As she began to open her eyes, familiar sensations began to stir.
Inside Kenrir's quarters, the air was warm, the lighting was dim, and the closest sound was a rhythm she had come to know so well.
"Ken...?"
Her weak voice chimed the airwaves—ringing to her like a soft pitched tuning fork—as her barely opened eyes sifted over her surroundings. It was as though her vision was foreign, moving slowly against shifting clouds—two separate motions progressing ever slowly in opposite directions—wherever her eyes would turn.
As a gentle hand laid upon her head, Variann turned her slow moving eyes up to the source.
It washim.
"Vari—"
His voice echoed, and rippled over her surroundings.
Variann lay there in Kenrir's bed, his calm presence standing over her with eyes that spoke so little—yet his heartbeat told another tale.
"What... happened...?" she asked weakly.
Kenrir knelt to one knee, keeping his hand on her forehead as he parted Variann's hair off to the side.
"Just rest. You've been through a lot..."
His voice was used in a quiet tone that was calm and practiced—his rhythm beating in a way that gave away his heartstrung empathy.
Several hours had passed since the toxin over-shocked her senses—several hours since her mind had shut down. Somewhere in the process of her mindless slumber, Variann's body had tried to battle the toxins while the medicine settled in to take effect. Her whole body had sweat profusely, and everyone else had gradually left the room. Kenrir had taken it upon himself to separate Vari of her weighted garments—and now, without her head-covering, all of Variann's senses were exposed.
Her hair rested flat, feathered out against the soft surface—her face expressed in delicacy—and up to her midriff was covering her in a simple sheet.
Kenrir's image seemed to vibrate, as the sounds of moving lava warmed their way into her senses, synchronizing with his heartbeat. It was the sounds of blood moving through his veins. These sounds didn't move alone however, as she too could hear her own.
"Everything is going to be alright now," Kenrir murmured, as he ever-slowly caressed her.
The sound and sensation of Kenrir's hand brushing against her head was incredibly soothing, and Variann soon closed her eyes again, trusting him completely—trusting him, like first nature to her.
"I understand..."
Her voice rung again, for one last chime as she soothingly remained.
Waiting just outside the room, Ulva sat there with her back propped against the outer bedroom wall—her arm resting over one proppedknee.
She thought about everything that was happening, and wondered about how much longer it would be before Variann would awake.
Standing just outside the dojo entrance, stood Malin, who was waiting—just like the rest—for any signs of Variann's recovery.
The Tanzha themselves were waiting on the opposite side of the entrance wall behind him, as everyone was giving Kenrir privacy to attend to his more private matters upon request.
Sheila—who had arrived with the Tanzha woman—was settled on the floor next to her, quietly resting on her hip with her legs curled out behind her, her hands settled on her right-side thigh.
"It's been hours now. How long before the medication takes effect?" Malin asked the Tanzha from outside.
"It should be taking effect already—that is, if your friends here have anything to show for it," the male Tanzha answered from the inside wall. "Considering the state of her condition, it would suggest she'll take longer to recover."
"Then what of her recovery?" Malin followed.
"Assuming we got the medication to her on time, there should be little reason for her to not be back on her feet with enough rest," the female Tanzha chimed in.
Sheila, who was seated next to the standing woman, turned her gaze up to her with hopeful curiosity upon hearing this answer.
The Tanzha woman continued to speak, her mask still hiding any major defining details of her face, as her mouth remained kempt and unmoved.
"We understand your friend's case is a bit unique, however it is safe to say, that there have not been any known cases where our treatment wasn't met with recovery."
"But it's not permanent..." Malin reminded himself verbally beyond the wall.
The only one who was unaffected, free of the toxin was Malin—yet even he felt disturbed that such a factor had infected his colleagues.
"So then what is there that we can do?"
The weight of his question wore heavy in his voice.
The Tanzha male answered next, "The Tanzha will continue to research the samples we've gathered, but I would suggest each of you prepare yourselves however you must. In the meantime, I believe it would be of considerable value to gather further samples from each affected party for our research."
"And just how does that help us?" Ulva chimed in from her position.
"While there has never been a known cure to the Plagthasureus' toxin, I believe there may be a chance—should study individual hosts further—that there could be a small chance of a pathogen being created. Should we find one, there may be a means of creating a cure. While it may be unlikely, perhaps were the cells and the toxin to separate fundamentally, what then would be the effects?" the male continued.
"So what are you trying to say? That you're going to try to find a way to reverse engineer this damned poison?" Ulva asked, lifting her paw to look at the base of her palm.
"You could think of it in that sense," he answered.
That is when the Tanzha woman stepped forward.
"What my colleague means to say, is that just because our research had always failed us in the past, doesn't mean we're going to stop trying. It's the least our people can do out of respect for our years of dedicated partnership."
Sheila turned away, her eyes falling back to the floor as she coiled her legs and tails in tighter beneath her.
"We appreciate your hospitality," Malin began to state from his side of the wall, "As I'm sure everyone within the village does. After all, without everything you've done to help, it's fair to wonder if we'd even make it this far. And I suppose I should imagine now that it is even more so the case regarding our group," he stated, in crossing his arms.
"Do we think... it could even be possible...? Creating a cure, I mean..." Sheila asked softly.
Ulva blinked, shifting her eyes immediately over to witness Sheila's demeanor.
For a moment, Ulva thought about their conditional matters and soon rose from the floor, as she began taking slow strides closer in her direction.
"Whatever happens, we don't have to face it all alone. We came into all of this together, and what would we be to just allow everything to just slip away on our own?" Ulva asked, as her tall, sturdy frame divided them of their distance.
After only a few, short steps, Ulva soon lowered herself, carefully seating herself right at Sheila's side, as she placed her large paw over Sheila's knee—directing her gaze to meet Sheila's with a gentle seriousness, and passionate authenticity.
"Whatever happens, we'll always have one another."
Sheila's eyes met Ulva's, her own bearing a vulnerable glimmer.
"What about in the end?" she asked, "Will we—"
"Will the two of you stop talking like that?!" Malin raised his voice abruptly, "Just because the two of you got sick doesn't mean this is all there is! Weren't you two listening?!"
The truth was, he wasn't confident at all, but everyone who had been affected were those he had worked alongside for much of his current life, and the Tanzha had given him a subconscious brush of hope.
...
Ulva and Sheila had frozen, their postures twitching subtly with Malin's verbal interception—their grazes breaking apart micro moments after such.
"Need you be so loud...?" the Tanzha women asked from directly behind Malin and the wall between them. She tilted her head diagonally forward—turning her face ever slightly as she questioned Malin through the wall.
Malin soon gave a subtly verbal huff, as he shifted himself away from the wall.
Stepping away, a slide and clack of the door was heard, and everyone aside from Malin who was outside, turned to face Kenrir as he came stepping out into the entrance hall.
Kenrir gave everyone a dragging gaze, shifting his eyes over them all as he stepped away from the door—towards the center of the corridor—before turning himself to face the general-most vicinity of them all...
The morning for Karra had come, and she lay there in bed on herside.
She hadn't moved in hours, as she was exhausted, yet could not sleep.
It was moments before we could see Rammorias climbing up over the side of the bed, and he soon stepped over across the comforter that Karra had lain herself under.
"Hey, get up. Haven't you laid there enough? I can't stay hungry forever you know..."
Karra remained there, tired, exhausted even—yet not a single part of herself could be convinced to fall asleep.
"Haven't you already made your decision? It's time to go!" Rammorias egged on.
Karra lay there, practically unresponsive as she clung onto her heavy containment of fear.
Rammorias in turn grew noticeably irritated, or rather, he would have been noticeably so had Karra been paying attention.
"GET UP!" he shouted among himself.
Nevermind that Karra wasn't even making eye contact to be able to hear him.
"I need to eat... I need more of that delicious power..!!"
At this moment, he was becoming infuriated.
Rammorias stepped over Karra, and abruptly reached down to grab Karra's face, as he turned her enough and hunched further over to glare into her eyes.
"GET... UP—" he demanded.
As Rammorias interrupted her sulking, Karra's expression was a deeply troubled one which altered slightly to bear a faint surprise, and mild annoyance.
Those eyes were as piercing as ever, and even though something about them were chilling, Karra simply gritted her teeth in an increased irritation and swatted Rammorias away.
Karra had thrown herself up as she bit her tongue. She got ready to open her mouth to say something, but then it fell closed as her tired irritation had slipped away.
It wasn't long before Rammorias had recollected himself too somewhat, and dropped from the mattress to stand in front of Karra, sitting up on her bedside.
"It's time to go," he hissed internally, while piercing his ominous glare deep into Karra's eyes—and a slight smile crept upon his face.