The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding

[Murkus]

[Misty Evening]

"Oh. I wasn't sure we would see eachother again, but we've met, yep," says Adir. "I'll... put a pack together and go to him. It's only right that I offer you some hospitality for coming all this way, messenger. If you're hungry or whatever."

[Baby Time]

Hauled into Sakura's lap, Kissa makes a little bleat - and abruptly changes forms, returning to her helpless infant self. She wiggles her arms and legs and coos, eyes once again squeezed shut. She seems to be unbothered by Malachi's cries, and thankfully even they are downgraded to sniffling as Sakura begins to soothe the boy.

"Oh my gosh, yes," Adir cheers as the column of kids files out, "We're getting free labor out of Laela already. Shall I carry you to our bed next, darling-dear?" The stag smooches his wife on the cheek. Couldn't be happier, this fellow.

[Morty]

[Misty Evening]

The gnomes seems surprised. He's not sure about Adir's place in fair folk hierarchy, but if he's being invited by the Old Man Forest, he has to be high up on it. Then again, that just means refusing his invitation would be a bad idea.

"Wouldn't mind something to keep me warm on the journey and a bite," he says. "And my hare deserves something for running all the way here, I reckon."

[Gullara]

[Baby Time]

Sakura giggles. "Please. All three of us could use a nap."

[Sunny Day]

It may be getting cool out, but on a sunny day like this, and with the right clothes, it's still nice to be outside. While Adir is outside busy with some chore, Cern and Gwydion followed him out. They're busying themselves while their dad is distracted on the edge of the garden. Welding sticks, they're going along its edge finding clods of dirt. When they do, they take turns smashing the clod to pieces with their sticks. It's all good fun.

[Murkus]

[Baby Time]

"Your wish is my command," Adir agrees just as starts to stand.

[Sunny Day]

Adir doesn't think much of it, and so far he has left the kids to their fun. He seems to be busying himself getting rid of some old stumps the property's previous owners never bothered to have cleared.

"I better not see any welts on any hands when you come in to wash them," Adir chides, though there isn't much sincere warning in his voice.

[Murkus]

[Misty Evening]

"Now if you mean 'something warm'," Adir mimes holding a handle and tips an invisible glass toward his lips, "I don't have much in the house, but I can probably go scrounging. Or maybe you meant a blanket?"

"Either way..." The stag holds up a hand for the gnome to wait and goes into his house. When he returns, he has a little plate laden with slices of roast beef and some hunks of bread with gravy. In his other hand is a few pieces of lettuce. "Just um, my leftovers. Hope that's okay."

[Shadowcaller]

[Sunny Day]

Even during the most perfect of days, misfortune can always wait just around the corner.

Sometimes though, its by design.

Neither Cern nor Gwydion will likely realize that distinction though as when they smack their sticks together there is a sudden movement in the grass they're playing in.

Too fast to be caught by the naked eye, Cern will suddenly feel fangs digging into his foot.
This will hurt, a lot.

It might not be obvious to Adir what is happening right away, but he might soon be able to tell that there is a snake in the grass...

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

Cern howls and drops the the ground, clutching his foot. "DADDY!" Gwydion shrieks. Cern keeps screaming, totally overwhelmed by so much pain.

[Morty]

[Misty Evening]

The gnome will take the leftovers with gratitude, and pack some of it for the others in the woods. The hare eats the lettuce with what is presumably gratitude but it's a hare so who knows. Then the animal bears its rider back towards the old forest.

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

Adir's attention snaps to the children, and he nearly gives himself whiplash getting over to Cern so fast. He appraises the situation and his natural instincts kick in. If the offending snake is still near Cern and Gwydion, it might quickly become acquainted with a size 18 work boot. Even if he can't stomp the thing to death, Adir tries to get a glimpse of it to help identify the venom. He scoops up Cern and Gwyd in his arms, trying not to be distracted by Cern's screams, and will dash into the house without a second thought.

"Sakura!" Adir bellows. He drops Gwyd as gently as he can manage. How long has it been since the bite? How many seconds? His mind feels like a broken projector, smoking and flapping as it runs its reels to ribbons. Scattered thoughts, worries, knowledge and horror smash together and ricochet off each other in a cacophony that threatens to freeze him up. "Gwydion, go get your mother and tell her to bring my traveling pack! Go fast!"

The stag doesn't even get Cern as far as a piece of furniture. "Hold still, Cern, hold still. It's gonna be fine. You're okay. I've got you..." He lays the boy out on the floor, takes off his own belt, and ties it off tight just above Cern's knee. He can just hope he beat the venom to the artery and that this will slow it down. As soon as that's done he calls the hospital, his next steps unfolding before him in his head.

This done, the stag props the phone against his ear as he lifts Cern and carries him to the couch. He covers the mouthpiece and raises his face to the ceiling, screaming, "Sakura! God damn it, I need my things!"

[Shadowcaller]

[Sunny Day]

The snake would have been easily noticed by Adir as soon as he turned to look in the boys direction. Bright scales in all the colors of the rainbow that almost seemed to be glowing as they reflect the daylight. However, once he reaches his sons, the serpent has retreated back and its once blazing colors have dulled. Indeed, as Adir spends a moment looking at it, he can see all its colors quickly blend together into a grass-green that makes it completely blend into the environment. Only its movements betraying its position as it hurriedly slithers away from Cern.

That was probably not a normal snake.

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

All at once the house is alive with activity as Adir rushes inside. Gwydion runs off without a word, Adir only briefly catching the look of horror on his face as he vanishes. Cern is bawling, tears streaming down his face with no sign of stop. There's hammering half way down the stairs before they retreat again. When Adir shouts the two infants upstairs can be heard crying too. More footfall down the stairs and then Sakura appears, wide eyed with Adir's pack. "What happened?!" She rushes to their side, fighting back the panic. Gwydion peeks around the corner, his own face wet with tears.

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

"I think it was a snake," Adir says, hanging up on the hospital. His face is blank, eyes flat, and he wheels on Sakura to take the pack. A small mote of emotion shines through as his brow furrows and he tries to gently grasp Sakura's arm. "I need you to go start my truck. You remember how? I'm going to give Cern a couple of things and then I'm taking him to the hospital. I'll be back for you as soon as I know he's okay."

The stag doesn't stay standing straight or holding Sakura for long. No time. He explains his plan as he rifles through his pack, and finishes just as he pulls out a paste he tries to dab on Cern's wound. It will certainly sting, and then the pain should gradually dull to a poisonous throb. "Cern, buddy?" He kneels by the boy's head, and gently tries to slip his hand underneath it. His voice breaks a little. "I need-- I need you to eat this, okay? Open up." He tries to use a spoon to feed the lad some sort of honey and herb concoction. It's a muddled bittersweet taste.

"Okay Cern, last thing," Adir takes a needle out of his pack. "This is gonna be just like at the doctor, okay? It's gonna sting. Just for a second. I need you to hold still. Can you do that?"

And provided Cern can, Adir will pop him in the wounded foot with the mysterious needle. Ouch. Heck, they're so pressed for time that if Cern can't hold still for it, he'll have to ask Sakura to hold the kid's legs down. The final effect of all this work should be to slow the effects of the snake venom pretty drastically, and to strengthen Cern's body so it can start to filter out the horrid poison. It should even work against venom of a supernatural nature. Of course, there's a chance that the snake didn't inject venom or that there wasn't enough for any of this to even be necessary, but that's obviously a chance that Adir can't take.

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

"Snake? What? How?" A snake attacked her son? That shouldn't happen... When Adir takes charge she just swallows, nods, and runs out the front door. He'll hear the truck come to life outside moments later.

Cern nods, just barely stifling himself long enough to do what his dad says. He covers his eyes, just like at the doctor. The boy whimpers and then starts crying again, but it's done.

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

Thankfully Sakura doesn't wait around for Adir to explain the snake bite. He doesn't understand this dryad stuff, but he understands why she would be confused. The stag doubts Sakura has ever been bitten by a thing in her life.

"Great job," Adir says to Cern, scooping him up again and settling him gently in his arms. "We're gonna go see a doctor right now, buddy. Just sit tight. I've got you." And with that, he jogs for the door. He tries to squeeze Sakura's hand fiercely as he passes, but otherwise won't spare a moment for sentiment. Into the truck and off they go.

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

Sakura won't keep him. She desperately wants to go too, but someone has to watch the other kids...

Cern leans against his dad in the truck. "I feel sick, daddy."

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

Adir briefly considered asking Sakura to load everyone up while he took care of Cern, but there simply wasn't time.

Now he wraps one arm tight around the boy and drives like hell with the other. "Hey, buddy, I know. It's-- it's probably just the stuff I had to give you. Sometimes medicine makes you feel a little worse before it makes you better." He brushes his hand over Cern's forehead. "We're just gonna go see a doctor to make sure."

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

Cern starts sobbing in earnest again. "It's hurts." He cries, clinging to his dad. In moments he's screaming more than sobbing.

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

"I know, Cern, I know," Adir squeezes his arm tight around Cern and grits his teeth, his eyes threatening to blur with tears as he tries to maneuver them through traffic. He swings onto the shoulder, runs lights, does anything reasonably in his power to get them there faster without endangering them too much further.

"Cern. Cern. Son," Adir says fiercely as they round another corner and dive into the streets of Inside. He tries to find Cern's little hand with his so he can close his fingers around it. "Son. Shhh. Shhh..." He soothes. As loudly as he needs to through Cern's screams, he says, "I've got you."

"Listen to me, son," Adir begins calmly, "Did I ever tell you why I wanted to name you Cernunnos? What it means?"

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

It seems at first thing Cern doesn't hear Adir, but then he gasps and falls immediately silent. It hangs there for a moment before Cern replies. "No daddy. What?" He says, sniffling. If Adir takes his eyes off the road to look down, he'll see his son's tear stained face upturned toward him, looking at him with vibrant green eyes. Eyes that were most certainly brown the last time he looked...

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

"Oh, Cern, your eyes--" Adir grits his teeth. What was happening here? The snake clearly hadn't been ordinary, and it looked like that extended to its venom. Well, at least if it was trying to change him... it probably wasn't killing him.

The stag quickly raises his eyes to the road again. "Cernunnos is a lot of things to a lot of different people. But it's a name that parents give to a wild hunter... or a great warrior. An exalted son," says the stag. He keeps Cern balanced and bouncing on his knee as they roll through Inside. Nearly there... "And someone as mighty as Cernunnos doesn't even give a snake bite the time of day. Cernunnos is too tough."

"Pain is just... how your body tells you something is wrong. You can never let it control you. You are stronger than pain." Adir smiles, a bit wanly due to the situation. What if this was the last conversation he ever had with his son? "Repeat that back to me, Cern. What are you?"

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

Cern looks up at his dad, trembling and with wet eyes. His breathing, frantic moments earlier, is returning to normal. "I'm stronger than pain." He says shakily. When she speaks, Adir might notice... fangs?

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

"Good man," says Adir, flush with firmness and pride. He flicks his eyes down to check on the kid as they pull into the hospital... and stops dead. He drops the truck into park and gently cups Cern's face. "Cern... buddy... open your mouth for a second and hold still, okay?" He tries to lift the boy's upper lip away from his teeth to be sure of what he saw. Sure or otherwise, his next act will undoubtedly be to carry Cernunnos inside.

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

Cern does as he's asked, and sure enough he has a pair of very sharp fangs. Not only that, but his tongue is clearly different too. More slender, and quite clearly forked... "What's wrong?" Cern asks as soon as he's able.

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

"Buddy... I don't know. Your teeth... I think that snake might have been magic," Adir tries to explain as simply as he can. He's not the type to lie to the kid and tell him nothing's wrong. "Your teeth look sharp. I need you to be careful not to bite yourself, okay?"

Heart beginning to throb a little more swiftly as his worry returns with a vengeance, Adir pops open the door of the truck and hops out with Cern as soon as he's able. He bounds through the hospital doors, ducking his head to keep his antlers from clipping.

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

Cern gives Adir a bug eyed look and immediately starts feeling around in his mouth with a finger. "Daddy they're pointy!" He doesn't know how to react to that...

At the hospital Adir is quickly hurried along to see a doctor as soon as he explains even a fraction of what's going on. The doctor, a halfling woman, wastes no time in examining Cern. Things get a bit more relaxed before long, once it's apparent his lift isn't at risk. "Open your mouth and say ah for me, Cern." She takes a look inside the boy's mouth, frowning all the while. She shakes her head and turns to Adir. "There's no halfway normal explanation for this. It could be any number of magics, but that's not exactly what we do around here. Medically Cern is completely healthy, aside from the punctures on his ankle. All we can do is take a blood sample and see what we can find."

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

"Would you do that then, please?" says Adir, wringing his overlarge hands and looking at Cern a little worriedly. He lets out a sigh and kneels down close beside his kid. "You don't feel anything bad, do you buddy?" Oh gosh. Would his kid turn into a snake? Or if he didn't, would he still eat like one? Would he be feeding Cern live mice for dinner? That sounded like a pretty awesome thing to tell people, actually, 'I feed my kid live mice', but imagine Sakura's face!

Adir slaps himself on the temple openly. No. No time for silly, stupid thoughts. Work, brain. "Is there anything you need, Cern?"

[Gullara]

[Sunny Day]

The doctor will go about doing that, and thankfully Cern isn't as bothered by needles as he is scissors. He shakes his head. "I want a snack." He decides. That took a lot out of him.

"Well you're free to go now." The doctor says. "We'll call you up as soon as we find anything."

[Murkus]

[Sunny Day]

"Thank you, doctor," says Adir. He helps his kid down off the checkup table. A hand ruffles Cern's flowery mess of hair. "Okay, kid. Snack it is. I... dunno if chewing is gonna feel right with those teeth. We're gonna get you some applesauce or jell-o or something, cool? This was so strange. What was he gonna tell Sakura? At the same time he's feeling this, there is this sense of... calmness. It was just Nexus crap. He'd seen stranger. And if Cern was feeling like himself, wasn't in pain, it was gonna work out. He had one kid that grew out of a flower, another that could float. What the hell, you know?

Anyways, it's back to the house for this dynamic duo.

[Murkus]

[Return from Riverside]

Tis a windy morning 'round the Frescot home when Adir returns from his sojourn to Riverside. The sojourn he was meant to return from the night before. The sky in the direction of the river-city is a hellish wall of smoke and fire. Sakura could have turned on the news with Adir's TV or radio and found out a few details, but that's entirely dependent on her thinking of that at all. Adir is hoping she already knows about the communications blackout...

Adir is climbing off a stranger's hoverbike. He is roughly shod in his Winter armor and streaked with blood of the wrong color to be his own. He looks like he's moving a little painfully. The stag staggers up to the door and bangs the side of his fist on it. "Sakura?" Adir calls. "I haven't got my keys. They were in my costume. I think they sort of... melted..."

Yes, it had just been that kind of night.

[Gullara]

[Return from Riverside]

It's just a moment later when Sakura throws the door open. She stares at him for a moment before she throws her arms around him. "Where were you? What happened?" She pushes him back to arms length again, her voice demanding yet relieved.