Tales from Frostbourne [Cancelled]

Chapter 6 : New Girl

Patrick POV
I've only sent Darryll and Theo out about half an hour ago. I was chatting to Azura, when I heard some of the bandits shouting for me and Azura by the entrance to the camp. Azura and I ran to see what was happening.
"Daryll and Theo are back, Sir." A bandit told me as I approached the two. I took hold of their horses' reins firmly.

"Why have you come back? Did something happen?" I asked urgently, feeling slightly annoyed they'd not stayed out for as long as they should have. Theo climbed down off of his horse.

"Yes, we found a girl in the river, possibly from the Coven. She needs urgent medical attention." he nodded at Azura, who stepped forward.

"Let me see her." she commanded, and motioned for Daryll to lift her off the horse and to the roof. I took her out of Daryll's arms and carried her up for Azura, since she wasn't strong enough.

When we got up all the stairs to the top, I laid her down where I'd put Rain previously.

"You guys can leave. I'll stay with her." Azura mentioned, looking at me and the bandits that had followed.

"I want to stay too, I'd like to make sure she's OK." Daryll insisted. Theo looked at him mischievously.

"Any chance to get a girl, eh?" he laughed, nudging Daryll playfully in the ribs. Daryll just glared at him.

"I'd like to stay too." Rain added, stepping towards Azura boldly. I glanced at her, she couldn't have too many people staying with the other girl, even I know you need space to heal, it's common sense really. Azura just nodded.

"OK, but only you two. The rest of you, just do whatever Patrick says." she shrugged. I smiled, and beckoned for the others to move down the stairs with me. We moved as a large mass of people.

"Alright people, get back to what you were doing before please!" I commanded once we'd got down the stairs. Everyone returned to their jobs, and everything was normal again.

Azura POV

I got all my machinery ready to help wake her up while Daryll and Rain stood watching. I glanced at them for a second.

"Oi, you guys make yourselves useful, Daryll, get me my goggles." I shouted. He got them off my desk, and I grabbed them out his hand. I slammed them onto my face, and ran back behind the Command Blocks and my other machines. I pulled a couple of levers, pushed a few buttons and the girl started vibrating and glowing, like Rain did. We covered our eyes and ears, and hoped for the best. Once it was over I looked up, only to see a fireball heading straight for me.

"AZURA!" Daryll yelled at me, and pushed me to the ground quickly, only to land awkwardly on top of me. "Heh, sorry." he chuckled nervously, picking himself and me up. I glanced at the girl.

"Who are you? Where am I?" she hissed quietly, preparing another fireball to her right. My hands flew up to my head, showing I didn't want to hurt her if I didn't have to.

"My name is Lady Azura, I mean you no harm. You're in Frostbourne." I called, eyes glued to her. She narrowed her eyes dramatically.

"Frogspawn? What kind of name is that?" she frowned comically.

"Not Frogspawn, Frostbourne. We live by the Frostbourne River on the mountainside, so it gets a bit chilly around here. Take my coat." I smiled, that was the first time anyone had called it Frogspawn before, and it was quite funny. I handed my lab coat to her over the machines. It wasn't much, but it was better. She probably wasn't used to the cold like we are. She took it gratefully and immediately put it on.

"Thanks. Sorry about the fireball, it was just survival instinct. No hard feelings." she apologised. I smiled and accepted the apology.

"Daryll! Go and find the General, and tell him that this girl..." I paused, glancing at the girl, who was wringing her hair from water. She looked up quickly when I stopped.

"Oh. My name's Stella, the Enchantress. That's my full title, but please, call me Stella." she told us, then continuing to tend to her hair.

"Tell him Stella's woken up, she'll need a formal introduction if the Coven's not safe to return to." I instructed Daryll before he ran off down the stairs. I don't think Stella noticed Rain at all until he approached her to help with her hair. She looked at him quizzically.

"Oh no, it's fine. You don't have to," she started but got cut off by Rain.

"Nah, it's no problem. You come from the Coven, right?" Rain asked while squeezing Stella's hair.

"Yeah, some weird stuff happens there y'know, what with all the Witches and Enchantresses. Normally we'd be able to predict any natural disasters, but not this time for some reason... I feel like it wasn't natural actually..." she ranted. I heard Patrick running up the stairs once more, followed by another pair of feet, probably Daryll's.

"Hey there, Stella! How you feeling?" Patrick asked, jumping straight to the point. She jumped slightly at his arrival, but recovered right away.

"Yeah, I'm fine I guess. But I have one question." she replied, tilting her head.

"Fire away." he replied instantly.

"How do you guys live in this temperature?!" she heaved, shivering violently. We laughed slightly, we were just used to it. 

"OK, Stella, I just need to do one last check up, alright?" I continued, motioning for her to lie on the mat. She lay back down reluctantly.

"OK." she nodded. Once she'd laid down, I connected some wires up to her arms. I returned to my desk and fired up my monitors. I looked through the readings, but I didn't expect to find one specific thing. I'd not seen this in years, nearly ten years, actually.

"Uh... Patrick... you'd better take a look at this." I called to Patrick, who was staring over Frostbourne. He looked up at the mention of his name, and jogged to my desk to see what it was. His smile instantly vanished when he read my screen, and a hand went up to his mouth slowly.

"Is that...?" he started. I nodded darkly, feeling an ominous feeling wash over me. He dropped his head into his hands and sighed. "You'd better tell her." I glanced at Stella, who'd obviously heard our whole conversation, and wore a worried look on her face.

"Uh... So the results we got back, I didn't quite expect. You have a very life-threatening disease, I'm afraid. Can I see your hands?" I asked carefully as she showed me her hands. As she did, she let out a small gasp. "This is what I thought it was..." I muttered. Her skin was tainted greyish-black, and looked wrinkly.

"I've seen this before too! A bout of it went through the Coven when I was five! We didn't know what it was. Do you?" she cried, flailing her arms around.

"We call it the Wither Disease... because... well, Patrick?" I peered at him sadly.

"My mother died from that, we sort of named it after her. Rio Waether. Have you come into contact with anyone or anything from the Nether recently?" he demanded, gazing at her expectantly.

"No, actually." she shrugged. Patrick eyed me quickly.

"Azura... a quick word please." he beckoned, and led me to the fence on the edge of the roof.

"Do you know anything about this? Have you checked your machines recently?" he asked, glaring at me. I immediately knew what he was thinking.

"What, you think I'd infect her with Wither? Of course I checked my machines, I did just before I hooked her up to wake her!" I cried, feeling slightly offended he didn't trust me. He had to trust his own Doctor!

"Are you sure? How did she catch it then?"

"I don't know! How would I know, when I only met her five minutes ago?"

"I'm not sure, but Azura I have to be sure. Can I be sure?"

"YES! WHY WOULDN'T YOU?!" I shouted. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could he?

"Alright, calm down!" he ordered, then left to see Stella. I guess that was the conversation over. I followed him back, and sat on my spinning chair, and span around, wondering what to do. If even Patrick couldn't trust me, who would?