Well. Here Cyll was.
The last thing he expected from lying face-down in the dirt was to get hoisted up in the air by some kind of giant mushroom creature. He'd tried to muster up the strength to kick himself away, but his muscles stung each time he tried to move them. He had noticed two people looking up at him as he was being hoisted over its shoulder, carried away further into the forest.
Ain't it a damn coincidence that it turned out to be the little doctor he'd heard so much about?
He was sitting there now, slumped against the edge of a bed, staring out blankly in front of him. Truth be told, he thought she'd been a myth. Just like Apep and the Hydra before her, Cyll only heard of the girl through second-hand rumors. The day had been completely surreal for the boy and he wondered what
other rumors were going to ambush him. Well, at least he did up until the little doctor came back.
"I told you, I'm fine!"Cyll had been protesting against all of Amanita's efforts for a while now, being the stubborn brat he was. Even though it felt like a knife slicing through his body each time he moved a muscle and his ankle was most definitely sprained badly enough to cripple him for two weeks, Cyll insisted he'd be able to handle it. Of course the good doctor seemed to be just as headstrong as him. She handed him some kind of brew, boiled mushrooms mixed with water, and told him to drink up. Cyll could already smell the horrible taste, but it didn't seem to bother him much. He didn't give himself any time to second-guess and downed it in one go, not even bothering to let his tastebuds register the liquid as it shot down his gullet. Once he was done, Cyll slammed down the cup next to him on the bed.
Then it all hit him at once.
"Oooh that's vile...!"Cyll groaned as he felt his stomach twist and turn again from the taste of molten rubber mixed with fresh leather. He coughed a few times, partially for drinking it faster than any erune should've been able to, but also because it was just
that disgusting.
Cyll weakly thanked Amanita as he handed the cup back to her, but twitched his ears when he heard a faint noise in the distance. The erune's face shot in the direction of that sound.
"Uh... I think something might've... happened to that other guy. I-I'll go and check it ou-ngh!"Cyll tried to get up, but felt his ankle complain the moment he tried to move a muscle. Amanita scolded him and left to check it out herself, leaving Cyll as he leaned back again. He let out an exhausted sigh and glanced to the side. Cyll noticed the Draph female was staring back at him with curiosity in her eyes. Her name was Mushi, right?
"Are you wearing eyeliner or is that a natural marking?" she asked.
"Wha...?"Cyll was taken aback by the sudden question, equal parts flustered and confused. Instinctively he touched the markings under his eyes, pausing for a brief bit.
"...Oh. You mean these, right?"The erune traced the markings with his finger for a bit, noticing that his arms ached a lot less than compared to before. Did that medicine kick in
already?!"Neither, I guess. They're from back home..."The erune paused and threw his hands behind his head, wincing a bit as he accidentally shifted his ankle while doing so, before continuing.
"It's kind of like a ritual. Proves I'm an adult, or something. You're asked to hunt something, and if you can do it, you get your markings. It helps distinguish those who hunt from those who don't."He turned his head back to Mushi, a wry smile on his face.
"Oh, neat!" Mushi tilted her head a little as she nodded.
"I guess my culture doesn't really have anything similar. If I didn't have my sword, nothing would visually denote me as a warrior." She brought her hand up to her chin to think for a moment.
"Is it important on your island to know who can hunt? Like, are there monsters or something?" Mushi asked.
"Important? Well… yeah, I guess. It’s pretty cold where I’m from, and food’s scarce. We don’t really have anything we can gather, either… we need to rely on capturing animals to either sell them or make stuff for ourselves. So, hunters are kinda like the lifeblood of where I’m from."Cyll’s face turned to a frown as he spoke, pulling his right hand from behind his head and staring at his open palm.
"I’m not sure I agree with our methods, though. I think I’m proud of my markings, but..."Mushi frowned a bit, whether sympathetically with Cyll’s, or that she didn’t like what she was hearing, no one knew. Not even herself.
~He thinks he's proud of them? But wasn't sure? That was odd, it sounded for a bit like it was a badge of merit. Maybe there was a lot of responsibility or something else? I shouldn't automatically presume too much. It sounds like a hard place some hard ways of living.~ She tried to put her smile back on her face.
~It wouldn't be becoming to judge so soon. I have to be all enlightened and stuff! See with unclouded eyes and all that.~”Um, sounds like a rough place. My place was kinda rough, but it-it was the boisterous, play fighting kinda rough, not the actual hard to live rough, you know. We had a kind enough island that lots of us could focus on the pursuit of being warriors, just for the sake of seeking excellence. It’s pretty warm and bright too.” Mushi stumbled a little as she tried to steer the conversation towards nicer topics, but she started to smile genuinely and pick up a little steam as she got onto familiar waters.
”Err! Not to brag and all that about how my island’s better or anything! I’m sure your island is cool too! Like, did it have snow? I’ve heard snow is fun!” Mushi then quickly backtracked again, thinking she might be misunderstood talking about how nice and warm her island was. The erune she was talking to looked up at her, one eyebrow raised as he struggled to keep a straight face. Her enthusiasm rubbed off on him.
"You kiddin’? It’s got loads of snow. Not in the city ‘course. That’d be a problem, but you can’t go five steps outside the border before you’re neck-deep. Used to sneak out with m’mates all the time just to fuck around n’d stuff each other’s clothes full of the stuff.”The erune snickered and tossed his legs over the side of the bed so he could talk to Mushi a little easier. He still winced from moving his ankle, but the medicine he took was dulling the pain a little better now.
"Honestly, though? It’s real pretty. Few flowers we got have these really hard, blue leaves that melt and drink the snow that drops on ‘em. Shine a light on them and they glow in the night, how cool is that?””Woah? The snow got neck high? But like… Water never gets that high, and snow is frozen water, right?” Mushi blinked in amazement, before raising a hand to her horn tips and measuring across over to Cyll. They were both sitting, so it was an impressively inaccurate measurement, but she made it nonetheless.While Cyll might have had stunted growth, Mushi hadn’t finished growing, and was a Draph on the small side for Draphs to boot. Even measuring by her horns, which added a fair chunk thanks to their orientation, she didn’t quite measure up to him, and definitely not reaching to his eartips.
”Gosh, I’d have to swim in it or drown, wouldn’t I?” Mushi worried with a furrowed brow as she retracted her hand back to her horns and measured again, as though it would change anything. But, eventually she shrugged,
”At least it’s pretty though! I’d love to see a flower like that someday.”Cyll was taken aback by Mushi. He hadn’t noticed it before, but those enthusiastic movements and sparkling eyes were
cute. The erune felt like something got caught in his throat and his face started to redden from how flustered he got.
”A-ah, well, uh… I’m from Auricus, so like… if you ever find yourself there, you can see the flowers for yourself."The boy realised he’d never introduced himself. He pulled his legs back over the side of the bed and pushed himself against the edge again.
"Anyway... I'm Cyll. Guess I forgot to tell you that."”Sure thing! It’s been super great to meet you.” Mushi got the feeling that she was starting to disturb Cyll’s rest and recovery, so despite the fact that she wanted to say a few more things she decided to stop and lay back down on her bed herself. On the one hand, she was probably good to go. On the other hand… excuse to lie in a warm bed. Cyll’s reply wasn’t short after she nestled herself comfortably.
"Yeah. You’re pretty cool, too."
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