Part One: Chapter Three

The Badger came across him as he sat there staring at the slight figure on his bed. It had been an unplanned and possibly dangerous maneuver to bring her here. Though he would only have her in this Realm long enough to heal her injury, the possibility of a Greater God finding the mortal here and the penalties resulting became more real with each passing minute. There was also the time difference between the two worlds—time could slow down or rush by in the Upper Realm without regard to the hours and minutes that passed in the Human Realm and he could inadvertently return her to her world only for her to find out a hundred years had passed.

The girl made a sound of distress and moved as if struggling against invisible bonds. It would be several hours yet before she woke. The transition was hard on the human body and had possibly made her injury worse. He glanced at her ankle, the swelling seemed to have become larger, the skin bruised to a dark purple.

His gaze moved up from there to take in the pale skin exposed by her skirt, her knees just covered by pale pink cloth. His eyes took in her generous curves up to her delicate-featured face. She was no raving beauty but her features were pleasant to look at, lips a rosy red, her lashes dark and long and, from what he could recall, she had dark blue eyes. However, there was something about her that called his attention and, he admitted to himself, called other parts of him as well.

"Weiryn! What's this?" came a gravelly voice next to him. Feeling like a Peeping Tom caught, he turned his head to take in the bulky form of the Badger God. "You've brought one of those silly female creatures into your home. What possessed you? You know if you want to have a bit of fun, you keep it to the Lower Realm." The dark eyes turned on him with a hint of reprimand in them.

Annoyed that he was being treated like one of the Badger's errant pups and perhaps more annoyed because the Badger had reason to, Weiryn abruptly stood up to look down on the Animal God. He knew he was using his height in his favor and knew that it was a childish tactic.

The Badger was unperturbed by the Hunter God's behavior and turned his face towards the bed to take in the girl. "I am not dallying with this mortal. She was injured by one of her males and I had stepped in too late to help keep her from being harmed. She is here because—" and here he stopped because, in reality, Weiryn didn't know why he had brought her to his home when he could just as easily healed her in the woods.

The Badger looked back at him when he abruptly cut himself off. "Because?"

Weiryn turned away from both the Badger and the bed to face the window. His hand came up to run through the dark curls at the back of his head, just stopping before his hand hit his antlers. The Badger watched with interest. The god was exhibiting more emotion than he had seen in ages. "I don't know why. She had tried to stand on her own and couldn't and I held her up. And then she had looked at me and fainted and I caught her and brought her here. It wasn't a fully thought out thing."

The Badger snorted and shifted his feet. "Well, why don't you get on with it now, then? She's here and thankfully unconscious and she could be back home, none the wiser."

Weiryn turned back to him and met the Badger's all too intelligent eyes. "I've tried." He moved back over to sit next to the Badger, resting his arms on his knees as he leaned forward and looked in the direction of the unknowing guest. It wasn't in him to admit defeat but the situation was getting stranger by the minute and Weiryn was caught up in trying to understand it. "When I first got here with her, I put some power into her and was fought back by something in her. She has the Gift. It looks to be mainly healing magic so I don't understand why her magical defenses seem to be stronger than other mortals."

The Badger bobbed his head and made his way over to the girl, positioning himself near her face and breathed across her. The girl automatically moved her face away from him. The Badger huffed and turned back to Weiryn. "She's got a strong healer's magic and a strong defense against outside magical healing but I think she can be helped by non-magical means." He paused, seeming to hesitate in delivering his next piece of news. "She's also got a fever. The transition must have weakened her more than expected."

Weiryn started and moved closer to the bed to verify for himself. Her face was flushed red and when he gently laid a hand on her forehead, he could feel that she was burning up. He cursed beneath his breath.

"Well, I guess your girl is going to be here a bit longer than expected, hm? You'd better get something together that she can take to bring down her fever. I'll get a cool rag for her skin." And with that the Badger waddled out the door. Weiryn was sure that there was an amused note in the Badger's tone.

Everything was too hot. The world was pressing down on her. She didn't understand what was happening and because she didn't, she was afraid. She didn't like the fact that she was. She also didn't like that she couldn't open her eyes or move. She didn't like that she felt unfamiliar hands lifting her up, trying to put warm broth in her mouth, running a cool cloth across her. She tried to fight against whoever it was but she was too weak. She had felt a surge of power at one point but instinctively fought against it and then it had gone, leaving her feeling exhausted.

For a while, she had been in the dark, unaware of what was happening with her or outside of her. The last thing she remembered was preparing for the spring celebration. Then, that foreign power had laced her body with fire and she'd had to fight it off so she could rest. And now, her healer's knowledge told her she was burning up with a different fire, a fever that brought aches to her bones and a consuming tightness to her chest. She would almost struggle awake, only to be pulled under into nightmares of rough claws scratching at her, sharp teeth and hot breath across her face and dark, glinting eyes filled with maliciousness.

There would be a few moments of relief in the pair of gentle hands that seemed to be taking care of her but when they were gone, she was left to face the sticky dark, alone, as she always seemed to be.

Author's Note: I know it may seem that I'm taking a bit to get fully going on this but take heart, please, on the fact that I've planned out the next few chapters and know exactly where this is going! Just to make sure I'm not getting my facts wrong, I'm going to be reviewing relevant parts of Daine's story.