Andrew woke in his bed. A cold compress on his head and the duvet snuggled up tight around him. His woozy thoughts took a while to register. He could hear the familiar sounds of mom bustling about the house. He could also smell chicken broth and toasted bread. A meal mom made for him whenever he got the flu. Did he have flu? He sniffed and found no congestion. His skin though, was hot and feverish and he quickly pushed the duvet off, but the air felt sluggish as if he couldn’t get enough of it. What a strange dream, he thought to himself, as fragments of his meeting with Willow seeped through his thoughts. Then it all came rushing back and he clutched around himself desperately for the egg.

Not finding it, he breathed a sigh of relief, but then thought about it more carefully. Had mom found the egg?

He could hear her clinking cutlery and knew she would be bringing a tray in quite soon. Did he have enough time to search his beside drawers.

The creak of his door room opening and mom's gentle whisper abolished that idea. He settled down instead and waited for her to enter.

“Andrew, you’re awake? Good, I have some broth for you.” Despite her calm and gentle voice, she could not hide the dark circles of concern surrounding her tired face. A stab of guilt made Andrew doubly sorry he had been keeping secrets from her.

“Um, Mom.. umm..”

“Shush now, we can talk about it when you feeling better. You’ve slept for two days. I had the doctor in yesterday, but he couldn’t find anything wrong with you. In fact he said he had never seen a more healthy young lad, but even so, we were unable to rouse you. The doctor said maybe it’s growing pains, and certainly you’ve had a growth spurt these last weeks. In fact I never noticed until I had to carry you from the porch to your bed. Do you remember any of that?”

The worry in her face seemed to double as she recounted finding him collapsed on the porch. She herself had found nothing wrong with him and the Doctor after his thorough inspection had taken a blood sample for good measure. It would take a few days before any results came back.

“I’m fine mom, I’m just… I don’t know, I didn’t realize how tired I was. “ Andrew speculated lamely. How much should he tell her? How much could he tell her? He needed to speak with Willow more, to learn more about his situation.

“Mom, did I have anything with me when you found me?” asked Andrew. A note of panic in his voice that brought his mothers fussing to a halt. She looked at him sharply.

“Something with you? like what? I don’t think so…” she trailed off, but she couldn’t hide the suspicious look she gave him. Before he could answer she hit the nail on the head.

“Andrew, have you been into the forest?” the question was almost scolding in its intensity and Andrew was immediately defensive. The lie of denial springing out his mind, forcing its way to his lips, but before he could utter a word he paused.

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“ … Nnnn… N… “ for some reason he couldn’t do it. Guilt written plainly on his face. His mother knew him too well, and to top it off, it seemed he couldn’t speak out the denial at all beyond the first syllable.

“You have! .. you have been into the forest. Andrew, you must tell me. Did you pick up anything? Have you been hiding things from me?” Jenny Thatcher was getting frantic and poor Andrew had no reply. He just shrugged and nodded his head slowly. The hurt look in his moms eyes did nothing to assuage the guilt he was feeling. After all his preparations for this confrontation, he hadn’t expected it to come so soon. He hadn’t expected his mom to jump on the truth so quickly. She knew something and that added more to his guilt as he remembered the days the egg had been hidden in the house. Perhaps she could have warned him, but it was too late now and in front of her glaring accusatory stare it all spilled out. The entire story. With each sentence her expression seemed to crumble and silent tears flowed down her face.

“But Mom, its harmless and it helps me and Willow said she would protect me.” Andrew finished his tale with a plaintive appeal, trying to say the things that would comfort her.

Jenny just shook her head slowly. “Oh my poor boy, do you know what you have done?” Her voice cracked and Andrew didn’t know what to say. No matter how he looked at it, his time with the egg was nothing but positive. What could she tell him that could be bad about it? It was like a dream come true.

“Dad was a Knight for them. Why didn’t he tell me?” Instead of defending his actions, Andrew decided to figure out the tenuous threads of the egg’s connection to his family.

The hurt look his mom emitted, gave him pause.

“That is what killed him you know..” she croaked, almost breaking down in front of him, but somehow she managed to keep it together and then despite his consternation and desperate need to know more, Jenny stood up, wiped her tears and left the room to close her bedroom door with a defining click.

To say Andrew was dumbfounded was an understatement. To say he was confused was putting it mildly. How had the egg had anything to do with the illness Dad had? “Wait mom..” he called out gently as he stumbled out of bed to follow her. He tried desperately to get to the door before she closed him out, but she had already closed and locked the door and her deep throaty sobs filtered through to his ears. Her whisper followed a moment later.

“Please Andrew, get some rest, we will talk about this in the morning. I just… I just need some time.” He stifled his confusion, sensing the finality in her words and went back to his bed.

What had he done? What was this all about? He lay simply staring at the ceiling. His soup untouched. All thoughts of where the egg was, had vanished. In its place twirled thousands of questions that could not be answered until his mom had recovered her composure. Until she opened up and spoke to him. The last thing he wanted was to bring her more grief and he just couldn’t understand what this all had to do with the mysterious egg and the discovery of the hidden world called Faelare.

To make matters worse, he hadn’t even been there yet. It felt like he was going to lose everything before he even got a chance to experience it. It was a selfish thought, but equally sincere, because he knew, without a shadow of a doubt that if it came to a choice between the egg and his mom. Of a choice between a mysterious world and a chance to help mom feel better, then his mom and what remained of his sense of family won every day of the week. If only he had known it was dangerous. If only he .. wait, Willow said she owed us. Perhaps… no? could she? Could she help mom overcome her grief? His first thought to bring dad back was immediately flung aside. He was certain that not even Willow, whoever she was in her world, and as powerful as she seemed to be, couldn’t bring back the dead.

Tossing and turning, Andrew wrestled his tired mind until passing out to have fitful dreams.