Temporary Sick Bay

  It wasn’t that the Aurelia didn’t have space to give all of the injured their own room, it was simply more practical for the staff to keep an eye on all of them if they were all in the same space and with so many injured such thing was more then necessary.

  About an hundred people had got hurt, either from the Scorpions, the failing rubble or by merely running away.

  Dr Copperfold was dealing with the emergency quite well despite his lark of experience.

  He argued against putting everyone in one big room over sanitary concerns, mostly to avoid the spreading of any virus that would prey on the injured and end up causing a worse emergency.

  They were divided in groups of about twenty, there were some volunteers from the nearby town, Golden Grain, that had come over there to help, but the brunt of the work was still up to the Aurelia’s staff.

  Veronique entered the room where Kain was in, feeling a bit nervous as all eyes went on her the moment she stepped in, but she put that all aside to look for her guard and her attention was taken by the only bed to the far end of the room that was covered by privacy screens, so of course she marched there

  “Who is that child?” she ignored the whisper and went right behind the screen without saying a word

  “Wait Lady Veronique” Penelope tried to stop her, but it was way too late and her voice too faint.

  “Your throat seems completely normal, no signs of inflammation, even your teeth are in prime condition” Dr Copperfold had declared as he looked right into’s Kain wide open mouth, when all of sudden the Undead retreated from him to hastily close and cover it with his hands as he had noticed Veronique entering.

  “Should I come by another day? You seem busy” the redhead asked, looking from one startled Kain propped up in a sitting position on the bed hiding his mouth with both hands, and the Doctor just standing there.

  “Actually I had just finished my assessment of the day, but don’t take too long you could disturb the other patients” Doctor Copperfold had declared “the patient does show care for other individuals”

  “What are you blabbing about?” Veronique said in a warning tone, feeling as if the Doctor was talking about her

  “Nothing, I have other patients to see” he nonchalantly said as he left, meanwhile Penelope joined in looking irritated, Kain noticed the other maid and looked alarmed

  “Don’t worry Lucia had to stay back to watch Bos and Mos, she’s fine” Veronique reassured him as she got closer “So how are you feeling?” she asked looking guilty at the bandages peaking from under the plain loose gray tunic he was wearing.

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  ‘If only I didn’t froze in place like an idiot’ she thought with regret

  “I am…fine” he slowly responded, never letting his hands away from his mouth and looking a bit tense

  “I glad to hear it” Veronique said back as she shyly approached his bed, her gift was metaphorically burning in her pocket and she was more and more aware of how bad it was “I just wanted to thank you for saving us”

  “My…duty” he answered tension leaving him as he relaxed, letting one of his hands fall on his lap

  “I know it looks terrible but I made it for you” Veronique pulled out the handkerchief, it was a light red made with an uneven stitching that made the cloth quite coarse and of an irregular shape, there was even an attempt at making a silver like border and stitching Kain’s name in cursive on it, but it was barely readable.

  Now that she had finally presented it she felt even more ashamed of it

  “It’s…good thank…you” Kain relaxed as he still accepted the handkerchief from her even if it wasn’t perfect

  “I will let you rest then, I am glad you are okay” the redhead hastily said and made her leave, feeling too embarrassed to stay since she had no idea on what to say next “You know your teeth look quite cool, you don’t need to hide them” Veronique had said over her shoulder as she left, Penelope following right after.

  Kain looked at the spot Veronique had been standing with a shocked expression

  “You know she’s right” a voice had said coming from below him, if he didn’t know who it belonged to it would have alarmed him instead he watched with a slightly annoyed expression as a dark shadow crawled out from under his bed and slithered all the way to a nearby chair taking an human shape and turning into Julius “There is nothing wrong with your teeth, you should stop trying to hide them”

  “Weak humans get scared easily, this way they won’t” Kain spoke not bothering covering his mouth, this way all of his teeth were visible as he spoke, more so then an human’s would have been since his thin lips retrained far more back exposing even part of his gums.

  His teeth were long and sharp, but they weren’t just a bunch of sharp straight canines, each tooth was layered and slightly curved inwards.

  His voice of course sounded quite off compared to an human, but it flew out clearer without him covering his mouth and trying to keep his lips as close as possible.

  “Us humans greatest strength is adapting to new challenges, but we can’t do that if we aren’t given any” Julius had explained to him slurping in the chair

  “You want me to scare everyone?” Kain asked with clear displeasure

  “Did you scare Lady Veronique? She’s seemed quite unaffected” the human made a point, which left Kain out of words and so he kept hitting “See what I mean? Sure there will be people that will be scared of you, but how do you expect to archive your goal if you can’t even get the humans in this household adjust to your presence?”

  “You are one to talk, most don’t even know you exist” Kain snapped at him, without raising his voice

  “That’s just my role, to be unseen, but you are there to be seen, aren’t you?” Julius wasn’t fazed at all by those words as his body turned back into a shadow “So why are you hiding?” he left such question hanging in the air as he turned back into a shadow and essentially disappeared, yet Kain’s keen eyes could see he was merely going along the wall as very thin shadow line over the skirting board.

  “Are you okay I heard some voices?” a volunteer had peeked in

  “I am…fine” Kain responded hiding his mouth, accidentally using the hand that was still holding the handkerchief Veronique gifted him.

  “Where did you find that rag?” the volunteer had asked coming closer

  “Not a rag” Kain had talked out of rage, his hand dropping

  “Alright sorry!” the volunteer made an hasty exit completely freaked out, at that Kain clapped his hand back to his mouth.