Dire Warnings

His first awareness was discomfort but the more Rudyard was pulled from the kindness of sleep the pain grew until it took all his attention.  The boy's eyes flashed open as the memory of events caught up and he was fully awake, the spike of pain hit with that which caused a keening white.  The pain was too much and he slid his eyes shut demanding he fall back asleep.  His heart hammered too loudly, the pain squeezed at his skull and there was no chance he’d be sleeping.  

Rudy remembered all too well the moments he was with Oxx and being dumped into the falls.  He remembered the water sucking him up, and after that things started getting more blurry.  Getting out of the water, Fern, Art were all fragmented pieces.  If he was lucky in the future this would be a fragmented memory.

Oh.  Rudy realized a moment late there had been other faces in the room with him.  For a second he wanted them all to go away.  Bo. Rudy had to tell Art to protect Bowen so they could make her safe.  She couldn’t leave the castle or if she did she needed guards.  Rudy could still remember all too keenly the moments those serrated teeth dug into him and that couldn’t happen to Bowen.  

Eyes quickly jerked about at those in the room.  Art, Fern, and Bowen.  For a moment his eyes locked on with a frantic focus on Bowen.  She had to be safe this time.  They had failed Bowen once and she had been taken from them and how much of a failure would they be if Bowen was hurt again?

Rudy started to spin his head when his bandaged neck reminded him of that damage, the stupid tail bone was attached to the spine which also reminded him fast movements were dumb.  Later, later he would be miserable, “Art,” the words coming out almost feverish, “He didn’t want me, I was…” bitterness twisted his gut as he acknowledged what sort of toy he’d been to the bastard.  Those thoughts could wait. “He wants,” his eyes flicked to Bowen sadly then between them.  “He wants Bowen.”

Rudy wanted to move but didn’t dare try, the emotional stress forced to be controlled through feverish pain, “Bowen, you have to stay in the castle.  Oxx said he came to find you.” All the passion of his pain was put into this.  What better reason was there to not have died out there than to make sure Bowen got the warning.  Rudy wasn’t going to look at his paw, wasn’t going to try and look at his body where he might spot what was missing.  

Rudyard Carpathius