Minutes later, Varian turned and noticed that now he was alone, Nigel was gone. The little alchemist sighed heavily; he was tired to put up with his attitude, his accusations. He never hurt the princess not even a little, and even so, he was treated as if he would have made her bleed. Varian pet his raccoon, who gladly accepted the action, purring and stretching. Varian laughed and then, breathed in deeply, he was so close to achieve it, to finish his experiment. An annoying visit couldn't stop him, Nigel wouldn't take away his good humor.
Varian approached to his desk, took the flask with his hands, downed his googles to protect his eyes and took a test tube that he had in other desk. Carefully and with precision, Varian used a dropper and counted the drops he poured in the flask. Two, four, six. He moved away to see the flask and observe the reaction it would have. Instead, Ruddiger was away from him, eating his apple and looking at his human.
The liquid in the flask started to bubble up and its color changed from a purple tone to a fluorescent yellow tone. Varian was surprised, it shouldn't be the reaction, something was going wrong. There was a little explosion. Little but it created smoke than covered all the face of the boy, who started to cough. He waved his arm to dispel the smoke in front of him until it disappeared, coughed a little more and saw the flask with confusion. The smoke didn't have sense and now the liquid was purple again. Nothing made sense. What was that? He didn't understand, it supposed that he did the calculations hundreds of times to be sure that he wouldn't have any problem during the experiment. He sighed heavily again, shook his head and took off his googles.
-I don't understand, Ruddiger – he said while he was scratching his scruff. –It had to work, why it didn't do it? Well... I think this is another failure to add to my list of failures.
He turned to go and write what happened in his report book, he had to take notes of the result he obtained with the experiment, he had to find out what was wrong and correct it. However, at the moment when Varian moved from where he was, his head started to spin making him to feel dizzy, his head hurt like he had a press on both sides of it. He put one of his hands over his eyes and with the other hand he held to a desk. It was weird, suddenly his health decayed notably. Even to breath was painful, like the oxygen would be burning his lungs, his head was spinning, his balance was unstable and, even through his gloves, he could notice that his temperature increased drastically.
-Ruddi... ger... Buddy... - he said trying to stay stand, but the next step was too fragile than he ended falling to the ground heavily.
The little raccoon reacted worried and ran to his human. He pulled his hair and gave little hits with his paws in Varian cheeks, but he was unconscious, he didn't wake up. Ruddiger squeaked trying to be heard for someone out of the lab, but that Wing of the Castle was always alone. Ruddiger brushed his face with Varian's face, and then he tried to go out of there. The door was closed so the raccoon had to climb and went out through the window.
Ruddiger was running as quick as his legs allowed him, squealing repeatedly, but nobody listened him. Suddenly, he saw a known face. Cassandra. Ruddiger climbed for her legs to her shoulders and he surrounded her neck twice, he was desperate begging for her attention.
-Hey, hey! Wait! – she screamed trying to catch him in her hands. When she reached him, she put him in front of her face to see his eyes. –What do you have now, Ruddiger? Usually you're calmer.
The raccoon started to move strongly, trying to escape from her grip. She let him go, then the little animal jumped to her knees while he squeaked with desperation. She didn't understand any of his actions, she didn't know what was happening, but she could decode that he wanted her to follow him. They started to walk, obviously, Ruddiger was so anxious. Cass walked calmly while the little hairy friend came and went, once and twice. Cassandra looked to the front and noticed that Ruddiger was guiding her to Varian's lab. She smiled incredulously.
-Let's see, what will he try this time?- said and crossed her arms.
She knew well that the little alchemist was used to attract her attention for unnecessary things and even with nonsense excuses just to see her or be with her. –This boy – she thought and shook her head.
They arrived to the lab and Ruddiger entered quickly as soon as she opened the door. She laughed softly and closed her eyes, imagining what kind of crazy thing Varian was invented this time. Also in that instant, she remembered why she was in that Wing of the Castle in the first place. She had to say him something.
-Hey, nerd – she said knocking the door. –Raps says that...
Suddenly she stopped when she opened her eyes and found all the disaster in the laboratory. Varian was in the ground with many papers around him, disordered for the entire place. Ruddiger was by his side, trying again to wake him up.
-Oh my God! Varian! - she screamed.
She ran as quickly as she could to reach her friend. She didn't stop, she slipped and fell kneeling by his side. Cassandra took him in her arms impatiently, she turned him to see his face and shook him softly.
-Varian! Varian, please! Talk to me! Oh, God, c'mon! Open your eyes!
The heavy blue eyes of the boy opened slowly, his look was blurred, he couldn't distinguish anything, he didn't even know whom was the warm of those arms that was holding him. The voice in that sounded so far, little by little was becoming clear. It was a sweet voice, he knew the voice, he could have recognized wherever he heard it. Cassandra. The person that was holding him was Cassie. Finally, he could listen to her. He could see her. But, why she had that face? She was... Scared?
-H-hey, Cassie...- he said with a lot of effort. His breath was faltering, he couldn't talk like usually. –Hi...
-Varian, you're awake – she said with relief. –What happened? – she put her hand over his forehead, feeling his fever. –You're burning.
-Don't... Don't worry. This is just... a fever...
-A fever? But...
The boy interrupted her, he coughed again, it was so hard that he felt like a hit in his chest and his head. The intense pain came back; he cringed in pain ended in fetal position, squeezing his arms around himself, shaking and breathing hardly and painfully. Varian, withering, turned to Cass and hid his face in her shoulder. His chest was burning, he felt like he was been pierced by dozen of knives. Every breath, that unstoppable enter of air from his trachea to his lungs, burned himself. It hurt him. It suffocated him. She held him against herself strongly, she didn't understand what was happening, she couldn't do anything and that scared her, she couldn't help her friend.
-C-cassie... P-please... Help me... - his voice broke drowned the crying. The pain was too much for him.
[Author notes: aaaaah! I'm gonna die! Btw this scenes were the first I drew. They looked interesting and I ended up doing this fanfic. Now my heart hurts hahaha Angst Rules!!!]