Gretel woke up around midmorning the next day. She immediately looked at the violet revealer beside her to make sure he was still breathing; to her surprise, he was awake, lying on his belly with his arms crossed under his chin. His green eyes were staring ahead at nothing in particular.

“Efron?” she prompted gently, scared by that distant look he had. Back when I was recovering, he mentioned that this wasn't daydreaming, but him getting completely disconnected from the world…

His friend’s voice didn't seem to reach him at first. Then he blinked and came to. “Huh? Gretel?”

“Yeah!” the little wind dragoness chirped. “You feeling okay? Yesterday was rough…”

Efron squinted as if trying to figure out what she was talking about.

“Uh…” She decided not to press it. “How's your arm?”

“Hm?” The violet revealer pushed himself up to sit, then inspected his arms, hesitating at the sight of the wrap. He was genuinely confused. “What happened?”

“It was crazy,” she laughed nervously. “You passed out mid-flight when you bled too much, and this old water type brought us to shore, and then this electric type ‘cauterized’ your wound and made that wrap to stop the bleeding! It all happened so fast, too, I didn't know what was happening either!”

“...Bled?” There was a hint of panic in his otherwise calm tone. “From what?”

Gretel froze. “You don't remember?”

Efron’s mouth opened as if to answer, but nothing came out and he seemed distracted again. Then he shook his head. “Water and electric types…? So that means you made this island your retreat after all, then?”

“Wh-What? I mean, yes, but… Are you sure you're okay?”

His green ears lowered a bit shyly and his eyes glanced awkwardly between her and the shore. “...Yes?”

She frowned. “Really?”

He shrank. “Why shouldn't I be?”

Gretel eyed her friend’s bruised neck then his bandaged arm in answer. “You’re not in pain?”

“W-Well… now that you mention it, yeah–I’m pretty sore…”

“Not just physically, though…! After what happened yesterday, I mean…”

He tilted his head. “What happened yesterday? You found this retreat, didn't you?”

“Y-Yes, but we were attacked before we left for it,” she pointed out.

“What…?!” The genuine shock in his quiet voice caught her off-guard. “By what–a predator? Wait–did that seer who fractured your back a few months ago suddenly track us down?!”

“What? N-No! You really don't remember…?!”

Efron seemed to panic even more from the realization that he truly didn't. “Last I recall, you said you were going to explore south-west–which is this island, right?”

Gretel gaped at him. “Yes, but… after that, we were…”

He strenuously stood up, then staggered dizzily and held his head as he fell backward to a seat on the damp grass. “I don't understand… I can't remember anything after that,” he murmured, and his quickening breaths and the wavers he was trying to suppress proved to the wind type that he truly meant it, and his lack of recollection was scaring him.

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“Did you use a conceal, and that's why you don't remember?”

“No,” he said honestly, and that seemed to stress him out even more. “If we conceal a memory, all it does is temporarily stop us from being reminded of it. Conceals don't stop us from consciously remembering things…! I–I don't know what's wrong–I–” His breaths quickened even more, and there was a slight wheeze to them due to the visible bruising on his neck. Then he coughed dryly.

“Efron…?!”

“I'm… really thirsty…”

Gretel hesitated. There was plenty of freshwater puddles covering the wet prairie below, and even some nearby in the woodland they were sheltered in. “Can you walk? There's water right over here,” she directed him.

Her friend tried to stand a second time, gathering his legs beneath him in a kneeling position, but she noticed how his limbs trembled weakly in their attempts to support him. He didn't have the strength to rise.

“Mornin’, little lady,” Clay’s voice sounded from the base of the slope. “I brought breakfast for you and your pal, if you haven't hunted yet.” A few moments later when he reached the top of it on level ground with the juveniles, he froze at the sight. “H-Hey, now, don't push yourself, pal! You need to recover! Was a nasty gash, that,” he said to Efron, gesturing to the latter's wrapped arm.

The revealer’s green ears pinned back with fear at the sight of the large predator before them; Efron instinctively threw himself between Gretel and Clay, his blue wings folded in front of him like a shield.

“Efron, it's okay! He's a friend!” she informed him. “He saved us!”

The violet dragon was still hyperventilating in a panic both from his lack of memory and now from Clay, but he drew in a deep breath in an attempt to calm down after Gretel’s reassurance. When he was still clearly anxious after the fact, though, his gemstone glowed in a conceal. He visibly calmed down, but his green eyes were still focused warily on the stranger.

“It's alright,” Clay soothed him. “I get it; you must have been through a lot leading up to that wound. Rest assured I mean you no harm.”

Efron breathed again, then looked back at Gretel, fully relaxing when she nodded to confirm it.

“I’m Clay. When I found you both in the water last night, you were cold and pale from blood-loss, and still bleeding. I wasn't sure you'd survive even after your wound was cauterized,” the blue-eyed water type admitted. “You can't expect to bounce back so soon after that. Gotta rest and stay hydrated, okay? I brought some food; eating should help regain your strength.” He dropped a few large fish from his back in front of the younger dragons.

Gretel sniffed hers curiously. I've never eaten a fish before. When her stomach growled at the scent of its exposed fatal wound, she scooped the kill up in her wide mouth and chomped it down. “Hmph.” Decent taste, but weird texture. Hopefully there's better prey on the island.

Efron stared blankly at the prey that still occasionally flapped its tail even though its life was quickly fading. “I don't feel too hungry,” he admitted, wincing as his voice came out hoarse. “I just… need water…”

“Ah. No problem. I'll help you up, then,” the facultative bipedal dragon said, rising to his hind legs and extending a webbed hand to the younger male.

Efron hesitantly took it in his own clawed one, letting himself be pulled up to stand with Clay’s support. The juvenile was barely three feet tall, but he seemed even smaller compared to the adult. Gretel accompanied them as the water dragon helped the injured revealer walk to the nearest puddle, keeping a steadying hold on the latter when Efron kneeled and cupped water in both hands to drink.

The purple-striped quadruped lowered her head to lap at the surface of it. When she and her friend had quenched their thirst, Efron stood a bit stronger on his own, giving Clay a grateful nod.

“Anything else I can help with?” the brown dragon asked them both.

“W-Well… You seemed to understand a lot of medical stuff, right?” Gretel said. “You got Efron to breathe after he almost drowned, and you knew what cauterizing was… Do you think you could tell me what would cause him to have memory loss?”

“I'm not a medic, but I've heard from someone who is one that–in your friend’s case–it may have something to do with how much blood he lost; or rather, the lack of proper blood-flow to his head for such a long time."

Efron opened his mouth as if to deny that anything had caused him to bleed so much or even drown, but closed it upon once again seeing his wrapped, injured arm.

“There's a medic here? Is it your friend?” the wind type asked Clay.

“No–my friend isn't a medic. But again, he learns fast, and even the medic praised him for that,” the water dragon chuckled. “If you want me to introduce you to her, I can. But she's… skittish.”

Gretel turned to her friend. “Wanna meet her?”

The violet revealer hesitated, but ultimately nodded.

“Alright,” Clay said, dropping back to all-fours. “Just let me know when you're ready.”