Surprised, I jerked away from the scene in front of me. Seven pillars of differently coloured light rose into the sky, where they entwined into a pure white beam that descended to cover the body of the white-haired elf.

In just a few seconds, the lights disappeared as abruptly as they had appeared. And then, there sounded a wheezing cough. I looked towards its source. There, the white-haired elf was faintly twitchi

Her eyes were squeezed shut, and small drops of red tears were seeping from under her eyelids. Deep creases covered her forehead, the muscles in her limbs were shaking - she was clearly undergoing a really unpleasant experience. At least she was breathing. Her breath was very light, raspy, but definitely present.

---

Not knowing what to do, I was totally perplexed. What was the correct rehabilitation procedure for the magically frozen and then revived elves, again?

Deciding to go all out, I picked her up and returned to the campfire. I laid her back onto the spird pelt, and checked her vitals again. Mysteriously, she had the heartbeat again. It was faint and rapid, and I estimated it to be over 200 beats per minute. I knew that such values were close to humans’ maximum values, but then again, elves might have it different.

To get rid of the frustration caused by the uncertainty, I picked up a small pebble near my knee and hurled it towards the jungle below. The pebble broke the sound barrier with a loud clap and toppled a tree in the distance. That did not give me an answer to the questions that plagued me, but it helped to settle my mind.

Well, elves should be mammals. They got breasts, at least. Therefore, hypothetically, they also ought to be warm-blooded. So, I used another spird pelt to cover the White-hair to help her to warm up. The weight of the whole pelt almost smothered her, and I had to change it for a thinner one that I had prepared for making clothes.

The next problem I had to face, was the lack of a cup, pot, kettle or a canteen. Inside the pyramid I had seen only barrels and water skins, all burst open by ice and completely unusable. And I previously had no time, skills, materials or need to make one for myself either. I certainly doubted that the elves I had found were some sort of Disney fairies, living off the sunshine and the flower nectar. Tinker Bell, Cthulhu take it.

At least I had the meat I had cut off the frozen caged animals. And salt. But damn, maybe elves are vegetarian? Or even vegan?! Or what if the salt is poisonous to them?

---

I checked the vitals of the White-hair again. She did not respond to my touch, but it seemed that the spasms had started to quiet down. Leaving her be, I decided to prepare for her awakening,

I used my poleaxe to cut off a corner of the basalt block that was a part of the entrance into the pyramid. Using superhuman strength in combination with an extremely hard and undulling tool made stonework surprisingly effortless. Fairly quickly, I managed to complete a rough-looking stone cup the size of two fists. I filled it with ice that I still had a plenty around. After thinking a bit, I used my poleaxe again to carve a deep hole into one of the steps, and left an ice block there to melt on its own. Then it was time to think about food, as the frozen meat I had was starting to melt and would spoil soon.

Unfortunately, as I attempted to cut a piece of basalt into a slab, the material kept cracking and breaking. That forced me to abandon the idea of making a grill pan, and I had to spend some time choosing suitable tree branches to make skewers. As it turned out, quite a few of local wood species gave off dangerously bitter taste when chewed, so I had to pay special attention to that. I doubted that my body would be affected by common alkaloids, but I was not sure about the elf. And of course, ruining the taste of food if that could be avoided was not an option either.

The red sun still had not moved at all from the spot I had first seen it, and I alternated between frying meat, checking up on White-hair and making another basalt cup. Time passed by, and soon I had nothing to do. The elf was lying still, eyes closed and vitals weak, but steady. Her pulse had now slowed down to below 30 beats per minute, which as far as I knew, was rather slow for humans. I was also getting bored out of my mind, so I used a basalt cup to make broth from remaining meat.

When I tasted the meat I had dry-heated and boiled, I found out that it turned out quite bad. The blood that had frozen in the tissues gave off peculiar smell and taste, and salt only added to its intensity. Well, after unknown amount of time I had spent with no food at all, actually tasting something became a welcome experience. At least the meat was edible, and I could not feel anything dangerous from it.

---

After waiting for what felt like eternity, I could not detect any changes in the white-haired elf’s condition. Guessing that she was stable enough, I decided to try to wake her up.

I warmed up a cup of water so that it would be slightly higher than the elf’s current body temperature. Then, I used one hand to prop up her head and used another to pour a tiny trickle of warm water from the cup into her mouth.

With a small gulp, she swallowed the water in her mouth and began to cough. As the coughing fit subsided, her hands shook and her eyelids twitched a bit. I guessed that the bloody tears had glued her eyes shut, so I dipped my finger into the warm water and carefully used it to moisten her eyelids. She still did not open her eyes, but her face clearly relaxed a bit.

Guessing that I was on the right track, I continued to feed her water. The coughing fits repeated, but they were clearly becoming shorter and the amount of water she could drink was increasing.

In a while, I had to make a break to heat up more water, as she had finished the cup. Then, I continued the tedious process of nursing. After a few more cups, I stopped and let her rest. Giving too much water to a weakened body might be dangerous, was something I could remember reading about.

---

After a few hours, White-hair stirred. She had some more strength in her limbs by now, but even the thinned spird pelt covering her was enough to pin her down. I felt that she might be able to drink more water, so I pulled the pelt off her, and carefully helped her upper body up. She was swaying like grass, but still managed to maintain the sitting posture. She tried to say something, but only some wheezing sounds came from her throat.

She attempted to rise her hand, but ultimately she was unable to do that. Guessing her needs, I put a cup to her lips so that she could drink. Slowly, with great difficulty, she raised her hands to try to take the hold of the cup. As she did that, she accidentally touched my hand holding the cup. The elf shook as if she were jolted by electricity.

Her previously shut eyes snapped open. A few seconds passed with both of us staying still while her eyes focused. At the moment her gaze met my eyes, her eyes went wide and with a whimper, she tried to pull away using her utmost effort.

---

But just behind her was the upwards-leading pyramid step, so as her back bumped into it, she could only look around in panic while whimpering incoherently. I almost rushed reflexively to her in an attempt to help, but thanks to my improved quick mind I caught myself before doing anything rash. I did my best to appear calm, sat still and adapted a polite, slight smile.

There we were, me sitting still and a whimpering elf trying to hide herself in a wall crack. Slowly, I put the cup of water I had in my hand onto the ground between us, nodded to her and closed my eyes. She seemed to panic at the moment our gazes met, right? That reminded me, that I had not seen my appearance after I had arrived to this world, thanks to the lack of mirrors in the decorum of the pyramid.

I sat on my heels, keeping my back straight and eyes closed, waiting for the elf to relax. Anyway, even with my eyes closed, I could still perceive my surroundings. And I doubted that she had any strength to harm me either. So I assumed a passive-friendly approach and waited, still like a statue.