Rude Awakening (Adelaide/Theodore C)

[Adelaide]

The morning after The Most Dangerous Game

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They were fortunate to have escaped when they did.

Theo had been out cold most of the night, and the onus had been on Adelaide to escort him to safe place. Well, "safe" was a questionable term - the tavern goers had chased them out of the village due to the appearance of Theo's ears, and Adelaide had barely secured him behind her on Astoria before the wyvern had risen high into the dusky sky and brought them several miles due west in a clearing surrounded by high pines. The night had been quiet, and save for a passing squirrel and a cautiously-browsing deer, nothing had come their way. Moreover, the stars had been out. Adelaide, feeling somewhat guilty about what she had coaxed Theo into doing but mostly amused by her own ingenuity, had covered the passed-out taguel with a spare blanket she usually kept for herself. She slept uncovered and in her armor, but fortunately Bern was out of the months that brought cold gales to the region overnight.

She awoke to the sound of chirping yellow warblers nearby. When her eyes opened, she instinctively shielded them from the morning light beaming through the branch-woven canopy with her right hand. Glancing beside her, though bisected by Astoria's tail, Theodore still lay motionless. She had checked the rabbit man's pulse a few times before falling asleep, and he certainly wasn't in any danger.

Looking up, Adelaide also noticed that Astoria had awoken as well. The olive green wyvern let out a lethargic snarl which caused the duo and the ground they were sprawled on to lightly vibrate. Then Astoria began to poke at Theodore with her front-most limb repeatedly. The wyvern eventually started poking him with such fervor that he began to shake, but he still seemed as unconscious and ragdoll-y as ever. Adelaide had really done a number on him, and suddenly revenge seemed a reality. She'd have to be on her guard.

Still, she had the last laugh despite the result, and she nearly hadn't stopped grinning since she had left the village.

Partly regretful but mostly amused, she tried to quell Astoria's gyrations with an outstretched arm before they would jerk Theo awake.

"Oi, let the poor bastard sleep, Astoria," Adelaide cautioned the beast.

[Theodore]

This was the first time Theodore had actually blacked out. Never had he went completely unconscious like last night. Being a rabbit, he always slept very lightly, you could almost say it was printed in his genes to be like this. So of course, it felt strange to actuallly regain consciousness elsewhere from the tavern. He did remember feeling strong gusts of wind however... Did Adelaide get him out of there? Losing his hat must've caused a scene in the tavern, considering his long fluffy ears.

But man, what the hell was he feeling? It was almost like his head was stuck in a freaking vice. Not only that, but he had never felt this dehydrated before. Is this what humans call "fun"? To drink and then suffer afterwards? Feeling his head being repeatedly hi by what seemed to be Astoria, considering he knew humans didn't have giant scales, he slowly opened his eyes as he was hearing but not really paying attention to Adelaide's words. Not moving for a bit as it seemed to take some time before his body understood the message that it was time to move, he grogilly raised his torso ever so slightly by using his forearms as props.

"It's a bit late for that sadly I think... rubbing his eyes with his hand, he finally adjusted to the light of the outside. Looking around him, it seemed like every bird chirp or animal walking about was causing major discomfort for his ears. Damn you, amazing bunny hearing, who knew that being hungover would be so much worse for rabbits?

"Oh god, what happened after last night? I remember losing my hat but... Did you have to fight?

[Adelaide]

Adelaide's mouth creased into an involuntary smirk as the dozing rabbit man beside her finally came about with a stir. He appeared to be shielding his eyes, or rubbing them - anything to blot out the sudden harshness of the morning light. He looked pained by the clamor of birds and insects encircling the area as well. Which was not entirely unexpected, in part due to his acute sense of hearing.

"Yeah... about that. I couldn't get your hat back," Adelaide confessed, though she plainly didn't want to admit that she thought it looked outlandish and ridiculous. Perhaps it was a fashion statement back in his homeland of Vinland. "Anyway, we had to move, I had left my lance with Astoria and I wasn't about to skewer some innocent villagers even if they were too pudding-brained to see through their prejudices. So we flew off before they brought their torches and pitchforks out to play."

When Theodore failed to respond, she surmised that his delicate sensory systems were still adjusting to the light and sounds permeating them. Conversely, she also swore that she had seen the faintest twitch of a nod from him. She took this as a sign of regard. Gingerly, she ran a hand across her temple, relieved to have not been afflicted by the killer hangover that was so obviously plaguing Theodore. She had questions, perhaps a few of them. But they would have to wait until Theodore was in a better condition to respond. Judging from his returned pallor, however, such a time seemed to be in the approximate figure of "soon".

[Theodore]

Theodore silently listened to her explaining what had happened the night before... From what he could gather despite the killer headache making concentration extremely difficult when added to the harsh daylight and overall sensory overload Theo was experiencing at the moment. However, the fact he had lost his hat was definitely hitting him hard. That hat was so cool though... But anyways, back on topic! Theo started to try and sit up while keeping his ears nearly closed thanks to the much abundant chirping carving profanities in his eardrums.

"Man, no love for the fluffy ears on Elibe it seems hehe... Urgh... Yeaaaah, that attempt at a sassy comment did not really have the wanted result considering how much his hangover was inhibiting his usually silver-tongued demeanor. Raising only one ear to hear what was happening around him, he instantly regretted that decision as pretty much anything that wasn't at least slightly muted sounded like nails on a chalkboard. At least, even with his ears closed by being close to his skull, he could still converse easily with Adelaide considering his hearing was still pretty good despite that. Thank god for the fact that he could move his ears unlike humans who had probably the blandest and most normal looking ears in the world.

Noticing Astoria right next to him, he gave her a quick few pats on the nose as to tell her "Good morning! Now please don't bother me too much if you could, I'm barely restraining myself right now from just going on a hangover-induced murder hobo rampage." Turning to face Adelaide, this time, he decided to ask her something else:

"So, despite all that at the end, we still had fun right?" yep, good old Theodore, gotta make sure the debauchery and alchohol was worth it even if he was pursuied towards the end by the entire village...


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[Adelaide]

"Not on mainland Elibe, apparently," Adelaide agreed reluctantly. The gall of some people! She always knew that the denizens of Elibe harbored some modicum of prejudice for outsiders, but she had not admittedly prepared herself for the events that had transpired the night before. It was her quick thinking that had brought the duo to this favor. Trio, if one counted Astoria.

Just how ironic was it, however, that the Bernese bred and hosted wyverns at their own leisure yet scorned Theodore upon first glance of his physical appearance? Clearly, this was matter of usefulness: humans could learn to tame wyverns, but not taguel. Thus, these lesser-thinking humans seemed to perceive Theodore as a foreign threat. Still, the very thought of this hypocrisy made Adelaide's blood run hot even still.

Give me another decade or two and my blood'll be red steam pouring from both my nostrils, the auburn-haired wyvernness thought, still seething. Humanity makes me sick.

Her vehement manner of thought was diverted when she became distracted by the sight of Theodore patting Astoria on her scaly olive-green snout. The colossal beast, having reached her full adult size only recently, had quickly taken somewhat of a liking to Theo. At the very least, she seemed to tolerate the physical contact. Just yesterday, she had pursued him as if he were prey. Perhaps Adelaide had been successful in conveying the notion to Theodore that the rabbit was not a snack for Astoria, though the true explanation could be more primal than that. Perhaps taguels shared an innate, more animalistic bond with non-humans. Perhaps the obverse was true and Theo had just lucked out on the fact that Astoria was still in the process of waking up. She issued a nonchalant snarl that signaled neither contempt nor contentment.

"Fun? You mean the 'fun' I had lugging your furry arse back here?" Adelaide teased in her usual fiery fashion. "Yeah, it was pretty great. I totally won our little bout. That's a victory in itself!"

[Theodore]

For once, Theodore decided to let that snyde remark of Adelaide slide. He was probably too hungover to try to think of something witty, but he also felt okay letting her gloat since she really did save his ass. Twice, in fact. Well, one and half, there was still a high chance he could've disposed of those poachers by his own after all. "I'm glad that you enjoyed that little victory. However, next time I'll at least be more knowledgeable about alcohol, so better get ready miss Addy!"

That... sounded way better before he started to feel a massive headache hit him like a ton of bricks as he groaned and lowered his head in pain... Damn you brandy, I thought you were a friend... But here you are, stabbing me in the back at my most vulnerable."

Realisin that his cover was blown anyways since he had lost his hat, he decided that he might as well should get comfortable. Reaching for his boots, he took them off quite clumsily to let his feet breath a bit. Well... "paws" to be exact. Those feet his had nothing in resemblence to human ones. His boots were simply made to hide that fact. Stretching his long rabbit feet, he at least was happy to be able to feel the earth underneath his feet. That was always a thing he liked to do.

Looking back at Adelaide, he started to remember the fact he was still with a human. A human which probably had never seen rabbit taguel feet in fact. Hmm, yep. Let's just hope to the Earth Mother that she stays cool and open minded...

"Oh yeah, rabbit feet. I have those. They are a bit big but boy, they sure do a damn well fine job of jumping to high spaces hehe...