[b]Sunrise, the next day:[/b]

When King stirred and sat up from his bed, he would find something inside his quarantine hut that he certainly would never have expected to find: Annie.

"Good morning," she said as casually and friendly as could be. She could see in his reaction the building panic and quickly said, "[i]Before you freak out![/i]"

She scooted closer to the fire to grasp the pot full of hot [i]mate[/i] and poured a cup; as she explained herself rapidly, her Danish accent really kicked in, possibly making some of her English words unintelligible. "Papa told me that you and he were sailing north to look for that girl who was on your boat, and I didn't want you to go without me, and since Papa wasn't about to let me join you because he still doesn't know whether or not your infected with the Bug, and since if he [i]did[/i] go with you and [i]then[/i] would have to be quarantined himself and I wouldn't be able to be with him until [i]he[/i] came out of quarantine, that it only made since for me to join the two of you so that whatever happens to him happens to me because I don't want to be without him if he gets sick and dies ... I'd rather be dead, you understand?"

Annie offered out the steaming cup after stirring in a big glob of honey; she was barely five feet from King as he sat upright in his bed, staring at her with surprise. She smiled, asking, "Makes sense, doesn't it?"