Her world was spinning in a blaze of panic. The one coherent thought in her mind "I forgot my best friend" she couldn't see, she couldn't move. The world was gone. Gone like her best friend was now. She was falling down, down, down into her very own oblivion of pain and loss and depression. She must be dying. Everything on her body hurt. Why was that? She was dead, and wasn't death painless. The hands that grabbed her chest were surely Deaths. Nocturnal had taken her early…
"Nerai? Nerai! You're awake!" She opened her eyes enough to take in her surroundings. She was in her warm hide tent and was lying on a sabre-cat bed roll. The back of her head throbbed angrily; apparently unhappy with the fluffy pillows it was propped up on. She felt extremely weak. Like she had just run up and down the Throat of the World several times. She couldn't summon enough energy to answer the voice that had woken her up from the strange darkness she had fallen into when-"Lydia!" What was meant to be a shout came out as a low hiss. She shifted and saw three dragons attempting to peer into the tiny tent.
Nerai suddenly became aware of two bodies beside her. One was very small, and she glanced over to see Za'mara's rabbit snuggled in the white fur of the bedroll. She knew the other without having to look. An endless panting filled the room and a thumping on her leg told her it was Meeko. With her remaining strength she closed her eyes and stretched her arm out to meet the wolfhounds back. She blacked out.
The next few days consisted of her laying on the bedroll while Farkas told her what had happened. Apparently she had started screaming "LYDIA!" over and over and was running down the trail when she was blasted down the mountain because of the harsh winds. She was lucky to have survived.
When the day finally came for her to try to stand up, she found that her left leg from the calf down was paralyzed. This probably should have worried her more, but the concussion she had received prevented this from becoming coherent enough. Farkas took over and made plans to have the children taken to Fort Dawnguard by Odahviing. The day before their flight were mostly filled with her hugging and playing with her children. She was sure she would never see them again.
The day of their departure was strange. Farkas was running around putting their stuff in knapsacks. Every time Nerai tried to help she was pushed down by either Farkas's hand or by a dragon's tail. The children were weeping on top of Paathurnax.
When they finally climbed onto Odahviing's neck, Nerai avoided all attempts to get her to stay in bed. She used her old Staff of Magelight to get to the dragon. She sighed "Be good to Serana. She's got enough on her hands already!" she joked, hugging the two of them. She looked them both in the eye "But in all seriousness, be careful. Please" She sighed. "We will Mama." Za'Mara said tearfully. Nerai jumped. "Oh! I almost forgot!" She turned around and called softly to Za'mara's bunny. The Khajiit had named it Vahlok- the dragon word for friend. "Vahlok, come here. " The snow white bunny hopped over at the sound of its name. She picked it up and set it in Za'mara's knapsack.
Before they could say anymore, Odahviing took off, knocking Nerai off her feet and into the soft snow.
Even though the flurries blurred her eyes, she though she saw a spike of ice fall off the dragon.
Her daughter had shouted.