The rest of the day passed in a blur as I drifted from sleep to wakefulness and back again. I was simply in too much pain to even stay properly unconscious. That only changed once someone made me sip some bitterleaf tea after leaving the forest behind. It might have been Kaele. I wasn't sure though. Once I had that tea it stopped mattering anyway as the pain slowly receded and I finally drifted off to sleep. Still, I couldn't help but worry about the others. Gash'zur had been there to support me. She probably was fine. I wasn't so sure about the others though.

When I came back around it was to the smell of smoke in the air. I was in my tent and the sounds reaching my ears, more like a dull thrum than actual sounds I could individually distinguish, suggested that my tent was once again surrounded by a proper camp. My sister's familiar was once again napping curled up in my lap. She meowed as I reached out to scratch her behind the ears but I could barely make out the sound. I could feel her purr though as she pushed her head into the palm of my hand to keep me going.

Thus I kept petting the cat for a little while. I couldn't help but notice her scrunch up her nose a few times though. “The smoke, huh? You really don't like it.” I sighed. “Seems we are burning down a forest once again. Sorry about that. If its any consolidation to you, I doubt you would have liked this one. It was real nasty. Maybe a better one will grow from the ashes.”

As I finished she slunk up my still prone body to touch her nose to mine and rub her cheeks against mine for good measure before jumping off my bed to disappear out through the small gap in the tent flap.

I in turn let out a sigh and started to stretch carefully, still lying down., before swinging my own legs off the bed. As I sat up I started feeling dizzy and nauseous almost immediately. I gripped the frame of my bed tightly to steady myself. It was all I could do to not fall right out of it. It took a moment before the world stopped spinning around me. Oh Maidens, this was bad.

I was still in the process of catching my breath and steadying myself when the cat returned, shortly followed by my sister. Kaele's eyes widened as she saw me sitting up. “Careful! Whatever transpired yesterday, it really did a number on you!”

Yesterday? I hadn't slept away days or weeks, although it had felt like it at times. Well, that wasn't too bad then. Kaele's voice sounded muffled though and that worried me a little. I brought up a hand to my ears, steadying myself with the other. My fingers came away with a little dried blood on them. “My hearing?”

Kaele nodded while her familiar jumped up on the bed again to curl up in my crumpled sheets next to me. “You can hear me?”

I nodded as well. “Yes. Its muffled though. As if I had cotton or bee's wax in my ears.” I tried to not speak up too loud as I answered. I might have trouble hearing myself but that was no excuse to scream at others.

My sisters proceeded to examine my ears for a little while, cleaning away some more dried blood with a wet cloth in the process. “Your hearing should recover as far as I can tell. It will take a little while though, despite the magical healing. It mostly is the dried blood clogging things up. I don't want to remove it all at once with a cleaning spell though. That might do more damage than good. You'll have to bear with it for a few more days.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. A few days of discomfort wasn't too bad. I would bear with it. “Its not just my hearing. I have trouble keeping my balance.” I swallowed hard. “Even while sitting down and its giving me a headache.” That was a slight understatement.

She made me look up at her as she cast a light spell, just strong enough to briefly flash a bright ray of light into each of my eyes. Before I could complain she patted me on the shoulder though. “Your pupils seem to react like they should. Most likely no brain damage then.” She frowned at me hard enough to make me flinch. “Not any recent brain damage anyway. Our brother might have knocked you around a little too hard over the years though.” She sighed and relaxed a little. “It probably is due to the damage to your ears as well. The blood might clog up the little bones that help with our sense of balance. And since that doesn't match up with your motions it gives you a headache. It might make you feel sick a little as well.”

I sighed once again. The way she said it made it sound like it was a temporary problem. At least as far as I could tell. Still, I was worried and not just about my own condition either. “The others? How are they?”

That question seemed to make my sister a little uncomfortable. That in turn had my heart skip a beat. I gripped the frame of the bed a little tighter to steady myself.

Finally she spoke up. “Tortho's rangers managed to gather up those who were sent fleeing by that wail before they could get really lost in that dead forest. Gash'zur is just about faring the same as you. Quu'za and Leumina got hit worse though. I think with them the bleeding went beyond the ears.” She swallowed hard. “Leumina is awake and she is mostly well enough but she has trouble speaking among other things. Quu'za is the one I'm really worried about though. The Troll shamans have been tending to her ever since we got her back here but she hasn't woken up yet.”

She raised a hand before I could speak up. “That is not a problem you should trouble yourself with right now. This is the responsibility of the other healers and me. You lie back down and rest up for now. I'll go and get you something to eat now and afterwards I'll be tending your ears a little more. Everything else can wait until tomorrow or the day after at the very least. Yath'zur said it would take at least that long to properly deal with that cursed glade and that twice cursed, bloody cauldron.”

I nodded and sank back on my field bed, taking care not to disturb Kaele's familiar too much. Before she could slip out through the tent flap I spoke up once more though. “It was that accursed vampire again. She got us good before I even could think about fighting back. And in the end she got away again.”

Kaele flashed me a rueful smile. “Don't be too hard on yourself. She might have gotten away again but you have to see the bright side as well. She didn't get to finish you off either. Right?”