Boys Don't Cry - The Cure

He sighed as she reminded him of her experience. Her voice had the usual dry cast to it, she hated him. She had to. He didn't fight as she took the pot out of his paws. He looked up at her with a half smile. She was hovering over the pot waiting for instructions while he was half slumped on the floor.

He turned his gaze to the floor as a familiar muddy green figure decided to writhe around Vesper in his vision. A common hallucination he had been battling with. His tone turned serious and caustic.

"Fill the pot with fresh water. Get it warming over the fire. Cut, chop or smash the valerian root into several pieces and toss the whole thing in right away. Once the water's boiling pull it off the fire and add all the elderflowers and nettles. You don't want to touch the undersides of the nettle leaves or the stems. Once they're cooked or dried nettles don't sting."

The floor was wooshing like the surface of a river. He closed his eyes, another tear threatened to pull at his eyes and flow down.
After a few moments of letting her do the job, he looked up at her again and sighed.

"Vesper...I'm sorry for scratching you. I shouldn't have done that." He looked down at his claws, unsheathing them. The talons were naturally sharp and dangerously curved. He watched them morph into spirals and grow into the ceiling. He almost looked bored at it, knowing it was fake and yet so very real. Part of him was completely convinced there was a tiger in the room with them, another part was shouting at him that none of it was real, he must still be in the woods imagining this whole thing. He must still be lying next to the image of his mother's dead body, mauled by polar bears.

"Speech"