The Music Box

Chapter 15: Rachel

Argon was angrily brushing his teeth underneath his mask when Rachel climbed into the ditch. She had brought him the soup, as well as a pillow and blanket that her family didn't use. She was tired; it was a long night of staying awake for--what seemed like--the both of them.

"Bad night?" she stopped in front of him and rubbed an eye, which had some crust that refused to come off.

He growled before spitting the toothpaste at her feet. "Dreadful."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." She tried not to yawn. "What made it so bad?"

"I couldn't sleep, it was cold, Runora is still nowhere to be seen, I'm coming down with a fever, I'm pretty sure I'm getting an ear infection again..." He shook his head, before awkwardly limping into the cave to a hole he had started digging in the ground. To Rachel's slight shock, there was a tail sprouting from his lower back. It looked a lot like the dragon's tail; almost the same color of brown, with dark chocolate feathers running down the tail bone. It reached just below the boy's knees, and there were three long feathers making a wide 'V' shape.

He flopped onto his side and winced as some of his wounds most likely opened up from the impact. In rage and irritation, he shrieked like a bird of prey, snarling and clawing at the dirt before sitting up and digging more into the hole. 

"Well maybe some nice soup will help." Rachel tried to be optimistic, beaming as much as she could at the moment.

Argon looked over his shoulder and snorted scornfully, before relaxing into a more gentle, grateful manner. "... That actually sounds really lovely."

"Yeah? Well I'll get that started right away. You just lay down for me and I'll be back with fuel for a fire." She set her backpack down and set out a bowl she had brought along, then left everything to get wood. When she returned, the cryptid was laying on his side, his masked head resting on a forearm. Rachel set the kindling up in a little pit Argon had made in the cave. "Hey, you got anything to light this with?"

The boy opened an eye before pulling himself up and lumbering her way on all fours. He sat himself on his haunches and observed the little structure, then breathed in and spat a jet of blueish purple fire onto the kindling. It burst into flames instantly, the fire turning yellow and orange as it flickered in the open air. His tail curled around his side as he shivered.

Rachel's jaw had dropped. "First a tail, now you breathe fire? What next, you'll learn the ancient shouts of the dragons?"

He coughed a plume of smoke. "I don't think screaming is a good idea, right now."

"I was just joking, captain. Don't worry about it." She patted his back lightly--making him flinch and recoil somewhat--and started to pour the soup into the bowl. "While we wait for this to get warm," she put the bowl by the side of the fire, "let's check your wounds."

He crawled over to another hole he had dug--this one being smaller and inside the walls since it was made of both dirt and rock--and pulled out the supplies, hobbling back on his fours with one arm tucked in to carry everything. He kind of looked like a monkey when he did that, to be honest.

"Don't worry about the cloth, Argon, I've got a new one right here." She pulled a washcloth out of the pocket of her backpack, accepting the peroxide that he handed her. He sat back down in front of her and let her do her checkup, taking note that the wounds didn't seem to be healing correctly. Little nicks that should have at least scabbed over in an hour or so looked as fresh as the moment he got them, and the bigger wounds were even worse, covered in yellow, crusting puss and clear liquid that dripped from the cuts. Rachel pursed her lips and lifted his shirt, exposing his chest. She ran a finger down his protruding ribcage, each bone painfully visible as he shivered from her touch. His stomach was sunken in, and his skin hugged his skeleton so tight that it looked like he'd pop open if he stretched an inch.