Jackson's eyes flickered as he awoke. He tried to turn his head but gasped in pain, as he realized he had broken his collar bone. His head spun as he forced himself to try and get to his feet, but to his disappointment he could not move. Looking up at the ceiling, he noticed that his blueprints were all missing, and that the ceiling seemed higher than normal. With growing dread, Jackson looked about the room as much he could, but saw nothing except the darkness of the walls. Unable to move, Jackson began to ponder. He hadn't ever gone to bed, so why was he in one now? Where and when did he get his injuries? What room was he in? Was he even in a room? Where was his teacher? His thoughts were interrupted by footsteps. Someone was nearby! He tried to shout for them, but began to hack, as a little blood sprayed out of his mouth. However, the footsteps had begun to rapidly grow louder at the sound of his coughs, until the person who had made the sound of the footsteps hovered over top of the injured person.
Jackson looked up but did not recognize the face of the women peering down at him. She had a warm uplifting smile painted atop her tan face, expressing some joy at hearing the boy's coughs. Her long brown hair brushed his face as she went to feel his forehead, and her smile strengthened as she removed her hand from Jackson's face. She then grabbed a bottle of pink liquid from a nearby shelf that Jackson had not noticed before, and after opening the vile, put it to his lips in the hopes he would drink it. Recognizing the concoction, the boy gulp down every drop of the potion, then fell immediately back to sleep, as his body began to heal at a rate much faster than normal. Letting out a sigh of relief, the woman stood straight up again and glanced down at Jackson one last time before turning around and running back out where she had entered.
"Lothar!!!," she shouted, gasping for breath as she ran down the long hallway. "Cousin!! He's awake!!!"
Suddenly a door burst open as Dr. Lothar and Cassie rushed out to meet the slightly older woman. Almost knocking her over as he reached his cousin, the doctor began to bombard her with questions as Cassie continued to jog towards the ward where Jackson had been kept for the past four nights after the lab had fallen apart.
With intense panic, the doctor questioned his cousin about his apprentice, "How bad are his wounds! Will he survive! Did he just cough, or is he actually awake this time! Did you give him the potion!!!"
The woman, understanding the scared tone of her younger cousin's voice, stopped him from saying anything else as she answered, "Calm down Lothar! His wounds are still bad, but healing, and they are not enough to kill him. Also, yes. This time he was actually awake, for his eyes were open. Also, his fever is gone, and with the potion that he was actually able to drink, since he was conscious, he will be healed by morning. No thanks to you, wasting a god apple on him almost chocking him to death! Thank Notch that I was on my way to your lab when that monster fled, otherwise he probably would be in a hole in the ground right now!"
"And for that I am thankful... but he is fine all alone? You don't think you should have stayed next to him in case something were to happen?"
"He's fine. What's the worst that could happen without me at his bedside?"
-Jackson's ward-
"Alright... maybe just another drop," mumbled Cassie as she prepared a potion on a table next to Jackson's bed.
In front of the girl laid an array of items, ranging from dragon's blood to guardian's scales. Throwing in the final ingredient of the jet black, but sparkling potion, Cassie grabbed the vile and stood up, turning towards the apprentice. She wondered if she had gotten the potion right, but figured that it would not be able to hurt anyone if she hadn't. Leaning over the boy, she poured a drop of her concoction into his mouth, lifting his head ever so slightly to help the liquid run down his throat. Seeing as nothing had happened, the girl decided to test the potion herself, to find out what she may have needed more or less of.
"That's weird... It doesn't taste like i'm missing anything," she exclaimed. "I guess I'll just go back to my room for the rest of the night, and come back early in the morning..."
After her failed experiment on the unconscious Jackson, Cassie had walked back to her room, passing the doctor, whom she still did not trust, and his cousin, that he seemed to be arguing with once again, like every other night before. With a heavy sigh, the hybrid laid her head down on her pillow as she began to fall asleep. After a while of trying to sleep, she gave up and decided to check on Jackson, since an hour or so had passed from when she left his ward. However, when she went to open her door, the floor she was standing on began to dissolve under her feet as she fell into a black abyss of nothingness. Before she had time to panic, Cassie had landed with a hard thump in a patch of long grass. Getting to her knees, she realized that she was near a town, and as soon as she stood up she spread her wings and began to fly. Rather, tried to fly, for as she flapped, nothing seemed to happen. No air moved, nor any grass disturbed. Then she remembered that when she had been lying on the ground, the grass had stuck right through her, as if she were not there. With fear rising, she moved on foot towards the little town.
Everything about this town was what one would normally expect to find. Houses on every corner, multiple little farm areas, a blacksmith and well in the square, and a little library on the outskirts. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for one thing. It was completely deserted! With no one to herd them, the animals roamed free all over the area, and the plants had overgrown, vines hanging everywhere, and a few mushrooms scattered about. The sun, which a moment ago had been at its highest peak, set, and before Cassie's eye a thick midnight-purple mist had begun to envelop the area to the point where she could no longer see her own hand in front of her face. There was an eerie feeling about what was occurring, and it made Cassie become extremely nervous. Soon she was having trouble breathing. She thought to herself, but... if this is a dream, why can't i breath?! Falling to the ground gasping for air, she strained to see through the thick fog. In a moment, she made out a midnight black pair of clawed feet beside her, and as her eyes traveled up the figure that the feet belonged to, she became overwhelmed with extreme dread. After seeing the feet, she saw a blood-spotted pair of torn white jeans, a man's bare chest, the same color as the feet, and a face with eyes that pierced her soul. It spread out its wings, and letting out a blood curling laugh, lunged at her. But her eyes sprung open, and with heart still racing, she looked down to realize that she was once again in her bed, no sign of the monster from her dream. For the next hour she lied awake in bed, sweating in relief, until the sun rose over the horizon. Realizing that the time was near for the Doctor and his cousin to awake, she crawled out of her covers, put her everyday clothing on, and headed towards Jackson's ward, to see if her potion had worked on him, similar to the way it did for her.
