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“Oi, Dr. Quack, are you in there? Need a little help out here.”
The voice is high pitched and shrill, practically dripping with disdain. Ifa looks towards the door from his desk, rolling lengths of freshly cleaned linen into new bandages. The life of a vet never ends even if there aren’t any patients in his little clinic, but it sounds like a certain “dragon lord” may have brought someone to his doorstep.
“Is that you, oh magnificent Ajaw?” he calls back, the corner of his mouth twitching with amusement. “Why would the almighty dragon lord, feared across Natlan, be blessing this humble doctor with his presence?”
“Oh shut it and open the door,” the little dragon-like creature calls back, clearly agitated by his words. “I’ve found something that needs help and you’re the closest person that I can stomach being around.”
Ifa’s eyebrows raise into his hair with curiosity, so he puts aside the bandage roll and stands from his chair, crossing the room in a couple large strides. He unlocks the door and pushes it open, revealing the little floating dragon struggling to stay airborne with a bundle of dark blue fur curled around his tail.
“What do we have here?” Ifa asks, placing his hands on his hips. “The mighty Ajaw playing charity for a tiny creature? The sun must surely rise in the west tomorrow.”
Ajaw turns a brilliant shade of red and floats towards him menacingly. “Why you… if I was at my full power you’d be a smoldering pile of ash in about two seconds you quack doctor.” He turns around, showing off the animal still clinging to his tail. “Get it off of me, will you? I’m about to crash into the ground if I have to carry it much longer.”
Biting his tongue to prevent himself from laughing, Ifa pulls on the thick leather gloves that he keeps tucked in his belt. Until he knows what he’s dealing with, he prefers to protect both himself and his patient, so keeping his hands covered is typically the first thing he does. “Come here, little one,” he murmurs, working his fingers underneath the bundle of fur and gently coaxing it to let go. “Don’t be scared, I’m here to help you.”
His words and gentle coaxing cause the creature to calm, releasing its grip on Ajaw’s tail bit by bit. As the creature relaxes, Ifa begins to see faint markings in its fur, familiar markings that he knows like the back of his hand. After another few moments it lets go entirely, falling back into Ifa’s hands and spreading its wings wide across his palms.
A bat.
“Ugh, finally,” Ajaw comments, curling up his tail and floating around to the side of Ifa’s head, peering down at the bat curiously. “What is this little thing anyways, doc? It has claws sharp enough to pierce through my magnificent scales.”
Ifa looks at the small bat in his hands. Its eyes are closed and its breath comes in short pants, and upon further inspection, he can see that the bat has a shallow cut in its wing, probably deep and painful enough to keep it from flying. “It’s a bat, Ajaw, and a very unique looking one,” he replies to the dragon. “It makes me wonder how you found it and how it became injured in the first place.”
“It wasn’t me!” Ajaw protests, his face turning red once more. “I was investigating some strange noises coming from near the Scions of the Canopy village that were keeping me awake, and when I flew along the rock face, this little thing grabbed onto my tail and wouldn’t let go.”
Ifa lets out a sigh. It sounds like Ajaw isn’t the cause of the little bat’s injury, and instead is its unwilling rescuer. “Well, I’m sure that the bat is grateful for you saving it, Ajaw. Is there anything I can give you in thanks? Something to eat maybe?”
Ajaw scoffs at his offer. “Don’t bother trying to worm your way back into my good graces, doctor. I still think you’re a quack, but as long as you keep this little tail grabber away from me in the future, I think we can call it even. Deal?”
“Deal,” Ifa responds with a nod and a chuckle. “Thank you, Ajaw, I’ll take things from here.”
He watches as Ajaw harumphs at him and takes off back towards the towering cliffs of the Scions of the Canopy. Only once he disappears from view, does Ifa turn his attention back to the bat.
A bat that he is far more familiar with than he let on to Ajaw.
“Come on now, Ororon, I know you can hear me. Care to tell me what happened?”
The bat opens its eyes and peers upwards at Ifa, a lock of fur that looks strikingly similar to the hood of his friend’s cape covering half of its face. It stretches its wings delicately, the injured one drooping ever so slightly, and eventually turns over in his hands until it’s facing away from him. Taking that as a sign to put the little bat down, Ifa kneels onto the ground and places his hands flat on the dirt path. The bat crawls off of his hands and turns its head around, silently telling Ifa to back up.
The moment Ifa takes a step backwards, there’s a pulse of Nightsoul energy and a swirl of blue and purple particles in the air. In the time it takes Ifa’s heart to take two slow beats, the bat has disappeared, leaving his friend Ororon sitting in the dirt instead, the same injury on the bat’s wing present in a shallow cut down Ororon’s arm.
“Thanks for not spilling my secret to Ajaw, Ifa,” Ororon mumbles, turning his head upwards to look at him. He looks embarrassed and, other than the cut to his arm, seems to be unharmed.
Ifa rolls his eyes and smiles, thankful that his friend is ok. “Of course, what good would it do for me to tell him more than he needs to know? He already thinks I’m crazy, I don’t need to give him more examples on why he might be correct.” He kneels back down onto the path so he can face his friend directly. “What happened though? I thought you were extra careful when flying around in that form?”
Ororon groans, ducking his head down to avoid Ifa’s gaze. “Dumb mistake, I was trying to carry some vegetables over to Kinich but they were a bit too heavy to fly with. I dropped the bag and, when I tried to catch it, I caught my wing on a tree branch. Couldn’t fly very far so I just waited, hoping that someone would come by.”
“Ajaw mentioned hearing noises, was that you too?”
“Maybe… I was trying to make my way down towards the village to find some help and I slipped a couple of times. He might have heard my claws scratching on the rocks… Could also have been the saurians that came and helped themselves to my vegetables once they fell.”
“Oh Ororon…” Ifa sighs, offering his hand to help his friend stand up. “Well, let’s get that cut cleaned up and then we can send a message to Kinich and let him know where his delivery went.”
Ororon flinches at the words but takes Ifa’s hand regardless. “We aren’t going to tell him what happened though, are we?” he asks softly. They both rise to their feet and Ororon tucks his injured arm into the fold of his cape, leaving his other hand to twine his fingers into Ifa’s.
The simple touch, the reassurance of something as innocent as holding hands, is enough to make Ifa’s stomach flutter and his cheeks turn warm. It’s always like this with Ororon now, and it’s getting harder and harder to ignore, but he pushes the feeling aside to smile fondly at his closest friend. “Of course not. We’ll send a bird along with a note that the two of us will come by tomorrow with some fresh produce and everything will be back to normal once more.”
“The two of us?”
“Doctor’s orders, need to make sure that you aren’t carrying anything heavy with that arm for at least a week,” he responds with a smile. “Now come on, I’ve got fresh bandages that just finished drying and a nice salve imported all the way from Liyue that should work nicely.”
Ororon squeezes his hand tighter and returns the smile, giving him all the thanks that he’ll ever need as they make their way into the clinic side by side. Maybe one day, Ororon will let him see more of his other form, but until then, he’s content to simply help treat his wound and savor his friend’s company.