Rise of Fire: Dragons Reborn [COMPLETED]

Chapter 13

*** This chapter was pretty hard to write so I do appolagize if it doesn't quite fit with the narrative so far. I will probably end up rewriting this one once the story is finished, but for now I think it does continue the story well. Let me know what you think, does it work well? Does it push too fast? Vote, Comment, share! The usual, and as usual thank you for your continued support.***

"Is it working yet Nico?" The feminine elderly voice floated around in Talia's head for a while as it slowly brushed away the dark caves of her nightmares. As the world around her shifted the more she realized she could feel her body again. She also quickly realized she didn't like it, not one bit. Every ounce of her was on fire and she wasn't supposed to be able to feel the burn from flames.

"Her fever's still high but I think she's starting to wake a little. Was that your plan?" Nico's sharp voice was like a ray of hope through the darkness. She couldn't have been happier to hear his snark little tone cutting through the dark abyss. Or the retort from the woman who was with him.

"Aye, but it's only the start boy. Now we have real work to do." The woman sounded pert as always, her genuine enjoyment for her craft bleeding through in her voice. Talia knew who it was after she thought about it. How could anyone forget Madora? She was the woman Nico always called after all, the blind psychopath was one of the best healers in the country, perhaps the world but Talia wasn't going to give her that much credit yet. Her methods very rarely matched up with her madness.

"Now pull away the soiled bandages and get ready to use these. They're going to feel weird so I imagine it might rouse her more. Don't let the paste there touch your skin or you're going to go out the roof of this place." She warned Nico darkly as she rustled around in the background. Talia wished she knew where they were, how much danger they were in. Had demons followed them? Had the dragon truly died? How many days had passed? With her mind racing she didn't even notice when Nico pulled the bandaging away from her face or how much it stung. She wasn't aware of his movements until he applied the new bandages.

"Arggh...!" She jumped, her back arching as she instinctively clawed towards her face. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Nico grabbed her hands and held her down with all his weight while she struggled against the war of cold, hot, freezing, burning, and every other range of temperature that was seeping into her very bones. She was certain every time a wave of cold hit that she'd die, it numbed her to the core. Every time the heat returned she'd try to break free from Nico's hold but it was futile, she was as weak as a kitten that had been starved half to death.

"Hold still you idiot." Nico gritted his teeth at her. She could acutely hear the sound of his teeth grinding which only served to drive her more crazy. Hearing everything but being unable to see it was maddening.

"Hrngh... Urg.." She tried to retort to him but nothing intelligible came out. Was her tongue just as weak as her body? She wanted to slap herself for the idiocy of it.

"Here I am all damsel in distress and I can't even wag my tongue like a true person. He's going to rail me for sure after this..." At least in her head she was still capable of speech. Snarky and sarcastic speech too. But that didn't matter when she still couldn't talk to Nico or Madora and get a gauge of the situation. Or snarl at Nico. Or tell Madora to stop fucking giving her mana potions when things 'didn't look good'. She knew full well the woman had done it again, she could feel it in her quivering muscles and racing heart.

"Now that she's calmed down a little see if she'll drink this. I think it'll give her the energy she needs to wake up the rest of the way. Then we can continue to draw out the poison and lower her temperature. By morning I'm certain we'll have it under control." Madora shuffled and rattled around to Talia's right. She heard the clattering of bottles, the snapping of dry herbs, and the sloshing of water. She could imagine her withered hands tending to the herbs, mixing the water, picking the bottles. Madora was a diligent woman who had been practicing her witchcraft for years.