Sorry it's been awhile, I had a project I needed to finish and I temporarily lost interest. But now I've figured out for sure what Holly's condition is, I'm back.

Emerald

Artemis and Mulch stepped into a brightly lit room a few minutes later. The sprite that had told them in the waiting room about Holly's condition motioned for them to come over to a deceive.

Holly was lying on a bed in the center of the room, her breathing slow, sweat sliding down her face.

'I wouldn't worry about it,' the doctor said, seeing Artemis' numb stare at Holly's form. 'Fever dreams are unsettling things.'

Artemis nodded, jerking his gaze from Holly to the doctor. Mulch glanced at him uneasily; he couldn't be taking Holly's sickness well.

'Now, we can't explain what's happened to Ms. Short,' the doctor began, 'But whatever state she's in, she's affecting the machine's readings. This,' he pointed to the metal device he'd led Artemis and Mulch to, 'clearly says her heartbeat is 20 beats per minute. But,' at this point the sprite bent down by Holly and grasped her wrist, 'the staff here can easily tell from checking her pulse rate manually it's a higher, pretty much normal pulse rate for sleeping.'

Artemis let out a slight breath of relief, and Mulch nodded.

'She seems to be undergoing a lot of stress, or she wouldn't be sweating so much and have such a pained expression on her face,' the doctor continued. He turned to face Artemis and Mulch. 'When was the last time you saw her before…she became ill?'

Artemis winced at the memory of the fight.

Mulch turned to Artemis. 'You saw her before me.'

Artemis nodded, grimacing slightly. 'We had a…disagreement,' he said quietly.

'Ah. One that would make her stressed?' the sprite enquired, while Mulch gaped at Artemis slightly.

Artemis nodded quickly. Mulch shut his mouth with hesitance.

'I went to see Mulch,' Artemis continued, 'as I was meeting him that day. I avoided telling him about the argument with Holly, so I couldn't prevent him from wanting for us to go back to her house. When we arrived, she was lying on the floor unconscious, appearing to be crying, but not responding to either of us.'

Mulch avoided looking at Holly, whose eyes had slowly drifted open.

The doctor, however, noticed.

'Ms. Short,' he said, kneeling down to face her, 'how are you feeling?'

'Sick,' Holly mumbled, closing her eyes and turning away, as though she was a small child who didn't want to wake up in the morning.

'Do you have any idea what you are sick with?' the sprite asked calmly. Holly groaned in pain and frustration.

'You're the doctor,' she replied grudgingly.

'Ms. Short, anything you can tell us about your condition before you fell unconscious would be very helpful.'

'Yeah, well, anything you can do to help me would be very helpful. Give me some medicine or something.' Holly grabbed her stomach and squeezed her eyes so tightly that tears began to leak out of them.

The doctor shook his head and turned to Mulch and Artemis. 'We'll continue running tests. We'll give her an injection and analyse the blood—that might take a while, though.'

Mulch nodded, and Artemis gripped the frame of the bed so tightly his knuckles turned white.

The tears still leaked down Holly's face and only the pillow she had pressed to her forehead muffled the sounds of soft sobs.

She gets up from her place curled on the floor. She falls again as sharp stabs of pain hit her.

'D…arvit…' she mumbles, holding her stomach and pressing her head into her knees.

'HELP,' she screams to the empty air, tears rolling down her face, soaking her shirt as they drip further down still. 'Help…' she repeats, weaker. 'Somebody help me…'

The light in front of her, closer to her now, glows and glows, illuminating her crumpled, shaking figure.

She can vaguely her a voice shouting, she can hear another voice shouting with it. It's her own voice. Memories flood in her direction but she ignores them, concentrating on the pains in her stomach and not the pains in her heart.

Suddenly the pains ease and she opens her eyes, gazing slowly around her. The light has faded and now all she can see is a cascading watercolour paradise of liquid beats of time.

Her eyes focus, and she noticed the brilliant green colour around her. Emerald.

Emerald.

The word hits her, shocking her, forcing her mind to remember. Something fits, and suddenly everything she's feeling makes sense, her sickness makes sense.

She tried to scream out the words but then she remembers no one can hear her. The pains return again.

She clutched her stomach and cries, not with pain, but with fear, fear she'll forget, fear she'll die…

Artemis and Mulch were told it was best for them to leave, since visiting hours were over and Holly obviously wasn't in the mood to see anyone. They took the hint and were making their way to see Foaly in a café, anxiously waiting for news about Holly.

Artemis looked at some water spilling from the gutter. Such a beautiful colour. Just like those shades in one of the paintings he'd helped Mulch and Holly restore. Just like…

Artemis froze.

'What is it?' Mulch asked him anxiously.

'We need to go back,' Artemis said quickly, turning and beginning to run.

'But what about Foaly—'

'WE NEED TO GO BACK!'

Heh.

Reviews still welcome

-Tigeress-10