Ugh….my head….The mild pain of a headache makes itself known as the fog of sleep starts to clear. I groan as my attempts at returning to sleep fail and the headache spikes then fades away completely. In its place are a pair of muffled voices. My mind is still a bit too hazy to make out what they are saying but they sound familiar…

I groan again and the voices fall silent. I hear footsteps and tilt my head in their direction. I try to open my eyes but something is covering them stopping me from doing so. I raise a hand to touch it and frown at how hard it is to lift my hand. I rub the material gently somehow making the jump from it's a cloth to they must be bandages.

I slip my thumb under them intending to pull them off when a hand grabs my wrist holding my hand in place.

"Leave it, Lalna"

I lift my head to face the voice aiming my eyes a few inches above where the voice came from, hoping I was looking at his face.

"Martyn?" Now that I'm more awake I'm able to identify the voice. I assume the other one I heard earlier belongs to Toby.

"Toby, can you go get some water?" I heard soft footsteps leave the room and mentally praise myself for being able to recognize the two without my sight.

I let my hand fall limp and Martyn releases it, letting it fall to my lap. I can hear him shuffle on his feet. He seems tense, which is unusual for the usually laid back and cheerful forest sprite. It causes a certain degree of anxiety to stir in the pit of my stomach.

The soft footsteps return and approach Martyn. The forest sprite whispers a thank you before pressing something against my lips.

"It's water. Drink it." I take the glass from his hand and drink the cool water gratefully. He takes the glass again when I'm finished and I hear the soft 'clunk' as he places it on the bedside table. I hear a soft rustling from behind where I assume the forest sprite is that can only be Toby fiddling with the rim of his hoodie as I have seen him do so many times before.

Martyn sighs and I return my attention to him. He almost sounds sad and that in itself is frightening. His voice is soft and sympathetic and I feel the anxiety increase.

"You should have told someone…"

"What?" I'm not sure the anxiety can get any worse at this point and I'm starting to feel ill.

"You should have told someone you were sick...They may have come to be sooner…" I can't see his face to tell how serious it really is but I think that might be even more frightening...My heart is racing and I can feel my body start to shake. I thought it was nothing. I thought I could fix it myself. I thought I would be alright. Martyn doesn't seem to think that. Martyn seems to think that I'm…

"A-Am I dying?" I ask unable to keep my voice steady Martyn doesn't reply at first and I think I might pass out . When he finally does respond his voice is a mix of anger and relief.

"Any longer and that may have been the case. You're lucky we found you Lalna or you may have been too gone to save. But if you do what you're told and keep those bandages on you have about an 80% chance of making a full recovery...But there is a 20% chance that..." He trails off and if I could see I may have grabbed his shoulders and shook him. But I just sit in my bed staring up at him with fear in the eyes he can't see and I can't see out of.

"What? 20% c-chance of w-what?" I choke out and I hear Martyn sigh.

"A 20% chance you'll never see again."