IP: 82.19.140.112
Posted on September 15, 2014 at 00:11:47 AM by arthur
Arthur felt the increase in pressure as Mallos squeezed his hand, and the king checked his friend’s face with a frown of concern. Outwardly his dark eyes looked the same as ever, but there was something uncharacteristically unfocused and off-kilter about what was going on behind them. The Spaniard seemed to wobble a little, and Arthur moved his other hand so as to offer Mallos further support by taking hold of his elbow and steering him back down onto the bed. The king glanced at his sister with raised eyebrows and found that she was biting her lip in an unusual display of outward and uncertain concern. Taking a couple of steps forwards Morgana perched on the edge of the bed to her father’s back right, and Kraar landed on the metal frame of the headboard, his head tipped enquiringly to one side. “Back with us,” Morgana said in a gentle voice as she rested her hand on his shoulder, “back home with your family, on Shaman.” Arthur nodded as he sat down on the mattress beside his father-in-law. “Therait came and you...well...” “You kind of blew yourself up,” Morgana said, finishing the sentence for him, “we didn’t know if you were ever going to wake up.” Mallos’ few moments of comprehension didn’t seem to last and Arthur raised a hand to quieten Morgana. For the first (and probably only) time in her life, his sister obeyed and fell silent and bit down on her bottom lip again in concern. It clearly wasn’t the time to be overloading Mallos with information, especially not potentially traumatic information. Arthur had never been blown up personally and didn’t know anyone else personally who had but he imagined that it was not a pleasant experience all things told. Mallos might be as incorrigible as a mountain stream but there was a chance that even he didn’t just bounce back from something like that. “Mallos?” There was no response. Arthur repeated the name a second time, louder and slower and waited for any indication that his friend had heard him. Nothing. “Arthur?” Morgana said uncertainly, slipping back off the bed in order to walk around it and crouch down at Mallos’ feet. She looked up into his face, frozen in an expression she had never seen him wear before. “I don’t know,” Arthur confessed, resting a hand on the Spaniard’s shoulder to give him a little shake. “Mallos, are you with us?” The change in facial expression which followed a few long moments later was so extreme as to be frightening. Mallos’ look was one of intense panic and his eyes told both of his relatives that wherever his mind was, it was not in the room with them. “Mallos,” said Morgana, rising to her feet and taking hold of her father’s face, “it’s me, it’s Morgana, can you hear me?” He made no response, but his chest had begun to heave with quickened breathing and a bead of sweat made its way down the side of his face as his hands knotted themselves frantically into the sheets. Finally, finally he said their names. He looked like a blind man trying to find unseen figures in the dark as he reached out for them. “We’re right here,” Arthur said, giving Mallos’ shoulder another gentle squeeze as Morgana quickly took hold of her father’s hand and pressed it against her cheek, her pale fingers brushing against his olive ones. “Come back to us, whatever it is you’re safe here with us, nothing else is real. This is real, we’re real.” Arthur watched her look up into the Spaniard’s frozen face with a sad smile, and was shocked when she muttered an urgent, “Father...please.”  |
Replies:
- the dark side of the sun. - By mallos September 20, 2014 at 07:28:29 PM
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