“Kyr Dalosisaar… are… are…”
Litvir tried to understand what they were looking at as they entered the room. It was supposed to just be Dalosisaar’s office, but the walls were very reflect-y and made of crystal or something. And Dalosisaar wasn’t at their desk, they were currently on the floor, being pinned down by the Whenvern.
“Uh, hello, Litvir, are you alright?” Dalosisaar asked.
“Uh… no… um…” Litvir was stuttering. Mostly because they were picking up various thoughts. A vast amount of anger from the Whenvern. Was Dalosisaar in pain?
“Out with it, child!” the Whenvern snapped, making Litvir jump.
“Sorry… I… I just wanted to ask… if I could have tomorrow off…”
“Why?” Dalosisaar asked. He glanced awkwardly at the Whenvern, somewhat hoping the Time God would get off him and allow him to speak to Litvir properly, but Kairos was clearly not going to do that.
“I… would like to spend time with my friend Miisa. For my birthday.”
“Well…”
Before Dalosisaar could answer, Kairos pressed down on him and answered in his place.
“No. You are already taking time off. It is too late notice. Get out of here and back to your duties, now.”
“But…” Litvir stuttered some more. “I… I already asked Aster, he said he could cover… And my duties today do not start for another few hours.”
This vague hint of defiance immediately angered the Whenvern. He climbed off Dalosisaar (who was already a pretty large Thraki) then pushed Litvir back, knocking them off their feet.
“You need to do as you are told.”
Litvir picked themselves up and brushed themselves down, before turning back to Kairos. “How dare you.”
“How… how dare I?” Kairos roared. “HOW DARE I? I am your superior, Litvir! You do as I say! Now get the fuck out of this room and shut your mouth.”
“I have the right to refuse if I think you are being bad or wrong!” Litvir hissed back. “You are hurting Dalosisaar!”
“Oh this?” the Whenvern tutted. “This is normal. Simple training for higher duties. It is none of your concern. Now LEAVE.”
“Dalosisaar literally has a bruise around their eye! You are hurting him!”
“It is none of your concern!” Kairos snarled again. “Leave now before I make you leave.”
“Not until you stop-”
Kairos slapped Litvir across the face, sending Litvir sprawling to the ground again. Undeterred, Litvir staggered back to their feet.
“Now you hurt me.”
“I will continue to hurt you if you are not careful.”
“Go ahead. Hurt me. You are not supposed to hurt us. You are supposed to be nice to us, we are supposed to be nice to each other. How long have you been hurting Dalosisaar for anyway?”
“It is none of your concern, child, Dalosisaar needs to feel pain to be able to learn.”
“Wait, why DO you need to hurt me so I can learn this time stuff?” Dalosisaar suddenly asked. “Why can’t I just learn things normally? Were you like this with your previous stu-AHH!”
Dalosisaar reeled back in pain as Kairos whipped his tail and smacked Dalosisaar across the face with it, leaving a long, deep cut across his snout and cheek. Kairos then turned around to deal with Dalosisaar properly, but was distracted by a very sudden bright light, which briefly blinded him. Litvir grabbed Kairos’s wing and bit as hard as they could.
“Huh…”
Kairos paused, then shook their arm, dislodging Litvir. Their whole wing had gone numb. This genuinely annoyed Kairos. Well, annoyed him further.
“You have guts, child. I’m going to have to beat that out of you.”
Before Litvir could react, Kairos slowed time down dramatically, then yet again pushed Litvir to the ground. The Whenvern changed his shape, making himself much more draconic and giving himself some proper limbs. Kairos then proceeded to stamp on Litvir, repeatedly kicking them while they were down. Dalosisaar tried to help, but found himself semi-frozen, unable to do anything but watch as Kairos beat Litvir.
Litvir did try to fight back at first, trying to claw at Kairos, despite being slowed down by the Whenvern’s time powers, but they quickly realised it was better to try and protect themselves, and Litvir curled up into a ball.
The beating felt like it last for an eternity, but thankfully, after only about a minute, someone tried to intervene. Several someones. Aster, Syksis and Murum’Va all immediately found themselves frozen in the same chrono-cloud Dalosisaar and Litvir were trapped in, and Elkay also failed to do anything to help. Nanik remained at a distance and at least managed to shut off Litvir’s pain sensors but she couldn’t do much else either.
However, someone else did manage to do something. All of a sudden, the time-slowing field disappeared, and, at the same time, the Whenvern disappeared too. Everyone glanced around in confusion.
“What the actual fuck was that about?” Elkay shouted in anger. “Did the Whenvern really just start beating up a fucking baby!”
Dalosisaar rubbed the blood from his face, then sighed. “Litvir tried to defend me. Because Kairos has been… hurting me…”
“And… you did not tell us?” Murum’Va growled. “Dalosisaar, you are supposed to tell us.”
“It… is complicated… Is Litvir alright?”
Syksis was already looking Litvir over. They had passed out and were worryingly still, but were at least breathing. “They’ll be fine. They’re rather bruised but they’ll heal fast. Aster, you know where Litvir lives, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Can you help me take Litvir back to their home? I’ll fix them up there and they’ll wake up comfortably in their bed.”
“Don’t take them home,” Elkay interrupted. “Take them to the spare room in my library. We need to be able to keep an eye on them, in case Kairos comes back but angrier. In fact, I’ll come with you. Litvir knows the library, they won’t be scared when they wake up.”
“They can also have the day off that they wanted…” Dalosisaar muttered. “That was what Litvir came here to ask me about when they… stumbled across all of this…”
“Yes, about that!” Syksis snapped. “You, Dalosisaar, you stay right here. We’ve got questions for you. I’ll come and fix up that wound once I’ve dealt with Litvir. Anyway, Aster, Elkay, give me a hand, please.”
Aster nodded, then used his gravity powers to lift Litvir up. He then followed Elkay and Syksis through a shadow portal, and the four of them disappeared. Murum’Va growled a little, then turned to Dalosisaar again.
“You have some explaining to do.”
“I know…” Dalosisaar sighed. “I’ll… I’ll arrange a meeting and I’ll explain it all to everyone…”