Argyros awoke early and hungry. He knew it'd be a few hours before Midas would be up. He didn't want to wake his younger brother by getting food from the fridge. He was still so hungry. The young leopard rembered sothing: they had a big cafeteria, just a building away! Surely soone there could make him so food. So for that, he tiptoed out of the room before the sun had even risen.
The rest of the inhabitants of the building were fast asleep.
Or so he thought.
The center door on the bottom floor opened and the light was cast on the cat, who froze upon being caught.
"Oh, you're one of the brothers," said the Maestro lady at the door. "Are you hungry?" she asked, as if having read his mind.
Argyros nodded quickly.
The woman smiled. "You're in luck, we were just on our way to the kitchen for the day--care to join us?"
Waking up in unfamiliar surroundings was scary.
Thankfully, it didn't take Midas long to realize he was safe. He had always dread of traveling outside of that village. To be whisked away to a far distant land with abundant greenery was almost a dream co true.
"Roro?" the cat called for his brother.
Sitting up, Midas found Argyros wasn't in his bed. "Roro?" The cat's brows perked up with worry.
The leopard looked all around the room, but his sibling was nowhere to be found. Surely, nothing happened to him, right?
With fear in his heart, Midas got dressed and rushed out of the room in a panic.
Boris sailed above the fields around the PTRS guildhall. The wind under his wings always felt fantastic. His previous owners forbade him from flying. If he even tried--it never ended well for him.
That was the past! This was the here and now, and he could fly to his heart's content!
He lazily drifted on the breeze, enjoying the cool morning gales. A couple of fire Resonators accompanied by a Maestro ran the periter of the property. He didn't rember their nas, but he knew two of them from back ho.
Well, this was his ho now, right?
At least, until he got a Maestro.
He had always heard Maestros were skin devils; they'd sooner kill and eat you before they ever considered helping out.
Reality was different from the stories he had heard. These people were kind. Their Resonators were beyond happy with their lives--that much he knew from how they looked at their Maestros.
He hoped so day he could experience even a fraction of that joy.
Mzia's eyes fluttered open. She could hear the sounds of shouts outside her room. It was the younger leopard brother. He was looking for his fellow Earth elent. They were really troubleso.
With an annoyed grunt, the dhole got out of bed. She yawned and brushed her hair back with her hand. She jamd her shoes on and stepped outside, only to run right into the noise in question.
"What?" asked Mzia.
"Roro, I can't find him!" the young felid fretted.
Mzia sighed. She looked up and down the walkway, then out to the front lawn. "Yeah, he's not out here. Do you have to shout? You probably woke the Natural and the snake girl," the canid grumbled.
"But Roro--!" He was cut off with a hand clamped over his mouth.
"Will you shaddap if we look for him?" asked Mzia.
Midas nodded eagerly.
Mzia grunted. She wasn't built for this. "C'mon."
Truthfully, Mayumi was curious about what Mzia and Midas were up to. She watched the two mammalian Resonators descend the stairs, and couldn't help herself.
She poked out of her room and trailed the two at a distance where they wouldn't easily spot her.
The unlikely pair of Solar and Earth elents stalked around the fields, calling for the missing Argyros.
Mayumi's hearing admittedly wasn't great. Definitely not as good as Midas, and forget any comparison to Mzia's excellent hearing. That didn't an Mayumi wasn't good at being quiet. She slinked through the grass, content to watch the two search for the missing leopard.
Finally, they found their way to the second building on the property and went in.
It was nice after being out for a couple of weeks to sleep in their own bed. Shouri held an extrely content Taika, though she refused to let him in for à deux. That was going to be a talk when she woke up.
Both Pacifica and Rebecca eagerly offered themselves up in her place, but he turned them both down. They had already done her enough of a disservice by letting her fester for this long. He normally wouldn't be this forceful, but he could feel she wanted the help--and god help her caretakers if he ever got a hold of them.
Shouri didn't have long to stew in his own thoughts, as his three partners in cri soon rose and their day began.
Rather than Taika cooking, they all got dressed and headed down to the cafeteria. After all, they now had a world class chef at their beck and call, there was no argunt in sampling her cuisine.
"Woah, busy place," Rebecca uttered as they entered the cafeteria.
All five of their new residents were seated and enjoyed breakfast.
"Good morning, Shouri!" Solana called from the kitchen. "Bet you're glad I'm here to feed all these hungry mouths?" the chef said with a titter.
"Yeah, appreciate you looking after them," Shouri called back.
Their table manners could use so work, but Shouri was simply pleased they were all happy, and (presumably) healthy.
"So, what are we doing with them?" Taika asked, as the quartet took a seat around one of the many circular tables.
"Well, the plan is obviously to try and find them hos. Ideally, we keep the leopard brothers together." Shouri humd in thought. "The problem is, I don't know exactly how to go about advertising we have them."
"And then the matter of making sure we're not sending them into a Lyle situation," Rebecca chid in.
The table went silent. The playful giggles of the younger Resonators seated a few tables away only furthered their commitnt. They were much better off here than back with their Natural owners, but it only took one wrong choice to turn heaven into hell.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Perhaps we could get the brothers to a family with younger Maestros? We're not a for profit, so we can maybe look for families that aren't well off?" Pacifica suggested.
Shouri rembered Lina, Amika, and Leo. Just them being able to get Resonators was a huge boon for them growing up. That was sothing that always stuck with them and Shouri.
"Best case scenario we also make sure to pair them up with people who match their staves," Pacifica added.
Shouri nodded. His otter made so excellent points. "Taika, would you be willing to do so physicals on them?" he asked.
"Ma certo!" The fox bead with pride.
"We got all their shots up to date when getting them registered," Rebecca inford her fellow fox. "Surprising no one, they had no vaccines or the like."
Taika nodded. "They didn't give them physicals when they were there?" she asked.
"No, it was a real quick in and out. Got them registered to the guild, got them their shots, got outta there," Shouri said.
Holly and Solana ca and deposited the groups plates on the table. "You doing physicals?" asked the zalavan.
"For the new ones, yeah," Shouri replied.
"Oh, we'll keep them in here then, so you don't have to go chasing them down," Solana offered.
"Much appreciated."
"Enjoy your breakfast!" And with that, they were left to it.
"No rest for the wicked, huh?" Rebecca chuckled.
Shouri let out a weary sigh. "Not at all."
Taika sat in her office, behind her computer. Colette joined her, on her own laptop computer. The rhythm studies major was more than happy to help out--she'd handle the rhythm aspects of the check up, while Taika got the physicals of the physical done.
First up was Mzia, who in her own words, "just wanted to get it over with."
It was imdiately apparent that despite her volunteering, Mzia wasn't comfortable. Her ears were folded back and her tail was kept close to her side. The Solar elent hugged herself and hunched over ever so slightly.
Regardless, Taika had work to do, so she tried to make it fast. She took the dhole's height and weight, then moved on to pulse, temperature, and heart-rate. The vixen doctor managed to keep any comnts to herself, opting to ntally note her observations as she worked.
"Shoes off," she demanded. The patient didn't argue, and Taika felt her feet. She nodded slowly. "Stand up, and tail."
Mzia did as instructed and held her tail out for the fox.
"Let know if any of this hurts." Taika felt each individual vertebrae in her tail, checking each one for motion from tip to base. More committed to mory. Next up, was Mzia's other Resonator feature.
"Ears up, please," Taika demanded. Mzia really had to focus to keep her ears upright. Taika, using an otoscope, checked each of the dhole's ears, humming to herself as she did so.
"Read the letters on the chart, first line please." Taika pointed to a vision test that hung on the wall.
"NMSDF"
"Cover your left eye, read the fifth line."
"RTDSW"
"Cover your right, fourth line."
"PLJUY"
"Good--Colette?" Taika took her seat and began docunting her findings while Colette did her thing.
"Hands please," demanded the student. Mzia complied, extending her hands out. "Steady breathing, and focus pushing your rhythm towards . Take my rhythm if you need to, just let it flow out."
Mzia wasn't sure if she was doing it right as she didn't have much experience with proper etude with another, much less a stranger like Colette.
Despite that, she did her best, if for nothing else than to get it done.
"Okay, that's good, keep going."
Another minute passed in silence, until finally, Colette released the Resonator's hands. "Good, thank you--Taika?"
Taika took in a breath. "Last thing, blood work."
"Wh-what does that an?" Mzia squeaked, her tail twitching.
"I'm going to draw so of your blood so we can send it off to be tested for any ailnts you might have," Taika spoke calmly and thodically.
"Will it hurt?" wondered the Solar elent, a tinge of fear stoking her voice.
"Just a pinch for a second," Taika told her fellow canine.
"She's really good and fast," Colette assured the patient. "She did and Kaira's blood work while Shouri and them were gone."
Mzia gulped, but nodded slowly.
Taika sat the dhole in a chair and wrapped a stretchy plastic band around Mzia's arm.
"That's kinda tight," whimpered the dhole.
"We have to do it this way; only way to draw blood," Taika said. "It'll be quick, I promise."
She stretched the other girl's arm out and a telekinetically controlled disinfecting wipe wiped the area clean. Mzia watched in awe as all the instrunts flew around the fox and did their duties. The needle slid cleanly into her vein and the syringe pulled the blood out, filling the tube with red fluid. The entire ti Taika used her hands to gently rub Mzia's just muttering things like "You're doing great," and "we're almost done."
The dhole was so transfixed by the doctor's raw talent, she didn't even realize they were done until Taika asked, "how are you feeling?"
"Uh! Fine! I'm fine!" the Resonator yelped. Her arm where Taika had drawn from now had a gauze wrapped tightly around it.
"You can take that off in ten minutes or so," Taika told her.
"R-right…"
"Oh! Before you go! Is this you?" Taika flashed a pair of stickers with all of Mzia's identifying information on it--na, date of birth, species, elent and attribute.
The canine looked it over and nodded slowly.
"Thanks, you're all done!" Taika bead while applying the identification stickers to the two vials.
The remaining four Resonators went through the sa process, Taika was ticulous with her examinations, while Colette checked their rhythm for any abnormalities.
When all was said and done, morning has passed to evening--Taika had full docuntation on all five of their new residents, along with aspects of their rhythm.
Ten vials of blood samples were also safely put away and ready to be sent into a lab for testing. The vixen leaned back in her chair. "Thanks for helping, Colette," said Taika.
"Of course. This is the kind of thing I want to do with my degree when I get it--I can use this on my resu!"
Taika smiled wearily. "Yeah. I guess we should report to Sho what we found?"
For the first ti in hours, they were allowed to leave the office. They crossed the property back to the main office, where Shouri and Emily were working on guild matters.
"So, how are they?" asked Shouri imdiately.
Taika frowned. "Malnourished," she said. "They're all extrely underweight."
Emily and Shouri both nodded solemnly. "Considering the region they were in, I guess I'm not too surprised," said the princess.
"How about their rhythm?" Shouri quizzed Colette.
"'bout what I expected. They're not very open to rhythm--extrely inexperienced. Without looking at their tuners, I have to guess they only have their basic spells at the lowest levels," Colette reported.
"Close. Couple of advanced spells here and there--but I think Scott helped push those to be unlocked," Shouri replied. The five devices attached to their new residents lay on the desk, all with their screens off.
"So, what do we do about them?" Emily questioned.
"Feed them lots of good food," Taika replied.
"And get lots of rhythm through them," Colette added.
Emily and Shouri looked at one another. "Hunting," they both decided in unison.
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