A loud rumble woke me up. The kind that was oh so familiar, but yet just unique enough to pull me from my deep sleep… and my dreams.

Rolling over a bit, I glared at the nearby window. It was shuttered, and the drapes were covering it, but still I pretended I could glare straight out of it and up at the sky. The one that was rumbling and being noisy. I could hear the howl of the wind outside, and the heavy rain that it carried.

Another storm. This place sure did get many of them. Maybe it was because it was technically a port city? Even though it barely felt like it sometimes, since I stayed indoors so much. Though speaking of such cold and the feeling of it… why did it feel like lately I've been more aware of the cold temperatures? Hadn't Vim said that I should be less affected by extreme heat or cold, thanks to the heart forming in me? Why then did I feel like lately I wanted to wear thicker clothes, and bundle up more often than not? Was it because my senses were adjusting, and so I was more aware of it all as it did, or was it something else maybe?

"A better thing to ponder is…" I mumbled as I pushed myself up into a seating position. I yawned as I glanced around, smelling the damp air… and figured Vim had been gone for at least an hour or so. His scent was still here, but old. Cold.

I wasn't sure yet if I was still adapting, or if Vim's scent was just… that weak sometimes, but I felt as if his smell dissipated and left a tad too quickly. I had hoped to sleep and hold his extra clothes while he had been gone, but only a couple days after he had left I had pulled them out and found they had stopped smelling. At all. Not just like him, but of anything.

It had to be something to do with his abilities. Surely. Though it made no sense…

Still, I wonder where he'd gone. And I wonder how come I hadn't woken when he had done so. Usually I did lately… maybe I hadn't been laying up against him like I usually did? I might have rolled over or something… Though it could just be that I had been far more exhausted than I wanted to believe I had been? "Might just be because we'd been up so late," I said as I stretched a bit. As I did the blankets fell completely off me, and I was forced to realize how cold it was in the room.

A tad too cold. I'll need to make sure the home Vim and I build up north isn't drafty, and to make sure the bedroom has a fireplace. This one didn't, though it honestly wasn't so cold that it actually needed one. I was likely just being… well…

"Picky," I said to myself as I got out of bed.

Although I had no idea what time it was, I figured it couldn't be too long after morning. Vim wouldn't have left before sunrise, no matter how busy he was, but he also wouldn't have waited much long after it. Plus although I'd happily eat a snack, I didn't feel hungry enough to justify wanting dinner. So midday at the latest it was.

A bright light flashed into the room for a moment as I got dressed, and then the loud rumble that followed made my ears and tail twitch like mad.

A very big storm, by the sounds of it. I could hear through the heavy wind and hard rain the sound of puddles. The kind of deep and big ones that told me huge swaths of the streets around the building were likely flooded.

Lumen wasn't able to flood as bad as some of the other cities I'd been to, since not only was it made mostly of stone it was also built on just enough of a slope to let the water run off into the ocean, but I don't think I'd ever heard or seen a storm this bad here before. I decided to make sure I peeked my head out of the building at least once before the day was over, to see what it actually looked like.

Once dressed I left my room in search of Vim. I wanted to tease him about sneaking off without waking me. I knew if I did so properly he'd give me that silly little smirk that made my tail twitch.

Before I could find him though I walked around a corner and found Liina. She was kneeling in the middle of the hallway and…

"Are you okay Liina?" I asked as I walked over to her. She was kneeling in front of a box, one that looked as if it had been dropped on accident. She was slowly picking up what looked like little wooden… what were those? Boxes? Toys? Tools? I wonder when she had dropped the box, I hadn't heard it at all even though I'd been heading this way… and there were quite a few scattered around the hallway. A few were even up against the wall.

"Oh. Morning Renn. Yes. I'm fine… I think…" Liina said, and I almost stepped backward at the mere sound of her voice… let alone the look on her face.

She sounded, and looked, terribly sick. The kind that made me want to be careful. "Geez Liina…" I said as I stepped a bit around her and knelt down to help her.

"Sorry… thanks," Liina said with a weird voice. Her nose was plugged, and she sounded like her throat hurt. And judging by the huge dark circles under her eyes, and the faint smell of sickness upon her it was clear she was not only utterly exhausted but had recently thrown up.

"I hope you were heading back to your room, to sleep," I said as I got the rest of the little wooden objects back into the box. Even as I picked them all up I wasn't sure what they were. They looked like little boxes, but felt hollow inside, but didn't seem to open or anything either. Were they some kind of decorations maybe? They were odd, but not to the point I'd find them neat on a shelf or anything.

"Mhm…" Liina only groaned an answer as she nodded. I stood up, lifting the box for her… and found myself going several moments without Liina moving.

"Liina?" I asked, worried. She was still kneeling down on the ground, and had started to lean oddly… had she just fallen asleep?

She twitched ever so slightly, took a deep breath and started to cough. As she did she slowly stood, and did so with such unsure feet I instinctively reached out to grab her by the arm.

Luckily the box full of smaller wooden boxes was light. I held Liina's arm, keeping her upright, as she slightly swayed a bit. She looked not just half asleep, but in a daze. "Ah. Thank you Renn…" Liina blinked at me, and I noted the odd tone she had just used.

Had she… had she completely forgotten I was just talking to her? Surely not, right?

"Come on. Let's get you to bed," I said gently as I tugged on her arm, to lead her to her room. It was on this floor, but around the corner I'd just come from and down another hallway. Near Jasna's room.

"Bed…? I don't want to. Vim would kill me…" Liina said lightly, and then coughed a bit. I couldn't tell if her coughing fit was because she had tried to laugh, or if her little statement had been utterly serious. Still had almost made me laugh, all the same. Probably would have if not for how seriously ill she seemed to be.

"Not if your sickness doesn't do you in first. When'd you get this bad, Liina? I just saw you yesterday at the docks with everyone else," I said as I slowly took her to her room.

"Mhm… I donno," she mumbled.

Gosh! I'd think she was drunk if not for the fact she didn't just look sick, but felt it! I was holding her arm, and she had a thin sleeve covering it, but I could feel her body heat through it and it wasn't nothing to scoff at.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I'll need to get someone. I'll have to let the others know of her condition. This wasn't normal, I didn't think, at least.

"Door…" Liina whispered something I didn't catch as we reached her bedroom. I thought at first she was saying her door was locked or something, but I found it not so. I opened it, and was a little surprised to find… a rather cluttered room.

Hesitating a moment, I glanced at Liina and found her just… standing behind me. As if she was completely out of it, she didn't even seem to be looking at anything. She had her head hung a bit, and she was blinking very slowly… as if about to fall asleep.

"Sorry Liina," I apologized as I entered her room and tugged her in with me.

I guided her to her bed, which I found had a lot of blankets upon it. The handcrafted things looked… kind of worn and thin, with many holes, but there were at least a dozen of them layered on each other so I didn't worry for her getting cold. I put the box down on a nearby table, one I had barely been able to use thanks to how much stuff was upon it, and then went to tucking her into bed.

Liina didn't fuss or fight me as I helped her undress. I wasn't going to take all of her clothes off, but to my surprise she hadn't been wearing anything underneath her two outer layers. And also to my surprise, although Liina the cat didn't have a tail… she sure did have plenty of fur to make up for it. It covered most of her thighs and midsection, to the point her lack of undergarments made sense. That much fur likely made wearing certain undergarments hot and uncomfortable.

Though that didn't explain anything for her top half.

"Tired…" Liina mumbled as she laid down in bed, and I helped pull some of the blankets up over her. I made sure to pull most of them up over her, since they were thin and worn.

"I bet… get some sleep. I'll let the others know, and…" I hesitated a moment as I glanced around, looking for the door to her bathroom. I couldn't find it. Her walls were lined with shelves and even tapestries, so I assumed it was just hidden behind one of them, but… "I'll bring back some water and stuff in a moment too, so," I started to finish, deciding to just go get it from the kitchens instead. Yet Liina had already slipped off into slumber, snoring away as she did.

Smiling at her, I stepped back from her bed and headed for the door. Although her room was full of stuff, stuff I wanted to examine and study since a lot of it were things that I didn't recognize and couldn't place a purpose to like those weird little wooden boxes, I also didn't want to intrude more than I needed to. Even if my scent wouldn't linger anymore, I didn't want to be so daring or rude as to stick my nose where it didn't belong.

Liina didn't mind me anymore, but she still wasn't completely comfortable with me. Even though I no longer smelled like a predator, I still made some members uncomfortable with just my presence alone. The kind of uncomfortable that my presence made her hairs stand on edge, even though it was mostly a instinctual thing for her than anything else it was still a thing that was real. I needed to respect that.

So…

"I'll be back," I said softly as I shut her bedroom door and left.

Okay. Time to find Jasna or at least Brandy and Gerald, as to let them know of her condition. And then I needed to find Vim to let him know too, since…

Glancing back at the door to Liina's room, I frowned at the odd smell that lingered around me. I knew the smell of sickness. It was a combination of sweat, puke, and just general nastiness. But this…? The smell that lingered on me kind of reminded me of the smell the people with that plague got. It wasn't the exact same, but… it also wasn't too far off from it. Hopefully it was just my mind playing tricks on me. She hadn't seemed to have any spots on her, or anything like that, but…

But there were far more diseases and ailments than just that plague.

Turning away, I hurried down the hall. I'd go get a pitcher of water, and some light snacks to leave at her bedside before I ran off to search for help. There was no telling if Liina would sit up in a few minutes and want a drink or something. I actually was kind of surprised she had even been able to go anywhere in her condition as it was… where had she gone to get that box, I wonder? Or had she had it already? What if it had been in her room, and she had wanted to take it elsewhere and I had just presumed?

Heading downstairs, I chewed at my inner-cheek as I went to the kitchens. The kitchens and eating rooms around them were cold; the kind that told me breakfast had long since come and gone. Luckily though whoever had made breakfast had left a few platters of small foodstuffs. Little crackers and cheeses. I gathered one up, and a nice cold pitcher of water, and then right when I was about to pick it up and turn to leave… I was tapped on the shoulder.

"Yip!" I yelped, and spun and backpedaled into the counter I had been working in front of. I heard things clatter and fall as I found Vim standing there, smiling apologetically at me as I felt the hairs on my tail stand up so strongly it hurt. "Vim!" I shouted at him as my quick heart calmed itself.

"Sorry… you'd been mighty focused, Renn, I even said your name. What're you doing?" he asked as he glanced at the platter I'd just been preparing. Luckily the pitcher and stuff hadn't gotten knocked over, but some of the small foodstuffs had fallen off the platter and fell to the floor. They were scattered around our feet.

I groaned at him as he bent down to pick up the fallen crackers and cheeses. "Liina is sick. Pretty badly. I was going to take her some water and snacks," I said as my ears fluttered while I watched him gather up the stuff that had fallen. He looked a little silly as he picked them up, for some reason. Was it because of how small the crackers and cheese bits were? It was like he was picking up tiny little bites for children or pets, or something.

"Liina is sick…? I'd just seen her last night, she had seemed fine," he said as he stood back up and went to toss the handful of food into a nearby trash bin. The old me would have stopped him, to tell him not to waste such delicious food so quickly, but I knew here in the Society that was just what one did. They were rather… serious about their hygiene stuff. Which was why Vim was so shocked to hear Liina was sick, of course. Because those here usually didn't suffer such things.

"I found her in the hallway kneeling on the ground; she'd been carrying some box… I think she dropped it and was slightly out of it and was just sitting there half asleep as she picked it all up," I said as I went to pick up the platter.

Vim though reached around me and grabbed the platter himself. "I'll take this to her and check on her. Why don't you go let Gerald know? He's in his office," he said.

I glanced at Vim, who was suddenly very close. He had stepped up behind me as to grab the platter from me, but had done it almost as if he had intended to wrap me in a hug instead. My shoulder and back had bumped into him upon turning, he was that close.

"Doing it that way so you can check on her and I can deliver the message, swiftly and efficiently… or are you being overprotective of me?" I asked softly.

"Both. Liina had indeed been fine last night. That means whatever is wrong with her could be something serious. Plus I'd rather you talk to Gerald right now, he pissed me off earlier and I'm not in the mood for him, at the moment," Vim said as he picked up the platter and stepped back and away from me.

I was a tad upset over him stepping away. I had kind of been enjoying the odd closeness. It wasn't often I was able to lean back against him like that. "He pissed you off?" I asked, trying to focus on that and not his lack of touch.

He nodded and sighed. "Not his fault. He just keeps pushing the whole; us staying here thing. Living here. Gets annoying after a bit," he said.

Oh. Right. "Should be happy over it Vim… not everyone gets invited you know," I said softly. In fact I had experienced the exact opposite of such a thing last time I was here.

He smirked at me. "We'll talk of that later. Go on, I'll check on the weaker, smaller, uglier cat and then meet up with you in a moment," he said.

I frowned at that. Uglier…? Liina wasn't ugly, at all! Sure she was supposedly some smaller, more normal cat, and thus of course not as strong as me… but ugly? Why was he being mean to her all of a sudden? I felt offended for her, since I honestly found her adorable myself. "She's naked under her covers, so don't stare, you'll get proved wrong," I teased as he stepped away.

Vim paused a moment and glanced back at me. He seemed about to say something… but stopped himself and then sighed, then he turned back and left.

Smirking at him, I felt a small sense of victory. He had teased her and I had gotten revenge for her, in my perspective at least.

Still…

Glancing at the counter, and the nearby platter of the remaining little snacks… I went and quickly took a few. Both to eat right now, and for later.

With a mouthful I left the kitchens, went the opposite way that Vim had gone… and headed for Gerald's office. To give him the news, and to find out if he'd bug me about living here as he had been doing Vim.

Even if I knew he was only doing so as a way to keep this place safe, from the world and Light's reaches… it would still feel kind of nice to hear such a thing said aloud all the same.

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