Tomas Smith sat on the hospital bed and tried to get his thoughts straight. It was hard to focus with the tubes connected to his wrist that were pumping sedatives into his blood-stream. It was as if his mind had been trapped in molasses for the longest time and it was finally clearing up, ever so slightly.

The first thing he properly paid attention to was that Kat was there. She was the only other occupant in the room. There was a bed she should be resting in, but she’d taken the chair and was seated next to the young man instead.

Her blond head rested on his lap, looking up at him with wandering eyes and a thoughtful expression.

“Hey,” Tomas muttered weakly, giving a slight smile, finally having found the focus to push words out of his lips.

“Hey you, mister,” she replied, a slight smile emerging on her lips. “Finally waking up.”

“What did I miss?” He mumbled, pausing for a second as he took in the room around them. “We… made it?” The walls were a light green, and the window was framed in stone, wood was the main building material he could see besides the cement.

“You’ve been out only about a day.” Kat nodded. “Nurses said to take things easy, the medicine will make it hard to, you know, think and shit.”

“I think I do.” Giving a slight nod, he leaned back down, closing his eyes. “What happened?”

Kat’s smile broadened further. “Depending on who you ask, we either washed up on the shore… or a certain someone dragged my cute butt out of the water after nearly drowning like a rat.”

“Rats are great swimmers, I read that-”

“Don’t ruin the moment, dumb dumb.” The poke she gave Tomas’ chest made him wince. “We caused quite a stir, apparently they sent everyone out as soon as they’d confirmed the details.” There was a slight trill in her voice, her smile growing further still. “We made it, we should celebrate.”

Tomas was only able to nod, not quite sure what or how they should celebrate. Everything was so tiring and so far away. Still, a great wave of relief washed through him. “The others?”

“Last update I got was that they’d found the bus, not much else.” Kat was awfully close- her eyes sparkled, and her lips parted ever so slightly. The kiss was soft, lasting only a handful of seconds before she pulled back, cheeks having gained a light shade of red. “That’s… for saving me.”

Tomas’ lips turned upwards into a slight smile. “Thanks.”

“No, you dumb ass.” She let out a giggle, lightly punching his shoulder, but the light tap brought a heavy groan out of the young man. Kat immediately recoiled. “Oh, woops, sorry about that. Let me get a nurse.”

“A… nurse?”

“Oh, right, they told me to get one as soon as you woke up so they could give you another round.”

“Another round?”

His question remained unanswered; Kat had left the room before he could even process her words. The door had closed with a soft click, and Tomas was now alone with his own half-drugged thoughts.

As he laid on the bed, he tried to sit up but couldn’t quite manage, so he remained there instead, staring and taking in his surroundings.

The bed reminded him of the ones he’d seen in movies about the old war. There was flat, white arched wood at the head and the bottom. And right next to said bed was the pipe holding on to a pair of upside down bottles that were connected to his wrist through some tubes. One of them was glowing softly, as if someone had dissolved a light-bulb into the liquid itself.

Odd.

Tomas glanced at the rest of the room. There was one other bed much like his own, but lacking any of the medical equipment. Near the corner was a large wooden table, on top of which he could recognize his backpack. The room itself felt… rustic. It lacked the caustic sterile whites of a hospital he was used to, the biggest factor being the window. Wooden frame embedded into stone.

It was like he’d been transported to some tiny European town during the medieval ages. But that didn’t quite fit. Not when there was a set of cords leading to a device with a screen that was keeping track of his heartbeat and blood oxygen.

And yet his eyes kept drifting towards the dimly glowing bottle that was dripping a transparent fluid into his veins. His thoughts were interrupted when the door opened, Kat stepping through, closely followed by a nurse.

A demure looking nurse wearing a pink uniform and a light green choker followed the human.

A nurse with a pink uniform that showed more thighs than Tomas thought would have been legal. His eyes bulged slightly, trying to move his attention elsewhere, finding a white name tag atop her left breast. ‘Dia’ it read.

It almost took him a full second to realize the nurse’s head sported hair that was almost as equally pink to the uniform. More strange was that the woman looking at him had vibrant purple eyes. Yet for all his shock, her smile was calm and reassuring as she approached. “Mister Tomas, I will be doing a minor checkup on you. If you’ll excuse me…”

Dia reached out with those small hands of hers and gently squeezed his wrist. The touch was soft and warm- warmer still when her palms began to glow a dull white. The warmth very suddenly spread across Tomas’ body and he could do little else than relax, melting into the bed, his whole body going limp. The world had suddenly lost the ability to be anything but pleasurable fluff and pillowy clouds.

And just as quickly as it came, it left.

Tomas shuddered slightly, looking up at the pink-haired nurse. His mouth was hanging open. His whole body felt better, and not just in the subjective sense. The dull aches and pains were entirely gone, at least for the most part. It was as if he’d suddenly jumped ahead a whole week or five. “What did…?”

“One or two more sessions and you’ll be good as new, Mister Tomas.” The nurse smiled, though the gesture faltered when she focused on his glasses. “If you’d like, I could also take care of that.”

“That?”

“Your glasses, sir.” Without missing a beat, she reached out to his face, caressing the side of his head. “I was told by Miss Catherine about your eyesight deficit, I would’ve tried fixing it earlier, but it’s always best to do some confirmation while the patient is awake.”

“I don’t…” Tomas’ eyes widened. “My glasses?” He turned to stare at Kat; the young woman was giddy, grinning from ear to ear.

“Go on, ask the sexy nurse to fix you up, you look cooler like this, you know?”

Said nurse blushed ever so slightly. “If you’ll excuse me, this might feel slightly uncomfortable.” With her other hand, she covered his eyes, and the same odd warmth from earlier washed over him, but only briefly this time. When she pulled back, the young man was left blinking away tears and needing to squint for a moment or two.

Everything looked so… sharp. As if he’d just cleaned his glasses and put them back on, except the high-definition was not limited to a rectangle.

“Oh wow.”

“I am glad you approve, sir.” The nurse bowed her head.

“That was so cool, how does it feel?” Kat chuckled, leaning forward and gripping Tomas’ hand.

Her eyes moved up her arms and to her beaming smile, her brilliant blue eyes, her wild unkept dark blond hair. “You… look prettier.”

That caught the young woman by surprise; she turned away slightly, cheeks reddening. The nurse apparently found this quite amusing as she giggled. “If you’ll excuse me, sir, ma’am.” She bowed slightly, turning to leave.

Tomas waited until the pink-haired woman was gone. “Kat, just where are we exactly?”

That brought back the young woman’s enthusiasm, her smile sparkled all the wider. “You’re not going to believe it. This place is so cool, well, cool for being a small little village near the frontier of a kingdom. It’s just…”

Her words were knocked out of her lips when an alarm blared outside. It was a quick incessant beep that made their hairs stand on end. Kat was on her feet in seconds, opening the door to the room just in time to have Dia push her a step back. “Please stay inside, ma’am.” The nurse said in a rush, turning away, following right behind a bed that rushed past the entrance, no less than three other nurses rushing past.

Dia closed the door, the sound of her steps echoing as she moved to follow the bed.

Tomas looked at Kat, the young woman’s face was pale.

“Kat?”

“That was Rick.”