Lonely and Bored: A dangerous duo. (FINISHED!)

[carcinoGeneticist]

The interior of the room was dark, but she had no notion of that. Her stout nose was pressed against the blankets that surrounded and warmed her tiny body, but there was no reassuring beat of a heart or breathy sound accompanying it, which was really what made all the difference. It didn't matter if her mother was sleeping or awake, she just hated being left alone. She was getting older, and she couldn't help but feel the desire to be left with at least something more to do.

After a moment's thought, she sighed deeply. She knew her mother and father had both asked her many times to just be patient when they were away, and wait for them to return home.

Could they even begin to comprehend how utterly boring that was?

Asha tunneled slightly under the blankets, and tangled herself in them, letting out a quiet little sigh of disappointment. It was looking more and more like today would be a usual boring day, the kind that left her feeling restless at night. It really wasn't the fault of her parents, but they were just so busy sometimes... She laughed to herself. No one had ever spoken directly to her, but she knew there was something wrong with her. They had called her unfamilliar words behind closed doors, words like "Blind", and "Ace". The first word she usually just shrugged off. Being born without sight meant that she never knew what she was missing out on. That last word was usually spoken in especially hushed tones, ones that confused her. Surely, she had done nothing bad...?

She was sirred from her conflicted thoughts by the sound of a quiet "thump" from elsewhere in the house. She wasn't alone, then...? Carefully, she climbed out of her blankets, moving to the direction of the sound. Nosing carefully along the wall, she gently nudged the door open. "Hello..?" she called out, ears erect and listening, head slowly panning from side to side.

[Kari Muffin]

Eilwyn had been left dropped off at home after Zane took him to work. It wasn't a busy day either. The eagle chirped at his sister's greeting. She was in the kitchen cooking. It smelled wonderful, though he couldn't quite see it properly. Everything was quite fuzzy now. He didn't know what was wrong, he just knew things weren't as clear as they used to be. Even when he was close to things he couldn't really see them anymore.

He missed it. He could remember how clear things used to be, or at least he remembered how he thought things were. Dad, Aunt Kel, Aunt Calia and all of his brothers and sisters. It just wasn't like it used to be. He held the memories but... bother.

Then Eilwyn looked up and ran into the wall with a resounding thud and squeal. It jumped out at him again! He shook his head in dismay as he squinted at the wall sideways. It was there, but when he looked forward it... wasn't quite there.

He blinked when he heard the Hello. "Asha! I'm sorry!" he said hastily.

[carcinoGeneticist]

Asha turned to face the direction of the voice, a small smile crossing her short muzzle slowly. Her eyes were unfocused, though, which often made her gaze disconcerting for those that were not Family. Ah, it was Eilwyn. Of almost all the members of her family, she found that she liked him the best, though she had never spent quality time with him. She had no memory of his voice speaking the two words that she loathed, and he always smelt so nice. The fact that he was closest to her age didn't hurt, of course. The combination of her twin conditions of youth and blindness made her an exceptionally touchy person, and it was only a second before she was moving towards the eagle, bumping against his feathery chest with her head.

If she was a cat, she likely would have purred.

"Eilwyn! I heard a sound, are you okay?" she snuffled along his body, as if seeking out any potential injuries. She looked up at his face, that small and innocent smile still shining on her face. She could not see the clouds that dimmed his vision and so dismayed him, nor could she see from his face how this fact dismayed him. She could pick up on more subtle hints, though, for example the sound his small body made when it contacted the wall, or the way he rushed to greet her.

[Kari Muffin]

Eilwyn smiled down at her, he knew she couldn't see it, but he did it anyway. He could still see her face smiling up at him. It was a comfort, and enough encouragement for him to shrug off what he had just done. "I'm fine. I just missed the door I guess."

He shrugged. His sister wouldn't pry any further than that. She didn't ask as many questions that made him worry. Though Dad and Aunt Calia seemed worried about Asha a lot. He had no idea why. She seemed fine to him... even if she was blind, what was the problem? There were a lot of blind people who did things like normal people did. He wasn't sure how, but he knew Asha could easily manage.

"Everyone's really busy, and I guess we're left to do what we want. So... you want to decide what we do?"

[carcinoGeneticist]

Asha felt a small pang of sympathy for the eagle, nodding to herself. She sometimes missed doors, too. When she was learning how to walk, she even missed her own feet! There was no way to know that this carried an extra sorrow for the eagle, as for her it just seemed to be a consistent part of growing up. Granted, she noticed that he was stumbling more now than he had when he was younger, but she simply guessed that went along with his funny two legs. Heee.

Appeased by his words, the little skunk sat back, her rump landing squarely on her tail. She let out a soft squeak of dismay, the sound as close as she could get to the chirping that was shared by her entire family. Repositioning herself with might look like a slightly indignant expression but at the same time trying to pretend nothing had happened, her tail slowly began waving from side to side.

"I want to go outside," Asha admitted quietly, her eyes as blank as ever. For some reason she felt that there was something Wrong about her request, but she didn't understand why. Sensing some trouble, Mori eased her way into the room, glancing around the corner with a sad expression on her face. She didn't quite know what to do, but she tried to catch Eilwyn's glance and gave him a small shake of her head. There had to be some other activity, please let there be some other activity.

[Kari Muffin]

"Dad said we shouldn't go outside unless Zane is around." He said noticing the small shake of Mori's head. Or at least he assumed it was a small shake of her head, it was quite fuzzy. Maybe he should tell Zane about this... but he didn't want him to worry.

"I know you want to. I think it would be fun, but Dad really didn't should happy about it. Aunt Calia didn't either. They said you could get hurt. I don't think we should make them worry," he said with disappointment. What else could they do? Didn't she like to push that ball around that she had? The one that Ez had given her that jingled? She usually didn't stumble or anything when she played with it. Somehow, though, that got boring.

"What about that stuff Ez gave you? Like the jingly ball? Do you want to play with some of that?" He was trying, but it was hard when she gave him that look. He knew she didn't know about it, but it was still there. He wanted to go outside with her too, but Dad and Aunt Calia really didn't want her to.

[carcinoGeneticist]

Of course, the moment had come. Asha sighed quietly, looking in the direction that she knew Mori must be standing from the subtle sound the floor had made when she'd entered the room to keep an eye on them. It was another subject of great upset to the little skunk, but her easygoing nature let her keep that sadness (or was it anger?) mostly restrained. Her colorless eyes seemed to pick at the floor for a moment.

As Eilwyn spoke, Asha nodded to herself. He was probably right, of course, but still. "I just don't get why they never let me go out. I get along just fine, you know... I haven't fallen down for ages!" she shook her head a little sadly, letting the subject drop. Of course, the last time she had fallen down had been about two days ago, but in the little skunk's mind that was forever.

As if in reply, she trotted over to a corner of the room, nosing the ball out from where it sat. With a nudge of her small snout, she rolled it to the eaglet's general direction, a small smile crossing her face at the musical tones it made. "This is fun..." she nodded, waiting for him to return the ball. "It just gets kinda boring after a while..."

There was one thing that could very quickly make things less boring. From the corner, from deep within a mound of pillows, a single blue-spotted ear twitched. What was that noise...?

[Kari Muffin]

Eilwyn let the ball roll up to his feet before he said anything else. "I don't know, that last fall down the stairs was pretty bad, Asha. You have no idea how much you scared us."

He sighed. It did get boring didn't it? But there wasn't much he could do about it. It's not like he could go against everyone's wishes and whisk Asha away. He wouldn't want to make the family upset either. The eagle chirped before kicking the ball in the general direction of the pillows that contained a bander. He was pretty sure that at least one of the banders would be sleeping there. Probably Mori's, since Xanthe didn't play well and Ez always left his with his roommate or neighbor.

"At least some things change though. It's not like we're stuck doing the same thing forever." He said as he walked a little closer to the rustling pile of pillows.

[carcinoGeneticist]

Asha fell strangely quiet at Eilwyn's mention of her fall. She absently shuffled her feet under her, then shook her head. It had been bad. It had been horrible. The world had been tossed up from under her feet and there was no ground any more, just the sound of screams. Then there had been ground, and she had wished that ground never existed. "I know, I know." she said softly, moving over to the eaglet and nuzzling him with her head once more. "I'll get better at stairs, promise." A giggle.

The sound of the ball rolling once more caught her attention, and she perked her ears, trotting at a brisk pace after it. As the two approached the pile of pillows, Dahlia sneezed and leapt out, landing on the ball and attacking it desperately. Asha cried out in delight, running over to the bander. It was a good thing that it hadn't been Xanthe or Nikita, as the little skunk began to wrestle with the creature.

"Some things change but I'll always like Dahlia!" she cried in delight, pulling the ball away from the bander and racing to Eilwyn, the blue-spotted creature following her and whuffling with each nimble step. "Play with us!" the momentary upset caused by the rejection not being allowed to go outside had been forgotten completely.

[Kari Muffin]

Wrestling with banders wasn't Eilwyn's greatest talent, but he couldn't exactly refuse his sister. He sighed a bit as he walked over to the bouncing bander and his sister. He picked up the ball carefully and tossed it up, then caught it, and tossed it up again. "How about we play a game of fetch with Dahlia. She always returns the ball to you anyway."

He didn't wait for a response really, he tossed the ball towards the door. He wasn't really sure he was doing it right, it really was quite fuzzy. He listened to the ball jiggled and the feet on the wooden floor. He wasn't quite sure about all of this. He felt the padding on the floor coming back towards him, the jingling coming closer. He saw the image of Dahlia and then had no time to react.

The little bander had pounced him, ball hanging out of her mouth the whole time. "Argh! Dahlia! Please! Just don't start with the licking! Asha help! It tickles!"

The ball had already fell to the ground and the bander was licking the eagle. Eilwyn was just waiting for the giggling to start.