A heavy sigh was followed by the rubbing of closed eyes, before the pair of wired spectacles were placed upon his nose, covering the redness now beneath them. Two large blue eyes despondently met them for a moment, before the owner curled into a ball and ignored the man trying to help it. It"s shadowy guardian was hissing, angrily. If it weren"t for the restraint about its neck, it would have lashed out at the two legged-person before them. It had no time for the two-legged beings.Volun stepped backwards out of the stable and indicated to his students that they should release the adolescent Coeurl from its restraints. He hadn"t wanted to resort to force, but the other occupant in the stable had lost its appet.i.te of late and had begun to weaken. All of the student body within the outer beast taming school were particularly fond of the runt cub, that had defied expectations and grown to a reasonable and healthy weight for its age and were upset that it had suddenly begun to refuse food. Not even its small wooden charm could entice it. So Volun had come to see if he could diagnose whether it was ill or just being fussy. However, from what he could tell, it seemed like the cub was physically healthy and the food hadn"t changed in either quality nor quant.i.ty. The cub just seemed... unhappy.
The adolescent, on the other hand, had not appreciated that someone wanted to invade its territory (it had decided that providing food was not invasion, rather it was a favourable offering towards it) and had appreciated less that someone wanted to poke and prod its younger brother. It was very protective of the small cub, but even it would admit (inwardly, deep, deep down) that it could not encourage the little one to return to its normal, jovial self and to eat the presented food.
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"What do we do now?" Teacher Maki queried, stroking the finger length beard upon his chin. He was quite proud of his facial hair and had a habit whenever possible to remind others of its presence, hence stroking it when in deep thought... or even shallow thought... or just when he was talking really. "Lord Garius was quite hopeful that we would place the Coeurls into his care."
Teacher Volun frowned. He"d never agreed to accept Lord Garius" proposal. For one, the adolescent Coeurl was still quite wild in its temperament and Lord Garius" pride would not accept such behaviour. Lord Garius" female Coeurl had eyes that were empty and lacking vitality. So Volun believed that Lord Garius would definitely seek to break the adolescent and tame it. However, Teacher Volun knew that there were many ways to tame a beast and not all methods were kind. He really did not want to see this proud and stunning Coeurl ruined by any man"s hand. As for the cub, it was docile for the most part, but also had a mischievous side. Again, Volun couldn"t see this being a temperament suited to a n.o.ble rider"s mount.
However, although he protested, the other Teachers were still leaning towards this option. After all, neither beast were accepting of potential partners and increasingly becoming a burden upon the school. They would have attempted to release the adolescent back into the wilds, for they felt it had a strong chance of survival, but it refused to leave the cub, that had none outside of a stable.
"Teacher, are we really sending them away?" A voice came from behind the two men. It was Tor, he was often in charge of feeding the school mounts and that duty happened to include the Coeurls. He liked completing this task and others were happy to leave him to it.
"We don"t wish to," Teacher Volun attempted to appease the youth, despite the frown upon his colleague"s face. Well, they certainly would not be able to "sell" Lord Garius a sick cub and the adolescent wouldn"t leave the child, thus it was a moot point anyway. "But we are concerned about the cub"s health. Do you know how long it has been acting this way."
Tor thought back for a moment and attempted to recall. "I think it has been three days," he answered after a while. "Cetus was on feeding duty and happened to mention that the cub only sniffed at the food before burying itself in its nest. I didn"t think much of it at the time." He"d been distracted, having b.u.mped into... he fingered the small wooden talisman that Now was hooked upon his belt. It was carved into the shape of his Cooshee. "It"s not like it hasn"t behaved strangely before."
"What do you mean?" Teacher Maki queried, while Teacher Volun"s eyes were drawn elsewhere.
"Well, it was yowling all excitedly the other afternoon," Tor mentioned. "And wouldn"t eat much that evening either. I thought it had just tired itself out playing. But it ate in the morning." Funny, that day that he also had crossed paths with that person. He hadn"t thought that after their conversation, he would carve him this charm. Tor wasn"t sure whether he should be pleased or distressed that he was considered a "good friend."
"Tor," Teacher Volun"s eyes had not left the boy"s belt in sometime and he even pointed towards it with a slightly shaking finger. There was a sparkle of excitement behind those spectacles. "Where did you get that charm?"
"This?" Tor paused, holding the little carving still as he followed the Teacher"s gaze. "This was carved by Leon, a... a friend from the outer alchemist school."
"Wait, what does that have to with the cub?" Teacher Maki asked, confused.
"May I?" Teacher Volun asked Tor, ignoring the other man. Tor amicably pa.s.sed him the small charm and the Teacher"s slender fingers ran over it, a bright smile appearing on his face unbidden. It was just as he thought! "When did you get this? Did it happen to be on the day that the cub stopped eating?"
Tor hesitated before nodding. "Yes..." his eyes widened as he noticed that the cub"s large eyes were also fixated on the wooden cooshee carving. "You don"t mean..." Teacher Volun did not confirm his suspicions, simply continued to grin, cheerfully.
"Could someone please tell me what is going on?" The confused Teacher Maki demanded.