Little Pilot Academia

Chapter 46

Diana woke up again, this time feeling a lot less drugged.

The first thing she saw was Hannah and Barbara, waiting patiently next to her bed. She found it hard to smile, but she did her best, coming up with a sloppy approximation of what it should look like.

“Hello,” she said, turning around. Her movements felt slow, as if she was moving through a thick substance. She was inside one of the Dragon’s infirmaries. The biggest one, probably, because she had a really small room all to herself. It was barely big enough to fit the bed she was resting in and the medical equipment needed for her. Hannah and Barbara were standing, cramped, on the side of the bed nurses would use to check on Diana. If for some reason there was a need to move her, the entire wall where the door stood could retract to allow for it.

“Diana…” Hannah looked like she was about to cry. Barbara wasn’t too far from that either. “How do you feel? Are you ok?”

“How about you?” Diana asked in return. “Did you manage to avoid harm?”

Hannah nodded, then pressed her lips. “You worry about me even though you’re the one who got hurt,” she said in a meek voice. “I’m not worthy of your friendship.”

Diana raised an eyebrow. Barbara, however, nudged Hannah and gave her an annoyed look. “Just stop being so melodramatic and say what you want to say,” she said in a tired voice. How long had Diana been out?

Hannah sighed, looked at Diana with some doubt, waited a few seconds, took a deep breath, fidgeted with her fingers, looked at Diana again and then she finally took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for running away,” she managed to say. “I should’ve gone back to save you, but I-”

Diana didn’t really recall what had happened, but given the context clues, she could imagine how it had happened. She shook her head. “You probably wouldn’t have been able to outrun the fire. Plus, it was better to leave me wherever I was,” well, now that she thought about it, she recalled the explosion. The sudden burst of power, something slicing her arm, something hitting her leg… “That way rescue crews would have found me more easily.”

Hannah suddenly leaned forward, carefully hugging Diana. Diana didn’t feel much, but she felt a slight stab of pain from her arm. It must have showed in her face, because Barbara put a hand on Hannah’s shoulder and pushed her back. “Come on, you’re hurting her,” she said, pulling her back.

“Sorry,” Hannah instantly said.

Diana smiled, for real this time. She was too tired to put on her mask right now, and Hannah and Barbara were her best friends. “It’s fine,” she said. She actually wished the hug lasted a little longer, but Barbara was probably right, she could reopen her wound accidentally. She moved a little in bed. Her leg was in a sling, a cast encapsulating it. She was surprised it hadn’t been a compound fracture. She was lucky it hadn’t been one. Whatever had hit her had probably done so after bouncing off the ground, losing speed and making it weaker. If not, her leg would have probably been absolutely destroyed.

The door opened – an automatic door – and a nurse… No, a medic peeked in. An old lady in her golden years, but despite her age, she had a keen look to her. “Ah, Miss Cavendish, you’re finally awake,” the doctor said. “Sorry, girls, can you give me a few moments with the blondie? You can gossip all you want later.”