(Henryk's Diary)
Wednesday, 21/10/1058:
I almost had multiple heart attacks today. Shira suddenly shrunk back into a blob. All her progress reverted right back.
The silver lining in this dreary situation is that the new stage is most likely a cocoon with amniotic fluid inside of it.
When sunlight shone on Shira's skin-cocoon-thing, I could vaguely see her silhouette inside. A human-sized silhouette. I immediately closed the curtains in fear of sunlight interfering.
I saw something that distracted me from Shira's situation for a few seconds today. Lady Riveria was sighing at Loki's absence. I was told that she was asleep right until Loki collapsed drunk in front of her room. Loki drank herself back to sleep before anyone woke up to stop her today.
When I looked back at lady Riveria, she had burst into flames as she calmly ate her breakfast with the usual dignified demeanour she is known for.
I looked at her in wonder, internalising how this could be. I later chalked it up to anime logic.
After who knows how long, Loki was given temporary release from lady Riveria's nagging about her drinking habits. Loki, that damned chaotic goddess, then gave me a pamphlet, telling me not to read the last page unless I become desperate.
I immediately opened the last page to give her the feeling of winning, which she gladly ran away with, cackling and throwing her arms in the air like a child who found a new playmate. I looked back at the back of the second-to-last page to find the tail-end of an index of where to find each group of papers detailing every codon addition relating to the cluwr and what every set of codons did.
Additional papers were hidden all throughout the manor. I asked around and it seems that the rest of the familia agreed to keep the locations secret for fun.
I decided to spend tomorrow hunting the pages down, fully expecting Loki or someone else to move a paper I didn't find in place of one I did find to mess with me.
For the rest of the day, I sheepishly apologised to the seamstress and her assistants and terminated my previous request. She sighed in acceptance once I told her that we misinterpreted the skill's effect.
I later talked to N̷̷̴̵̸̸̴̶̸̵̴̶̵̶̵o̷̷̶̵̶̶̶̸̷̴̷̸̴̵̷r̸̸̸̴̵̷̴̶̶̸̶̴̵̵̴m̶̴̴̷̷̷̷̶̶̸̴̸̴̸̶ Carillon and discovered that he went near-spartan on Bell. He already took him down to the forth. (AKA 4th floor)
(Thursday, 22/10/1058)
(Henryk's PoV)
"Now that our lesson is over for the day, excuse me as I search for the papers that you don't wish to help me find!" I poured my frustration into my voice, and it showed. They grinned. Gloated, even.
"Good luck!" That was all the encouragement that I got from them.
'Am I legible to give all of them the stink-eye? They know how important these papers are to me'
'Well, this is simply a little fun they find in their daily lives. I can always search with the wolves' help. Loki's alcohol-tainted scent is very clear to them' I thought as I left the mess hall.
'Futura, plan B. Search for any papers in a place with both or either of the scents of Loki and the alcohol she drank' I sent to Futura, who was sending consistent frustration signals to me.
'Finally! Something other than observing them to do!' She said in a joyful voice. Suddenly, there was a long silence with a lot of dread mixed in. '... Can we get the talk from days ago over with?'
'We can talk while you help me search. That alright with you?' I sent to her.
'Very well' She sent back. I could imagine just how her ears are going flat right about now.
'So, where do we start?' I thought, the link still open for conversations. I got an idea. 'How about telling me what would change if I was a wolf?'
'It is comforting that you phrased it this way' She sighed in relief. 'For starters, the number of adult wolves and cubs who survived would have increased with a wolf like you around'
I was taken off guard.
'You... do realise that the only reason I think as I do is because I have a human brain, right? Even if your brains are capable of the same levels of thought as ours, which is apparently the case here, the way we think is vastly different due to the drastic difference in body shape and daily needs. That isn't to mention social structure differences between species'
'I think I get what you meant. If that was the case, then forgive me for creating this misunderstanding' She sent. 'Also, I apologize. I didn't mean for my words to come off as me wishing for you to be a wolf. I only wanted a wolf with the bravery and the tenacity, your grit in battle'
'Was that the reason you flinched? Don't worry. I've got no problem with this. Just remember, what you think is understood differently by other species, and even those amongst your own sometimes' I sent to her. At the same time, I found a paper inside a flower vase. Thankfully, it was dry inside the vase.
'Henryk, I think I found one. It was hidden under a carpet' Futura sent me.
'Bring it to my room and push it under the door. Do so for the other papers you find' I sent her.
'What about telling the cubs to help?' After a while, and after finding two more papers, Futura sent me.
'I say not. Let them flirt. They're at that age when flirting lets them realise if they want to stay with the other party or if they don't wanna' I sent back.
'Well, that means more hunting for us' Her thoughts were accompanied by neutral thoughts leaning on excitement.
'We have 160 more to go. Stay strong, will ya?' I sent to her.
'I would love nothing more than some activity. Staying still and watching the cubs was boring me' She sent back. Her thoughts were laced with some care and malice both at once.
'Is she emotionally starved for love?' I cut off the link from my side since there was nothing to talk about anymore. Only hunting remained. 'Maybe i should work on raising the intelligence of a male wolf and simply introduce him to our party? They would pair up on their own if they wanted to afterwards'
By the end of the day, we collectively found 65 out of the 165 papers between the two of us. The number is staggering but, logically speaking, barely sufficient to record the entire genetic sequence and what it did.
"I wonder how you are now, Shira" I opened the door to our room for the nth time today. I came back regularly and periodically, as I do daily. If I don't, my anxiety shoots high, and nothing could distract me away from her.
Upon looking at her, I noted how her cocoon-skin-thing developed veins running around it with a visible pulse.
"Do you need no food?" I asked her, knowing she wouldn't be able to answer. But, to my heart-stopping surprise, she moved. She tried to move again before I gestured for her to stop.
"Shira, do you remember us?" I asked her. She nodded slowly. That also gave me an answer to an unasked question. She could hear through it.
"Just stay still as much as you can. I'll talk to you to entertain you while you wait, maybe tell you what happened to me during the day?" I said, leaning in. I placed a hand on the cocoon, and she placed a hand on it from the other side. Thankfully, candlelight was enough to see her silhouette through the tissue and fluid inside it without the risk that comes with the more intense sunlight.
Shira's hand fell limp. She fell asleep again.
(Friday, 23/10/1058)
(Henryk's PoV)
"..e..k..." I heard Shira's voice in my dream, looking at her back while the wind blew. We were standing on a grassy hill with nothing else but a vast, endless meadow before us. She started walking away without looking back, as if she did not know that I even stood right behind her. I tried stretching a hand out but could not.
'But I know that this is not a reality. This is a dream, surely' I balled my hands into fists. I woke up when I acknowledged that it was a dream, a very bad one.
'I hate them, my doubts and uncertainties' I slowly sat up, waiting for a moment for my body to be ready before standing up.
I got up and checked up on Shira. She was obscured by the cocoon having developed a net of veins and a much darker layer of skin around her. It was as if she were getting reborn, literally.
"Shira, are you awake?" I put my hand somewhere on the now womb-looking cocoon and got my answer. She slowly navigated her hands until they met mine.
"I... Haah..." I felt my heart shiver as I sighed. I slowly let myself lean on her, something she replied to in kind. "Shira, I miss you"
As I stood up, I contacted Futura. She had some time during the night when she had nothing to do so she gathered around 13 more pages. That brought us up to 78/165 pages.
'At this rate, I'll be able to gather them all through the next few days and then have just enough time to try reaching as high as I could with my stats' I made up my mind about my immediate goals.
(Line Break)
After a grueling day of searching for the rest of the papers, and having reached the 148th paper out of 165, Loki stated her desire to check on Shira. I led her into our room, and she gasped in unpleasant shock judging by her momentarily transparent face. (AN: Transparent not in color but in emotion. Loki was not putting on a displeased mask here but was genuinely displeased)
"No, no, Loki, you shouldn't scream here and risk stopping her heart! Be patient!" Loki grasped her head as she paced around the room before heading out in a hurry.
Moments later, her agony-filled wails and threats thrown at Heimdall were heard. She was going into a deep end there.
'Should I be concerned or not? I mean, the end size of the species doesn't matter to me. I'll still change my genetics so I could give Shira a closer sense of kinship than simply being family'
A thought passed through my mind.
'What would mom say about my decision? Would she frown at me readily thinking of changing races? Or would she brush it aside in favour of me having a closer bond with Shira? It wouldn't matter until I somehow managed to revive them. And even then, I can always reverse it. I had to reinforce and restore my memories then write down my genetic code in preparation for this situation specifically. Also, thankfully, I had the trio help us gather the rest for today. Especially so since some were hidden in the women's quarters. I don't know how to react to that' I thought as I started reading the papers while snacking. 'Should I just report Loki's mischief to lady Riveria?'
(Saturday, 24/10/1058)
(Henryk's PoV)
I was about to go bring myself breakfast to eat beside her when Shira's womb-cocoon thing started bulging in weird ways, as if she was trashing inside the thing. There was also some panic in the movement, where bursts of attempts to do something happened, stopped, then resumed with more uncontrolled vigor.
"Shira?" Upon hearing my voice, Shira practically bolted in my direction from the inside. Her form was apparent from the force behind her.
"I'll help you! Just calm down and stay still for a minute!" I got one of my knives and held my finger right above the tip. I started taking superficial small cuts across the surface until a clear tear appeared. Once that happened, I put my hands in the tear and pulled the thing apart with both hands.
I pulled Shira out, who was now not moving much and with amniotic fluid spilling out of her mouth.
'You kidding me right now?'
I started measuring her heartbeat and was elated to notice that it was still there. I then started by holding her by her midsection with her head down. I planned for gravity to aid me in compressing the liquid out of her lungs and was thankful when Shira started coughing some out.
Some minutes later, Shira heaved out the last of it and fell completely unconscious. I carried her to the bathtub and cleaned her body before clothing her and putting her in bed.
I wanted to get up, but my body suddenly felt out of energy as I collapsed beside her with my own consciousness fading.
'Sudden stress relief aftereffects, I hate you' I cursed my own biology as I surrendered to my exhausted body. I wanted to bring her some food in case she woke up, but I guess that is out of the question now.
(Fey's PoV)
Fey woke up and pecked at Tiona's forehead to wake Tiona up! Fey and Tiona giggled as Tiona got up!
Fey and Tiona were going out of the room when Fey felt Papa falling back asleep...
"Papa!" Fey screamed. Fey hopped, ran and glided past everything in Fey's way, barely avoiding crashing into others.
When Fey arrived at Fey's family's room, Fey bashed the door open and entered.
Fey saw Papa and Mama sleeping peacefully.
"Fey's relieved!!" Fey fell back on the ground.
"Relieved why?!" Tiona came to see. Fey was happy Tiona cared and showed some concern.
"Papa doesn't fall back asleep, but Papa did today. Fey came to check on Papa!" Fey left the room quietly to let Papa and Mama sleep more comfortably.
"Tiona~ Breakfast?" Fey said.
"Yeah! Let's go! Let's eat Papa and Mama's shares too!" Tiona said energetically.
"Fey agrees~! Fey's hungry~!" Fey was really hungry.
(Later)
"Fey, what are you keeping that food for?" Tiona asked Fey.
"Fey keeps this food for Papa~ and Mama~" Fey ripped another piece of mister rabbit! Fey could see Walking Spoiler flinch~!
(AN: For those who forgot, "Walking Spoiler" refers to Norman/Carillon)