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The next time I woke, it was just as unpleasant. It felt as if something was trying to claw its way out of me. My insides churned, and I was gripped with an uncontrollable need to empty myself.

I could move now, though weakly. It was just enough to pull myself into the bushes before…

Well, yeah. We’ll not go into too may details. If you’ve seen one person sick up, you’ve seen it all.

Except, you’ll never, ever see as an epic retch like this. Be thankful of that. I mean, I was throwing up stuff I didn’t even remember eating. And oh… oh… it was miserable.

I think I heard Levi say something from somewhere nearby. But even he didn’t want to deal with this mess. Not that I blame him.

It felt like it lasted forever, too. When I finally felt released of the impulse, I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. It came away with blood… or… something red that looked like blood. I didn’t dare look in the brush.

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I might have imagined it in my haze, but I swear I saw smoke rising from those bushes.

This time, when I fell back to sleep, it was a bit less awful. Just a bit.

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I don’t know how many days I was ill. How many days we spent near the pool. How many times Levi moved me into the water to ease the flames that burned me from the inside.

He’d figured out that putting the cooling, blue energies in the water and fully submerging me was the way to go. Pretty clever, that. So many times I’d come to my senses to find myself in the water’s soft embrace.

Often, I’d also come around to the sound of gently plucked music. I realized that Levi brought his stringed instrument along — which, of course he would. This was almost as soothing as the cooling waters were.

I spent countless hours dozing on the edge of awareness, the pool lapping around me and the gentle notes calming the internal flames. I was so caught up in struggling against the illness and agony that I didn’t realize things within me were changing…

There was some rage and pain that could not be washed away by healing waters and music. However, I found my thoughts to grow more calm, my driving desires to slowly fade, and the Flames of Bedlam were now so far removed from my spirit.

I won’t say that I was a different Dragon by the end of this time. But when I finally woke strong enough to make sense of the world again, I saw things in a different light. I also realize that I owed Levi my life.

(Though if it wasn’t for his stupid cuffs in the first place….)