Snowcon Forest

Recovery

The first thing he heard was whispering, or rather what he assumed was whispering. The soft noises buzzed on the edge of his consciousness, drawing him from the oblivion of sleep into the haze of dozing. He could now faintly make out the noises and knew two people were speaking, but he could not discern what they were saying.

He groaned, hoping the two would take the hint and shut up so he could sleep.

The whispering continued, the duo softly speaking back and forth. Unfortunately they were just loud enough for the shadow to hear and the noises were slowly beginning to wake him up.

"So who do you think is gonna wake up first?" Ugh, who the heck is that?

"I dunno, they both look pretty comfy. It might be a tie. Then again Boss was making noise earlier, so he might wake up first." Wait, that's one of my subjects. Then who the heck is the other voice and why are they bothering me?!

Looks like I'm not gonna get any more sleep now, stupid talking...

Snatcher groaned once more and opened his eyes, hissing at the bright light.

"I called it!" The voice of his subject shouted, making the shadow hiss once again.

"Hush it and stop bothering the poor guy." The other voice said, thankfully trying to whisper. Now that he was a bit more awake he realized a girl was speaking, but she did no sound like any of his subjects.

"Who?" He croaked out.

"Boss, it's me and that Cooking Cat lady." His subject said and he could hear the smile in his voice. Cooking Cat...?

Memories flashed in his mind. The kid getting sick and needing help, sending his subject to get the feline chef, the kid refusing to be put down and clinging on to his body as tightly as she could, lying down in the mound of pillows with the kid to sleep until the soup was ready.

The soup!

"Is the soup done?" Snatcher slurred, still somewhat tired from his nap. Laughter broke out from the duo but before he could yell at them he felt something move on his chest.

He looked down and started laughing at the sight that greeted his eyes.

The kid's face was buried into his chest and her hair was an absolute mess! The brown locks were tangled and lay all over the place. Her clothes were crumpled and at some point the blanket that had been laying on her had been knocked off to the side.

While the shadow laughed at the disgruntled child's appearance, said child let out a groan. She nuzzled her face against the warm shadow she was cuddled to. She felt waaaaaaay better than she had earlier, but the fever had not fully left her just yet.

"Come on kiddo, time to get up." He said, chuckling when the kid whined in protest.

The shadow placed both of his hands on either side of the child and gently picked her up, laughing as her whining got louder, but his laughter stopped when he noticed something. There was a thin strand of saliva that started at her mouth and connected to a dark mark on his chest.

The strand broke, sending more saliva splashing down on him.

He stared at the drool on her mouth and then the dark splotch on his chest for a moment, then two, and then...

"YOU DROOLED ON ME!" Snatcher shrieked, ignoring the laughter that came from the other three.

He dropped the hat brat and immediately started trying to brush the drool off.

Hat Kid landed on the shadow's tail, which she quickly latched on to and cuddled against, grinning as she listened to his enraged shouting and the laughter from the Subconite and Cooking Cat.