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 Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:35 pm
His ear flickered, and then slowly his eyes opened. A little droplet of slime, like sweat, rolled down his brow as he turned his head slightly. From his focusing vision, he saw Barth sitting next to him, looking down with concern.
Warm. He felt too warm.
Rising his hand, up, he looked at it and separated his fingers, noticing the slender trails of ooze between each finger, before dropping his hand to rest beside him. He had only been a tad damp yesterday, and had taken a shower before coming here yesterday. It seemed that sleeping as deeply as he had here hadn't helped at all. He really had thought the fever would break. It was just worse now.
"I'm sorry." He apologized, his voice a slow whisper. "I thought I'd get better."
He looked at the bed beside him. "I made your bed wet." He should do something to clean it. Barth's bed was expensive. Friends didn't do this.
With a great deal of effort, Calder sat up, pulling his wet hair from his face before pulling a mushroom from his ear to look at it and then at the spot that was now outlined on the sheets. His eyes than trailed up to the vine rested on the bedpost. "Is that yours?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:02 pm
Handsome crawled a few inches forward on his belly before stopping to rest his chin against Barth's side. Handsome wiggled his nose. Barth scratched him absent-mindedly.
"It's yours?" Barth asked, surprised, "No, that's alright. You don't have to apologize about slime. I just err, I didn't know that you..." He looked at Calder curiously, as if reappraising him. "...slimed." He turned his groggy attention to the vine wrapped around his bedpost.
It had already begun to wither.
"Yes err, that's mine."
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:27 pm
Calder looked at the wilting vine a moment before looking at his arm. "My skin is flushing itself out by sweating. I usually only have a slight layer of oil to keep myself from going dry. It protects me, and keeps my temperature right." It was his version of a water-proof coat that was barely noticeable, secreted by his skin naturally, acting like a wetsuit. "I dried out a bit too much I guess." Now his body was trying to get back in sync again, but his temperature was rising as he sweated. "These just grow when I get warm and sweat like this. It's called Boggers." Named after looking more like the swamp vegetation than an actual kelpie. His kind in swamps were more likely to get this type of flu from the warmer waters. "If it gets too bad, some kelpies get little trees all over their back and look like walking gardens." Their bodies turned green as they were covered in moss.
"But I took some medicine......" He said reassuringly. "...it's just...not working yet." Maybe it had been too stale and lost it's potency. His mother packed him a few medicinal herbs to make tea with, but he had drank up of that plant and it had no affect. Had he made it wrong or was the plant too old to be effective? "I just needed to rest." As he had. A long, deep rest with one of his best friends. Too bad it seemed as if he wasn't getting better.
All this talking was exhausting. Still, his eyes went back up to the vine. "Is that what you were afraid of?" It was sorta cute in a very nonthreatening sorta way.
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:45 pm
"Well, that's only a small- when I was younger, it...there's usually more." That had been all. One night of really letting go, allowing the thorns to grow, and...they'd barely covered one bedpost. But he hadn't...really been letting go. He was worried. Worried about the radius, worried about how long he slept (it was morning, he could count the number of times he had seen the morning on one claw), worried about Calder.
But here they were, nothing was damaged, nothing was hurt.
As a demon, he knew where dabbling a little lead.
But he'd have to continue. And looking at his spotter, covered in what Barth would consider a very nice layer of slime, but from Calder's account, an unhealthy one...possibly alone.
"Boggers. Are you...alright? Is it contagious? Should you...be at the Nurse's?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:09 pm
Calder gave a weak, little laugh. "No. You're not a kelpie. It won't hurt you. Not unless you get sick around being too damp or are allergic to this." To which he rose a hand to wipe on his shirt which was now sticking to his chest. As for the Nurse, his ears fell back. "No. It's just a cold. I was going to sleep it off, and then maybe go find some medicine when I felt better." Still, he wasn't sure it grew around here. Would he have to go in town to get it, or ask Professor Cadmus if he grew it somewhere? Then again, he could see Cricket if it got too bad. For now, he just wanted to see if he could sweat this out.
"I'm sorry." He felt it was necessary since he didn't tell Barht and now he was making a mess of his bed.
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:33 pm
"Allergic to slime? Hardly."
Barth paused. Sleeping it off sounded like the best solution.
"Well if it's only a cold. You mentioned it was a problem with drying out? You're welcome to the bath, if you like." With Calder...sick but not impaled, and his thorns obviously not overrun, Barth was feeling tired again. He yawned. "Or staying where you are. I'm going back to sleep, I think. Too early for me."
Handsome, as if in emphasis, wriggled his way up the small remaining distance to snuggle between them.
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:00 pm
Calder thought of a bath and thought it was a nice idea, but it was far away, and the bed was still inviting. He flopped back down upon his spot, deciding that rolling around would only make things a lot worse, and looked at the woe hound between them frowning. "Does your hound have to be right there between us?" He asked, not at all liking the dog smell of the fact it was between him and Barth. Then again, he doubted Barth would want to be near him when hew as this ill. It was hardly a state that screamed 'cuddle me'.
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:54 pm
"You can move him," Barth mumbled.
The Woehound was pocket-sized, and more fur than hound. At the moment, he was also the only living thing in Barth's room that wasn't slime, a plant, or equipment. Why the creature had yet to meet with an unfortunate end was a mystery, although Barth thought it might be because the hound had a certain...sense for misfortune.
As soon as Barth had decided to sleep, the vine reappeared, creeping to its previous post.
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:40 pm
Calder watched his friend roll over before regarding the tiny woe hound. It looked up at him, a sad mop of fluff, and seemed content to just lay there.
Over Calder's sick and slimy body would he let it stay there between him and Barth. As much as he hated to pick the pet up, he reached into the blanket of fur to find it's body and then lifted it up and then, leaning over, placed it on the other side of the demon. "There. You claim that side. I claim this side." They could share Barth.
Once done, he laid back down, looking up at the vine that decided to perk back up to life. If that was what all the worry was about, Calder thought it a tad adorable. He slept with enough plants around him that a little vine hardly seemed menacing. In fact, a bit of wildlife in Barth's room was welcomed.
Yawning, the monster flopped back down, nuzzling into the pillow and scooting just a hair closer to the demon before turning to regard the demon's shoulders. Reaching out, he took several fingers and gripped a bit of the boil's jacket, only because he knew he couldn't get too close this time around without making the boil soggy. Cuddling was out of the question. Still, he held that piece of fabric and feel back asleep.
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:36 pm
By the afternoon, the plant had reached the opposite bedpost, and for all intents and purposes, made an aesthetically neat garland.
Barth was relieved to not wake up to a swarm of thorns. He didn't trust them. He needed to focus on allowing them to grow, not panicked images of the school engulfed.The slime, at least, was comfortably warm, and he could feel Calder breathing next to him.
Safety. He thought. And then, belatedly, Protection.
That was what Malcolm had said. It was about preservation. He felt something churning in his thought processes, and above him, ever so slightly, the thorns thickened.
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:48 pm
Calder could sense when someone was rustling beside him, and opening one eye, looked over at the boil. Seeing Barth awake before him was strange to say the least. Then again, sleeping his late after sleep late was unsual for Calder. He wondered how Bath even managed. Did he even recall days or was everything a blur of endless nap time?
Wiping his face on the pillow, he looked back at the demon and then up at a vine hanging overhead. "They make nice scenery. Makes me think I'm sleeping in the woods." Which was nice considering he could have both plants and a comfortable bed. And then he noticed he was thirsty or was he hungry. "Can you eat them?" He wondered out lout.
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:23 pm
Barth was more than a little appalled by that question.
"Err, no. Well, I suppose you could, maybe, technically, but they're sort of, err...well, it would be like eating-they wither, you know, so I can't imagine they'd be filling." He did not want to explain what it would be like eating. " ...Are you hungry?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:35 pm
His mouth was already dry that eating something that probably would taste like ashes wasn't very appealing. Curiosity fed, he looked back at the boil a moment. "Just thirsty." He slowly sat up, wiping his brow again as the wet slime rolled into his eyes, and then looked about, eyes half open as he went to look at the direction of the kitchen. Then he felt like moaning. .
"You're kitchen is so far away." It was better than walking out and into the hallway to drink at the fountain, but looking at where he was sitting comfortable on the bed ALLLLLL the way over to where the kitchen was, just made him tired imagining it.
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:46 pm
"It is," Barth said. The complaint was a familiar one. He could admit a little personal pride and affection for that kind of thinking."But I do have catering, if you don't mind waiting for Mandy to swing by."
"...If not, I might be able to manage something." He could take care of himself. Sort of. If that box of bone-crackers was still on the counter. "...You really should have that bath, if you're dehydrated."
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:38 pm
Calder leaned in, groaning as he stuffed his face in the mattress. "The bathroom is just as far." Then again, it would be killing two birds with one stone. He could take a bath and drink water. It was a win win....aside from all the walking. He wondered how cold Barth's bath could get. He never used it before.
Lifting his head, he breathed out and looked at the demon. "I don't have anything to wear." His clothes at this point were sticking to him, and the white shirt was almost transparent at this point as it clung to his skin. Maybe Barth wouldn't mind if he was just naked.
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