Brig was surer of it now than he’d been before. The long limbed one must have the madness. Like his raccoon cousins, foxes and other wild creatures, humans could surely get it too. Even though this one wasn’t human, he reasoned, it was the only thing the Kelvic could find to the creature’s strange behaviors. The circling and doubling back, the unpredictable tempers, the crazed look in his eyes. And now collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Maybe they’d have been better to let him go off to isolate himself, it was what wild things did when they sensed their time was coming. And others knew to keep their distance, or they’d have it too.
He was constantly aware of Haeli close behind him, her position, her scent, her wants and moods like braided threads insured to be ever constant by their shared connection. The Kelvic dragged his eyes from the sight on the ground and lifted his gaze to hers, and held himself captive in it for a moment. As much as he could feel her sentiments, she could also sense his. The Kelvic was struggling to come to terms with what he was feeling.
Every bit of him knew that if it was Haeli lying there on the ground, madness or no he’d scoop her up without a thought and do what he could. And if it was beyond fixing, he’d curl up with her anyway in hopes that his will alone was enough to keep her with him. And if it wasn’t, then he’d hope to go with her and not be left behind. He’d be compelled by something much more powerful than thinking, logic, or even animal instinct.
Was it only because he was Kelvic? Surely it was in part. But even with Brig’s limited understanding of humanoids and their ways, he wasn’t sure. Wild animals didn’t nurse their own when they fell. They accepted nature's way of things. But hadn’t he watched his mother nurse Laire back from a fever that would have taken her, and never once leave her side? Even without a bond like the one newly forged between him and Haeli, without a connection remotely as compelling or powerful, hadn't he stubbornly laid curled outside the locked door at night, until it was done?
He had no qualms about this though, not the long limbed one curled on the ground. He might be diseased, he might still have it in him to strike out unexpected, to scratch or bite. Brig wouldn’t touch him. And he wouldn’t let Haeli touch him, or stray far from her either. ”I’ll come up,” he said and turned to take her hand, but used the most of his own force to haul himself up on the wall. Then he looked down at Tao and fixed him with a solemn warning in his gaze. ”He might have the madness. If he does, he’ll die. If you get the guards and they might take him away, but you shouldn’t touch him. It's better to keep your distance. If you don’t, you could get it too,” he insisted. |
by Tao on December 5th, 2010, 3:27 am 
