Nursing a Tiny, Sick Thing

Sonata felt like she'd slept for forever. Her body felt creaky like an old crank that wouldn't pull, as thought it'd solidified and hurt fossilized in place as she slept through the night. She was in her dragon form. She could feel the warmth and weight of her little sister on her side, curled up in the cusp of her body's twist. She heard the coughing of the tiny slithery being, and slowly opened her eyes. Ah, yes. She'd fallen ill.

The cave around her was chilly when she lifted her head. She nuzzled the tiny being curled up against her, nudging bits of the blanket that had drifted off to double back onto her small form. It surprised her Sophia didn't stir from all the movement. She couldn't tell from the lighting how late it was. She poked her nose back under the blanket and nudged the tiny being again, licking it's side more worriedly. She was warmer than she left her, almost alarmingly so, despite the fact that she was trying to keep Sophia warm. Was she okay? Should she be taking the blankets off, instead?

Sonata compromised with making an igloo so Sophia's head could breathe properly, and settled her head back down against her tail, watching the smaller being's chest rise and fall in her sleep.

Perhaps it was wrong to bring her along, yesterday. Even with Sonata's warmth and the cloak, it was still very drafty outside, and the cold could have affected her with all the wind. The small yellow dragon winced, and then coughed again, Sonata's chest tightening. But there was nothing she could do. She stared into that small smudge of yellow curled up against her until she found herself awake again, meaning at some point she must have drifted off.

The sun had began going down, already. It didn't mean it was that late: Sonata knew the Sun would go down earlier and earlier as Winter approached, but it still meant she'd let most of her day pass by doing nothing. The form against her side was larger and heavier. At some point, Sophia had returned to her humanoid form. Her cheeks were feverishly pink, her expression slightly strained in her sleep, her hair damp from sweating, clutching the sheets she'd wrapped tightly around herself. Sonata pressed her a little closer with her tail, surprised when the contact made the tiny girl's brows wrinkle and her eyes squeeze. Sophia brought a curled up hand to her face to brush a hair out, opening her peridot eyes to tiredly search the room until they met Sonata's.

She smirked in her dragon form.

>Hello, sleepy head.

Sonata brought her head off her claws and set it down closer to Sophia. Her pink tongue barely slipped past her scaly lips before it disappeared back into her mouth.

Sophia smiled faintly at that, reaching out and patting the part of Sonata's muzzle she could easily reach. She shifted her position so she could easily face the dragoness, returning the jesture.

Which began the game. Sonata playfully booped her sister's leg. She squealed, coughing into her arm, an act which brought visible concern to Sona's face. But when she resurfaced she was smiling again, and clumsily crawled down and threw herself into the corner between Sonata's shoulder and her cheek. ".ahh" she mumbled into her scales.

Sonata watched her oddly, to which she just smirked, resting her head on the small restable patch of scales on Sonata's head before the two sets of long horns that protruded from the side of her face and the line of scales going down her back and tail began. Sonata's tail swished back and forth like a playful cat expecting to be played with before she realized Sophia was drifting off to sleep again.

>You can't sleep here. My neck is going to hurt if I stay like this for that long.

It was a hassle to not be able speak in her dragon form like her parents could. She would probably gain that skill eventually, though. Instead, she took to nudging Sophia's legs and stomach with her nose until she finally hit a tickle spot and gave way, and bitterly limped back to her prior position. Sonata's long, slithery tail swished back and forth again, and Sophia reluctantly lifted her head to face her sister's with a sigh.

Sophia's eyes began to droop. She tried to sleep, but wiggled around back and forth for a couple of minutes before she was forced to open her eyes again and tap her sister's body to get her attention.

Sonata's eyes moved away from the distant corner of the cavern she'd been lost in thought to. Sophia's head bobbed up and down slightly as she opened her mouth.

"Sis?" She whined as she wrapped her hands around herself, curling up beneath the blanket. "I'm hungry..."

Sonata watched her worriedly from her place not too far away, head on her claws. Her tail swished slightly, and she scuffled around so she could lick the side of Sophia's face, nuzzling her back into the sheets and pulling them back up over her sister with her teeth. Sophia watched her sourly, energy zapped by her feverish cold. Sonata momentarily paused upon meeting this bitter gaze, and then booped her forehead again. The tiny princess sighed again, turning her face around and pressing it to the side of Sonata's stomach. She stifled a small cough, her fingers curling into themselves as she struggled with it.

Sonata watched her silently, her gemlike eyes gleaming in the shadow of her own body. Most probably would have found the sight of two large slitted green orbs in the darkness alarming, but she didn't really have to mind when she was around her family.

Sonata debated leaving her to find something to eat, but she was scared to leave her like this. Maybe it was more comfortable to be lying against her than lying against a rock, as well.

Sonata blew hot air against the back of Sophia's head, trying to comfort her again she she suddenly moaned irritatedly, kicking off her sheets and scratching her hair out of the way, breathing heavily as she sat up. "H..hot...I'm hot..." the tiny thing gasped, her sunken, sickly eyes barely opening to see what she was doing before they closed again, her hands staying behind her, supporting her off Sonata's body. Before long though, she shivered and pulled the sheets back on, fidgeting with keeping it halfway and then keeping just her arms out, trying to compromise between being too hot and too cold: Sonata just watched her, unsure of what to do. She didn't want to leave her, but she didn't want to leave her as-is. She couldn't properly comfort her in this form, but she couldn't properly keep her warm in the other.

Sonata watched the little thing suffer in it's rest. Was she aware of how small and helpless she was? One wrong flick of her tail when she was too close to her spikes or a shake of the head could probably slice through that pale, thin membrane of an excuse for skin. Is she wanted to, she could probably fit the at entire head of hers on one claw, though she'd be pressing tightly into the form with her talons to reach all the way around. If she moved too much in her sleep, she could probably crush her. If she wanted to, she could probably take that small head off with a single snap, thought she never would. Though she could, maybe any other dragon would. She was an oddling of a dragon...and she was a sprite. Sonata shifted the weight of her head to one side. If she was that small, and this form was her biggest and most normal form, what was there to separate a sprite like Sophia from a human, really? Sure, she could shapeshift into a lizard of a dragon and claimed to have the ferocity of one, but at the end of the day there were more terrifying humans on the street, and there existed mages with fire powers and elves who could transform into mockeries of mythological beasts.

Sonata reached towards the fire, clumsily clawing a few unused sticks that were lying about in the darkness into the pit without really getting up or moving Sophia too much. She blew on the fire until a small blaze began to manifest, crackling and illuminating the corner they'd curled up against in a fiery yellow-orange light, a stark contrast to the dim blue light waning from outside. Sonata turned towards Sophia, and suddenly the dragon she was leaning on was gone. Sophia squeaked, reaching out her hands to stop her fall but was caught before much more than her shin had a chance to scrape against the sand, a familiar gaze tearing into her with its intensity as someone brushed her hair briskly out of they way and pressed a hand to her forehead, turning her head a little too quickly this way and that to make sure she wasn't bleeding or hurt or being preyed on by some insect that'd latched itself onto her.

"Mng-no..Sis...Sis, stop..."

The hands complied, pressing warmly against her feverish cheeks. The type of warmth was different though, consistent and productive, like a hearth, unlike her sweaty feverish warmth. She let her head dangle a little bit against those palms, her eyes droop and close. It was comforting. She felt the need to cough tickle her chest in it's familiar queasy way, and ducked her head, gagging. Nothing came up, though, and her head spinned from the effort. Sophia elbowed the hands tenderly hold her head off and went for the full on hug against her sister's body, mentally recovering in the soothing sensation of familiarly shaped bones and tensing muscles.

"I don't feel good." She confessed, looking up to meet Sonata's eyes. Sophia leaned her entire weight against her sister, too tired to stand but unwilling to let go. Sonata gave in and sat down so Sophia could curl up against her chest.

"I know. You're sick." Sonata replied, brushing her fingers through her hair to try and fix her messy curls, some of them a little wet from being licked out of the way. Sophia was alerted when her sister gave a small squeeze and moved to stand up. She squirmed, clinging to her skirts and pulling as she tried to walk away.

"Sophia!" She scolded, to which the little girl just whined and made a sad seal face. Even in her sickness, she knew how to get to her weakness. Sonata wrenched her skirt out out of those tiny fingers, stomping those first couple of steps to search the remains of their past meals to see if anything was actually edible.

Sophia watched and waited once her sister disappeared into the darkness. She returned pressing the water jug to her lips.

"Drink."

Sophia squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth, letting the cool substance drip down her throat. She had to stop in between, Sonata holding the water away as she covered her mouth and tried to cough out some water that went the wrong way. After a bit Sophia opened her mouth and wordlessly demanded more.

"Aaaah"

Sophia watched her silently as she drank thirsting, the fire to her back making a sharp halo around her body. Somehow that time body managed to finish the entire jug of water, and Sonata quickly took it from her hands and safely put it down before her weak fingers could drop it, handing her her a larger thigh bone she'd found untouched from yesterday's meal. Sophia took it in her small hand, then turned it around, tilting her head—back, to lean on the rocks, as she was still drained from sickness. She shivered a little from the cold of the rocks as opposed to her sister's warmth, and in the back of her mind felt Sonata's hands briskly tug the sheets up and back over her neck and shoulders.

"How am I supposed to eat this?" Sophia questioned.

Sonat turned the joint area towards her as she stood up. "The ends are easier."

Sophia quickly registered that her sister was leaving. Her eyes flickered wider and she whined as she turned herself over in the sheets, moving to get up. She was weak, though, and flailed around two or three times before it'd been long enough to feel her sister's glare on her neck, intimidating her back into the sheets.

"I'm going to go get more water...and hunt. Or else we'll starve."

Sophia pouted, slipping her arms out of the sheets and squeezing the bone. Her eyes squinted and her brows scrunched up like she was either about to cry or about to throw a temper tantrum. Instead, she just pulled her legs up closer to herself for warmth, turning her face downwards as she watched her sister walk away.

"Are we going to die?"

Sonata stopped. The faint orange glow of the firelight illuminated her back, the cold howl of the Winter wind outside echoing into the dark cave. Her long, pale hair that'd grown a bit over the past few weeks was a little lower than her hips, swaying from the sudden stop in the dragoness' motion. She slowly turned her head towards Sophia's voice, not moving her body the extra way she'd need to to show her face.

"No." She answered in a sort of soft, lost in thought kind of voice. It wasn't shaky and quivering like someone on the verge of crying, nor strong and secure like someone completely sure. But somehow that made it feel more convincing, and Sophia curled up on her side, a little more secure as Sonata disappeared from sight.