River Runs Clear
Here at the border of the region knows as 'the chalk' the vegetation changes from the hardy grass to flora suited for deeper soil. Trees and tall bushes begin to take hold, and water meadows sprout along the course of the Milk Run river, although the name isn't very appropriate for the clear water.

Returning to Kalvin after his visit to Dr. Pike, Axel is following the river just as the young Lapi instructed him too. It isn't long before he comes across the small herd of Rughrats, and spots the antlered rabbit watching over them from the shade of some trees.

"Good day Kalvin," Axel greets the boy as he approaches the flock. The bird-man is momentarily pleased that his voice sounds so normal, that he is able to greet the boy without pausing to converse with himself internally. Like two drivers on a wagon when his dual nature works, it works fine, but when the "drivers" are in contention it's confusing if not a disaster.

Kalvin waves from his spot, using his free hand (his other holding on to his shepherd's hook). "Did your visit to the crazy bat lady go well?" he asks.

Axel considers that. He thinks it's okay to converse with himself in this venue, he notes that many people do in situations like this. "Hm." He stares blankly at Kalvin as his resources are momentarily focused inward, and then answers, "I'm not sure how a good or bad meeting with the Doctor should go. Does everyone get poked so much with so many things? And stripped naked. It was a little awrk-ward." Like an accent "awkward" catches a distinctly avian sound, momentarily making Axel sound like a parrot trying to speak in a human voice. He coughs, clearing his throat and reddening slightly.

With a shrug, Kalvin says, "I don't know, I've never been to see the bat-lady. It doesn't sound all that different than what the girl who looks after me does though."

Axel's brows raise. "The girl who takes after you pokes you and gets you naked?"

The boy nods, the antlers making the action look exaggerated. "Yeah, she says I have to learn grooming, and makes me take baths. She picks things out of my fur."

"Oh, like preening." Axel wonders for a moment where he learned about preening and attributes it to the nebulous block of memories prior to his, well, acquisition of sanity some time after his merging. "I like preening. It's good to learn how."

"Humans have to do that too?" Kalvin asks. "Parsley says it isn't natural for me to stay out here on my own, and that I'll go crazy if I don't have regular contact with other Lapis. Does that happen to you too? I haven't seen any other humans."

Axel reaches up and scratches his head with a hand in a pose he internally agrees must look quite thoughtful. "I don't think I'm like other humans," he admits at length. "I think humans don't have wings, or eyes like mine, or yellow hands, and they don't make bird noises. I don't know if there's anyone like me, but I do know that I'm changing. Maybe some day there'll be a lot of people like me, because I'll be like a lot of people."

"Lapis don't have antlers," Kalvin says. "But I'm a Lapi. I don't think I'm changing. What would I change into? A Cervani?"

Axel nods slowly. "You might," he agrees.

The boy looks down at his feet, and rises up onto his toes a few times. "That would be strange. I don't think I'd like being a Cervani, and having hard hooves for feet. If you turn into a bird, will you miss your toes? Probably not, I bet, since they're so stubby and all."

The older male looks down at his feet as well, wiggling his toes. "They are very stubby. I think they'll grow longer, I'm not sure why, but I'm sure they will. It's as if I know it will happen but not really why, but I'm fine with it anyway, and I'm not sure why that is either. I'd say it's because my spirit wants it to be, but I can't tell who's the spirit and who's the human inside me anymore. It's all confused. I just think of it like there are two of "me" and … oh … I'm thinking too much again. Um." He blinks. "Never mind. Longer toes would be good. I fall over perching now."

"You'd need a very sturdy perch," Kalvin points out. "You look really heavy. I don't think Vartans perch on things… but they have hooves." His ears twist about suddenly, and he says, "She's coming."

Axel stares at his feet a bit longer. "You're right, hooves would be weir- … Oh, who's coming?" He looks up, then peers around, head tilted curiously.

"Parsley," Kalvin says. "She usually comes to check on me about this time of day, but not every day… anyway, I can hear her, so she'll be here soon. She usually brings food too."

"Oh, I think I've met Parsley. She seemed nice, if a little concerned about me." Axel tries to follow the Lapi's gaze to see where she's coming from. "I've noticed that every people – I mean, Lapis, Korvs, humans, Skeeks, and such and so on – are a little different. I think … I mean, um, … " The man struggles to escape another "I think" commentary, feathers puffing a bit, until he just gives up trying to formulate a witty escape and shrugs. "Awrk."

Following the same path Axel did, Parsley comes into view. The blond-haired white Lapi doe is carrying a covered basket and wears a short skirt and halter top – typical spring apparel. She does pause for a moment and raise her ears in surprise when she spots Axel, but continues forward quickly. "There you are, Kalvin," she notes.

"Hi," Axel greets the woman as she approaches. He tries to sound very "normal," which to Axel means emulating the hellos he has heard around town while trying to not talk to himself, not stare blankly, and not otherwise demonstrate possessed individuals are rather weird.

"Good day, Mr. Nadyenka is it?" Parsley says to Axel, smiling in her usual friendly manner. "Is Kalvin teaching you to shepherd?"

Axel considers that, and decides in a way Kalvin is. "Yes," he answers once, then twice to her second question.

"Hi Parsley," Kalvin says with a bit less enthusiasm.

Parsley Chalk puts down the basket, and nods to the younger Lapi. "So, did you enjoy your visit to town, Kalvin?" she asks. "It looks like you made a new friend at least."

"It was okay," Kalvin mutters, looking down at his toes.

"The great spirit says I can have hi-" Axel's mouth hangs open as his inner voice(s) tell him that's probably a weird thing to say, and so he stands there gape-jawed until he not-so-quickly works out a recovery.

The doe gives Axel an odd look when he suddenly goes mute. "Are you alright, Mr. Nadyenka?" she asks.

"Rrrk, um, what I meant to say was that I can have him as a friend. The great spirit says so. The spirit that … surrounds us all … here … and listens. You know. That one." Axel shrugs a little, then tries to put on an encouraging smile.

One of Parsley's ears droops slightly, as she listens to Axel babble. "Oh, well… that's good!" she finally says. "Kalvin could use a friend." She turns her attention back to the boy, and says, "Okay, let's see your teeth now," as she kneels down in front of him.

Kalvin opens his mouth and submits to a quick exam, while Parsley comments that he isn't gnawing enough and will have problems if he doesn't take better care of his teeth, then hands him a thick, straight stick of wood from the basket. "Here's a new chewstick, and I want you to actually use it this time, okay?"

Axel's head cocks to the side and he peers at Parsley mostly with one eye. He can't quite pull off the single beady-eyed stare of avians, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel the urge to at least try. The pose makes his neck and eyes hurt, but he just can't resist. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to you Kalvin, maybe you should chew more," he offers encouragingly.

"See, even Mr. Nadyenka agrees," Parsley says, then looks at Axel again. "How are your teeth?" she asks the man.

The man's head suddenly straightens, and he looks surprised. The effect is only heightened by his feathers puffing out. "Me?" Internally he suddenly recognizes this situation as "shooting oneself in the foot." "Oh, I'm, well … " He glances at Kalvin, shrugs, then kneels down and opens his mouth for an inspection too.

A furry finger pokes around inside Axel's mouth, but mostly pulls his cheeks aside to allow for a better look. "Well, you must clean your teeth regularly, Mr. Nadyenka. They look very good, and your mouth doesn't carry any unhealthy odors," Parsley concludes, before withdrawing her fingers and wiping them off on her skirt.

Axel licks his teeth and looks a little bewildered for a moment after Parsley withdraws. "The Doctor said I was in good health too," he offers distracted, just to say something.

Kalvin looks amused by Axel being examined as well, until Parsley makes him take of his coat. The doe combs through his fur with her claws, commenting, "So many crumbs… you have to be careful sleeping out here, Kalvin. If you don't keep your fur clean you'll have bugs moving in… is this jam? How did you get jam in your armpit? And this patch is practically glued together with honey… "

"How did you get jam in your armpit?" asks Axel curiously.

Kalvin just shrugs in reply, as Parsley finds more knots of clotted fur. "You must have really binged on sweets in town," the doe comments, and clicks her teeth in disapproval. "You're going to need a proper hot bath for this, I think."

"I don't like baths," Kalvin argues. "Soap tickles my nose."

"I could use a bath too," Axel says interestedly, sitting up. Really the water part he could do without, but out here hot is hard to come by, and he has felt a distinct need for it. "A very hot bath."

"That's settled then," Parsley says, standing up and brushing off her skirt. "We're going to the hot springs. Zeffy has his flock nearby and can watch yours for awhile as well."

Axel hops up to his feet now, wings fluttering to help him keep his balance. "Oh good! It's so cold here, and wet. I hate wet. And cold. Brr." He hurries over to Parsley like a kid being told they're visiting the candy shop. "I like warm!"

Kalvin looks back and forth between the two grown-ups, and becomes resigned. "Okay, I'll take a bath."

Parsley leans back at the sudden close proximity of Axel, and says, "Well… yes, of course you do. You don't have any fur… "

Axel just makes a happy bird sound, which sounds distinctly like "rrk-awrk!" and waits impatiently.

---

After moving Kalvin's flock back onto the chalk to mingle with Zeffy's (a gangly-looking, spotted Lapi doe perhaps a few years older than Kalvin) Parsley leads Axel and the boy to the hot springs near the dam. It isn't quite noon yet, but there is some activity around the washing area where women are gossiping and scrubbing laundry.

The bathing areas are empty for the moment, and Parsley pauses to look at Axel before taking Kalvin into one of them. "Do you need help washing, Mr. Nadyenka?" The doe's gaze is clearly on Axel's wings.

Axel follows Parsley's gaze to his wings. Formerly he'd have felt nervous around a woman asking to bathe him, a feeling that vaguely puzzles him as he can't quite understand why with clarity anymore, but after the doctor stripped him naked and poked him for a half an hour he doesn't mind at all. "I'd like that," he answers.

"Alright then, come with us," Parsley says, and takes Kalvin into one of the small 'cabins' that front the bathing springs and serve as changing rooms and showers. There, Parsley and Kalvin disrobe, and the doe picks up a small bucket full of bathing supplies: a lump of soap, small washcloths and some wooden tools whose purpose isn't immediately apparent.

The bird-man follows the two inside and disrobes as well, folding his clothes in to a neat pile because, really, they're all the clothing he has in the world. He takes a moment to glance at his companions curiously, the spirit in him curious about other beings. Of course 'he' (they) neglect to remember that's somewhat a weird thing to do when looking at naked people.

Parsley doesn't appear to notice the attention, as she meticulously prepares for the bath. She lays out the cleaning implements on a flat rock near the shallow part of the spring, and has Kalvin sit on a slightly submerged rock in front of her. Once the bucket is emptied out, she kneels behind the boy and fills it with water, which she then dumps over his head. Kalvin pouts in an expression of discomfort at the whole thing.

Once Axel has satisfied his curiosity (Lapi really are different from me!) he turns is attention to the water and wanders over to kneel down beside the spring pool. After staring at the water a moment he suddenly dunks his head in! Pulling out again he shakes himself out, puffing his feathers, and repeating the process. By the grin on his face he seems to be having a lot of fun with it.

"Yeep!" squeaks Parsley as water is flung every which way, while Kalvin grins at the bird-man's antics. Finally, Parsley gets over the distraction and runs the soap through her hands to build up a lather, which she applies to Kalvin's fur until he's thoroughly soaped up. Then she offers the lump of soap to Axel. "I'm sure it works on skin, if not feathers," she claims.

Axel makes a few attempts to grab the soap while not really paying attention. Once he has it he eyes it as is wondering how it managed to sneak in to his hand. It slides about in his palm as he manipulates it curiously. A bit of this, and then he shrugs and climbs in to the water. "Feathers are hard to clean," he says distracted as he makes his way in to the deeper reaches. "I should have them, but I don't know much about having them. I don't think people think about that much with people like me."

"I'm thinking too much again. Sorry," Axel apologizes back to Kalvin.

Kalvin just grins at Axel's struggles with the soap, while he diligently works the lather into his arms, chest, belly and legs while Parsley works on his back and scalp. "I've heard that humans tend to be… well… clumsy," Parsley notes. "So you can't be faulted, really. But how can you not know how to take care of your own feathers?"

Axel pauses as Parsley makes him think, which while he has been trying to avoid it he can't resist being baited. Thinking makes his two personalities converse and at least one of them loves to ramble. "I've thought about it," he gives Kalvin an apologetic look, "and I think it's because I am a spirit born of a winged people. It's funny but I don't think I understood that before. Mortals have good ideas." As he talks he juggles the soap. Or rather tries to juggle it and just drops it a lot.

Up comes the bucket, and Kalvin is dowsed again to rinse out the soap. "Oh, so you don't know how to take care of your feathers then," Parsley surmises, as she picks through the implements set out beside her. She chooses a fine-toothed comb and a sharpened stone, handing the latter to Kalvin, who begins to scrape his antlers with it. The doe uses the comb to unknot the patches of fur that had been stuck with jam and honey before.

"That's right. I have feathers, but it's more about having them and looking this way than knowing how to use them and take care of them. Maybe spirits were never meant to be mortal. People believe in spirits because they're different, maybe even greater, while mortals are static and similar. I, a possessed being, and of a duality, am somewhere in between. It's very awkward," Axel continues with surprising clarity. The insightful review is somewhat ruined by his dunking himself between sentences and shaking his wings out, though.

After cleaning the bits that Kalvin can't easily reach himself, Parsley looks over the various combs, files and picks available to her, but doesn't see anything that might work on feathers. "I'll just have to use my claws then, Mr. Nadyenka," she says, and starts wading over towards Axel.

Axel stops bathing as Parsley walks over to him, and he stands up to watch her approach. "The water's nice. I haven't been this warm in a … well longer than I can rightly remember. It's like it sinks in to you, and echoes," he tells her happily.

"Echoes?" Parsley asks, as she looks over Axel's wings and other plumage. She even leans in to sniff the bright red feathers.

The bird-man smells a little musty, as feathers tend to do when not washed in a while, but he also smells a little singed. He watches the woman sniff him with an unabashed and placid curiosity. "Some things feel like me. Like an echo of me, smaller, but similar still. Like candles, and this water. It's like … ," he scratches his chin, " … how you might think other Lapis are like you maybe. Sometimes I feel as if I could reach over and touch the heat, or maybe that it reaches in and touches me."

"Perhaps you're running a fever?" Parsley notes, and reaches up to press a hand to Axel's forehead. "I can't smell any special oils your feathers might have, but just to be safe I won't use soap on them."

In fact Axel does feel hot, very hot indeed. "I don't think I have a fever. Being warm is part of being … um … ," he waves a hand vaguely, " … of being."

Taking her hand away, Parsley says, "I guess I'll take your word for it, but you do sound like someone with a fever when you talk you know." She moves behind Axel, and starts to 'preen' his wing feathers with her small claws and fingers, making sure the shafts are straight and that any bent or broken ones are plucked free.

Axel settles in to the water and lets the Lapi work, closing his eyes as he gets comfortable. "People tell me things like that a lot," he mumbles contentedly.

Across the spring, Kalvin finishes up his own bath, and climbs out to dry off. Parsley keeps working, and says, "I don't know if humans have social grooming, but I'm pretty sure birds don't. You'll have trouble keeping your feather's tidy without a beak or someone to preen them for you. Maybe one of the crafters in town can make a special comb for you though… "

"That's a good question. I think I'll have to look in to that," says Axel. He shifts around a bit, winces when a feather is plucked, and then moments later whispers, "You know, if I concentrate, I think I can feel the water. Or it feels me. Like I can … be like the water, and the heat. Take it all in. Like breathing."

"You probably shouldn't breath in the water," Parsley warns, and moves on to the secondary plumage that is starting to grow on Axel's back and scalp. Here she uses soap though, since they collect the oil and sweat from Axel's as-yet-unmodified human skin.

Axel breathes a sigh as his scalp is massaged. "This is very comfortable," he admits, and leans back, wings fluttering.

"Well, it's supposed to be," Parsley says, giggling. "All mammals seem to enjoy it, anyway." At the end of the massage comes the rinse bucket though, to snap Axel out of his comfortable daze.

Flailing as he's drenched, the bird-man slides off the rabbit and falls back into the water. There's a distinct "fssst" as he hits the water, sending more steam up than normal. His concentration on his affinity for the heat broken, it discharges in a minor magical release of heat. He sputters and blinks as he resurfaces.

Parsley is left blinking, with the bucket help up against her chest. "You really are hot-blooded, I guess," she comments while watching the steam rise from Axel.

"I guess so," Axel agrees dazedly, blinking up from the water. He wafts at the steam with a hand.

Climbing out of the water, Parsley heads over to Kalvin and starts toweling him dry. "With an ability like that, I don't suppose you'd really even need a towel," she says to Axel.

Axel looks at the hand he was wafting with curiously. "You think so?" He sits up, then shakes his wings a bit to free them from some of the water. "It seems like whenever I, what's the word, reach at something or it resonates with me something strange happens. I've never considered doing something useful with it though."

"It's actually a little surprising. First I want or feel it, then I try and … reach out to it, which feels very familiar, and then I feel like I draw more of it too me and … something happens," adds Axel.

Parsley pauses in fluff-drying Kalvin into a giant cotton-ball to stare at Axel again. "What happens if you get… you know?" she asks, bobbing her head from side to side at the end.

Axel looks blank, but he tries to work it out anyway. Intuition isn't always a strong people when dealing with others for him. "Distracted? It's like I drop things and retreat into myself. Then it goes everywhere. I have to hold on, or else I lose it and it seems to just do whatever it wants," he explains.

"That doesn't sound good," Parsley notes, as she finishes drying Kalvin and sends him to get dressed again. "What distracts you? Not shiny things I hope."

"Well sometimes shiny things," Axel admits abashedly. "Also, getting water dumped on my head. Women used to, but not anymore. Being hurt probably would." He works his face in to a grimace as he thinks, then clears it as he asks, "Think I should try and dry off?"

"It might be good practice for controlling… things," Parsley notes, then points to a spot a safe distance away. "Over there though."

Axel bobs his head and walks over to the directed spot. "Alright. Here I go. If anything happens, well, I don't know. I'm sure we'll think of something." He takes a deep breath, folds his wings, folds his arms, then closes his eyes and scrunches up his face in concentration.

The water clinging to Axel's skin and feathers seems to vibrate for a moment, the puffs away into steam, leaving him dry.

Axel opens one eye, "Did it work?"

"Yeah, couldn't you feel it?" Parsley says, coming a little closer. Finally she holds out the wet towel, and says, "See if you can dry this towel, too."

"Oh I can feel it, but it's hard to feel water over the heat, and hard to feel the heat over the concentration. It feels like I lose a little bit of me when I do that. Like it's harder to tell the difference inside, and from myself and the heat," the man answers slowly. His one open eye eyes the tower, then he nods. "Alright. Might want to put it down though, just in case."

Parsley eyes the towel, and thinks about Axel's words about feeling everything… then comes over and just hands it to him. "Maybe you should hold it. If you aren't touching it, how will you know what's happening to it?" she reasons.

"You know it does feel a lot harder to sense the towel over there. It's like it's barely there to me, it's much easier to just look at it than try and reach out to it with my abilities," says the man before he takes the towel. Dramatically he holds the towel aloft in both hands, then closes his eyes again.

The cloth of the towel ripples as the water puffs out of it, leaving it dry and fluffy, and not even hot to the touch.

Axel offers the towel to the Lapi. "Ta-da," he exclaims.

Parsley fondles the towel in amazement, then looks up to Axel and says, "Okay, how about me? Can you dry my fur?"

"Oh, well, I can try," says Axel. Feeling pretty confident he steps forward and wraps his arms around Parsley. His eyes close, he concentrates, then he suddenly inhales and blinks at the woman. "You're different," he says with surprise, unable to elaborate further for a moment.

The bunny blinks up at Axel, since she barely comes up to his shoulders. "I suppose it doesn't work on regular people then?" she asks. "Oh well, at least the towel is dry now… "

Axel doesn't release the woman just yet as he seems to try and figure the mystery of her out. "The living are … well, different. Very different." He seems to try and formulate his thoughts better, brows narrowing. "When I concentrate I can feel not only your heat, but your um … ," he shrugs, lacking the words, "-other being, I think. There's much more to you than the towel. I think I did this once before. I reached out and … " That searching look becomes focused, and Axel seems to concentrate again.

"Are you sure I'm not just distracting you?" Parsley says. "Most men get distracted when they hold me like this." Then her ears shoot straight up, and her fur poofs out.

As the man concentrates Parsley feels a sudden burning sensation, all though her skin is neither singed, nor actually hot. Meanwhile Axel's eyes suddenly go wide! He begins to shake violently until his body suddenly immolates in a fire that radiates no heat. In the vague shape of an avian the fire seems to stare down at the woman with empty yellow eyes set in a head of flame before it lunges forward and partially merges with the woman.

Time seems to slow down for Axel, Nadyenka, and Parsley as the Axel-Nadyenka possession bond strains to try and incorporate Parsley as well. Unable to do so, it manages to merge their minds for several seconds before the strain and Axel's rapidly declining health return Nadyenka fully to the human's body. In that time Parsley feels Nadyenka's simple alien intelligence and Axel's utter horror of losing both the spirit and his health so suddenly, an empty deathly feeling that registers in his horrified eyes as the man falls backward and hits the floor with a thud.

What hits the floor looks almost corpse-like. Axel's cheeks hollow considerably, his skin pales, and his feathers shed badly. It's as if he aged, or rather were robbed of his very life essence. Parsley on the other hand actually feels physically better, though the shock may be worse than the benefit.

Parsley falls to her knees and wraps her arms around herself, making sure it is herself, and only herself. She's still dazed when she notices Axel, reaches out with a shaking hand to nudge his side. "That… that wasn't right… " she mutters, her eyes wide.

Axel suddenly begins breathing again with a raspy gasp, his color returning, and his body slowly beginning to regenerate what had briefly left him. Flesh visibly begins to increase as if he were being re-inflated. The fire that had danced across his skin lingers, slowly fading in to his skin.

Wrapping the towel around herself, Parsley scoots away as Axel shows signs of life again. "D-Don't ever d-do that again!" she stutters.

As Parsley watches she can see the fire actually moves, as if it were alive. It races across the man to the places where he is hurt most before vanishing. Axel's spirit, visible for a brief moment.

"N-never again," Axel wheezes desperately, his arms twitching, then reaching to hug himself. "D-don't leave m-me again. D-don't, please."

Once Axel is back to 'normal', Parsley's mood seems to reverse, from one of terror to one of concern. Soon she's next to Axel and hugging him as best she can. "It's okay now," she says, using a soothing voice. "You'll be okay now."

Axel's gaze blind gaze seems to return to normal now and it locks on Parsley's eyes. She can see the fire here, too, dancing somewhere behind his strange red eyes. "I u-understand n-now, I r-r-rememmber, remember, when this h-happened. He s-saved me, I was d-dying, and he, h-he … " His wings fold around he and the woman both, and he shudders, mumbling thanks, apologizes, and most of all that "he" never leave him again.