Tales of Malenatu: The Blue Dragonlady

Recovery

I woke up in an infirmary bed in Epicene Hollow. Robbie was asleep, curled up on a chair a little ways away with his tamer cloak covering him like a blanket. Caden was reading a book next to me and had no idea I was awake. Tadon sat slumped in a chair, his face pale. Ian, Valerie, and Raine were all sleeping on the other beds. I must've tortured them pretty badly. Rhynayoh was mopping up blood and fixing the head wound on Valerie. Ian had a bandage around hand, and Raine had chunks missing out her left leg. I decided to sit up and try to say something, but I was too weak to even move. It took a long time, but finally I gathered the strength to say one thing.

"Takes a lot more than that to break my spirit, ya know." Caden perked up immediately.

"Clarissa! You're okay!" Caden jumped on me, making my wound hurt more. But I didn't care. She was giggling like a madwoman, and it was contagious. Pretty soon, my stomach hurt from laughing and hunger. I was paler than normal, and very skinny. Tadon seemed to be woken from a trance and ran over to hold my hand.

"Baby, how are you feeling? You okay?" Tadon asked, a little worried. Caden smirked a little.

"Umm... yeah, I'm fine. W-What happened?" Tadon and Caden glanced at each other, then looked over at Robbie. He was still sleeping in the chair. Caden got off of me and went over to Robbie. She removed his cloak from the rest of his body and stroked his cheek. His eyes opened a little and smiled when he saw her. She whispered something to him and his smile faded. It wasn't good.

"Clarissa, Robbie's going to explain everything to you and Tadon. It'll be okay. I have to go take care of uhh... something bad. I'll be back later to tell you the date." Caden called over to me as she started to walk out the door.

"Wait, what date?" I asked, confused and thinking I should know this.

"Your trial date." Caden looked at the ground, her blonde hair covering her face for a second before walking out the door.

"What did she mean trial date?" My mind was swimming with questions. Tadon squeezed my hand silently. Robbie walked over, his cloak following him with each step.

"How much do you remember?" He asked nervously.

"Not much." I admitted. "A strange feeling washed over me, like anger took over my body. Then, uhh... you stabbed me, and... umm... Well, black specks went towards Megan... And now I'm here." The truth is, I remembered wanting to hurt Caden, Robbie, all of them. I was going to kill them. And I remember the longing to as clear as day. But he didn't need to know that.

"Okay. Well, I wouldn't call what you were... evil. Maybe highly angry for a long time to an extreme, but not evil. You did, however, burn down Donelia house with Gaddie and set a werewolf loose on it. You're being tried in court."

"Oh. Wow. S-So... What'll happen if she's found guilty?" Tadon's voice cracked, so I knew it was terribly bad.

"She'll be killed." Robbie said simply.

"Wait, I'll die? Like... dead die?" Shock ran up my spine.

"What other dead is there?" Robbie asked, staring me down with an intimidating glare.

"Well... Almost die, then come back. Like Gaddie and I have so many times. So, my time is really here?" Robbie wasn't listening to me. He seemed distracted by something.

"Robert! Listen to us!" Tadon had finally spoken up and he was now standing, glaring at my long-time friend.

"I have to go. Someone else will come fill you in here shortly." With a swish of his cloak, Robbie exited the room. Rhynayoh was paler than usual, rewrapping Raine's bandages. Something bad was definitely about to happen. I didn't get a lot of time to process my imminent death as a familiar face appeared with us.

 Oh, my gods. Kylindum was right! Master, are you okay!? Bayarrmaa landed on my chest, breathing heavily of fear and tire.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine Baya. How are you doing? I'm so glad to see you."

 Oh, I'm glad to see you back to normal! I'm... Worried. About us. If you die, I die. And I know Gadarieth would turn evil or something.

"Yeah, he would." I laughed, and soon my multi-colored companion joined in. Caden returned moments later with her face pale, bouncing a blue bundle of blankets in her arms.

"What? What's wrong?" Tadon's face grew the same pale white."And what is that?" I joined in, pointing to her bundle. She just handed the thing to me while trying to form the proper words for it. The thing she was holding turned out to be a baby. It was a boy, judging from the light blue blankets and the name "Bade" crafted into the sewing in red.

He was beautiful. His hazel eyes looked up at me as he giggled. I would've truly enjoyed the moment had Caden's news not chilled me to the bone.

"It's the trial. We're late."

"What!?" Tadon and I exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah, it's... They set it for 10 minutes ago. We have to go." They propped me up in a wheel-chair with Baya laying on my lap. Gaddie was outside, ready to take me to the place where the trial would be held.