The stitches in her torso had held up from the flight back.
Hair half braided, Chrissy dismounted from the flying Therians and stepped inside the ward with Nathaniel and Jay. A woman with luscious curls in her fur sat at the front desk and lifted her head in response to their approach.
"We're here to see Doctor E," stated Chrissy, "She requested us."
Neville squeaked in agreement. He was still strapped on Chrissy's chest, despite his good behavior. A quick glance at the nameplate revealed the furred woman's name to be "Opal".
"I'll let her know you've arrived, wait here for a moment."
Chrissy exhaled.
"...did you also have the tea she made?"
Nathaniel did not bother looking.
"Is now really the time, Chrissy?"
"I'm just asking!"
Chrissy sighed and turned back around. She could hear footsteps moving up and down the corridors. Another exhale from Chrissy filled the silence before Jay spoke.
"I did. But I grew up here. But I know Nathaniel had a cup."
Chrissy whipped around to squint at Nathaniel.
"So you did have the stomach tea–!"
Nathaniel sighed through his nose and rolled his eyes. The double doors opened gently as Opal returned with a limping Heward. Wearily, he gave a greeting and sat down in a nearby chair.
He walked past Opal and straightened his back as much as it would allow. Bandages on his forearm, wrist, and leg were stained with light streaks of blood. Everyone made way for Heward as he found a chair to sit in.
"I have no idea what that was. But it was not a Therian," he sighed, "Didn't smell like one, look like one–nothing."
Heward scratched a patch of fur behind his ear. The rest of the room gathered around him, observing the damage.
"I got there just in time, apparently," he continued, "The kid was bleeding pretty bad when I arrived. The other guy–shot quail–he was still fighting it. He said, 'Take Alex and get out of here'. So I grabbed the kid and ran. I thought I was fast but…"
Heward shuddered and flexed his wrist unconsciously.
"Whatever that was, it was faster. Just for a second. Caught my wrist and leg before the other guy blasted it off. Something being able to keep up with me is not something that happens often."
A dry chuckle escaped, ceasing as quickly as it had emerged. No one gave any reaction as they soaked the information in silence. The air in the room had grown stale and dense.
The door barged open, rattling everybody.
It was Fitz, carrying a feathered man. Chrissy thought he looked familiar. Just for a moment she saw his face as Fitz wasted no time, pacing past the group and into the double doors of the hallway.
"That was Hoga."
The room turned to Jay. His presence seemed to consume the air in the room. He stepped to Heward. His hands betrayed his true demeanor, as they were clenched and shaking. Plainly, he knelt down and asked a single question.
"The boy you saved. Does he have one horn?"
Heward looked around the room.
"Yes."
Jay slowly stood. Calmly, he walked to where Fitz headed off with Hoga. Opal raised a hand to stop him, but decided against it at the last second. Seating herself and watching Jay walk through.
Chrissy and Nathaniel stood dumbfounded. With Jay leaving the room, the pressure his resonance emanated dissipated.
"Do we follow him?" asked Chrissy.
Nathaniel shrugged. He took his glasses off to pace around the room. Chrissy walked in the opposite direction, waiting for an answer. As Nathaniel opened his mouth to speak, Travlack stumbled through the entrance, visibly disturbed. He took exactly three steps inside before turning around and running back out, nearly tripping over himself.
The awful sounds of liquids hitting the ground could be heard from the cracked open door. Chrissy and Nathaniel went to Travlack and observed him, retching, by a patch of dirt on his hands and knees. Another feathered Therian with wings awkwardly walked away. He briefly made eye contact with Nathaniel and Chrissy before turning away completely.
"...are you okay, Travlack?" she asked.
"What do you think, Chrissy?" chided Nathaniel.
Travlack held a hand up. He crawled away from the most recent splotch of vomit and wiped his hands on the ground. Standing, he composed himself and turned around ready to answer.
The second he opened his mouth, he turned away to retch for a final time. This was more than the previous ones before it combined. The pair opted to turn around and go back inside in order to preserve Travlack's dignity.
A minute later, Travlack stumbled in. Chrissy handed a rag she requested from Opal for him to wipe his mouth. He accepted with mumbled thanks and handed it back to her. The smell of which made her gag, immediately she shoved it back to Opal.
It was then Travlack did his round of questioning on Heward. The short, simple questions were answered in the same short and simple manner. Chrissy softly stroked Neville's head from the harness, listening for any clue as to confirm her suspicion. Everything Heward detailed before these questions had already confirmed her fears. It did nothing with every confirmation after the questions to ease them.
"Proca togi carafin, she says," muttered Chrissy to herself, "Telling me to move with caution when you and your little team of hotshots failed to stop Lanon."
"We fared no better," Nathaniel reminded her, "We also didn't do well against those raiders."
"Speaking of, did anyone find it weird that we encountered raiders at all? I know forest checkpoints aren't the safest places in the world, but you remember what they said? They were looking for evidence, not Ava. We had a hostage easily worth hundreds of weight in gold, and they wanted the files on Lanon."
Travlack flicked an ear.
"Not our business. DLF business."
"You're DLF," Chrissy and Nathaniel said in unison.
"Not DLF assigned to case. Uriel. Valyn. William. That is their business. We are escort. Focus on the task."
"I'm currently focusing on the monster that gave me a new story to tell when I get back to Strohl," Chrissy lifted her shirt and gestured to her stomach, "And why some raiders were willing to fight Marlowe for information on it."
"Why discuss now? Why not have questions earlier?"
"Because we ASSUMED the DLF would have taken care of Lanon, admittedly," sighed Nathaniel, "Like most problems, out of sight, out of mind. Was I curious then? Of course. But the DLF was there with Marlowe. The problem became not ours as soon as they arrived and handled it. With Lanon near Cavargi? It's not just our problem anymore."
Travlack took a deep breath and walked around the room. After a minute of silence, he spoke.
"Cavargi council is talking. Risk their own, or risk us."
Nathaniel's glasses came off, as they always did in such talks.
"And by risk us, you mean…"
"We have to handle Lanon ourselves," she sat into a chair and laughed, "Oh, we're going to die."
"Not entirely."
It was Fitz. He came back through the double doors, wiping his hands on a rag. The room stood in acknowledgement.
"Could you come with me," he requested, "Eunice wants to speak with you."
The three trailed after Fitz and left Heward in the foyer. Each step into the back of the ward was familiar to Chrissy, having only left this morning. He led them into a room with two beds, each holding a patient.
A boy with one horn laid in one bed. Unconscious, but breathing. A pair of bite marks on his arm made Chrissy understand exactly what was going on. In the other was the heavy set fellow she saw from when Travlack and her reunited from their cave delve.
"You're Hogum, right?"
"Hoga," Nathaniel corrected, "And Alex. Doctor E, you wanted to see us?"
Before answering, Doctor E finished wrapping his arms and torso. Hoga sat up in his bed with a heavy grunt. He gave a simple wave and hopped from the bed, going over to Alex's side and stroking his hair.
"I believe you all have already met, yes?" asked Doctor E, "How interesting that you meet again under such circumstances."
Hoga turned to face the group. He surveyed the room with the same watchful eyes as before, rather assessing than simply noticing. Before he spoke, Hoga took a measured breath and closed his eyes.
"The doctor tells me you ran into Lanon," he said after a sharp inhale, "It seems he is worse than I last saw him. Worse than you last saw him as well. Do you know why I sought him out when I last saw you?"
Everyone shook their heads. Everyone but Jay.
"I informed Jayce of this when we encountered you at the creek, but it seems this is pertinent to you as well," Hoga stretched his arm, his feathered rattled with a deep timbre as he started again. "I was set after him by the Therian of the creed hawk. Lanon is, and was always, a threat."
Chrissy fought her urge to speak. She had not forgotten the kind and gentle Lanon she encountered in the cave. Her stitches, however, could not help but remind her of the monster Lanon had become.
Hoga gave a detailed account of his most recent encounter with Lanon. Despite all his power, he said, Lanon kept regenerating any damage he could do to him. Even in the still moments of their brawl, Lanon's masses of feathers would fall to the ground, soaked in a bloody coat before newer, more verdant feathers crawled from his skin.
"Such a being is not…natural."
Doctor E inspected Hoga's skin again, ensuring her work was effective.
"Regeneration of that caliber does not exist without the shape of the soul being…unnatural itself," said Doctor E, "Heward also detailed that everything he gathered from his brief stint with Lanon was of the same notion. His body behaves as if it doesn't belong to him."
Silence came over the room. Everyone eyed each other with an unease at the implied. Chrissy cleared her throat and broke it.
"So he's what? Possessed?"
"I don't know," admitted Doctor E, "But, from everyone's testimony, it seems Lanon's body is denying and assimilating him at the same time. If I had to guess, the shape of his soul has been…tampered…"
Everyone announced their collective confusion simultaneously, save for Hoga and Jay. When Chrissy noticed they gave no reaction she asked them plainly.
"Why aren't you guys surprised?"
"This is why I was sent by the Therian of the Creed Hawk," stated Hoga, "His dominion over all avian beings is unmatched, such is his promise. From the Continent of Theri, I was sent here to investigate this anomaly. In Lanon, I sense not one but two shapes competing for dominance. Bound into a single container."
"Jay, if you knew this, why didn't you tell us at the waterfall? Why didn't you tell Travlack?" asked Chrissy, "We've had what is effectively an abomination on our tail and we didn't know."
"I couldn't tell you because it's above you–above the DLF, no offense, Travlack. If a Prime Therian tells me to keep my mouth shut, my mouth remains shut. Hoga ordered me not to engage with him."
"You said the DLF forbade you from engagements for paperwork reasons," chimed Nathaniel, cleaning his glasses.
"Two things can be true, Boshy," Jay smiled and shrugged, "But now the serpifeli's out of the bag. My job was just to be your guide and I have enjoyed my time with you. But guides leave out the bad parts on purpose."
Nothing but the sound of Alex breathing on the bed could be heard for another minute. Nathaniel's glasses were never clean enough. One of Chrissy's hands played with the grooves in her hooks. Doctor E meticulously looked over Hoga's injuries, adjusting and mending any spots she may have missed.
A knock behind them interrupted the silence.
When the door opened, a maned man stood before them. He entered the room with a single step and shut the door behind him. Everyone in the room seemed to stand a little taller, save for Chrissy and Nathaniel.
"Who's he?" she asked.
"He is the lead councilman of Cavargi," replied Fitz.
"And you," the councilman sighed, "Are the outsiders who tracked danger to my doorstep, causing two of my citizens to be wounded in your wake."
"That's not fair! We–"
Travlack tapped Chrissy's leg and stared at her. His eyes bore into hers.
"I apologize for my outburst," she said.
"How wise."
The councilman settled in place. He looked around the room, taking his time to meet each and every individual's eyes. Chrissy observed the way his reptilian skin reflected the soft daylight that came through the windows of the ward. His eyes when they came upon her felt sharp, yet reserved. The mane that ran from the back of his head to his shoulders was thick. So thick, that when he turned his head a hair seldom moved.
"We've come to a decision since the time you left us, Fitz. The festival will continue."
"But sir, what about–"
He held a hand up. Fitz quieted himself and let the councilman continue.
"If your question pertains to whatever threat is lurking around Cavargi, it will be answered in time. The other council members have been instructed to increase patrols until the festival starts tomorrow evening. In addition, we currently have scouts waiting for any sort of disturbance, as well as scouts to oversee that our mender arrives safely in the morning. It is there they will heal these outsiders."
Chrissy, Travlack, and Nathaniel looked amongst each other. A sense of relief that their injuries would come to an end.
"In return."
Those words were enough to snap them back into the conversation.
"They will not be permitted to leave Cavargi until this thing has been resolved. Furthermore, documents related to your travel have been seized. Tomorrow morning, I will send a search party to narrow down his position. It is there, in the evening, I will send someone for all of you."
"And then?" asked Chrissy.
"Find him," his eyes narrowed, "Use yourselves as bait, if you must. But I will not risk a single soul of Cavargi to solve a problem that arrived with you."
He punctuated his sentence with the closing of the door. Everyone in the room took turns looking at each other, offering no word or commentary on the matter that transpired. Chrissy found herself staring at Alex as he softly breathed in the hospital bed. His remaining horn had chipped in several places, but still retained its point.
A squeak from Neville finally broke the silence.
"Hm? No, Nevvy. I wouldn't risk you. But we are low on options."
Another round of chirps and trills.
"I suppose, yeah, but that's a maybe. We don't know how much he'll regenerate between now and then. Plus, I still have stitches in my stomach."
"Do you want to translate for the room?" asked Nathaniel.
"What–? Oh. It's just the last time I needed to draw an animal out, I acted as bait. Lanon is a bit more than an animal though."
"No. There's no way we're using you as bait," Nathaniel said. He took off his glasses and waved them around, "Lanon already wounded you once. I don't think we should find out what he's willing to do if he's wounded and desperate. We need to go in teams."
"He won't strike if all of us go prancing around in the woods together," replied Chrissy, "Besides, even if we went in teams, whoever is with me is still in danger. If it's just me, everyone else is fresh for the fight."
"Good plan," Travlack muttered, "Bait. Chase. Capture. Stay alive."
"Wasn't planning on dying!" she chuckled, "If this mender is good at their job, I'll feel right as rain tomorrow. The old stim sacs should be replenished as well. I have a good minute before I'm in any real danger."
A pause.
"Maybe. Sorta. Probably?"
"No, not a good plan," chided Nathaniel.
"Only plan," responded Travlack.
"Not accepting that. It's needless, wreckless, and–"
"It would work."
The room turned to Hoga. He stood, not facing them, but focused on his arms. Every so often he would pluck a couple from the underside and cast them aside. Hoga explained every detail of his encounter with Lanon, citing a point where Lanon's bones were exposed, but he kept fighting anyway. It was only a couple of minutes later before the meat reformed over the bone. After every feat of regeneration, Hoga noticed a staggering drop in speed.
"I will be joining you," Hoga added, raising his hand, "So will Jayce."
Jay nodded and turned to Fitz.
"What about you, old man?"
"I will assist."
"But the councilman–"
Fitz raised a hand, cutting Nathaniel off.
"He will not risk a soul, but I will risk my own. Do you have a better plan, Nathan?"
He shook his head.
"Well then," Chrissy said, "I can't risk my life on an empty stomach. Lunch?"
No response from the room.
"Alright…just me then."