Caribou and Patients Too

[ωΘĿƒ]

The smell of food wafted up from the busy kitchen in much the same way as the roiling steam did. This smell was full-bodied and rich, composed of many elements both sweet and sour, spicy and mild. All the flavors imaginable for all the races conceivable were prepped, chopped, stewed, boiled, fried, stirred, mixed, tossed and etc. And to contain this smell were only the two wide-swinging cherrywood doors.

Those doors - half a ton each and perfectly balanced on their hinges - swung open as Le Cyll paraded into the Dining Hall.

One thought entered his single-sighted, intensely focused mind: Food.

Le Cyll needed food, and if he didn't get food exactly where and when he wanted it, he could get more than a little cranky... Homicidal, more like. And he was feeling rather vindictive as it was, what with this perfectly timed schedule being so rudely interrupted by a late caller to his infirmary.

Oh right... In his haste to leave and simultaneously be a "gentleman," he had invited Elle to eat with him.

Goody...

The wolf held the door open for his patient kindly, questioning all the while why he had not had the self control to see five minutes in the future to avoid perhaps what would be an hour of agonizingly long interaction.

Oh right... hungry. He was still hungry, and he still needed food.

Le Cyll got them a table, then ordered up some meat and lemonade for himself.

Funny thing: He had never once before liked anything other than the cool, refreshing taste of crisp meltwater streams. Now that he had began trying things though, he had discovered this lemonade. It was quenching, but at the same time it made you want more quench.

Le Cyll, personally, thought it was the best invention since electricity. Now all he could eat with his food was this... lemonade.

When the food was brought - because apparently Crane had installed waitresses for the night shift of the Dining Hall - Le Cyll sipped at the yellow, sour drink readily. Not really knowing what to say to satiate Elle's what looked like permanent embarrassment, he instead thought it a good idea to bring her away from the subject.

She was literally pink with high blood pressure... That was not very good for you.

"Are you going on the camping trip this weekend?"

It was simple enough, and boring enough to be considered small talk. Le Cyll set aside a portion of his consciousness to continuing the conversation in camping, then boredly let the rest of his free mind wander off wherever it pleased.

The full moon is tonight...

He blinked. Oh dear, so soon? No wonder he was hungry...

[Elle]

To think, if she hadn't gotten the idea to go one what was supposed to be a leisurely stroll, she wouldn't have fallen victim to her innate clumsiness. And if that hadn't happened, she wouldn't have come back to the school and she then she wouldn't be here right now. It was all just an awful chain of events.

Or maybe she was over thinking things. Perhaps it was best to just not think.

And that's precisely what she concentrated on doing. Staring at the table, her head resting on her bandaged hand, she was tapping the side of her plate subconsciously. She remained like that for several moments with a faraway look in her eyes. Then, quite suddenly, she seemed to have been brought back down to reality. Suddenly realizing how annoying that tapping sound was, she brought her hands toward herself, clasping them together and looking down awkwardly.

Soon enough, she became so consumed with locating and dissecting every one of her imperfections that she almost missed his next words.

Blinking, she looked up, pausing momentarily to first confirm that he was talking to her, and second, to wonder if there was a way to figure out his name without having to ask directly. She got an answer to the first one at least.

"Oh... I suppose so," She said, her voice dropping to little more than a whisper, "Ivan said he was going so I figured I would too..."

It was rather sad that that was the only reason she was going. But there wasn't really much of a choice for her... For some reason she just had to. Though she had gotten used to her weaknesses by now. She still didn't like them or even accept them, of course, but... Admitting that you have a problem is the first step, right?

[ωΘĿƒ]

Still intent on sipping at his lemonade, Le Cyll barely listened to what Elle was saying. Still, when he heard the words, and could visually and psychologically sense the acute sense of self-loathing that Elle seemed to have festering, his mind subconsciously snapped to focus on her.

It was much like the smell of blood in the forest. When you smell blood, you can tell there is an easy meal somewhere within limping distance of yourself. But such fortunate occurrences of fate were rare, so the sensitivity to sensing these events was much more developed to compensate to the utmost.

Elle was, metaphorically, bleeding to death. Le Cyll couldn't help but listen to what she had to say, because what she said was so... pitiful.

Why was she so pitiful? It confused him. Many things normal people did confused him, but there was a special place in his lifeless little heart for those that were so crippled it was sad. They were so... interesting, for some unnameable reason.

Was Elle lying through her teeth on a daily basis? Did she secretly manipulate, kidnap, vivisect, then eat people on a regular schedule? Did she feel like mowing down innocent civilians every time that beautiful orb in the night sky was full? Was she constantly plagued with a nagging sense of self-mutilation to the point where she would degenerate into a mindless eating machine if she didn't constantly argue with the little voice in her head?

No? Well. She must have it terrible then...

Le Cyll sipped a bit more of his lemonade. That reminded him. Did he have any syringes left in his dorm room? No. He'd have to pick up a few after this entire "solitude for the safety of others" was over.

Ah, so difficult this night would be. But he would live through it.

He really had no other choice.

"Ivan?" Le Cyll flipped through his memories, looking for an "Ivan." Ah yes. One of the very dangerous new students that seem to be lurking about. Le Cyll had sniffed him out and found him to be excessively risky, but willing to keep to himself.

There was no need to go fighting all the killers at once. He was still working with the lovely Seth and the pesky Kendryek. So much work... He'd definitely need more syringes. And perhaps a better plan of how to manage them all? He would not like any of them to be too intrusive, as Kendryek has already proven to be.

Nosy people... They'll find you. Hide from them...

"I'm not hiding." Le Cyll growled, quietly. More loudly, he continued his conversation.

"Yes, I know of him. But, why join him simply because he is going?"

Back to the matter at hand. Why was Elle this way? Was she being nice? Would she feel bad if she left Ivan without a partner for the trip? Empathy was only one of the many overreacting emotions Le Cyll could occasionally smell on her.

And he usually could not simply smell what people were thinking, but she was a unique, potent vat of emotional scent markers. He could smell everything on her, and it was quite frankly an overload of information.

Elle was, he would wager to guess, one of those "touchy feely" people.

[Elle]

Nervously twirling her hair, she didn't look up when he spoke again. Why did the focus of the conversation have to stay on her? She wasn't interesting! If anything, she was just plain boring! She never had anything exciting to talk about... She rarely had anything to talk about at all. So many of the students here have done so much already, and yet what about her? What was so special about her? Or anything that she'd done? No, she was just so... Plain!

She bit her lip, not wanting to answer his question. Or she at least needed to find a way to answer that didn't make her sound as pathetic. If there was even a way.

"Um, I dunno really... I just hav- want to."

Well, that didn't work out too well. Her co-dependency must be getting very obvious to this guy by now. For the most part she had been lucky, and most people just thought she was clingy, not that that was much better. However, there were a few people who knew about her "condition." She didn't think anyone here did yet, thankfully. Although she did have her suspicions about Ivan. She wasn't sure why, but she did.

"Um, a-are you going?" She asked quickly.

It wasn't like her to ask questions or initiate conversation in general, but she was desperate to throw the focus off of her for awhile. Although, when there were only two people in the conversation, the spotlight was sure to be placed on her again. In a group, she could just lurk around the back and listen without having to actively contribute. But right now that was not so easy.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Le Cyll, still hooked on the sheer sound of Elle's pitiful speech, could barely even listen while he hate his meal.

She was... very self loathing. There was no other way to describe it. And to someone such as himself, the temptation was terribly inviting. He could just see all the fun little possibilities that opened up wide before him at the very sight of someone such as Elle.

Ivan must have thought the same, he mused while finishing his lemonade and asking politely for another glass. He wondered how the creature was keeping himself from-

...or maybe he wasn't...

"Yes, I'm going." Le Cyll shrugged the topic off easily, moving this spotlight that so burned her back overhead.

"Why do you have to, Elle?" He asked, being overtly delicate with the matter, like he was handling a hollow eggshell. "Do you even like camping...?"

There was some small part of him that needed to solve this puzzle she presented. There was another small part that felt Ivan was getting too many of the easy marks by picking on something so obviously breakable that it was almost considered off limits to break. The larger part though, was simply fixated.

He wanted to see what Elle had to say of her horrible little existence... strange as it may sound.

[Elle]

Nearly flinching as she was thrust into the spotlight again, Elle began wracking her brain to find a halfway decent way out of the conversation, but to no avail. Whenever she was confronted, no matter how passive the person may be with her, her mind had this habit of going blank. And that was probably not such a great thing.

"I... Not really..." She answered honestly.

In truth, she hated camping. She really didn't want a stage to showcase her clumsiness on. But what she wanted didn't matter. It never mattered. It was always about what she had to do. Or at least, what she thought she had to do.

"I... I don't know! I just have to!"

She let her head fall into her hands in despair. Why did he want to know so badly?! There was absolutely nothing interesting about her! She was boring! Pathetic, actually! And he knew that! He had to by now. So why did he care about this? What the hell was wrong with him?!

All the questions swirling around inside of her head left her rubbing her temples. Man, she had such a headache now... Why did she have to go to the lake? Or at least why did she have to go to the clinic? I mean, it seemed like the smart thing to do at the time, but now it seemed have done more harm than good.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Le Cyll waited patiently for his lemonade to come. When it got there, he smiled kindly at the server, took his glass, then said a small, unobtrusive thanks. She smiled back, trying not to notice Elle's little breakdown. When she did, Le Cyll turned her attention away with a bit of his persuasive etiquette.

"She's fine... You may leave now."[/i]

The girl looked at him, confused but willing to pay attention. Le Cyll sipped at his drink and nodded dismissively as the words set in, took hold, and forced her to leave. He then set the glass down and waited for Elle to stop sulking.

"You're pathetic."

He said what she had obviously been thinking for the better part of her life. She had most likely never had anyone tell her that either. All alone in that little head with only the grating sound of her own incompetence to keep her company.

Yes... He had a read on her now. He began to understand the inner workings that became Elle, and he found them... strange.

He could see the damage, but not the problem. The cause of this thing's pain eluded him. Of course it was her own low self esteem, but what did this deficiency originate from?

It was as great a mystery as life itself.

"There is not a bone in your body that isn't rubber, is there?"

Le Cyll was speaking frankly, but with a small helping of pity he thought would ease whatever pain she might be feeling at the moment.

"You bend to the will of others just as easily as a young sapling bends to the gale of a hurricane. And like the sapling, the hurricane strips the bright green leaves off your stem, leaving you as nothing but a stick in the ground."

He pause for a moment, considering. Should he intercede in this matter...? He would not like to cause trouble with this Ivan. And yet here he was, playing games with Ivan's mark. It was poor conduct, and Le Cyll should be ashamed of himself for even beginning with poor little Elle.

Stealing was wrong, after all. But only if you were caught...

"Colorful metaphors aside, this Ivan is using you, and the sad part is I think you already know that. You're an intelligent girl, Elle. Put the pieces together, and don't be afraid to look at the finished picture. Else someone might take advantage of that dreadful case of codependency you seem to be harboring."

Wait... wasn't that exactly what he was doing? Taking advantage?

Well, yes. Sure. But she did not know that. Better him than Ivan, yes? At least he had a few rules to stand by, albeit a few strange, unorthodox methods of interpreting those rules.

In any event, Ivan had left poor little Elle all alone and sad. How was the wolf to ignore that?

He didn't ignore crying damsels in distress, he manipulated them...

[/color]

[Elle]

Her head still in her hands, Elle was trying desperately to compose herself, yet failing miserably. So instead, she simply remained as she was, staring at the table, fighting with another episode of self-loathing. Although it wasn't really like she was fighting. After all, she knew just how patheric she was, and she was simply reassuring herself of that fact.

She was nearlt oblivious to the rest of the room, until she heard his next words.

"You're pathetic."[/i]

Her head snapped up immediately, her eyes wide. Had she- Had she really heard him right? That was... How was she supposed to respond to that? Of course, she knew she was pathetic, and she knew that other people thought that about her too, but none of them had ever said anything! It was... Rude to say such a thing. But so then, why wasn't she upset?

She could only stare, open-mouthed, as he told her exactly what she was. Even more than that, he told her exactly what she had been thinking. He'd got it all exactly right. Even her codependency. Most people just thought she was weak but he-

It was a strange feeling, hearung everything laid out like that.

Closing her mouth, she again looked down. However, this time she didn't feal any sadness. No pity or despair, no fear or loathing, just a cold understanding. When she spoke again, for once her voice was completely steady.

"Yeah, I know."

[ωΘĿƒ]

The wolf only looked at her, his perfectly still gray eyes fixed at whatever level the girl would want to rise or sink to. But she did not seem to wish to sink any more. No, she understood. This was something so old. When had it started, he wondered? A parent? a friend? Or was it one of those small voices that normal people created for themselves every now and again? Was it that small tickle of "you're getting too fat" or "you're not nearly good enough for that boy."

The many possibilities, and the many questions that came from them. It was strange, to think in such a manner, but borrowing from the beacon of emotions that poured from her, he had falteringly pieced the strange concept of her life together.

One day, Elle decided to let that interesting affliction of self-loathing grow. Now it was taking a turn for the fatal.

"Good."

He downed the last of his lemonade, jaw clenching as the sweetly sour flavor bathed his tongue and clung to the sides of his mouth. Too sour. He would have to add sugar next time.

"I would lie to you, Elle, but it seems I must first stand in line; so instead I will take the shorter wait and give you the exact information you need for this ordeal: Ivan wants something of you, and when he procures this thing, I cannot bother imagining what means of discarding you he will use. I would prefer something messy and ornate. He might be less vindictive. However, in the prevention of any of these options, might I suggest never giving him his coveted prize? This thing, whatever it is, will shield you from him. Nothing else."

Le Cyll picked at the last scraps of his food, then, finding his plate empty, he slid it into the center of the table and let his back fit into the simple, clean lines of the carved wooden chair.

Looking at the white, naked bones he couldn't help wondering... How much trouble will this cause him?

Trouble! Ivan is trouble... He is like Kendryek... He will kill you if he catches you...

"Good." Le Cyll smirked, though whether at this crawling voice or only in repetition of what he had said earlier, none could tell.

[Elle]

Elle pulled her previously untouched plate closer to her, picking at her food as she listened to him continue. He was talking about how Ivan wanted something from her. She knew this, of course, though she still wasn't quite sure what it was he wanted. Like she said, she was nothing special. However, he knew he had some reason all the same, and with that thought came another moment of clarity.

"Yes, I know that too... Le Cyll, but it can be so hard to say no to him."

It was always uncomfortable to say no to anyone, but especially Ivan. He seemed almost threatening when he didn't have his way. Almost like he was contemplating getting rid of her right then and there. However, he wasn't stupid. He wasn't about to do that until he had gotten what he was after, whatever that may be.

"Besides, I don't know what he could-"

Just then she thought back to when his demeanor seemed change, if only slightly. Hadn't it been right around the time she'd found that orb? Could that really be what he's after?

Instinctively, she slipped her hand into her pocket, making sure that it was still there. That had to be it, but why did he want it. It didn't look like it was particularly useful for anything. However, it must be, somehow, otherwise he wouldn't want it.

Glancing up at Le Cyll across the table, she decided that it was probably best to keep it to herself.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Still musing to himself, Le Cyll did not see Elle reach into her pocket. He did, however see the change that seemed to come over here when it was his turn to add to this conversation. He could only assume, then, that this was Elle knowing exactly what Ivan wanted.

He might want that thing too, but was it really worth it...?

No! No, don't touch it! Dangerous, that is... A power that brings with it trouble greater than the gain...

He blinked, decisively getting rid of the idea to take this thing that Elle had. It must be something good to be so coveted... but that was not for him to find out.

He had enough problems without poking his nose where it didn't belong, Elle's case aside.

Pretending not to notice Elle's change, Le Cyll only proceeded to speak.

"It is hard to refuse anyone, especially something like him. But perhaps you don't need to, hmm? I do prefer an aggressive take on the situation, but perhaps for you more of a passive aggression? Say yes, not no. Go on this trip of his. Do what he says. Simply make it so no matter what he does, he is no closer to gaining this item than he was before. There will be nothing he can do, after all, if he gets no place with his clever plotting."

Le Cyll did not mention the possibility that this might anger Ivan into doing something... not very nice, but that was for him to worry about, wasn't it?

Already, he was piecing together the steps to making this clever plot of his work...

Yes, that is good... Do that. You should help this girl. She will be useful to you later. Ivan has an enemy already... A powerful one. A dangerous one.

"Coyle..."

The word came to him as if out of nowhere, but he knew where he'd heard that name before. at the ball in Colleger, he'd noticed a creature's presence, not seen but rather felt. He had also heard rumors of a creature that stalked the school after curfew, and had been for a long time.

Yes that one! Powerful, but he has other things to worry about... As does Ivan.

"That will work." Le Cyll nodded, more to himself than Elle, but he kept himself anchored into the conversation as not to be impolite to her. "Yes, that will all work. You should do that."

He wondered if Elle would take his advice seriously, or if Ivan would overrule him in any of these instances with his interestingly threatening commands. If he did, then there would be a problem, but for the moment Le Cyll could see no reason for Elle to disprove of his instructions.

He was, after all, doing this only for her sake; and he could not say that very often these days.

[Elle]

Elle nodded, attempting to follow Le Cyll's logic. In essence, she should say yes to say no. It did make sense in a weird sort of way. However, she still wasn't sure if it would be that easy. Ivan was dangerous, she knew that now. Although, how much more trouble could she really get into?

"Yeah... Okay. I'll try that."

By now she was wishing that she had never even met the guy. Her life had been frightening enough before. And now she would give anything to just get away from him. Maybe she should just hand over that orb. Was it really worth it? She didn't even know what it was. And yet... Something in her gut told her that that would be the wrong thing to do.

It was a strange situation she found herself in. If she stayed with him, she was in danger. If she tried to get away she was in danger. Either way she was placing herself in a hazardous situation and it was making her feel sick. Maybe she should just listen to Le Cyll for the time being. He seemed to know what he was talking about.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Nodding to himself, almost completely engulfed in this plan of his, he nearly forgot that Elle was there.

And yet, he must remember. She was a crucial part of this, and the whole reason he was doing this, wasn't she? He must remember her, because without her this would not work. And he needed this to work. Call it an obsession; call it something he felt compelled to do without any regard for anything else; call it whatever you wished to call it, but he was on the first stage of one of his plans, and he would not stop until it was a clean, neat piece of completed work.

Yes... Something constructive to do... That will help you with me... Oh, and don't forget... We have an appointment later tonight. The moon is full...

The beginnings of a snarl curled up from his throat, but he caught them quickly, holding them down.

"I wish you well, Elle." Le Cyll said, briefly. Then he got up and left, without another word.

He had to leave this place, with these people. He could not be around any of them until tomorrow morning. Then he would feel much better.

Deer? Is that it? Why not people... Why not something tastier... Why not Elle?

"Quiet." He hissed, pushing through the heavy mahogany doors of the Dining Hall.