Exiting the gate, the boys came out with Isaac handing over the biggest catch yet, barely able to stay conscious any longer before he succumbed to the illness, their mother worriedly coming to fetch him and take him to a doctor, no excuses. It must of been a wild ride she thought, forgetting how her mother would react upon seeing all of this. Her mother was almost as oblivious as her.
Within a half hour the knights returned with everyone else who made it or fell ill, she had a good feeling now that even though nothing was explained to her, something major was happening in the forest while the boys were fighting, and it was probably an Argyris' fault, something to do with their conversation. Nyx managed to stay conscious and fine despite the major cuts all over his body and ragged breath.
After getting bandaged insisted on her mother, he left the deer skull with Isaac and finally returned on his behalf as the gate was about to close, only for a white furball to jump out. It leaped at Nyx's direction, who was annoyed and ready to defend, but instead went for Theia as it sat patiently at her feet.
A small white, no, silver tiger cub that was as big as her had found it's way back to her, much to the whispers of people around who spectated. Immediately she reached for it again, the look of it familiar but she couldn't pinpoint it. "Ya sure do like tigers." He whispered that no one else can hear, picking it up with one and noting it was quite heavy. Holding it by its stomach, he put the tiger close to her where she begun petting.
"If seventh brother allowed you to keep a snake as a pet, would I be the better brother for giving you a tiger?" He asked no one in particular, but she did really like the idea of staying close to this one particularly to others. "You really like tigers don't you, eleventh sister." He spoke formally again, clearly hoping for people to listen.
The tiger was reminiscent of her dream, she wasn't stupid, but the dream tiger was much larger and scarier. However, their semblance became clearer the more she'd pet it. She also wondered if petting a beast allowed her to recognize what it were feeling, as she felt as though it were watching her, not the chilling feeling like earlier but her every action was being analyzed.
Interrupted by the coughing king, the participants all shifted their attention up to where he was. "Due to unexpected circumstances, the hunt this year has been cut short, the winners and ceremony will.." as he rambled on, she only ever focused on the beast in front of her.
She caught a glimpse of the Duke passing by them, surprisingly holding up find if it weren't for the smallest twitch of his fingertips as he made his way inside, ignoring his wives and sick children, heading towards the king she assumed to tell him the news of his discovery.
Life was hard as a baby, she couldn't wait to just be able to walk and talk better. Due to being an Argyris, she trusted that would be sooner than other kids. Heading back inside, they found themselves stopped by the ravenette woman, the Duchess of Elyas, everyone really wanted to have her today didn't they.
"Greetings, Duchess Elyas," Nyx put on a fake smile as she greeted him back. There was no way she didn't have ulterior motives from the way she was smiling, she'd thought. "Let's cut to the chase, I'll meet you here later tonight, make sure to deliver this to him." She whispered as she picked the cub up, shoving a small note into his hands as she pretended to observe the beast.
"My my, what a cute little thing. The Argyris family sure does keep odd pets, though." She smiled, commenting about the Duke's choice of keeping wolves as house dogs and now the youngest keeping a tiger cub as a house cat.
She didn't know what happened to the note, but it looked like it disappeared somewhere up his bandaged arm as he replied. "So does the Elyas family, speaking of which, how's the Duke?" She didn't get it, the novel didn't talk much about their family, but the duchess gave a small chuckle.
"My husbands doing fine, how about your mother?" The conversation with their eyes didn't match their words, a noble conversation she read about it novels, likely. After a minute more of this conversation, the two laughed and went their separate ways after returning the cub to him. It seemed like she meant no ill will as Nyx returned to Isaac's room with a happy smile, but that didn't matter when the tiger had squishy paws.
Greeting her mother, Nyx told her not to worry and that Isaac would be completely fine, and he'd explain the tiger cub with him later, she needed to let him rest for now. She was very worried to leave him, but Nyx had insisted and successfully convince her to go away as she played with the tiger on the corner of the bed.
With everyone out of the way, Nyx finally let out the sigh he'd been withholding and cracked his neck and knuckles, reading to give Isaac a good punch to the stomach. The blonde in return caught his hand and with a swift motion got up and released. "Took you long enough." Isaac said while glaring at the redhead.
Laughing, Nyx rolled his eyes. "Says the man fakin' being asleep for who knows how long. Anyways ya got a letter and a cat." He responded, pointing over to the cub in her arms and the note he retrieved from nowhere.
It seemed like his illness vanished awhile ago, not even questioning where the tiger came from as he knew Nyx would fill him in later. Opening the note, he turned it upside down and eyes went from right to left deciphering it, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"We'll be having a midnight chat with the Elyas family tonight, get ready." There was one more thing that seemed to come up before they'd be returning home, and she was quite curious. That Duchess didn't play a huge role in the novel, but now she was a real person rather than a background character. Originally, she never noticed or said anything to Isaac or Nyx, just what did she want now?