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The harder Scorch tried not to pay attention to the little amulet lying innocently where Jusik had tossed it onto the table, the more he found himself glancing at it. It wasn’t that it was especially pretty to look at; an unknown number of years had eaten away its finish and smoothed its carvings ‘til they were hardly distinguishable. It certainly wasn’t useful, either, or at least Jusik hadn’t found a use for it just yet. Scorch was fairly certain it was just some old piece of junk; he’d stopped listening as soon as Jusik used the words “Force artifact” and “ancient relic”. Jedi business was still a mystery to Scorch, and he was just fine with it staying that way.
But there was definitely some inexplicable something about the object. And Jusik’s warning to leave it alone was only making the something harder to resist. Maybe -
“Don’t do it,” Fixer said, breaking Scorch out of his reverie.
Scorch started and tore his gaze away from the amulet. “I wasn’t gonna do anything.”
“Good.”
“You know, Fixer, you worry way too much.”
There was no response to that. For a few minutes, Scorch forced himself to watch the other commando’s progress on piecing together Kad’s broken puzzle. It was only slightly more interesting than watching Mird lick itself, which, at the moment, was his only other option.
“Are you just gonna work on that all afternoon?” Scorch asked, not bothering to keep the petulance out of his voice.
Fixer sighed and set his glue brush down. “I thought you wanted company.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not doing a very good job,” Scorch said. “If you were, you’d at least try to carry on a conversation instead of ignoring me and stinking up the room with a lot of glue.”
“You don’t complain about Mird stinking up the room,” Fixer said, frowning a little.
Upon hearing its name, the strill looked up from where it was lying in a loose heap of golden fur on the rug and whined a little. Scorch patted his hand on the sofa cushion next to him in a clear invitation for the animal to jump on, ignoring Fixer’s noise of disapproval, and felt a twinge of disappointment when Mird stayed firmly put.
“Eh, I’m learning to tolerate it. That or I broke my sense of smell along with my legs.”
Fixer shook his head and turned his attention back to the puzzle, Mird went back to licking itself, and Scorch - Scorch went back to staring at the amulet.
By his calculations, it was nearly a meter or so out of his reach. Scorch chewed his lip, idly weighing his options. If he wasn’t under strict orders to lie still, he might have tried rolling off the sofa and wriggling his way over to the table, but while Gilimar’s wrath didn’t exactly inspire terror like Vau’s did, it still was best to avoid provoking him. Also, Fixer was right there.
“Hey, Fixer.”
“What?”
“Can you go see how Sev’s doing?”
Skepticism flashed across his vod’s face. “Um. Sev was still in a coma half an hour ago. Don’t you think someone would’ve told us if he’d woken up?”
Scorch put on his best pout. “Just go see? Please?”
“You are bored.” Sighing heavily, Fixer set the puzzle to the side and got to his feet. “Fine, but don’t even think about trying to move. Mird! Watch him.”
The strill scrambled to its feet and yawned widely, showing off too many sharp teeth and scattering strings of drool all over the rug as it stretched. Scorch made a rude gesture at his vod’s retreating back and, settling back into the pillows (no less than three of them, a luxury bestowed upon him by Etain, who had taken one look at the casts on his legs and decided to turn nurse) surveyed Mird dubiously.
“Okay Mird, we only have a few minutes before Fix’buir comes back,” he whispered.
Maybe it was the somewhat sarcastic nickname, but Mird growled a little in the back of its throat in a way that didn’t bode well. Scorch decided to cut to the chase.
“Go on, get it,” he whispered a little louder, pointing at the amulet. “Get it. Fetch. Uh - “ it felt strange saying it so quietly, but it didn’t hurt to try. “Oya.”
Mird looked distinctly unimpressed. It also didn’t show any signs of wanting to obey.
“Mird,” Scorch hissed, jabbing his finger towards the table. “Oya.”
Whining all the while, Mird stalked over to the table and turned its head to look at Scorch over its shoulder.
“Yeah, good strill!” Scorch whispered as enthusiastically as he dared. “That’s a good strill! Okay, pick it up.”
Inexplicably, Mird started to shiver and its whining grew impossibly shriller.
“Shhh!” Scorch said frantically, nearly falling off the couch as he sat up straight up. “Quiet, you stupid - quiet, Mird! Fierfek you - stop it, Vau’s gonna slit me open if he thinks I’m hurting you!”
Slobbering miserably, Mird shivered again, but mercifully lowered its whining by a few decibels. It looked up at the amulet, then at Scorch, then back at the amulet. Then back at Scorch. Then -
“Mird. Get it,” Scorch said, not bothering to whisper anymore.
Mird stood up on its four back legs and braced its front paws against the table top, sniffing at the amulet and letting a healthy amount of drool drip onto it. Scorch grit his teeth and sent up a quick prayer of gratitude that he hadn’t been decanted a massif trainer. The instant thrill of a teeth-rattling explosion was his thing, not cajoling a stubborn animal into obeying a simple command.
“Come on…”
The strill finally appeared to have made up its mind to comply. With one quick motion, it snapped up the amulet in its jaws and - vanished.
Scorch actually did fall off the couch at that, scattering pillows and making an awful lot of noise as he did so. His yelps weren’t all from surprise, either; the impact of his casts with the hard floor sent icy shocks of pain up and down his legs. There wasn’t time to dwell on that, though, not when at least two sets of footsteps were hurrying down the hallway at a pace that gave Scorch at most eight seconds to either produce Mird or come up with an explanation. Pushing himself up on his elbows, he looked around the room wildly, but unfortunately there were not a lot of places for a very large, very bright golden strill to hide among the spartan furnishings, and so it only took one sweep for Scorch to come to the conclusion that Mird was truly gone.
Willing himself not to curl up against the crippling ache building in his legs, Scorch wiped dismissively at the tears blurring his vision and began doing rapid mental calculations. Nobody would know he’d told Mird to fetch the amulet, right? He could just say it’d tried to pick the thing up on his own. Fixer had seen him staring at it, and Fixer would definitely be suspicious, but as long as Vau would believe - no, Vau wouldn’t believe he was innocent, Vau would find a way to blame anyone at all over his beloved strill, and Scorch was the obvious choice.
Yeah, he was in deep, deep osik.
Fixer burst into the room with Etain close on his heels, and Scorch tried to grin disarmingly at them. Unfortunately, he couldn’t manage it past the grimace stage, and Etain drew in a sharp little breath at the sight of him.
“Are you alright?” she asked at the same time Fixer said “I knew you’d try to move.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault,” Scorch said automatically and immediately wished he’d started differently. “Give a man a break, huh? I think I broke my legs all over again.“
“I hope not,” Etain said, starting to move towards him and the cushions, “or Mij will - “
“Arw! Arw!”
Etain stopped short. “I didn’t know Mird squeaked.”
“Arw! Arw!”
“That doesn’t sound like - wait a minute, where is Mird?” Fixer asked.
For the life of him, Scorch couldn’t get his tongue to unstick from the roof of his mouth so he could answer. He was staring at the source of the squeaking and now that he saw it - well, he couldn’t decide if this was better or worse.
Glancing at where Scorch’s gaze was trained, Etain opened her mouth as if to say something and then jumped, swiveling to actually look at the tiny bundle of fur trembling behind the table leg. It was so small Scorch understood why he hadn’t noticed it before when he’d had a waist-high, fully grown strill on his mind. It took Fixer a moment to figure it out, too.
“Hold on,” he said, and he sounded as shaken as Scorch had ever heard him. “How - what is that and what did you do with Mird?”
Scorch gulped. “Fixer - “
“Vau’s going to kill us,” Fixer said, dropping heavily into the nearest chair. “He’s actually going to kill us.”
“Is it Mird?” Etain asked. “Maybe - did Mird have babies?”
The two commandos scoffed simultaneously - and perhaps more loudly than was called for - and Scorch berated himself inwardly as he watched Etain’s lips press together. She was only trying to be optimistic, and Scorch didn’t think she knew about the amulet yet.
“Pretty sure that thing on the table did - it,” he said. “Uh - made Mird - shrink?”
“That makes more sense. I’m not sure what I was thinking; we would have noticed if Mird was pregnant,” Etain said. She gestured at the amulet. “But what is that thing?”
“Dunno,” Scorch said. “Jusik called it an amulet. He had a lot to say about the archeological significance and that kinda thing, but it sounded to me like he didn’t actually know what it was.”
“Arw! Arw!” the tiny Mird squeaked again.
The worried creases in Etain’s forehead relaxed and, dropping to her knees, she began making cooing noises at the little animal, shuffling towards it and holding out her hands invitingly. Still trembling, Mird started wobbling its way towards her on unsteady legs. Or, at least, Scorch assumed it had legs; it was difficult to tell as the animal’s folds of skin were far looser than they had been on the fully-grown Mird. Something about it reminded Scorch of a child wearing an adult’s coat.
“It looks kinda funny,” he remarked.
“Don’t be mean,” Etain said. “I’m sure it’ll grow into its skin, won’t you, Mird? You’re going to be a great big strill someday!”
“Can we make that today instead?” Scorch asked. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of Vau’s wrath, but I’d prefer not to lose - “
“How did it happen, exactly?” Fixer interrupted. “Maybe we can reverse engineer it.”
Scorch shrugged as best he could in his position. “It tried to pick Jusik’s amulet thing up. With its mouth. Hey, Etain, can you put the amulet in its mouth?”
The tiny strill had finally made its way over to Etain and she scooped it up, cuddling it close much like she would have done with Kad, except that Mird was currently smaller than Kad’s stuffed strill toy.
“Maybe,” Etain said, “we could wait a little while? The sergeant won’t be back for a few hours, so…maybe we could wait until Kad wakes up from his nap? I think he’d enjoy playing with Mird when it’s like this. It’s a better size.”
There were times when Etain could be as bull-headed as Atin, especially where Kad was concerned, and as much as Scorch would have liked to let her do as she pleased, now was not a good time. Nor was it a good time to argue over it. He shot a look at Fixer, who sighed and stood, stepping around Etain to grab the amulet off of the table and pulling a face at the squelching sound the puddle of drool made when he picked it up.
“Open its mouth,” Fixer ordered, gingerly dangling the amulet from two fingertips.
Etain looked up and frowned worriedly again. “It’s nearly as big as Mird!”
Scorch laughed. “You telling me you haven’t seen Mird unhinge its jaw before?”
Humming doubtfully, Etain set Mird on her lap and gently pried its mouth open with one hand, putting her other hand out for the amulet. Scorch shifted to get a better look as she carefully poked the edge of the thing into Mird’s mouth, realizing too late that if this worked, Etain was going to be bowled over by a fully grown strill in about half a second.
He needn’t have worried - the universe was not on his side today, it would seem. Etain stayed put and Mird stayed minuscule. One second went by, then two, and when the silence started to feel stretched, Scorch fell onto his back and threw his arm over his eyes.
“Don’t give up hope, Scorch,” Etain said, though she didn’t sound very hopeful herself. “If this doesn’t work, Bardan and I will figure something out.”
“You’d better, because it’s not working,” Fixer said flatly.
Resignedly, Etain drew the amulet out of Mird’s mouth again and set it aside slowly, her eyes narrowing in thought.
“I’ll go talk to Bardan,” she said. “Scorch, you take care of Mird, and Fixer, you guard the door. If anyone wants to get inside, tell them…tell them…”
Fixer shook his head and headed for the door. “I’ll come up with something.”
Giving his retreating back a brief smile, Etain leaned over and set Mird onto Scorch’s chest before standing and brushing off her robes. Scorch gaped at her.
“Hey! Are you seriously going to leave me on the floor?”
“Oh, Scorch,” Etain said in that motherly tone she’d been using more often of late. “I wouldn’t want you falling off again while you’re in here by yourself, and this way you can play with Mird more easily.”
“Well, what if I don’t want to play with Mird?” Scorch asked.
It came out more like a whine than he’d meant, but Etain just ignored him and began picking up the scattered pillows and placing them under his head, dropping a quick kiss on his curls and patting his cheek when she was finished. He gave her a wounded look.
“Don’t pout, Scorch. Are you comfy?”
Rolling his eyes, Scorch shifted against the pillows experimentally, knocking Mird to the floor and making it yelp shrilly in protest. “I guess.”
Etain picked up the still-squeaking strill and plopped it back onto Scorch’s chest.
“Be nice to Mird,” she said sternly.
And then she was gone and Scorch was left lying on the floor with a wriggling strill puppy scrabbling for purchase on his shirt and digging its tiny nails into his chest in the process. It didn’t hurt, per say, but it tickled something fierce. Scorch cupped his hands around it and tried to pull it off, but apparently it’d learned its lesson and it only dug its nails into the fabric of his shirt more insistently.
“Ow,” Scorch said reproachfully and gave up, settling instead for wrapping his hands around it and trying to hold it still against him.
Mird stopped its squeaking and scrabbling and nestled into his hands. Peering down at it, Scorch noticed it was struggling to keep its head up. Poor little thing was probably exhausted, he realized.
Then Mird yawned, and as Scorch tried to stifle a sudden yawn himself, he realized he was tired, too. A quick nap couldn’t hurt, right? Good ol’ reliable Fixer would make sure no one bothered him until Etain came back, and it wasn’t as if there was anything else to do in the meantime.
“What do you say, Mird, huh? Time for a nap?”
A sleepy smacking noise was his only response. The warm little strill was breathing deeply now - and drooling, though Scorch couldn’t bring himself to mind. Tiny Mird drooled a heck of a lot less than regular-sized Mird. It also was much cuddlier. Scorch stroked one of his fingers over the top of its head and, instead of trying to bite the digit off, Mird nuzzled its head into Scorch’s finger and made another happy smacking noise.
“Awww,” Scorch said quietly.
If Etain and Jusik couldn’t find a way to un-shrink Mird, he wouldn’t mind so much after all.