Novel Jumper

Chapter Fifteen

 "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.