Careful…

His hands hesitated slightly, as they reached for the small ball of fur again.

He had hurried to carry the rabbit back into his nest, to check how bad the wounds were and shield him from the rain.

It really had not been nice to look at; but thanks to the fact that Uriel had been stubborn about his scars, he knew more or less what to do. He had some herbs in his garden, which helped numb the pain. The small rabbit was now safe; he had tied a cloth around it, and covered its lower half.

Alexis sighed and leaned onto the edge of the table, which he made a few days ago, in oder to look at the cottontail for the hundredth time. It was clear that the bleeding had stopped, luckily. He stared at the ball of fur, and noted how its small chest moved calmly, with a steady breathing.

It will be alright… Mostly.

The angel could only cringe a little every time he looked. There were no hind paws anymore. He stayed up all night, unable to sleep with his worry. He could not get out either, the rain was still pouring. So he only waited for the sun to come out. His eyes never left the table where the animal rested.

Hours went by, and as a faint light touched the cave, something finally happened. Alexis gasped, because he heard a faint grunt. He smiled a little when he saw those small black eyes open again, somewhat hazily. However, his wonder and relief were soon overpowered by nervousness, because the poor animal jolted and let out a fearful growl when it realized he was near.

Alexis frowned when he saw the rabbit try to stand quickly, to flee. Of course, it only managed to fall to a side, with a small startled roll and a confused whimper. He raised his hands, to try to stop him from hurting himself; the animal still had the cloth tied around his body, and the wounds could open with his struggles.

“Ouch!”

Alexis withdrew and shook his hand at his side. The small ball of fur had given him an angry bite.

The rabbit huffed and seemed to give him a firm nod. He glared with his small black eyes, leaned his pointy ears and showed him his small teeth. Its spiky black fur was puffed up, and that showed clearly that he felt menaced.

Alexis was not such thing. The bunny stopped growling loudly when the angel took a few steps away, with a sad smile. His black eyes narrowed, and his remaining paws began to scratch the table. His little whiskers trembled while he sniffed his strange surroundings.

His gaze never left the human while he tried to stand up.

He could not stand. His confused honks echoed through the cave. He did not understand why he kept falling.

Both stared at each other. The rabbit seemed to give Alexis a questioning look. His little snout leaned backwards, to look at the lower half of his slim body. He reached with a paw, to poke the cloth that covered the place where his hind legs should be. There were only stumps. His pointy ears twitched, when he heard the voice of what he thought a human.

“I’m sorry little one, that tree… I could do nothing about it.”

Alexis shook his head, not expecting an animal to understand.

The rabbit let out yet another grunt; he rolled a little to glance back at the blond. His paws stopped scratching and he seemed to relax slightly. If Alexis did not think against it, he would have said that he was looking at him with an apprehensive but calm look.

Alexis stood there, awkwardly. He did not dare move while the bunny plopped down with a huff, and then curled on himself in frustration. The rabbit was not growling or moving, so he decided to approach slowly. He leaned over the edge of the table again, not close enough to let him bite his fingers.

After a few minutes, Alexis glanced out the cave. The sun was beginning to come out, and the rain had calmed a little. It was still dark, but it was safe. He fidgeted a little; he then looked down at the black rabbit and spoke nervously.

“Don’t try to run away, please.”

He still did not expect the animal to listen. But the bunny did not move or try to flee when he bolted out the cave. He only leaned his small snout to a side, while Alexis made noise outside.

The angel walked fast. He came back inside in just a minute. He pushed his hood off his head, and was careful of not dropping what he carried: a small piece of wood he had cut yesterday. He jogged towards his bed, and then dropped the wood near it. He began to rummage inside one of his bags. He blinked when he took out something, because he heard an angry snarl behind him. His amber eyes glanced back and forth, between the knife in his hand and the now weary animal.

The angel reacted to the rabbit’s fear. He laughed nervously and began to wave a hand.

“No! I won’t…!” He quickly reached for the wood instead, and motioned to it insistently. “It’s a carving knife! I won’t hurt you! I won’t eat you; I don’t even want your fur! Even if I did, it’s too bristly anyway!”

He still did not think he would understand, but he tried to reason anyway. His surprise came when the rabbit stopped growling, lowered his ears and narrowed his black eyes at him. He was left amazed, because he saw the animal puff out his chest, like if he was trying to warn him. He was looking at him grumpily, but he was not snarling at him anymore.

Alexis left the knife onto his bed and stood, slowly.

“Aren’t you a cute clever one…”

He approached the table again, and then gave the rodent a long curious stare. He looked at him, but he was not daring to touch him, to not scare him.

Little did he know that the rabbit did not fear him anymore.

Alexis yelped when the bunny tried to pad closer to him, after sniffing him for a few seconds. Of course, he did not manage to stand on his paws. Alexis raised a hand in reflex, to hold him up, to prevent him from falling and hurting himself. His fingers brushed his fur and held his weight. He braced himself with his eyes closed, waiting to be bitten. He did not let go, even if he expected a bite, because he did not want to harm him.

He only felt whiskers. So he lowered his gaze, and then leaned his head to a side in puzzlement. The rabbit was poking his fingers with his snout, while his paws grabbed his hand. His black eyes were inspecting his fingers attentively, but he was not biting.

The angel stood there like an idiot, because the rodent let out a yip… and then plopped against his hand like if it was a pillow.

“Uhmmm…”

The rabbit was on top of his hand, and was not letting go. It also seemed like he was falling asleep. They stayed there without moving, for a full hour. Alexis did not dare move, or retrieve his hand from below the animal. He raised an eyebrow and scratched his hair with his free hand.

“I guess you remember?”

He could not tell for sure; the rabbit was letting out small snores while he ruffled himself against his palm.

At least he was not bitten…

———————————————

 

“Hand me some rosemary.”

The younger girl hurried to the shelves, to search for the herb the older needed and asked for. However, no matter how much she searched, all the tars where they stored that ingredient were empty.

“I think we don’t have any left!”

Her icy eyes narrowed when she heard Cecilia say that. It did not help that her patient coughed again; it only made her mood worsen.

“There has to be some left! I need it here, Cecilia!”

Cecilia let out an exasperated sigh and turned to face Ayako.

“Well, there is nothing here! We have some cayenne though!”

Ayako stopped looking at the sick man and faced her. She gave her an incredulous frown, somewhat exasperated.

“Are you nuts? No, that would do no good to his throat! We can’t use that to heal-”

“I know! But it’s the best we have!” Cecilia crossed her arms and pouted. “If only we had more feathers… But no, we had to use them all. If you had brought part of the body or some bones…”

She barely had any time to inspect those golden wings. Godric and Ayako were fast to use them with the sick and wounded that heard about it and traveled here to get some.

Ayako took in an angered breath. The man grew nervous and wished he could stop coughing and leave, because he could see a strong arguing coming between the two energetic girls.

“At least I brought something! It’s not my fault that no more angels fall around here!”

Both glared at each other, not really angry, just tired and exasperated. As always, they were not the best of friends, which only helped fuel the tension.

Cecilia shrugged, and then shook her long pearly hair below her hood.

“Maybe it is not. But don’t get all bossy on me, Ayako. It’s not my fault either that you have been whiny since your last kill.”

Ayako’s jaw dropped. She soon growled and clenched her fists, not being someone who lost her words easily.

“Whiny?!”

Cecilia nodded without hesitation and pointed a hand at her. Again, she showed little reflection upon risk.

“Yes, whiny! You are all mopey and slow! You don’t focus! You almost burned all our books yesterday, when you tried to light the fireplace for the patients!”

“That’s not true!”

“It is! You sure did! Your eyes were closing and you fumbled with the flint!”

The man was leaning away from them slowly, in his bed. The two were getting closer to each other, and the sparks could almost be seen in their glares. Their voices were growing louder. Luckily, before they could scream more or curse…

“No screaming around the sick.”

Both girls blinked and stopped glaring. They turned to look at the door of the office, which was now open. Godric was giving them a stern look, clearly disappointed. Ayako was the first to react; she dropped her scowl and spoke distantly.

“…Of course.” Ayako contained her anger and bolted back for the man with a sore throat. “I will have time to worry about our supplies later.”

A small smile grew on Cecilia’s lips, satisfied to see shame in Ayako’s eyes. But she too was ashamed, because Godric began to scold her as well.

“Cecilia, stop daydreaming and compile how much stock we have left. I want it before dusk. And don’t waste time reading your transcripts again.”

Godric stood with an emotionless stance while Cecilia nodded and bolted out the door, running quickly for her small office.

It could seem that Godric was stern or cold… But Ayako could notice the worry in that eye; she could hear the kindness in their voice.

“Cecilia has some right in her words…”

“I am fine. And I am right as well, we need-”

“I did not say you were not right. We indeed suffer a shortage of materials.”

They always had a lot of herbs. They had not needed to replenish their stock for months, mostly because Ayako had been bringing a lot of feathers, very often. But with the angel dead, they did not have such abundance anymore. The herbs ran out quickly.

Godric stepped near Ayako and looked at her firmly, to express their opinion calmly.

“You need rest. I will not allow any accidents in my hospice.”

Ayako turned, to face them with a worried expression.

“But-”

“You could still be of use.” She seemed to relax a little, after hearing their kind tone. “Take some weeks… Don’t come back until you deem that you have recovered. Bring herbs, as many as you can find.”

Ayako looked down and pondered deeply.

Cecilia was right. For some reason that she couldn’t understand, she was… not herself.

“…Will do.”

Godric smiled calmly, and then nodded contently.

“Wonderful. Don’t worry, I can run the place all by myself. Cecilia will work harder, instead of sleeping awake.”

Ayako snorted a little at that. She reached for her things, to leave reluctantly.

“That’s something I would like to see.”

Godric approached the coughing man while she opened the door. She stepped outside, and then began to walk towards her cabin tiredly.

She did not know what afflicted her… Nor how to heal.