This marks the farthest this story has ever made it, as far as number of chapters go. We passed the old word count a while ago. That means for anyone who couldn't submit a review because you had already submitted one for the old story, the problem is resolved! Surprisingly, I've not been much bothered by a lack of reviews, the feedback I have been getting has been wonderfully supportive and I'm determined to see this story through to the end no matter what so it doesn't make much of a difference.


Chapter 9: Recovery

"Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles, it takes away today's peace." – Zig Ziglar

"This is futile! At this rate we could be running in the complete opposite direction and never know it," Althea said with open pessimism. They had been jogging at a quick but maintainable pace for little over eight minutes and had lost the trail that the others had taken. The naiad was the best tracker of their group but in her current state she was unable to contribute much and her usual methods were on hold until she regained some of her strength. Shifting her position higher up onto the fae's back–irritably pushing the man's lavender and blond hair out of her face– she peered ahead of them, going so far as to sniff the air like a hound on the hunt.

Sereno sighed in acknowledgment and called for a temporary halt. "There is another way, but I had hoped we would catch up to them without having to split up our numbers again. I can go on ahead and find them faster and come back for you." He released his hold on Coraline's thighs and let her slide down off his back. He took the dagger from the belt of his trousers and handed it over to her while turning the rest of his attention to Ealhdun. "I trust you to look after them while I'm gone?"

"As if you have to ask," he answered with a wave of his hand. "I do believe between the three of us, we're a formidable band... even with Althea being a little damaged."

"Yeah, like you're in perfect condition, yourself," the woman retorted. "How your leg hasn't given out yet is beyond me."

"Ah, it's just a scratch," the man replied lightly.

Coraline snorted in morbid amusement. That earned her three confused glanced but she just shook her head, "Sorry, nothing." Sereno might have understood the reference if she had explained but she doubted that Ealhdun had even heard of Monty Python. "What are you planning to do?" She asked instead, quickly shifting the subject.

"I'm going to take a short-cut." He answered cryptically. "Stay here, I'll be back shortly and hopefully with good news." With that he walked forward and promptly phased through the nearest tree, passing straight through the bark as though it were air but failing to emerge from the other side.

Coraline regarded the unchanged trunk in open curiosity. "How does he do that?"

Althea shrugged and then grimaced, immediately regretting the action, "It's just part of what he is. Like my wings are for me, something I was born with, so it is for him and trees. All wood, really, now that I think about it. He's a dryad." She explained simply. "It's what they do."

"So he can use them to teleport?" When he had done his little trick as a cat she had simply taken it for granted at the time that it was a fluke within the Other World that allowed it. She found it interesting that it was in fact something he could do at will. Frankly, it did explain how he would get in and out of her room when she never remembered opening the door for him.

"More or less, but it's not quite that straight forward. Maybe you can ask him about it sometime," the other woman answered. With that she gingerly sat down on the leaf covered forest floor, making sure not to accidentally sit on her wings and keeping her sore back ram-rod straight.

Coraline followed her lead and plopped down with much less ceremony. Ealhdun remained standing but did put his back to a tree to lounge against it and in doing so subtly took the weight off of his injured leg. The human girl looked at the man for a moment, seemingly sizing him up before she said, "I know it's stopped bleeding by now, but don't you think you should bandage your leg? Keep out dirt and stuff? I don't know, just seems wrong to leave it open like that."

His tan and green eyes locked with her brown ones briefly before he looked down at his leg. "Perhaps," he answered with a slight smirk. Clearly he seemed unconcerned about it. "It's really not as deep as it looks. Mostly, it just needs to be washed. I thank you for your show of concern, though."

Coraline pursed her lips and shrugged. 'Whatever,' she thought tiredly. Obviously it wasn't bothering him too much or he would do something about it. As far as injuries went she was honestly more worried about the other female sitting to her right. Althea was breathing shallowly and still looked a little pale but her face was blank and almost serene. 'I've gotten off pretty light, so far. A few blisters really doesn't hold up to that sort of pain,' she reflected. She didn't like awkward silences but she also didn't feel like being the one to break the quiet. It was a tight and watchful stillness and the others seemed lost in thought so she decided to try and enjoy the break despite the slightly oppressive tension.

No longer caring if she managed to get her dress any dirtier, Coraline crossed her legs at her ankles and laid back, using her arms as a pillow. The sun was still making it's way into the sky and the morning had a bit of lingering pinkish glow that contrasted prettily as it filtered down through the leaves in perfect beams of light. Again she was struck with the irony of her setting. How could the world continue to be so beautiful when there was so much going horribly wrong within it? It didn't seem fair that her legs felt like lead, two of her new friends were bleeding, one of them might be dead, and several menhad died not but a few short minutes ago... Yes, it was a lot easier to just admire the way the sun fell in soft patterns and how the air smelled crisp and clean.

Coraline closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. 'I can do this,' she reminded herself. She may have lost count on how many times she had told herself the same line but she figured one more couldn't hurt. 'Remember, you've been in tricky, awful, and life-threatening situations before. Actually, I was probably in more danger with the Beldame, I was her actual target. Here, I'm just one of many targets,' which really wasn't too much of a comfort. She might be one of many but there were now many more enemies in a world that was nothing compared to the void space of the Other world. Somehow she didn't think that bargaining and a high-stakes scavenger hunt were going to be part of the plan this time around. 'She may or may not be dead yet, and it may have been an indirect consequence... but I've killed before.' That thought didn't make her feel any better, either.

Her morbid train of thought was interrupted when Sereno's voice burst back onto the scene, "I found them."

He instructed them to stay where they were and that he was going to lead the others to them. Coraline sat further up from her spot on the ground and watched the trees anxiously. She assumed the rest of their group couldn't be too bad off or else he would have told them before leaving again. It wasn't much longer before she caught the distinct sounds of crunching leaves and sticks as they made their way to where she, Althea and Ealhdun sat waiting.

Dawn arrived first, followed closely by the two brothers and Sereno. Coraline held her breath in dread when she saw that Marion was carrying his sister's limp body. Before she could really begin to panic she noticed the other woman was still breathing and she made herself take a deep, calming breath. "We've tried to wake her, she doesn't appear to be physically injured but she won't respond to us," Ralston informed them worriedly.

"She's obviously been enchanted but there hasn't been time to try and figure out how," Marion added. He lowered himself to the ground slowly, still cradling the Seer protectively.

"Al! Are you okay?" Ralston was the first of the new arrivals to notice the state of the rest of their party.

"Well enough, thank you," the naiad answered stiffly and with a strained smile. She quickly diverted attention away from herself and back to her friend, "She's not wearing anything new that she didn't have this morning, is she?" It was not uncommon for cursed jewelry to be used in these sorts of situations.

"No, we checked," Dawn answered, following the lead from everyone else and having a seat. After the near marathon sprint she and the two elves had just undergone it was easy to see that they all needed to compose themselves.

Scooting closer to the unresponsive woman, Coraline leaned over Marion's shoulder to look down at her. Initially she had only wanted to confirm to herself that her new friend was indeed unhurt but as she peered down at her sleeping face she noticed an odd purple cast to her dark, smooth features. "Um, guys? Remember what we were talking about earlier before that jerk-face interrupted?"

"You see something?" Ealhdun asked quickly, instantly catching on to what young woman was referring to.

All eyes shifted to her and she faltered for a moment before looking back down at Tamara to make sure she wasn't just imagining it. "There's, like, a faint purple glow on her eyes that sort of leeks out to the rest of her face and darkens again at her mouth. Does that mean anything to you?"

Ealhdun laughed, relief showing clearly in his features. "Of course," he muttered to himself, and then to the rest of them, "It's a simple curse that's easy to remove. Most people who do not know it's been cast wouldn't think it so simple to undo." He leaned down, faltering only briefly as his injured leg stiffened and locked up on him before kneeling in front of their downed companion. The brothers were watching him with open suspicion and anticipation as the man reached forward and shifted Tamara to face him. Without another word of explanation or warning he kissed the sleeping girl firmly on the lips.

Coraline saw a spark of orange leap out at the contact and the unnatural color hovering over the woman's face vanished as Ealhdun pulled back. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Sereno said with a huff. "That old spell, really?"

"It would have stumped you lot, wouldn't it?" The fae shot back with a smirk. "It is easy to underestimate it because it is so simple."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here," Coraline interjected, "and guess that that's the spell we hear all the stuff about 'true love's kiss' with?" She was completely surprised at the solution and her first instinct had been to go 'aw' but a quick reflection of what she knew about the two individuals didn't strike her at all as the 'true love' type.

"I think in it's origin it was about true love to break it," Ralston said, now grinning broadly as his half-sister began to stir. "It's so old and has been modified so often that now it's almost used as lightly as a prank these days."

"Well, that's good that it wasn't anything too serious, huh?" Coraline added, beginning to relax a little.

"Indeed," Dawn answered with a speculative look at the human. "Coraline," she spoke deliberately and seemed to be working out thoughts even as she spoke, "how is it that you see magic and why have you not said so before now?"

"Honestly, I didn't think that I was the only one who could do it until just a little while ago," she told them with a shrug. She was just as confused as they were about it. "Is it really that rare of a thing?"

"Maybe now would be a good time to tell us everything that happened to you back when you first encountered Sereno and this trip to a void world," Dawn suggested helpfully. "I feel like we're going to be here for a little while we all catch our breaths again, there should be time to fill us in."

"Ugh, good mornin'?" Tamara muttered as she sat up and rubbed her forehead. She took a slow look around, confusion showing clearly in her pale green eyes. "What did I miss?"

Ralston chuckled and ruffled her already messy curls while their brother silently just hugged her tighter for a moment before helping her to move out of his lap. "Oh, not a lot, really," the blond elf replied with affectionate sarcasm.

oOoOoOo

After the others had helped bring Tamara up to speed with what she had missed in the time since the attack, everyone turned their full attention to Coraline. She took her time and started from the beginning, from the moment she'd first met Sereno in his feline form and her rather patchy start with him and Wybie. Once she began recounting the events within the Other World, Sereno spoke up from time to time in order to correct a detail or expound upon an event and add his perspective. The whole story ended up taking three quarters of an hour to tell but once it was over the others were regarding her in a new light.

As to the question of her mysterious ability to see magic, Marion was the first to make a suggestion, "I believe it may have had something to do with the Hag Stone you used that your elderly friends gave you after the Beldame abducted your parents. They're often attributed with magic and occasionally real ones manifest on your world, brought up from the sea."

"Hag Stone?" Coraline asked in confusion. "Well that doesn't sound appealing."

"They are sometimes also called Adder Stones and if the one given to you was for sight and helped you to see the souls of the stolen children, it isn't too much to suppose its gift may have rubbed off on you and resurfaced here in our world where magic is more abundant," Dawn said with a nod.

"Huh. So I'm magic now?" She needed some clarification before she would let herself do a little mental jig at just how cool she thought that was. If it was some fluke that would go away if she ever got home again then it was nothing to get too worked up over.

"It would appear so," Sereno answered as he gave her a slight smirk. He clearly had some idea of her train of thought but he didn't comment. "Unfortunately, it wont be much of a parlor trick since you'll be the only one able to see anything."

"Har-har," she answered blandly. She gave him a familiar shove and then promptly went back to the conversation. "So, does that mean I'm the only one who sees when Tamara's eyes flash white and shimmery all over?"

"They do?" The woman in question, now looking far more healthy and alert, was gazing at Coraline with a bright and curious smile.

"Yeah! It only lasts for about half a second and it's... well, have you ever seen a crocodile close just the one, flimsy eyelid? It's kind of like that but prettier. All of your eyes, not just the iris and pupil, glow for a moment and that's usually followed by you saying something that's about to happen."

Ealhdun pursed his lips thoughtfully and placed a finger to his chin. "Your gift may prove useful in the future. Perhaps it wont come up, but like as the case with the sword earlier, it might come in handy to know if an object has been cursed or if someone is about to cast a spell."

Dawn nodded approvingly to the fae's observation, "I agree. Though, it might prove hard to utilize in an offensive manner it most certainly works to our advantage in other ways. Admittedly, it may never have a practical use. Still, it is good to know that you can do it."

"Um, I think it had a very practical use just now," Ralston pointed out with a mild edge to his voice. "Wouldn't you say?" He cast a significant look at his half sister and then back to the royal.

"I was thinking about combat, but yes, you're completely right. I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like I was being callous."

"It's alright, I knew what you meant," Tamara spoke up with a small chuckle. "But he has a point, sometimes your mind can be a little too one-track, Dee."

Dawn shrugged without comment and the moment passed. "Speaking of tracks," Sereno said, stepping in diplomatically, "what are the plans for moving forward? We're off course from the road by quite a ways at this point. Is everyone well recovered from this morning's adventures or should we take a day to further tend to our wounded? They'll be too stubborn to say they need to rest so I propose the rest of us decide," he said as he waved a hand at the naiad and fae who were both shooting him annoyed looks.

Coraline, taking only a moment to look over at the two individuals in question –both still smeared in a worrying amount of dried blood– was the first to state her mind. "I think we should rest for a little while longer," she turned her attention to Dawn, "You made a great foot ointment, do you think you can do something about Ealhdun's leg and Althea's back?"

"There's nothing to be done about my back but to keep it clean. Thanks to my wings, my skin reacts differently to injury as well as balms or ointments. It's already healing, due to my ability to expand and retract these great sails," she gingerly touched the tip of her right wing where it lie limply on the ground beside her. "It's just a waiting game, now."

"As much as I dislike the idea of losing an entire day's journey, I find myself in agreement with the girl," Marion said. Coraline found his support unexpected but was thankful for it nonetheless. She had expected the staunch elf to be one of the party members in need of more coaxing before agreeing to the idea of spending a day to rest.

Dawn frowned briefly but nodded her head, "Alright, it seems we're setting up camp again." She didn't look at all happy with the choice but it didn't appear she was going to press the issue. "We set out again at next light." She promptly made to stand. "I'm going to gather some fresh ingredients, who's coming with me?" Without delay Marion was up on his feet as well. While the two of them headed off into the foliage, Coraline and the others dedicated themselves to stringing up the tarps and starting a fire.

While she was relieved to have won a small respite, she knew that the tranquility would only be temporary.