Draconia Offline vol. 1

38.3. Uncomfortable - Part 3

"I'm sorry," I say to Julia when she comes again to check up on me. "I shouldn't have thrown you out. You're taking care of me and I was..."

"Nah, that's okay," she waves her hand and opens her medical suitcase. "And I should have asked for a permission to be experimenting with your samples anyway. I guess I just couldn't resist."

"Still trying to become famous through Draconians?" Erik asks a little bit too bluntly and venomously. He's quite fond of the doctor but he has no illusions about her motivation.

"I already am famous, Erik," she looks at him, not offended at all. "I'm His Majesty's private physician. A lot of doctors would sell their soul if they could have my post and the salary. And the publicity. I attained it all and I don't desire more. Now I just want to be useful to you."

By all standards, she should feel content and proud of herself but I don't feel anything like that coming from her. On the contrary, I perceive deep sadness and frustration.

"Julia," I say softly. "Why do I feel that you're not as happy as you should be considering you got everything you've ever wished for?"

She looks at me and her expression grows darker. At first, she's hesitant to tell us the real reason but then she sighs and decides to open up.

"Because I can't make that one person happy with me and I never will," she drops her usual confident attitude and suddenly there's a heartbroken woman sitting in front of us. "My father told me that I'm playing friends with freaks and that he's ashamed of me. His idea of researching Draconians is dissecting you, not helping you."

My heart aches for her in that moment of sincerity. I want to console her somehow and express my endless gratitude. I decide to try Erik's strategy that always seems to work with me and I hug her. I hope I'm not too stiff and that she's not against connecting to me right now but she hugs me back and is really grateful for that.

I gently touch her mind and try sending her comfort while enveloping her in my wings. I can't really send her love the way I do with Erik but I like her a lot so I send her that. Oh, I realise that actually befriended a doctor! Not bad for a person with phobia of doctors and hospitals, huh?

"I understand why Erik is so addicted to it," she whispers after a while in my feathery embrace. "It's really pleasant. Okay, I feel much better now, let's take those stitches out, yes?"

I'm certainly not looking forward to that but I bravely stretch my right wing towards her. Julia carefully takes of the bandages and gasps in surprise.

"W-what is it? Something bad?" I'm startled.

"N-no, not bad," she shakes her head. "But it seems your body has already expelled the threat on its own. Look!"

She shows me the bandage and there's the threat in several pieces sticked to it.

"And your calamus is regrowing nicely," she carefully massages the injured spot. "It's healed but the muscle will be sore for a few more days. Try stretching your wings fully for me, please."

I do but as I do so, I accidentally hit the glass on Erik's end table. Before I manage to react, it shatters against the ground. At least there wasn't any water in it.

"It's soooo cramped in here!" I complain grumpily and stretch my wings even more. Now I hit the wardrobes.

"Okay, that's... well," Julia is staring at my huge wings. "Even bigger than I thought? Well, maybe not by inches but seeing them like that in reality... mind-blowing."

"He feels uncomfortable lately, doc," Erik mentions.

"I would imagine so," she nods. "His wing muscles need exercise and it's too small for him here to stretch properly. Does your back hurt, Your Majesty?"