This will be set for tomorrow about midday. Crowfeather's just coming to check on boss. ^o^
The dark wolf had hardly rested since he had treated Maggie. His mind was filled with images of her bleeding head, the sound of her voice in fever dream, the look in her eyes when she had prepared to face death. Crowfeather could not stop thinking of what she had asked, only a modicum of dignity in her dying breath.
As the shadow made his way to
@Ramesses to check on the Pharaoh’s injuries, he wondered if the ruler would ask about Maggie or the state of her recovery. A bubbling of worry erupted in his belly. Slowing his pace to enter Pharaoh’s space, Crowfeather issues a quiet yip to announce his presence.
jawahir had not yet returned from satsu's order, and so ramesses had slept very fitfully despite the foul potions that crowfeather had left for him. yet sometime just before dawn he had fallen into a slumber so unbreakable that it had carried him into late afternoon.
he had only wakened for an hour. satsu had brought him a meal, and he luxuriated in her care over him.
"enter," he said of crowfeather, stretching upon the sleeping-skins. his face and shoulder ached with pain, only somewhat veiled in the lazuli eyes. the young physician looked no better.
but pharaoh did not ask after maggie. he did not want to know.
Pharaoh’s voice rattled the shadow, but he obeyed the order and entered where the man lay upon his bedding. Something about the ease with which he existed, the confidence that he carried, it was frightening. The very things that Crowfeather had admired in Germanicus had become what he feared in the lapis-eyed ruler.
Hello, Pharaoh,
the seer greeted with a shaky voice and a small dipping of his slender muzzle. I have come to tend to the wounds on your face and give you something to help with any aches y- you should feel.
After speaking, Crowfeather felt himself shuffle awkwardly in front of the man. It felt intimate there, too close for the young wolf’s comfort.
"until you cure the cuts upon my cheek, i will know little peace." the words were said smilingly and with warmth, but the attitude did not touch the recesses of the deep gaze. he lay back upon his fine plinth and gestured crowfeather closer with a lazy motion.
"i have many aches that pain me. which do you propose to cure, swnw?" hunger of the mind. hunger of the soul. the aggravated, tearing pain of healing skin stretching over his lips.
he fell silent, aiding crowfeather by turning his head to and fro. "the imperator," to whom this young one had pledged some sort of odd fealty, "from where did he come?"
ramesses' tones were light in the gentle way that dared the other to avoid or to lie.
The dark wolf laughed nervously, taken aback at the abundance of charm that Pharaoh exuded. Every moment that Crowfeather spent beside him had filled him with uncertainty, a wash of kindness that had overtaken his memory of the man before – the man who had traveled alongside the Saint called Nyra.
I will heal whatever I can, Pharaoh,
he answered softly, brushing his nose against the fair man’s features with delicacy. In the man’s den, it was the first time that Crowfeather had seen just how beautiful Pharaoh was.
When the lapis-eyed wolf asked about Germanicus, Crowfeather shifted and felt himself growing hot.
There were few things that the seer knew about the silver eagle. They had traveled beside each other for more than a month’s time and Crowfeather had not really tried to press beneath the things that Germanicus offered. Those special moments, the moments in which the eagle revealed a piece of himself were sacred.
Crowfeather did not wish to share any of these things with Pharaoh. He knew this to be selfish, but he did not care.
Germanicus is a mystery even to me, Pharaoh. The bits that I know will not do you any good.
there was a lustful little curve to ramesses' mouth. "i have said two things, and you have given me no answers." but he said it all good-naturedly enough, wincing a bit.
the shocked laughter of the boy compelled him to realize that he truly was only a youth. he had not even been persuaded by jawahir that night.
pharaoh's nightblue expression grew deep and inquiring. a malicious curiosity hung on the edges of each next word. "one might be interested to know what about such a closed man would lead you to sacrifice your settling to him?" for that was the only reason crowfeather had given as to why he would not remain.
germanicus.
It was hot there, standing under the watchful eye of the ruler. Crowfeather could not escape the feeling of warmth that crawled from his paws to his throat, wrapping itself tightly around his neck. Pharaoh stated that he had asked two questions and had received answers for neither of them. The shadow’s eyes darted to Pharaoh with a fearful expression.
Had he really ignored the questions? In his attempt to be vague, perhaps he had failed to provide the details that the ruler desired. The longer he thought on it, the more Crowfeather realized he had likely done this on purpose.
When Pharaoh finally remarked that it was curious for the seer to have sacrificed his own freedom to follow a soldier, Crowfeather frowned. It is not a sacrifice,
the dark wolf clarified sharply. The shadow felt his tongue crack like a whip. It would be a greater sacrifice to abandon him. It would be like giving something I cannot separate from myself.
Did Pharaoh understand this?
ramesses listened.
crowfeather spoke with such zeal that pharaoh chose to assume fully now his first suspicion.
his eyes fell to the physician's mouth, temptingly, teasingly, then flickered back toward the impassioned young face.
"love is a burden."
sacrifice. binding. crowfeather had become a spear-point beneath his claim. he watched now for the inexorable shift and denial, but the eyes would not lie. this boy had no deceptions in him.
"and does your solemn soldier return these affections, so common to militaristic men?"
still the taste of sweet wine in all his words; ramesses only smiled and lay languid, waiting.
Love?
Crowfeather looked to Pharaoh indignantly, his dark ears falling flat to his head. There was a flash of fear in his gaze before he forced it to the ground and frowned.
Pharaoh had no place to speak on such matters. He had no right. The shadow burned hot upon his cheeks, his throat, his chest felt tight and constricted. Germanicus had told him to keep his emotions hidden. He had instructed this so that Crowfeather might not reveal too much about himself. The dark wolf did not realize that such things were so easily noticed in his features, perhaps.
Maybe you talk too much sometimes,
the dark wolf spoke sourly, still not meeting the Pharaoh’s gaze. Do not speak as though you know him, he thought angrily. When he looked to the lapis gaze again, it was with angry sadness in the crease of his brow.
That should be all, unless you have other aches you feel need immediate attention.
ramesses laughed. "very few are allowed to speak in such a way to me." pharaoh, however, did not stir to move or to chastise. the gallop of a thousand emotions across crowfeather's face fed his own sense of cruelty.
"i need nothing more. go your way." a dismissal.
the dark young physician was beautiful even in his anger and agony. ramesses would watch with the half-cast of kohl-painted eyes as crowfeather gathered himself and left the royal bedchamber.
Pharaoh laughed, but he stated that there were only few who were allowed to address him the way that Crowfeather had. The dark wolf burned. He did not want to be told that he had stepped out of line. The young wolf wanted to lift his chin and stare boldly back at the man with lapis eyes, to tell him that Crowfeather was there as a courtesy, healing and tending to the Pharaoh’s injured wolves. Indignance lingered for a moment longer until the seer was dismissed.
Crowfeather dipped his slender muzzle politely, stiffly, and slunk from the chambers of Pharaoh’s den as quickly as he could. Once he had fresh air blowing against his whiskers, he did not feel quite so bothered by the words the ruler had given him.
The shadow pointed himself toward the mesa’s wilder terrain and set off to search for herbs that he would carry to Maggie.