* 69 * 1/14/13

"Lily?" came a voice.

Lily's mouth twitched. Huh? she thought sleepily.

"Lily," it called again.

The elf opened her eyes and immediately her face broke out into a warm, welcoming grin. "Grobnar!" She didn't just see him on the mirror, either; he was here, in the flesh! Or rock, as it were.

"Good morning," the gnome replied cheerily.

"Why are you here? Where are the others?" asked Lily. In her distrustful mood lingering from yesterday, she assumed Grobnar had forgotten his promise and brought someone here to help.

"Oh, there are no others, Lily. I said I wouldn't tell anyone," he reminded her.

Lily smiled. So he did remember.

"I came to wake you up as soon as the sun rose. I could have yelled at you through the mirror, but that certainly sounds rude, now doesn't it? It did to me. Besides, you're not very far away from the Keep after all! It took me only about half an hour to get here. Whee." The lovable airhead spun randomly to express his excitement, making Lily giggle.

"Let's get into some light," he suggested, stopping mid-twirl. Lily nodded. She closed the communication mirror and removed the robe from around her boots. Getting to her feet, she began walking toward the entrance of the cave – until she took one step and almost collapsed.

Hearing the scattering of rocks behind him, Grobnar looked back. "Lily?" he asked, concerned. "Did you hurt your leg?"

"I...I feel weird all over. My legs, my arms, my chest..."

"Can you walk?" he asked, concerned. He thought that maybe she had caught something in the pouring rain.

"If I try to, yes. But it doesn't feel very good."

Grobnar backtracked and grabbed hold of her. "Support yourself on me," he offered.

Lily obeyed, putting a decent bit of her weight onto him. Being a rock gnome, Grobnar was much sturdier than Lily would've thought from his size. She began stepping toward the entrance again – and noticed that she was still wearing the torn clothes from the day before.

At least he can't see the ripped crotch when I'm standing, Lily thought with only a little humor.

As they emerged into the sun, Lily felt relieved. After last night, she was beginning to think she'd never see the sun again.

Grobnar set her off to the edge of the cave's entrance and looked at her.

"Oh, goodness!" he exclaimed suddenly.

"What? What is it?"

"You look terrible, Lily!" Grobnar paused. "I mean, you don't look terrible, you're still you, but I think... Er, there's something just not right with the color of your skin!"

Lily looked down at her arms. He was right. Her whole complexion seemed to be pale as a ghost. Come to think of it, she didn't feel too well, either.

After looking her over for a few moments, Grobnar concluded, "Lily, I think you're sick."

The sun elf coughed up a bit in response.

"Very sick," he amended.

"Oh, no," she replied, genuinely upset. They were supposed to look for the Wendersnaven today, and Lily felt like crap. "Grobnar, we have to find the Wendersnaven."

"Don't worry about that, Lily," he said, but there was a pleased, appreciative glint in his eye. "As it were, though, we do happen to be right near where the Sages of Yes and No – I mean Enleva and Noduab, of course – said the Wendersnaven would be. The clearing is a few minutes east of here, according to the map," he explained, holding the map upside down.

Flipping the map for him, Lily said, "That would be west, Grobnar."

"Oh, right, right."

"No, left. Jeez," she laughed. "How did you even find your way here?"

"I don't know, to be honest!"

Lily sat resting for a minute.

"Let's go. To the clearing."

"But don't you feel terrible?"

"I do, but we had plans for today," she said firmly. After how sweet Grobnar had been to her the night before, she wanted to pay him back in any way she could.

"Well, alright," he replied, simultaneously worried and excited. He supported her walking once more as they made their way west, and this time, Lily knew exactly where she was in relation to the Keep. This fact alone made her feel inspirited.

After a little while, the two came to the clearing marked on the map. It was a dead end.

Grobnar checked the map. "This is it, according to the map. It looks a little empty, though."

"Look over there!" Lily exclaimed, pointing to a pile of bones further into the center of the clearing. They approached slowly, unsure if it was a trap. When they were close enough, Grobnar set Lily down and began searching the bones. The elf did the same, feeling along the insides of the corpse's few garments that hadn't disintegrated or been eaten.

"Here, I found something."

Grobnar turned his gaze in her direction. "A note! What does it say?" Lily handed it to him.

"Ah! These are some scribbles from the Relentless Poet! Word is he disappeared awhile ago without saying anything to anyone. He was always rather...well, relentless in his journeys," Grobnar explained. "A pity it came to this." The gnome put the note in his backpack and started walking toward Lily to carry her again, but stopped short.

"Ow!" he cried.

"What happened?"

"I stubbed my toe on something..." Then, absolute delight filled his features. "Look at this!" he said, holding up...something. Lily couldn't see anything.

"That's...wonderful..." After he didn't explain, she asked, "What is it, Grobnar?"

"It's an invisible instrument! A wonder, invisible instrument! Can you hear that?" Grobnar began dancing and whistling, and Lily couldn't help but snicker.

"Um?" she questioned, watching his performance.

"Why didn't I think of it before? An invisible instrument...of course! This must be from the Wendersnaven!"

"Is it?" Lily asked, her interest piqued. She raised a knee so she wasn't sitting uselessly on the ground anymore.

"There's no way to be sure, but perhaps this is what the sages wanted us to find!" He played the instrument again, and this time Lily noticed a difference: Grobnar the Bard was playing even better than he usually did, and the sound was clearly not just him this time.

"Ohhhh," Lily said in disbelief. So the thing did exist. The fact that she couldn't see it was admittedly pretty confusing, but it obviously enhanced Grobnar's abilities somehow.

"Such music!" he exclaimed excitedly. Finally, he replaced his current weapon with the Wenderkazoo and turned to Lily again.

"I'm sorry we didn't find the real thing. But this gift is just swell!" he said with a grin. "Thank you, Wendersnaven!" he called out to nothing in particular. Well, at least nothing visible.

"I still think they're real," Lily said, at last getting to her feet. "Perhaps we can't see them unless they want to be seen."

Grobnar looked like he was about to cry. "You really think so, Lily? Really?"

"Really."

Grobnar hugged her, and Lily hugged back. "Thank you for coming here despite feeling horrible, Lily. I'm really happy."

"Of course," she started to say, but was interrupted by a loud rustling in the bushes behind them. Before Grobnar could even fully disentangle himself from Lily, a handful of orcs rushed their way. After an initial moment of surprise, Grobnar put his new weapon to good use, performing Fascinate to immobilize a few of the orcs, and casting Cloud Mind on one of those who escaped the former.

Lily launched a fireball from her unstable position, losing her balance a little and stumbling backward from the recoil. She caught herself after a moment and used Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm on the now-flaming orcs, felling several of them.

"Good shot, Lily!" Grobnar called, looking her way. In his distraction, the gnome didn't see the orc behind him lift his mighty ax above the his head.

"Grobnar!" Lily screeched. Unable to throw another fireball without hitting Grobnar, and fresh out of energy for a fully ranged fire arrow, Lily compromised and cast Fire Arrow while running toward the orc. She thrust her arms forward at the last moment and made contact with the brute, toppling him over in a fit of flames. He was dead. Very dead. And burning.

She began panting and whirled around, pseudo-ready for any other orc coming her way.

"Lily..." Grobnar started, eyes wide. "Thank you. I really should have been more careful."

Grobnar hadn't noticed, but the fire arrow had torn up her clothes worse than they already had been and burnt her hands, sapping any remaining energy from her.

"No," she said weakly, falling to one knee. "I should have." She looked into his face. "Thank you for last night." There was a moment of silence. In it, Lily winced as her hand made contact with the grass.

Then: "Grobnar," Lily called, her voice strangled. Her eyes were back on the ground.

"Yes, Lily? I'm right here," he tried to comfort her in her pain.

"When did...the rain stop?"

"It kept going long after you fell asleep. It finally gave out a little before I came to get you."

"I see... It hasn't stopped, for me." Lily closed her eyes, mock chuckling at herself. Her current, hazy state of mind and her brain's inconsiderate decision to make the painful memory resurface every few minutes were taking a toll on her, not to mention her physical woes. A lock of her hair fell down over her shoulder as she struggled to keep her position constant.

Grobnar looked at her sadly.

"But it's okay to tell the others now. Where I am, I mean." Her thoughts were growing more and more muddled.

The gnome waited for her to continue.

Instead: "Hug me," Lily pleaded suddenly.

Grobnar quickly granted her wish, coming to cradle her in her kneeling position. All the color drained from Lily's face as she began swaying unsteadily against him.

"I don't feel...well..."

She collapsed on the spot.