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Redhood stands up from her seat beside the hospital bed of her friend. The sickly blonde girl laying in the bed frowns, as she sees that Redhood is getting ready to leave.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go now, the other girls are waiting for me."
She brushes the blonde's hair comfortingly like usual, but the latter is still pouting.
"Please, I want to stay with you! Take me with you!"
A frown appears on Redhood's face this time as she sees the eagerness of the clearly weak and frail girl beside her.
"You know why I can't take you. When you get better, we can go out again."
The blonde in the bed pouts and looks at the crumpled white hospital bedsheets beneath her. She knows that Redhood is right, but that doesn't make her any more happy about this.
"You could carry me! Just like you used to!"
Redhood lets out a painful sigh. She also would like to take the blonde with her. The sight of her painful state almost makes Redhood give in, but she decides to stay strong, for her friend's sake. So instead, she looks away and heads towards the door.
"I'll be back soon so just... please, rest a bit longer."
"...okay"
Redhood accepts the muttered answer and with a final nod, silently opens the door and then closes it behind her, leaving the frail girl all on her lonesome in a white hospital room. The only sign left behind of Redhood are some blue flowers she had brought for her friend a few days prior.
It doesn't take long for the girl in the bed to start getting antsy. Having been left alone with her thoughts, she begins dreaming of going on adventures, just like Redhood and her friends.
She looks around in the mostly empty hospital room and her eyes are caught on the coatrack, where a lone coat dangles invitingly. An idea pops into the sickly girl's head. Surely Redhood will see how strong she is, if she's able to go on an adventure on her own. Then they could go out together.
Having made up her mind, she throws off her blanket, grabs her crutches from beside the bed and with practiced hops makes her way to the coatrack. She hastily throws on the coat over her black and blue pajamas and exits the hospital room.
The frail blonde girl stumbles on her crutches into the Great Circle. She moves carefully, but the occasional coughing fit and metal crutches hitting the ground announce her arrival to anyone with ears. It just so happens that one such creature has spotted her.
"Human! What are you doing here? This is monster territory!"
The white manticore makes her presence known with a commanding shout, which makes the blonde freeze. The creature quickly zips up next to her, leaving very little space between them. As the manticore sniffs her with curiosity, the girl remains frozen, fear coursing through her veins.
"What are you doing here?" the manticore repeats. Maybe she thought that the blonde hadn't heard. As the manticore shows no signs of giving up, the blonde musters all the confidence she has. She tightens her fists, breathes in and answers.
"I... I'm on..." she begins to take a deep breath, but it turns into a series of coughs, taking the wind out of her chest. As she hunches over, trying to make it stop, the manticore simply looks on with curiosity, seemingly unaware of the seriousness of the sickness.
When the blonde finally comes down from it, she's able to muster out the rest of her sentence.
"I'm on an adventure."
She finally breathes a sigh of relief after having been able to say the whole thing, but the manticore doesn't delay in putting her on the spot again.
"An adventure? That makes you an adventurer! Queen said adventurers must be kept out! Let's fight!"
It's a miracle that the blonde manages to stay standing with her crutches, considering the shaking in her legs and hands at this point. The weakness in her body catching up to her, together with the monster threatening to fight her, makes all the courage she had managed crumble apart. Her voice isn't any less shaky than her body as she desperately responds between heavy breaths.
"I can't fight!"
The manticore tilts her head with curiosity. Her long rabbit-like ears do a little twitch as she considers the blonde's answer, looking like she isn't sure if she had heard the girl right. Her voice hasn't lost any of its energy, but there is finally a hint of concern in it when she continues.
"But you're an adventurer! Why can you not fight? Is something wrong?"
The blonde shifts under the manticore's gaze, retreating into herself even more then before. Her voice is barely above a murmur when she answers.
"I... I just... I wanted to... I wanted to go on an adventure too. But I... I'm so weak... I can't even..."
The blonde suddenly launches into an even worse coughing fit than before. She collapses to her knees, crutches falling beside her, as she tries to catch her breath, but fails to do so. All she hears is some concerned murmurs from the manticore as everything fades to black.
When Lich finally comes to consciousness and opens her eyes, the scene before her is very familiar to her in a way. She's lying down after having passed out yet again. A girl is sitting next to her in a dark room. Just like always. She sighs as she begins to close her eyes again, but then an unfamiliar voice comes from where she assumed Redhood to be sitting.
"Hello, can you hear me?"
Lich jolts up and snaps her head towards the source of the sound. It appears to have come from the wyrm sitting next to her with a concerned look on her face.
"Woah, easy there. Are you alright?"
Even through the scary appearance, this monster seems to be genuinely concerned. Lich considers the wyrm's question for a moment. She realises that she actually feels more than alright right now. She would've expected to get some nausea or at least some kind of pain after such sudden movements, but she's totally fine.
"... yeah, I'm alright."
The answer was instinctual initially, but the more she thinks about it she really is feeling alright. She doesn't feel as weak any more and she doesn't have problems with breathing. She is feeling great even. She stretches and moves her arms around and watches them for any signs of weakness, but finds none. She also realises that her coat has fallen beside them, but she doesn't feel cold either. The voice next to her continues then.
"Thank goodness. I was so worried when Stormbeast brought me an unconscious human. But now you're..."
Lich turns her gaze from her body back to the wyrm quizically, who now has a slight frown on her face.
"I'm very sorry. We don't have a healer in this kingdom, so... this was the only way."
Lich is left puzzled by the cryptic words of the wyrm. She racks her brains, trying to remember what happened, but all she can recall is collapsing in front of the manticore.
"What do you mean? What happened?"
"You required medical attention and the jewel was able to make you better. But making you better meant... making you into a monster. I ended your life and I couldn't even ask for your permission. I'm very sorry."
Reality hits Lich like a truck as she stays frozen after hearing the truth. Her being dead would definitely explain the lack of pain in her body, but... is she really dead? Just like that?
Seeing the concern and confusion creeping over Lich's face, Dreadwyrm heir clears her throat and continues.
"Being a monster isn't all that bad. You can choose what kind of monster you'd like to be and the jewel will give you the appropriate powers! How do you usually fight?"
It takes a moment for Lich to process the words being spoken to her. As she finally returns to reality from her thoughts, she realises what the wyrm had just suggested.
"No, I don't wanna fight! I want to go back home!"
She goes to stand up, expecting her legs to be fixed like the rest of her body, but they give out immediately and the only thing that stops her from comically faceplanting into the ground are the gentle hands of Dreadwyrm heir.
"Easy there! It seems that since your legs weren't healthy before, the jewel wasn't able to fix them either. But hey, I'm sure we can find a solution!"
Dreadwyrm heir helps Lich back into a sitting position. Lich looks away, pouting, unable to walk on her own and having to stay right there. Dreadwyrm heir kneels down to Lich's level, trying to lighten the mood.
"How would you like to be the princess of this kingdom?"
The sudden question makes Lich's eyes light up. A princess? Her? Really? She had always wanted to be one. She wanted to feel important, but had always been stuck in the hospital, so when the wyrm makes such an offer, she can't believe what she's hearing.
"... really? You're not messing with me?"
"Really. I'm the queen of the Kingdom of Stars and you can be the princess. I'll make you a princess and you can choose whatever magic you want. That's my apology for making you into a monster."
Hearing the queen's promises makes a smile creep on Lich's face almost unconsciously. The offer does sound really good. Thoughts fly through her head of the types of magic she would like to use.
A thought about a certain object from the hospital room hits her and she knows that this is the one. It feels a bit embarrassing though, so it's only with heated cheeks that Lich can mutter the thought under her breath to the wyrm.
"... what about flower magic?"
Lich retreats into herself, fearful of the answer she'll get, but Dreadwyrm Heir just smiles.
"That sounds good, it definitely suits you. Let's go ask the jewel for flower magic that helps you move around!"
Dreadwyrm Heir suddenly picks Lich up in a princess carry, which the latter yelps at. After the initial surprise she does lean into it though. She hasn't felt this ever since Redhood carried her in the past. It feels nice. She closes her eyes with a smile.
The pair arrive at their destination all too quickly for Lich's liking. She would've liked to stay just like that, held in the wyrm's hands. Dreadwyrm Heir conveys her wishes to the jewel and just like promised, Lich is suddenly floating on a magical flower.
Lich softly caresses the delicate blue petals. She thinks about moving and the flower reacts, floating her forward. This is everything she could've ever wanted -- she can move around and on a flower of all things, her favorite thing. Her happiness is a bit soured by the wyrm returning to the topic she'd brought up once already.
"As you can see, this jewel is very powerful. As monsters, we have to protect it. That means fighting any adventures that come here."
Lich goes to argue, but knows better. Wyrm had helped her so much after all, she should at least do something in return.
"... how do I do that?"
"Well you mentioned you don't really like to fight, right? It just so happens that a Lich can use healing magic instead. It heals other monsters, but repels adventurers. Sounds cool, right?"
That does sound good to Lich. She could be a healer? That means she could help monsters who are sick, just like she was as a human.
"Yeah, I like that! Liches are so cool!"
The wyrm nods, continuing the explanation.
"Alright then, you'll be a Lich. Each monster also needs to have 4 different magical abilities. That way we can keep the adventures guessing!"
Lich listens thoughtfully, trying to think of the abilities she would like to use.
"Hmm... I could use flowers... and... smaller flowers?"
The queen chuckles at the cuteness of the girl in front of her.
"Alright, what else?"
Lich tries to think of anything, but the white hospital walls where she spent so much of her time is the only thing that comes to mind.
"... I don't know. What magic do you use?"
Dreadwyrm Heir smirks at the question.
"Hehe, I thought you'd never ask. Behold!"
The wyrm shows off her fast bullets and lasers with pride and then turns back to Lich.
"Well? Cool, isn't it? Want to try something like that?"
The attack had definitely been impressive and Lich definitely wouldn't want to get hit with one of those, but --
"... those looked so deadly, I want something cuter."
Dreadwyrm Heir frowns for a second, seemingly upset that Lich didn't want to use her attacks. She quickly wipes the frown off her face though, as she comes up with another idea.
"If you want something cuter, I could introduce you to the final monster in our kingdom. I think her attacks are pretty cute, maybe you can learn something from her."
"Oh, alright"
Lich slowly floated on her flower towards the place Dreadwyrm Heir had pointed her towards. She wasn't a big fan of meeting new people and wanted to just get back to the wyrm who had treated her so well. But Dreadwyrm Heir had promised that this friend of hers would be nice as well, so she reluctantly still went along with it.
"What brings you here?"
Lich yelps and quickly turns around, noticing the monster girl with her Jellycats hovering behind her. She hasn't seen this monster before, so she had to be the one Lich was looking for.
"... um, are you... Depth's Secret?"
"Who's asking?"
"Oh! Um... I'm Lich, Dreadwyrm Heir sent me to you, she said you have... 'cute' attacks."
The mysterious monster lets out a huff of amusement.
"So you're a new monster? Didn't expect the queen to find another one."
"Hmm? Oh yes, I'm a monster! The queen told me I should have 4 different magical abilities, but I've only been able to think of 2... I don't really like to fight, so I couldn't think of anything. I was hoping you could show me yours."
Depth's Secret raises an eyebrow and smiles faintly.
"Hmm, you're just like me then. I prefer not to fight either. Alright, I'll show you. You see I fill the area with my whirlpools and then my Jellycats help fill the holes. If anyone gets close to me, I fire a bunch of orbs like a shotgun."
The way Depth's Secret fights looks so elegant to Lich, that she just stares in awe as water magic fills the area.
"Ooh, that's cool, I wanna do that too!"
Depth's Secret chuckles and shakes her head.
"That's good and all, but you should still make it your own. You can also use pets and sound, but your magic needs to match your identity. Anyways, that's enough talking, I'm going for a nap."
Before Lich gets to say anything else, Depth's Secret is already floating away again, seemingly further from the jewel where Lich came from.
"Geez, that's all I get?"
Lich floats back towards the jewel pouting. However then she thinks back to how welcoming Depth’s Secret had been towards her despite everything and mentally forgives her. After all, she wouldn't want to speak to strangers for long either. Maybe she was more similar to her than she initially thought.
She thinks back to what Depth’s Secret had said. Magic that would match Lich's identity? She wasn't even sure about what their identity was. Thinking back on things she liked, she remembers a butterfly who used to often land on the hospital window. She always thought it was so pretty. Maybe she could do something with that.
When Lich arrives back at the jewel, Dreadwyrm Heir is focused on preparing something, back turned to the direction the blonde was coming from. She turns around when Lich arrives, holding something behind her back with a hint of a blush in her cheeks.
"Oh, you're back. How did it go?"
"It went well! I think I have an idea of what magic I want to use now."
"That's good. I actually have a gift for you, princess."
Dreadwyrm Heir produces two flowers from behind her back and carefully puts them in Lich's hair.
"There. I thought they'd suit you. They match your beautiful dress after all."
Lich is completely stunned at the gesture. First calling her 'princess' and then giving her such a thoughtful gift? She had never been happier. She does the only thing she can think of and puts her arms around the queen, falling into her embrace. She then speaks through the sobs which had suddenly appeared.
"I... I'm so happy... Thank you so much... people aren't normally this... people aren't so caring."
Dreadwyrm Heir gently caresses Lich's back comfortingly.
"It's only natural for a queen to care for her subjects. And remember, we're not human people. We're monsters and monsters always stick together."
Lich melts into the wyrm's arms, finally feeling like she is where she belongs.