Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
A/n: READ AND REVIEW!!!
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Daleria woke up, head throbbing, arms and paws on fire, and mind reeling. The room focused, blurred, then focused again, but nothing really registered in her mind until a voice broke through the thin shell that blocked the way from sub consciousness to awakening.
'Dale? Dale! You're awake!'
Daleria slowly pushed herself up against her pillow, her head hammering away like no tomorrow, and in a shaky tone asked,
'Tare? Taremin? What am I doing here? What happened?'
Daleria got a heavy sigh in response to that question. Taremin looked up from stirring a poultice, setting the bowl onto a nearby table, she sat onto the bed in weariness. Casting a knowing look over Daleria's weak form, Taremin shook her head sadly.
'Dale... You already hold my record as the hare that has visited my infirmary more times than any other, and you've just added another injury to your name. You must have somehow been hallucinating or sommat like that, and knocked over your glass of water on the table... The glass shattered, you fell off your bed, somehow rammed your head against the floor, earning a hard knock there, without waking up, then the glass shared the aftermath...'
'I really did it this time...'
'Not really, actually... You've seen worse. I should know... Anyhow, put this poultice on, it'll help the cuts. You lost a lot of blood that day. You've been in here for over two days. The colonel and Lady Consellariel aren't too happy about it.'
Daleria winced.
'Lady Consellariel is probably going to kill me for this. Same goes for the colonel... I've worried them more times than I care to remember.'
Pushing herself up properly, she applied the cool poultice, wincing at the deep gashes and cuts on her arms that burned as she did so. She tried to rest her head against the head board, but it hurt the second she lay it on anything hard, courtesy of the ramming against the walls and floors it had been exposed to.
'What about those... dreams?'
Taremin gazed at Daleria with something akin to pity in her eyes.
'Sorry Dale, but giving you something to sleep is the most I can do... I don't know what's causing it, my best guess is the stress you're under. Give yourself sometime, Dale... Nothing is totally your fault.'
Daleria nodded, but inside, she thought, Wise words, Taremin... I only wish I could heed them... Alas, I am too deep into this situation to back out of now. The fault lies heavy on my shoulders, and you know that. I wish I could admit it to my heart, but it will not accept... Maybe I am too stubborn for my own good, but I cannot help it... I cannot help it...
Before Daleria could sink into her own land of thoughts, the Colonel strided in, closely followed by the Lady, and her own patrol. The usual ensemble that came to visit her whenever she landed up in the bally infirmary. Daleria inclined her head in respect, and kept it there. She found no purpose in looking up. Daleria had just slipped into reserved and silent mode, much to the slight panic and distress to all in company. Lady Consellariel walked straight up to the bed, while the rest sat down.
'Daleria? How have you been?'
Daleria, still not looking up, answered silently,
'Very well, marm, nothing I cannot handle.'
'Daleria, I am going to put this very frankly, so listen to me. Stop it.'
Looking up, Daleria asked,
'Stop what, marm?'
The colonel stood up suddenly, his temper letting loose all of a sudden, and his composure finally broke.
'Stop what, captain? Stop this, wot! You are jolly well hurting yourself for absoballylutely no reason whatsoever, m'gel! Stop it! You are worrying us to no bally end, for no reason at all wot! You need not do this! Leave the bally matter at rest, and let others handle it for once, wot! You need not worry your bally head off for no reason!'
Daleria flared up too, after hearing what the colonel had to say. Struggling against the covers and blankets, she snapped back.
'Sah! Who are you to tell me what to do at a time like this? You have never been through what I have! You have never lost your own family, not in front of your eyes, and you have never been through this tirade of vermin and evil like I have! You don't know how it feels in my position. I cannot help what is happening, but I know I CAN stop it! You know you will not be able to stop me, colonel. You have all tried to stop me, and all failed. I am not stopping now, not after what I have had to do. I have nothing to lose anymore!'
Colonel Rapieratce was positively quivering in anger by then.
'Captain! All we are doing these bally things for is for you, wot! Do you think that we bally well don't care about how you jolly well feel? We know, captain! We know! We are just jolly well trying to help you, nothing bally more! You simply do not bally understand! You are young, m'gel, so do not abuse that! We are just trying to help you through this confounded escapade! Take not the whole bally blame! You are not the only blinkin' hare in the Long Patrol! There are the other lot of us too! We are here to help and bally well aid, so realize it, me gel, before it is too late! We have been through this blinkin situation before already, so do not make me repeat my bally self!'
There was so much tension in the infirmary, anybeast would have though the roof would fall in. The was fire inbetween Daleria and Rapieratce, and Lady Consellariel was not happy either. The others watched in bated breath, hardly daring to breathe..
