Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter twenty two, While You Were Out: Sleepy Kitty.

-Several days later, Cheerilee-

“How are you feeling Kuril?” She looked to me in sad manner, which probably wasn’t the best question to ask. Kuril’s right arm was in a sling, she was sitting up against the headboard of the bed as I placed a tray of soup before her. She sent a glance to the other bed. “Not too good about Jade I suppose, she’ll be fine. Dr. Patch is well accredited and his work history is phenomenal.”

It was most likely not about how she was feeling, but how her daughter was feeling. I looked over to the bed her daughter occupied with two figures and four snoozing heads at her bed. When I was asked to assist Dr. Patch, I found he was very good at what he did.

Even if Jade still hadn’t woken up, this was better than what I heard about the constant pain she’d been in after going to that place called Klugetown. It sounded like a nasty place to go and at least this wasn’t a case of misaligned spine, something my limited medical knowledge wouldn’t have been able to handle.

I and Fresh had helped Dr. Patch with a few medical procedures to put Jade back into a position where she’d heal better. Oh sure, I turned green and my cheeks swelled with bile, but I helped with clearing the internal bleeding and Jade would be fine after that. Mostly fine, even if she was currently on an intravenous drip.

Kuril licked her lips looking a little distant and eventually she picked up the spoon with her left hand and took some into her mouth, she gave off a small smile.

“Fresh Start… she learned the recipe well enough.” She quietly spoke before taking a few more spoons of soup before she turned to me. “I still don’t know how Jaded keeps up with those four, she should have lost her mind by now having to deal with her feelings for them. Doing better than I ever did in the romance arena...”

“Wouldn’t it be the other way around with them keeping up with her? Oh… sorry, it’s just that…” I received a calmly held up left paw, which I took to mean to stop speaking.

“I’m well aware of Jade’s habits, but she’s not a pony though and neither are most of your other students. So to expect them to adhere to pony academics is a little hopeful of you.” What she just said made me wince, but Kuril wasn’t wrong. At least I wasn’t only teaching them pony academics though and was about to say as much when Kuril interrupted me with a hint of fondness in her voice. “You’re a better teacher than most others would have been in this situation. My Jaded is… very special… aside from the doomsday dyscalculia that is.”

“That she is, she’s a very bright student in most things.” Something touched me and I jumped and almost let out a shout. It was only Blade who was carrying a glass of juice, with a packet of crackers and a bit of parmesan for the soup. She could really sneak up on someone with how silent she was.

“Thank you Blade, I see you’ve been watching out for us.” Kuril got a quirky grin from the thestral as she placed the stuff she brought on the tray and rubbed at her short mane with a blush. “Don’t be so modest, I know you’re a good pony.”

After that Blade looked a bit shy as she left and gave a worried look towards Jaded, before exiting the room. I turned to Kuril, not knowing what to say.

“It’ll be okay Cheerilee, just get your lesson plan in order and have some catch up homework ready for my little tom cat.” Oh my goodness, Kuril was right, I really needed to get to work on my lesson plan!

“Sorry Ms. La Perm, but it seems I’ve been neglecting my duties and I might need some help from Mr. Permanganate with planning a few science lessons.” I trotted towards the exit.

“That’s alright Cheerilee. Please, call me Kuril or Kurilian, we’re friends.” After she said that I was about to go out the door when she called out to me. “Wait! Can you tell me how Sugar is doing, Fluttershy is taking good care of her right?”

“I believe Fluttershy is doing very well in caring for your familiar, she’s in good hooves.” My reassurance was met with a slight frown as I didn’t sound too sure myself, but eventually Kuril went back to eating her soup.

-Kuril-

I need someone to remind me to take those nunchucks away from Jade. I may be a lenient mother on many things, but I’ve told her no nunchucks!

This is soup is pretty good, I’m glad Fresh can hold down the fort in the restaurant for us. Like how Sekhet can hold down the fort with keeping Airship Mauled still standing.

-Fluttershy-

Sugar had to be the most difficult creature for me to ever learn about, so far it wasn’t hard to clean her blackened horn and make sure the poor dear was at least comfortable. What was hard was keeping her fed, she ate everything I put before her and was really hungry for some reason. Maybe she needed to make up for all the energy she expended on the dangerous death defying adventure?

I was kind of glad that Jade didn’t drag me into her most recent adventure, I had enough adventure after what happened at Serpent Strath Path and getting all those troublesome lemmings situated safely into their new homes.

I was currently working on earning enough money to buy myself a home and my current job was taking care of Sugar. I didn’t want to be paid for this and was willing to do this for free, but Sekhet insisted that I earn compensation for time spent helping what is always described as the most dangerous rabbit based creature in existence.

Jacky said that Sugar needed to eat meat, so I had her bring a fish to see what part of it Sugar would eat. Sugar ate the whole fish, bones and all. Every part of the fish disappeared into Sugar’s mouth, she hardly even chewed and appeared to be more than a little ravenous.

“Are you okay?” I ask this because Jacky looked like she was moderately mauled just getting this one fish. Her entire body was covered in bruises and Dr. Patch even came over to scan her with his horn.

“Oh I’m fine Fluttershy, the fish just put up a bit more fight than is naturally feasible. In fact, I almost lost the fight to it. as you can see for yourself, it wasn’t exactly very big.” That fish did this to Jacky? I knew her luck was bad, but not that horrible. I felt sorry for her. “So how’s your familiar bond with Angel coming along?”

“I’m not really sure.” Really I wasn’t, I didn’t know what having a familiar bond felt like or if I was supposed to be feeling anything. I felt something hugging one of my legs and I looked down to see Angel cuddling up to me and his cousin Jacka… er… just Jack, was with him. At least I thought they were cousins, whatever the situation I’m just going to call Jack his cousin anyway. “Uh what exactly does a familiar bond feel like?”

“Coo!” We all know that Snickers wasn’t very dangerous or scary, but I still almost jumped out of my skin when the flying turtle swooped down to hug me.

“Well hello to you too Snickers!” I hugged and patted the turtle on her head and she affectionately nuzzled me before releasing me as I did her.

“Hiss, coo, hiss coo… coo hiss, coo-hiss coo!” Well that was a very informative and inspirational, Snickers would be a good motivational speaker if everyone could understand what she was saying. Since they couldn’t, aside from me or Jade, then I would have to translate.

“She says my familiar bond with Angel is sturdy, that we are benefiting from the two way street and that we care about each other in our own special way.” That was seconds before I was lightly slapped across the face by Angel who started to say something in a grumpy manner. “Oh I’m sorry for not paying more attention to you Angel. Does my funny little bunny want a belly rub? Yes, he does!”

I started rubbing Angel’s belly and he squeaked while turning red in the face. Soon I had him on his back and kicking his legs squeaking for mercy. I felt a swelling warmth when he started cuddling my hoof affectionately.

“Coo!” That was Snickers getting my attention as she hovered near us. She held her flippers apart and then slowly brought them together. “Hiss coo! Hiss coo, coo, coo, coo, hiss.”

“Oh wow! He’ll live longer than a normal bunny, we’ll always be best friends and we gain some traits of the other? Funny I don’t feel more like a rabbit.” While I didn’t know it now, I would eventually learn that I had earned a smidge of Angel’s assertiveness and possibly a teeny bit of his aggressiveness. He in turn earned quite a bit of my kindness and possibly a taste for prepared foods.

The bond was a two-way street of the most adorable friendship imaginable, I didn’t feel any different from normal except for the fact that angel felt just a little more special to me than any other animal.

“Excuse me, Fluttershy?” Again being spooked by a pony like Cheerilee shouldn’t be possible under any normal circumstances, but given who I was… I squeaked and fell over onto my side and curled up into a ball of fears and anxiety. “Sorry for scaring you, but Kuril wants to know how Sugar is feeling.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I think she is doing alright, she’s eating a lot though. In fact, she hasn’t stopped eating really.” I didn’t want to voice it, but now that I thought about it… Sugar’s eaten more than her body should be able to contain. At least three times as much by my estimate, where was she keeping it all? “In fact, she’s eaten more food than her stomach can naturally hold and it’s not visibly showing that she has eaten anything.”

“Well I’m not fighting another fish, getting fish slapped once a day is good enough for me. Get someone else who knows how to fish to do it.” With that said, Jacky walked off and over towards Gene. She slowed down a bit and seemed about as shy as I was about something, she even started to cutely poke her talons together and her tail went between her legs.

“I know how to fish!” Maries surprised me to the point that I startled badly and began cowering underneath Cheerilee while holding Angel to my chest. Why does everyone always do that? Sneaking up on poor innocent ponies with faint hearts isn’t always a great idea you know! “Gee Fluttershy, show us how you really feel.”

“I’m sorry that I’m so easily frightened Maries, it’s most certainly not you. Sugar seems to be endlessly hungry and she needs more food.” I explained while pointing to the basket the pink Al-mi’raj was resting in, from what I’ve managed to learn most male Al-mi’raj were yellow. No pony knew much about the females of the species, because they are too rarely seen to be documented. “I could use some help filling her up.”

“Well if you’ll carry Sugar and follow us to the river, we can get a good number of fish for her to eat. Though we’d have to talk with Matriarch Kuril first to see if it’s okay to catch so many fish.” Mara was quite polite in offering to help Sugar. This was followed by Maria’s comment. “If we can’t sate Kuril’s companion that way, then we can always find something else.”

“Okay…” I hid my face behind a curtain of pink as I accepted their help. They were like a big cuddly kitten, a friendly snake and a fluffy goat all rolled into one. I found it easy to talk to them.

-Sekhet-

I walked into the room to see Jade was still asleep and she looked halfway peaceful, if not for the haggard manner of her breathing given the bandages covering her face.

It would still take her a while to wake up, but there was a faint upturn at the edges of her lips, Fizzle was in the kitchen making a snack and I saw Fluttershy go off with Maries to get food for Sugar.

Al-mi’raj were not very mortal friendly and yet Kuril gets one that is exceptionally friendly and even protective of them. I wonder what wonders I’ll see next, there’s no guessing with these people.

“How are you feeling?” I asked of Kuril. Being her secretary, coach of the school and general local friendly goddess, I wanted to check on her mood before I decided on whether or not I should tell her about everything that’s been going on while she’s been in bed these past few days.

“Magical backlash sucks, but if my kitten can go through the pain of having her spine realigned and being in excessive pain for weeks while ignoring her need of pain medication.” After slowly trailing of and sending a glance to the other bed, Kuril returned her slightly chipper gaze to me. “Then this pain is nothing in comparison to the emotional pain of seeing my kitten hurting again. I know she didn’t win that fight, but I’d like to think she gave as good as she got and… well I’m rather proud of her constant ceaseless resilience under duress to say the least.”

“Yes, you two certainly are something else.” The smile brightened, it seemed my words made Kuril take pride in what has been accomplished so far. I had good memories from the days this was just a makeshift camping site next to a wrecked airship leading up to what it is now, a burgeoning town. "You've attracted strong people to this place."

“It’s kind of hard, knowing that I can’t protect Jaded from everything and that she’ll just get hurt again. Even then, I know she’s still going to keep coming back stronger every time… provided nothing permanent happens to her.” If something permanent did happen to her, then I’m sure you’d unleash a mother’s wrath upon the one who did it Kuril. “Tell me Sekhet, do you think I’m doing a good job so far?”

“I’d have to say that you tend to have far more success in a year than an average being gets their whole life. With that out the way, let me do my job as your secretary and tell you how things are going around here.” I know none of the new prospective settlers have tasted your cooking, but when those visitors do… getting them to leave would be problematic after that point. “Fruit orchards are good, Helping Hoof is running smoothly minus the minor cow and reindeer issues, the restaurant is earning a surprising income even without your cooking, the school is in top shape with Cheerilee, the hospital is underway and we have some visitors that are curious about settling down here. Also we have doctors coming in on referrals.”

“Give me some names Sekhet.” Kuril was the mayor, so I obliged willingly.

Author's Note:

I know these chapters are a bit boring, mind the gap.

I have planned arcs and mostly unplanned arcs... it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. The issue is the order to place them in.

With that said, you can stop reading this author's note. What is below this line isn't important, but it is slightly depressing news for me or the curious.
-------------------------

Someone in my family passed recently, but it wasn't exactly that much of a shock really. Eight years of dialysis with diabetes would wear anyone down, they had a strong will to live and were a decent person in life.

It's sad, but the average life expectancy for regular dialysis patients isn't that great when it's chronic kidney failure. It's much worse when diabetes is involved.

Few people ever get to ten years or beyond when it's a terminal condition, but that person made the best of what time they had left and held onto life longer than most.

With that thought in mind...

Listening to music makes me feel better.

Comments

[Meylin Messor]

Sorry for your loss. But I will say that I'm enjoying the story. This is a pretty creative one, I admit.

[The Scarlett Mare]

Bridges like these aren't boring at all. In fact I love the world building factor of them and how fluffy they tend to be

[Elderlichlord]

I’m sorry for your loss. In these trying times I find it best to look to just have faith. I’ve several family members who are sick and several who have passed recently. I’ll pray for you.