Chapter 19. Old Raven Tales
Struck with shock at the Doctors words, Sephora gasped as she narrowed her icy blue eyes at him. Her pale, almost white skin, furrowing at her brow.
How on earth can the Doctor just stand there and presume that this man… isn't a human? If he wasn't a human then what else was he?! This irritated Sephora somewhat. She might be the more nieve and easy going of the twin princesses but by no means was she dumb. Anyone would be a fool to think otherwise of her.
"Explain yourself quickly, Ingram..." Restraining her impulses, the princess directed the harpy Doctor to continue. "
The princess, felt very much, insulted. "If that man is not human," further emphasising her intellect she pointed with her index finger to the cleaned up body on the operating table and extended one of her pitch black nails out to its full talon form; aware of the threatening pose and aura she was pulsing with, "…he has no mark of a shifter. His skin is bare. What, Doctor, do you propose that he in fact is?"
Sephora's face was black with the threat that her bating tone carried. Despite the dark green dress she wore being slightly off, compared to her usual style, it seemed to add a darker complexion to her in this mood. The colour of the dress catching in her pale eyes, turning them an almost pale luminous green.
It may have been a trick of the light but it was intimidating enough for the Doctor, who by nature was a naturally timid man anyway.
Ingram took a few steps back from the younger twin, beseeching with his hand for her to calm down. He wasn't sure what he had said or why her countenance had changed so quickly and so drastically towards him but he had to try his best to calm her down and rectify this situation.
He bumped into a corner of one of his worktops and jumped with the fright of it.
This seemed to annoy the princess further. Causing her to yell at him more sternly. Demanding a full explanation. While she carried her continuously threatening tone with him, she made no actual threat that was verbalised.
Unfurling his wings and cowering into a ball within them, Ingram responded back nervously. Fumbling over some of his words as he spoke. "HE IS A WEREWOLF PRINCESS!! PLEASE- PRINCESS SEPHORA CALM YOURSELF!" His wings were an appropriate, navy which was almost black, colour for someone living in the Noble District. They were beginning to show that grey speckling in his feathers, a show of age among all harpy, but usually most noticeable on Ravens and darker feather Clan's first. Like that of Maven's but not quite as much yet.
At his words Sephora did calm down. The connection to his previous words was immediately recognisable and she did soothe very nearly the second after his words.
"Oh." Was all she managed to say. As she retracted her talon back to its pretty glossy black almond nail form.
The Doctor, Ingram, still shook as he coward within his protective wings for a few moments longer – until he finally retracted them feeling it was safe and standing up right again.
The younger princess… she has quite a dark streak doesn't she? He thought to himself, In this way, she is far more like her mother, than Seraphina will ever be. Even if the older twin look similar to the Raven Queen. In temperament, the younger is far closer to that nature she would probably care to admit.
Sephora was now idle and her more childish and aloof demeanour settled back into her refined features; she was now recalling days of her childhood long since passed.
She was thinking back to all of those old tales that she and her sister were told as children. Most often by their nanny's, which seemed to change every other week on a regular basis, before bed time, from a young age. These are what were sprung, and flickering through, her mind.
These were the same story's that all of the young harpy, or just about, within the Raven Clan would hear before being tucked in to sleep. Her and her sister were not special to have heard them… but to potentially have, truly and accidentally picked up a werewolf from the forest… it was something unthinkable.
No one had seen one in perhaps a hundred years, or so everyone believed… did that make the stories about the creatures called, "the dark ones," true as well? A that thought a violent shiver rippled through out Sephora's body.
Pushing that thought aside, she returned to focus on the fact there was a werewolf gravely injured and comatosed inside the Harpy Kingdom walls – brought there by herself.
With everything she currently knew about werewolves from the old stories: They were beasts who could never control their shifting, and their strength and power would wane and phase with the cycles of the moon. Becoming the most uncontrollable during the full moon and becoming weakest at the new moon. They usually had a tendency to kill most of those they loved without meaning to, because of their extreme strength that they never learned how to use properly… flashbacks of the whole section of the decimated ancient forest sprouted in her mind and her eyes widened as she gazed upon the comatose man.
At the thought of the danger that this man posed, combined with the thought of lunar cycles… the princess may have brought a violent ticking time bomb into her own kingdom.
With a face which was grave and paled, with her own rational, the princess walked to the window of Ingram's house and looked to the sky. It was still day time but she wracked her brains for what the moon looked like, the last time she had cared to look up at the sky; it was no use. These last few days their mother had been training them harder. Aiming to insure that her and her sister were in their best and pique condition prior to the arrival of potential mate suitors from other clans. Both she, and her sister, had been exhausted and had frequently been turning in to sleep earlier and at more regular times. She hadn't had time to look at a moon lit sky in a couple weeks.
The Doctor had a curious expression on his face as he watched the princess. If he could have read her mind to know what she was thinking, then he would have. By nature, he was one of the most curious Ravens' in the entirety of the Clan – that's what made him one of the best Doctors' they had.
She turned to meet the Doctor's navy, blue-black eyes, "Ingram, what was the last phase the moon was in?"
Understanding coloured Ingram's eyes and the panic that had just recently been washed away in them, was now replaced by a conflicting dread.
A dilemma was now posed to the Doctor. One that in all his career, he had never expected that he would have to face:
This male which was unconscious on his operating table, was by all accounts his patient – under his care for recovery. It was Ingram's charge to assist this individual to make a full recovery of health, at least as best as he would be able to manage. He was a Doctor and couldn't work the more mysterious and arcane arts of this worlds. There would always be a limit, and only so much that he would be able to do, to assist anyone's recovery; no matter how much he willed it.
On the other hand, Ingram had also heard the tales of the mad beasts which could not control their ability to shift. Those who could not control their strength and turned to mindless beasts when the right moon presented itself. It had been years since he had heard a retelling of the old folk tails of the Raven Clan which surrounded these beasts… and other creatures which used to lurk in the shadows of this worlds. As it stood, this patient of his posed a risk to every single harpy in the Kingdom... could he allow such a risk? Could he conscionably accept such a responsibility, on the off change that all of their stories were wrong?
"It's waning now. The full moon was two nights ago." The reason the Doctor ensured he was familiar with the cycles of the moon, was that full moons – he found – usually coincided with either a speedy recovery or a downward trajectory of a patient. Where a new moon usually left little chance, where there was a life threatening possibility, of making it through the night.
Sephora nodded. Placing her thumb against her chin, deep in thought.
The Doctor could see the cogs working away in her mind. Her face, particularly her eyes, revealing the mental gymnastics she was doing in her head. Just as he was going to say something-
Finally, she broke the silence, "I can use the old disused dungeons in the older quarters of the castle." Sephora wasn't really talking to the Doctor but was more talking herself through each of the steps that she was going to take to make this happen, without anyone other than Maven and Donivan seeing the male from before.
Her mother would have too many questions and she had been late to that formal dinner thing… actually, it was worse than that. She had not even shown up for it. With this Sephora realised there was more bodies to avoid in the manor than usual and some of those eyes were political important with weight of the Kingdom's interest. Risking talk of some scandal would not be worth it… even if the creature she had was indeed a legendry werewolf.
"He's my pet." She declared firmly to Ingram with a nod, "Which means I won't let any harm come to him. Perhaps I can even train him to use his shifting properly. If I do this, would you assist medically with him? Make sure that he recovers from whatever happened to him? He's a werewolf… until just now, I didn't think those creatures actually existed." As her excitement sped up, so did her pace of speech.
The Doctor sighed, as he though: I'm already roped into this now, aren't I?
"Well, they are real." With more authority in his voice. "I have seen only two werewolves before. However, those specimen were very much dead versions. Specifically, one was decapitated by your grandfather. The head was given to my own father to study and he had made sure that I was called in to assist his examination of it…" The doctor scratched his head as the memory brought with it a wave of nostalgia. Medicine had been a trade that was long standing of his families line.
The princess was stunned at this. This harpy Doctor didn't come across as a man who knew much about the usual creatures of the world and just as much he didn't come across a mated harpy. While his practice was clean, you could tell that there was no feminine touch to the entire flat… This caused Sephora to wonder why he had never taken a mate. He was a doctor after all. Those with medical skills and knowledge were highly regarded among all harpy, not just ravens.
"I'll help." Said Ingram, "Only on one condition, however."
"What would that be?" Countered Sephora. This put her slightly on guard again but her sweet and naive countenance remained.
The Doctor responded, "That you keep him chained up indefinitely and never unlock those. He may be unconscious now and for that reason only… he his not, yet, a threat in of himself. Keeping him locked up, especially once he is awake will ensure the safety of the kingdom..."
"What do you mean, he's not 'a threat in of himself.'" Sephora caught the caveat.
The Doctor turned to walk towards the male; he was sizable and well muscled for a human, "He is a werewolf. We don't know much about him or which pack he belongs to… but he will definitely belong to a pack, none the less and they will look for him. Presumably you flew him back here so they won't be able to follow his trail in the air… their type do search parties for their own kind as much as we might for our own. It is not just his shifting out of control that posses a threat to us all… do you understand princess?"
A solid surety set in her silvery blue eyes, "Yes, Ingram. I understand clearly what I have to do now, thank you… We need to get him into the old cells under the castle. Do you think you can contact Maven? She will be able to help me with this."
"Of course." Replied the Doctor as he examined the werewolves large hands, wrapped in olive toned skin, "She flies by here and stops in with any extra food after work. Maven's quite a lovely Raven that way."
"Great; then she will be able to help me move him tonight," reasoned Sephora.
The dread that pooled in Ingram's stomach deepened. He had a bad feeling about all of this. In his mind, it echoed the question: Tonight??