Boiling Isles: The Next Generation - Act I.

Chapter V. - In the Hospital

Lucia was floating weightlessly in the darkness. She had no idea where she was or what she was doing before she got here. Suddenly, a small light appeared in the distance, which came towards her with the speed of the wind. The closer the light got, the more space it illuminated around her. Lucia covered her eyes and the next moment she found herself in outer space. As she glided through the place, she saw giant bubbles around her, which gave her insight into various worlds. In one, a pair of twin siblings fought against a giant, one-eyed, pyramid-shaped creature. The other showed a cat with huge diamond eyes talking to a girl with brown skin and very shaggy hair. In the third, a cat-like girl held a blonde girl in her lap and kissed her gently. Blushing, Lucia turned her head away from this bubble and studied the next one where another blonde girl with a wand and a latino boy using his fists were fighting shoulder to shoulder against the monsters that surrounded them.

However, before Lucia could look at the other bubbles, Snowball appeared in front of her. Lucia stopped and looked at the slitherbeast in surprise, who looked back at her sadly.

"Hey, it's okay." Lucia wanted to say something, but no sound came out of her throat. So she raised her arm and tried to touch Snowball, but then the giant light flashed again and Lucia opened her eyes.

***

The first thing Lucia noticed was that she was staring at the ceiling. The second is that she is lying on a hospital bed propped up with soft pillows. She turned her head to the side to see Edalyn Clawthorne sitting in a chair reading a newspaper while sipping apple-blood.

"Aunt Eda?" said Lucia in her hoarse voice.

The witch looked up from the newspaper, and when she saw that Lucia was awake, she spat out the drink in her mouth.

"Good Titan!"

Eda immediately threw away the newspaper and Apple-blood and walked over to Lucia, then gently took her hand. Lucia looked down to see that her own hand was heavily bandaged. She looked back at Eda, who was watching her worriedly.

"What happened?"

"Don't you remember anything?"

Lucia tried to shake her head, but a sharp pain shot through her head.

"Ouch!" Lucia wailed and touched her head, but she regretted this move as well. The sudden movement made her feel like her arm was about to fall off.

"Calm down." Eda told her. "Otherwise, your stitches will tear."

"My stitches will tear?" Lucia repeated in a daze.

"You really don't remember what happened at your exam?" asked Eda.

"My Exam?"

Lucia continued to stare blankly at Eda, then felt as if her memory had been put on fast-forward. The potion... the phoenix feather... the explosion... Celeste's scared face...

"The exam!" she exclaimed. Her vocal cords protested violently at her yelling. "On Titan, I blew up the school! What happened to the others?! Are Paulina and Celeste okay?!"

"Hey, hey," Eda hushed. "Do not worry! Thanks to your quick reaction, no one was seriously hurt. Unfortunately, you weren't so lucky..."

"What?"

Eda carefully covered Lucia. The girl gasped when she saw that almost her entire body was wrapped in bandages.

"You've got pretty serious injuries." Eda said quietly. "You were in a coma for a month and a half."

"For a month and a half?!"

Lucia's jaw dropped in shock.

"I think it's better to tell the doctor that you woke up." said Eda and left Lucia alone.