Staring up at the ceiling, I listened to the constant, regular beeping of my heart-rate monitor. I jolted upright as my doctor entered the room, a large, bearded man whose icy stare chilled me to the bone.
"Have you got his medication?" The doctor barked at his beak-nosed assistant. The nurse blinked blankly at him. "Do you have the med-i-ca-tion?" His voice was rather nasal, harsh. The doctor sighed. "Just go and get it for me, would ya?" he snapped, growing impatient. The nurse left without a word.
Grumbling, the old doctor checked my papers and wiped his hands on his blue uniform and left, not too long after the mute nurse.
I exhaled, my gaze falling towards the window that overlooked a grassy patch on the grounds. Catching sight of a tree, I grinned as I remembered all too clearly about how I had ended up in the hospital in the first place.
"Okay Jake, we've got some dungeons to explore!"
Jake barked, jumping up on his hind legs to lick my cheek.
"Ha-ha!! That tickles!" I pushed him off, and ran towards the tree, the dog running around my legs. “Let’s explore them right after I climb this tree!”
So I started to climb, branch by branch.
"Hey Jake, d'you wanna see how high I can go?" I called down to my companion, who promptly barked a reply.
Nearing the top of the tree, I lost my balance miscalculating the distance to the next branch.
I fell, hitting my head on one of the sturdier rungs, catching my foot between two branches which forced my ankle to twist in the opposite direction.
"I miss you Jake." I mouthed, hardly audible at all in the silent room.
"...What do you mean?! You useless piece of work!" my head snapped up as I heard the icy doctor yell from a few doors down. He was the loudest thing in the quiet, eerie hospital.
A small girl about 8, about my age, poked her bald head from the door. She shot me a wide grin as she entered my room.
"Hello!"
"...What are you doing?" I asked unsure, as she looked back outside to check if anyone was coming.
"Huh? Oh, right! I'm on an adventure!" She placed her hands on her hips and jutted her chin up with authority.
She didn't look exactly like an adventurer to me, with her pink store-brought princess costume and plastic tiara and all.
"I'm an adventurer too..." I felt myself blush, as I pointed out that it was something we have in common.
"Do you have a sword? Because you're not an actual adventurer until you have a sword." She said very matter-of-factly.
I nodded, pulling out a piece of crumpled cardboard from the side of my bed, cut out in a long cross-shape. I smiled proudly as I presented it to her.
She grinned back as she took out her own rolled-up-and-sellotaped-together arming sword.
"I'm Bonnie, by the way! What's your name?"
"I'm Finn. My best friend's an adventurer too. His name's Jake."
"Oh, okay. Does he visit you often here?" She asked, jumping onto the bed, carefully avoiding my cast.
