The New Freeglader
Chapter 3
Author's Note: Sorry, I just realised I messed up the timeline. When Xanth left Tweezel, it was late at night, the moon should have risen, not the sun setting. Sorry. Correct this in your minds.
Time passed. The first three days of the young woman's convalescence saw no change in her, but on the fourth day, she had improved considerably, so Tweezel redoubled his efforts.
After a few weeks, she was well on her way to recovery. The bruises and cuts had healed, although the breaks in her legs and ribs were still a long way away from healing completely. Her fingers and back healed over.
She remained unconscious for a total of a little over six weeks. For the fifth week, she hit a plateau and slowly declined, but with gentle coaxing, she was helped to recuperate.
Rook, Xanth and Magda visited when they could; the unconscious young woman wasn't much of a conversationalist and she looked disturbingly gaunt, but the three of them found it relaxing to watch her slowly improve, and her past was an intriguing mystery to them.
Others occasionally visited the young woman, Felix among them, to find out more about this maimed enigma.
Xanth usually managed to magically not be in the room when Felix was there. The others didn't comment, except for Magda telling Xanth again that he had a right to be there, just like Felix. Xanth shrugged.
Then, six weeks and three days after the night she had been picked up just out of the Free Glades, she woke up.
Rook had been there, waiting for Xanth and Magda to arrive. Xanth was fixing a rope on his skycraft, the Ratbird, while Magda was helping a young Librarian Knight put varnish on his craft, the Lemkin.
The young woman's mouth opened, and she said, in a voice quiet and croaky from disuse, "Did I make it?", giving Rook the fright of his life.
"Am I in the Free Glades?" she asked again, still with her eyes closed.
"Yes," said Rook, recovering, "You're safe now."
She just smiled a small smile and lay there for a while. Rook called Tweezel, who checked the woman's pulse and breathing against Rook's and declared them normal. The woman had opened her eyes by now at Tweezel's request, and Rook was impressed at the speed with which she took stock of her surroundings; she'd barely had her eyes open ten seconds before she'd adjusted to the light, scanned the room, inferred that it was an infirmary and asked Tweezel how long he'd worked helping the sick.
Tweezel fetched her some food and she ate it while questioning Rook about the Free Glades. Magda joined them and was introduced.
"I'm sorry," the young woman asked after a while, "I'm asking too many questions. My name's Eavis Myronix, by the way. There's probably a lot you want to know about me."
Magda shrugged. "We'll wait for a while. There's a friend of ours coming, too. We'll wait until he gets here."
It was only moments later when Xanth walked in the door. Rook and Magda turned as they heard the door open.
They heard a tiny clatter behind them. They turned around to see that Eavis had dropped her spoon and her jaw had dropped.
Her face was deathly pale.
Author's Note: Sorry about the cliffhanger. I couldn't resist.