It took just three days for the Emperor to get over the worst of his sickness, and in those same three days it seemed that another powerful figure in Clint City had been struck by the sweat, sluggishness and hallucinations. But whereas the Emperor of the Vortex had insisted on guards being present to protect his person, the Guru of the Sakrohm had locked himself in his chamber to avoid any chance of passing on his affliction.
Outside the Guru's chamber door, a small figure was keeping watch for any clan members who might try to sneak in for a quick 'audience' or to try and score favour with a menial task; Na Boh not being the strongest of people for the task, but his sharp tongue meant that many clan members would flee the area in a tear-stricken run. However, one clan member was immune to his harsh words, and she would be the one to approach.
"Mushroom!" She chirped, staring down at him as if he was the cutest thing in the world. "I've been looking for you all day."
"Stella," he responded, sounding extremely unenthusiastic. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be?"
"Yeah, but that linguistic bitch came along and ruined everything like ALWAYS," the blonde spat, as if the words were poisonous venom in her mouth. "So I came to see how Guru was doing instead. How is he?"
"His self-conviction of feeling as if he's about to throw up seems to have subsided," Na Boh began to explain, calmly and deliberately. "He seems to be having hallucinations, though I can't quite decipher them."
"Hmmm...what would Guru have hallucinations about, anyway?"
"Anything and everything, really," was the blunt response. "We can't control our hallucinations as much as we can't control our dreams."
"Sleep dreams," he then said, raising a hand when he noticed the blonde about to voice her opinion. "Not aspirations."
"I wish there was something I could do," she said, sounding genuinely concerned as she bent down to the male's level.
"You could go away for a start," Na Boh thought, though in a rare moment of judgement he kept his remarks to himself; Stella, this blonde whose ditziness usually annoyed him to no end, was actually tolerable whilst concern for her leader had distracted her from squeezing the height-challenged Sakrohm to death.
At that moment, the sound of three consecutive sneezes erupted from inside the room; groaning then following the short bursts of noise, Stella and Na Boh exchanged slightly uncomfortable glances. They wanted to pop their heads round the door, but couldn't, and it felt somewhat frustrating.
"I heard him babbling on about the bees disappearing earlier," the short male said, one eyebrow raised as if in disapproval about his leader's sickness-induced theories. "Who cares about the bees? It's not like they do anything."
"Bees make honey," Stella retorted, seeming a little pleased to have defended the bees.
"Then what am I thinking of?"
"Wasps."
"Well they are ugly things," Na Boh scoffed, rolling his eyes; had anyone else been with him, they would have rolled their eyes too at the gall of the midget calling something ugly, as Na Boh wasn't the most attractive guy in the world. Yet Stella was nodding, most likely out of infatuation with anything that the 'silver-tongued' Sakrohm said; even the colour of orange juice would have received the same nod that seemed to carry a slight air of impressedness.
"THE BEES!" The somewhat sickly voice called from inside the room, sounding a little worried inbetween coughs.
"Get some rest, Guru," Stella replied, putting her face close to the door as to reduce her need to shout. "You'll feel better after a nice sleep."
"I can't sleep and save the bees at the same time," was the delirious response, causing Stella and Na Boh to exchange uncomfortable glances once more.
"We'll save the bees then," she said, unable to believe what was coming out of her own mouth. "Don't you worry."
Leaning away from the door, Stella hesitantly took a step back from the wooden barrier and was even more hesitant to make eye contact with her fellow Sakrohm.
"What did you say that for?!" Na Boh hissed, as if the female had just personally insulted the Guru to his face.
"It was just a little white lie," she replied, sounding surprisingly calm though her voice seemed thick with restrained panic. "He'll end up having a nap and forget all about his little outburst."
"It is said that you don't remember under delusion or suggestion," Na Boh said, seeming to calm down, or at least sound less annoyed about the situation. "Ok, you may not have completely screwed the situation beyond the repair."
Stella couldn't help smiling nervously, feeling as if she'd just dodged a rather sharp-tongued bullet. Beginning to turn away, she soon felt the short Sakrohm male tugging at her dress.
"Where are you off to?" He asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"I was going to see how the others were doing," she replied, smiling down at him and noticing he was unsurprised at her response; Stella being one of those people who liked to socialise and be friends with everyone, and it was one of those qualities that Na Boh just couldn't understand why they were so sought after.
"I'd rather you stayed here," he said, in a rather neutral tone as he simply blinked. "Guru seems to have gotten worse and my stature doesn't really help me if things get physical. Besides, a friendly face might calm him down. Your voice already did. I'm just glad you didn't sing."
In another odd bid to spare Stella's feelings, he'd muttered that last sentence, with the female unquestioning as fellow clan members had gotten used to his somewhat unfriendly habits. Bending down to his level, Stella couldn't help chuckling when the smaller Sakrohm sighed, but he didn't say anything disparaging. Nothing he could have said would have stopped the blonde from smiling down at him in the sweet manner she was doing so now, wondering just how many precious minutes she'd get with her little mushroom before he fickly sent her on her way or, Gilbon forbid, the Guru had another episode and did something that the entire clan would deeply regret...