"Well, we just keep running into one another," Winfrith said as Lilia struggled into consciousness. He smiled gently down at her. "How you feeling, kid?"
Lilia gasped, sucking in air and expelling it just as forcefully so she could quickly get another lungful. She felt like she had just come up for air after an hour underwater. Her lungs burned and her side throbbed.
"What - how?" she choked as she took in her surroundings and saw that once more, she was in Winfrith's cabin. The fight, the monster, slowly started to come back to her.
"Connor brought you back," he explained. "Foolish boy. You were closer to the mining camp. But then, I'm sure they wouldn't have had the medicines that I do, seeing as I invented a few of them. You get married to a druid for long enough, you pick up a few things."
"Connor," Lilia exhaled, remembering that he had hit his head on a tree. Was he okay, then?
"I might have to tweak this remedy. How do you feel?" Winfrith asked, peering into her eyes. "Your pupils are dilated like crazy and you're shaking."
Lilia tuned him out for a few seconds and focused on sucking in air. When he tried to pour a mysterious liquid down her throat, she panicked and struck out at him, upsetting the cup on the floor.
Winfrith glared at her. "That stuff takes forever to make! Be more careful." He poured her another cup and handed it to her. "Please drink this."
Lilia did so, spilling a fair deal of it on herself and the bedsheets. She instantly calmed. Her heart rate returned to normal and she no longer felt like she had just finished running a marathon. She took one last, deep, steadying breath and thanked Winfrith.
"No problem. What are friends for, if not to nurse you back to health when your guts are about to fall out of your body?" the older man asked dryly. Lilia smiled and looked down at her sweat and liquid soaked clothing.
"You wouldn't happen to have my bag...?"
Winfrith handed her one of Theresa's outfits and took the blanket off of her, holding it up so she was both shielded from the rest of his house and his view. She changed as quickly as was possible with the prickling pain in her left side hindering her. It didn't hurt nearly as badly as it had when first received, however. Winfrith had truly saved her life. Her debts to the people in Dwirinel kept just adding up.
"Okay," she said, settling back onto the bed. Winfrith's bed. The sheets were stripped off of it and there was a huge, dried bloodstain in the mattress right underneath her now cleanly bandaged wound. Whoops.
"Connor told me what happened," Winfrith said quietly. "Did you really kill that thing?"
"Yeah. What was it?" Lilia asked.
"A hellhound," Winfrith replied.
Lilia started laughing. She lay back against the pillows, closing her eyes and surrendering to the hysterical chuckles. "I killed a hellhound," she said quietly. Then, "I killed a hellhound."
Winfrith snorted. "Good to see you're getting better. I'm going to go get you some food." He left the room after patting her head affectionately. Lilia heard him talking to Connor out of sight. "She's awake. Connor, she's fine - "
Connor burst into the room. "Oh, thank the gods," he breathed when he saw Lilia, crossing the room in an instant and bending over the bed. "Wolf cub."
"I'm fine," Lilia assured him. She started to talk, ask him about what had happened after she had passed out, but he gripped the back of her neck and rested his forehead against hers before she could speak. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt frozen. Her heart, which had only just calmed down, sped up again. She clenched her hands into fists under the blanket and closed her eyes.
"I was so - I - " Connor gave up and just exhaled deeply. Lilia did the same.
"I'm fine," she repeated firmly. Her hands snaked out from under the blankets despite herself and rested on top of his. He gripped them tightly.
The door creaked and Connor pulled away from Lilia quickly. She was left, red-cheeked and shocked, as he exited the room while Winfrith entered. Only a few seconds of...whatever that had been, and it was enough to throw Lilia completely off. Winfrith paused to watch him leave the cottage and then turned back to Lilia with his eyebrows raised knowingly. Blushing, she avoided his gaze.
"Careful," Winfrith said cryptically as he handed her a piece of bread and a bowl of soup. "Try to tread lightly, Lilia."
Lilia nodded, not entirely sure that she understood what he meant. She understood this much at least: Winfrith knew what it was like to lose people close to him. He knew that pain, and he didn't want it to happen to Connor anymore.
Winfrith left, leaving Lilia alone to her own jumbled thoughts, most of which involved Connor and his unnaturally bright blue eyes.
*
"Did you know that there were creatures like that in these woods?" Connor demanded once he and Winfrith had both returned to Lilia's room. The latter was leaning against the doorway while the former was bracing himself against the windowsill.
"No, I swear it," Winfrith replied. "Now that I do, the real question is, how do any of us get out safely?"
"I don't get it," Lilia interrupted. "It was one hellhound and I could kill it. What's the big deal?"
"Hellhounds work in packs," Connor explained, "and that was a baby."
Lilia thought of the size, strength, and terror of the huge monster. Without quite thinking about it, her hand drifted to her wounded side. "That was a baby?"
Connor raised his eyebrows at her as if to ask See? and said, in reply to Winfrith's question, "We take the Whitters and whatever weapons you have lying around in your magical forest hideout. We make a break for it. You go get help from the rebellion for this...infestation."
"They have other matters on their hands far more serious than a pack of hellhounds," Winfrith pointed out darkly.
"But it's compromising one of their members!" Lilia thought back to Star of Winter for anything that could help convince Winfrith. "You supply crucial medicines, ones that the enemies haven't even heard of before! You've saved countless lives!" At Winfrith's surprised look, she remembered that he didn't know how she knew any of this, and hurried to add, "At least, that's what Connor said."
"Again, that was a baby," Winfrith pointed out, but he didn't sound quite so desolate.
"So? Still, the worst wound I had was this one," Lilia said, poking her side. "And that was just because I wasn't fast enough. They're predictable and they get too close to you while they're fighting. It's easy to cut them."
Winfrith shared a glance with Connor. "You might have a point," he replied slowly.
"So what do you say? Whitters, weapons, rebellion. Sound like a plan?" Connor asked.
"Sounds like a half-assed idea at best, but it's all we've got. Let's do it," Winfrith said after a long moment.
"What can I do to help?" Lilia asked as Winfrith left the room.
Connor glanced around. "You can carry our bags," he said, trying to make the task sound as important and exciting as possible. Lilia made a face at him but had to agree that that was the task she was best equipped for. After all, even in her best condition - which this certainly was not - she wasn't strong, fast, or particularly brave. She was still shocked that she had killed a hellhound with no assistance, baby or not.
As Connor perused the house to find weapons or anything that resembled them, she gathered their supplies that had been strewn about the cottage - a few days unconscious and the men had made a complete mess of her and Connor's belongings - and packed them in the two duffel bags as efficiently as possible. She left the medical box out so she could ask Connor if anything was missing.
She peeked around the wall separating Winfrith's bedroom from the main room and shrieked as Connor brandished a frying pan in her face. She stumbled backwards in shock and fell onto her back on the bed, starting to laugh.
Connor entered the room, grinning. "Sorry. I thought it would be funny."
Lilia clutched her wounded side, gasping from laughter. "You thought...scaring the girl...who got attacked by a hellhound...was a good idea?"
"In hindsight, no." Connor flopped down next to her on the bed and joined in on her laughter. They lay there, chuckling together for a while before Lilia sighed and sat up. "Do you have enough weapons?" she asked. As much as she enjoyed just being with Connor, she had to get her mind back on the task, for the happiness of everyone.
"Yeah," he said, joining her in a sitting position, a grin still on his face. His smile faded as his eyes fell to her wound - her shirt had caught on the edge of her bandages when she fell onto the bed, rendering them completely visible. His fingers drifted to trace them. Lilia tried to remain calm. "Does it still hurt?"
"Laughing didn't feel the greatest," she admitted, and hurried to clarify, "I mean, it was nice to laugh, but it made the wound kind of...twinge. Otherwise, it's fine. Whatever you guys gave me is doing its job."
"I'm glad," Connor said, studying the bandages with a serious expression.
"Hey," Lilia said, resting a hand on his wrist and waiting to talk until he was looking at her face. "I'm fine. Don't act all worried."
"I'm not acting - " Connor stopped and laughed. "You know what, I'm not even going to attempt to try and lie about that. But Lilia, you should have seen the wound before Winfrith patched you up. I mean, it was just a mess of flesh and blood..." He shivered. "If I hadn't gotten you back in time..."
Lilia did so as well. If it was bad enough to make Connor shudder, she was shocked that she hadn't died instantly, let alone survive the hour, hour and a half walk back to Winfrith's house.
"How did you get me back?" she asked curiously. "If the wound was that bad and you had hit your head, anyway." She had no doubts that when he was at his strongest, he could easily carry her quite a distance.
"I don't know," Connor replied, shaking his head ruefully. "Pumped on adrenaline, I guess. Oh, and a few herbs from my medical box."
Lilia snapped her fingers. "That reminds me. Is it ready to be packed?"
Connor stood and rummaged through the box to make sure everything was in its rightful place. "Yeah. We're good."
"Awesome." Lilia nodded and folded her hands in her lap. "When will Winfrith get back?"
"I'm not sure. I'll go check on him," Connor responded, and left the room. Alone once more, Lilia dug through her duffel bag until she found her Dwirinel book. Then, she settled back into Winfrith's bed and began to read.
Flipping a page, her brow furrowed at the picture drawn there. It was of a man standing in shadows that concealed his features, surrounded by a mystic purple smoke. Intrigued, Lilia read the page. It wasn't very long, Lilia assumed because it wasn't directly linked to Dwirinel customs.
The Wizard of Improbability is considered one of the most powerful magical figures in all of Dwirinel. He lives in near complete secrecy, and only other wizards know of his whereabouts. He deals in unlikelihoods, making sure that everything that is improbable happens. Because of this, it had been made illegal for him to work his magic outside of his territory. If you, in your travels, find yourself among people who are acting very strangely, or as if this good book's customs are incredibly offensive, you will want to escape this territory before the Wizard of Improbability finds you and makes you one of his Improbable Slaves.
Lilia's blood ran cold. Slaves? This couldn't be the same wizard that she and Connor were searching for...could it? Azca would have warned them about this - and Lilia was sure Connor's friend had only mentioned a tower or something that the wizard lived in, not a populated territory complete with insane slaves! This raised new complications.
When Connor and Winfrith reentered the room with the Whitters close behind them, she held up the book. "I think it talks about the wizard in here."
"What?" Connor asked excitedly, hurrying to her side. "What does it say?"
"What wizard?" Winfrith asked.
Connor and Lilia slowly exchanged a glance. How are we going to play this? Lilia tried to convey.
Not sure, was the prevailing feeling being explained in Connor's eyes.
"What wizard?" Winfrith asked again, his voice taking on a steely quality. Lilia was wondering if she was going to have to try her hand at lying when Connor spoke up.
"Remember how I told you that Lilia here was trying to get home?" Connor asked very slowly. Lilia's heart sank. You're just stalling for time, aren't you? Sure enough, her suspicions were confirmed when she saw his eyes frantically scanning the page in her book to gain some material on which to base his lies.
Connor grabbed the volume from her hands and, ignoring her protests, brandished the page in Winfrith's face and said as if he had just proved a point, "Her parents live in this wizard's territory!"
Lilia fought the urge to groan and drop her face into her hands. Instead, she plastered a smile on and nodded vigorously when Winfrith looked suspiciously at her. Seriously, Connor? That is the worst lie I've heard in years!
"They're Improbable Slaves?" Winfrith asked doubtfully. "Then how did she - " His words trailed off and he squinted at Lilia.
Lilia had no idea what being an Improbable Slave detailed and Winfrith obviously did, giving him the advantage. Were they treated horribly? Would they be insane or just improbable? Would she have been able to leave or escape? She assumed not, given the word slave. "Not quite," she said timidly, trying and failing to not make it sound like a question.
"Connor, stop lying to me," Winfrith ordered angrily. "Tell me the truth! Why are you trying to get to the Wizard of Improbability?"
Connor glanced back at Lilia as if to say I'm sorry. Worriedly, she looked back and forth between the two men. Was Connor about to tell Winfrith the truth? The latter would never believe him - at least she could be secure in that knowledge.
"Listen, you'd never believe us if we told you the truth," Connor said, sounding as though he was losing hope as he talked. "We just need to get to him in one piece and talk to him. Please, Winfrith, don't ask any questions we can't answer."
Winfrith cast a glance over Connor's shoulder at Lilia. She stared down at her lap, feeling awful for keeping things from this kind old man who had saved her life.
"Fine," he finally muttered. "But first, I want to tell you what I know. Boy, you're making a mistake in going there. What in Dwirinel is compelling you to do this?"
"Azca," Connor replied.
"Azca! What the hell is that idiot thinking?"
"This wizard deals in improbable occurrences, right?" Connor asked, steering the conversation away from Azca. When Winfrith nodded his head in confirmation, Connor pointed at Lilia and said, "She's what you would call an improbable occurrence." Lilia nodded in confirmation.
Winfrith sighed, running a hand over his face. "I don't understand what the hell is going on," he said slowly, "but if you're actually trying to find this wizard, you need to hear all that I know. Then I'll let you march yourselves to your doom."
Lilia swallowed hard. She didn't exactly like the idea of marching herself to her doom.
"Listen closely," Winfrith ordered solemnly, and he began to speak.