On the whole flight back to Silent Rise, Lyriia didn't stir. She was still definitely alive, but so exhausted that her body was doing only the bare minimum to survive, which meant keeping her unconscious and barely breathing.

Master Longarm had been sitting at the kitchen table all evening, trying (and failing) to focus on his work. His thoughts were consumed by his apprentice having gone missing. A part of him wanted to go out and look for her, though realistically he knew that it would do no good. The woods were so thick they were like a maze. Lyriia would either find her way back or she wouldn’t. There was nothing Longarm, with his skillset, could do.

He was distracted by a tapping at the door. Bolting to his feet, the old man all but ran to the door.

To say he did not expect what he was going to find was an understatement. Seeing the two fairies, his apprentice passed out in the arms of a fairy who looked like he might himself pass out, the both of them slicked with spider blood and what looked like their own blood, the physician was more than a little shocked.

Rather than say anything at first, he crouched down and scooped the weight of his apprentice out of the male fairy’s arms, cradling the girl in his palm, then motioned for the other fairy to follow him inside. Then the rational part of him realized that as tired as the fairy looked, it would be cruel to ask him to fly any more.

The physician knelt again and scooped the male fairy up in his other hand. [color=a2d39c]“Forgive me, but it’s easier this way.”[/color]

He quickly walked inside and set both fairies down on the examining table. He checked Lyriia’s vitals first, and frowned at how weak the girl’s heartbeat was…. What had she been trying to do?!

Then he noticed the wound on the male fairy’s leg. From the grainy texture of the half-healed skin, it looked like it had been an artificial healing. With another murmured apology he gently pressed on the area around the wound, trying to determine if there was anything that was too weakly fused together, that could present a danger to the fairy’s life.

His apprentice had done a good job. The muscles weren’t quite as firm in that one spot, so there would probably be some weakness, but judging by the amount of blood that covered both fairies, Lyriia had been working to save the other fairy’s life. And judging by the spider blood that was all over everything, both of them had likely already been exhausted, which would have effected the quality of healing.

But still, no wonder that the girl was unconscious. Muscle and artery repair was far beyond what she knew. Nonetheless, she would ultimately wake up, though it might take a few days. All that could be done was to keep her warm and have food and water for her when she woke up.

[color=a2d39c]“Lyriia will be fine, and so will you, though if you have any sense you’ll stay here for the night. Was it a bite or a stab of some sort?”[/color] Longarm asked gently. He carefully studied the wound again, assuring himself it wasn’t life-threatening anymore, and then turned his focus back to the fairy’s face.