I don't own Di-Gata Defenders or the Di-Gata Defender characters. I did however, come up with Aquinae, Deirdre, the Drevac Clan and Shantra and her sisters(except Karmi).

Chapter Fourteen: Adam's Illness

Adam moved through the Forsaken Woods at a quick pace as his eyes searched around him frantically. For reasons he could not understand, he was on the edge and he felt like he was in a lit kiln. His body shivered as a chill descended on him while he continued to sweat from the inexplicable heat. What is going on here? How can I be cold and hot at the same time? He leaned against a tree in exhaustion and wiped the back of his frigid hand against his sweaty forehead.

Adam pushed himself away from the tree and continued to wander into the woods. He noticed that he was starting to slump and that his pace was becoming slow and clumsy. What is wrong with me? What happened to all that energy I had before? What else could go wrong? His vision started to get blurry and the trees began to sway to and fro. I just had to ask, didn't I. He continued on walking, trying his best to ignore his poor vision, until he noticed something that really started to bother him.

His vision had become clearer and the trees had stopped swaying, but the trees appeared to be becoming thinner and were aligning themselves. As the trees begin to change, he noticed that a strange blue mist seemed to roll in out of nowhere. He felt panic started to overtake him as he came to a realization: this is like a scene from my dream.

He stops and looks around: nothing looks like the Forsaken Woods anymore and the strange mist is everywhere. There's no light though. And there will never be a light. No light, no light, no light, no light, noooo liiiight. Suddenly, a light appears in front of him and the exhaustion that had been with him vanishes. Adam turns around and makes a mad dash for it, fear pumping blood into his heart faster than a Stormer at maximum acceleration. This isn't real. There's nothing behind you. There's nothing to fear. He takes a small peak behind him and sees that the light is still there and appears to be gaining on him. Okay, maybe not.

Adam picks up his pace and runs blindly through the forest. He can't see where he's going but he doesn't care; he just wants to get away. However, his fear intensifies as he trips over a root he didn't see and falls flat on his face. His exhaustion has returned, he can't find the strength to get back up. He slowly turns to face the light and lifts up his left arm to block off the blinding light as he closes his eyes and braced himself for the worst.

"Adam? What are you doing here?"

Adam opened his eyes and lowered his arm as he looked at the speaker: it was Seth… on his Stormer… with his lights on. Erik was right behind him with his lights on as well. He looked around him and saw that everything was back to normal. The trees were as they should be and there was no sign of a mist anywhere.

Adam put on an embarrassed grin and put his arms behind his head as he laughed nervously. "Me? I'm not really doing anything here. Nothing at all. Nope. Not a thing. Absolutely nothing. Zippo, zero, zilch, nada. What are you guys doing here?"

"Ummm…" began Erik, "don't you remember? You warned us that we would get lost if we entered the Forsaken Woods but we decided to ignore you and got lost."

"We didn't get lost" said Seth. "We merely ended up taking the scenic route. Did you come to find us because we don't need any help because we were never lost." Seth stared suspiciously at Adam who had still made no attempt to get up.

"Look for you? Oh right, I was sent to look for you. You know, look around, see if I can find you. Stuff like that. The girls were worried that you would not make it and I volunteered to look for you guys because…"

"Where's your Stormer?" Erik looked around but couldn't see a Stormer. "You didn't walk here did you? Aren't you afraid of getting lost and being stuck here forever and ever and ever and…"

"No, no, no, no, Erik. I didn't take a Stormer because it would make it harder to find my way out and…."

Seth tuned out the sound of Adam's explanations as he stared at Adam's disheveled appearance. Although Erik could not have seen from behind him, he was certain that Adam was scared out of his wits only a few seconds ago. When he had spotted a running figure in the distance, he never thought it would be Adam. The way he had ran and the look of intense fear on his face when he turned to face him rang warning bells in Seth's head. The nervous rambling had also been a dead giveaway for how scared Adam was. He scanned his surroundings to see what could have scared him but saw nothing.

What could possibly have scared him so badly? Seth got off his bike and walked over to Adam. Why hasn't he gotten up yet? Seth then noticed that Adam was sweating like crazy and appeared to be shivering like mad. He reached down to grab Adam by the wrist as he said "come on, we better get going. No need to make the girls worry more than usually." The instance his hand touched Adam's wrist, however, he immediately withdrew it. Shoot, his wrist is freezing cold. Wait, is Adam shaking from the cold? How can he be cold and sweating at the same time? Plus, it's not cold at all out here. Seth face turned pale when he saw that he could see Adam's breath. That is not right. It's not cold at all. I shouldn't be able to see his breath. We better take him to the village now.

Seth was relieved as he saw Adam slowly get up on his own but it quickly left him when Adam knees suddenly gave up underneath him. He helped Adam to his feet, trying his best not to shudder at the cold his body was emitting. He walked Adam over to his Stormer before helping him get on.

"What's wrong with him Seth?"

"I don't know Erik but we better take him to the village and quick."

"But which way is the village?"

"I don't know but we…"

"It's that way" muttered Adam as he pointed just to the left of Erik.

"How can you be so certain?" said a confused Erik. "You have nothing to go by and we…"

"I don't know how, but I know it's in that direction. Just trust me." Adam looked at Erik with a small smile before he lost consciousness.

"So…. what are we going to do Seth?"

"We're going to head in the direction that he pointed."

"What? Why?"

"Because it's the only lead we got and I have a feeling that he's right." With that, the two Stormers disappeared into the darkness, towards the empty village and the mysterious shadow.

Seth and Erik parked their Stormers right beside the others and checked out the abandoned village. It was very dark out now and they could see that only one house had a light on. Erik picked Adam up and they walked over to the house.

Seth knocked on the door as he cried out "hello? Is there anybody home?"

The door swung open to reveal a happy Mel. "Seth! Erik! You're alright! Adam found you!" Her smile vanished, however, when she caught a glimpse of the unconscious Adam. "What's wrong with Adam?" she asked as she raced to him. She placed her hands on him and shivered. "He's so cold. We should bring him in so he can warm up."

"If he's so cold" said Kara as she walked up to them, "then why does it look like he's sweating?"

"Because he is" said Seth as he pushed his way into the house. "It doesn't matter why or how, all that matters is that he is."

"He must be sick" said Rion. "We should place him into a bed right away."

"Right" said Mel, "follow me. We'll place him in the nearest bedroom."

Seth looked around and asked "where's the people who live here?"

"We don't know" said Kara as she watched her brother take Adam upstairs. "We couldn't find anyone at all. The whole village has been deserted."

"But why?"

"We don't know Seth" said Rion as he closed the door. "But I'm certain that the people who lived here won't mind us using their home while they're gone."

Seth looked out the window with a suspicious face and said "are you certain there's nobody here? There must be someone here. Anyone would do." He looked over his shoulder and saw Rion and Kara shake their heads. "I see. Okay, we'll look for clues tomorrow morning to what happened to them or why they chose to abandon their homes. But for now, let's eat! I'm starved."

Kara giggled as Rion lead Seth to the kitchen where they had cooked up some food for themselves.

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" asked Mel as Erik placed Adam on the bed.

"I'm certain he'll be fine" said Erik as he scanned Adam with his gauntlet. "Hmm."

"Hmm? What's with the hmm? Is there something wrong? Is he terribly sick? Does he need immediate medical attention?"

"Actually, no" said a concerned Erik. "It's just that my findings are a bit strange. His energy levels are fine and his pulse is normal but his core temperature is off the roof and the air around him is cold."

"I don't understand. What's that mean?"

"It means that while the inside of his body is burning up in some sort of fever, the outside of his body is freezing cold. Don't ask me how because I don't have a clue."

"What can we do?"

"Nothing really. We'll just have to wait and see if it'll go away on its own. That's all we can do… for now." Erik sighed as he turned and left the room.

Mel watched Adam and felt a twinge of worry every time she saw his visible breath. What's wrong with you Adam? Will you get better? You better. Mel walked over to Adam and knelt down beside him. She stared in concern at Adam's face and began to move closer and closer to him. Her lips were mere millimeters from his lips when she suddenly….

"Mel! Aren't you coming?" yelled out Erik. Mel swiftly shot away from Adam as Erik peeked his head through the doorway. "I already told you, there is nothing we can do for him so let's talk to the others about what we're going to do tomorrow." Erik then noticed that Mel seemed a bit embarrassed and asked "is there something wrong? You seem a bit…. red."

"No! No," said Mel as she nervously scratched her right arm. "Nothing's wrong. Come, let's go see the others and tell them what you told me." She hurriedly brushed past Erik as she made a mad dash for the stairs.

Erik watched her go by before turning back to Adam. What was that all about? Oh well, I guess I will never understand the ways of a wizard. He took one more worried glance at Adam before shutting the door.

"I don't believe this! How can this be happening? And to me of all people. It's just not fair. It's just not fair."

"What's wrong Seth?" asked Mel as she and Erik entered the kitchen. Mel frowned as she saw Kara and Rion roll their eyes as Seth slumped in front of a bowl of stew.

"Oh my Vitus. Could it be true? There's food in front of Seth but he's not eating. Have you lost your appetite?" Erik picked up the spoon and placed some stew in his mouth as he said "mmmm… good. Blech!" Erik spat out the stew before turning to Kara and saying "this stew is cold! I mean really cold."

"Yeah we know" said Seth miserably. "Why do you think I'm so upset? I need my nourishment but I need it at least warm."

"So, you just have to heat it up" said Mel. "It's not that hard to do."

"Okay, okay," said Kara. "I'll heat it up…. again."

"Again? What do you mean again?"

"What she means" growled Seth "is that that stew has been reheated over and over again but it won't stay warm." Seth glared forward unknowingly at the object of his ire.

Shantra giggled happily at the delightful time she was having with the defenders. After continuously failing to find the mysterious person she saw earlier, she had given up and went to find the defenders. She found them in the only house with a light preparing to give Seth some stew. She had come up with a fun but simple game at that moment: she would place one of her fingers into Seth's stew which resulted in cold food. She found the look on Seth's face when he bit into the cold food amusing and the anger it cause was delightful. He takes his food way too seriously.

A big smile appeared on her face as she prepared for the next step of the game. With no food to cool down, she began to make faces in front of Seth just to keep herself entertained. She started with sticking out her tongue and putting her fingers into her ears. This is a classic but still funny. Then, she used her hands to pull down the edges of her face and tried to talk. She snickered inwardly at how funny her voice sounded.

Seth, unable to see Shantra, sat miserably on his seat as he waited for his stew to be reheated on the fire. He snuck a peek at Erik who had taken a seat beside him as he waited for his own stew to be heated up. I hope his stew turns to ice.

"So" began Seth "how's Adam? Will he be fine?"

"Adam?" Shantra stopped making faces as her eyes opened wide. "What's wrong with Adam? What happened to him? Where is he?"

"Umm… Adam appears to be okay" began Erik, "but he appears to be running a bad fever as well as a bad case of the chills. The best we can do is wait and see if he gets any better. If he gets worst, we'll have to find some sort of medical attention. Apart from that, we can't do anything."

"You can't do anything? That's not acceptable" cried out Shantra. "You must be able to do something, you big meanie." She became annoyed when she realized that no one could hear her and gingerly reached under her neckline to pull out a locket that was hidden there. Maybe I should….

"Which room did you place him in?" asked Seth as Kara placed his reheated stew in front of him. He smiled delightfully at the food and began to eat with gusto.

"We put him in the bedroom closest to the stairs, you know, just in case" said Erik as he eyed the stew placed in front of him. He dipped his finger into the stew and withdrew it while shouting "ow! That's hot!"

"Of course it's hot" said Kara. "It was just heated up a few seconds ago. Why would you think it wouldn't be hot?"

"Well, it just that you guys said that Seth's stew kept getting cold and I thought that…."

"That what? That I must have done something wrong in order to…"

"No! No! I thought that maybe it was… was…. I don't know, something else."

"Don't be silly Erik" said Mel as she sat down in front of Seth. She flinched slightly at how cold the seat seemed to be. What is going on here?

Seth had noticed the flinch and asked "something wrong, Mel?"

"No, no. There's nothing wrong. Nothing at all. Just, a little worried about Adam."

"You're not the only one girl" muttered Shantra as she walked towards the stairs. "You're not the only one."