Gentle (castle swimmer)

Chapter 2

(Content warning)

Siren settled a bit after seeing the boy collapse on the ground. Slowly, he crawled over to his unmoving body. The boy flinched when Siren poked him with his claw, which made him growl, but he quickly observed him and noticed he was in pain. Siren leaned forwards and poked the boy once more before picking him up, trying to be gentle with his small figure. He set Him down into a soft moss patch and crawled up onto a branch to watch him. He stared intensely, his eyes as sharp as a hawk, and he allowed nothing to break his concentration. A soft, low growl came from his mouth. Wait what? Siren! You never You never judge someone off of looks! Even if.. that's what everyone does. He heard a small noise and snapped out of thought looking in the direction of where it came from. The boy curled up in a ball, shaking. Siren hesitantly hopped down from his branch and creeped over towards Him. Was he cold? Was he sick? What's wrong with him? Siren looked down at him and when he looked a bit closer, ohhhh, yeeash. So that's where he was hurt. It's shocking that Siren didn't notice the scratches and bruises covering his fragile body. He reached over and tilted His head to check for any bruises or scratches on his neck or face. Woah. Taking a closer look, the boy was actually really.. pretty. Siren watched him in admiration for awhile, before realizing that he was staring. So he crawled beside Him and curled up comfortably. He extended his wing over Him to block him from the cold breeze. Siren knew that he shouldn't fall asleep, but he doubted that the boy could do anything before waking him up.

——

Cold.. cold. Wait no, it's warm now.

Kappa blinked his eyes open slowly. Ouch, why does his head hurt so much? He sat up and reached over to pull off his covers but noticed something.. quite different. A wing, big, it extended over him like a blanket. It hid him from the cold breeze outside. He followed the wing down and gasped. It was.. a person. Or at least, they looked like a person. Probably male? They had long spiky blue hair, and when I say long, I mean long. When was the last time they cut their hair? They curled up almost like how a cat would when sleeping. They were also.. tall. But over all of Kappas observations, he was overall excited. I mean, if this dragon isn't friendly well at least the town will finally be rid of him, and if it's not.. hehehe. Wait what? Kappa! Stop getting ahead of yourself! He sighed, and then took a closer look at them. Huh.. they were more human-like than he expected. Kappa felt the wing gently, before he slid himself out from under it. A real dragon.. this is.. this is amazing! He walked closer to him and crouched down. Hm, scars. A few of his arms, some on his legs, a few running along his wings. He sat down near him and looked down sadly. Oh gosh, poor thing.. who knows how long he's been here. He was lost in thought but suddenly jumped when he opened his eyes. "Woah my gosh I'm so sorry for staring I didn't mean to I was just observing you! Wait that sounds really rude I'm really sorry. I've just never seen a dragon before and you look really cool!" He yelled. He.. growled at him. Never thought I'd hear that today. He walked over to Kappa slowly as he backed up. "Oh I'm so sorry please don't..." his voice trailed off once actually looking at Him. Wow.. he was so.. beautiful. It felt as if his scars didn't make him scary. Actually, he didn't look scary at all. Pretty.. he's.. he's really handsome. Wow.. Kappa reached up and put his hand on His cheek. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry it's just.." he paused. "You are the most beautiful person I've ever seen." Siren suddenly stopped and stared at him. "..Beautiful?.." he started. "AHHHH! YOU CAN SPEAK? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I SAID? THAT'S SO EMBARRASSING. I SHOULDN'T SPEAK MY MIND." Kappa yelled. Siren, who was taken aback by the sudden shouting backed away, frightened. "Oh.. I'm so sorry I shouldn't have yelled. I wasn't mad at you I was just really spooked. Are you okay? Do you need a moment? Should I go?" Kappa wasn't much of a talker, but he apologized thoroughly. It annoyed people most of the time, then it would just be concerning. "Don't.. apologies.." He mumbled. "Oh.. okay." Both shared a silence while they both tried figuring out what to say. "I'm Kappa." He said reaching. Out a hand for him. He leaned forwards and sniffed Kappa, then looked back up at him. "..Siren.." he mumbled. "That's a very beautiful name Siren." Kappa smiled at him.

——

Kappa sat in a corner and stared at Siren. He watched how he did things and was amazed at everything he did. But what he was observing most was his right wing. He seemed to keep it close at his side, and limp. Whenever his body reacted to something, his wing didn't. At one point, he decided to ask. Kappa walked over and tapped on Sirens shoulder. He looked back at him, looking quite annoyed. "Uh.. is your wing hurt?" Kappa asked pointing to it. Siren looked back at his wing, back at Kappa, then nodded. "Could I take a look at it? To see if I can help?" Siren narrowed his eyes at him. "I promise I'll try not to hurt you!" Siren rolled his eyes, and then stretched out his wing for him. Kappa looked at it closely, he was about to reach over and touch it when he paused. "Tell me if I'm hurting you okay?" He said to Siren. He felt along his wing gently and heard Siren hiss. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I won't touch that again." Kappa apologized. "Does your other wing hurt?" Siren shook his head. "Can I feel it?" He slowly extended his left wing for Kappa. Kappa slowly felt along the smooth webbing of his wing, it felt much different than his right one. On his right one the webbing was more.. thick. He walked over to Sirens left wing and looked at it again. "It looks like.. poison ivy. I remember how this rash looks. Someone once wrapped a vine around my arm when I got them angry." Sirens expression softened as he listened to him. "Maybe I can get some Benadryl for you.. I think that would help. But also you haven't exactly taken much care of it.. it'll probably need something more.. tell you what, I'll read some books about this and try and find a way to help your wing heal okay?" Kappa looked back at Siren, only to find him staring at him curiously. "You.. help? Why?" He asked quietly. "O-Oh.. well.. I need to repay you for not-killing me." Kappa replied. "Not.. killing you? Why would I kill you?" Siren asked, with a hint of sadness in his voice. "Oh... I'm not sure actually. Most of the people I meet want to hurt me in some way, so I just thought that you would too I guess." Kappa laughed nervously. Siren poked Kappa in his chest. "Don't.. judge me." He said. Kappa looked up at him and smiled. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't judge people."

——

"Siiiiiireeeeeeeennnnnn!" Kappa called out, running over to his cave. "I brought some cortisone and diphenhydramine! Otherwise known as, Benadryl." Kappa looked around for Siren, but found he wasn't there. "Hm." Kappa walked over to a wall on the cave and sat down against it. He curled up and closed his eyes, imagining the most random of things to keep him company. He didn't realize how he was saying some words of his made-up-scenarios out loud.

Siren walked over to his home but then paused. He waited till it was dead silent, and then heard a soft voice talking. He crouched down and crawled into his home to find Kappa. He was curled up and whispering to himself. Siren crawled over and quietly as he could and sat down next to him, listening. He seemed to be talking about.. violent things. And talking whole conversations all by himself. Siren got concerned and decided to stop him. "Hey." He said quietly. Kappa yelped at the sudden noise, and then tensed down once seeing Siren. "Oh lord, you scared me." He laughed. "You... scared me." Siren joked. Kappa gave him a nervous smile. "Sorry about that." He mumbled. "Anyways, I got some things to treat your wing." Siren looked curiously as Kappa rummaged through his bag. He pulled out two bottles, and accidentally pulled out a few papers. "Oh. I forgot about those." Kappa said, looking down at the papers. Siren hummed curiously at the papers, and Kappa lifted one up for him to see. For awhile, he stared at it. He slowly reached over and gently took the paper from Kappa, then he stared at it for another long time. "Me?" He asked. "Yeahhhh.. it's just a doodle I did in class." Siren smiled at it, and then stood up and walked over to his tree. He climbed up in the tree and put it in a hollow hole in it. He jumped down and walked over to Kappa again. "I assume you like it?" He smiled. Siren nodded and smiled. "But anyways, can I?" Kappa gestured to his wing. Siren slowly opened it up for him, exposing his wing to the open. He watched as Kappa unscrewed a lid on a bottle he had brought. Siren looked at it curiously, which Kappa noticed. "It's medicine." He said, holding it infront of Siren. Siren looked at it with great curiosity. "I need to put it on your wing, it'll help you heal." He looked Back up at Kappa. "Don't worry, it won't hurt." Siren looked away as Kappa began applying it onto his wing gently. He expected it to be a little more.. painful. But it was actually just cold. "Are you okay?" Kappa asked quietly. Siren looked back at his wing. "Yes." Siren answered.

Once Kappa had finished giving Siren medicine, the sun was already falling. "I don't think I should be here much longer huh?" He laughed quietly. He felt Siren gently patting him on the head and turned around. "Thank... you." Siren mumbled. "Yeah of course! I'm happy to help."