|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:30 pm
Katrina was concerned.
About a week ago, Melchy had developed a nasty monster of a cough, one that sounded painful and tended to make listeners wince in sympathy. He had insisted that he was fine and that nothing was wrong with him, but the longer time dragged on, the worse it had gotten, to the point where the boy was lethargic and miserable. So Katrina had done the unthinkable.
She had taken him to see a pediatrician.
The pair of them uncomfortable in strange clothes, Katrina still with a sword at her side despite the fashionable slacks and neat button-down shirt she wore under her frock coat, so she looked like some sort of schizophrenic pirate-wannabe, Melchizedek looking as furious as a sick child can in a T-shirt and jeans, feet shoved into boots that looked strange with the rest of the ensemble, they walked into the doctor's office. Or rather, they tried to.
"Don' wanna go," the boy was insisting, ears pinned flat to his skull and teeth bared as his tail lashed in irritation. "Not sick."
"You're in no state to be arguing with me," Katrina snapped, voice low and annoyed, fixing her grip more tightly on the boy's wrist and attempting again to drag him inside.
"NO." Melchy insisted, crosisng his arms over his chest and glaring darkly at Katrina.
"Fine," Katrina said simply, and let go of Melchizedek. He made the mistake of relaxing, and then Katrina grabbed him around the waist, lifted, and shouldered through the door with a squalling cat-child in her arms.
She dumped him on the floor inside, blocking the door as the child tried to bolt, and glared at him until Melchy bared his teeth at her, hissed, and slunk off over to the seating area, where a TV was playing some sort of mindless cartoon. He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the television, pretending not to be interested in what it was playing.
Katrina sighed heavily, ignored the strange looks she was getting, and approached the counter to fill out the paperwork.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:45 pm
Polly, unfortunately for her, had no idea what a regular pediatrician was (she had been taken to the emergency room for her tail), and thus wasn't worried in the least as she colored happily on the small table in the corner. There were toys around her, and educational kids books that were from the eighties, but new to her. Her tail was up in the air, flicking back and forth as she hummed happily (and tunelessly) to herself.
Gwen, on the other hand, looked a bundle of nerves. Her little girl had been running a fever ever since she was born, as far as she could tell, sometimes reaching temperatures of a hundred and five! That would kill a normal child! She barely even noticed as the pirate woman and her son came in, she was looking through all the health books she could find.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:10 pm
Even sulking, the boy couldn't stay focused on one thing for long, and after a while, his ears twitched and swiveled, picking up noises. After a moment or two, eyes followed ears, and Melchy found himself surveying the area with great interest. Coughing slightly, he blinked when he caught sight of something bright orange and...very fancy and pretty and...he resisted the urge to pounce on her, but instead stood up and wandered slowly over to the bright-haired girl colouring on the table. The tail was definitely feathers...and the girl seemed to have feathers in her hair, too. Fascinating. Scintillating.
He knew SO MANY bird children, and he assumed that this one was from a cabbage as well.
"Beg pardon," he said quietly, leaning on the wall and looking down at Polly, "but is that," and here he pointed at the bright feathers, "yours? Ver' pritty, it is."
Katrina glanced up from paperwork to keep an eye on Melchizedek and noticed that he was conversing with a small child with furiously messy hair. Frowning, she looked around for the girl's mother in case she'd need to separate the pair. Melchy didn't tend to play well with other children.
The only other person who seemed to be a parent of sorts was a frazzled woman looking through books. Finishing the last of her paperwork with a flourish, she hoped that the coast guard and navy never, ever saw that signature (she'd be hauled in without a doubt) and slowly approached Gwen.
"The little redhead yours?" she asked, leaning against the wall in a direct mirror of the casual manner her 'son' had already assumed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:15 pm
"Oh, yes!" Gwen said, startled. "Oh dear, did she steal something of yours? I'm so sorry, she has this bad habit of--"
"Is my tail," Polly said, not even looking up from her book. It seemed that she was asked that question, or something like it, rather often. "Is good tail but kitty bit it, and--"
She finally glanced up, then scooted back three feet in an instance. "Kitty!" she said accusingly, pointing at him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:16 pm
Melchy blinked when Polly glared and pointed at him, trying to take a step back and realizing that his back was to a wall.
"Yeah, Cat," he answered very slowly, looking around with his brow furrowed, somewhat bewildered at the sudden change of subject and the generalized confusion that had already ensued. "Somethin' wrong wi'at?" he asked, lapsing into an even thicker slur than he usually used and looking around for a barrier to put between himself and the fiery-coloured little girl.
Katrina laughed in answer to Gwen and shook her head. "Oh, no, she hasn't lifted anything yet. Trust me, I'm good at keeping my things away from littluns that nick stuff. My own's a good one for that." She nodded in the direction of Melchizedek, who appeared to be getting thoroughly scolded already. "Oh, Lord, already.....I wonder what he's done," she murmured, putting a hand over her eyes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:20 pm
"Oh dear," Gwen said. "She's back on the kitty subject." She moved forward to stop the little girl, but Polly was a bit too far away.
"Kitty bite tail!" Polly said. "Kitties mean! No like kitty!" Her tail flicked behind her angrily and the area grew suddenly warmer. "You no bite," she told him commandingly. "I squirt you!"
Not that she had her squirt bottle here, but she was too angry to realize that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:42 pm
Katrina frowned slightly. "Does she have a problem with cats?" she asked, looking at Melchizedek with mild concern. She wasn't worried about the boy, but if the little girl attacked him, Melchy might do something stupid and someone was going to get hurt. It didn't help that she was still under the belief that Melchy had pneumonia.
"Whut?" Melchy said, carefully backing away and putting a basket filled with stray puzzle pieces and maimed stuffed animals between himself and the angry little girl. "I din' bite any'un," he insisted, putting his hands on his hips and looking at Polly, a dark frown on his face. "Whut ye talkin' bout?"
He was more bewildered than anything at this point.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:59 pm
"I lookin' at shinies and kitty go 'bat! bat! bat--BITE!'" Polly said, her tail flicking back and forth behind her as if to emphasize the point. "It hurted me! So no like kitties!" Then she paused. "But you no bite?" she asked. "Promise?"
"Unfortunately," Gwen said with a sigh. "Thankfully she doesn't have her squirt bottle with her right now. Polly, honey, he's not going to bite you. He's a little boy, like you're a little girl."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:38 pm
"Naw, Iun bite kiddos," Melchy answered Polly with a laugh, though it was difficult for him not to watch her tail as she twitched it. First off, it was an intensely bright colour (enough for Melchy, with his reduced colour vision, to see it clearly), and secondly, it was a feather. The internal feline wriggled its haunches, but Melchy simply flicked his tail.
Gwen's comment earned a deeply contemptuous look from the boy. "I ain' no little kiddo," he snapped, almost growling but then coughing explosively into a handkerchief he seemed to conjure from nowhere. After a moment, the fit passed and he sank into a chair near Polly, eyes watering. "Blasted cold," he grumbled.
Katrina just shook her head and sighed. "I think my boy has pneumonia--not contagious. The kind you catch from playing outside with wet hair," she said. "What's yours in for? She looks healthy enough."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:50 pm
"She's hot all the time," Gwen said, not even paying attention to Melchy's comment. "She's run a fever that goes up to a hundred and four before, even when she looks perfectly fine. I don't really understand it, and I was starting to get worried when it never went down."
"Good," Polly said, looking at him skeptically for a moment, just to make sure he was telling the truth. "They got toys here! And funny books that smell weird," she added, holding one up for him to see.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:09 pm
Katrina nodded, listening to Gwen with interest and glancing over at Polly again. "It's strange; she looks perfectly healthy, even happy. No one with a fever acts that lively." She shook her head and then looked at Gwen with a sudden, wry smile. "Did she come from a cabbage?" she asked.
Melchy looked at the book, picked it up, went to sniff it, and then growled angrily. "I can' smell 'nythin'. Got a stuffed-up nose," he grumbled, and coughed a little bit. "Stupid ocean, gettin' all over me in th'cold." He snorted, or tried to, and descended into another coughing fit, covering his mouth politely but still looking accutely uncomfortable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:17 pm
"Is okay," Polly said. "I smell for you!" And she took a big whiff of the book. And promptly sneezed. "Smell dusty," she decided. She didn't have a cold, that much was for certain. And it seemed that Melchy was forgiven for his less than appealing nature. Polly wasn't the type to hold a grudge for long, at least, not as long as it wasn't completely a cat.
"Yes, actually," Gwen said, looking a bit surprised. "Your ah... son, did he come from a cabbage as well?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:55 pm
Katrina's expression went dark when Gwen called Melchy her son. The boy was not her son! She was not a mother. Not cut out to be a mother, that much was certain. But she nodded. "Yes. My ward," she said very carefully, "is from a cabbage."
She watched Polly with a somewhat amused expression.
Melchy watched her with interest, still sort of sulking. He was glad that Polly was no longer angry with him, but he wasn't entirely sure why she had been mad to begin with. So it sort of concered him...sort of. It could have been worse.
Looking over at Katrina and Gwen, he turned back to Polly and pointed. "That yer mum?" he asked, trying to instigate a conversation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:01 pm
"Yep! She my mommy," Polly said, opening the book and looking at the pictures. She read slowly. "The... dog... sat..." She turned the page. "He's not doin' anything interesting," she decided, flipping the page again. "Got a ball, peed on a tree..." She tossed the book back onto the table, dismissing it as boring. "I Polly!" she declared. "Who you?"
"I ah, thought the children from cabbages would be more normal," Gwen admitted. "I met one boy who was very polite, and quite normal looking and--" She sighed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 4:45 pm
Katrina raised an eyebrow at Gwen and planted her hands on her hips, shifting her weight so she assumed a thoroughly feminine and thoroughly unimpressed pose. "You mean to say that you dislike the fact that your daughter looks different?" she said, expression darkening quickly. "And you just looked me in the face and said that you thought a child that comes from a cabbage would be normal-looking. Define normal, anyway," she snapped, becoming suddenly irritated at the idea that this woman would say something like what Gwen had just said. "Mine's not exactly an average boy, if you haven't noticed."
"Th'name's Melchy, an' it's a pleasure t'meetcha, Polly," Melchy said, barely hiding his amusement at the fact that the girl had all the cynicism of Katrina rolled into a package barely past toddler-age. He wondered briefly if he had been like that, and decided not. He was a weird kid, but not that messed up. "So you met a lotta cabbage kids, then?" he asked without moving.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
