singing of the light - exhaustion

[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

There wasn't a great many things that Feza and Aurum held in common. Sure, it wasn't as if Aurum hated the occasional party or social festivity, but he certainly didn't have the same enthusiasm for them as Feza. Aurum always attempted to speak with purpose, keeping his mind almost stubbornly focused on the task at hand, while Feza often found herself stumbling over her words, repeating topics or completely forgetting what she had been talking about. Aurum tended to be a very usefulness based person, who kept his home and everything else clean and simple, with only the occasional dash of color or special item here or there, like a book he particularly loved. Feza, by contrast, could never resist her own urges to absolutely cover things in sparkles and color. It was a trait that had actually been fairly useful when Aurum had been designing the tavern, mainly thanks to the fact that he hadn't really known what to do with color inside of it. And sure, perhaps the colors Feza had picked were a little bit brighter than what he had in mind, but they still worked well enough, and they worked as a nice conversation piece for new joiners on their first visit out to the tavern. Needless to say, Aurum and Feza were too very different people, and never had that been more obvious than when they had both been guardsmen, with Aurum focused solely on the more practical elements, and Feza focused more on parties, and other things that never even popped into his mind. However, if there was one thing, one massive unpleasant thing that Feza and Aurum had in common, it was that they were workaholics. The manner of the work they did was very different, with Aurum focusing on things such as patrols, proxy duties, and everything else he needed to do that Leroy couldn't, and Feza focusing on her constant ideas, parties, and new inventions, but it didn't change the simple fact that the both of them would sooner collapse than just give themselves a break.

When Aurum had been a new joiner of Tanglewood, and Feza had joined shortly after him, he had initially disliked the female. He had berated her and shunned her ideas, and tried his best to just ignore her existence. His hostility whenever they were forced to interact had driven her into a state of utter exhaustion and delirium, where she had finally had a full breakdown and yelled at him. After that, both of them had accepted the blame for their parts in it – Aurum's unnecessary hostility, and Feza's poorly thought out party ideas – and had resolved to do better in the future. Part of this had been that Aurum had decided to dedicate himself to keeping an eye on Feza. Not in a stalking or overbearing sort of way, but just sort of occasionally checking up on her when she threw a new event. After all, when she had first had her massive breakdown, the male hadn't been expecting it one bit, so it was hardly out of the realm of possibility for something bad happening to Feza to come out of the blue again. It just seemed responsible to make sure that she was doing alright, and the brightly colored snow leopard had been added onto the ever increasing list of people Aurum kept watches on, ironically yet another task that often prevented him from taking care of himself. Over the last few events, Aurum had started to notice a rather unpleasant trend showing whenever Feza opened her mouth to yell out whatever extravagant idea she had come up with. At first the lion had just thought he was imagining things, but eventually he had started to see the signs over and over again. The tired shadows in her eyes, the drooping wings, the slow way she would practically drag herself around before putting on her bouncy persona... she was utterly exhausted, and whenever he had tried to bring it up, she would just brush it off. She would smile brightly up at him, claiming that she was fine and that she had just been really caught up in gluing things or something like that.

This was why, when the proxy began to make his way towards the fresh kill stockpile and noticed Feza collapsed alongside it, he couldn't say he was exactly surprised. He was, however, a little bit panicked. He found himself quickening his pace, rushing over. He pressed a paw gently against Feza's neck, a relieved breath leaving him when he felt her pulse push through strongly. Thankfully, it didn't seem as though she had done permanent damage... at least not yet. She was just asleep, something that Aurum was actually relieved about. However, he also knew that the hard dirt ground was hardly the best place for her to sleep, so he found himself gently nosing at her anyways. His voice was soft as he tried to rouse her awake, praying that her exhaustion would motivate her to actually listen to him this time, "Feza... hey, Feza. You fell asleep at the food pile... you must be exhausted. But this isn't the best place to rest, okay? You should head home, and lay down in your bed... I can even help you there, if you need it." He wasn't really in any sort of state to be carrying anybody around yet, considering his chest was still healing, but that didn't mean he couldn't serve as a shoulder for her to lean against as they trudged their way back. Aurum was blissfully unaware of how hypocritical he was being trying to get Feza to rest while he continued to push himself constantly, but it wasn't exactly a surprise. You never saw the flaws inside of yourself when they were reflected in others.

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