"What are you doing here?"

"You know exactly what I'm doing here!"

"I told you I never wanted to see your face again after that betrayal, ಇಮಾನಿ."

"You can't call me that here! These are humans!"

"Oh please. That human is out cold. Now what do you want."

"I told you; my friend needed help-"

Gray coughed, struggling to open her lids against the bright lights and dark voices.

"Gray!" She felt Em rush to her side. "Here, drink this."

The lip of a cup bumped against her lip. Gray parted her teeth and the liquid ran in. It stung her throat and she nearly choked on it, but next thing she knew her eyelids were flicking open and Em's worried face swam into view.

"Whashalloffthis?" Gray's tongue felt sticky and dry. Above Em's shoulder, Gray saw a woman with green dreadlocks, frowning with vigor. Em followed her gaze.

"Oh, yeah. This is... my friend. Mariko." Em faltered, meeting the girl's stare. She couldn't be more than a few years older than Gray. Well, Gray didn't know exactly how old that was, but whatever. 

Some sort of silent conversation passed between Em and Mariko and then Em was turning to her and pressing the back of her hand to Gray's forehead.

"How do you feel?" she asked which seemed rather responsible of her, Gray thought. "You had two broken ribs. One punctured your lung at one point and almost killed you." Em smiled at Mariko over her shoulder. Mariko snorted, flipped a dread over her shoulder and stalked out. Em sighed.

"I don't..." Gray's head felt sluggish, but the sting in the back of her throat was bringing her back down. "Where are we? How did I break two ribs?"

Em pulled up a small stool. She looked very small. "We're in the Woods, remember? Mariko was the only friend I knew who would keep us safe. At least, for awhile. People change, I guess." 

Gray's thoughts fuzzed in an out. She glanced around: small room, rickety bed, ragged carpet, wide window displaying a meadow and a sleeping Baltizara. She glimpsed Mariko moving around a small kitchen through the doorway.

"Mariko said you probably cracked them during the blast at the bar." Em continued. Gray's fingertips found her own chest. Beneath the shirt, bandages were wrapped around it, thick and impenetrable. At least it felt that way. "And then you made it worse when you landed in Baltizara's saddle weird. She said adrenaline can numb your senses for awhile, so that's why you didn't feel it at first..."

Gray reached for Em, pitching forward, almost falling out of the bed. She tugged at the end of Em's dark train of hair. "What's wrong?" she asked and Em glanced down. Her eyes widened.

The tips of her hair had turned completely white. "Oh... I don't know."

"Hey!" Mariko suddenly shouted from the other room. Gray jumped and then winced. Her ribs ached. "You... Em. Come here."

Em pushed back her stool. Gray watched her go. She was nearly falling out of the bed, but her head was swimming down too deep to try to do anything... about... it...