Damn near all of this belongs to Nintendo and Camelot. Anything that doesn't belongs to me (original characters, original concepts, original interpretations of existing personalities) but I won't lay claim to any of it. Nintendo/Camelot can take and use any part of it they like, and my fellow fanwriters can also steal stuff as freely as they like as long as they don't just copy the entire story.
In summary, Drops of Jupiter is as open-source as fiction can get.
The night before, Rief had brought Sveta to his house. She was sneezing, coughing, shivering, and generally miserable; he guided her to his sister's wardrobe and, after a few token psynergy-based immune boosters, sent her off to bed. His dad was out on an extended fishing trip, his sister was with Piers, and his mother... hopefully she would be at the top of Mercury Lighthouse by now. They had been the only ones in the house, but Rief was confident enough that Sveta was in good shape to let her sleep unattended.
Now it was morning, and when he knocked at her door, there was no answer.
"Sveta?" He said. He paused, and knocked more loudly.
He pounded at the door, and in a panicked tone, shouted "SVETA? Are you there? Are you alive, oh please tell me you're okay, I'm opening the door, please don't be dead..."
When he opened the door, she was still lying in bed unconscious. Her head was sticking out of the covers and the clothes she had worn the day before were scattered on the floor. Rief ran over and put two fingers over her carotid artery until he felt a reassuring thump; he put his hand near her nose and mouth until he felt the exhale of air; he shook her lightly until he remembered that his Mercury talents could just let him see if there was anything outright "wrong" with her.
Opening his mind to the flow of information, he happily noted that her hypothermia was no longer an issue. But... she had a fever. A very bad one. That indicated some kind of infection, Rief remembered vaguely... there it was. Her left lung was swollen and inflamed. She had pneumonia. A bad case, too. Not the worst he had ever heard of, but she needed attention.
He put his hands over her and poured out a steady stream of healing energy. A solid Ply wouldn't take care of this; bacterial infection worked differently from, say, a sharp knife wound, and while he couldn't clear it up in one fell swoop, he could do a lot to speed up the recovery process.
He heard a groan from her. Looking over, he saw her squeezing her eyelids for a moment. She was waking up. He let himself smile a little. If he hadn't been able to wake her up...
His mind raced. He'd be a failure of a doctor. His mother would never forgive him. Matthew would straight-out murder him. Rief let the stream of energy intensify.
Sveta's eyes snapped open and she sat straight upright. By reflex, Rief pulled his hands back, bracing himself. One of Sveta's arms held the bedsheet to her chest, and the other was at her mouth as she began yet another coughing fit. Her bare shoulders surged up and down with each sharp exhale.
After several seconds of this, she laid back down. She took several slow breaths. Then she groaned loudly.
"Hnnng... Rief? What are you doing here?" She asked.
Rief was stock-still. His arms were still up on their guard. He lowered them slightly and responded. "What do you mean? We're at my house. You're in Imil."
Sveta stared back blankly. "You... huh? When did we get here?" She spoke quietly and with some difficulty. "Can... can you get Matthew?"
Rief put a hand on his face. "Sveta, Matthew isn't here. You have a bad fever. I think you might be delusional."
Sveta shifted. "Fever? No, Tyrell has Fever... why would I use Mars djinn...?"
"No, a fever. You're sick." He mimed putting a hand on his forehead. "Warm. Hard to think properly."
"Y'right..." Sveta said groggily. "...Should get out of bed..."
"Nononono!" Rief said quickly. "Umm, wait for a bit. I'll be back. I don't know how dressed you are. You, uh, don't seem dressed. Didn't. When you were, uh, coughing. I didn't see anything, I swear."
Sveta groaned. "Rief, you are not making any sense. Ask that... that fish, to... dishes... paper... cloud." She began to pull herself out of bed.
"BACKINABIT, CLOTHESINTHEDRAWERS." Rief hurried out of the room as fast as his little legs would carry him, and then he closed the door without turning around.
As he stood there panting, he found himself dreading the rest of the day's events.
"Should've been a fisherman..." he said to himself.
Some time later, Rief heard Sveta calling from inside the room. "I am sorry for earlier, Rief! I am dressed and somewhat lucid."
Opening the door, he saw Sveta wearing clothes typical of the Mercury Clan. They fit poorly; Sveta was taller and slimmer than Nowell, which resulted in a lot of odd bunching, but they would be warmer than her royal outfit. She was wearing boots too, which Rief found odd; he had never actually seen her wear any kind of footwear before.
"I used a Boon on myself again," Sveta said. "I realized that if we are heading into Bilibin, I need to disguise myself somewhat. A beastwoman would not go unnoticed. This coat comes with a hood, and while these boots will be uncomfortable, I feel it would be less conspicuous than going barefoot. What do you think?"
Rief laughed. "I'm just sort of glad you're clothed. How's your fever? Are you breathing alright?"
Sveta nodded. "As long as I can remember to keep my head clear, I shall be fine."
"Right," Rief said. "Try not to push yourself too hard either. I'd rather you weren't traveling at all, but we need to get you to Kalay. We've got a quick trip through the mountains ahead, and then we'll try to get through Bilibin as fast as possible. Tell me when you need to stop or if your fever gets worse, try to keep up the Boons, and don't be afraid to ask for help. That's what I'm here for."
"Thank you, Rief," Sveta said with a smile. "I am actually fine... I suppose the djinn are providing some assistance."
"Honestly, if you didn't have the djinn, I'm not sure you would have made it this far," said Rief. "I don't mean to scare you, but you fell out of an airship into arctic waters, spent the better part of a day in wet clothes in the tundra, walked to and from Mercury Lighthouse barefoot, and now all you have is a little fever and a bad case of pneumonia that I think I can clear up in a few days. No normal person could handle all of that alone."
Sveta bent to pick up her royal outfit and stuffed it into her pack. "Well, I am grateful for their help in that case. Are you ready to leave? I would like to go as soon as possible."
With a nod, Rief said, "I'm ready when you are. Are you sure you don't want a few days of bedrest? Pneumonia is no laughing matter."
"I feel that time is of the essence," Sveta responded. "Belinsk still believes me to be kidnapped, but... well... as painful as it is to say it, I do not think they need me desperately. Even so, once my affairs are in order I would rather return to my kingdom. Hopefully it will not be too late."
"Your affairs, huh?" Rief said with a smirk. "Gotcha. We'll be in Kalay before you know it. Hopefully not literally. I do expect you to keep your head clear, I don't want to end up wrestling with your delusions again. Understood?"
Sveta nodded and smiled. "Understood. Lead on."
By the time the sun rose, Matthew was already awake and dressed. He had taken the last watch of the night, but even if he hadn't, he probably would have woken up early. His mind was still racing from the night before, and from the night before that, and all things considered he had found it very difficult to sleep.
First of all, there was Sveta. While he hadn't admitted it to his friends, she was obviously the reason he had jumped to Morgal's defense. She must be going crazy right now, he thought; she would be worried about her kingdom and its future already, but with a war to add to the stress... Matthew wished he had just stayed behind, said "screw you" to the psynergy vortexes, and tried to work out something with her while they were still in the same country.
Second, the state of Vault was not promising. Even if everyone HAD evacuated safely, it still did not bode well for the rest of the country if this area had been hit so hard. They planned to go into town to search for survivors, but he didn't expect any success. What could have possessed Lord McCoy to declare war on Morgal after an event like this? How many soldiers could he possibly have had left?
Matthew hoped that his grandparents were okay. He had never been that close with them... but they were family, after all. And his mother would be devastated if anything happened to them. More stress was one thing his parents' relationship didn't need, he thought sadly.
He stood and prepared to go wake his friends. One thing at a time, of course. They would do a quick run through Vault, and then they would move onward to Bilibin City, just a little bit to the north. There they would meet up with Kraden and, if all went well, they would obtain an audience with McCoy and find some way to end this conflict before it really started.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Yeah, sorry, I said this'd go up on Friday, and I was planning to write it, but this happened:
JGD: "I don't understand Stormshipping, but hey I heard of this fic called A Different Kind of Storm, maybe I should check it out.
[3 hrs later]
JGD: "Oh. OH. That's why Stormshipping is so popular. Understood."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do proper romantic fanfic. I'm taking notes. Hopefully this story will become less crappy as a result.
(It didn't go up Saturday night because I had the biggest headache ever and I couldn't muster the willpower to write another stupid in-between chapter.)
Anyway, there hopefully won't be any chapters worse than this one in the future. My head is still really, really fuzzy, and I couldn't figure out a way to perform this sort of transitional duty without actually having a chapter devoted to it. I pretty much hate how boring it is but it's better than just starting a chapter with "Matthew and friends went straight to Bilibin, also Sveta has pneumonia now!"
Special thanks to Wikipedia for being my source of medical information. I don't know how much of it is accurate, but it's been great for picking and choosing various illnesses for Sveta to fall victim to and for Rief to react poorly to.