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<--Main <-Fan Art Bao-Hadir: A story by Project_Demise Part 4 ... ... ...Ow... ... ... ...Ouch...Sonuva... ... ... All I feel is pain... ... All I see is darkness... ... Where am I? ... What happened to me? ... What is that? ... A light? ... A light... I must...move towards that light... I pump my legs as fast as I can, running for the light... I must reach it! My only goal is the light... At last! I leap for the light... I am still in darkness. But this darkness is familiar...Friendly even. I can feel myself. All of me is in pain. But I'm alive. That counts for something at least. Okay, I must focus myself... Swish... I make one of my tails move. Though the pain in doing so is excruciating, it is also bearable. Now, another one. Swish... I almost cry out in pain, yet I stifle it. I cannot open my eyes yet. They will not obey me. I have no idea where I am, so must remain silent, lest I alert some enemy to my presence. Now, to move a third... Swish... By the great Buddha! The pain! No! The darkness is returning! FOCUS, BAO-HADIR! FIGHT IT OFF! ... The darkness has left...for the moment... Now I can feel the problem... My third tail is broken somewhere in the middle, possibly in two places. No wonder the darkness of unconsciousness almost drew me back. I am injured... How did that happen? Focus...Allow your power to flow through you... The words of my mother come back to me, and I heed them. My power flows from the tips of my tails, where it is strongest, to the tip of my nose, where it is weakest. And with that power, I can see my wounds as if I were looking at myself from the outside. Two of my seven tails are broken, one is sprained, another is completely bald, and the other three are simply bruised. One of my ears has a ragged hole in it, while a large gash across the side of my face mars my beauty. I look a fright. What happened toc Wait. It's all coming back to me. Melissa, Azlan, the evil house, the failed spell. Or did the spell fail? Not once in my seven hundred years of life have I ever made a mistake with a spell. Something must have interfered. But what? Focus again... C'mon eyes, open! Open! Slowly but surely, my leaden lids raise ever-so-slightly. A miniscule amount of light pierces through the short lashes of my eyes. I close my eyes again. The light hurts. I draw some of my magic into my lungs. Then, slowly and carefully, I breathe it out, sending my power out around me. A moment passes and the magic returns, bringing with it a vision of my surroundings. For some reason that I have been unable to find, whenever I use my magic for sight, the visions always return to me shaded in blue. That is how the room around me looks, viewed through my magic. Everything is blue-tinted, making it difficult to discern distinct features, but at least I can make out the shapes. From the way things look, I am still in Melissa's room. I am on the floor, sprawled out a few feet from Azlan's basket-bed. The dog himself is collapsed against his basket, unmoving. I fear the worst. Melissa herself is atop me, attempting to shield my body with her own. Without my illusion, my body is several times larger than most have seen. I always have an illusion on; one which makes me seem smaller and less intimidating than I really am. However, with my shrinking illusion gone, my body is longer than hers, my tails curling slightly after pressing against the door. Her small body is pressed close to my chest. It is rocked gently by my breathing, this I can sense. A few minutes pass, as I try to force my magic to heal my body. It does so, though reluctantly, and not completely. Though my tails are fixed and my furless tail is swathed in black once again, the slash across my face is still there. It bleeds no longer, but it is scarred over. A permanent blemish...My anger flows throw my body, and my tails spark with power. My icy-blue eyes shoot open and I ignore the pain from the light. It isn't as intense as it was, but it is still irritatingly painful. Looking towards Azlan's basket, I sigh in sorrow. The dog is dead. I don't need magic to tell that he has released his last breath. The sickeningly sweet scent rising from his already decaying flesh hits my nose and I feel the need to vomit. Forcing back the reflex, I send magic into Melissa, searching her body for injury. When my magic returns to me, I yelp in surprise. Her injuries are worse than mine were! It's as if whatever happened to me caused most of her bones to shatter like glass. I am very surprised that she still lives. I doubt any other human could live through having nearly all their bones fall apart like that, especially when it happens all at the same time... And yet there is no trace of her wounds on the outside. I must help her. What I had told the Kitsune Kaze was only partly true. If he had touched my tails without my wanting him to, my magic would've erupted and destroyed him. However, if I will it, this does not happen. I raise my middle tail, the fourth of seven, and wrap it gently around Melissa. Though she is unconscious, she moans with the pain as I lift her off of me. I guide her back to my other tails, then gently cocoon her with them, all seven of them wrapping around her form. I allow my considerable magicks to flow in a loop around her, forcing healing into every inch of her body. Though I am extending the full force of my magic into healing Melissa's body, it is a slow process, which must be taken as such. If one were to speed up a healing, horrific problems might occur. I have seen such a thing only once before, and have no wish to see it again. Therefore, I might as well get comfortable, since I shall be here for a while. I climb up on Melissa's bed, which is rather large considering the size of the person who normally sleeps here, and curl up, my tail cocoon gently encircled by my paws. Finally, I shall have a decent rest, but before I do... I draw upon the last piece of my magic that isn't healing Melissa and cast it at the door. My power surrounds the portal and seals it tightly. Now the only things that can get in and out besides me are ghosts. I close my eyes and relax my mind... ZZZZZZ ... I awake to a loud noise. I open my swiftly, alert for danger. Yet there is none forthcoming. I look around, but nothing seems threatening. What was it that had awoken me? *Rustle* What? What was that sound? *Stroke* Mmmcthat feels nice...Right in the middle of my second tail...Wait...That feels like...a hand?! I swiftly unwrap my tails from around Melissa. As soon as my first tail leaves her head, I hear a sharp intake of breath, as if she were holding it for a long time... I'm an idiot. I should've realized that by making my tail-cocoon, I'd cut off the air inside. If it hadn't been for the magical flow, she probably would've died. I must make a note to never do that again. When she finally sits up, she looks around the room, her eyes wide with wonder, as though she were seeing the place for the first time. When her eyes lock onto mine, she simply stares. She doesn't scream, like some humans would, and she doesn't point, which most humans would do. Instead, her eyes seem to pierce me, as if trying to sense my intentions. She blinks several times, then climbs off my tails. She sits beside me, stroking my side. Her reaction is completely different from what I'd expected, yet at the same time exactly like I'd expected, considering she'd somehow known what I was even before this moment. Instead of being frightened by me, she seems at peace with it. Instead of trying to get away from me, like a normal human would, she has instead snuggled closer to me, burying her face in the mixture of coarse and soft fur that marks the border between my belly and sides. And instead of screaming, she softly cries, but not from fright. Rather, it is intense sorrow that causes her tears. Like anything dog-like, I can smell human emotion. And her scent is filled with grief... She knows Azlan is dead. As she lies herself along my body and begins sobbing, I cannot help but feel pity for this small human. The only thing that helped her feel somewhat safe is now lying dead at the foot of her bed, his life stolen from him even before my spell went awry. There isn't much I can do in this situation. Rather, the only thing I can do is curl myself around Melissa, turning onto my side to expose my soft belly to her. As I curl tighter around her, my tails touching my nose and my legs holding her against me, I hear a soft, sleepy whisper. "Thank you, puppy..." How had she known? To be continued...
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