“So, no aches or pains? Headaches or dizziness?”

  “No.”

  Audas sat on the edge of one of about twenty of beds, all of them flanked by wheeled trolleys and cabinets. Opting to be near the door to the clinic, Audas fixed his eyes onto the nearest wall with a whole line of glass cupboards, each one loaded with medical supplies carefully labelled with meticulous attention to detail.

  In the corner of his eye, the Nyúlfur doctor, Zackary, sat behind a metal desk just about a metre away from him, whose head drifted back and forth between Audas and a thin monitor resting on its surface. “Well. Looks like your bones have healed completely, and your muscles aren’t atrophying. I don’t see much need to run any X-Rays or strength tests. Especially since you’ve have already had… extensive exercise.”

  At any other time, Audas would have chuckled at that. Instead, his mind was fixed on that scuffle with Kaine. And especially Dray turning his back on him. In sadness? Anger? Shame?

  Then there was of course Dorian, someone who had completely blown him off like an insignificant fly, only he was responding with bug spray rather than just his bare hands alone. I mean, what the hell is that guy’s problem?

  “Impressive… given that your own healing seemed compromised…”

  He let his eyes flutter closed. And what about Alika? He tried to take her advice onboard, even just for the sake of pure pragmaticism. And yet, here he was. The moment he went ahead to try that, he ended up having a fight in front of the entire town, getting himself bollocked in the process. What would she think of that?

  Hell… a part of him hated to admit it… but Dray didn’t even seem half bad himself. He did tell him some information about Nyúlfur society. Nor did he seemed intent to hide anything.

  That and… well… he just seemed like a plain decent guy.

  Beyond being a Nyúlfur.

  “I’ll just need to run a blood test… although I do have a few more questions.”

  A soft creak creeped through the air, “Ah, good to see you. You don’t mind if you take a blood sample? I just need to run a test.”

  Ear twitching, Audas looked up to find the tiniest Nyúlfur he had ever seen.

  Well, at least one that wasn’t a child.

  She had to be a few inches shorter than most Nyúlfur, but what made her stand out far more was that she was covered in a layer of white fur as pure as snow. Quite literally, he couldn’t see any marking, natural or otherwise, that disrupted that coat. She wore knee length black shorts along with a simple, sleeveless green vest. Her short-mid length blonde hair was flicked to one side, running down across her forehead and short of the base of her neck.

  But her eyes were something else - a deep green that shone like emeralds against her white fur and under her hair.

  They flicked towards him.

  Audas tore his gaze away from her, back to the wall. His heart raced. Why did he even note that fea-

  His heart missed a beat, and he resisted the urge to hit himself for allowing such a… wrong thought to come to the fore.

  No… he cursed to himself, mentally kicking the thought aside. No fucking way. You are not thinking of that… bloody Nyúlfur…

  “Audas, have you ever had any medical conditions?”

  He blinked for a second, turning towards the doctor sat at the desk. “Hmm?”

  In truth, he hadn’t quite fully processed the sentence, but it didn’t seem to faze Zackary as he turned towards him, “It’s rare but it can still happen. Reduced blood clotting, a weaker immune response?”

  Audas shook his head. How will I know that anyway? I didn’t have any allergies or illnesses as a human outside of the flu, and chicken pox years ago. But who knows how this transformation has thrown that out of whack?

  He nearly found himself questioning if he could catch chicken pox again when something pricked at his skin. Audas flinched, nearly jerking away when the white furred Nyúlfur drifted in front of him and raised a hand up to seemingly stop him. He readied a sharp rebuttal, but it never came, dying on his lips. There was no shock on her face, instead she appeared composed, shaking her head and pointing towards his arm, where a clear needle was settled above his fur.

  He hesitated, there was… something about her. Something that seemed distinct and different from the other Nyúlfur. A certain softness in the way she moved and silently motioned with her hands that worked its way into him. He finally nodded, turning back towards the wall again as a light tingle ran down his arm.

  “Ah, thank you.” Zackary said, eyeing the red needle as she lifted it up for him to see. “You don’t mind if you get half of that into the centrifuge? I can sort out the rest of the test.”

  With a smile, she returned a nod before moving towards a stack of equipment to one side of the room. He resisted the urge to watch her go, instead he turned to Zackary as he rose from the desk, tapping at a keyboard once more. “Anything in particular that is bothering you?” he asked, his tone going quiet, although not enough to force the former human to focus on it though.

  “Bothering me?” Audas questioned back, devoid of humour as he frowned at the doctor, wondering what was running through his mind to ask that sort of question.

  “Besides Kaine.” Zackary replied, resting against the desk. “I understand why you had a go at him; he never really knows when to stop. There hasn’t been a person in the Hub who didn’t think about knocking the bastard out at least once. But is there anything else you’re struggling with?” He waved a hand towards him, “The injuries and complications didn’t help, I wanted to double check on those especially.”

  “Well, I haven’t had anything else pop up.” Audas replied, sensing his muscles tighten again.

  “I know you are fine physically.” The doctor stated, crossing his arms. “But that’s the thing. Physical.”

  Audas’ frown deepened further. Physical? What? What was this doctor implying?

  The elder Nyúlfur tilted his head, “Is there anything you want to talk about? Or perhaps you just need time to work it out?”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  That chill reformed within Audas whilst a sudden sense of dread settled down on his shoulders. He was thinking of mental health. How the Nyúlfur had any idea about that, he didn’t know, but the doc was trying to get into his head. He didn’t need that, not now.

  I… I can’t do this…

  His chest tightened further as he shook his head, “No, there’s nothing to get off my chest.” He pushed himself off the bed, the wooden floorboards flexing beneath his feet. “Is there anything else you need to check? Or can I get going?”

  Zackary glanced him over, eyes probing him with an investigative tightening of his face. “No, I don’t. But I do have one question.”

  He sighed, flicking his eyes back towards the door, that urge just to get out boiling inside him. “Go on.”

  “Do you have any nightmares?”

  Audas froze, feeling the tug of the memory hold him back, the hands round the throat… seeing everyone-

  Hell no…

  “Audas.” Zackary started, his tone soft, “From what I’ve heard, you’ve been under a lot of pressure. If you ever need to-“

  “Doc.” Audas uttered, voice wooden and cold as he glanced towards him with narrowed eyes, struggling to hold back a low growl. “Don’t test me.”

  The doctor didn’t react, only returning a simple nod. As if conveying some hidden understanding, deciding it wasn’t worth discuss further. Audas began to turn, only to catch the sight of the white furred Nyúlfur at the edge of the room with her hand resting on a counter. Her green eyes were focused onto him and her ears had dipped slightly.

  As he looked back at her proper, she looked away. The green orbs closing as she sighed, a soft whisper of breath barely registering by his eardrums.

  His chest tightened to the point that it felt ready to explode, and dragging his gaze away, Audas shoved his way past the door and back into Hub.

  I need to get out… he growled to himself. Get away from these things… these…

  People…

  He stormed through the corridors, avoiding and ignoring every Nyúlfur he came across even as they tried to speak, until he broke out into the sunlight and then out of the rear of the complex. He knew this was overkill. Someone would set off after him too, try and bring him back in or…

  Agh! I don’t know!

  Audas just needed time alone, time to think. Somewhere where he would at least be left in damn peace!

  Booting a foot into the ground, he spun to face up the valley and found the farm fields stretching out before him and towards the white mountains. He hungrily swept his gaze across that view, searching for something he could dive into.

  The cabin? No that’s too obvious, and I can’t just go marching up into the mountains and hope I come across a mine shaft or something.

  As he scanned the surrounding ground, he peered over the top of one field, where its tall wheat crops waved around in the wind. A bit of brown blinked just for a second. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to push himself up a tiny inch more onto his toes.

  He began to tip forward and gravity tugged at him, forcing him to step forward again. Audas looked downwards at the digitigrade legs, did a double take, and sighed, I’m already standing on my toes…

  It didn’t matter though, as the top of the crops flicked out of the way once more, revealing the roof of a building that just peaked out into view.

  Bingo.

  Everest leaned against the desk, scanning each of the papers laid out on top, only pausing to glance back at the monitor. “So, there is nothing wrong with him?”

  “Nothing physical at least Ev.” Zackary replied, other sheets in each hand, both with the distinct shape of a Nyúlfur sketched in thick bold lines across the paper, surrounded with labels. “All the bones have healed, and I’ve not come across any phantom pains or any other health issue that could be a side effect of his recovery.”

  The Nyúlfur leader looked over at the doctor, raising a brow, “Something tells me you’re not convinced though.”

  The grey furred Nyúlfur laid the two sheets back down onto the metal surface and rested his hands on top of them. “I’ve already told you, but a lot of his injuries don’t add up. Cracked bones aren’t too much of a problem, that happens even with our skeletons. But the internal bleeding… it shouldn’t be possible.”

  Everest frowned; experience had told him that very little stumped Zackary when it came to medical matters. When that happened, Everest had always been one that he spoke his mind about it to.

  That, and it meant something was deeply wrong.

  “Go on ahead Zack.”

  He leaned back from the table, holding out one arm to the side. “Our blood vessels can constrict easily when we are put under stress or shock, even our capillaries.” He traced a finger across the surface of his arm, “Throw in our platelets on top of that, if we get shot or stabbed, our blood vessels would…”

  “Be able to reduce blood loss.” Everest finished.

  “Exactly.”

  The leader crossed his arms, eyes flicking between the body outlines and Zackary’s arm. “But didn’t you explain to me how a large enough blow to our core organs and… what’s the word again?”

  “Coiled musculature.” Zackary replied.

  “Coiled muscles…” He noted with a nod. “Would cause injuries severe enough that it would overwhelm our ability to control the bleeding?”

  “I did.” The doctor replied, lowering the arm. “But here’s the thing. He had lost enough blood that any Nyúlfur wouldn’t survive without regular treatment, and yet…”

  He hesitated for a moment, “His injuries weren’t anywhere near substantial enough to lose that much.” He pointed a finger at one of the two outline sheets, the more heavily marked of the two. “There was a severe abdominal wound, any deeper and it would have reached the organs… but you would have to be looking at limb loss, a whole chunk of muscle or dozens of injuries like that for him to lose that much blood.” He shook his head, “Even internal bleeding was only concentrated at a few points.”

  Everest let his eyes scan the sheets, reading through the doctor’s clean handwriting. He made a mental note over the little facets of information, where the wounds were, which bone was cracked… he wasn’t a medical professional, but he knew enough to recognise that his old friend wasn’t wrong.

  “I agree.” He replied, “I assume we share a similar suspicion?”

  Zackary rested a hand down on the table to lean forward, glancing over his shoulder at the female Nyúlfur, still working away with the samples with Audas’ blood samples. Everest watched her work for a moment, wondering if she had a sense of what was going on herself. She always had a way of finding such things out.

  “Ev.” Zackary whispered, bringing Everest’s brown eyes and his attention back to him. “I would normally write it off as getting into a lot of fights in a short time… but that kid… I don’t know what he’s been through, but the poor guy’s traumatised… you’ve heard about today’s fight?”

  “I have.”

  “I’m not a psychologist but I can’t help but feel something about the way Kaine acted brought up… a demon of sorts. Something that Audas would find painful enough he would have to snap.”

  Everest nodded; fingers starting to scratch at his chin. “I’ve heard he has been rather distant. On edge even.”

  “Then something must have happened to him before he ended up here.” The doctor stressed, brows lowering. “It might be why he left Britain. The way he’s acted and his injuries… I can only think of two possibilities. Either he was severely and repeatedly beaten, enough that his body just couldn’t’ cope…”

  “Torture?” Everest questioned, encouraging the doctor on.

  “Possibly. Or…” he glanced back at the young Nyúlfur behind him, the white furred woman looking towards them, ears stiff as if curious, only to return to her work.

  No doubt she’s listening in.

  Zackery turned back to him, shaking his head. “Or…” he whispered, “He forcibly given a substance that hampered his ability to heal. That would make it easier to control him or put him down if someone needed to. And that might just be scratching the surface.”

  Everest flicked his eyes towards the table, and he could feel both a chill spread across his body… and against the odds, a dull, almost painful surge of heat in his chest that almost felt like a fire was burning inside of him. All at a very old and familiar memory…

  “Ev. We both know there is only one place that a substance like that can come from…” he pursed his lips, “You don’t think…”

  The leader snapped his hand up, cutting the doctor off. “Zack.” Everest whispered, not slipping in any force. “I need you to keep quiet on this theory. Audas has enough on his mind as it is, and a sudden outbreak of rumours won’t do him any favours.”

  Especially if there is a link…

  The doctor closed his mouth, and nodded in confirmation. “Whatever I find out won’t leave this room. But Everest, someone still needs to talk to him. He’s obviously fighting with something that he can’t shake off so easily. He won’t talk to me for a while, but I don’t know who else to suggest.”

  Frown deepening, Everest glanced round to see the young woman looking at him. Her green eyes were narrowed only by a tiny amount.

  He knew her more than enough to see concern.

  She held the look on him for a moment longer, then dipped her head towards him.

  He returned the nod back, turning towards the doctor. “Let me see what I can do.”