The bed Anita slept in was very wet: and it smelled strange. Her throat was perched as if she was suffocating. There was a light at the end of the room. Fresh air protruded from a open window; not a speck of dust could be seen with the help of the sun's rays. She tried to breath in the fresh air. A cold cough overtook her. Then a graceful hand with a warm cloth stroked her forehead. Anita grabbed the intruder's arm…. Then the hands descended upon her.
"It is the plague," came a dreary voice.
"As has affected us all," answered another.
"The girl needs rest."
"don't we all?"
As one passes in and out of sleep, so do the days, then those days become months and those months a season. "Wake up Anita," came a voice from a different maid, large for a woman working on two legs for many hours.
"Give me your hand" she asked. Anita's vision was blurry but she heard the voice and turned towards it. A small rubber ball Anita held in her hand. She squeezed then retracted as if she had done this hundreds of times. "What is this smell?" the teen asked. Her vision became clearer with useless covered fog. The sun shone forth through that same window from across the room.
The handmaiden was indeed not a maid, but a nurse. This nurse responded with "Oh bless your heart, why you smell from what the cleaners left behind. That is all." The nurse was wiping a bench with a small wet cloth. A patient had flung her potatoes across the floor successfully hitting multiple beds. This was not the room Anita remembered. It was not dusty nor expensively furnished. It was indeed a classroom with several students, some in beds some not. Each student looked strange and talked to each other with weird voices - except for - "What did you say my girl?" the nurse asked fearfully. Another woman noticed the onyx haired teen respond in a matter of fact manner. Suddenly, Anita realized this was not the Nobles keep nor was it a classroom. It was a hospital. And this room brought back horrible memories. She screamed and flayed. Then the hands descended upon her.
Finally, she awoke from the battlefield inside her mind. Moving was useless, her arms were strapped. Instead of a large room designed for a dozen or more patients, she was in a single room. This room was much cleaner than the one she dreamed. Anita glanced at her side and saw an empty bed.
"Nathan Sulivan is not here," came the voice of a millennial year old man. "You gave us quite a start my child." Her head hurt with all its might. She waggled and bobbled, looking for him.
"Velen why?" She glanced at her arms again, and the straps were magically untied.
"You are strong for a young woman," he said. "But there is no need of these with me."
The window she had struggled to open with Nathan the first night they were in the keep, was ajar, and freshly cleaned. Warm air flowed in. The Prophet's hair curled and did strange things from the coming breeze. He noticed her gaze and winked while pouring some tea.
"I've become fond of this taste, what do the humans call it? My people tend to have too much fruit in their own food." She felt the need to fall asleep again, his voice helped this urge. He gracefully handed her a cup. "I'm sure you are wondering what happened that night." She took a sip, extremely hot but cured the soul. "It is as if the Jailer knew our summit, however as with most deities, their actions cause pro-actions with tremendous speed." He paused and took another sip, then licked his lips. Anita waited patiently, knowing his story would take forever. "Each representative chose some of their finest individuals, some even had more scars than me" He winked with a grin.
"Twenty of them went into the Maw and slayed the man." He paused while staring out the open window. He knew important statements were best left with a long pause, to cause the mind to think and not forget, when the old conversion vanished.
"Of course this sounds most unexpected when you have been…what do humans call it? In a coma. Anita, you have been asleep past the winter, and taken care of in Northshire Abbey."
She lifted suddenly, spilling some of the precious tea onto her belly. He nonchalantly stood and went to fetch more of this precious liquid.
Then a painful unanswering question, a longing deeper than the spine receiving pulses from a head crank. And she swore Velen was at the end of the room. But…
He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Your beloved Nathan has been called to arms." Her head pulsated "this cannot be, how could Jaina let this happen!"
"Because Lady Jaina is not Nathan's commanding officer. Men were needed. While you were asleep there was tremendous unrest in the city. He is not far from here, maybe Redridge or on the border of Duskwood."
Velen showed her a flower. The flower was the same rose she had burned many years past, in a humble garden. "One may be strong enough to burn the whole world Anita, but they may only issue one order at a time." He seemed about to leave but he turned back. "And one more thing Anita." His almost skeletal-like hands bore into her arm. "Don't look for your parents, some legacies are best left uncovered." He smiled and handed her the rose.
She pondered on all he said that day, and wanted many more questions answered. Many days she passed over while caressing and touching this gentle rose. How could it have been the same one? Another question she had unanswered. And how was she in a coma by simply playing an instrument? And what were those dreams? Or were they dreams? Perhaps all of this was linked to her parents. The past is rarely left uncovered. His words sank into her deepest part of the mind. They were strange and piercing…but true all the same.
And in another universe with no cares of this world, sat two birds high on a windowsill. One helped clean the other then received help from the giver. Both looked old: advanced in years. Perhaps the two flew higher than the sky itself, all together as one. For one to pick up the other and to land together. And one to feed the other- To watch out for what is below or what is above or what is to come. Or to watch out for those pesky humans interrupting their love affair with mint tea.