My first attempt at writing a story for this site. It's going to be a multi-chapter story with each chapter focusing on a particular character in the story.

 azsolaazsola is also planning on doing a series of sketches for the series in the future!

Special thanks to  azsola  hdalby33  Zedexand  Sugarboy for allowing me to use their characters!


Chapter 5: A Fever Fed
(Sugar)


Sugar was trying to read by the small lamp that he had in his tent, but he was having a hard time focusing in on the words, and found himself going over the same sentence over and over without absorbing the information. Zed was nearby and though he wasn’t reading, or focused on anything in particular, and it was obvious just by looking at him that the events of the day were weighing heavily on his mind.
When he and the others arrived in camp earlier they had revealed that Callum had been scratched by a sick Dhole, and they were worried about him possibly being infected with the sickness that the Dholes in the village had. Sugar had examined him, but since it was only a scratch, and the infection itself being an unknown there very little that he could do. So he suggested that Callum rest in his tent while Regil bunked with Alek and Kent. Despite the fact that the odds were in their favor that Callum would be fine he was still uneasy.
It ended up being Zed who broke the silence in the end, “So what’s the plan if Callum ends up getting sick?” Zed continued to stare straight up at the ceiling of the tent, not looking at Sugar as he spoke.
Sugar looked at Zed, “Well, if he’s sick we’ll have to keep him isolated and hope that he’ll be able to power through it. We don’t really have a way to get back to a place with an active working lab so it’s hard to say what may happen. Luckily whatever it is doesn’t look to be regularly fatal.”
Sugar sounded hopeful, but Zed didn’t look assured, “It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t seem fatal, if we all get sick this could be a major problem. I’m certain that no one wants to be stuck in a bed the entirety of our stay here, or worse die.”
Sugar didn’t have a response to that so ended up laying back down and fiddled with the whiskers on his chin as he tried to close his eyes. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but with his mind racing it felt like an eternity. Finally deciding that he wasn’t going to be getting any sleep, stood up and began unzipping the tent.
“Where are you going?” Zed asked.
“I’m going to go outside for a bit and try clearing my mind. If Callum is still up I may check on him.” Sugar zipped up the tent behind him and began walking out towards the lake to see if a dip in the water might clear his mind.
The night was bright and humid, and he could see the stars reflecting off the lake’s surface. There was little wind, but it was enough to cause the water’s surface to move very slightly, almost as if the entire lake was quivering. As he walked up he began to take of his shirt, he didn’t have any swimwear but he figured that he could simply swim in his shorts, and leave them to dry during the night.
As he neared the lake’s edge he saw a pair of trousers on a rock next to the water’s edge, but no evidence as to where the owner ended up. Sugar could feel eyes on him and looked around, but didn’t see anyone nearby. A chill went up his spine as he began to become uneasy. He tiptoed into the warm water and noticed that he couldn’t see anything underneath, making the entire lake a pool of black in the night.
He debated going further into the water when he felt another chill go down his spine. Starting to get a little freaked out he decided to head back when a dark figure flung itself out of the water straight at him. He saw a flash of teeth and felt as it rammed into him knocking him to the ground and jumping on top of him.
Disoriented and panicked he began struggle when the figure spoke, “Didn’t scare you did I?”
Sugar took a moment and allowed his vision to steady, focusing in on the person who had toppled him to the ground. It didn’t take him long to recognize the sly grin and muscular body that had him pinned. “Alek, you… you dick!”
“Hahaha, sorry I couldn’t help myself,” he laughed taking his weight off Sugar and letting him stand up. He was stripped down to his boxerbriefs which were now soaked and clinging to him.
“Next time, please do help yourself or you may find out how hard I can kick,” Sugar lightly threatened.
“Hey, no need to get violent now. It was just a little fun.”
“You’re fun almost gave me a heart attack, what are you doing out here anyway?” Sugar asked in a tone that said that he was not giving Alek the option not to answer.
“I could ask you the same I think,” Alek replied. Taking a moment he seemed to realize that Sugar was not in a playful mood and decided to answer his question. “With Regil in the tent with me and Kent, the night I had planned kinda… fizzled. So I decided to release my pent up energy out other ways.”
“Dare I ask, what type of thinks you were going to try and do with Kent that would expend energy?” Sugar boy said, though the edge to his voice portrayed that it wasn’t a legitimate question.
Alek smiled in reply.
Sugar shook his head, “he’s been nothing but cold towards you this entire time, what makes you think that he would have agreed even if Regil hadn’t been in the tent.”
Alek’s smile broadened, “I can be very persuasive, and I happen to know a few things that he enjoys.”
“I’m sure I don’t want to know,” Sugar said hoping it would end the conversation.
“That’s good, because I’m certain I wouldn’t tell you even if you did. Now that I have sufficiently answered your question now I have one of my own. What brings you out here on this lovely night?” Alek asked his question while grabbing his pants off of the rock. Sugar paused for a moment to see where his shirt was lying before realizing that he probably hadn’t worn one.
“I was worried about Callum, and couldn’t sleep,” Sugar said pointedly.
“Ha, I wouldn’t be. Callum doesn’t seem to be worried enough to prevent him from getting sleep. His snoring was so loud I thought there was a chainsaw coming from his tent.” With the end of the sentence Alek brushed his hand across his scalp, wiping away the water that was pooled there.
“Yeah I suppose so. Either way I think it might be best if I just go ahead and try to get some sleep, I’ve suddenly lost my interest in swimming.” Sugar said with an edge of irritation in his voice.
“Hope that had nothing to do with me,” Alek said as he slapped Sugar on the back. The two began walking back to camp, Alek talking the entire way with Sugar usually only grunting back one word responses before they reached Alek’s tent.
Inside it looked like both Kent and Regil were deep inside their own respective books. At first Sugar thought Kent was reading a textbook of some kind, before he realized that not many text books often had wizards on their front cover.
Regil seemed to be really be enjoying his book because his nose was touching the pages as he read, at least that’s what Sugar thought until he realized that his entire face was touching the page and his eyes were closed. Sugar began to chuckle to himself when he realized that Regil must have passed out while reading and landed face first in his book. Sugar looked at Regil then back over to Kent who gave the slightest of smirks before putting his right index finger up to his lips to indicate silence.
Alek managed to slink back into the tent surprisingly quietly before silently waving goodbye to Sugar and zipping the tent back up. Sugar quietly made his way back over to his own tent, where it looked like Zed had already called it a night and was silently slumbering away inside.
After zipping the tent back up, Sugar crawled into his sleeping bag and forced his eyes shut. It’s hard to say how long he tried to will himself to sleep while thoughts about Callum’s condition rushed through his head, but eventually sleep came to Sugar and his mind gave him some peace until the morning.
Sugar was woken the next morning but the sun peeking through his tent. Rolling over he noticed that Zed had already made his way out, and was talking to someone near the portable table that they had brought with them. Forcing himself up, Sugar managed to get out of the tent where he found Regil and Alek with Zed talking; three canteens sitting on the table with Alek holding onto a fourth.
Zed glimpsed Sugar for a second before turning back, “I’d make sure that you drink enough water today, it seems like it might be hotter than it was yesterday.”
“Fun”, Sugar said sarcastically.
Zed shrugged, “Just don’t take the one on the left that one is mine.”
Sugar grabbed the Canteen on the right leaving the one in the middle for Regil.
“Kent went back to the sickbay, to see if he could find any more clues about the illness that we may be dealing with. Callum is still asleep,” Alek said volunteering the information.
“Sickbay?” Sugar asked slightly confused.
“The building where all of the Dhole’s that were sick are being kept,” Zed explained.
Sugar said nothing but took a drink from his canteen before making his way over to the bag that had their rations stored in it. He grabbed a nutrient bar, quickly tearing it open and scarfing it down. It tasted horrible, but it did the job.
The three made small chat for a while waiting for Callum to wake. They didn’t have to wait too long, as they soon heard his tent unzipping as the groggy dragon stumbled out of his tent. “Mrgrning,” Callum greeted everyone through his post sleep haze. As he walked towards the others, Sugar couldn’t help but notice that he kept fiddling with his clothes.
“Everything alright this morning?” Sugar asked watching Callum continue to shift his clothes around uncomfortably.
“Yeah,” Callum let out a loud yawn “just my clothes don’t seem like they fit right this morning.”
“Probably just because you overslept,” Zed said brushing the comment aside. “How are you feeling otherwise, and nausea, weakness, anything?”
“No, I’m fine,” Callum said confidently.
“Then hopefully whatever the Dholes have aren’t contagious to other species, or you may have just gotten lucky,” Sugar said slightly relieved.
“I am thirsty though,” Callum said audibly smacking his lips.
“Where did you put your canteen?” Zed asked, “It wasn’t with the others.”
“Oh, I put it in my black trunk earlier yesterday. After everything that happened yesterday I forgot about it,” Callum said brushing the cobwebs out of his mind.
“I’ll go grab it real quick,” Zed said stepping away from the others.
Callum pulled up a camping chair to the table and slumped into it, letting out an audible sigh.
Sugar turned to Regil, “was there anything in particular that Kent was going back there for this morning?”
“I think he just wanted to see if he could find out more about the disease that the Dholes have,” Regil replied.
While the two were talking Callum took a drink from the canteen that had been on the leftmost side of the table, a slight look of relief washed across his face.
“Do we have an estimate of when he might be back?” Sugar asked.
“I’m not certain, but it shouldn’t be too long I think.” Regil replied.
After a moment of silence, Zed walked back up to Callum, “you really need to organize that trunk. I don’t know how but I found that canteen at the bottom underneath everything else.”
“Oops, sorry,” Callum smiled sheepishly.
“Yeah well, it’s empty so you’ll have to be the one to go and get it re-filled.”
Callum groaned audibly and began to hoist himself from the chair. He didn’t get a chance to make his way to the stream though, as Kent came running into the camp with a bewildered look on his face.
“You guys, you need to see this.” Kent said a slight edge to his voice. “It’s… well it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“What’s going on,” Zed asked while grabbing his canteen and taking a drink of water.
“It’s one of the Dholes,” Kent’s voice wavered a bit, whether due to excitement or fear Sugar wasn’t sure. “You’ll just have to see I don’t think you’ll believe me unless you see it.” Kent pushed surgery masks into everyone’s hands. Apparently not coming wasn’t and option.
The group made its way towards the sickbay, all making sure that their masks were covering their faces. Kent led the group to the back where they saw a rather large Dhole lying in the back laying prone on the bed. While he wasn’t quite as big as Callum, he definitely had some excess on his frame. He had stripped his blanked off him revealing his large doughy stomach that went up and down every time he panted. His arms were equally soft, and he was sporting a noticeable double chin and puffy cheeks.
“What’s so strange about him?” Sugar asked. “He looks like he’s suffering the ills of the disease like everyone else.”
“It’s not the way he’s acting, look at him!” Kent said as if the issue were obvious. “Don’t you see what’s strange about him?”
Sugar looked at the chubby Dhole and looked around the rest of the room. From a symptom point of view the Dhole looked like everyone else, but then it dawned on him. “He’s the only one in the room that’s not rail thin.” Sugar thought back to when they first entered the village till now. Every Dhole that they had come across and all been extremely lean, not a one of them had extra body fat on their frames.
Kent’s point finally made he continued, “that’s not the only thing. I saw this Dhole yesterday, and he looked relatively normal. He wasn’t rail thin like all of the others but he looked like he was at a healthy weight. So why does he now look like he’s been eating nothing but cake for the past three months?”
“Do you have any ideas?” Regil asked wringing his hands.
“I… I don’t know. I’m going to take a sample from him and compare it to the ones I already have. See if there isn’t anything different about them.”
Riiiip! Ping!
The loud tearing sound somewhat startled the group as they looked around for the source of the noise. Sugar then noticed that Callum was frantically patting his body in various places before his hand rested on his waistband. It was then that he realized what the sound was, as the button on Callum’s pants had given way under the strain with the underside of his belly showing though the zipper in his pants.
“Oh, umm.” Callum said embarrassed, “I think I need to go back and get a new pair of pants.”