In which a bad day continues ..

[bondedgryphon]

WHO: bondedgryphon angha_firebird sayhitobianca [CLOSED]
WHAT: Zhaneel hides away with Varric and Aara .. and things go terribly amiss.
WHEN: Early evening

Zhaneel had been quick to respond to Varric's post and it had become rapidly clear that she was not nearly as well as she told Kloe she was. Well, in truth, she hadn't realized how bad she was until a short time later

Comments

[sayhitobianca]

Varric wasn't entirely well himself. If 'not entirely well' was another way of saying 'sicker than a nug after getting ahold of a cask of ale from a dwarven tavern.' He hadn't been planning on leaving where he'd holed himself up at all, both because he didn't want to risk infecting anyone else, and because he wasn't entirely sure he was up to it

[angha_firebird]

Aara was practically tripping over her own feet to get to the bower, and her two friends. She ran the whole way there, stumbling once or twice and not quite realizing that she should probably pay attention to such things. Running was usually one of Aara's strong suits.

Aside from her throat feeling a little sore and tight, and feeling slightly sluggish and out of sorts, Aara chalked most of that up to worry and anxiety over her friends' well being.

When she arrived to the Bower, Zhaneel and Varric were both there. Aara gasps for breath, looking from one to the other, before rushing into first one, and then the other's arms, finally pulling them both into a hug for all three of them together. She buries her face against them, hot tears leaking from her eyes.

[bondedgryphon]

Zhaneel starts slightly, normally rather attuned to the sounds around her, as Varric appears at the top of the stairs behind her. She trembles slightly, unable to stop the motion as it seizes her muscles of its own volition. It passes on its own in a moment and she sighs in obvious relief; whether from the tremor easing or seeing Varric is anyone's guess

[sayhitobianca]

The tremor was troublesome, but he still quirked a bit of a smile for her when she turned to face him. The head bump surprised him somewhat, but that didn't stop him from stroking his hand over her head, smoothing across her feathers.

"I'd already left the tavern, so I wasn't particularly attached to where I was. Besides, I wasn't about to leave the star of my next story on her own."

And then he was surprised for the second time that night, when he suddenly had an armful of Aara. And was then pulled into a hug involving the both of them. Varric wrapped his other arm around Aara, hugging her gently, while his other arm was still about Zhaneel's neck.

The hugging he could deal with, but the crying? That was more than making him uncomfortable.

"Come on, Birdie, don't cry. We'll get through this."

OMG I THOUGHT I WAS WAITING FOR A TAG SO SORRY

[angha_firebird]

Nodding against both Varric and Zhaneel, Aara tries to stop her silent tears. They keep coming, however, and she is unable to do anything but nod to anything and everything they might say. She laughs a bit at Zhaneel's actions and fondness, pulling away finally to wipe at her face.

"Sorry..."

Even Aara's icon is shocked!! *hugs* No worries! I should be getting ready for bed, but tags!!

[bondedgryphon]

She chortles softly against Varric's chest, eyes closing briefly as his hand strokes across her feathers. "You arrre too kind, Varrrric .. the ssstarr.." She muses silently about that, amused and full of wonderment

GLEE TAGS

[sayhitobianca]

He smiled a bit at Zhaneel's comment. "It'll be my biggest hit yet. Just don't go saying things like that in public. Got a reputation to keep up here." Varric didn't need people to go and start doing things like thinking he was kind.

Varric kept his arm around the both of them, stroking Aara's back somewhat awkwardly in an attempt to be soothing as she made a vain effort to stop her tears. When she pulled back, he gave her a smile. "Don't be sorry. Just-" And then he was cut off by a brief coughing fit, turning away from them slightly so he wasn't directly coughing on them.

It was over quickly, then he turned back to them to nod at Zhaneel's suggestion. "Sounds like a good idea to me." He followed Zhaneel into the tower itself, his arm still around her neck.

OMG YAY SORRY STILL LOVE

[angha_firebird]

Aara walks into the bower with them in relief. Zhaneel still sounded weaker than Aara had ever heard her, but she'd be all right. She had to be all right.

Both she and Varric were all--

Varric's coughing fit stopped Aara in her tracks. She pales completely. Her blood began pounding in her temples. Oh, no.

No!

With legs that trembled, Aara moved into the room methodically, her mind blanking for a moment as for what she should do. One thing was certain. She would not let them die.

"Here. You two should rest. Relax, and I can make you both some tea. That should help." Yes. Tea would soothe away their troubles. Maybe. Possibly.

With fingers that trembled, Aara lightly but firmly guided them to the softest looking cushions so they could sit, mind looking around the room in interest as she wonders where to locate everything she would need.

She couldn't face that those most dearest to her here might die. She wouldn't believe it. Not until she saw it with her own eyes.

/LOVES FOREVER - Prepare yourselves...

[bondedgryphon]

Zhaneel remains a steady figure beneath Varric's arm as the cough racks his sturdy frame. She keens softly in concern, but Aara quickly hustles them into the room and moves to make them comfortable.

"Aarrra I am fine .. pleassse do not worrrrry yourrrssself," she offers softly. Only she wasn't fine. As she lowers herself to a pile of cushions, curling up her bulk much like a cat (just bigger and winged) her muscles scream in protest and her attempt to smoothly curl up ends in her legs giving out. With a startled and pain squawk, Zhaneel collapses, her body trembling all over. She can't stop the jerky motions, beak snapping together before parting in a pain filled groan.

The seizure lasts only for a few moments, but when it ends the gryphon is left panting, her heart racing painfully against her ribs. She's thoroughly stretched out, too weak to even lift her head as her eyes open and stare unfocused. A mournful sound escapes her beak and she hasn't even the strength to try to hold it at bay and spare her friends.

;A; forever

[sayhitobianca]

"Don't suppose you got anything a little stronger than tea," he replied, the corner of his mouth tilting upward in a small smirk. He paused, then added, "Tea'd be nice." It'd give Aara something to do, anyway, and he had his own something stronger to put in it.

Except then Zhaneel collapsed, and his attention was suddenly focused completely on her. He'd pulled his arm from around her neck only when she'd started to lie down - and even then he hadn't so much pulled away as just not follow her when she lowered herself - but he followed now, kneeling by her side.

"Easy, Feathers. We're here." He stroked a gentle hand over her head.

For all the good that did.

;A; forever <-- THAT D8

[angha_firebird]

Aara needed to be able to do something for them. Comfort them, ease their pain. No matter how many times Varric and Zhaneel reassured her, Aara couldn't keep her worry and panic at bay.

It anyone entered the bower while her friends were ill... heaven help them, because nothing else certainly would.

Blinking back at Varric, Aara had to wonder at that for a moment. Something stronger? As in wine? Then Zhaneel collapsed, and the floor dropped out from under her.

"Zhaneel!" The cry ripped from Aara's throat, a cry very near a predator's shriek, and she raced back to where Zhaneel lay, collapsing on her knees at her friend's side. Hands fluttered over Zhaneel's large form, then fingers delved calmingly into the feathers located at the base of Zhaneel's wings.

/pets

[bondedgryphon]

It takes several moments for the stricken gryphon to stock trembling beneath the hands of her worried friends and longer still before she is aware it is they with her. A soft keen escapes her throat, pained and fearful and she makes to roll from her side back to a more upright position, but the ability to do so simply fails her.

She lies panting on the Bower floor, golden eyes slowly regaining focus as she rolls them toward the two at her side.

"Hurrrrtsss.." she whimpers softly, losing any ability to remain calm or brave. She wants to, but it hurts too much. Her beak gapes tomsteal a breath as Varric's hands stroke along her head, her pulse beating frantically beneath the hot skin under Aara's fingers.

"Ssssorrrrry," she whispers up to them both, so much weight in a single word. Speaking was beginning to hurt, as if something sharp was caught in her craw and refused to come out. "Felt fine thissss morrrning .. Ssssorre and a little tired, but nothing to concerrrn about.. Did not think .. Sssshould have come to you ssssoonerrr."

[sayhitobianca]

Watching her be in pain and not being able to do an Andraste-cursed thing about it was - not exactly something Varric was thrilled about. He'd seen friends in pain before, seen people sick and bleeding and broken and dying, but that was different. He'd been the cause of most of it, for one, and for the ones he hadn't, when it was his friends, it was usually in battle. By the time things settled and he'd actually seen how injured they were, they were already being tended to.

There wasn't anything he could do about this.

"Don't be sorry. You couldn't have known." His voice was a lot calmer than he felt at the moment.

Varric hadn't gone to anyone, either, after all, and he'd been worse off. Well. Worse off than she'd been before, but no where near as bad as this. He kept his hand on her head, fingers combing through her feathers.

[angha_firebird]

A whimper bubbles past Aara's lips in pained sympathy moments after the sound leaves Zhaneel's throat. Frantic pale blue eyes search Zhaneel's body, looking for anything that could be the root of the problem. She could bandage up wounds--stitch flesh together again in a pinch--but this? There was no visible wound to be seen. With that realization came the inner knowledge that there was nothing she could do.

Helplessness was a raw feeling. Especially when it concerns someone you care so deeply for that your inability to ease their suffering in any way makes your helplessness all that clearer.

"Zhaneel..." It was a soft croon, everything Aara was feeling resounding in her tone of that single word. "I want to help you..." Her soft voice sounded almost child-like and innocent with those beseeching words. Shifting to drape herself lightly over Zhaneel's large form, Aara wraps her in a gentle, sad hug, laying out next to her friend and giving comfort in the only way she knew how.

"Don't apologize. Varric is right. It's not your fault."

[bondedgryphon]

Amidst the pain a cloudy sense of realization began to form within the trembling gryphon; she was dying. The thought had been in the back of her mind all the while, but to accept the reality was a different beast altogether. She had often thought about death, and more often had wished for it, but now laying at it's door, Zhaneel could do not but wish for more time.

For the first time in a life filled with insult and mockery, she found that she wanted to stay. These two, along with several others, had never spoken if her faults or flaws; instead they'd spoken of how wonderful and special she was. They'd reached out to her in ways that no others had and in doing so, had given the fragile gryphon something to fight for; and that was now being taken from her.

"I do not want to die.." she murmurs, body feeling heavy. Golden eyes focus and flit first to Varric, close to her face with his fingers gently caressing her feathers and then to Aara as she stretches out before her. Her ears flick halfway forward at the sound of her voice, but

[sayhitobianca]

The knowledge that death didn't meant much here, that everything Varric knew told him that Zhaneel would come back from this, even if she didn't beat this illness - it didn't mean much right then. Not when Zhaneel was scared and in pain and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

"I don't want you to, either." That sounded a little too serious there, and he attempted a bit of a smile for her. "I've got a story to write about you, Feathers. Can't let you get out of it this soon."

Words didn't change anything. Not something like this. They couldn't stop this, but he fell back on them, anyway.

He leaned forward slightly, one arm loosely around her neck and the other still combing through her feathers as he did his best to gently hold her through the seizures. She was getting worse. He couldn't really deny what was coming any more.

"Don't you worry. Birdie and I aren't going anywhere. We'll see you through this."

Well. Yes he could.