Laying quietly, drifting in a netherworld of semi-wakefulness, listening to the morning breeze, and watching the glitter of reflected sunshine mixed with the silhouettes of tree-branches dancing on the ceiling, she felt somewhat refreshed, memories of terror, betrayal, of demons and soul-pain, gradually receding. The instant she moved, however, a wave of nausea and dizziness caused the room to spin, drowning out all else with hideous vertigo, leaving her drenched in a cold sweat. Her left thigh ached dully, too. Reaching beneath the covers, gingerly checking her wound, she found that her leg was bandaged. Withdrawing her hand, she thought she could smell dried blood, though that might have been her imagination. Besides the bandage, she was completely naked.
Great!
She had been in a hospital only once, and that was when her favourite aunt was dying of some lingering form of internal cancer. Ever since then, she had equated hospitals with death and dying.
Theuli! With a shock she remembered . . .
‘Malina? Theuli? Is anyone there?’
An Elf woman dressed in white came from somewhere to her right . . . she was not about to move her head to see from where, and risk the hideous nausea again. She heard the sound of water being poured, as if in a bowl, or like receptacle.