Adventures of Jessa

41

Dhiren stands nervously by the door. So far he hasn't been kicked out and he doesn't want to draw attention to himself so that he will be. He looks over to Jessa and frowns at just how white she has become.

Alaric examines her minutely before turning his attention to Dhiren, "Care to tell me what happened to my granddaughter?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. We were sparring, she was winning like usual although I was managing to keep up, for the most part. Then she started to slow down and then she fell down and I hadn't even touched her. Kallen found a blood covered rock that had hit her head, which is the reason she had gone down, but after having a healer look her over there was some concern that the rock had been covered in something.

"The healer cleaned up her wound and okayed Kallen to give her the restorative and healing potion. That worked, but she didn't respond as well as she should have. She's been getting progressively worse all day, but wouldn't allow me to call for you. Finally when she couldn't go on foot any longer I over rode her objections and we came as fast as we could.

"That's all I know, Alaric. Have you figured out what is wrong with her?"

"No, and with the symptoms you mentioned the restorative should have worked. I'm going to need to call in Jethro and the Ancient One, might need to even call in Zira as well. Don't worry young one, none of us want anything bad to happen to Jessa. A great deal rides on her and you and the future of us all."

Dhiren is focused on Jessa and has now taken up her hand and holds to it tightly. He can't lose her, he just got her back. He hears the words Alaric speaks to him, but none of it makes any sense and he doesn't have the time to figure it out just now.

Right now, all he can do is hold Jessa and pray to Zira that she gets better. 

"Dhiren, we need for you to move so that we can take a look at Jessa," Zira says sadly as she places her hands on her child.

"Lady Zira, can you make her better?" Dhiren asks with tears in his eyes.

Zira looks at him with compassion and gives him a sad smile. "I don't know yet, but we will do our best. If the three of us can't figure out what is wrong then there is nothing any one will be able to do."

Dhiren nods disconsolately and moves out of the way of the deities and takes up his stance by the door once more.

"She's not with child is she?" Dhiren suddenly stands up with the thought that this could be his fault.

Zira smiles at him reassuringly, "No, prince she isn't. If she would have gotten pregnant I would have stopped things once more. You both needed that physical reassurance though and so I made sure that she wouldn't get pregnant."

Jethro looks from Jessa to Dhiren. "You finally consummated the marriage? That's good." Jethro nods to himself and then looks back to his great granddaughter. "No she isn't with child," Jethro says sadly, "But this is the same illness that took my wife all those centuries ago. I haven't found a cure for it yet. Perhaps you Ancient One know what to do to help Jessa?"

The ancient dragon, that looks rather like an ancient human takes a close look at the female lying so still on the bed. He shakes his head sadly, "The only thing I can think of is making a small cut and then using the healing properties of the dragon saliva to heal it. The healing properties will then go through out her body and hopefully help her dragon blood fight against whatever it is that is making her ill.

"There is just the problem that if we do that, then it might trigger the transformation. I really don't want to do that if it can be avoided."

Dhiren can't help himself and bursts out. "If you don't, then she will likely die. Lord Jethro lost his wife to this ailment. Jessa is getting visibly weaker. Her dragon blood isn't strong enough at this time to fight off whatever it is that is making her ill.