Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~

Cold…

So cold…

Can’t breathe…

Am I… going to die?

Sho… I don’t want to die…

Please…

…help me…

Red eyes slowly opened to a cold world. It was dark. Dark and cold. Was she dead? Was this hell?

Twitch twitch

Her ears instinctively flicked as warm air gently passed over them. In fact, it felt as if there were two streams of intermittent wind just above her head.

Sniff sniff

Wait, this scent was familiar. There was a person in front of her. Shouri. This was Shouri’s scent. He was holding her. His arms were wrapped around her head as he pushed her head into his chest. That accounted for the first set of arms; now that she was becoming more aware of her situation, she felt a second set of arms, wrapped around her stomach. Incidentally, whoever owned these arms had moved her shirt out of the way, so their hands were resting on her bare stomach.

Moving her feet around she finally felt something soft, long, covered in fine, short hair… an otter’s tail! It was Pacifica!

That bit of discovery out of the way, Rebecca let out a sharp exhale. She was cocooned by Shouri and Pacifica, a thick comforter laid over the top of them. She was in her soft silky pajamas (now when did that happen?) All in all, it was quite comfy for the fire Resonator. She smiled blissfully, unaware (or caring) that her tail had begun to wag.

Both Pacifica and Shouri were so nice and warm, comfy and cozy. She stopped fretting about how she got into this situation and drifted back to sleep.

It was so cold…

So terribly cold…

But

There were two pairs of hands, each pair wrapped around one of her own, pulling her from the depths. These hands were warm, gentle, and caring. All the way to the surface they pulled her.

Once more Rebecca was awake, taking in a life-giving breath.

“Rebby?”

“Are you okay?”

Pacifica and Shouri. It was still dark, wherever they were. But at least it was warm. The two warm bodies eased their grip over her, to give her some room.

“Where are we?” Rebecca asked. She felt stiff, very stiff. Her back ached with a dull pain, and it felt like her legs had atrophied to the point of uselessness.

“My room,” Pacifica replied. She sat up and groaned a bit, the bed moved in such a way that it was obvious the otter was also stiff and trying to alleviate that discomfort with some stretching.

“How did we get here?” Rebecca attempted to push herself up but found she just didn’t have the strength to do so.

“Come here, Rebecca.”

The fox squeaked as she was pulled up and leaned against Shouri, resting against the headboard of the bed. “You got Re-kindling illness,” he told her gently.

“What?” Rather than surprise, dread, or fear, the fire Resonator was simply confused.

“Ah, your previous Maestros never let you near water,” Shouri noted.

“Not really.” Rebecca’s ears folded back. She curled up a bit, resting her head on his chest. “I got tons of combat training, but until Lyle, my previous owners were very careful with me.” There was a weight of pain in those words.

“Sorry.” The guilt from Shouri’s lips was palpable.

Rebecca balled up a bit of Shouri’s shirt with her fists, trembling. “Don’t be. I hated it.”

Shouri gently stroked her hair. “Re-kindling illness is a rhythm disease only fire Resonators can catch. It’s when your internal fire gets snuffed out from over-exposure to water,” he explained.

“Oh yeah… we were in the rain.” It was all coming back to her now. “We went to those apartments, and I remember you said you broke up with that Lina chick.” She paused, continuing to play back what had happened.

“When you said that I relaxed and then suddenly it all went black.” The vixen’s eyes slowly began to close again. She really liked him stroking her hair like this. “Sho…” she cooed.

“Don’t fall back asleep yet. You need to eat something.” Shouri’s voice snapped her out of her attempt to sleep on him.

“I’ll go grab the soup Taika’s been working on,” Pacifica offered, scooting off the bed.

The dark room was finally illuminated by the hallway light filtering in through the open door as Pacifica made her exit.

Drip drip

Rebecca felt drops hit her head. “Huh?” She looked up to find Shouri crying. “Sh-sho?” Her usual rhythmic sense was dulled, probably due in part to her current affliction.

“I-I’m sorry Rebecca,” he whimpered.

“I-it’s okay, we chased after you we should have-”

He curled up around her, holding her tightly and trembling. “N-no…” His voice cracked. “When you collapsed, I kept thinking about Mila.” Rebecca didn’t know exactly how to feel about that, but he continued: “That’s not right. It’s not healthy. You’re not her, you’re you and you’re special,” the Maestro managed to get out.

And suddenly Rebecca’s face was very red. Such a strong emotion hit her like a sack of bricks, even in her compromised state. His words were so genuine it made her heart ache, feeling his pain as her own. “Sho, it’s okay,” Rebecca whispered. Mustering up what little strength she had, she wrapped her arms around his chest and held him tightly. “I know you care about me, us. You’re not like other Maestros, you’re special.”

At that point, Shouri finally fully broke down, sobbing loudly and holding Rebecca tightly. She smiled and consoled him, refusing to release him as well.

This wasn’t anything she ever had expected to experience but having someone care about you as a person so much they could be driven to the point of tears.

It was nice.

Click!

The lights were flicked on, causing Rebecca to wince slightly as her eyes had been long adjusted to the darkness. Shouri’s other two Resonators stood at the door, Taika holding a steaming bowl between her gloved hands.

“Soups up!” Pacifica cheerfully announced. Rebecca stared through narrowed eyes at the otter. There’s no way she didn’t feel that emotional rollercoaster that just happened. Though thinking it through, Pacifica probably waited until Shouri had calmed down for the most part before bursting into the room.

Reaching behind her bed, Pacifica produced a little table, which was seated over Rebecca’s lap. Taika silently set the bowl down and walked out of the room.

Rebecca stared at the soup for a moment, before she noticed Shouri attempting to scoot out of bed. She reached out and grabbed his shirt. “Sho,” she whimpered.

“I’m just going to the bathroom, I’ll be right back, I promise.”

That was enough to make the vixen smile. She released him, allowing him to go off to take care of business. In the interim, Pacifica pushed her cart-mounted TV to the foot of the bed. The otter plopped onto the bed next to the sick fox, flicking on the television with its bound remote. “Whatcha wanna watch?”

Rebecca’s ears folded back as she lowered her head. Nobody ever cared for her like this. It was overwhelming. “I dunno. Pick something.” She mumbled. It was at this point the aroma of the soup hit her. What was it?

Looking down she saw a bowl of red something. It wasn’t thick like a tomato-based soup, nor was it a stew. It just seemed like a broth. A spoon had been provided, which she scooped up and cradled between her fingers. Dipping the utensil into the liquid she gave it a quick stir. Slivers of finely cooked onion surfaced, along with a cloud of something suspended within the liquid.

For her, scalding hot soup was the optimal temperature. She had heard from her non-fire contemporaries that consuming boiling liquids hurt their tongues and mouths, leaving them sore for days. But when you were fire, such trifling afflictions like burns were reserved for only the most extreme temperatures.

She took a spoonful of the broth and gently brought it to her lips, sipping it. Her eyes widened. This was delicious! Swallowing the small bit of liquid felt like taking in a drip of fire down her throat, and into her stomach. The afterburn too was incredible. It was everything she wanted right now, and she hadn’t realized it until she had taken that first sip.

The poor spoon would only have its singular use, as Rebecca picked up the bowl and excitedly downed the entire thing without taking a breath.

“Well, I’m glad you have an appetite.” Shouri chuckled, having returned to the room at some point.

Rebecca slowly lowered the bowl from her now entirely beet-red face, trying to minimize her chewing of the remaining onions.

Shouri sat on the edge of the bed next to the two Resonators. “She was the most worried about you,” Pacifica revealed.

Rebecca couldn’t believe that. Taika, worried about her?

“I just put her to bed in the other room. She hasn’t slept since we got back,” Shouri added.

“What?” Rebecca raised a brow.

“You’ve been out since Saturday night,” he told her.

“Wait… Sho, what’s today?”

“Monday.”

“Monday night,” Pacifica added in.

“She’s been up for two days?” Rebecca questioned, still trying to piece all of this together.

Shouri chuckled. “Yeah, and honestly the only way I would have been able to make her sleep is with the red button, and even then, I think her stubborn will would have kept her going for a little bit.”

It just seemed so odd, why did Taika go so far for her? “What was she even doing?”

Shouri and Pacifica both pointed to the empty bowl where the spicy residue left over remained. “When we got back and dried you off, she wanted to heal you with her spells, but there is no spell that does that,” Shouri revealed.

“It almost seemed like to me that she took it personally,” Pacifica noted. “Mom had some books on caring for fire Resonators, so she took to it.”

“For me?” Rebecca’s gaze drifted down to the empty bowl.

“She’s been experimenting with different mixes that are supposed to re-ignite your inner fire and this is what she came up with,” Shouri told her.

“For me,” Rebecca repeated.

“Did it work?” Pacifica asked hopefully.

Slowly, a hand raised to her chest. It wasn’t cold anymore, but she couldn’t feel her usual fiery presence within herself. “I’m not sure,” she admitted quietly.

“There is no such thing as an instant cure, even healing magic takes time to work. Traditional medicine like this is even slower,” Shouri advised.

Rebecca nodded. “It’s working I think.” The gears were certainly turning in her head and distracting her. “For me…” she whispered once more.

“Mmmrgh…” Red eyes slowly opened once more. It was dark, but that was to be expected when sleeping in Pacifica’s cave of slumber. For a time, the still ill fire fox lay there, loosely contained by her Maestro and fellow Resonator. However, nature protested this arrangement. “Hrmm…” She squeezed her legs together as the uncomfortable pressure made itself more and more apparent.

Finally, she had enough and gently wiggled out from between her companions. Free from the friendship cocoon, she felt her way around the darkness until she managed to locate the door. Quietly slipping out of the room, she made her way down the hall to the bathroom where she took care of business.

Freshened up, she exited the confines of the restroom, looking to and fro. To her left was the master bedroom, which Pacifica’s parents left open, the two elders of the house sleeping away without a care in the world. The rest of the house, due right was dark – it was still pretty late at night, or early morning; didn’t matter.

There was a bit of weakness still in the fox. While she was now able to move around under her own strength, there was a problem with her body that still concerned her.

Her legs, or more accurately, the lack of her inner fire. She couldn’t create her Icarus’ ala, her ad-Lib that allowed her flames to burn at her feet, her pride and joy. She had been trained by so many masters of her element on how to fight with her inner fire, that without it she felt naked, scared, defenseless.

Sure, she still had the physical acts of the martial arts she was taught (she had a hell of a kick even without her ad-Lib boosting it). It still didn’t help ease her concerns. Her previous instructors even warned her not to grow complacent with her fire, but here she was now a sad little fireless puppy.

With a heavy sigh, she trudged back to Pacifica’s room. Though she drew pause just before returning to Shouri and Pacifica. To her back was the open room Taika was sleeping in. She turned to take a peek. The little bit of moonlight from the waxing crescent filtered in through the window, illuminating the lunar Resonator. Rebecca rubbed her eyes, though she swore that the other vixen was sparkling ever so slightly.

“For me…” Rebecca breathed out. Hesitantly she stepped away from the closed door and towards the open room directly across from it. She approached the bed Taika slept peacefully in. Hugging herself, Rebecca deliberated on her next action before finally crawling into bed and curling up next to Taika.

The lunar fox must have unconsciously sensed the warmth that just plopped down next to her, as she reached out and wrapped herself around the fire fox. Rebecca allowed it, hoping to repay the favor bestowed upon her. Slowly the lids of her eyes began to grow heavy.

…when did Taika get so warm?

Cold, very cold.

Pacifica trembled from head to toe as she stirred from her slumber. “Mrrgh…” She huddled towards the nearest heat source and tried to drift back to sleep. Just before she passed the barrier from consciousness to unconsciousness, her eyes snapped back open as a realization hit her.

“Where’s Rebby?” she gasped quietly while sitting up quickly. Shouri stirred, being awoken by the sudden movements.

“Paci?” he groggily asked.

“Rebby is gone,” she alerted him.

“She probably went to the bathroom; she did drink like five bowls of soup.” He waved off her concern.

“But-!”

Shouri rolled over, palming the nightstand several times before he took grasp of a tuner. “Fuck.” He cursed as the light from the screen hit him like a flash bang. “Mmrph.” He grunted, returning the tuner he grabbed to sleep mode and setting it back where he grabbed it from.

“Well?” Pacifica asked expectingly.

“She’s sleeping,” he replied, trying to get comfortable again.

“Where?”

The Maestro lay there for a moment, still trying to fall back asleep. However, Pacifica asked a pretty good question. With an annoyed sigh, he finally sat up. “I hate when you’re right,” he grumbled. She just giggled in response.

Thankfully it didn’t take them long to find the missing fox. As soon as they opened the door to Pacifica’s bedroom, they spotted Rebecca, fast asleep with Taika.

“Oh.” Pacifica and Shouri looked to one another. It was still early; the sun hadn’t risen yet. Wordlessly they turned and stepped back into the bedroom, gently closing the door behind them.

Best to let sleeping foxes lie, they decided.