Just One More Time (46)

Coruscare continued to visit Caeli, going to her in the dark hours of the early morning to feed her.

Despite his visits and his tending she continued to slumber.

Occasionally she would stir slightly and he would feel his heart race in anticipation. But with no satisfaction.

One morning he sat watching her quietly with her empty bowl hanging in his hands between his knees.

"What was different about then that I am not doing now?", he whispered angrily.

*The water*, Greedy whispered in the back of his mind. *Your skin.*, it hissed impatiently.

Coruscare could feel Greedy's eagerness to touch the girl. To feel her soft skin against his own.

He would be lying if he said he did not feel the same.

But was there a chance that Greedy be on to something?

Coruscare sat and thought deeply about it. He knew better than to agree with Greedy so quickly. He had been led astray before.

He would not do that with Caeli.

But he also had not touched her, let alone bathed her, since the day she had awoken. Could there be a granule of logic in Greedy's desires?

*If it seems too good to be true, it likely is.*, he heard Syll's voice echo in his mind. It had been something she told him when he was very young.

He had found a tree in the forest, heavy with fruit. His excitement was instant and he wasted little time in eating the majority of it.

Soon after he became incredibly ill, unable to eat or drink, a pain in his stomach so great he had begged for death.

*It being the only tree with fruit did not cause hesitation, young master? Why would the fruit remain when all else has been picked clean? It is poisonous dear. If not, it would have been eaten by the wildlife long ago.", she said to the young dragon, patting his back as he wretched.

*If it seems too good to be true, it likely is.*, he heard again.

This certainly seemed like one of those scenarios.

It would have been oddly convenient for the answer to Caeli's comatose state to be that she needed to be close to him, something Greedy insisted upon.

Very. Close.

He swallowed hard at the thought.

He forced his mind back to the matter at hand.

How would being so close allow Caeli to wake?

* I just assumed her human side would lose the fight…*, Ventus's voice repeated inside of his mind. *The self begins to split, divide, and fight for control of the body.*

""But you can help her Coruscare, guide her, teach her, protect her…", Coruscare whispered to himself.

Is that what Ventus had been about to tell him? That his help could save her?

But he had been trying to help this entire time with little to no improvement.

Growling in frustration, he set the empty bowl and spoon on the small table beside the bed.

He massaged his skull, gritting his teeth against the throbbing that had taken residence there.

He couldn't be sure it would help but doing something was better than nothing in his opinion, it wouldn't hurt to try. Right?

Coruscare took a deep breath and, more quickly than he would ever admit, stood from his chair to lift the girl into his arms, careful to not re-injure her.

He brought her back to the healing pool, thankful that it was empty. This would be hard to explain.

Although it was night, the pool room was just as beautiful as it had been in the twilight of dawn when they had last been there.

Bioluminescent algae he had not noticed before grew along the crevices of the room and webbed up the walls, lighting the cylindrical room in faint light ranging from summer sky blue, to a new spring green. Vibrant and glowing.

Since no ceiling had been made for the structure the top opened to the night sky. With the mountains altitude the stars were as bright and clear as a candle by someone's bedside.

Coruscare made a mental note to compliment the architects he had hired when the palace like structure had first been built.

This time he grabbed the bowl and clothe before stepping into the water.

Coming around to the stairs he stepped into the gently whirling waters, the girl cradled in one arm and the bowl in the other.

He waded to a calmer portion of the pool, further from the falling water, and sat on a stone bench that had been submerged in the water to allow patients to sit as they soaked.

He leaned back and set the bowl on the edge of the pool.

He turned back to Caeli and used a clawed hand to support her neck and head as he lowered her carefully into the water.

He watched as the gentle swirling of the clear depths moved her hair in a rhythmic dance. The strands, now pure white, were long and silky, even in the water.

"Caeli, I desperately want to help you but I need you to meet me halfway. Maybe even a quarter of the way. I will take whatever you can give but I need something.", he rasped sadly, watching her serene face.

Coruscare rested his forehead against hers and listened as the water fell into the pool quietly hissing, turning into a gurgle as it hit the depths.

After a few moments, and still no change in the girl, he carried her from the water and sat quietly on the edge of the pool with the girl in his arms.

He warmed his body, this time staying awake as he dried her, lest he miss a moment of wakefulness.

No such luck.

He returned her to the bed in the infirmary, once she was settled in, clean and dry, he sat heavily in the chair at her bedside.

As he sat he saw the flicker of something under Caeli's bed.

He withdrew the Dream Catcher, pinching it gently by a feather that had been tied onto the piece.

He lifted it, the other feathers and leather strands fluttering from the movement, the crystals catching the light and sparkling.

Perhaps he could go once more. Just once more.

If only for a few minutes, he would not stay as long as he had last time.

But if he could reach Caeli's conscious mind, or even Ventus, then perhaps it could be the little shove in the right direction they needed.

He stared into the night through the finely spun spider silk curtain that gently swayed in the wind. If not for the moonlight occasionally glinting off of a strand, it seemed like an easy plummet to the ground. The gaping hole full of stars from the night sky, no landing in sight.

He wondered if the gaping hole filled with stars and glinting strands was what it would look like if standing at the opening of another universe. Another dimension.

The thought gave him chills.

He stood quickly and searched for a groveling.

"When next will the girl be visited by the grove?", he asked the startled groveling, freshly awakened.

"Perhaps an hour Lord, not more. We are rising now and preparing for the day. Next would be treatments.", the male groveling sputtered. Unsure of why he was being asked such questions so early in the morning. *The suns not even up!*, the groveling thought to himself.

Coruscare gave a satisfied nod.

"You will find me with the girl, and you will wake me, whatever it takes, when you find me there in an hour.", he instructed as he began to walk away.

The groveling blinked large eyes in astonishment at the master.

Coruscare left him behind to return to Caeli's bedside.

He lifted her easily and sat in her place on the bed. He swung his legs to lay flat on the mattress, bending at the knee to fit. In a sitting position he rested his back against the frame and the wall (as the frame was not nearly large enough) and sat the girl in his lap. He gently laid her across his chest and supported her with one arm. With the other he lifted the catcher to his face and watched it carefully.

He inhaled deeply, held his breath for just a moment, and then exhaled.

His last thoughts before entering the catcher, smelling Caeli's hair and the softness of her skin, were *I could get used to this.*.