What's it like when an old friend, or long time acquaintance falls to age? This is a question that everyone has a different answer for, and when a draconic young prince experiences this himself, he too gathers his own unique answer. Visiting a long time travelling companion for the first time in years, Iaeruki at first believed she hadn't changed a bit in the fifteen hundred years he'd known her, until proven very wrong, for while Kai-chan seemed eternally youthful, she was no exception to the ever present binds of mortality.

Nenrei: Cruelties Wrought by Time

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A quiet sigh heaved past pale, slightly parched lips as slender fingers continued to play across black and ivory keys, the sound extracted from their swift strikes soft and melodious. Right nearby, another was plucking a set of strings, which produced their own gentle, unique sound. Within the entire chamber, only a piano and a harp played, the instrumentalists to manipulate them letting their heads hang, and their faces remain somber. They were playing two entirely different melodies; however even so, those differences weaved together to create a lilting arrangement that blended wondrously in the judgement of the sensitive ear.

Those two instrumentalists played to no one, incorporating each other’s music together in a form of artistic improvisation, and switched back and forth for some time, as if playing to please an audience that never existed. Neither one seemed to tire, merely listening to the slow, gentle sounds they were producing, until eventually the piano began to slow further, marking the start of a close, and the harp soon followed. Gradually, the tones of the piano died away, and the harp finished its last scale, before silver shrouded oculars slowly opened, turning towards the owner’s partner, who peered back with crimson littered slate eyes.

“You have improved since last I heard you, Hanegin.”

Blowing a silver feather out of her face, Hanegin nodded, bowing her head in gratitude. “Hai. Arigato, Iaeruki-san.”

The silver headed prince nodded, idly plucking a single harp string.

Hanegin turned back to the piano, looking as if compelled to play again, however instead reached up to pull the cover over the keys. “I never would’ve thought you could play the harp.”

Iaeruki flicked the tip of an ear, before turning back to his ‘elven’ companion, settling himself down on a nearby seat. “It had been a long time since last I played one.”

“Oro?”

“‘Twas... around the time of Aikiura’s first death. –Then I stopped altogether. I used to play for her all the time.” Iaeruki sighed dismally, folding his hands and shutting his eyes. “It brings back tender memories; undesirable, yet once pleasant. Now I recall why I had stopped playing to begin with. –Though I suppose that could be considered a form of running...” He soon enough found himself being elbowed into silence, turning to peer at Hanegin, before realizing she was indicating something, and his gaze shifted to follow her point.

“...Kai-chan! It has been some time since last I saw you.”

In the doorway to the very chamber half stood, half leaned the seemingly sleep deprived form of a small, black haired neko, a single, deep violet eye locked slightly out of focus on the two dragons that were playing just moments previous. It took her a moment, however she eventually realized she was staring at Iaeruki, and soon her weakened features lit into a feeble smile. “Iae, I almost didn’t recognize you for a moment.”

A slight blink, and Iaeruki quirked his brows, tilting his head in a slightly muddled manner, before sliding off his seat, and striding her way. “How do you fare? Have you recovered at all?”

Kaidona flicked the tip of a silver feline ear, before pushing herself off the doorframe and hobbling her way over. “Well… not really.”

“Then why are you not in bed, child? You should not be exerting yourself.”

“I could hear the music. I wanted to see who it was.”

A brief pause, and Iaeruki sighed, bending his knees a little bit to level himself with her. “…Dear girl, I see you have changed little over the years.”

Kaidona managed half a snicker. “‘Course not. I’m the half insane one, remember?”

“Of course I do. It does not change the fact that you should be in bed. You still have yet to recover.”

A slight scowl contorted her features. “But Iaaaeee!”

“Ah, no buts. What would your husband say?”

Kai-chan’s scowl intensified, gathering a comically childish looking glare.

Iaeruki perched a brow high on his forehead in response, soon taking the lass by the shoulders and turning her to lead her out and back to the bedrooms, all the while ignoring her protestant whine. “Come now. Off to bed with you.”

For the past few years, Kaidona had been slowly weakening. It was thought to be some form of illness, but the healer stated that nothing could be found wrong with her, save a peculiar deficiency in her energies. The original recommendation was to stay in bed and rest as much as possible, so that hopefully she would be back to normal within a number of months. Needless to say, that wasn’t the case, as her energy continued to deteriorate at a steady rate, regardless of what she did.

She still looked just as young as ever, however moved as if preyed upon by the passage of time. She never looked energetic anymore, and had gotten thinner, not quite as much as the copy she’d conjured of Iaeruki, but still to the point it looked relatively unhealthy. Her countenance drained of the color it had, while her eyes gained themselves notable shadows.

Another soft sigh escaped the Ryuakurei’s lips as he escorted Kaidona back to her room, directing her to the bed, where he helped her crawl back in, before edging back and settling himself down on the chair that belonged to an oak desk by the wall. “How have you been lately?”

Wriggling slightly beneath the covers, Kai-chan turned her head towards the silver headed prince. “Could have been better, but I won’t waste my time complaining about it.”

“Oh? I see.”

“I can’t really shift much anymore, always feeling about ready to collapse whenever I do, regardless of simplicity.”

Iaeruki frowned at that, intertwining his fingers and resting his chin atop them. “How long has this been as such?”

Kai-chan blinked. “Nnn… Arh, lords. I can’t remember. It’s been a good while now, though.”

“What of your brother?”

“Nn? Koji?” Kaidona blinked again, half squinting at Iaeruki. “He’s been gone for some time now. –‘Bout… Eh… Well, he was somewhere around two hundred fifty-something when his time came.”

The chaos dragon’s frown deepened, face riddled in bewilderment and… something else. “…I see I have missed much in my travels. I now regret having never visited you as often as I should have.”

“S’alright, Iae-san. I can still always tell you what sorts of things have happened between visits.”

Red-emerald gaze turning, Iaeruki couldn’t help the guilt slowly tainting his features, oculars locked on the slightly dulled, violet one that belonged to Kai-chan. “…”

Kaidona stared at Iaeruki for a long while, before she registered that all-too-familiar expression, at which point she half scowled. “No guilt. You have no reason to be guilty.”

Iaeruki bit back a soft groan, simply shaking his head, before deciding to try shifting the subject. “Where is Lance, by the way?”

“Lan-sama? He’s around here somewhere. I was just going to go look for him after checking up on you, but—” Kaidona suddenly stopped mid-sentence, lurching half upright with a series of harsh, ragged coughing. It wasn’t until after she’d coughed herself raw that it finally stopped, leaving her with a vindictive soreness in her throat, and a look of weak displeasure tainting her features.

Eventually relaxing the cringe from his face, Iaeruki lowered his hands to his knees, looking upon Kai-chan in worriment, before shifting to get back onto his feet, soon turning to head for the door. “Stay put, and I will return with some yawarageru for you.” With that, he strode quietly out of the room, leaving the door ajar, and went only as far as beside its frame, before taking a place in a heavy lean against the wall, lifting an arm to rest across his solar plexus, while leaning his jaw into the opposite hand and letting his fingers splay along his cheek.

He already had yawarageru right with him, always having such things on hand during his travels, but for some reason he couldn’t stay in that room for very long –almost as if it hurt to do so. In essence, it did, for seeing Kai-chan as she was troubled him. In the long time he’d been elsewhere, he was still used to the sprightly, energetic girl she was in the days she tagged along with him, while the lass he saw now had changed drastically into a weak, withered shadow of what she once was. Iaeruki expected it to happen eventually, for he knew that she wouldn’t meet his longevity, but he never imagined it would start while she still seemed so young. Needless to say, it was a troubling and painful thing to conceive; he could only begin to imagine what it must have been like for Lance, who was her husband, while the prince himself was just a close friend.

He could only pray that what he was looking at wasn’t age, for while she lacked the energy, her body still possessed the same strength it always did; she just couldn’t put it to use. Little did they know that it really was age; in a sense, the Kairishonans were a piteous race, trying futilely to cling desperately to life through alternate forms. While their natural selves aged, their other forms remained untouched by time, giving the false impression that one could live forever in this manner. Instead, spending prolonged amounts of time in certain forms would alter various traits in them, including longevity.

If one were to spend years upon years within a Ryuakurei form, that Kairishonan would live far beyond its own life expectancy; towards the thirty thousand that the dragon humanoids lived, while if it were to spend much time in the form of a human, its life expectancy would drop significantly. Five hundred of their own years is the average, which comes to three thousand in the years humans follow, while the Notaru form that Kaidona stayed in most often had little more than a hundred and fifty. Her second most common, Teningen, had roughly fifteen thousand, however, she never spent long enough within it to influence her longevity much.

Being so rare on the world he lived, Iaeruki knew little of the Kairishonan race, even though having spent so much time with Kai-chan. What he knew he’d only learned by paying attention to her –observing her—and now he was at a loss. Eventually extracting himself from his deeper thoughts, the Ryuakurei shifted from his previous poise, removing the hand at his jaw to rummage about in his pouch, before the other eventually shifted to join. Nearest ear twitching with an additional few coughs, Iaeruki’s hands moved more hurriedly, before he finally found the plant he was looking for, extracting it from its containment, and twisted in place to return to the room.

Kaidona hadn’t moved from her original spot, a single hand barely remaining clasped over her mouth, and her features now were contorted in pain. Her breathing had shifted, now shorter, more rapid, and slightly fluid in sound. With the slightest twitch of a feline ear, she sluggishly turned her head, directing a teary-eyed stare at Iaeruki’s returning form. Her hand slid from her mouth, smearing a faint trace of crimson along her cheek, and she left it to dangle beside the bed, opening her mouth to speak, only to strain out naught more than a squeak.

Another cringe found its way to Iaeruki’s face, fingers breaking the yawarageru into strips as he strode closer to the bed, and unsheathed a dagger to ‘shave’ off a layer of the plant’s surface. “Please do not strain yourself like that. When I put this on, it should ease the soreness within the following few minutes.” He sheathed the dagger as he spoke, lifting the thinned strips, and turned back, lifting Kaidona’s head and shoulders, before propping her back against his chest and tying the exposed side of the plant loosely around her neck like a sort of bandaging.

Finishing, he gingerly set her back down, trying to keep her from having to move as much as possible, and sat himself back into the chair. A moment’s gaze at the lass’ face, and Iaeruki shifted in his seat, leaning back over, and reached a slender set of digits to brush the trace of blood away from Kai-chan’s cheek, before lifting back and regaining his frown.

He could still hear the difficulty in her breathing, and could see it in her face, along with the lingering hint of pain. He wanted to try and find Lance, but at the same time didn’t want to leave Kai-chan’s general vicinity. This thought in mind, he tugged a slight mind thread open between them, and let a simple inquiry drift along it to Kai-chan. ‘...Where is Kemui?’

‘Kemu? I think he’s outside, sleeping, as usual.’

Gathering her unspoken answer, Iaeruki shifted in his seat again, before pushing to his feet and striding out of the room once more. He immediately turned in the direction of the nearest door that lead outside, wandering through a few rooms and corridors, before finding one, opening the door, and sticking his head out, releasing a brief, sharp whistle. He looked around, waiting a few moments or so, before the horse sized Guimou he was looking for approached the door, peering down at the man inquisitively with those luminous scarlet eyes he possessed.

Iaeruki withdrew his upper torso with the smoky shaded beast’s appearance, turning to head back the way he came, but not before beckoning him to follow. The large mix of dragon, lion, and dog that was now tailing the Ryuakurei was indeed Kemui; he’d grown larger than he once was at the time Kai-chan had first bought him, yet even though he’d more size and bulk, he could still traverse through the halls, rooms, and doorways comprising what eventually became his home with relative ease.

Having once again returned to Kaidona’s room, Iaeruki paused by the door, holding a hand up to halt Kemui before him, and reached to scratch at the side of one of the animal’s cheeks, before beginning to slip back into the room. “Kemui, I must request your assistance. I need you to find Lance and then bring him here. Can you do that for me?” He waited long enough for Kemui to eventually nod and turn to pad off, before withdrawing behind the door once more, moving back for the chair and sitting back down in it.

Kaidona’s state hadn’t changed much, still struggling for breath; face still scrunched faintly in weak discontent. She still had a slight residue of blood on her palm, though the once dangling arm had found a perch back at her side atop the bed. She remained as she were for a long few minutes, before her once relatively quiet breaths turned to wheezing, and she tried to shift in bed, managing to turn her head just enough that it could flop over on its own. She stared hazily at Iaeruki, single eye clouded and face slightly reddened, until trying to muster up her thoroughly abused voice, shutting her eyes in the effort, however only managing to strain out what sounded vaguely like the very beginnings of someone’s name.

Head whipping up and ears pricking, Iaeruki turned his stare back on Kai-chan from where it previously rested on the floor, red-emerald shades studying her but a mere moment, before he tried to comprehend what she was trying to say. While it was difficult to gather through sound, by looking into the reopening violet shades that were hers, he could understand clearly what she was trying to say. She wanted Lance. She wanted to see the man she loved most.

–...One last time.

The last fragment of that thought bashed Iaeruki brutally upside the head, entire form convulsing with the ‘impact’, and his eyes impulsively widened, slit pupils following suit. He remained frozen in a horrified stupor, eyes locked on Kai-chan, until they gathered the taint of fluid silver at her own, at which point he hurriedly lunged from the chair, nearly slammed the door open, and thrust his upper torso from the room, looking up and down the hall frantically. There was no sign of Kemui, or Lance.

By now he wanted to curse harshly, however did no such thing, instead turning his head down the hall and calling out in such urgency that his voice seemed tainted with that of a dragon’s. “LANCE!!”