On the fourth day, I let Isy catch up on sleep… And she certainly did, sleeping in till past noon, despite going to bed early. When I tried to finally get her up she grabbed me, thinking I was another pillow, and dragged me into the bed with her. Seeing her still so tired made me suddenly want to let her sleep more… So for the next 45 minutes or so I took a nap and waited… Honestly, I needed one too, I just didn’t really notice since my dragon’s blood stopped me from feeling tired as easily.
When she did finally wake up she had the happiest well rested look on her face that almost made it all worth it. At the very least it made me stop feeling so bad for her and everything she had gone through.
Right after realizing what she had done she quickly let go of me and apologized. Falling out of bed in the process and immediately garnering more pity…
“Take it easy Isy. It’s fine. I told you to sleep as much as you wanted.” ‘I’ve gathered Mo, bear, and Isy to make up my guild. Mo has changed classes and is starting to break free from her mental chains, while the bear is currently accumulating wealth and status of sorts. Meanwhile, I have a second guild being developed by Kai as a favor. I don’t know the details… But apparently, Yamaria ended up going on the straight and narrow, so as thanks he continued helping me out.
‘When Mo comes back I’ll have to resolve her misunderstanding about Kai hating her, and I’ll almost be done there, meanwhile bear… I really should learn more about him… He seems decent, but I really don’t know him that well. All that can wait while things develop… For now… Today is going to be about Isy…’
“I’m, just, going to stay down here, if that’s alright…” She muttered embarrassedly.
‘Oh Isy…’
I got up as well, helping her off the ground. ‘This goes beyond just a lack of coordination doesn’t it?’
After we got settled and picked up something to eat from town we came back to continue relaxing. She still seemed worn down, despite pretending to be fine. Throughout the whole day, she continued making the same clumsy mistakes, tripping over her own feet, walking into a door because she didn’t turn the handle… In the end, I decided maybe taking the whole day off would do her some good, and took the day off myself, if not only so she wouldn’t feel bad about it. Of course, taking that time to read more on gravity magic… Still unable to practice it.
‘I just don’t get it… There's something more going on here besides her adjusting to her body as it grows…’ I put my book down and turned over to see her struggling to flip a page on the book she was reading. A romance she apparently checked out from the grand hall’s library.
“Isy… Can you do me a favor?”
She rubbed her eyes with her wrist, slowly putting the book down and rolling over on her stomach to face me from the bed. “What is it, do you want a drink of water?”
“No that’s…” ‘Well, actually I kinda do…’ I sighed. “Can you just stand up for a second? I want to test something.”
“Uh… Ok, sure.”
I watched as she stood up, still seeming unsteady, although she didn’t trip at least. ‘There's no pattern… It’s not like she has nerve damage and can’t feel her right foot, she makes every kind of mistake with both sides of her body… “Close your eyes.”
Her face slightly scrunched up as if she was worried. “U-uhm…”
“Can you not balance with your eyes closed?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“N-no I should be fine…” She closed her eyes and almost immediately started to sway like a drunkard.
‘I almost don’t even need to do this test…’ “Tell me when you feel steady.”
“I feel fine.”
‘So it feels normal to her?’
“Raise your hands straight out in front.”
She… Tried… Her right hand was too high though… And her left was partially out to the side. “Open your eyes.” She did and immediately corrected her position. “Let’s, try that again.” And so we did… Again… And again… I was hoping she would get better with practice… But no such luck.
“Should I try again? Or are we done now? Is that all you wanted to see?”
“Yeah…”
“S-sorry… I know there’s something wrong with me. My brain can’t tell my body where to go… And so… Well… I…” Her face sank as she struggled to find what to say next.
“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault… Although if it was it would be easier to fix…”
“What? What do you mean? Do you know what’s wrong with me?”
“Maybe…”
She continued to sway back and forth. “You can open your eyes… Oh and sit down again, please. The last thing I want is for you to fall again.” ‘Especially if something’s wrong with your brain…’ I sighed. “You have ataxia… Although… It’s hard to say why… Which means it might be hard, or even impossible to fix…”
“Atax… What?”
‘The only reason I even know what it is is because my sister got so hammered one time she ended up with it and had to go to hospital…’ I lowered my face to my hand, still feeling a dull annoyance all these years later. “Basically, your brain isn’t working right, and it makes you really clumsy… Have you always been like this?”
“I don’t think so…”
‘Hopefully, that rules out genetic causes. Which makes sense, her family would have killed her if she showed signs early on…’ “What about any serious head injuries, any at all, especially to the back of the head.”
She timidly shook her head. “It’s hard to really remember… Oh, It started when I started training. It was around that time. I remember because that was when… When my dad started getting angry…”
‘Sounds about right… So if it’s not genetic, and it’s not because of trauma, and it’s not because of alcohol poisoning… That leaves pretty much just lead poisoning and vitamin deficiency. Lead poisoning would have killed her though if she was being exposed continuously for years, and she would have other side effects I’m sure… So in theory it’s just a vitamin deficiency? Or maybe I’m forgetting something…’
“What did you eat while you were growing up? After you started training I mean.”
“Oh uh… After that, I wasn’t allowed to eat meat… So… I guess mostly just like bread? The rule was that I had to hunt for myself… And I didn’t really like doing that… And I was also really bad at it…”
‘In other words… She’s probably short on all the essential vitamins found in meat… Like B12… Which I forced my sister to take because deficiency can cause ataxia, and make it worse… Realistically though I doubt that’s the cause either…’ I sighed. ‘Another girl suffering from having an idiot for a father… At least my family fed me properly… They even forced me to.’
“Have you been eating meat since you got here?”
“Some… But I feel guilty when I do…”
‘Of course, you do…’ “Start eating a lot more of it… That might help… The fact that you're having all these problems is probably why you feel so tired all the time too…” ‘Then again, that might just be wishful thinking.’
“So if I eat meat you think I’ll be able to train properly? I’ve never been able to get up early though, even when training first started. I couldn’t get used to only sleeping for a few hours at a time… I couldn’t fall asleep, then when I finally did I was already getting woken up…”
‘So insomnia… Leading to a severe lack of sleep for how many years? That can’t be good for your brain either… No wonder she can sleep for 14 hours straight…’ I sighed again. “You can go back to bed if you want to…”
She yawned. “I kind of want to take a bath though… But the cold water makes my head hurt…”
‘It’s funny… I feel like I should be annoyed right now, but she’s the only girl here who acts kind of normal for her age… It’s kind of refreshing… And makes me want to spoil her…’ I stood up and walked to the shower, turning it on and listening closely to the pipes, tracing them back to the main room and listening to the water rush through the walls. ‘It’s right here.’ Taking my sword I cut a chunk out of the wall to reveal the piping. “Try it now.”
As she walked to the other room I sneakily heated up my hands with magic, wrapping them around the pipe until the metal became ‘piping hot. hehe…’ She was more than a little excited, although she was a bit too surprised to figure out how to show it.
In the end, she took a hot shower, changed again, and went right back to sleep. All in all, it was a peaceful day… At least for us.
‘Chronic sleep deprivation… Regardless of cause… I’m sure that would affect her coordination… And if she’s sleeping this much it’s no wonder…’