Zatara woke with a start, struggling up from the dark and shadowed depths of troubled dreams. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Bellwing's peaceful and sleeping face. The night elf's gray eyes were closed in sleep's warm embrace and her lips curved in a small smile. Light turquoise hair was pulled gracefully back behind her long ears, only one small piece of the greenish strands escaped their prison. It fell across Bellwing's face gracefully accentuating the soft curve of her button nose and flowing over her full lips. Zatara slowly wriggled her arms free of Bellwing's embrace and reached up to brush the hair off Bellwing's face

Zatara reached forward, slowly tucking the piece of loose hair back behind the long, graceful, blue tinged ears. Zatara found that she could not remove her hand, her fingers seemed to have a will of there own as they began trailing down one side of Bellwing's long slender jaw, across her full lips, up the other side if her jaw, across the blue tinged forehead, and down the bridge of her slender button nose.

Bellwing stirred slightly and Zatara snatched her hand away quickly, shocked by what she had done and how little she regretted it. Zatara slowly removed herself from Bellwing's warm embrace, crawling slowly to the entrance of the shelter to make a fire from some sticks and branches that she had gathered the previous day.

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Bellwing woke to the snap and crackle of a small fire at the entrance of the small shelter. At that moment Zatara crawled into the makeshift tent carrying a linen cloth soaked in warm water which she placed tenderly on Bellwing's forehead before moving down and examining Bellwing's stomach.

"Your wound is healing well and I believe that the infection is almost completely gone," said Zatara in a relieved voice. "Here," she said, reaching out her hand to Bellwing who grasped it firmly.

With Zatara's help, Bellwing was finally able to crawl out of the confined tent and shakily stand up for the first time in three days.

"Good," encouraged Zatara. "Now slowly try to take a few steps." Bellwing cautiously took a step, wobbled, lost her balance, and promptly fell over again taking Zatara with her. Both women fell in a tangled heap.

"Damn it!" cried Bellwing, scowling darkly as Zatara laughed hard at the annoyed expression on the other woman's face.

"Don't get all annoyed at me," said Zatara between giggles. "You've just spent the last three days in bed with a deadly infection. I'm not surprised that your body is still in shock. Now get up and we'll start again. Practice makes perfect."

They practiced walking, then running, then jumping, one after another, until Bellwing didn't fall over. By the time they had finished, the dim sun was sinking down below the horizon and the dim moon was rising up from behind the trees. That night, a night elf and a blood elf slept side by side not in a forced confinement of a deathly illness but in the comfortable company of friends.