Highest rank: #23 in adventure.
Jericho and her friends, though mourning the loss of Virgil, are safe and out of immediate danger, with Fell and Anjali nowhere to be found. But the fallen one and the dark druid might not be the only things they have...
Thirty minutes later, things had settled down quite a bit. It had taken a little under ten minutes for the others to wake up, each of them flying into varying degrees of panic upon remembering where they were before either Signe or I explained the situation. Felix was the last to come to, shaken awake by Marzia.
I was impressed with the way everyone quickly calmed down and set to work, each of them immediately finding ways to make themselves useful.
Mikhail, Jericho, and Signe were gathered around the bed, using their experience in healing to see to Atticus' battered body while I paced restlessly behind them, unable to sit down.
Mark, Amy, and Dark were on the other side of the cabin tending to the animals. The white raven had a broken wing that Mark was in the process of setting under Dark's instruction. The black raven, who appeared to be the only animal to escape unscathed, was nuzzling Chica, who's back left leg was being bandaged by Amy.
The motley crew's roster had changed bizarrely in the past hour as well. Aside from the fact that Virgo was now apparently dead and Virgil was M.I.A., we'd apparently gained yet another non-humanoid recruit in the ensuing chaos.
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Dark informed us that the black tabby had appeared out of nowhere during our escape through the portal. The Demon had found what he originally assumed was a shifter stowaway clinging to his back for dear life as he ran. When we tried to communicate with it, it just hissed at us and scampered off into the corner of the room and had been there ever since, glowering at us moodily and scratching anyone who tried to get close.
Well, whatever. I couldn't worry about strays right now; Atticus needed me.
Virgil's POV:
"I'm right here, you retarded douche canoes!"
...Is what I would have said if I still had the vocal capacity to speak. And telepathy was out of the question until I could figure out how the fuck my new brain worked.
Fan-freaking-tastic.
It had taken me a couple minutes to figure out what my doofy alter ego had turned me into. the embarrassingly high pitched yowling coming from my throat was enough to tip me off:
A cat. I was a fucking cat.
It was genius, in a way. My body was unable to sustain itself without melting into dust, so what did he do with Virgo's wish? Made me a new body, a small vessel that wouldn't require a lot of energy to create. My old one was probably trapped back in the now defunct portal, floating somewhere between dimensions. Not that I wasn't grateful just to be alive, but...
'Any animal. You had your pick of any animal, and you pick a fucking TABBY?' I hissed irritably. 'A fox, a wolverine, a god damn HONEY BADGER would have been better than this!'
There was no answer from Thomas. Great.
Just fucking great.
Resigning myself to the colossal inconvenience, I curled up in the corner to wait for everyone to finish their business.
Mark's POV:
"You feeling any better, Chica pica?" I asked my friend, motioning to the leg I had just finished wrapping. The retriever looked at her back leg and gave it an experimental shake before wincing and lowering it back to the ground with a growl of discomfort.
'Ouchie... well, I wouldn't recommend any belly scritches in the near future,' she offered, cocking her head comically.
That made me chuckle. "Yeah. We'll give your leg a rest for now."
"Aaaaand... done!" Amy chimed triumphantly, sitting back to proudly observe her handiwork. I peeked over her shoulder to see that she had finished wrapping up the white raven's wing. The black raven hopped over to affectionately nuzzle his face into his brother's neck. Aw...
"That's that," Amy sighed before turning to see how everyone else was faring. "So much pain in one room... you think he's gonna be okay?" She asked, motioning to where Wiishu, Mikhail, and Jericho were hovering over the bed on the other side of the cabin.
"Who, Atticus? Oh hell yeah, he'll be fine! He's a stubborn lil' squirt," I assured her confidently with a grin, hoping to lift her spirits. I was happy to see her give a small smile in return.
"I know. And what about you?" She asked carefully.
I looked away, not really knowing how to answer that. I knew why she'd asked; I might not have been injured physically, but on the inside... I was reeling, almost out of my mind with grief. Sean's betrayal had hit me harder than anything else I'd encountered on this journey. My heart tightened so sharply that I felt like it was literally being ripped right out of my chest.
"I honestly don't know," I admitted softly, unable to muster up anything more than a whisper. I ran a hand through Chica's fur as she whined. "It's always been one of my greatest fears, losing the people I love. I didn't think that there could be anything worse than having to attend a funeral for a friend, but this... God, this is so much worse."
I closed my eyes and leaned into Amy's embrace as she wrapped her arms around me, allowing my tears to fall on her shoulder.
