He woke up suddenly, his eyes open, he couldn't think of why that could be- his heart was pounding against his chest, it was as though his heart was right beside his ears, echoing through his head- his mind empty and simply confused. His eyes strained into the utter darkness, his breathing yet to settle, it was like he couldn't breathe- then realisation hit him-
Death.
This wasn't dead, he had died once before and this time he wasn't dead again, these weren't his walls in the palace he and his sister, lived in. He still felt so tired, but he couldn't go back to sleep, not with his breathing, perhaps his body was reacting to what had happened- the room was dark, he couldn't see anything, yet he heard a shift, from within the room, only increasing his heartbeat.
He wasn't afraid of death, he just rather not have to deal with the consequences of not dying, which was obviously this. His body was settling, he felt weak.
Again, the shifting began, was it Athanasia? No, the footsteps of the person didn't sound like her, they were too heavy, they advanced towards him and before he knew it, there was a hand on his head- he wasn't sure what had happened, but it was like he could breathe properly again. He looked up at the dark figure right at his side.
Those blue eyes- Claude?
"Papa?" he said in a hoarse voice, He didn't get a response, but he swore he heard something when sleep mysteriously took his consciousness and left him in a comfortable state of calmness, pleasant dreams occurring through that mind.
The next time he opened his eyes, he had no sense of panic and confusion, but a sense of calmness. His eyes slowly opened at the sounds of birds chirping, alerting all that it was that night was a bay.
He was in his room unlike the other time he had awoken, where had that been?
Sitting up slowly, he looked around the room to see Athanasia, he snorted, he couldn't help to not after seeing what he saw.
He sighed. He had worried her, had he been asleep for long? She was passed out on the chair, her body slouched back in the chair, chocolate spread all over her mouth, with a book barely staying in place on her lap, ready to fall off, perhaps to run away from her sticky paws that already contaminated the floor book.
He laughed, it was a funny sight. His laughing seemed to have woken her up. "Wa? Huh?" she tiredly sounded out, just as she yawned. Her jewelled eyes blinked, then blinked again, "Ah man! I did it again." She mumbled under her voice.
"Did what again?" he asked in amusement, her eyes snapped to him, widening as their identical blue eyes stared into one another. "A-Athan? You're awake!" she yelped, as though she had seen a ghost, then he saw what he had never thought he would ever see.
Tears... suddenly he felt uncomfortable. He never really dealt with people crying before. She ran over to him... he understood why, her arms were opened wide as she jumped onto his bed, she threw herself at him, hugging him tight, "Athan!" she said happily, her eyes closed as she hugged him tightly. "You're a lot softer than I remember." She mumbled, squeezing 'him' even tighter.
"DID YOU LOSE YOUR BONES?!"
"No, you're just hugging my pillow. I saw you coming and decided I didn't want your germs on me." He responded to her, his arms crossed as he was standing beside the bed, staring at his sister who was staring at him wide-eyed, then she looked to the pillow in her grasp, specks of chocolate on it.
"ATHAN!" she yelled, again reaching for him- whether he liked it or not, she would get that hug and she did, as he hadn't expected her to jump at him from the bed, making them both go down tumbling, "I missed you so much- NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!"
"I suppose I'll try not to," he said as he was being smothered to death, "When you didn't wake up, I thought the worst, everyone did." She whispered it ever so lightly.
"I'm awake now" he consoled her, patting the top of her head, waiting for her to finally let him go and she did.
"How do you feel? The doctor said you might feel tired a lot after waking up, and you might not have much of an appetite" she spoke, as she put her hand to his forehead, checking for fever and sighed when he felt normal.
"How long was I asleep for?" he asked her, when she took her hand off, "Probably a week. The doctor said something about your magic trying to save you, straining itself- they said it was unusual, that it shouldn't have reacted the way it had done, as though it was trying to save you... I wasn't really listening, well they wouldn't let me listen but I heard something about you have a lot of mana too, and something... an explosion? I'm not too sure, but your fine now, they fixed you." she rambled on and on, and he nodded taking it all in.
Magic? He had magic?
"I should probably tell them you're awake, now." She said, with a wide smile on her face, she left running out.
He sighed and threw the duvet that had fallen to the floor back on the bed, and decisively decided to leave the dirty pillow on the floor. His head turned at a sound.
With curious eyes, Athanasios looked toward the drawers that the sound was coming from. It was from the bottom shelf, hesitantly he opened it, he saw... well he wasn't sure if- he was confused.
A fox? He was small and looked at him with big grey eyes. He could feel energy emitting from it, it was nice, warm, it was welcoming, it looked away from him, shuffling back to what it was doing in the drawer, he was eating chocolate, did he steal it off Athy? Was it healthy for foxes to eat chocolate?
...Chocolate wasn't good for dogs, so surely it could be the same for foxes, "Bad, fox!" he told it, grabbing it from its sides, in an attempt to separate the chocolate and the fox. He snorted in amusement, immediately he dropped the fox on the floor, who then skitted back toward the closed drawer, clawing at it.
It looked back, "Don't look at me like that" Athanasios told it, in a scolding tone, which only made it whimper, "Wait, don't do that! Look, I'll find you something more appropriate to eat... I'm just wondering how you got there in the first place. Did Athy bring you?"
It tilted its head, "I suppose you're just as confused as I am... I think I'll keep you." Athanasios whispered, observing the small fox which was now pouncing around the room like a maniac. It had white fur, with streaks of yellow, a blonde similar to his hair colour, perhaps this animal was destined to meet him.
Athanasios hummed in thought staring at the curious fox, that was inspecting everything, it finally stopped moving, sniffing at the bottom of the chair Anasisa had been sitting on not too long ago.
Again Athanasios snorted, the fox must be smelling the chocolate.
"Hugo?" he said out loud, then shook his head as the fox ran straight ahead into a wall, perhaps not... Hugo meant intelligent, perhaps a different name.
"Hunter?" he didn't look like a hunter, but he does look around a lot.
"Vulpecula?" as he said it, the fox looked at him and Athanasios grinned, that was it. The fox bolted to him, nipping at his fingers playfully, "That's right, your name is Vulpecula. In my past life, there was a constellation in the northern sky, it translates to 'little fox', but usually, people just translate it as simply fox." Athanasios inform his new companion.
"But we'll just call you Volpe for short, convenient enough, that's actually the Italian word for fox, perhaps we'll just spell it as 'V', 'u', 'p', 'e', it makes more sense considering how you name is spelt." He ran his hands through the soft, silky fur, of his companion, Vulpe.
He somewhat sounded like an old-timey steam engine.
"You like that don't you Volly" he murmured in amusement at the sounds he was making, "At least I know what the fox says now..."
He continued petting Volly, he laughed at the sounds he was making, perhaps he'll call it his 'happy breathing', with how fast Vulpe was breathing and the squealing sounds he made, it was like a mixture of happiness and excitement.
"My prince!"
He turned at the sound of the familiar voice, it was Lily. He held the fox up in the air where he was sitting on the floor, "meet my new pet, "Vulpecula!"
Lily... well, she didn't take it too well, with all her questioning and fussing over him. At least she ended up letting him reside in his chamber and apparently Claude was making both his sister and himself have swimming lessons, which is thoughtful? Supposedly that was Claude's way of saying, 'don't die drowning'.
It's been a day since showing Volly his new home.
Today- today, Athanasia and himself, who too stunned to speak.
"Honour to serve Prince Athanasios and Princess Anastasia." A group of maids greeted them, all new faces. After that... well after that, Felix announced himself to be their royal guard- perhaps he'll teach him how to use a sword, he had heard he was one of the best out there.