The gradual sounds of the night started to take form. Moist grass rubbed against Jared's body, soaking its moisture into the fabric of his clothes. Opening his eyes, Jared watched the world turn 90 degrees, seeing grass and trees form for miles but unable to look up to the sky. But despite this, he didn't move.
Looking down at her hands was Kaelin. Unknowing of her thoughts, he watched as she took out her knife, cutting her palm, as two or so droplets lifted from her hand. In seconds, they began to change shape, one into a square, the other into a triangle, and the last unchanged.
"Alright, That's enough of a test."
Those words muttered from Yidhra's lips, watching as her fine threads of blood stitched her palm, closing the wound cleanly as nothing ever happened.
Coming to his senses, Jared wiggled, feeling his body push blood to his limbs as he desperately tried to get up despite the numbness. "Where…. What?"
"Oh, the kid is finally starting to open his eyes." Kaelin's voice traveled, reaching Jared's ear. Despite her voice sounding clear, Jared struggled to understand the sounds.
Drifting his eyes around, his eyes laid on a girl calmly stroking an orange fox's back. " The Journalist… What?"
Nudging the small fox to its side, Kaelin pressed her hand against the animal's back, digging her thumb into its shoulder blade.
"I see, so you tensed this muscle to prevent blood from leaking in that area. I wonder if you also know that it reduces pain there as well."
"Even now, after all that treatment and blood toning, your wound is still struggling to close. Whatever it was must have gotten deep into your back. "
Switching her attention to Jared, she watched as Jared sat up.
Jared- "Yidhra… why… How did I end up here?"
With a slight raise of her eyebrow, Kaelin muttered annoyingly. "Yeah… how did you end up here?"
'Ok, that's a little childish.'
Before she could even reply, Jared dropped back to the floor, his eyes struggling to stay open.
Kaelin- "Alright, you're clearly not in the position to be asking those types of questions. Let's just get some food in your system."
Choosing to remain silent, Jared quietly nodded.
…
Time passed as Jared took a long sip of the soup in his bowl. He looked at Kaelin as a blood halo hovered and dripped blood onto the stab wound on Toast's back.
Kaelin- "Alright, that should be enough. I don't want your body getting reliant on me to repair itself."
"... Is healing someone a bad thing?"
"Huh? "Kaelin looked up, seeing Jared nervously grinning as he held his bowl of soup.
After a moment, she looked back at the fox, "Outside healing is still unnatural. Every creature and type of injury has its own recovery rate. Each part of your body communicates with each other, dedicating how much time, energy, and material things need once it occurs."
After saying that, Kaelin raised her hand. With the snap of her fingers, a glowing red and pink color radiated over her red and indigo pupils. After a moment, the red halo she had created shattered into the grass around them.
Kaelin- "What would happen if the injury was suddenly healed in half the time, including the nutrients and energy it usually needs? At some point, that would become the new normal, making their body unable to deal with those issues on their own. "
Picking up the fox, Kaelin walked over, resting the creature next to Jared before taking a seat away from them.
Jared- "So what do you plan to do now? You're going to ransom me for some money or for some more information."
Kaelin quietly picked up her bowl of soup and took a sip. As if searching her mind, a moment of silence was shared until Kaelin suddenly spoke. "Neither, actually. Don't get me wrong, I would love to do that, but some other time. "
Jared jumped from his seat. His eyes watered as he tried to speak through the noise pounding in his chest. He watched as the Journalist sat up, looking into his soul. "But first, what I want to do is end the misery you've been putting that pet through. And as much as I hate the idea of a proud graduate from the University of Obliviosity being responsible for another living being, for that poor creature's sake, it has to be done."
"Alright… I'm so lost. So you would care about an object's, quote unquote, "life"? "
Unbothered, Kaelin replied, still enjoying her meal like nothing had happened. " With every word… that leaves your mouth, I get more concerned that you don't know the first thing about what you're talking about. And in a way, knowing that, makes everything just a bit easier.
"So… you're just going to dodge the question?"
"Yes actually, I will, because explaining it has already proven itself to be pointless. But I'll atleast tell you how you crash landed your way into my nightly meal. "
Saying nothing in reply, Jared listened. With a calm voice, Yidhra spoke, explaining the order of events that landed the child here to the best of her knowledge. After a couple of seconds, his demeanor relaxed as he sat and listened to what Kaelin had to say.
Kaelin- "So that's basically everything. Your pet collapsed on the floor in front of me, but didn't attack. So, I decided to heal his injuries. And now that we're here, what is its name?"
As if blatantly walking passed the woman's question, Jared spoke. His childish whimsy tippy-toeing past her irritation. "I don't get it, though; why are you so nice? When I first met you-"
"We met before?"
Jared sat there with his mouth open, lost for words.
"Yikes, you really need to get better at taking a joke."
Jared stood there stunned.
Kaelin folded her arms, her eyes narrowing just slightly. "Let's just put a pin in that for now. I need to know your pet's name."
Snapping out of it with the shaking of his head, Jared turned to the shady woman sitting across from him. "His name is Toast."
With a relaxed smile, Kaelin stood up "Alright, stay right there." Without much effort, she began to walk. With a stick in her hand, drawn symbols slowly began to appear on the ground. " I'm going to finish the pet connections process for you."
In a matter of seconds, Jared found himself ensnared, not by force but by a weird sense of willingness to entertain the lady's actions. Her eyes glowed, completing different spectrums of color, with every step resonating with the symbols being drawn around Jared and his pet.
Once taking a moment to breath, every gland within Jared's, Kaelin's and Toast's bodies pulsed in a white tinted cyan. With her eyes glued to the symbols she drew, voiceless words and nonsensical movements left Kaelin's mouth. Expanding symbols, foreign text, and scriptures grew the circle, layering it. Kaelin looked at Jared with blood dripping from the back of her ear and side of her neck; a vicious smile stared into the child's face, choking his words.
Kaelin- "Are you ready?"
With a hard chunk of fear lingering in his throat, Jared took one gulp. Looking back and seeing the monster he saw that day in his room glowing behind her, Jared… nodded his head.
…