across as rude if I didn't shift back. I couldn't necessarily explain that I didn't want to, with the inability to utter coherent words in animal form and all.

Sorry Leka, we have to change again... I told my wolf in a glum tone. I heard him growl softly yet again, but this time it was in disapproval, and quite honestly I couldn't agree more. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that it was his turn to surrender me passage to change our form. I took a deep breath, mentally, before doing the transformation all over again, only in reverse.

Once more my bones cracked and popped, shrinking down to human sizes and shapes. All went well, as it normally does, but there was still the exception of my back. When the shift had reached to my spine and shoulderblade, the same nearly-unbearable sharp jolts of pain erupted along them. I had to bite my lip fiercely to keep any sounds of agony from escaping me.

But something was different, much different than the jolts of pain along my spine or the throbs that sent horrible aching to my head. My shoulderblade did an odd maneuver again, but this time it cracked much more loudly than when it had when I was changing into Leka's form.

"Nnnh..." I strained a groan. The shift seemed to suddenly come to a halt, even though it wasn't over. I began to panic a little internally, for this had never happened before. Elric seemed to notice that something was wrong too, because his face suddenly turned concerned, and he stepped closer to me, reaching a hand out to my back, which was curved very uncomfortably.

"Ryder, what's wrong?" he asked, his voice calm, though still laced with worry.

"Sh-shoulder... bl-lade..." I strained out through my teeth. It was then that I noticed I was also having trouble breathing, trying to keep any more sounds of pain from being known. Elric looked at said body part, very lightly running his hand over it. Even though it was apparent he was trying to be careful, it still sent a sharp jolt of pain through it, and I couldn't help but wince.

"Ohh, yes I see," he whispered to himself, "I'm going to need you to be as still as possible, okay?" I nodded, though I was confused as to what he had suddenly been enlightened to.

He moved his left hand to my upper arm, gripping it tightly, though not to the point it would hurt. His other hand rested open-palmed on my shoulderblade, and my confusion grew. Suddenly, all at once, Elric jerked my arm up and slammed his hand down on my shoulderblade, creating another loud crack.

"Ah!" I cried out hoarsely, whilst a strong and awful wave of pain coursed through my upper left back and shoulder. But after that, the shift resumed to it's close rather quickly, and the pain had ceased. I was able to stand properly, a relieved breath escaping my lungs.

"There you go," Elric mused softly, running his hand down my back again. There he goes again, with that unusual gesture of his. I couldn't suppress the peculiar yet satisfyingly sensational shiver it brought, and I was now even more embarrassed that I couldn't suppress it, and that he must have undoubtedly noticed. I looked away, cheeks and ears burning.