Only sheer willpower allowed this young human to drag this very badly injured elf and hir gnome friend to safe shelter. Despite their own injuries and exhaustion so profound they could barely even see straight anymore, they had only one thought. They could not let these two die. It was only after applying bandages they collapsed to the floor, and blacked out. -- Anon Guest
The wall of water had come out of nowhere. Lilly was fortunate to have grabbed a log in the initial confusion. She was luckier to have found shelter from other debris in the fork of a branch. Cold and wet, true, but alive. Lilly washed ashore, scrambling from her log to the muddy gravel of a hill.
There, among the rest of the debris, were two bodies.
Lilly mistook them at first for a parent and a child, but they were adults. And they were alive. She was maybe half the size of the bigger one. Scrawny and slight. But she could roll them away from the rushing water. She could lash together some sticks and some sopping clothes and roll the strangers onto the construction. She could drag them, step by gruelling step, further uphill. To the debatable shelter of a half-collapsed structure that had enough space to be safe from the storm.
Panting, Lilly swept whatever fuel she could to a space that would do as a hearth, and made a spark into the kindling. That last act stole the last of her strength.
She woke in a far different place. It looked like a cozy little cottage and she was almost overwhelmed by the soft bedding and thick comforter. Lilly was effectively pinned down by an incredibly fluffy cat, which was purring up a storm of her own.
There was a smell of bread in the middle of baking, and a good stew in the middle of the making. Her hurts weren't present any more and she felt free to laze in such supreme lassitude.
If this was heaven, Lilly decided, she didn't mind it.
An Elf entered her field of view. Speckled skin. Patchwork hat. Pleasant smile and kind eyes. "Welcome back," ze said. "Bibrid's harvesting some herbs for the stew, and we should have fresh bread soon. I'm Wraithvine. And you are?"
Lilly almost laughed out loud, it was so ridiculous. Wraithvine was a nursery tale! A mummer's drama for the traveling shows. Ze frequently turned up in the Adventures of Everyman. What she said was, "You don't look anything like the actors."
That earned her a warm smile. "For that I am glad. I get awful stage fright." Ze scooped up the cat and poured her into a padded basket, then helped Lilly sit up. "You went through a lot, even before you saved us."
The reality of it sank in, in that Lilly could possibly call all this reality. "I didn't really need to do it, did I?"
"I wouldn't say that," said Wraithvine, levitating the bread out of the oven. "I've yet to encounter anything that would kill me. As far as I'm aware, I'm merely ageless. I don't know if the gods will let me die, and I'm not about to test it."
"Neither am I," said the Gnome, arms full of herbs. He had a silvery sheen in this house. Almost glistening like... Dragon scales.
What had she bumbled her way into?
[Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash]
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