Chapter Text
He had just handed Martyrn the garlic seeds from winning the competition when he heard a throat clearing behind him. He turned quickly with worry, but exhaled in relief, “Pearl! You’re back!”
Pearl could only chuckle as Avid’s face lit up seeing her. “Yup, I’m assuming the house judging contest is over.”
Avid’s grin grew bigger as he practically bounced in place. He firmly nodded his head. “Uh-huh! Martyn won!”
Pearl chuckled; it seemed Avid had already gotten over Cleo chasing him around during the competition. “Come on, Avid, you’re coming with the girls and me today.” Avid’s head tilted in confusion, but he eagerly agreed.
Avid, giddy, in fact, he was practically skipping as he followed Pearl. Drift, Cleo, and Shelby waited for them just on the other side of the town walls. “I got Avid!” Pearl called out to the waiting three, speeding up a bit now that the group was in view.
“Hey Avid,” Cleo grinned, raising her hand for a moment in greeting. “We figured you could join us in some book hunting. Sound good?”
“Yup, sounds good!” Avid chimed in, then glanced at the sky for a moment, “Uh… wouldn’t it be safer to wait till day again?” Pearl chuckled. The pup was good at remembering to think ahead, a skill not as common as it should be among her packmates.
“Don’t worry, Avid, I’ll protect you from the creepy crawlies.” Pearl turned around to ruffle his hair quickly before moving forward. “We want to get out for a bit and hunt for some books.” Avid frowned and grumbled, shaking his head, as he tried to fix his messed-up ponytail. It only caused more hair to fall around and into his face.
This caused Drift to laugh, “Come ‘ere, let me fix that.” Everyone giggled lightly but paused whilst Drift fixed Avid’s hair.
Pearl paused and waited till Drift finished before she chimed in again. “You’re also here cause you’re under watch.”
“Wha- Hey!” Avid complained. His face contorted in mock offense, and he threw a handful of loose dirt at Pearl.
Pearl only laughed, then attempted to ruffle Avid’s hair again. Luckily, for Avid, he dodged in time. “Avid, pup, did you or did you not go AWOL and run off to Oakhurst without warning?”
Avid’s face of mock offense has shifted into a slight unconscious pout. “Okay, fair… but insulting!”
Cleo gave a dry chuckle, but backed up Pearl. “No, I have to agree with Pearl, you can’t argue this one, Avid.”
“Feel free to try, though.” Much to Avid’s dramatized betrayal, Drift chimes in too, supporting Pearl and teasing Avid. Avid only sputters in response. He doesn’t respond at first, but after a glance at the lake they were currently passing next to, he chimes back in.
“I’ll pull a Gem!”
Shelby is the first to voice her confusion. “What’s a Gem?” However, Drift and Cleo look equally confused.
Pearl can only cackle at first before responding, “Gem’s a person.” The words are decipherable, but barely through her laughter.
“That doesn’t explain anything,” Drift complained, looking to Avid for help. But Avid only sticks his nose in the air as he pouts, refusing to answer.
After Pearl finally calms down, she explains. “Gem is one of my best friends; her family and my family are super close, so she was practically raised as another sibling to me.”
“Alright then, then what does Avid mean by ‘pull a Gem’?” Cleo chimes in, raising an eyebrow. This just causes a new wave of laughter from Pearl, and even Avid gives a small grin.
It took Pearl a moment to calm her laughter. But the moment she does, she answers Cleo with a cheeky smile. “Whenever my brother, Grian, aggravates Gem, she threatens to push him into a body of water. Last time we were all together, she followed through on the threat.” This causes the rest of their group to start laughing in turn.
Pearl narrows her eyes as they reach the castle ruins. “Avid… when did you last change your bandages?” The moment he processes her words, Avid speeds up, jumping into the crypt to avoid Pearl, and suddenly would prefer Scott and his creepiness instead of this. Pearl is a very scary person.
“Oh no, Mister! You get back here, young man!” The elder wolf is quick to chase Avid down the steps of the crypt, catching him as he stumbles trying to turn the corner of the crypt. “Does anyone have any bandages? When did you last change them, Avid? Have you let them breathe in this past week?”
He attempts to wriggle out of Pearl’s hold, but to his disappointment and dread, he fails. Pearl lets out a low warning growl, so he answers. “I dunno… and no”
“I swear, of all the stupid and irresponsible things I have seen you pull over the years. These past few days have been the worst! Not only did you purposefully isolate yourself, but you also ran off without telling anyone. Now I find out you also haven’t been taking care of yourself?!”
“He also fell asleep in the bathtub last night.”
“Really helpful, Drift.” Avid snipes back with a glare at his roommate. Sadly, being held captive by Pearl made the half-hearted glare very ineffective.
Shelby lets out a thoughtful hum before replying to Pearl’s previous question. “I don’t have any bandages on me right now, but I have some back at town.”
“Thank you, Shelby. You are a dear.” Pearl gives a bright smile, giving everyone a full view of her oddly sharp teeth.
“Alright, Avid, two choices. Take the bandages off now, and the skin breathes while we walk till we get back to town, or the bandages come off back at town, and you can’t wrap them again till the day after.”
“But it keeps flaring up! I don’t want to. The bandages help.” Avid, not aware of the three girls’ shock, starts to whine at Pearl. He is yet again trying to wriggle out of her grip, causing Pearl to confiscate his walking privileges, shifting him to a bridal hold.
“Alright, I know damn well there is a doctor in town, and you have apothecary training. One of you can figure out a soothing balm or pain meds, but your skin needs to breathe.”
“…Town, we’ll deal with it in town.” Avid paused for a moment in thought before answering. Neither wolf was registering how the other three in their group were calming down, but starting to exchange thoughtful glances.
Pearl patted his head after carefully releasing him from the prison of her arms. “Good boy, that was the preferred option anyway—less chances for it to get dirty in town. Now we can get back to looking for books.”
“Huh, I didn’t know you had apothecary training, Avid.” Shelby chimed in at this point, curious about many things, but going for the least invasive-seeming thing to ask after.
Avid shyly rubbed the back of his neck as he awkwardly explained. “Uh, yeah, as a kid, I got a bad injury, so I saw a lot of doctors and healers and stuff. I picked a few things up cause of that.”
“He’s being a lil’ modest. He has also spent over a decade now dealing with any time any of our group was sick or injured.” Pearl grinned again, this time less widely, as she proudly explained.
“Yeah, cause some people refuse to get actual medical health.” Avid sniped back, bristling under the praise and Pearl’s pride.
“Eh, Grian and Gem are the main culprits of that habit.”
“I can and will list every time I had to treat you cause you refused to see a doctor, healer, or even spiritualist.” Avid gave Pearl a warning look as she tried to escape some of the blame.
Shelby let out a low appreciative whistle, “So you must be really good then.” Now eyeing Avid with even more curiosity.
“Eh, I just have a lot of experience.” Avid didn’t fully understand why they were impressed. He wasn’t truly professionally trained, and they had an actual doctor, no matter how sketchy, in town already.
“That’s still really impressive, Avid.” Cleo grinned, also giving Avid a praising pat on the head. Unlike Pearl, she was careful not to mess up Avid’s hair.
Avid looked around for a quick out, desperate to escape this praise and attention for now. “Hey, while we’re down here, why don’t we explore?” The others agreed, and they set about studying the crypt and the oddly empty tomb.
There was some more teasing and conversations on their journey, especially as they got very turned around in the woods. However, they did end up making it back to town just in time to see Ren building a house outside the walls.
“Ren! Good to see you. I actually have something for you.” Pearl grinned as she waved one of the power books they had collected aloft.
“Ah, girls and Avid. Good to see ya.” Ren grinned as he invited them over. He accepted the book from Pearl, and a discussion ensued about the power books. Conversations and jokes were wrought until Pearl ushered Cleo and Avid ahead to go inside.
“Pearl, I’m not gonna lie. I’m a little worried about Avid.” Drift’s eyebrows furrowed with genuine concern, and Pearl appreciated that. She was about to ask what specifically concerned Drift when Scot appeared behind the other two girls.
“You should be.”
Pearl barely contained a laugh bubbling out as Shelby and Drift whirled around to look at Scott. “Where did you come from?” Drift was obviously having a moment from the spook of Scott sneaking up on her.
“Oh, you know, Oakhurst, the town we are standing right next to.” Scott had a lazy grin as he responded with dry humor.
“You’re just quiet,” Shelby chimed in, and Pearl did actually let out a low chuckle at that, though she agreed. Even to wolf ears, Scott was almost unnaturally quiet. She could understand why that caused Avid’s paranoia spiral to lock onto him.
“Anyways, as I was saying, Avid might not be the only one you need to worry about.” Instantly, Pearl’s mood and thoughts shifted. “Cause I did overhear, Pyro, Martyn, and Apo be like ‘let's all just believe in vampires for a couple days’. So, the entire town has gone crazy.”
Pearl was unsure what to do with this information, but it was exhausting. It seemed some people might actually cause Avid to spiral further in this town. Drift and Shelby exclaimed their shock, but Pearl could only feel an exhausted kind of worry for Avid’s mental health with this.
“They’re going through a group psychosis and…”
Pearl cut Scott off, rude, but now she was very worried about Avid having just walked back into town, even if he was with Cleo. “Oh, now I understand why Ren decided to build out here. No wonder.” Her comments at least got a laugh from Shelby.
“They also did say that maybe to town had fallen into disrepair because everyone got so paranoid and decided to kill each other in the past. So…”
Shelby let out a small sigh, “I was worried about that.”
They discussed the town's insanity for a moment longer until Ren started complaining about wanting some peace and quiet. Not so subtly kicking them out.
Avid was now hiding in Pearl and Cleo’s house, having finally taken off his bandages. Cleo and Pearl were giving him some space by hanging out just outside the front door. Cleo wanted to respect Avid and not make him show whatever was under the bandages, and Pearl felt it was wrong to make her avoid the house alone while Avid ate dinner before sleeping. So, she joined Cleo out front.
“Pearl, Cleo,” Abolish called out.
“Yeah?” Pearl looked up at where Abolish stood not far away with Legs.
“Hello?” Cleo added, voice laced with confusion compared to Pearl’s own curiosity-filled tone.
“Do you know you have a tunnel partially under your home?” Abolish asked, and thus started a short adventure exploring the limited tunnel under their house, leading to the non-existent basement.
After the conversation, they had Abolish show the way to the cave and mine. Pearl had hoped into the house to see Avid fast asleep before they left, and felt quite confident in taking some time to get resources. Admittedly, Pearl then did get lost in the caves.
Unlike vampires, werewolves were not as prone to silver. However, it still affected them. Silver was one of the few or only materials that actually harmed them and prevented a wolf from instantly healing, but that was all it did.
Pearl was smelting her ores and sitting with Avid, seeing as he was still on a mandatory bandage break, when the noise started. They both instantly had the knowledge that all seven beacons were sanctified. Pearl felt some nausea and dizziness, but otherwise remained unaffected. However, Avid fell over in pain.
Whatever these beacons were, they were magically attacking anything supernatural when all activated. Avid didn’t have the stronger constitution of being a full werewolf to protect himself. Pearl quickly got Avid onto the bed. For now, it seemed no one else was in town, and it had already been proven that Pearl, crouching, strengthened the beacons to sanctity. She could do nothing but treat AVid’s pain-induced fever and wait.
Cleo came back after a bit, saw Avid’s fevered state, but did not press for now. They talked about their mining trip for a bit after losing each other, then went to collect some of the vegetables as Cleo wanted to make some stew for Avid. Outside, they ran into Sausage as they were making their way back from the farm around the fountain.
“You guys would not believe it. I saw so much tonight.” Sausage seemed almost out of breath as he talked.
“Like what?” Both roommates asked in unison. Pearl would crack a joke about, but it didn’t seem like it would be appreciated right now.
“What have you seen?” Cleo tried to further prompt Sausage when he didn’t respond immediately.
“I’m so scared right now. There are vampires among us. They’re real. Vampires are real. Avid has not been lying to you.” Pearl was incredulous; she knew Avid hadn’t been lying. Also, there were actually vampires in the area to worry about? Well, she had interacted with everyone, and they seemed coherent, so at least it wasn’t anyone feral with bloodlust and hunger.
Pearl quickly excused herself and made her way back to Avid’s side. She let out a sigh of relief as it seemed some beacons slowly lost their so-called divine protection, allowing Avid’s pain to lessen. However, he still seems a bit ill from it all.
Shelby, Drift, and Cleo came to check in on Pearl and Avid. Avid’s fever had broken, and he was conscious, but he still wasn’t great. Pearl helped him sit up in bed to look at Shelby and Drift as they all began a casual conversation.
“Sorry, but would would you all be okay if Pearl helped me remove my shirt? The sweat of the fever is making everything itch, and removing the sweat-drenched cotton shirt will hopefully help.” Avid was shy and quite in his request, self-conscious.
“Are you sure, Avid? It would mean they could see everything.” Everything was the large wound along his neck and back, which would never heal, but also some scars along his torso from the rare times he got dragged along on a hunt for on-site information.
Avid gave a firm nod to Pearl, so she carefully helped him remove the shirt. Usually, a very loose shirt to keep from constantly aggravating his injuries, but now the shirt was tight, especially along his back, due to the sweat soaking it. They were careful in the removal, hoping to aggravate Avid’s back and neck as little as possible. But Avid still winced as they took it off. His wound still looked newly scarred; the skin was raw, red, and extremely sensitive. Luckily, after years, it had healed from being scabbed over to slightly healed skin. But there was no way to heal it or help him. They had tried.
Shelby gasped slightly as the wound came fully into view; luckily, Cleo and Drift seemed to be able to easily compose themselves. Most likely due to their professions as a farmer and a detective, they were more used to seeing various injuries.
“Yeah, uh,” Avid figdeted with his fingers nervously as he spoke, “I think I told some people, possibly some here included, that the bandages were to protect me from vampires, but it's actually due to this.”
“Oh, Avid, that’s horrible. May I hug you?” Shelby shuffled forward, concern obvious in her eyes. But Avid grinned and seemed to appreciate her response. He nodded, giving her a short hug, before leaning back in bed again. Shelby chose to stay close and carefully sat at the edge of the bed.
“That looks bad, Avid. May I ask what or who caused it?” Drift softly, concern etching her face. Avid grinned at her in response, beckoning Cleo and her closer. Pearl’s face softened from worry, and she grinned at Avid getting along with them so well now. It was nice to see him opening up and building bonds outside of herself.
“I, uh, I think Pearl told Drift and Cleo a bit of this the other night. But, as a kid, my friend and I were attacked by something. It was supernatural in origin, so the wounds didn’t uh, ‘heal’ right? These look new and act new, but I actually got these over a decade ago.” Avid awkwardly explained. Shifting slightly when his injured skin flared in protest at direct contact with a solid surface.
“That sounds horrible,” Shelby’s voice was hesitant, but Avid just grinned at her a bit.
“Uh, yeah, it definitely affected my life a lot afterward. But I got some cool benefits.” His sheepish grin suddenly turned almost fox-like as he added the end, “like a Pearl!” This got a laugh from the others, and Pearl grinned whilst softly tossing his shirt at him.
The five spent a bit longer that night talking. Avid gave careful, slightly sanitized stories of his other scars, and the others shared their own stories of past adventures and experiences. When Avid’s yawns became impossible to ignore, everyone finally said good night. Cleo declared she would make Avid some stew tomorrow, but it was too late to make it tonight.