Work Text:
Legundo heard the whispers for the first time when he was three, but he didn't understand them for almost another year.
Different.
Strange.
Wrong.
Broken.
Not even spoken with malice, and never where he was supposed to be able to hear, but he is small and light on his feet and Ori, for all her size, is almost unnaturally good at blending into the shadows. The adults speak in hushed whispers, and he never stays in one house for long, the adults' fears and superstitions following him around. Thistle Hill isn't a huge village, and there are only so many people willing to take a foundling boy with a full-sized, settled daemon.
He doesn't have parents, he doesn't have a home, he doesn't even have a name. But he has Ori.
Legundo is five when Olsted takes him in. He's the only person willing, and Legundo finds out later that's a very loose term. But it is a warm bed and at least two meals a day and a roof over his head, so he and Ori decide not to complain. Olsted's daemon, a massive vulture he calls Velo in soft tones Legundo never hears turned in his own direction, spends most of her days watching over them as they run around the shop or the yard around the house, fetching and carrying buckets of water and coal and small crates of ingredients and materials. Ori helps where she can, but it is not safe for even a daemon to handle some of the things he moves with their mouths, so she helps in other ways, mostly keeping Velo from buffeting him with a wing or pecking at his head when he drops something or trips into something or knocks a project off the table.
Legundo is six the last time Velo raises a wing or claw at him in anger. He knocks an alchemical fusion off the table and Olsted, three cups of wine in for the night, shoots to his feet with the clatter of his chair, voice already raised in anger. Olsted has never raised a hand to him in genuine anger so Legundo doesn't think to flinch until Velo, screeching along with her human's anger, dives off her perch in the corner, claws out, aiming straight for his face.
Ori does not stand for it and leaps clear over his head, great jaws snapping into broad black and white speckled wings. The vulture goes wheeling away with a pained scream, golden blood already dotting the floor and staining the fur of Ori's jaws and Legundo is out the door before he can see what is to become of him. Olsted won't keep him now, not after Ori attacked Velo, even if it was self defense. There's no one else in Thistle Hill to take them. They will be alone, all by themselves in the world.
They spend the night in the gnarled roots of an old oak tree. It's summer, and Legundo can't help but be chilled through anyway, even as Ori curls tight around him, gently licking the tears from his face. They go back in the morning, tail between their legs both physically and metaphorically, braced for the worst. Olsted is waiting for them, Velo perched on his shoulder, the brilliant glimmering gold wound from the night before shining in bright relief against her feathers. Both pairs look at each other, silence heavy in the air. Olsted crooks his finger and Legundo creeps forward, already braced for the worst, but the hand Olsted sets atop his head is gentle, even the claws on the end of his fingers. He does not speak, does not apologize, but gently leads him back inside, puts a plate of bacon and eggs in front of them and sits down without a word.
They do not speak of it again, but Legundo notices that Olsted never drinks more than two cups of wine when he is around until well after he's in his teens and Velo keeps her corrections restrained to gentle wing buffets or snapped words.
Legundo is ten when he discovers what Ori really is. See, Legundo had spent his life thinking Ori was just a wolf, a really large one sure, but a regular wolf nonetheless. Even at ten years old he fits neatly between her front legs, head tucked into her chest, and when they go to market he fits easily on her back, packages and all.
But now Legundo is Olsted's apprentice, not just the servant foundling no one else was willing to take in, and that means he has access to the extensive library in the house. Olsted had taught him to read and write and figure when he was younger, and he's using that to his advantage now. Tomes on history and alchemy and machining, plans on mechanical wonders and architecture: everything he could ever want. And that includes Olsted's magically updating tome on the animal species of the world.
His days are busy, learning to make simple machines and prepare reagents for alchemy - even gruff Olsted refuses to let a ten year old near a brewing stand just yet - but his nights after the shop closes are his own. Occasionally he goes to the village to watch the life of the town move or, even more rarely, play with the other kids, but most nights he prefers to read.
When he finds the animal tome, it's the canine section he goes to first, Ori and he both wondering what breed of wolf she is. Only, she doesn't match any of the wolves in the section they look at. Too large, eyes the wrong color, coat the wrong pattern. Nothing really fits. It's not unheard of for someone's daemon to not exactly match the depiction of the wild variant animal, but there's too much variance, too much out of the norm for any of the wolves they look at.
Ori's fur is a deep chestnut, with little white socks and little white stripes on her legs like a mustang's legs. Her tail is long, brushy and her eyes are bright and mismatched, one glimmering gold and the other bright emerald like his own. She's like no wolf he's ever seen or heard of or read about.
But that's ok, because she is Ori, and she is his, and that's all that matters.
A month later, when he's paging idly through a different section in the animal tome, he finds their answer.
Dire Wolf.
Massive wolves with unnatural coat colors or patterns, hailing from the very far northern lands. They're ancient things, born of natural magic in the earth, worshiped even in some small religious sects are guardian spirits.
Ori is a Dire Wolf, and that both scares him and excites him, as it would any other ten year old. Magical creatures aren't common as daemons but they happen - he even knows of an older teen who works in the town's clinic whose daemon settled into a unicorn.
Ori doesn't seem overly bothered by the news besides the ability to gloat that she's just that much cooler than she already was and when Legundo excitedly tells Olsted he's treated to the supremely rare gentle shoulder pat and a sweet biscuit at dinner, another rare treat. It's never brought up again, though, not that Legundo minds. He's very busy with work now, and that matters more to him than anything at the moment.
Legundo is twelve when the whispers start again. They follow him and Ori around town, hushed things that layer over each other when he passes the guards barrack or the clinic or the chapel. He's older now, and he listens quietly and unobtrusively when he hears them. They talk in hushed tones about how his daemon settled too early, how she's confused, how he's not growing right and living up to what his daemon says he should be.
He's small, and skinny and light on his feet. He's fed twice a day but the workshop is hot and most of his time is spent lugging heavy crates and barrels of materials or holding heavy projects in the forge. His clothes hang off of him and what muscle he has is thin and hard. He knows he's probably not getting enough - he sees how often the others get snacks and sweets, how big their portions are - but Olsted has kept him, given him a place to live and a purpose.
He doesn't complain.
He also knows that the superstition around people's daemons predicting what they'll be good at is widespread and believed the kingdom over. Even Olsted thinks it holds water to some extent. People conflate predator species with strong fighters and people meant for lives as gallant knights or steadfast guards or intelligent military leaders. All the guards in town have dogs and big cats and even a few bears. Ori is bigger than them all, and that leads most of the town to believe that he's wasted in the workshop.
That doesn't mean any of them make a move to take him though.
So he ignores the whispers, ignores the pointed looks of the guards when he and Ori go loping past on errands, ignores the way visiting military patrols stare at him, looking for a squire's tabard and finding none.
It doesn't matter.
He has his mind, he has the workshop, and he has Ori. Everything else will fall into place with time.
Legundo is sixteen when his Kin Marks come in.
Like everything else in his life regarding his daemon, Legundo is strange in this too. Most people's daemons aren't even settled on their final form for another year or two, and Kin Marks usually don't follow for another two or three years after that. But Kin Marks are important, even when they don't follow the timeline everyone else expects.
Everyone with a daemon has them, little marks of their daemon that they carry with them for the rest of their lives, little changes to the way they think and feel. Olsted has claws on his hands and feathers along the underside of his arms and along his cheeks, gifts and marks of his bond with Velo, the living embodiment of his soul.
For Legundo, it starts with little aches. Aches in his jaw, aches on the top of his head, an ache in the small of his back. He writes it off as hard work and little sleep, a growth spurt, it does not even remotely occur to him what it ends up being. Those aches turn to pain, constant and pressing, and red hot skin, fever and headaches, pain so debilitating that when he goes to put his goggles on one morning he collapses to the workshop floor with a shrill cry, Ori cringing and whining next to him.
Olsted picks him up and lays him in his bed on his stomach and sends Velo for the healer, who comes with his dainty footed winter fox daemon and gentle hands. Its a brief examination, cool hands over his hurts, a gentle warm glow of green healing magic, an extreme rarity in the kingdom but one he is dreadfully glad for when the wash of magic temporarily stems the pain.
Temporary relief given, the healer rises with his verdicts, soft voice firm over instructions. An infusion for the pain and fever, no solid foods, as much water as they can make him drink, and time. There's no way to speed along the emergence of Kin Marks, not without risking damage, so Legundo will have to suffer through it.
And suffer he does.
Olsted does as the healer bids, but Legundo is on his own for the rest. There are no kind words, no gentle touches, no one to sit by his bedside. Ori stays close, ears flat and whining every third breath as she feels his pain, laying next to bed and fetching the water pail, the vomit bucket, whatever she can to ease his pain. Its days of endless agony.
It comes to a head all at once.
He's ripped from fitful slumber by the sound of ripping skin and blood falling in steaming rivulets to the bed, of the feeling of something living making their way free from skin, from deep in his gums, out into the world. The scream traps itself in his throat, and all he can do is lay face first in the bed, frozen in pain, until so long had passed it might as well have been a new day entirely.
When he comes back to himself, it's to the gentle rasp of Ori's tongue on his head, her soft fur pressed to his side from the floor, and an unfamiliar weight on his head and waist. He takes a moment to realize that both new weights are moving before he's sitting up in bed, scrabbling off his mattress to the small mirror on his wall. He regrets the move almost instantly as his vision swims and Ori has to support him, but her smug grin is the last thing he sees before he catches his own reflection.
Soft black wolf ears, both flopped over like a puppy's, and a damp bloody tail are the first thing he sees. When he opens his mouth the sun catches on slightly longer teeth, shining white despite the sheer amount of blood still coating his tongue and lips.
Kin Marks.
Part of him wants to be giddy, but exhaustion and the remnants of pain send him careening back onto his bloody mattress for a nap while Ori creeps downstairs to get Olsted. The healer comes, helps him clean up(shows him the tufts of fur on his elbows) and rubs a simple paste into the remaining emergence wounds to prevent infection.
Three days later, despite his young age, Legundo is entered into the rolls of the village as an adult in his own right, having reached the last milestone. He leaves with a small scroll and the ability to vote. None of it matters. Three days later after that, he's right back at work.
Legundo is eighteen when his life begins to change irrevocably.
It starts with the accident. He's been allowed to experiment on his own for a long time now, and this project is going to be his crowning achievement. Or, at least, his crowning achievement for now. A liquid fuel, so powerful that even an ounce can run a machine or a furnace or even a forge for hours. He's been going over the formulae for many months now, carefully gathering the reagents, making sure they were of the highest quality and purity.
Everything is going well until it isn't. To this day, he doesn't know if he grabbed the wrong vial, if he mixed a reagent wrong, or if his formula was just incorrect but one second he's pouring a reagent into the main beaker and the next his whole world is light, heat and pain. He's not unconscious when the blast dissipates, but he wishes he was. Instead he shucks off his clothes, drenched with the destroyed chemical fusion, grabs Ori by her scruff, and drags them both out the side door into the creek just down the back hill from the shop. He throws them both into the water, scrubs them both until the pain eases, and when he climbs out the healer is there again, this time with a towel, a large pot of burn cream and a daemon with a backpack full of bandages.
The burns aren't great, but they're not immediately dangerous with his quick work to wash the chemical off of them. The healer covers them both in the cream, wraps them up and sends them to bed for two days. That night, Olsted hovers in Legundo's door, not speaking when his apprentice meets his gaze, something sharp and unreadable on his face, clawed hands trailing briefly over the notes scattered on his desk.
Three days later he peels off the bandages and finds not just scars but stains. Bright, vibrant blue along his arms in great splotches, misty patches along his chest and stomach, little pinpricks on his face. Not even his ears and tail are spared, little splashes of blue on the black fur. Ori is not unscathed either, bits of her pelt stained the same vibrant blue.
A living reminder of his mistake.
Life in the workshop only gets more and more tense over the coming weeks once he returns from bed rest. Olsted is short and snappish, more than he's ever been in all the years Legundo has lived there and the teen starts creeping along the shop like an alley cat, tail low and ears pointed out. Strange men and women begin to visit at all hours, their knife sharp gazes sending his tail straight between his legs as he and Ori huddle in his room.
His anxiety, a constant but usually controllable companion, begins to consume him. Ori tries to soothe him as best she can and most nights she succeeds but others all he can do is pin his ears back, tuck his tail and bury himself in her side like he's a little kid again. Even now she's large enough for him to comfortably do so, though she doesn't dwarf him as much as before.
It comes to a head a few days before the big festival in town to celebrate the coming spring. Rumors have spread of the Summer Queen searching for volunteers to become dragon riders, to join the army and fight the Kingdom of Endless Storms, to beat back the corruption. In his sleep, Legundo swears he hears the rumble of some giant beast, the distant roar of something greater than even he and Ori combined.
He wants to leave, but knows he can't. He's still a few years from gaining his Mastery, from being able to go out in the world as a respected artificer and alchemist in his own right. To leave now would be to endanger his entire livelihood.
He still makes the mistake of mentioning it at dinner one night. It leads to the only true argument he's ever had with his Master. Olsted's scathing line of "This war won't be won with magic and dragons, but with Iron." sits with him in the days after that. He hears it when he eats, when he's working, when he's sitting on the creek edge with Ori.
The day before what he thinks is his birthday - after all, considering they found him in the roots of a tree on the side of the road there's no way to know for sure - Olsted sends him to the market. It's the first time the older man has said anything to him in days.
He goes without complaint, list of items in his hand and coin purse on his hip.
He's in the bakery, talking with Lizzie while he chews on the sweet roll she pressed into his palm when he came in, when the first explosion hits, shattering the windows of the bakery. He dropped his packages, sprinting out into the town square with Ori on his heels. His boots just touch the stone when the second explosion goes up, painting the afternoon sky a horrifyingly familiar shade of blue. People scream and cry and his stomach turns as in the distance he can see the heart stopping plumes of golden dust that mean a daemon has died, following its person or leading the way for them.
He stands still, shocked, as reality hits him. As he remembers the sharp look, the aged clawed hands on his notebooks, the strange people in the shop these last weeks.
Olsted.
Olsted had done this.
Stolen his accidental incendiary, given it to the enemy and in that condemned Legundo as a conspirator.
There would be nothing left for him. He would be arrested. Separated from Ori. Executed if he was lucky, confined to a cell without his daemon if he wasn't. Thistle Hill would turn against him, the evidence of his supposed collusion stained into his fur and skin.
He had to leave.
He chucked his boots and one of his bandoleers into the rubble of a fallen building, praying it would be enough for them to think him dead and then fled, Ori scooping him up onto her back to go sprinting away in the confusion, straight into the woods.
Ori did not stop for several hours. There was only one place for them now.
The Academy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Legundo slumped into his bed, groaning quietly as the soft feather mattress did its level best to consume him whole. Ori was not in much better shape, staying standing only long enough to pull off her human's boot and then climb on the bed on top of him.
He'd made it. He'd been selected by a dragon!
And then promptly lost it.
The fledgling bond with his dragon - one he hadn't even had a chance to name yet - had snapped and sent him reeling, even as he already scrambled against the wall of the back of the cave for cover. It was only Lukey's gentle hand on his head between his ears and his kind words that kept his brief fainting dip from being a full drop into unconsciousness. Even now the spot ached, a pinprick of hurt nestled alongside the bond with Ori and...
And the bond with his egg.
His egg, which contained a baby dragon, dependent solely on him and Ori for care. He would protect it, raise it, train with it. It lived or died by their hand alone, at least for now.
He wiggled partially out from underneath Ori's bulk, leaning over his bed to flip the top of his backpack open, cradling the egg within with careful hands. He pulled it up onto the bed, wriggled around until he was tucked against Ori's stomach, the egg between them. It was gorgeous, maybe the most gorgeous thing he had ever seen. Small, maybe the size of a loaf of bread, with a smooth and glinting copper-gold shell, shot through with little lines the color of oxidized copper.
His.
His egg. His dragon. His to protect and love.
He didn't even realize he was growling a little until Ori nipped his ear, switching instantly to a soothing lick when he clenched his teeth on the odd sound. Something warm and simmering still lurked beneath the surface of his skin but Ori didn't seem entirely bothered by it. In fact, she looked rather amused, settling for grooming his aching ears. It was a nice feeling - he'd had them pinned under his goggles all day, his tail was still tied to his waist with a length of leather cord. It was...painful, if he was going to admit it aloud, but it was the only way to keep a low profile.
He was only a few days away from Thistle Hill. The news of the attack and the explosion would be reaching this part of the country in just another day or two, if he was really unlucky, which meant that the guards would be on high alert for anyone who might be involved. He'd made sure to cover every bit of blue on him he could get away with and then rubbed soot from his small campfire into Ori's fur.
It was much easier to explain a brown, white and gray daemon than a brown, white and blue one after all.
He groaned again, plaintively, but Ori simply chuffed a laugh at him, nudging him away with her nose. He carefully pulled away from their curl, settling the egg between her paws and waiting until she'd tucked it close to her chest, before he rolled out of bed with a tired shake.
Gosh, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been this tired. He was almost too tired to feel anxious, the usual constant hum of it in the back of his head dulled to almost silence. He would take what he could get. In the last twelve hours he'd gone to the recruiters, "fallen asleep" (all signs pointed to the water bottle the healer had given him being dosed with something), woken up in a room with more than thirty other people and their daemons, been yelled at by a massive dragon, almost died, watched no less than five people die (one of them close enough he'd gotten Dust on his sleeve), been chosen by a dragon, fought horrific monsters from said dragon's back, watched that dragon die, got yelled at by the original dragon again and then got given an egg to protect.
He was allowed to be a little tired and anxious!
He shucked off his shirt, wincing a little as the motion pulled on his mostly healed burns and all the little cuts and bruises and burns he'd picked up over the course of the day. He undid the length of leather cord and let his tail flop loose, the tip dragging along the floor in exhaustion. Pants were next and then he carefully tucked himself back into bed, pulling the blanket over himself and his daemon, the egg still clutched carefully between them.
There was so much to do, so much to explore, but for the moment he was happy just to lie down and let sleep take him, pulling him into dreams of flying on dragon back, wolfsong in his ears.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There was another dire wolf daemon in the Academy! He'd only seen them from a distance in the last couple of days, but he knew for sure. Ori had been just as thrilled as he had, but they kept getting distracted before they could try and make introductions. There was just so much to do! There were whole wings of the castle to explore, there were ritual classes to attend, there were people to meet.
So many people, more than he had ever really seen in one place before besides festivals and very busy market days. Thistle Hill wasn't a very large town and most of the time he had been kept busy in the shop, so it was taking a little getting used to. He was making friends though, and that was a start.
He'd never really had friends before: when he was allowed to play with the other kids in the village when he was much younger, most of them only showed up once or twice before their parents told them to keep their distance from him so he was a little awkward, but he definitely wasn't the only one.
He did his best to keep in touch with Drift and Shelby after they helped during that first day, though they kept missing each other a lot just because of schedules, which was unfortunate because he really liked them. Drift and her beech marten were funny and quick witted and Shelby's little rainbow lorikeet was never far behind with a joke or a kind word. He'd met Scott and his polar bear, Sotti, briefly as well. The giant man and his daemon were very calm, restful, and Legs wished he could talk with them a little more. He really liked Maddy and her Akita daemon, who were kind and encouraging, though he still very much wasn't used to the nicknames.
Then there was Graceie, Zam and Sausage. He still wasn't sure what had drawn him to them and them to him, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He felt....safe with them. Close, connected, settled. Ori just grinned at him with wolfish glee whenever he muttered about it, his own thoughts getting the better of him for feeling so happy with people he'd met only a few weeks ago.
Zam was an alien! He'd always wondered if there was life on other planets but it had largely been left as the wandering thoughts of a young boy too fascinated science too far beyond his comprehension. Yet. She was something called a "Stella" and her skin was stunning shades of purple and yellow, with thin little antennae on her head. She was shy, retiring - she almost made him look like an extrovert on her worst days - but she was kind, and helpful and he found that, as she warmed up to him, she was very friendly. Zam was also his very first experience with someone who didn't have a daemon. He'd been surprised the first time he'd noticed the lack but, thankfully, he was quite good at masking his expression, a lesson well earned in his early days. He'd never forgive himself if he made Zam sad by being a jerk and it was very easy to learn to ignore it after he figured it out.
Sausage reminded him a lot of a guard from Thistle Hill. Saren had been loud, friendly, larger than life in everything that he did. Sausage was a lot like that in all the best ways. Sometimes he spoke before he thought, but he was usually quick to apologize and he was always down for what nonsense or adventures they were getting into for the day. His daemon was a matronly lioness he called Sunfax. He was worried he was being culturally insensitive though, because Sausage kept asking to brush his hair and share plates of food and getting this really weird look on his face whenever Legundo declined, though he never explained why. Maybe it was just something he'd picked up from the family who'd taken him in after he'd first lost his memories? Either way, he always declined because he couldn't afford for someone to see the blue in his fur, not until he was sure the heat had died down.
Then there was Graecie. Graecie was…well he didn't really have words to describe Graecie. She was so sweet, and kind and- and-
And she was afraid of him. Or, well, she was afraid of Ori, but that meant being afraid of him, because she was just as much a part of him as he was of her. He didn't blame her, especially not after she explained why, but that didn't erase the small kernel of hurt that lodged under his sternum every time she flinched if they came up on her too fast or didn't announce their presence. It was doubly painful because she wasn't like that with any of the other predator daemon-hybrids, just him and Oli with his wolf daemon.
She always apologized.
He never held it against her.
How could he, when every time she favored him with a smile or grabbed his hand to lead him somewhere or when she slipped that flower crown on his head and his entire world lit up? How could he when she ran through his dreams at night, sometimes with the others, but usually alone or with him and Ori?
Listen, he knew he wasn't good at feelings, not really. He didn't think he was in love with Graecie, but whatever he felt for her(for all of them really but for her in particular) was much beyond normal friendship. Even just a few weeks at the academy and he knew he'd do anything for the three of them.
And then Gadget was born.
He was so small, barely the size of some of the alley cats from back home. He was all baby soft bronze-gold scales and short stubby horn nubs, baby blue eyes already slowly turning amber.
The first two days after the dragons began to hatch the halls of the academy were quite empty as most people shut themselves away with their hatchlings, instincts rising high as the more animalistic parts of their brains claimed the hatchlings as their children. He'd been so nervous when those instincts had first reared their heads, when he'd almost bared his teeth at Pyro for getting too close as he cradled Gadget, still wet from the egg, against his chest. Pyro had merely laughed, made a joke about nanny wolves and backed off, letting him speed walk back to his dorm.
Inside they'd locked the door, toweled off the hatchling and tucked him up between them, a perfect third. Gadget's consciousness wound effortlessly through his and Ori's, surrounded on all sides now by what Legundo could only guess was the embodiment of his magic.
His magic!
Everything in his life had changed so much in just the last three weeks since he'd arrived. He had friends, he had magic, he had a dragon. If you'd told younger him what his life would be like he would have called you out for making fun of him.
He'd stayed in his room for two days. No one was allowed near the doors. Classes were suspended. Only once did he venture out, on the night of the first day, to get food for them. He'd run into Scott and baby Aurora with Sotti and nearly gotten into a brawl. It had only been the intervention of Sun Guard and Guard Guard that had kept fur from flying, the guards acting as a barrier between them until, one after the other, they could go and get what they needed from the kitchen.
He'd been embarrassed by his actions after he'd gotten back behind the safety of his dorm's door, but Ori had simply pressed against his side, praised him for protecting their hatchling and then bullied him into bed. He'd heard of people becoming more animalistic when they had children born into their homes, had even seen it, but he'd never experienced it himself. He hadn't thought he'd have the occasion too, honestly.
He'd stayed in after that, not wanting to risk another near miss, and spent the time instead working a little with his magic, squinting and waving his hands until he could grab bits of scrap metal from his table and have them float around his hands like they belonged there. Gadget had seemed delighted at the show and Legundo spent more time after that floating the objects around the hatchling's head, letting him chase after them or watch them in wonder.
On the morning of the third day he'd felt that unquiet restlessness leave him and he'd carefully tucked Gadget into the backpack that he'd once used to carry the egg he'd been entrusted with. He'd pressed his ears down flat again with his goggles, wincing as the headache came on almost instantly, and tied his tail back in place before braving the outside. Many others were doing the same thing as him though others still, those who had gone after him in the dragon hatching ritual or those who had only done it in the last day or so, were still locked up inside their rooms, leaving the academy in this weird half filled state that he wasn't sure he would ever get used to.
What did that say about him, that after only a few weeks he was more used to the life hum of thirty strangers and their daemons than he'd every been used to the quiet of an Apprentice and his master? Ori had simply smiled at him when he'd asked and led him to his friends.
And things were fine for another week. They went to class - aka studying by themselves because there were no teachers to be found on the whole campus besides Terry and the Professor - explored the area around the castle and explored town when news of the residents returning in the wake of the ghast attack came through. Things were good, really good. He was eating more than he'd even been able to eat before and his energy was better, his clothes a little less baggy on him, though they still hung off his arms and around his chest in ways he didn't think he could fix without getting an entirely new wardrobe. He met more people, learned new things.
It was good. Too good.
Then, the doppelganger appeared.
He was never sure what actually caused the appearance of the doppelganger, but he didn't think it really mattered in the end, at least not while it was still roaming the halls. The fact that it was zero'd in on him was another thing he really didn't like, but could do nothing about. Being chased by this creature wearing the faces of his friends would be a feature of his nightmares for many long months to come, if it ever went away.
Backed into a corner, he'd called on his magic in desperation while Ori snarled beside him, daring the double wearing his own face to get close enough to her snapping jaws. Awakening the ability to grab another person's armor was…exhausting, but he'd watched with a pale face and shaking hands as he held the double still in front of him, snarling his own warnings and threats, a bass undertone to his voice that seemed to rumble and roil from somewhere deep, angry, protective. When the magic had given way Sausage was there with a sword, swinging on the double that, weakened for the first time by the violent use of magic against it, had disappeared in a puff of purple sparkles.
He'd collapsed on the stairs, the shaking not anger now but fear, his anxiety rushing back even as Pyro praised his strength and Sausage cupped the side of his face with a cool copper hand, worry lining every inch of his face. He'd leaned into the cool metal, let their voices carry him for a few minutes until a cup was pressed to his lips, prompting him to take a drink. Water, clean and cool and laced with something sweet, slipped over his tongue and perked him back up, letting him clamber to his feet with Ori's assistance, Gadget nudging at his neck and chirring soothingly.
He'd stuck close to the others the rest of the day, not that any of the others were very eager to be separated from each other either. He didn't sleep at all that night, up every few minutes to pace his room, tail stiff and vibrating with his agitation, ears perked to hear anything that would dare enter his space, that would dare to threaten Ori and Gadget. Twice he gathered them both and ventured forth from his room, knife clutched in his hand, to check on the others.
The second time Sunfax met him at the door of Sausage's room with a patient, knowing stare, stepping aside to reveal a bedraggled Sausage that had clearly had the same idea. They'd smiled sheepishly at each other and then made for Graecie's room, where poking their heads in had gotten them an unimpressed stare from Reinier, the Argali barely looking up from where he was resting at the side of Graecie's bed to flick an ear at them in acknowledgement before returning to his slumber.
The trip to Zam had taken them longer since she was living in the Lupi dorm, and there was no daemon to greet them when they looked in, just Zam's quietly dozing form tucked up under a mound of blankets. Her room was a riot of color and plants, so very like Zam and her persistent love for this new planet of hers, and they eventually backed off, soothed for now and making their way back to the Feles dorm. Sausage had tried to invite him in to spend the night, but he'd declined again, just missing the sad frown on his face and the look passed quietly between Sunfax and Ori.
He thought things were going to be fine, that there would be nothing like that to worry about for a long time, if ever. How very wrong he was.
The next day found him embroiled in something even worse than the day before. The double was back and not only could it copy their appearances and even their dragons but it had learned their voices as well. His heart bottomed out with a sickening swoop as he watched Graecie-but-Not stop in the archway of the hall, a quiet "Legs?" sending every single hair along his body standing all on end, the sheer wrongness of it hitting him in the chest like a fist full of claws.
Their only saving grace was that the double was not able to copy their daemons.
How could it? After all, how could a creature with no soul of its own have a living embodiment of that soul with them?
That gave them just enough to work with. Just enough for them to be able to pick the double out after a moment of watching. It wasn't enough to spare them entirely, but it was usually enough to give them a head start at getting away, at putting some distance between them and the creature that seemed intent on tormenting them.
That's when he met them.
Everyone called him Sniff. Stocky, hair in braids with leaves dotted throughout, a flowing dress and yet no-nonsense boots, she reminded him a lot of the farm girls from back home, the ones who used to pick him up and toss him in the hay while they were playing. Smart too, wickedly so just from the brief conversation they'd had before everything went to hell in a handbasket. And their daemon…
Another dire wolf! Large, even bigger than Ori, with gorgeous stormy gray fur and soft blue eyes, the four of them had locked eyes in the library, something instant and electric passing between them, even if none of them called attention to it in that moment, instead too busy looking for an answer on how to get rid of their doppelganger problem once and for all, freeing them from their torment.
He'd wanted so badly to talk to her more, but that hadn't been the time or place, and he made a note to make sure he reached out soon. He'd never met someone with another dire wolf for a daemon. Another wolf yes, there were two here in the academy with wolves for daemons, but never another dire wolf.
The following hour was a blur. He wasn't sure he could, or if he even wanted to, remember what happened, but at the end of it they'd trapped the double in the ritual circle and had banished it from existence, leaving them all panting, sore and still terrified. He'd slumped to the ground, clutching Gadget close and let Ori wrap around them, briefly letting the world fuzz out around him.
Until he'd felt the cold frisson of another daemon making contact with his own, looking up to see Sniff's daemon sniffing along Ori's face, the chestnut wolf returning the favor, the faintest hint of lightning on a hot summer's day dancing along the roof of his mouth before it was washed away, his own ashy metallic scent taking its place again. Sniff stood over them, speaking in quiet tones to someone he was too tired to really care about catching the name of in that moment, not so far as to seem uninterested but not close enough to crowd. Ori seemed quite pleased with the, finally, proper introduction of the other dire wolf they'd seen in passing over the last couple weeks.
He introduced himself as Deke, his voice a deep rumble that complimented his human's voice nicely, much the way Ori's voice did for his own. And for that brief moment, sitting there with Gadget in his lap and Ori and Deke speaking in joyful barks and Sniff watching his back, something settled in his chest, warm and soft in a way he wasn't familiar with. Different even than the way he seemed to feel around Zam and Sausage and Graecie. Nice, though.
Not that he got long to bask in it, because soon they were moving again, shooed out of the ritual room by Terry, and Sniff was asking him to follow, asking him to hold on to something, telling him where it needed to go if, worst comes to worst, they didn't make it. He took it, held it closed, promised with a kind of quiet conviction that he wasn't sure he knew the origin of or wanted to explore where it had.
And then he was alone. Tired, bruised, confused. Ori nudged his side, Gadget chewed the ends of his hair.
He went to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Legundo confused Juniper. A lot of things in this Academy and this entire kingdom confused her, so this wasn't an entirely new feeling but this problem felt much more approachable than anything else going on around her. He was weird, as much as she liked him. He was quiet and shy, retiring his mother might have said, preferring to hover on the edges or in the back of his group. He seemed to shy away from fighting, preferring to retreat to handle things with words instead knives or magic.
Juniper could respect that. Did respect that, even. He'd never put as much stock into the whole "daemons are a window to a person's true self" nonsense that some of the people in his life did. After all, wasn't he the perfect example that proved the belief false, what with his career as a scribe and now as, even though reluctantly, a spy despite having a fighter's daemon? But never before had he seen such a seeming mismatch between daemon and person. Not that it was any of his business, but he was still allowed to be(privately) curious, thank you very much.
And the way Legundo went around the academy, dealing with other daemon-hybrids, was so strange. Like a child, or a null-bonded. He seemed to either ignore, miss or just plain not understand any of the overtures anyone made for bonding, forgoing invitations to grapple, to share a nest to co-groom. Even sharing food was met with simple gratitude, warm though it was. Every offer was met with confusion, polite refusals, tilted heads and questioning noises. No one had taken offense, yet, and most people just seemed as confused as she was.
His room had no nest, no surplus of bedding to tell if he even ever built one. There were no signs of any care products for fur, no signs of any chews for his teeth, he ate an alarming amount of vegetarian food only. Sniff wasn't stupid, ok? He saw the teeth whenever Legs smiled, saw the bits of fur beneath his goggles whenever she was close to him. She didn't know why he was hiding his Kin Marks, but she was starting to believe he might not be taking very good care of himself at all, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
And his scent. He only ever seemed to carry his own scent, a soft amber and vanilla scent laid under with something bright and metallic, but never more than the passing scent of whoever he'd spent the day with. And considering he was attached at the hip to Sausage, Zam and Graecie, that was strange.
Very strange.
Their relationship was something else of note. Everyone talked about it in hushed words, some with envy and others with doubt coloring their tones, about how close those four already were, how tightly they seemed bonded. And yet, Legundo always seemed to orbit the outside of the group, some invisible barrier between them that none of them acknowledged. The other three certainly didn't treat him as any lesser than one of them, he just…seemed to exist next to them, rather than with them. Even Zam, without a daemon, seemed more included in the group than he did sometimes.
They'd heard that he'd gone missing a couple weeks ago, just a night, but long enough for the others in the group and close to them to get concerned. Shelby told them the whole story the next day: how she and the trio and Elaina had been in the hall conversing with others when Legundo had been magically teleported in front of them, looking damp and haggard, panting violently while Ori stumbled beside him. How he'd fled from them without a word and they'd given chase and how, finally, they'd cornered him against the side of the bridge. How he'd snapped and snarled more out of terror than anger and how they'd finally coaxed the story out of him.
Dangerous magics were not unheard of to Juniper. They were well acquainted with many tomes from their work in scribing and to say that their own magical tomes they'd found here in the academy painted a grim picture was an understatement. These books though, these books that villainized iron and those who used it, didn't sit well with him. There were warnings about iron in the Land of Storms sure, but it like any chemical or machine. Treated with caution yes but considered useful, revered in its own way.
Shelby had said Graecie and Sausage had swept him away inside, bundling him away from the rest of the group to get him warmed and cleaned up and everyone expected them to be gone for several days, tucked up in Sausage's nest or hiding in Graecie's room. Instead he'd been seen leaving his own room the very next, alone, and smelling of clean soap, his own scent and nothing else.
Baffling! Concerning! Very strange!
Juniper did not like it, not one bit, but it wasn't really her place to step in. They were friendly, and there was trust there(impossible not to be considering what she'd entrusted him with) but they were not to the point where she could be asking such private questions, or interceding on his behalf. So what if he exhibited all the signs of a pack hybrid who'd been neglecting himself for years? So what if they caught him rubbing his jaw or the top of his head when he thought no one was watching him?
Not his place to intervene, no sir, no how!
Oh who was he kidding? He was going to have to say something, and soon. He couldn't bear the thought of the other wandering around making himself sick and miserable without meaning to when he could help. It was baffling how every little education the Summerlanders seemed to have. Disgusting, really. Even foundlings in the Storm kingdoms received mentoring and lessons on how to manage their needs and instincts. It was part of schooling. Here it seemed like if you didn't have someone willing to go out of the way to teach you then you were on your own. And that was assuming that the problem really was that he just didn't know what he was doing. If there was something else going on then she was going to be out of her depth.
All that could wait though. The man at the center of their thoughts himself had flagged her down a little while ago, asking if they wanted to come explore the crypts with him. He'd do his best to make sure they both came back in one piece and then he would make sure they both sat down for a very long and very uncomfortable(for Legundo, anyway) conversation.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
She shouldn't have gone back. That had been the simultaneously worst and most terrifying thing she'd ever been witness to. Even now she could feel the heat of the lava on her skin, the pressure of haze blank emerald eyes on her back, the buzz of her mana beneath her skin as it rushed back to her.
They would have been happy to never return to that place once the recall spell dropped them, panting and shaking still in tree-form, in the atrium of the academy. Pinecone had been whimpering quietly, disturbed by something old and painful that only echoed quietly down their bond, and sent his mana spiking behind their eyes. Deke crouched beside them, fur all on end as he cast sharp eyes all about, looking for a threat, waiting for their younger counterpart to return.
He never did.
Juniper waited for almost an hour before the reality settled over him. Legundo wasn't returning, not under his own power anyway. Whatever power had gripped him in the crypt had not released its hold on him, leaving him alone there. The professor wasn't in his wing, the guards were nowhere to be found, he couldn't find a single other student or daemon.
He was going to have to go and save Legundo himself, wasn't he?
And so she gathered her courage and some supplies and made her way back to the crypt.
The oppressive feeling had dissipated largely as she set foot on the stones again, creeping quietly behind Deke as he cleared the way for them. The heat even seemed to have lessened though she cringed as her mana lashed in her chest, tight and uncomfortable - unreachable.
"Juni-" Deke's voice was soft with despair as he stopped at the bottom of the stairs, blue eyes mournful as he took in the scene before him.
Legundo was sprawled on the ground, still and motionless, barely even breathing. It was only Ori's presence at his side - flanks heaving as she nosed and nudged her human's still for, begging him to get up, to move, to say something, anything - that stopped the worst possible outcome from coming to their mind. Gadget was on his feet as well, barely, little cries of distress filling the air as he desperately tried to get any response.
Juniper didn't wait, darting forward and sliding to their knees as they put gentle hands on his face, looking for any signs of life. His eyes were closed, his breathing shallow, and he was frigid to the touch, skin ice cold and almost waxen. With his goggles askew from his evident fall his wolf ears flopped from his hair, making him look painfully young and fragile. He couldn't even enjoy being right about him hiding his Kin Marks, not when he looked like he was on death's doorstep. Gadget wailed at her, seeking any kind of help, and even Ori only looked at her with devastated exhaustion.
"I got him, I promise, I got him." She whispered, carefully hooking her arms beneath his knees and behind his shoulders, pulling him close. Never before had they been so glad someone was skinny from neglect, awful as that thought was.
Ori leaned down and carefully grabbed Gadget in her mouth, holding him gently behind the wings like she would any other pup, and leaned against Deke, keeping her mismatched eyes on her human and trusting the other dire wolf to lead her safely out of the crypt.
They were a slow procession, carefully putting one paw or foot in front of the other. The crypt seemed to cling to them, reluctant to release them back into the world, but soon they were blinking into the low light of sunset. Legundo was still unconscious against their chest, breathing light and thready, and Deke looked to them imploringly, waiting for instructions.
The walk back to the academy was too far with younger hybrid in the state he was in and neither Deke nor Pinecone could leave to fetch help. They would need to shelter somewhere until Legundo was well enough to return under his own power or, if he did not improve, he at least stabilized enough for Juniper to leave him alone to get help himself.
That was a later problem though. For now he needed to focus on getting the younger somewhere safe, so he and his daemon could rest.
Juniper bounced on their toes while they thought, never more glad to be built the way she was, Legs' weight nothing in her arms as the list of places they could go flashed in her mind and very quickly narrowed down to one spot.
The cave.
It was a dangerous choice, still watched on occasion for more spy activity, but it was clean(for a cave), dry and nearby. It would have to do for the time being. He readjusted Legs against his chest and set off at a slow trot, steadily but slowly eating the distance. The further they got from the cave the less deathlike the other rider looked, though he still did not awaken. That was fine, it would be fine.
It took a half hour to get to the cave and carefully pick their way down the slick stone steps to a flat space. She let Deke and Ori get settled before setting Legs on his daemon's back, up off the ground so he didn't get any colder, and then set down his bag, carefully pulling out supplies. One point for the wonders of magic, the ability to carry most of a kitchen and bedroom in a bag would always be useful.
Two beds, some mats for the dragons and daemons, a hastily cobbled together oven of some bricks and mud and the addition of some coal and a pot had the space feeling a lot less dank and uncomfortable pretty quickly. Next step was to let Ori carefully lever the body of her person just so that Juniper could get their hands on him without touching the other dire wolf's fur and then into the bed he went. Off came the goggles, off came the boots though that task took a lot more care than she'd expected, finding his right ankle hot and swollen to the touch, already bruised.
How on earth-?
He shook his head with a small scowl: one problem at a time. Back to the task at hand, turn the smaller hybrid on his side, loosen his vest and pull the back of his shirt up just so and-!
He made a triumphant noise as a fluffy black tail came into view, tied tight to Legs' back with a strip of leather. One hand to hold him still, the other to fiddle the knot loose and her own tail twinged with relief when she watched the extra limb flop loose, released from its bind. He really was doing everything in his power for no one to know that he had his Kin Marks.
Juniper did not want to think too much of the implications of that.
Back on his back, tail pulled just so comfortably out of the way and Juniper was back on their feet. They watched as Ori carefully deposited Gadget on the bed, curling up along the side on the mat laid there for that very purpose, and Juniper turned to the makeshift oven. A bucket of water from the bag of wonders into the pot to heat, some for broth and some to clean some of the soot off the other.
A few minutes to fashion a rough cutting board out of a plank from the bag and then got popped gently on top of a barrel, knife and some meat following in short order. She was just about to started cubing the meat for the broth when she was jolted out of her thoughts by Ori and Deke both shouting.
"Oh Gadget! No!" He whipped around, half expecting something else to have gone horribly wrong but instead found Gadget standing atop Legs with his legs bent oddly, Pinecone and Ori and Deke all watching with horrified fascination as a yellow wet spot spread across Legundo's otherwise white shirt. For a moment, no one moved, didn't even say a word, before laughter overtook Juniper, sending him folding in half. If the laughter was tinged with a little hysteria, well, no one was going to call attention to that fact.
Instead Pinecone shrieked and shrilled the dragonling version of a laugh, chubby little body falling back from where he was leaning against the bed, and Ori and Deke shared long suffering looks, noses already scrunched from the smell.
Once Juniper had gotten control of themselves they set aside the knife and scooped up a little of the still heating water from the pot in a little wooden bowl, grabbing a few clothes on the way. Ori had already plucked Gadget up and was scolding in that quiet, exasperated way mothers tended to scold and making him splash around in a puddle to get any residue while Deke nudged Pinecone out of the way, leaving Juniper plenty of room to work.
She wasn't going to give him a full sponge bath - she liked and trusted him, sure but not that much, not yet anyway - so instead settled for pulling the soiled shirt off and chucking it aside to be washed later. The cloth went in the water, pulling a little hiss out of her when she realized it was a little hotter than she'd anticipated, and she blotted away the mess as best as she was able. It wouldn't be perfect, he was almost sure to still smell anyway by the time he woke up(and he would wake up, they were sure of it), but it would keep him from getting sticky, hopefully enough for him to rest comfortably.
She was so going to tease him about this when he woke up.
Endlessly.
~~~~
Waking up was officially his newest least favorite activity. And he had a lot of those.
Everything hurt, his skin felt like it was pulled tight over his bones and muscles, and his head was ringing viciously, like someone had stuck it inside a bell and hit it with a mallet. He groaned, trying to turn over and immediately regretting it when his leg lit up with pain, sending him curling in on himself to try and withstand the ache.
What had happened to him?
The last thing he remembered was landing back in the academy, the tingle of the recall spell still dancing across his kin and his mana lashing and buzzing from the…whatever had happened to him in the crypt. He'd waited for a bit, waited for Juniper to follow him but…she never had, and he'd freaked out, worried that he'd done more harm to her than he'd realized. He stumbled out of the academy, blowing past someone in the doorway, and made his way back to the crypt.
Everything got fuzzy and out of focus then, like he wasn't in his own body anymore. He briefly remembered stumbling clumsily down several steep mountainsides trying to get back, shouting Juniper's name all the while. He remembered the terror, only some of it his own, as he stepped foot over the threshold back onto those ancient stones. He remembered still calling for Juniper, his voice fading, the time between cries growing longer and longer as something ancient, something that resonated in his bones, that sent his very teeth juttering in his head came thronging through him.
Then nothing.
Now, this. Pain, damp humid air, the sound of claws on the ground and someone's boot scuffling over stones. Ori was near, their bond settled with closeness and still. She was fine, calm, relaxed. Not in danger then. At least not in any immediate danger.
He blinked his eyes open, met with only a roof of dark stone, letting his head turn limply to where he felt the other half of his soul sitting.
She was already looking at him, chestnut fur clean of any soot and no sign of golden blood to be seen. Her eyes were warm and placid, worry lurking underneath them, and Gadget was curled between her paws, snoring quietly away even as he clutched a bone in little taloned feet.
Safe.
Tears, hot and stinging, dripped down his cheeks. Ori crooned something to him, something he was still too out of it to hear, and carefully rose to her paws. Gadget chirped and chirred grumpily at having his nap disturbed for all of three seconds before he too noticed that his rider was awake, instead dropping his bone to scrabble over to him, squeaking the whole way.
He sat up, wincing the whole way, and leaned down to scoop Gadget into his arms, pressing his face to warm scales even as Ori sniffed over his side and face, desperate to assure herself that he was alright finally until, satisfied at last, she pressed her big head to his side, letting him loop his free arm around her ears to hold her close. He stayed there like that for, well he didn't know how long, until he felt less like he was going to fly apart at the seams, blinking his eyes into the fire-lit room.
Stone walls, a hastily set up camp, mats and another bed and- Juniper!
He sat up quicker, breath and words tangling all at once on his tongue as he tried to gasp and ask how she was in the same instance. Juniper's eyebrows flew into her hairline and she rose, hands up in a placating way.
"Whoa, easy there! Don't want to undo everything I've managed to do in the last few days." She approached the bed, face a mask of concern and wariness.
"How long?" He managed to croak, wincing at the sound of his own voice even as she came to rest at his side, kneeling down a little so they were eye to eye.
"Three days. Well, three full days. We're about halfway through day four. I was about to head to the school and get someone for you if you weren't awake tomorrow." He blinked, eyes wide as her words settled in him and alarm followed closely behind.
"Three days?!" She nodded again, as if simply waiting for him to catch up and get with the program but not wanting to be unkind about it and he allowed himself a shaking breath before nodding. "Right, right. That's fine. That's totally ok. It's totally normal to have your brain cracked open and to lose half a week! Nothing to worry about at all nope!" Was that his voice with the hysterical edge to it? No, certainly not.
Alright, judging by Juniper's raised brow and crossed arms it was, in fact, him, but well sue him! He was allowed to be a little frazzled after what happened! She waited until he was more calm and in control of himself before she spoke again.
"You wanna tell me what the hell that was all about back there?" He froze, wide eyes looking at her. She was unharmed from what he could see, thank all the gods big and small, but she was looking at him with a wariness that almost bordered on fear. His heart ached at seeing that, at seeing how someone who'd been so happy to see him and speak with him only a week ago looked at him so differently now. It was just like he feared: his magic was going to eventually hurt everyone around him, it had just started with Juniper.
The story tumbled out of him and it was like pulling teeth to make himself continue when he saw her flinch for the first time when he described the eerie howling of the Song Below The Crypt, how it seemed to wrap around his magic and whip it to new and terrifying heights, how he'd felt crushed below it and yet wrapped in it all at once, his mind going blank with it. How terrifying it had been to feel bits and pieces of himself trying to pull away, to join the Song Below The Crypt, how echoes of magic-but-not tried to whirl around him so much like chains.
It scared her, he could tell, but it also seemed to light some kind of determination deep in her and she pulled him up out of the bed. He wrinkled his nose as his clothes shifted, spilling an acrid scent into the air.
"Oh what's that?!" He pulled his hand from hers to cover his mouth. It wasn't the worst thing he'd ever smelt, but it was a pungent ammonia smell that seemed to stick to his fur and his shirt.
"You pissed yourself." She deadpanned and he whirled to look at her, horrified even as a squawk ripped out of him when he nearly fell because of his injured ankle. She managed to hold his gaze for a solid minute, nothing but silence passing between them, before she was laughing, practically bent double with her mirth.
"Its not funny!" That only made her laugh harder and he could feel his ears pin back, the shameful flush taking over his cheeks again. She eventually got herself under control and stood up, wiping away a jolly tear.
"Oh relax Legs, it wasn't you. It was Gadget. I could only do so much though without giving you a sponge bath. I cleaned your shirt and your belly fur as much as I was able but you're still gonna need a really good bath after this." He groaned and rubbed a hand over his face, just relieved when he didn't get another wash of stale ammonia.
Dragons were packed in backpacks and Ori grabbed him gently by the belt, setting him carefully astride her back so he wouldn't have to walk. Juniper talked most of the way there, her form slowly growing that familiar poplar-gray bark as they went, describing bits about herself and her mission, about her family and the place she came from. She talked about her magic, how the previous Growth mage had accidentally strangled her friends with their vines and then ran away to become a tree, essentially ending their life, the very tree that Juniper brought them to. They stood on the great flat stump and Legundo could feel the magic that was sunk into it, feel it reaching up to touch his own before shying away, eddying just below his feet.
"We are not our books. Our predecessors didn't have them, but we do, and I do not intend to follow in their footsteps. Do you?" He took in her words, took in the sheer determination and grit behind them, and decided to, for just once in his life, believe in someone else's thoughts over his own. He nodded, a slow and timid thing, and she beamed at him, the bark of her face receding into peach rose skin once more.
They stood in the quiet for a moment longer before Juniper spoke again, her voice softer and more amused now, but no less serious. "There's one more thing I want to run by you before we go back." He tilted his head, watching and waiting for where the conversation would go next. "Your ears and tail. Didn't anyone ever teach you not to tie them down like that? You could hurt yourself if you're not careful." She reprimanded, and he shrunk back a little.
They'd been at the Academy long enough that he was probably safe to have undone the bindings on his Kin Marks several weeks ago, but it had simply become a habit to leave them hidden, part of his everyday routine. Some days he didn't undo them at all if he was particularly busy. He didn't answer her with words, instead opting to simply shake his head. He'd known it was uncomfortable, but not that it could cause injuries. Olsted had bound his wings all the time in the workshop, so he'd never thought anything of it when he'd done it before or even now.
"Ok, well, stop doing that. More than half the students have their marks, no one is going to like, make fun of you or whatever. You're too skinny as well, are you eating enough?" He blinked, the fussing coming out of left field, and he opened his mouth, closed it, and then repeated the gesture a few times before settling on shrugging. This, apparently, was not the answer she was looking for, because she very quickly launched into a full on rant about his lack of self care the entire way back. She complained about how dull and limp his fur was, how skinny he was, how unkempt his teeth were, how he always looked tired. He was getting no help from Ori, who was simply nodding along with most of her points, and Gadget was a baby.
Honestly, finding the big group of students on the road shortly after he'd been informed that she would be making sure he knew how to care for himself better was a relief and it took very little fast talking to turn the tables on her, trapping her in an outing with several of the "pretty women" from part of their conversation earlier while he skedaddled back to the castle with Ori. Juniper was going to kill him for that stunt later, but first he wanted to get back to the castle, check on his friends, and get something to eat. A deep breath in got him another mouthful of stale ammonia and wet fur.
Alright, all that, but only after a shower.
~~~~~~~
Juniper crept into the room their nose wrinkling a little as they carefully shut the door behind them once Deke and Pinecone were in the room as well. Stale air, exhaustion, flat mana, all of it mixed with the dull scent of vanilla and amber and iron. Gadget was dozing quietly on a mound of metal scraps and blankets in the corner, his little flank rising and falling smoothly with his gentle snores. Ori was curled up in a delicate, for her size anyway, ball on the bed, nose tucked under her tail, the lantern light glinting off the blue in her fur in eye-catching ways.
Their target was asleep at his desk; goggles askew, face pressed into the wood, bits and bobs of some project or another strewn about, his back rising with his own quiet breath. Good, they'd managed to get in without alerting him. He was going to pay for that little stunt on the road the other day, leaving them stranded with a handful of pretty women because he was trying to both wingman them and get out of a lecture.
Their cheeks flushed pink for a second before they turned around, holding a finger to their lips to make sure Deke and Pinecone knew to stay still and quiet while they crept closer, boots barely scuffing the wooden floors. It took a minute to position themselves behind Legundo, hands positioned on either side of him, and they took a deep breath and then shouted, loud as they were able "boo!" before poking just hard enough into his sides to send him careening into wakefulness.
Legundo screeched as he jolted awake, echoed by Gadget's own shriek and Ori's alarm bark, though Juniper soon found themselves screeching surprise as dozens of bits of metal flew off the desk. None towards them, thankfully, but they did watch dumbly as the pieces skittered across the desk and floor.
Legundo flipped around, tail bristling and ears high, clutching his chest as he glowered at them, caught between fear and reproach.
"Sni-Juiper! What're you doing?!" The humor of the situation was quickly coming back to them and they tilted their head back with a bright laugh. Both daemons joined in quickly and soon Legundo was laughing as well, even as he clutched his shirt over his heart and got up from his desk. Juniper's keen eyes watched the movements even as they continued to laugh lightly. He was moving stiffly still, limping with the soreness of a sprain that was largely healed but still troubling him. He hadn't bound his tail and ears again, but his face was creased with the usual tiredness and anxiety.
Juniper's expression softened a little and Legundo's own laugh cut off, turning to watch them with a curious tilt of his head. Gosh, like that he looked even younger than he already was, with his ears flopped over and one little tooth poking past his lip. How no one else had stepped in and snapped him up as Pack before now was astounding to Juniper. Every single instinct in their body was screaming with the need to scoop him up and make sure he was taken care of. A little ridiculous, Juniper liked to think they were not a slave to their instincts, but they were still a part of them and something that they needed to keep a hold of.
"That's for the other day." They finally snipped playfully and Legundo rolled his eyes, falling into a stretch before walking around them to putter around the room. He stopped to brush cheeks with Ori, crouched down to the run his hands gently over Gadget's sides and slip him a piece of jerky from a pouch on his bandoleer and then reached into a chest for the ever-ubiquitous coffee, handing one to Juniper.
"Did you need anything besides trying to kill me?" He chirped, tongue in cheek and Juniper favored him with their own eye roll this time.
"You're not getting out of this, Legs. I know what you tried to do." His eyes took on a shifty, uncertain quality and they smirked at him, smug at catching him out. He truly did not have a face meant for keeping secrets, but that was a good thing as far as Juniper was concerned. The younger hybrid was blushing, head bowed as he toed at the ground mulishly.
"I really don't need- That's really not necessary Juniper! I've gone this long-"
"Just because you've gone this long without doing it doesn't mean that its good for you, Legs. This isn't like our magic, where we're all just figuring this out as we go. This is well-studied and documented, not really something you can argue with. Are you, the science guy, going to argue with science?" He pouted up at them, arms crossing, fully looking like he was indeed going to try and argue with science, before he relented with a petulant huff.
"I still don't think it's going to matter but if it'll make you feel better, I guess we can try." He lamented, like he was doing them some great favor at his own expense, and Juniper simply rolled their eyes, grabbing his arm and dragging him to the bed. They pushed them down on the edge and then settled beside them, watching quietly as Deke and Ori spent a moment pressed nose-to-nose, clearly some kind of communication going on between them before they settled down, pulling the dragonlings close to keep an eye on them.
"Ok listen, I get it. You're embarrassed because you think this is silly or you think I'm going to baby you or something, but this really will help. You're not human. Most of us aren't. Not knowing this isn't a failing on your part, it's a failing on the part of whoever raised you." Juniper turned a little to the smaller hybrid, taking in the closed off language of his body, even as his ears twitched to show he was listening to their words.
"Hey, look at me please?" He huffed but did, green eyes glassy with something that wasn't quite tears but was probably closer than he was happy with. "Did you ever feel like something was missing? Like there was something between you and the people around you? Or like you and Ori were looking for something and just kinda…sliding past the answer without being able to pin it down?"
Juniper watched as Legundo hemmed and hawed for a moment, eyes tracking up to his daemon to find Ori was already looking at him, something pained with understanding passing between them. Ah, so they'd nailed it on the head.
Juniper didn't even need to wait for a response before they barreled on, figuring talking over the embarrassment and giving them something else to focus on was probably the best way to do this. "Daemons know the basics through instinct but usually not enough to really fulfill all their needs. That thing you do with Ori, where you brush cheeks with her? That's part of it. You two are one in the same person, but half your scent comes from her." Juniper turned a little more, pleased when they noted that they had the other hybrid's full attention now, curiosity overriding his mortification for the moment.
"Predator hybrids are generally split pretty evenly down the middle when you factor in the birds between needing to scent and not needing to. Group oriented species like ours," here they motioned to wear Deke and Ori were gossiping quietly with each other. "Need to scent. Our brains read being surrounded by scent from people we care about like having one of our major needs met." Legundo's eyes lit up for a moment, clearly making some connection or another.
"And that causes our brains to release chemicals that make us feel good right? I read about those, but it hasn't been very well studied yet."
"Exactly like that!" Juniper enthused. "Part of what causes a lot of undirected anxiety in some hybrids is not having their needs met. Obviously, some people are just anxious-" a quick glance that got a sharp indignant squawk. "And this isn't just some perfect fix that's going to make everything go away, but it sure is going to make things a lot easier to deal with." They felt the need to add the extra bit of caution at the end, not wanting him to get the idea that they were trying to "fix" him or that this was a magic cure-all.
Legs seemed to think everything over for a few solid moments and Juniper was content to give him that time, to let him sort his thoughts until he was ready to move on. For all that they thought that he needed this, this was not something that they were going to do without his consent.
"So do we- we don't have to like…nuzzle each other, do we?" Juniper tipped their head back in another laugh, this one more light hearted without a bit of meanness in it, shaking their head all the while.
"No, no, that's-" Another snort of a laugh, echoed shortly by an embarrassed giggle from the other. Juniper took a moment to breathe past the amusement before they continued. "No. You can but that's generally reserved for like, spouses and partners and very close friends. No, in general most people share scents by sharing clothing items or like, hugging. Handshakes too. See you've got scent glands in your wrists, your neck and a couple places around your hips. If you're in contact with someone pretty often and can reapply scents frequently, most people just hug every once in a while, like in the morning or before bed." It was easy to fall into the same lessons that Juniper had received from their mothers and sisters, remembering fondly their own embarrassment at the thought of hugging her sisters all the time.
"There's also something you can do if you want someone to smell more strongly of you, or to help someone while they're sick." Juniper rolled up their sleeves, motioning for him to scooch a little closer, waiting for him to wriggle forward until their knees were brushing. "You're new to this, and jumpy, so we're going to hold off on the hugging for now, and handshakes won't give you what you need, so we're going to- Juniper leaned forward, going slow enough that he could easily back out at any moment(humbled when he trusted them enough to not stop them), and brushed the insides of their wrists against his neck first.
They ran their hands gently down his arms, purposefully dragging their wrists against his before pulling away. Legs flushed bright red and squeaked, hiding his face behind his hands quickly but otherwise not protesting the move at all, and Juniper's nose twitched as rain-soaked mahogany and rose vine twined with white amber and vanilla-iron, their scents mingling pleasantly on the air.
They waited patiently while he got himself under control, smirking a little as the rhythmic sound of a wagging tail hitting the bed filled the air, their own swaying contentedly. Juniper's brain didn't register their mixed scent as Pack just yet, maybe not ever, but it still buzzed pleasantly under their skin to have their….friend's scent mixing with their own.
It took ten minutes for Legs to unhide himself and slowly, clumsily, repeat the gesture, sending a fresh wash of their combined scents into the air of the room, some of it rubbing off on the sheets just from their sitting together while this was all happening. He didn't hide when his turn was over, instead watching Juniper with something like shocked comprehension on his face, like something had slotted into place he hadn't known was askew.
Juniper favored him with a smile, laughing as Ori and Deke both pressed their way in, wanting to be part of the small ceremony of it all, and for the third time that night Juniper laughed, bright and happy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You're humming again." Legs looked up from where he was working at a library table. Juniper was across from him, nose still buried in her book while her free hand made steady notes in another journal at her side. He blinked at her owlishly, forcing his eyes to focus a little more. Had he-?
"Since when?" Juniper stopped just a moment, as if thinking before responding.
"Five minutes. Only brought it up because Gadget was starting to as well." He blinked in alarm, mouth going dry as her words sunk in. Ever since they'd returned from the crypt he'd heard a noise in his head, this quiet constant hum, almost like a guitar string being plucked over and over again, allowed to thrum out quietly before going again. It was ever present, no matter what he was doing; eating, sleeping, studying, exploring with friends, it didn't matter. There it was, present and demanding his attention.
He thought he'd gotten better at stopping himself from vocalizing it, but apparently not, and now if Gadget was humming as well? That was a problem.
Having sensed his growing unease, Juniper had placed down her book, watching him with careful eyes. Clearly, he'd let his reaction get the better of him, and now she was on the hunt for whatever was bothering him. That was a common theme with her: she could see right through him in a way that would be frankly terrifying if they weren't on the same side, and building their own trust. She didn't ask, seemed content to wait to see if he would close the topic or if he would break and tell her without prompting, and he managed to ignore her for a solid fifteen minutes by hiding behind his book again.
Right up until he started humming again.
Huffing in both frustration and mounting anxiety he slammed his book closed, wincing a little at his poor treatment of the tome. He patted it gently, as if to apologize, before he placed his elbows on the table and then hid his face in his hands, struggling with where to start.
He decided against the beginning, instead telling her of the first night that he'd noticed the Song in the back of his mind, how it seemed to very quickly slip into every hour of his waking, and even dreaming, life. How he was never without it somewhere in the background of his mind, how sometimes it climbed to almost deafening heights and all he could do was press his palms to his ears and ride it out, face buried in Ori's fur and Gadget tucked tight between them. It had been just over a month since they'd left the crypt, but already it seemed intent on changing his very life, no matter what he did.
How, with the Song, came the changes to his magic. The bits of metal that orbited him or stuck to him if he wasn't careful, his more fine tuned control of all his spells, how sometimes his tools seemed to vibrate in his hands, as if seeking to meld with his skin.
Through it all, Juniper watched, face open and sympathetic, though he could see flashes of horror lurking there, though not at him but rather what was happening to him. She rose from her seat when the retelling was finished, settling at his side and slinging her arm over his shoulders. Not pressing or corralling, not pinning him to her side, but giving him a steady point of contact, her wrist brushing against his neck and filling the air with the scents. That action alone, the undemanding physical contact and their scents mixing together like they'd always been meant to, drove a little of the anxiety from his chest. Not all of it, but enough for him to lean back against his seat and take a breath. Ori came over, head resting in her lap. Gadget remained close by, dozing on a couch cushion with Pinecone draped over him, blissfully unaware of his rider's fear for the moment.
It was…nice, to feel supported like this. The ease of it, how it demanded nothing and yet did not make him feel shamed either. Sausage and Graecie and Zam did not make him feel shamed, but there was always so much going on that he felt bad for even thinking about bringing it up. He saw how hard they took it any time any of them were struggling. He did not want to add to that with a problem that he was sure no one would be able to fix. Not even himself.
And even though there was no fix, he was glad for the comfort, easy and unyielding. He tipped a little, a tiny spark of amusement kindling under his heart when Juniper gave an exaggerated huff as he tucked into her side, her grip growing more secure without comment. He didn't know how long they sat there, vanilla-iron and rain-wet mahogany mixing with quiet calm and budding anxiety both, all he knew is he was glad he had someone to do this with.
He'd rather face Juniper's ribbing and protectiveness a thousand times over than deal with this alone.
~~~~~~
Sausage watched across the main hall with all the intensity of his daemon and then some, ears swiveling and tail switching as he growled lowly. At his side, Sunfax watched as well, though her intensity was tempered by smug amusement. Sometimes Sausage wished his own daemon wasn't so ready to poke fun at him, honestly. Whatever memory problem had affected them clearly hadn't tampered with her sense of humor at least.
Today's object of his ire and his daemon's great joy?
Legundo and Juniper, both of whom were sitting across the main hall from him, heads bent together and tails wagging as they talked in animated glee, arms moving wildly as they…argued? Their voices were certainly raised, but there was none of the anger or heat in their words that might be expected in an argument. What snatches he could catch seemed to imply that they'd had some kind of breakthrough for a project and were gushing over it together. At their heels, almost blocking them from view with their great bulks, were their daemons, locked in their own conversations too quiet to be heard, though the fond amusement on their faces was clear for anyone to see.
He twitched a little as Legs reached for the cloth on his belt, green and gold and like nothing he'd ever owned before, fishing it off its little tie to hand to the older hybrid. Juniper grinned at him and carefully wrapped it around her lower arm, then reaching for her own cloth(a frustratingly familiar shade of blue) that had been tied up near her shoulder, tying it tight around Leg's upper arm with familiar motions.
Sausage wasn't a fool. It might not be the smartest, especially compared to some of the students in the academy, but It knew enough to know It was jealous. Which was silly. It's not like Legs was abandoning It for Juniper! Legs still spent most of his time around Sausage, Graecie and Zam, almost every day if It was being honest with Itself. That didn't stop the curl of heat every time Legs stood nearby and all It could smell was vanilla-iron and rain-damp wood.
Legs should smell of sun warmed prairie grasses! Not stupid moist trees!
"You're growling." Sunfax's light, matter of fact voice brought It out of Its spiral, giving It a moment to catch Its breath and recenter Itself. Sunfax had already explained to It what was happening: It saw Legs as Pride but Legs either did not return the favor or, more likely Sunfax had said, didn't know how to. Now It was watching a possible Pride member mesh with someone else, someone It had not also claimed, and It was freaking out because it couldn't decide if it wanted to step back and let Legs have this or try again. And for all that It was leaning towards "try again", It was struggling with the thought of sharing.
Possessiveness in lion daemon-hybrids was a well known trait, especially amongst the males. He'd looked it up before he'd come to the Academy, desperately trying to make sense of one of the eight million things he hadn't remembered when he'd woken up with only his daemon and his new prosthetics. But Legs was a man in his own right, who had the ability to make choices even if they were ones that made Sausage's stomach do sick little flips. He sighed and slumped in his chair, hand dropping down to pat Sunfax soothingly, rumbling a little as her rough tongue glided over his fingers, returning the favor. She wanted their Pridemates as well, she was just handling it better than he was.
Behind them he knew Graecie and Zam were watching him, expressions as usual when this happened caught between awe and confusion. Zam had no daemon and so had no point of reference for the instincts they'd tried to explain to her and Graecie's time in the Flock had obviously twisted the way her Argali daemon's instincts influenced her. Usually Argali were extremely protective of anyone they considered Mob, but for all that Reinier had a razor sharp tongue and wit, being raised as a pacifist had largely dulled those instincts. Neither of them quite understood his jealousy, his anxious desire to claim his Pridemate and keep him close.
Graecie had asked if it was like when a boyfriend got jealous of his significant other talking to other people(something she'd read in one of AJ of all people's romance novels), but that had been an easy "No" for Sausage. He wasn't sure of a lot of things since waking up but one of things that had jumped right out to him had been his absolute lack of physical attraction to anyone. He'd seen hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people in the time he was traveling between waking up and coming here, and not a single one had even remotely piqued his interests. No, he didn't see Legs as a possible mate. Just a Pridemate who wasn't where he should be.
He'd wanted to bring it up in the past, try and make the younger man see, but every time he'd tried, whether it was paired with some other overture or not, he'd simply gotten too tongue tied to finish his train of thought.
Like now, as Sunfax bumped his knee, drawing his attention to Legs making his way across the large main hall to where they were sitting, bringing with him the stink of wet wood and-huh. Was that cinnamon rolls?
Sure enough, clutched in his hands was a plate with a very large cinnamon roll on it, clearly still warm from the oven if the scent of fresh cinnamon and icing was any indication. Sausage half expected the other to give the cinnamon roll to Zam or Graecie, the dire wolf hybrid seemed obsessed with providing for their less hunt-orient minded friends despite the fact that Zam was the chef amongst the group. Instead, he stopped right next to Sausage, hopping up on the table so his legs dangled and he could kick them, tail swishing across the wooden surface quietly.
He didn't say anything, in fact he seemed almost….bashful, as he broke off a piece of the cinnamon roll, popping it in his mouth before, with a steadying breath, he held the plate out to Sausage.
Sausage blinked, surprise and something like hopeful anticipation lancing through It as It took the plate. It blinked, savoring the scent of the fresh baked good and the lingering scent of vanilla-iron on the ceramic, before It broke off its own piece and chewed it, savoring the flavors as they moved across its tongue. Not quite as good as fresh roast meat, but made sweeter by the sharing anyway. Tentatively, almost expecting to be rejected again, It held the plate out, jubilation filling It as the plate was taken back.
Sharing!
They were sharing food!
Its tail swished happily, a loud rumble(not a purr, much to its annoyance, but as close as it was able) filling its chest. It was pleased to see Legs' tail had picked up speed, swishing even faster across the table as they continued the sharing ritual, passing the plate between bites, fingers brushing each time. A deep, primal part of it settled as it and its Pridemate shared food, their scents barely mingling, but enough. Not claimed, not yet, but it couldn't get ahead of himself. It couldn't afford to scare Legs away when they'd finally made progress after months of rejections.
As they sat there eating it couldn't help but notice the occasional hum coming from Legs. Not the hum of someone enjoying food, but the quiet idle hum of someone with a song stuck in their head. Every time Legs noticed he cut himself off viscously, biting his lip nearly bloody each time. Sausage didn't want that, didn't want its friend hurting himself from whatever it was that was bothering him about the hum(and it would find out, it would!) so instead settled for humming its own song. It was a short, repetitive thing, something it had heard the sailors down at the docks singing, but that meant that it was easy to loop, to hum almost mindlessly as they finished off the roll.
And it seemed to help, the occasional eerie humming turning into an echo of his own jaunty tune, and he puffed up with accomplishment as Legs seemed to relax, setting the now empty plate aside on the table.
They didn't stay much longer. Sausage didn't run his wrists along Legs' shoulders like he wanted to, didn't twine their tails like his instincts demanded he do. Instead they both hopped down, gathered Graecie and Zam, and headed out into the world. Sausage had a thousand questions on the tip of his tongue, like why Legs had suddenly stopped rejecting his offers to food share or why he was always smelling of Juniper or why he still shied away from Graecie even though Graecie had long grown used to his and Ori's presence. No, his curiosity could stand to wait a day or two to be satiated.
Today was too good a day to ruin it. Let him be happy a little while longer.
~~~~
"Alright, loser, new lesson!" Legs groaned loudly and pulled the pillow tighter over his head, using his free hand to send Juniper an incredibly rude gesture. Judging by the laugh, it was going to get him nothing but ridicule and would not, in fact, save him from whatever nonsense she had planned for the day.
Fantastic.
"What do you want?" He whined, desperately trying to bury himself further in the sheets as determined hands and determined teeth slowly pulled the layers away, leaving him pouting up into the air. He turned his head to give them a baleful glare, ears flicked out and tail twitching. "I was so comfortable having a nice normal sleep in my nice normal bed and you've ruined it." Juniper and Deke did not look in the least chastised, instead chucking the last of his bedding onto…what the hell?
"Where'd you even get all those??" On the floor by the bed was a massive pile of blankets in various thicknesses and textures, several pillows in many different shapes and sizes and a few long strips of cloth he recognized as Juniper's own hair covers and shoulder caplets.
"Supply closet. Which you'd know about if you'd listened to anyone about anything on that first day. It was one of the few things the guards actually showed us." He made an indignant noise and sat up, glaring at her.
"I paid attention! I just didn't think I'd need to know where a supply closet of all things was. Especially when they couldn't even tell me where the alchemy classroom was!" Juniper made a motion with her hands like she was yapping along with him and he leaned down, grabbing a pillow and tossing it at her. He grinned as it beamed her straight in the face, causing her to stumble backwards into the pile of bedding. Ori and Deke thought it was greatly funny as well, if their cackling laughter was anything to go by.
He never would have dreamed about doing something like that with anyone just a few weeks ago, but Juniper just had this way of pressing on him, poking and prodding him to encourage trying new things. Joking around(he still wasn't good at this bit, but he was learning. Kinda), playful teasing, little bits of rough housing. He was getting really used to having the other dire wolf hybrid around, and liked to think that they'd moved beyond just her teaching him what he was missing into proper friend territory.
His wandering thoughts were punished when a strong hand grabbed his ankle and pulled him down into the pile, pressing a pillow over his face. Not enough to actually make breathing hard, but enough that he screeched and kicked, trying to get free so that he could retaliate. They went tumbling for a few minutes before Juniper's greater size and reach won out, baring him to the ground with a huffed "oof!" as he was pinned.
"Say 'nuff! Say 'nuff or I'll tell Pinecone to lick your toes!" There was real weight to that threat: Pinecone's strange love of toes was a topic of frequent lighthearted mockery amongst the two of them.
"'Nuff!" Juniper cackled as she rolled off of him, falling to his side with a giggle of her own, and he turned over, pushing against her side gently before settling down with a laugh of his own. Finally, Juniper sat up, pulling some of the blankets closer.
"C'mon, I came here with a plan, and I doubt you wanna be up all night. I'm gonna teach you how to build a nest, and you're going to have the best sleep of your life. Bet I won't find you in the library again for at least three weeks." He huffed and grumbled a little at the call out. He had been sleeping out of his room a lot lately. Some of it was simply down to spending too much time researching, but a lot of it was down to the continued ever-present humming in his head.
He scrabbled to his feet, head tilting a little as he watched her bustle around, pulling out several of the largest pillows and a thin, dark sheet. "Aren't nests for birds?" She snorted at him, amusement clear in the flick of her tail and the shudder of her shoulders.
"I mean, sure, if you wanna get really picky about it, but lots of hybrids species nest, just like lots of hybrid species roost or herd together. There's no clear delineation between them." He liked listening to Juniper talk, even if some of the lessons still made him cringe - a lot of the material was clearly something he should have learned over a decade ago, like caring for his teeth or how he needed more meat and less veggies in his diet, but Juniper explained it all with the calm pragmatism of someone who'd gotten, or given, those lessons a hundred times over.
"Nesting isn't as big a need for most hybrids unlike scenting or allogrooming, but it can be nice and a lot of people say it helps even if they don't need it. If you don't like it, you can always take it down super easily but I have a feeling this will be right up your alley. Now get over here and watch what I'm doing." He shuffled over, eyes keen as he watched her set to work.
Juniper seemed pleased with the three iron sides of his bed, using them to hold up the several pillows she placed around the perimeter, tucking them in with thin sheets. Then he watched as a thick blanket, folded in half the long way, was laid on each half of the bed, tied off on the ends, before two blankets folded the short way were done in the same way, a large and thick comforter topping the lot. All the while she talked about material textures and temperature ranges and light control, Legs hanging off her every word.
Lastly the thin, dark sheet she tied to the raised far side of the bed before letting it drape down, enclosing the whole structure in darkness. Construction finally complete, she put her hands on her hips and looked at him pointedly, eyes darting between him and the bed-turned-nest.
"Do I have to?" Oh look, he could still get embarrassed by doing things she asked of him. How novel!
Juniper rolled her eyes before her expression softened a little around the edges, her hands falling away from her hips and instead coming up to hold his shoulders. "Remember, if you don't like it, you can always take it down, but if you don't try then how will you know? Come onnnn, where's that scientific curiosity at, huh?" He groaned again and rolled his eyes but eventually relented, pulling up the corner of the sheet just enough to climb inside.
The bed felt transformed, and not just in the way that adding some new linens might feel. Rather, it felt like a whole new construct, cool and dark and safe, something jagged and pointy settling at the edges of his mind. Not gone, but quiet in a really rather nice way. He muttered a little to himself about Juniper being right again, but already his body was settling into the thick mounds of bedding, his eyes closing and breath evening out.
He was asleep before Juniper even got a chance to ask how he liked it. He never noticed the terribly fond look that settled across her face, never noticed when Gadget was carefully boosted inside or when Ori crawled in after. He certainly didn't notice when a few lengths of embroidered green cotton were slipped into the nest, nor the gentle hand that ruffled the hair between his ears before retreating, leaving him to his rest.
All he would notice in the morning was how well-rested he felt, and how the scent of rain water and hardwood followed him all day long.
~~~~~
"Juniper?" Juniper looked up from where he was working at the desk in his room, setting aside his inkwell and pen when he noticed the very frazzled looking hybrid in his doorway.
"Legs? What're you doing here? It's like-" He turned to look at the clock on the wall, wincing when the hands showed a very condemning two in the morning. "Its late. What's wrong?" Legs had never sought him out this late before, at least not while Juniper was in his room. Sometimes, when they were sharing the library or study spaces the younger would come looking for him, whether that was to ask a question or get his opinion on something or even just to quietly co-study, but never like this.
"My bed is singing." It took a minute for the absurdity of the statement to register, but when it did Juniper didn't even get to laugh. Legs was a rather melancholy person by nature, and his voice tended towards medium tones with some level of flatness, even when he was in a good mood unless he was in a really good mood or something was very exciting. There was no humor in the statement now, though. What should have been something akin to the punchline of a joke was instead said with the warbling plaintiveness of a child woken from a bad dream, something Juniper recognized from years of babysitting in the caves.
He looked it, too; ears and tail dropping, face pale and drawn, shoulders up while his eyes darted back and forth. No, this was no joke unfortunately.
"The Song?" Juniper had been making notes of the way the Song affected Legs for weeks now, ever since the younger man had come clean on the effects the magic was having on him after their ill-fated trip to the crypt. He nodded miserably and Juniper fully set aside his writing, rising from the desk to stretch out his back. Far too long without a break, indeed.
Juniper looked around the room, made note of the little bits of metal here and there. Nothing near his bed, which would serve the purpose for the night. "Come on, get in here." Legs looked at him for a moment before nodding shakily, padding in with Gadget and Ori on his heels and letting the door fall shut behind him. He led the younger man deeper into the room, pulling him along when he noticed Legs getting distracted by the few iron tools that Juniper had left out for maintenance. Eventually they got to the "bedroom" section and Juniper let go of Legs to rummage quietly in the dressers, pulling up two pairs of shorts and two thin sleeping shirts, once of each which got passed to the younger.
"Oh no, I can-"
"I'll return the favor next time. You're not getting in bed in those clothes, I can smell the ink and dirt from here." He was quick to close down the arguments, watching as Legs seemed to struggle with himself for a moment before nodding faintly and stepping behind the changing screen. Juniper sighed with no small amount of relief. Once he'd gotten into comfortable clothes, it would be much easier to get him to bed.
Oh, how easy it was to promise a next time like it was the simplest thing in the world, like there would be a time where Juniper would show up at Legs' door, let himself in and steal the other hybrid's clothes before going to bed. It was an easy promise for Juniper to an extent. Legs had become increasingly important to him, and people from the Storm Kingdom had never had the same hangups about nest-sharing with non-lovers or non-packmates a lot of the Summer Kingdom people seemed to have.
He turned towards his nest, built on his thankfully wooden bedstead, and grabbed a few extra blankets and a pillow, chucking them in. Ori and Deke had already made themselves comfortable near the fireplace, chestnut and storm gray fur the only way to tell where one wolf ended and the other began, and Pinecone had taken Gadget to his bed, both dragons already asleep.
When Legs came out from behind the changing screen Juniper couldn't help the indulgent smile that flickered across his features briefly. Legs was practically swimming in Juniper's clothes, the sleep shirt hanging loose on one side to expose a blue-splotched clavicle and shorts going down to his knees where they usually only went down to mid-thigh on Juniper. It was, he could admit with no shame, very cute.
Legs blushed a little at the attention, but Juniper paid it no mind, instead choosing to slip behind the screen to change into his own sleeping clothes, leaving his clothes in a heap on the wooden floor. That was fine, he could always clean it up in the morning. He stepped out from behind the curtain with one final stretch, bee-lining for the bed with a single minded focus: now that he was in more comfortable clothes, the only thing he wanted to do was fall asleep on the nearest soft surface for at least twelve hours.
Legs followed the few steps to the side of the bed, hesitating as Juniper slipped in, wriggling a little until his back was against the wall and holding his arms open with inpatient grabby hands.
"I can-I can just sleep on the floor! There's no need to give up your bed its not problem at all I'm sure the floor is just as comfortable or you know what I'll-" Juniper rolled his eyes almost violently as the words coming out of the younger hybrid slowly got more and more rushed and embarrassed, instead settling for reaching out and grabbing one skinny arm, pulling him gently but firmly into the bed and situating him against Juniper's side.
It was like cuddling a shaky two by four and eventually Juniper rolled his eyes again. "Relax," he commanded, voice firm but not unkind. "Just lay down and rest. This doesn't have to mean anything besides what it is: two people are allowed to share a bed without it being the end of the world Legs." He grumbled, hooking his chin over Legs' head and settling into the downy fluff of his hair. Clean and for once not smelling of chemicals and hard work, just white amber and vanilla and something metallic and soft laid under it all. Legs relaxed in inches against his side, mulling over the words and apparently finding them to be a reasonable response, until he was lax against Juniper's side, breath huffing quietly into his chest and shoulder.
Not asleep yet, then. Juniper wracked his brain for a moment, trying to come up with something, anything, that would help the younger. He'd come because the metal in his bed was singing to him, so maybe the Song was still in his head? Something to drown it out then would probably help. He hummed thoughtfully for a moment, remembering all the little tunes his mum had sung to him when he was younger, all the little songs he'd picked up in the archives, the little ditties people sang as they worked in the caves.
He finally settled on an old funeral song, something usually sung by someone close to the deceased, something that equated leaves and plants with the cycle of loss and love. It was a gentle, light-noted thing, happy sounding enough not to be immediately morbid, but soothing in its easy repetition. Juniper didn't bother with the words, instead settling on just humming the whole thing over and over, waiting until huffing breaths turned into sleepy snuffles, the last of the tension draining out Legs in one last go.
Juniper didn't bother trying to stay up long after that. His mind was awhirl with many thoughts, but most he decided could wait until the proper daylight hours to be addressed. Instead he took another deep breath of vanilla-iron, listened to the sound of the five other beings sharing his space in their sleepy gentleness, and dropped off to dreams of his own.
In the morning, Megii would open the door, searching for their friend. They would see the tangle of limbs, see the sleepy contentment on their faces, and back out slowly, leaving them to their rest.
~~~~~
"Stop chewing on your pen, you'll break your teeth. Where's the chew I gave you?" Legs rolled his eyes, fishing the bone chew out of his pocket and shoving it in the side of his mouth.
"You didn't hear me complaining when you were carving holes into my floors last night with your toenails did you?" He chirped back, smug at the stunned gape he got from the other rider.
"I did not!"
"You did! Your toenails are so sharp I thought Pinecone had done it at first!"
"You take that back!"
He stuck his tongue out, bracing for the book that went wheeling at his head and ducking out of the way just in time to watch it fly by, pinging off the ground where Megii was sitting with their studies. They barked out a shocked noise, wings spreading wide and fluttering with surprise for a moment before they stilled, rolling their eyes at the nonsense of the other two. Legs often wondered how other people viewed it when he and Juniper got like this, and most of the time the answer he came to was "fond exasperation". Which was fine by him, since that's usually what he felt for Juniper himself anyway.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. As much as teasing and prodding as she did, Juniper probably treated him the most like a normal person of anyone he knew. Not that the others treated him badly or strangely! Just that he and Juniper had reached a point where it was easy, almost preferable some days, to deal with the other rather than the school at large.
He returned fire with an empty notebook, smirking when he scored a broadside hit against Juniper's hip, sending her squawking to cover the area, leaning over and wailing as if he'd mortally wounded her. Megii was laughing loudly now, watching as Juniper quickly abandoned her acting to instead properly lunge after him, causing him to scramble out of his chair and go skittering away, his boots tok-tok-toking along the ground as he tried to keep out ahead of her. She had the longer stride, but he was fast, and he just managed to keep clear of her reach until the librarian, bushy white mustache and white beetle-brows scrunched up with annoyance, stepped in front of them. Legs had to throw himself to the side to avoid running into the older man and Juniper did the same until they were both in a tangle of limbs on the ground.
"No rough-housing in the library! We have places for that and they're certainly not in here!" The old man snapped, and their play was temporarily stopped as both scrabbled to their feet, boots scuffing the ground as they apologized in tandem. They didn't want to get banished from the library! They already had to sneak around so many places in the castle, adding the library of all places to that list was just too much.
The librarian huffed at them and stomped off back into the stacks, leaving them alone. There was a quiet moment before a hand landed on his shoulder and he looked up to see Juniper grinning at him, something mischievous and playful in her eyes. "He's right, and this is one lesson I've been putting off for a while. C'mon, I wanna show you something I think you'll like." He trotted after her with little prompting, curiosity piqued, as she led the way back to their original table. Megii had already packed up the books and set them away, leaving them to simply gather their own belongings, dragons and daemons before departing.
Out in the hall Juniper led them not to any of their dorm rooms but rather down a few winding halls that he couldn't exactly recognize. That wasn't to say he hadn't explored them before, simply that there were so many places to look at and discover it was simply too easy to forget. She led the way into the wide entrance of what he thought might have once been one of the martial training classrooms. It had the same sunken pit that took up most of the floor surrounded by a landing that the sparring classroom in the main part of the castle had, but this pit was padded and lined with thick blue cushions and mats.
They dropped their bags on the landing and Megii made themselves comfortable on the railing surrounding the pit, content to perch with her daemon and watch, a knowing look on her face. Ori and Deke descended into the pit, bodies dropping low as they circled each other, tails high and wagging before they met in a thunderous clash of muscle and teeth, growls filling the air. He was alarmed for a brief moment before he realized there wasn't any fear or anger coming from his bond with his daemon, rather amusement and adrenaline. Play fighting then. He'd seen her do it a couple times with Sunfax and Deke, even occasionally Sotti, but now Juniper was down in the pit, waiting for him patiently.
She'd taken off her boots any extra bits, leaving her in just her dress and sturdy trousers and socks. He did the same, pulling off belts and bandoleers, his metal armor traces and goggles, boots going on the pile last, before stepping onto the mats. He barely made it so both feet were on the ground before he was being tackled, the breath driven out of him as he was taken to the mats. Juniper was growling and giggling, the strange mix of sounds tickling something in his chest as she lightly boxed his ears. He managed to get his hands up and return the favor, and he wasn't sure how long they spent rolling across the mats. Twice she accidentally nicked him with a claw, spilling little beads of blood, and once he bit the end of her tail just a little too hard, earning a shriek and a, relatively, gentle knee to the side of his head.
At one point more bodies joined them, scents and sounds filling the air as the play continued. It was easy to get lost in the fun of it, to forget his anxieties and insecurities for a brief while, when he was surrounded by so many other people just having the same kind of low stakes fun he was. Scott's massive hand hooked around his hips and sent him flying, rolling out of the group of wrestling hybrids, and he took a moment to lay on the mat and catch his breath, looking around him. Scott and Drift were facing off against Juniper on the mats while Pyro, Shelby and Megii watched from the sidelines, and he quickly threw himself back into the fray, not wanting to leave Juniper to face the duo on her own.
With a cackling howl he launched back into the fight, clinging to Scott's back with all four limbs while he chewed on the polar bear hybrid's ears until the larger man rolled over in submission, tapping out of the fight with a quiet laugh. Legs couldn't even begin to care that the other man had clearly taken it easy on him, instead basking in his victory as he sat against Scott's side, watching Juniper and Drift eventually come to a draw.
Pink-cheeked with exhilaration and laughing the group laid on the mats, taking a moment to cool down. The three bird hybrids came down from their perches and joined the pile, fitting their bodies seamlessly in the gaps. Legs huffed quietly, surrounded on all sides by new scents, a strange but addicting sense of ease flooding him. Was this what it was supposed to be like, living with other daemon-hybrids? He'd always chalked it up to Olsted's age and Legs' own status in the village(wrong, strange, broken) that he had never had many relationships outside the occasional kind villagers as he was growing up, or the few kids who ignored their parents to play with him.
Here no one seemed to care about anything other than the fact that he was another rider, here to raise a dragon and fight the corruption. Here someone cared enough about him to teach him what lessons he was missing, purely for the sheer fact they didn't think he should be limited in his life and that he should be able to meet his own needs. Sure, from Juniper's own admission they'd only started this because they felt it was a duty, but there was no duty in teaching him to play wrestle or slip bone chews in his bag or make sure they remembered to trade clothes for their nests every few days, even when they were so busy with their own things they didn't see each other otherwise.
There was definitely no duty in the stolen pajamas he'd never given back, the ones he still wore to bed some nights when he missed Juniper's presence, nor the little charms he'd seen Juniper weave into her outfits, the ones he'd made by hand on nights when the Song was just a little too loud to let him sleep. No, they had long passed the realm of duty, and were into something deeper, more important. Legundo didn't have a name for it, but he didn't feel the pressure to name it. It didn't fit in any box he'd ever read or heard about, and Juniper didn't seem bothered by it either, so why should he? Besides, they had enough problems to worry about, why add a solved one to that list?
Eventually the groups broke apart, Juniper and Legs and Megii returning to the main hall for first a snack and then a walk, the sun warming their skin and driving away any soreness that was left from the play fight. They stopped in the tavern for drinks, and Legs made an absolute fool of himself trying whiskey for the first time, much to the delight of both Juniper and Megii, but as their laughs filled the air he couldn't help but join in, something warm and joyful lodging under his heart.
Solved problem indeed.
~~~~~
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Ela?" Juniper watched as Elaina lit the joint, taking in a breath and holding it briefly before releasing a cloud of sweet smelling smoke. Her long, banded tail draped over the chair she was sitting on, her claws and dark toned hands deft with expertise as she passed the joint to Shelby before turning back.
"It'll be fine! He's gonna love it, promise." Her grin was dazzling, the sharp green-yellow of her eyes practically sparkling. Juniper wasn't sure why they'd thought this was a good idea. It wasn't that they didn't trust Elaina, because they very much did! And for some reason she and Legs got on like a house on fire, which was an added bonus.
But Legs had never done sprout before, and there was no telling how he was going to react. But, at this point, Juniper was willing to start trying some more…interesting tactics with him. The Song had been increasing in frequency for a couple weeks now, though thankfully not intensity and volume, leaving Legs struggling to deal with it unless he was willing to hum to it. The humming seemed to work both as a self-soothing technique and as a way to channel some of the Song, but humming was not always an option. They were working on ways to help him increase his control so it wasn't such a bother to him, but for now they were looking for ways to help until then.
Enter Ela and her three sprout smoking girlfriends. Ela had offered Legs sprout before, but he'd declined the first time. On a more recent offer he'd accepted, with the caveat someone could come with him, and that he wouldn't partake to the same level as the others. He'd simply not had the time before now to do, and now he had both the time and the excuse, and Juniper was always down for a blunt with several pretty women, so they'd picked a night, gathered snacks, and headed over to Ela and Drift's shared room, where the others were already waiting.
The floor had been converted into a massive nest with plenty of room for everyone, and everyone had changed into comfortable clothes before hopping in, snacks and drinks in hand. The first blunt had made the rounds without stopping at Legs, who'd only just now seem to settle into something like calm, and Juniper had forgone their usual amount to take only about half the hits they generally might, keeping an eye on their friend. He didn't seem stressed or alarmed so much as simply nervous, as any first timer might be.
"C'mere puppy boy! I'll help ya." Legs grumbled a little at the nickname (though Juniper saw the traitorous wag of his tail briefly before it stilled) as he climbed to his knees and shuffled over. He was wearing a loose blue sleep shirt and sleep pants, a nice match to Juniper's own pale green, and he eventually came to rest in front of Elaina, who'd risen to her knees to meet him. She took the blunt from Drift on her other side and held it, blue-gray smoke curling gently in the air.
"Breathe deep but not too deep, alright?" Legs gave her a hesitant nod, blinking with confusion when, instead of being handed the blunt, Ela simply took another hit, grabbed Legs' chin gently with one clawed hand and then grinned briefly, smoke curling between her fangs, before she exhaled, gently blowing the smoke in the other's face. Legs' first breath was a surprised gasp, which led to the expected coughing, but the second one was a little smoother, the smoke wisping gently around his face. He blinked at the mongoose hybrid, ears already drooping with calm, a giddy little smile flitting across his face.
"There he is." Shelby cooed, softly patting his head and earning another giggle and before too long Juniper found their arms full of giggly dire wolf hybrid. Ela only let him take two more, indirect, hits from the blunt for calling it enough. Drift teased him for being such a light weight, laughing when the finger she'd poked in his face got a gentle nip for her efforts. With the worst window out of the way Juniper allowed themselves a few more go's of their own, their own mellow high creeping over them.
The hours melted away, snacks and drinks and gossip passing between the gathered. At one point the giggling at their side turned to gentle snoring and then there was a solid fifteen minutes that everyone spent coo'ing over the sleeping hybrid, which woke him up and brought on the blushing and stammering. He did seem lighter and happier though, and that made it supremely easy for Shelby and Ela to convince him to let them ornament him.
Juniper laughed: they'd gone over allogrooming and ornamentation with Legs a couple weeks ago, but he'd never seemed quite ready to take that step just yet. Not because he didn't trust them, he assured, but simply because he didn't know how to return the favor. He'd never learned to braid or decorate hair, so they would need time to teach him if it was going to be a proper session between them. They'd simply not had the time before now. However, that didn't stop the ladies in the circle, all of them playfully wheedling and promising lessons and eventually he cracked.
A great cheer went up and Drift and Shelby darted away to fetch various odds and ends they had for just such a purpose. Legs found himself wrestled into the middle of the nest, sitting on a small stack of pillows so Elaina could sit in front of him, Shelby patiently coaching him through the steps of braiding the mushroom mage's hair. First brushing, then separating and then the braiding itself, stopping along the way to teach him patterns and how to work decorations, like little pressed flowers and beads and even a few of Shelby's feathers, into the braids.
As that lesson was going on, Juniper helped Drift brush out Legs' hair and fur, fingers running gently over the patches of blue splotched into the inky black fur. They tied little gems and metal bits(Juniper nixed any bits that might remotely be iron before they were allowed to be worked in) into his hair and beads into his tail. Not enough that they would be uncomfortable but enough to be noticeable, to catch the eye of anyone willing to look.
Ela and Legs done they all changed places, Legs going on to do Drift's hair while Shelby and Ela worked on Juniper, pressing little feathers and spore sprouts and mushrooms into her hair, a few metal bits picked by Legs making their way in soon. After that they all helped to do Shelby's hair, until all of them were suitably ornamented.
The night wound down from there, the five of them settling in one big heap. Legs didn't even get a chance to try and separate from the ladies, Ela laying over top of him like it was the only place that she'd rather be, Drift playfully complaining the whole time that he'd taken her favorite space heater way from her even as she tucked into his side. The poor boy seemed dizzy with the trust they were putting in him, in their willingness to be close to him, and Juniper couldn't help the soft smile at the stunned look and the hesitant tail wags as they settled on his other side, their back to him so they could wrap Shelby in their arms.
Sleep was easy coming, and in the morning it was a long time going, letting the quintet wake up in their own time and contentment. They had a lazy breakfast from the kitchenette, passing pancakes and sausages around before everyone split apart, promises to have a repeat of the previous night before too long on the air. Juniper walked with Legs as far as the main hall, their own tail swishing at the pep and energy they could see in the younger man, in the lack of humming or the haunted look being gone from his eyes.
They parted ways with a quick side hug, Legs already darting off to where Sausage, Zam and Graecie were waiting for him at the end of the hall, their reunion loud and warm. Juniper watched them until they were out of sight, the warmth of a job well done buzzing under their skin, before they too left to go about their day. Maybe today would be the day they would get Pinecone to hover like the other dragonlings?
Eh, not likely.
~~~~~
"Have you seen Legs, Juniper?" Juniper looked up from where she was preparing dinner in the kitchen, turning around to see a worried looking Graecie stood in the entryway. Fleece was leaning over her shoulder, little nose wrinkling as she sniffed the air, apparently looking for their lost friend. Juniper hummed a moment before shaking her head.
"Not since about five days ago. He said he was going to be with you guys, and we would meet up later in the week." That had been just over the weekend: they'd met at his dorm to exchange clothes again, Legs already deep in some conversation or another about ritual craft with Scott. He'd handed her a few shirts and a shop cloth, actually initiated the hug for once and then was almost instantly swept back into his conversation, much to her amusement. He really did have such a hard time stopping when he got going, but at least Scott had looked like he was having fun.
Graecie bit her lip and Juniper set aside her knife, wiping off her hands before turning to cross the space between her and the younger girl. "Hey, what's wrong? He can't have gone too far." That was true at least. For all that Legs seemed more and more comfortable with people around the academy, he tended to only venture out when he was with certain students.
"Sausage and Zam haven't seen him since this morning, and I haven't seen him since we came back from town last night. His bed didn't look slept in either, and I didn't see any sign of Ori or Gadget anywhere." The Argali hybrid was fretting and Juniper took a moment to set her hands on white-clad shoulders, holding her steady.
"Where did you check for him already?"
"His room, all the libraries, the kitchen, outside the castle, in town. Just about everywhere he normally goes." She reported, locking eyes with Juniper and nodding for each location she listed off, little bells in her horns jingling with each motion.
"My room? Ela's room? Scott's room?" Juniper asked, listing any of the other spots that might have drawn the dire wolf hybrid as a spot to hole up in. Graecie's face creased in a confused frown briefly, head tilting as she seemed to ponder.
"Why would he be there?" Juniper snorted quietly to herself, wondering for a brief moment just how oblivious the rest of Legs' quartet was before stifling the thought. There was no need to be unkind, even if Graecie would never know she'd done it. It was too easy to let one mean thought lead to another, if she wasn't careful.
"He spends a lot of nights at my place, and he's getting really close with Ela and Scott lately. I don't think he's in my place but he might've gone to theirs to talk about something or to hang out." Something strange crossed not Graecie's face but rather her daemon's, Reinier's muzzle crinkling in disdain and jealousy for a moment before he quickly smothered it, looking a little ashamed of himself.
Odd.
It's not like Legs spent no time with Graecie, Sausage and Zam. For all that Juniper and Legs spent a lot of time together, she also knew most of his time was devoted to those three, without question, though his nights were slowly expanding to include others. Hell, he'd been to the last three girls' nights in a row!
"No, no we hadn't realized…" Graecie trailed off, a thoughtful little frown sitting upon her features for a moment before it smoothed away, replaced by determination. "I'll go look in Elaina's and Scott's rooms. Can you let us know if you see him? He's looked…really tired and kinda sick the last few days. We were gonna try and make him go see Violet, but we lost track of him after mentioning it." Juniper rolled her eyes. Of course he'd fled the second he thought they'd make him go get checked out. If there was one thing Legs was allergic to above all else, it was taking care of himself.
"Of course, Graecie. I'll go check right now, in fact." Graecie beamed at her before skipping away, bells jingling as she went and turned towards the Vulpes dorm. Juniper cleaned up her mess in the kitchen and then scooped up the food she'd made for her, Pinecone and Deke, sliding it into the bag of endless food she'd enchanted before wandering her way to her room. Night had long fallen on the castle and the torches on the wall cast the halls in long shadows, the quiet buzz of people and mana dulled to almost nothingness as students and dragons and daemons retired for the night.
"Ah, of course." She hadn't even gotten her hand on the handle of her dorm room before she smelled the familiar scent of vanilla-iron, though the fur of her tail bristled when she realized she could pick up traces of blood and tears mixed with it. There were no sounds of a struggle going on behind the door but that didn't mean there was no danger, and beside her she could feel the thrum of Deke's rage already picking up their bond and twisting it, his fur bristled and teeth bared on a snarl.
She reached for her sword, let Deke press in close once it was in hand, and then slammed the door open, letting the wall of muscle that was her daemon barrel in before her, growling all the while as she rushed in behind him.
Nothing knocked over, nothing broken. A pair of boots, familiar, near the door, with dots of blood leading up the stairs into the bedroom area. Sniffling, hitched breathing, but no screaming or noises that indicated some mortal wound. Deke was relaxing his stance by inches, pacing out just in front of her to lead the way, and she kept her sword in hand at her side as she followed him up.
The bedroom area was still, but she could see a lump of blankets in her nest, the source of the sniffling. Ori's back legs were just visible from the blankets and Gadget was nowhere to be seen, but she could hear the quiet coo'ing of the hatchling from the lump. Right, not the best situation, but this definitely looked like it could be worse, so she was going to take what she could get.
"Legs?" The bundle jumped, the blankets coming down to reveal a tear stained face, eyes and mouth squinted into something that was well beyond pain and bordered on agony. The tip of one of his wolf ears was bleeding, and from her spot outside the nest she could just make out a neat set of teeth marks in the side of one hand. Ori didn't look much better, her ears flat and eyes dull. Gadget seemed to be holding up the best of the trio, and even he was beginning to look rough with his scales a flatter color than she was used to seeing, his little ears drooping just that little bit.
Besides the injuries and the tears, Legs looked like he hadn't slept in a week at the least. His face was pale and drawn, his cheeks a little sunken like his appetite had fled him days ago. His lips were dry and cracked and his fur was dull, his hair limp.
Ah, ok, not in danger, but certainly not in a good place either. She sheathed her sword and stepped forward, dropping into a crouch on the outside of the nest. She waited a moment, seeming to mull over her options, before simply holding her arms open in an invitation, one that was taken quickly, almost desperately.
A damp face pressed into her dress and she took a moment to situate him more comfortably: he was still all bone and gangly, poking limbs despite her best effort to feed him more and that made holding him like this a daunting prospect, but one she was able to manage eventually. She wrapped one strong arm around his back and squeezed, remembering how the pressure always seemed to help with the anxiety somewhat, and used her other hand to cradle the back of his head. The angle gave her a great view of the ear, finding just the edge of it torn, likely from worrying at it. A quick bandaging should take care of it.
She waited until he'd practically burrowed into her, ear resting against her heart, before she picked up his injured hand, turning it over in skilled fingers, clicking their tongue in sympathy. The bite wasn't too deep, but it was already red and irritated looking, which meant that it would need a proper cleaning out before she could wrap it up. It was a good thing she had old man's beard bandages lying around, because she didn't think he would tolerate separating long enough for a proper going over, especially judging by the way he was trying to burrow into her skin basically.
"How long?" He only got like this when the Song was bad, but never before had he been this wrecked by it, which could only mean something had either happened or, more likely considering everyone else seemed fine, he'd been putting off asking for help for a few days. There was a quiet moment where she almost wondered if she was going to get an answer before five fingers were pressed into her forearm, then three more, and she couldn't help the stunned curse that slipped from behind her teeth. Eight days?!
"Why didn't you say anything?!" She lamented, trying to pull him closer. There was no answer forthcoming, only more miserable sniffling, and she sighed. There would be time to get answers and lecture him later: for now she needed to get him situated more comfortably for the night, get him settled so maybe, just maybe, he could rest. The other bits like eating and grooming could come in the morning.
"At least you showered before climbing in here." Her attempt at humor fell flat, none of the others responding, and she heaved a sigh. Yea, alright, worse than she thought. She cast about for a plan, slowly pulling the pieces together in her mind. She'd been hoping for a better time to do this, but honestly given everything that happened in this school, this was probably the best she was going to get for an opportunity for the foreseeable future.
"Come on, let's get your belts and stuff at least. No sense in stabbing any of us in our sleep." It was an awkward climb to her feet with her hands occupied, but she was sure glad that he continued to weigh practically nothing. She exchanged a few long glances with her daemon, their bond humming with their unspoken plan before Deke nodded, dragging a few extra blankets into the nest while Juniper took Legs down the stairs and sat him on the counter. He whined when she pulled away but all she did was gently hush him, staying within arms reach as she rummaged the chests and barrels before coming up with two sets of bandages.
The first, plain white set she carefully trimmed down with her claws and wrapped them around the bleeding tip of his ear, mindful not to make it too tight and risk further injury to the appendage. She ran a cool, damp cloth over the hand wound next, patting it dry before grabbing the second set of bandages. These were green-hued and smelled of woodsy lichen and she pressed them to his hand, making sure the herb paste was pressed in deep before wrapping it tightly. Perfect. She set aside the remains to put away come morning and let him cling to her again, laughing when gangly limbs wrapped around her shoulders and hips.
"I think there's been a mistake, professor. I swear I left my dire wolf on the counter, but I seem to have picked up a spider monkey instead!" This time the joke got a tired little giggle out of Legs and she breathed a sigh of relief quietly into the top of his head. Good, he wasn't completely gone into his own head then. Back up the stairs they went, pausing only long enough to get Legs' belts and bandoleer off, letting them fall to the ground for later.
Then, she walked to the edge of the nest, took a deep steadying breath, and then stepped in, walking not over to where Ori and Gadget were waiting but instead to where Deke had curled into a crescent shape, blue eyes patient and waiting. Another deep breath, steeling her resolve, and she leaned down, trying to let him settle into stormy gray fur. Legs seemed to realize pretty quickly that it was not his own daemon she was trying to put him with and clung tighter, a distressed little warble leaving him and she pulled him back up, holding him close.
"Hey, you're fine. You're not doing anything wrong, promise. I want you to sit with him. I wouldn't have tried if I didn't." She soothed, bits of her own panic starting to creep in. Her idea had been to rest him against Deke and then curl up on his other side, surround him with their bodies and try and muffle the sound. Part of her twisted at the thought that he was rejecting her, after everything. Countless nights of beds shared, clothing changing hands(she knew he had one of her more rugged dresses and was just trying to get the confidence to wear it, just like she'd taken two of his bandoleers to work into her own outfits and yet couldn't figure out how), meals traded and tails braided. All of that and was going to reject this very last part of her, her very soul laid out for him?
He shook his head against her chest, her distress causing his own to rise, and then pulled his head back, searching her gaze for whether she was being truthful with him or not. She tried to put everything into the look, every bit of earnest desire and every feeling that was far too big to name, how he fit in her life so perfectly even when he really shouldn't have. Looking back at her was awe, was trust, was the face of a man who did not believe he deserved any of what she'd given him and yet was going to cling to it like a drowning man clung to a raft. He nodded, slow and hesitant, and Juniper leaned down again. This time he let go, limbs sinking into the soft bedding of the nest even as Deke curled against him, tucking his head into a gray fur, holding him there.
Juniper motioned to Pinecone next who happily waddled his way over and climbed on top of the younger rider, turning circles a few times until he was comfortable enough to lay down on Legs. Juniper didn't even try to hide the bright laugh that punched out of her as Legs huffed out a quiet "oof", instead stepping out just long enough to duck behind the changing screen to throw on a nightgown and shorts before she too climbed into the nest, settling in close. She wriggled a little until he was trapped, one ear each pressed against her and Deke's chest, the sound of their combined heartbeat drowning out everything if his almost instant relaxation was anything to go by.
As he was getting comfortable she felt little feet on her side, smiling gently when a coppery body slithered up her side and tucked itself into her neck, curling there gently. There was a quiet moment and then soft fur against her back, a great chestnut head coming to rest over her own while a tail draped over her hips. With the circuit of daemons and humans complete the connection between her and Legs was almost instant, a scintillating delicate thing, gossamer and chiming. It twined lazily around their bonds with their dragons and daemons, something extra, something other.
Something perfect.
~~~~~~~~
Six Weeks Later
Ori watched contentedly from the side of the pit, Deke pressed to one side of her, Sunfax on the other, Sotti guarding their backs. Pal and Solmaria were perched on the railings just in front of them, trading barbs as the pit itself continued to heave and roil with noise and laughter. It was a nice, quiet day for once. No sign of rebels nor spies nor the corruption for once. Pyro and Maddy had been rescued, all the students were awake from the infirmary, those that had left on training trips were returned to them. Just a quiet rainy day where the students actually had time to relax and bond with one another.
However, just like pups, leave too many bored humans in a place for too long and the roughhousing eventually starts, and now there was a no holds barred fight going on in the pit, nearly fifteen people strong. There, on the edges, wrestling with Ela, was her human, nipping at the end of her long banded tail while she drove claws into all his sensitive bits to try and make him let go. Their bond was lit up with joy, a kind of unrestrained happiness she could not remember ever feeling from him before in their entire lives.
How truly marvelous. This school was not perfect, not by a long shot, but it had given her other half enough to make him happy, truly and properly happy, and that's all that mattered to her. Everything else they could face when the time came.
"You're mooning again, Ori." Ori snorted and kicked a leg back, pleased when Sotti grunted with the impact.
"I'm allowed to be happy for my human, Sotti. Look at how happy he is!" Sunfax gave an amused rumble from her side.
"I didn't think he had it in him, honestly. It's nice to see." She nodded, mane ruffling as she brought a leg up to scratch behind her ear. "Are he and Juniper going to make it official?"
Ori cast a glance at the other dire wolf, both their gazes going through an array of emotions before settling on amusement.
"Neither of them think it's necessary. They're not mates, they're not siblings, they're not Pack. They don't want to label what they have, just enjoy it." There was a murmur of agreement from many of the other daemons: coming to the academy, having their humans in constant danger surrounded by other daemons and hybrids, had well and truly pushed the definitions of relationships between people for both humans and daemons. Some of them, like Deke and herself, had an easier time of coming to grips with those definitions, or lack thereof in some cases, than others.
"Probably a good thing, considering…" Sotti's smug voice had many of them looking to the pit again where much of the rough housing had stopped, most of them now sitting in small knots and just chatting or relaxing, the dragonlings storming the mats now that it was safe. Ori followed Sotti's gaze, ears perking up when she found her human perched in Scott's lap, one massive arm wrapped around his waist and a sharp chin resting between his ears while he talked animatedly with Juniper and Ambear. Both girls' faces were masks of barely restrained glee, taking in the same thing Sotti was pointing out, and Ori knew Legs was in for a no end of teasing from them before the day was over. And probably for many more days to come, if she was being completely honest. At least he looked happy, exuberant as he moved his hands in wild arcs, too preoccupied to notice what had his friends grinning.
"Those two? Really?! I would have thought-" A musical laugh cut Pax off, the Akita turning his head up as Solmaria came to rest on his back, the phoenix making herself comfortable in no great hurry before she spoke.
"Pyro and Scott? No no no no! They'd kill each other before the first day was out. But, well, that is my chick's childhood best friend." They followed her gaze to where Pyro was glaring at the side of Legs' head while trying to look like he wasn't doing exactly that. Maddy laughed raucously at his side, gripping her ribs she was laughing so hard. "He's still learning to share. He'll get there. Maybe."
"Oh Solmaria you have no idea how long it's going to take. Look at mine!" Sunfax giggled as she pointed with a broad paw to where Sausage was sitting comfortably between Graecie and Zam, braids being worked into his mane-like hair as he gazed longingly at where Legs was sat. Another round of chuckles and laughs went through the gathered daemons before, shortly, bets were being placed. Chunks of fresh kill, dragonsitting duties, herding the library hoarders to their beds - all kinds of gifts and duties passed around as they argued over who would make the first move, if any would be made at all, and when it would happen.
Ori let it pass her by, watching as Elaina bounded forward, knocking Juniper and Ambear into Legs and Scott, the whole bundle of them going rolling with bright laughs and playful swats.
Sometimes, Ori wished she could cry like a human, if only for the sheer relief she would feel shedding the tears of joy that pricked at her eyes, the absolutely ruinous amount of love and happiness she felt bursting in her chest given some outlet as she watched Legundo open his arms willingly, eagerly, to accept Elaina's embrace, nuzzling into her should like he was always meant to be there. No more was he the scared little boy who jumped away from people in the marketplace, who skittered around the workshop not daring to get too close to his own Master, who wouldn't play certain games with the kids who wanted to play with him. Here he was happy, cared for.
Loved.
A gentle tap to her muzzle brought her teary eyes to her companion, the other dire wolf's eyes gentle with understanding as he leaned in to nuzzle against her cheek. Their bond sang quietly with their closeness, with the joy and contentment of their humans. They spoke no words, none of the other daemons interrupted them.
Ori leaned into Deke's side, the gentle sound of rain on the castle the perfect backdrop to love and laughter and stolen moments of joy. Juniper had been right, all those weeks ago, that fateful night.
Perfect, indeed.