"Checking in again, Miss Roseluck?" A nurse asked, looking up from a magazine behind her desk. "Technically, it's not visiting hours until twenty minutes from now," the aged mare began, glancing at a clock on the wall. Roseluck let her shoulders sag. "but I tend to miss things, at my old age. It wouldn't be that strange to simply miss a passerby, would it?"
"Thanks." Rose replied, trotting by.
"For what?" The old nurse replied, a sparkle in her eye.
Roesluck made her way down the hall, stopping at a hallway intersection before she remembered the correct direction and continued on her way. Three more doors passed on her side before she entered the correct one.
She teased around the flowers at Eldon's bedside table, placing in a few more that she had brought today. A smile briefly graced her face, before she let it fade. Some of it returned as she turned her attention to the bed, which was far too large for the griffin. It had been the product of two beds pushed together, even though he really only needed a small slice of the second one. Sometimes she liked to lay on one end of the bed, while other times she just sat in one of the chairs.
Things were silent, other than the beeping of his heart rate. She had eventually tuned that out, after she had gotten over how slow his heart beat. The doctors had thought it was a bad sign when they'd hooked him up, and in a way it was. The beeps were even further spaced apart, and those first couple hours had been- not good. After they'd gotten Eldon there, she'd been kicked out, kept from seeing him for at least two hours. It would've been nice if the clock in the lobby was working like it was now. She rolled her eyes.
So, after over a hundred stitches and a liberal helping of bandages, they'd mummified his torso and select parts of his hind legs. It would've looked humorous if she couldn't see small dots of blood soaking through.
She didn't screw up the time coming here twenty minutes early, to be honest. Rose hadn't figured that they'd let her in early, but Twilight always showed up at the same time each day to question her and generally make her go on about what had happened on her excursion.
Most of the time, they were silent. She'd kept her mouth shut on everything that didn't explicitly involve the safety of ponies, or any injuries to her body. But it just seemed fitting that Eldon tell about his own life, and keep some crappy second guess from getting written down somewhere. And before Twilight came, it gave her time to think. She watched Cato snooze against the lump Eldon made under the covers, and her thoughts went back to the same place.
How would things be with them?
She thought it'd be easy, back when her only drive was to get back here. But now, two days since this whole incident, she wasn't really sure. Rose navigated over to the corner and sat down in her chair. Alright, if she couldn't think of how to integrate them, she could start with what she knew.
She tapped her hooves together, thinking. Her house could easily fit them, but she'd never lived with anypony before. That was a negative. It was definitely the right thing to do, and Eldon was her friend. She wasn't sure what ponies would think of him now, but at least he would have a place to stay.
Rose was having trouble thinking of those parts. They seemed pointless, as if beating around the bush. She owned a flower shop, and there was no way she could possibly provide for them and keep a savings account. She supposed that Eldon could work, and she knew he would want to do something to occupy his talons, but for who? Then again, he could grab heavy things and fly, which was a lot more than a pegasus could do. That wasn't to say he didn't have a fair amount of intelligence either, but it wasn't as if he had a lot of education.
The door creaked open, and Roseluck looked up with a sigh. "Hey Twi- Lyra?"
"In the flesh." Lyra replied, putting a hoof to her chest.
"I told you that you didn't need to come by." Rose said, looking back at the floor.
"Yeah, but when do I ever listen?" The aquamarine mare responded. "Besides, I need to spend time with somepony other than Bon Bon."
"I didn't think it was possible for her to annoy anypony." The botanist commented, a little smile spreading across her face.
"It's not that. She's too nice. Like, most of the time, I'm okay with it because it compliments the fact that I can act like a jerk, but since you've been gone, it's just that all day." She shuddered. "Anywho, you still have yet to say anything about the details of getting kidnapped, besides the fact that it was by griffins with a cage and this guy brought you back. Then there's the whole, getting chopped to pieces in front of a bunch of ponies and the new princess."
"Yeah, well… It's his story to tell. I was just the sidekick at most."
"You keep saying that, but I know it's not true. You were just as involved in getting back as he was." Lyra said, ignoring her friend. "Maybe you weren't the one to do the fighting, but hey, you're not really a fighter." Rose glared and Lyra shrugged.
"What's your point, Lyra?"
"Just that you should take more credit for yourself. I know you're attached to this guy, with good reason, but you're no mare to stand around and act pretty." Lyra rolled her eyes. "That's a job for Rarity."
Roseluck giggled, covering her mouth with a hoof. "I suppose you're right about that much."
"Well yeah." She replied, putting a hoof to her chest. "I'm obviously always right."
Rose heard the hint of sarcasm in Lyra's voice and grinned, leaning backwards in her chair. "I wish he would just wake up already."
"Considering the blood stain in the middle of the street that they can't get off, I'm surprised he's still alive."
"Perks of being like an earth pony." Rose replied, grinning. "It'll be crazy to see what he can do when he's rested."
"What could he do before?" Lyra asked, taking a seat. Rose raised an eyebrow. "What?! You can at least tell me that much!"
"Look, I- fine. He's like Big Macintosh, over at the Apple farm. Except with claws and wings."
The other mare let out a low whistle. "What scares me is the idea of well-trained griffins that are even larger."
"And the fact that they aren't scared of the Equestrian border."
The two lapsed into silence for a long time, the beeping of the medical machines picking up the slack. After a few minutes, Lyra rose from her chair. "Isn't that heartbeat a little too slow?" She asked, peering over at the machine. Her gaze shifted to Eldon on the bed, and then to the lump of fur above the covers on the other side of the lump the larger griffin created.
"That's his kid?" Lyra asked, reaching a hoof slowly towards Cato.
"His brother." Roseluck corrected.
"He's a lot smaller than I would've thought." She noted, stroking her hoof along the kid's head. "Pretty soft, too."
"Yeah, well I got him to take a bath yesterday." Rose replied. "He didn't want to be away from his brother though, so it wasn't easy." Nor was it a particularly fond memory.
"I'll bet."
____________________________________________________
"Cato." Rose said, holding up a towel. "Bath."
"Roseluck." He replied. "No."
The mare facehoofed. "You're covered in grime, and you smell funny."
"I'm fine with that."
Rose opened her mouth to rebut, but closed it again. She unraveled the towel, holding an end of it in each hoof.
"What are you-" Cato began, before she wrapped him in the towel and hugged him tightly to her chest with an arm. His talons were pinned against his body, but his hind legs war flailing this way and that as she struggled out of the room. A claw hit her arm and left a long cut.
"Calm down, Cato!" She yelled, and he stopped struggling, looking up at her with what she figured was slight fear. She sighed, and her voice softened. "Look, you don't want to make Eldon sick, right?" She asked, trying to get a view of her cut. She'd need to wash that out right away.
"Where are we even going?!" He asked, and Rose grinned.
"They still have a few tubs downstairs, so I got one ready for you." She navigated down a floor and through a couple doorways, coming into a room with a pony and a nurse.
"You got him here more quickly than I expected." The nurse said, chuckling to herself. She leaned forwards to whisper to an ancient-looking stallion in the tub, who whispered something back. "He says he's surprised to see another griffin in Equestria." More whispers. "The last time he had any contact with them was when he was a youth." The elderly pony smiled, giving a tiny nod.
"Chances are, this is all you'll see for a while." Roseluck replied, setting Cato into the water. "That warm enough for you?" She asked. He nodded, staring at the other ponies.
"How old is he?" The nurse asked, as Rose handed over a bar of soap.
"Ten, I think." If Cato disagreed, he didn't look like he was going to speak up. "You saw the older one?"
"He was bigger than that one from a couple years ago, that's for sure. I saw him right after my shift, and I'll tell you, that isn't a good way to end a day."
"Hey, don-"
"I meant the day he got all… torn up." The mare sighed, washing soap from the stallion's mane.
"Rose, can you get my back?" Cato asked, his voice shrill and embarrassed.
She took the bar of soap, sudsing it up between her hooves. She started working from the top of his head, trying to think of a conversation to start. Luckily, he started it for her.
"How'd you get this water so warm?" He asked. "It's not over a fire pit or anything."
The other nurse shared a look with Roseluck. "Well, there's a water heater that does it automatically."
"How?"
"It's like a fire pit under a different bathtub, except it heats up the water a lot more. Then, when you want hot water, you mix it with cold water to get the right temperature."
"That seems like a lot of work." Cato observed.
"It's all automatic, see?" She asked, turning the faucet with a soapy hoof. Cato stared.
"Can we go back to Eldon?"
"Just stop moving, let me finish!" Rose exclaimed, laughing as he squirmed. She messed with the tassel at the end of his tail for a moment before dropping it back into the water and tipping him over. He struggled to put himself upright, sloshing some water over the side of the tub.
When he rose out of the murky water, however, he looked like a whole new griffin. Everything about him was clean, and he looked like a kid again. Rose smiled, letting him grip her hoof with a talon as she pulled him free of the water and wrapped a towel around the little guy.
"T-thanks." He stammered, as a draft cooled off his fur.
"I just have to clean off my hoof, then we can go back, alright?" She asked, and he nodded, still shivering. He followed her over, leaning against one of her legs and making it damp.
"Isn't he a cute little guy?" The nurse asked, putting a hoof to her chest.
"When he feels like being cute." Rose replied, with a shake of her head. She turned and pulled Cato onto her back, and he quickly attached himself to her neck. She felt her heart melt. It surprised her that she felt such a bond with Cato or Eldon. She had trouble making sense of how she felt for them, exactly, but she knew it felt stronger, somehow.
Maybe that was just what happened when you know that somepony would risk their life for you. But some part of her hoped there was something more to it than trust and gratitude. She just wasn't sure what, yet.
____________________________________________________
An hour passed, then two, and the memory faded. Lyra had left halfway through the first, and Rose couldn't blame her. But she herself had nowhere else to be, no family in Ponyville to speak of. At the moment, she didn't mind. Her friends seemed to understand, and she didn't want to leave him here alone when he woke up.
She had shifted onto the bed and drifted into a state of slight-consciousness. Hours passed without reason, though in the back of her mind, she knew that visiting hours usually ended around now. They would have to kick her out as usual, because she wasn't going to move by herself.
Rose heard voices down the hall, and her ears gave a slight twitch. The hospital had been rather empty in the time she'd been here, and though it wasn't uncommon to hear voices moving around, she assumed that the doctors were doing their rounds and ending visiting hours.
They stopped at her door, and came into focus. Rose remembered the fact that Twilight hadn't shown up just as the very same mare's voice registered in her head. She still didn't feel like moving.
"Woah…" Came a new voice, passing by her on the opposite side of Eldon. Her ears pricked a little more, as a cyan mare with a rainbow mare walked into her vision. It was strange that the head of the weather team was here, but not shocking. Twilight was friends with the mare. This just seemed like a weird thing to bring a friend to.
Rainbow Dash, if she recalled correctly, leaned over Eldon, touching at his wing as Rose readied a hoof to strike with under her chest. It was just a precaution, but she didn't really feel like trusting Twilight or anypony affiliated with her. She'd hesitated for way too long, and it had left Eldon like this.
"See, I told you I thought something looked off about his wings, Dash." Twilight said from the foot of the bed.
"Yeah, they're all screwed up at the tips here… Gilda's looked nothing like this."
"You mind acknowledging my presence before you tap around with the patient?" Rose asked, sounding annoyed. Dash let Eldon's wing drop back to his side, taking a step back.
"Twilight just brought me here." Dash said with a shrug. "I know a few things about griffons, being friends with one for a while at least."
"I already know what's wrong with him." Rose replied.
"You could've opened up about that, you know." Twilight replied in annoyance.
"His wings are just cut, Twi." Dash said, pointing at the uneven feathers. "Like, with a blade."
"What do you mean, cut, I-"
"Wait wait wait!" The blue mare quickly continued. "I meant the feathers. Like, clipped."
Twilight furrowed her brow. "How can you know that, Dash?"
"I read. Sometimes." She responded.
"Like I've said a million times, Dash, there's no need to be ashame-"
"It was in a Daring Do book." The prismatic mare continued, ignoring Twilight. "I'm starting to get bored of the fact that her wings don't work in most of the books. But then again, they had a lot of explosions in the last one, so that's a plus."
There was a knock on the open door, before princess Celestia herself walked in. Twilight and Dash bowed, and Roseluck tried to flip herself on the bed in order to do the same.
"No need, Roseluck." the princess said with a smile, holding up a hoof. The flower mare stopped in the middle of her movement, a rather comical looking hoof sticking up into the air.
"Why- why are you-"
"Ah yes." The Alicorn began, making a hoof motion to what Roseluck assumed was a guard in the hall. "I apologize for the delay, but it's not easy to move around in such a period of threat. I needed a lot of guards."
"But princess, why come for- you're just here for Eldon?" Roseluck pointed to the dormant body.
She nodded, her horn glowing as the curtains on the window slid apart, letting in the afternoon sun. "And for the little one. Twilight tells me that they came from the Griffin Empire."
"Yeah, they do." Rose said. "They saved me from some other griffins too."
"So I have heard." Celestia asserted. "But that is not what I am here for. I wish to figure out who we are up against."
Roseluck gulped. "Well, we were pursued by at least two dozen griffins, but one has a grudge against Eldon because he-" Her eyes searched the princess's face for a few moments. She didn't want to say it for a multitude of reasons.
"He…" The princess urged.
"He killed the guy's partner in order to escape." Rose said, looking aside. The room grew quiet.
"Why?" Celestia asked. It was a simple question, but Rose didn't know how to answer it. She thought for a few moments that felt like hours, her heart thumping in her throat.
"To escape." She said, resolutely. No noise returned, and she felt a bead of sweat slide down her muzzle.
"Why would he need to kill somepony to escape?" Twilight asked. "Was he in jail?"
Rose put her head in her hooves. "No. He just-" She huffed in annoyance, having trouble trying to explain something she already had trouble comprehending to the others. And she was still stressed in front of the princess, with those cold eyes and that impatient look. Maybe she was just imagining it?
"I don't even think they have a jail. They just kill everypony at the slightest thing. He explained this stuff to me, and it still seems ridiculous. I know it's true, but- This is why I wanted him to explain." She sighed. "But he wasn't lying when he said that he was friendly. He just wanted to come here to keep from having to worry about getting searched or taken in the middle of the night for owning a couple books."
The room was dead silent again. Well, minus the usual beeping. Cato nudged up against her side, staring at the ponies with huge eyes. He had apparently awoken at some point. Somehow his presence was reassuring.
"Look, I don't expect you to understand." Rose said, interrupting some whispering between Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Celestia narrowed her eyes a little, but as far as the red maned mare could tell, she wasn't mad. "But he needed to get out of there. I don't know what you're thinking, or how you view the guy, but take my word for it. He's friendly, just like he said."
"I see." The sun princess replied shortly, her face unreadable. "Twilight, if you will?" She asked, walking towards the door as the smaller alicorn followed. A few doctors nearly crashed a gurney into the pair in the doorway, and a mad bout of blushing ensued. The princess offered an apology, busting out an incredibly convincing fake smile.
"What say you, Twilight Sparkle?" Celestia asked, watching the door close behind them. She looked around the hallway, finding it mostly empty.
"M- me, princess?"
"You're a princess, Twilight, you'll have to start making decisions sometime."
"I know, but-" The lavender mare stumbled over her words, "this is the life of somepony, surely I should start with something smaller, like-"
"Twilight, you're a logical mare. What would you do?"
"I- I mean, he rescued Roseluck, and he brought his brother here, but he's a target, so-" She bit her lip, waiting for the princess to intervene. She didn't. "But then again, ponies haven't been threatened… So we should let him stay."
"Unless…" The princess suggested.
"Unless he… does something bad?"
"Twilight, let me just say that the Griffin Empire and Equestria don't always see eye to eye. I am thankful that he risked his life to save a pony he didn't know, but we must look out for the whole of our population over one unimportant escapee. You should not grow attached to him, because though I am allowing you to decide his fate, I will intervene if he puts my ponies at risk."
"But he can stay here until then?" Twilight clarified.
"I think we owe him that much."
__________________________________________________________________
"What are you doing?" Cato asked, as a doctor pushed the gurney up to the side of Eldon's bed.
"I'm just giving him a little medicine to make sure his wounds don't get infected." The pony replied. "Then I'll check his IV, and make sure that his blood work is still normal. Or, the slightly less effective version of normal that we can test griffin blood for." The pony spent some time manipulating some equipment, slowly drawing some liquid from a little container with a needle.
"So, does that go in his mouth?" Cato inquired. It better, because it kind of looked like-
"No, we have to place it directly into a blood vessel." the doctor replied, moving towards Eldon's shoulder.
"No!" Cato screamed, making Rainbow Dash nearly fall out of her chair across the room. "Eldon! Wake up!" He shook his brother's face around roughly, smacking the needle away. The doctor took a step back. Cato watched a golden eye slide open just slightly, staring at him for a moment before it went wide.
Eldon sat up with a start, flinging Cato off his chest onto the foot of the bed. His sight was blurry, he had trouble making out much in the room, but as he blinked a pony came into view, a needle in his hoof. A Needle. He balled up a fist and hit the guy straight in the nose, complete fear of the poison from back home filling his mind.
He shoved himself off of the bed, unsure why they wanted to kill him, but completely sure that he didn't want to go out like this. The griffin got in half a stride before he got to the end of the bed, wooziness taking over almost immediately. His vision faded as his heart struggled to keep up with the sudden change in blood flow, and he no longer felt the bed under his feet.
The window he had aimed for blew into a million pieces and he spread his wings, flapping them one weak time before he dropped like a rock. He must've lost track of time for a second; the time of his fall seemed shorter than it should have. Hurt just as much though, much to his distain.
He managed to roll onto his side, briefly meeting the eyes of a blue mare that was floating above him. She landed in front of him, peering down her muzzle at him. She bent over, her breath flowing against his forehead.
"Quite the escape artist, I see." She said, grinning. "Might want to wait until you have a better shot next time though, guy." She twirled a hoof in the air, and Eldon started to rise, much to his chagrin. He tried flailing his arms, but things just felt as if he was stuck in some sort of thick mud.
"Let me go!" He yelled, struggling harder. Eldon felt his strength leaving him.
"No can do, big guy." The mare said, rising with him. "Apparently you've got information that the princess wants."
Eldon let out a breath, stopping his struggling. "So you need me alive?"
She narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Yeah, I… guess?"
"Awesome." He murmured back. His leg bumped the windowsill, hitting a sharp bit of glass and leaving a small cut. By now he was beyond caring. Eldon struggled again and whatever was holding him decided to let go, dropping him onto the bed once again. Cato jumped on his chest, hugging around his neck.
"So I hear you need information?" He asked. "Guess that means you can't kill me if I don't spill."
A tall white pony was in the room now, studying him. "We did not have the plan to kill you, griffin."
"Likely story." He replied, trying to figure out how they had moved him without touching any part of his body. He crossed his arms, pushing himself backwards until his back was against the head of the bed. "I've never once seen one of those needles do an ounce of good, so you can't honestly expect me to believe you."
The room became silent, but Eldon didn't back down. He stared down the white pony, and she stared back. Roseluck seemed to be acting a little nervous. Whatever, he could outstare a pony. Worst case scenario, he had a second eyelid for that.
"Whatever you believe, we still mean you no harm." The mare began. "We only want information on the status of those other griffins. We know not to kill you, because of your friend over there. You can thank her for sticking around while you've been asleep, so I've heard."
"How can I believe you?" Eldon asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Wouldn't you think that Roseluck would have warned you by now, or that your brother would have been taken away? We're not jumping to any conclusions here, I hope."
"No, that'd be completely ridiculous." The griffin replied dryly. He stuck his arm towards the doctor. "Just know that if this turns out to be poison, I'm taking your eyes with me." He said. A couple of the ponies gasped, but he wasn't sure why. The mare, he assumed, was highly ranked, but bluffing was all he had right now. Besides, she didn't seem to care too much.
"Eldon, that's one of the princesses." Rose hissed, and Eldon blinked. Damn. Whatever, this changed nothing.
He felt a prick in his arm and tried to resist the urge to yank it away. No burning, which was a good sign. His muscles tightened, before releasing again. Eldon moved his arm, looking at the palm of his talon.
"See? Nothing to be afraid of." The purple one said.
"Bullshit." He murmured, slightly glad that none of them seemed to pick up on it. "Any of you got names?" He asked, looking back at the doctor. "Sorry about that." He said, feeling a wave of guilt over the guy's bloody muzzle.
"I suppose it would be fair to address each other on a more personal basis," said the princess. "I am princess Celestia, and this is Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friend Rainbow Dash."
"I'm Cato!" Cato exclaimed, drawing a sudden mass of attention towards himself. He shrank back a little in fear before eyes shifted elsewhere.
"Eldon." The griffin replied, though he was sure they already knew. "But before I get into everything, how long is it until I get out of here?"
The doctor turned, stopping his cart at the door. "You'll be fine, so long as you don't try anything too strenuous. It'll be at least another day before you start to feel less drowsy, and then it'll be two weeks before you're up to full strength. I doubt there'll be a whole lot of a difference after a while though."
"Thanks." He replied, turning to the others. "What do you know?"
The princess sat down in a chair, creaks of protest echoing around the small room. "That the captain's driven by revenge over somepony that you killed. I would like a little more explanation there, if you will."
Eldon scratched his head, adjusting his position on the bed. "I- well… Look, I'll just start from the beginning, alright?" A few nods. "I was born at least eighteen years ago, but there's probably some room for error in there somewhere." The blue one murmured something. "Anyway, I had a family at that point, and this little guy was born several years later. But before that, there was a huge revolution against a king that used to rule. My father took part, and they succeeded. Things were slightly better for a few months, but the new government started to crack down and pen in the people. I'm pretty sure my mother left a little after she gave birth to Cato, but she could have been taken for something she said as well. My father never really recovered, but he eventually disappeared as well. I'm fairly sure he ended up in some work camp somewhere, considering the fact that he hated everything the new government stood for. Then they clipped our wings, put up fences. Stricter curfew, no mobility between cities."
"I guess the worst part about that place is the fact that you never know what's going to happen, or when. I could've been arrested the next day and killed for owning a book or stealing extra food." He paused, his throat closing up a little. She was still giving him that hard gaze that he didn't like, as if doubting his story. If they didn't let him in after this, well, he didn't have anywhere else to go. A tear of frustration ran down his cheek. "I had to escape that place. I wanted Cato to live a normal life, where he could have a shot at flying, and friends that wouldn't turn him in at their first chance." Part of that seemed to resonate with Rainbow whatsit, and he continued. "I didn't plan on killing anyone, but it was us or him. There was nothing else I could've done."
A silence stretched on, making the rock in Eldon's stomach magically expand to the size of a boulder. "So can I stay here? Please?" He asked, hoping that they would find some sort of pity in him if they didn't see his moves as justified. Celestia glanced at Spear- Spare- Sparkle, and the smaller pony gulped.
"Y-yeah, you can stay." She said. Eldon only stared, trying to figure out if he was being tricked. Why wouldn't Celestia speak for herself? "B-but if you end up putting the populace in danger, we can't offer you asylum, alright?"
"Can he choose his place of residence?" Roseluck asked, her voice shaky. "And exercise normal rights as long as he remains in the country?"
"Uh- Yeah." Twilight said, rubbing her fore hooves together. "But like I said, you can't put the populace in danger."
Eldon let his head fall backwards against the wall, breaking into a huge smile. Rose tackle-hugged him before he was ready, smashing his back harder against the head of the bed. He didn't care, pulling an arm away from her back to grab Cato as he joined in. "Thanks so much." He wheezed out, his chest being constricted by Rose's hooves. "I can't- I can't express how happy I am to hear that."
"I'm glad." Celestia cut in, standing up. "I'll increase the guard's presence here in case things… get out of hoof." She turned, bidding goodbye to Twilight as she exited the room. "We'll be in touch, Twilight." Her voice echoed down the hall.
Rose looked back at Eldon, blushing and pushing herself back a few inches. "Soo, uh, you feel up to going home?"
________________________________________________
"Eldon, come back!" Rose exclaimed, and the griffin turned from a few paces down the road. "We're here."
He stared at the storefront, his eyes tracking past the first floor and onto the second. "Really?"
"Yeah." Rose replied, struggling to find the right key.
"It's big." Eldon said shortly, and she chuckled. Maybe with the shop it could be called moderate, but she was probably in possession of a house on the smaller side.
"Glad you think so." The mare replied, grinning as the key slid into the lock and turned. The door opened, a bell rang, and the mare let herself inside.
"Woooooow." Eldon and Cato said in unison. The store was thin, with a counter in the far corner. Glass doors protected flowers along one wall, while all manner of uncut plants covered the rest of the room. The place had a feeling of life to it that Eldon's house never had. He liked it already.
"You want to see where you'll be staying for the first couple days before I get the guest room all fixed up?" She asked, and Eldon nodded mutely. She led him through a door marked 'employees only' and around a corner. The hallway led into a small room with several chairs and a couch, a piece of furniture Eldon skillfully deduced to be his bed.
"That it?" He inquired.
"Yeah." Rose replied. "Cato can fit on one of the chairs or a spare pillow, probably. I figured that wasn't as big of a deal."
"Do I get to choose?!" The little griffin asked, springing onto a worn chair with an ottoman and flopping onto his side. His grin only got wider as he sunk a few inches into the seat.
"'Course. The least I can do is let you pick. Just try not to sit on the arms too much, because I think they're starting to go." She paused, turning towards what Eldon assumed was a kitchen. "So over here, we've go-"
"Sorry Roseluck." Eldon interrupted, clearing his throat. "But is it alright if I just sleep for a while?"
She could tell he was tired; that much was obvious. She smiled. "Go ahead. I should get some blankets, but do you want any food in the meantime?"
"Maybe when I wake up?" He tentatively vocalized, sitting on the couch.
"Sure." Rose replied, nodding her head for emphasis.
Eldon scratched at his forehead, chipping off part of a scab as he nodded back. The mare turned, trotting upstairs. She opened a closet in the wall, pulling free a pile of folded blankets. The trip downstairs was faster, and she stopped to check inventory. "You feeling cold, Eldon?" She asked, sorting through the blankets. No response. "Eldon?" The mare trotted over to the couch, but all she saw was the body of a sleeping griffin.
"You know what?" Cato asked, and Rose turned her attention to the little guy.
"What?"
"This place is way better than I thought it'd be." He paused. "You're way better than I thought you'd be."
Roseluck decided to take that as a compliment. "I'm glad I was satisfactory." She replied with a giggle, spreading blankets over Eldon's unmoving form. He rolled towards the back of the couch, squishing his face awkwardly against the cushions.
Rose felt heavy with happy emotions, though she couldn't hope to sort them all out. One of them was relief though, she knew that much. She didn't care about any challenges that arose from his living here. It was nice to have somepony else in here for a change, anyway. Made the place seem less empty and lonesome.
The mare, a light smile still on her face, peered at the open armchair and grinned a little wider. She could probably use a little rest as well. She pushed herself into a corner of the chair, pulling a spare blanket around herself as she tossed one to Cato. She fell asleep quickly with the realization that maybe this whole ordeal had left her life just a little better off.