Kingdoms Rise

Seven

Mae didn't know how long she spent in that beautiful forest. To her it like a matter of minutes to hours, but was likely days. She felt at home there, yet she felt so alone.

Mae opened her eyes to a blinding brightness. She turned her head from the source of the light in an attempt to blink it away. When her eyes adjusted she looked around the room—a room, she wasn't on the ship anymore. There was a large a window, the curtains drawn back, that was the source of the light.

Mae noticed a young a girl about her age sitting next to her. Mae had gained enough of her wits to know that she had to be far older than herself. The girl had to have been tending to Mae, she had been pulling a cloth from her forehead.

Mae opened her mouth to speak but the girl just shook her head, smiling slightly. The girl handed Mae a glass of water and left without a word.

Mae was left in the silence of her unfamiliar room. Her room. It didn't sound right. This room didn't belong to her. If anything she was just borrowing it.

Mae expected that she was in Tilanyth. More specifically in Fjoll. She looked out the wind and confirmed her suspicions. There was an expanse of mountains outside the window, the snow just beginning to melt.

She drank the water, elevating herself just enough to avoid choking. She drained the water quickly and wished she'd had more. She moved to sit up to look for a pitcher of water, quickly regretting her decision she groaned in pain. Her whole hurt as if every muscle had been stretched and healed and stretched and healed. She supposed they had, if her memory served her right.

As she moved back to lay against the pillows the door to her room opened. She turned her head toward the door. Fallon hovered by the door as he closed it. After a moment he made his way to the edge of her bed and sat down.

Mar groaned again, for a different reason this time. She didn't want to know what happened, not until her body didn't feel like it been stretched across the mountains she was a top now.

She made sit up again, only to talk properly with him. He halted her with a hand on her arm.

"Easy, you still need to rest. Your body went through a lot." He was gentle for guy who had lived for centuries.

"I don't want to lay down anymore," Mae said simply. "Can you get me more pillows?"

He nodded and left the room. While he was out in the hall she could hear voices murmuring, almost coherent. She was surprised, her hearing had always been remarkable, but never like this.

He came back a few moments later carrying an armful of pillows. He made his back to the bed and stack them up behind Mae. She leaned into the pillows and moaned in comfort.

The room was silent but Mae couldn't careless. She had her eyes closed as she relaxed into the pillows. Fallon was standing somewhere near the bed. She felt the ned shift as he finally took up his place again.

"Your body will heal in matter of hours now."

Mae peered at him through narrow eyes. "What do you mean?"

"You haven't realized it yet?"

She frowned at him. Of course she hadn't realized anything yet, she's been out for... she didn't know how long she'd been out.

He rubbed a finger over his ear—the tip of his ear.

Slowly Mae reached up to her own ear. She ran her finger from the lobe up to the top of it.