As much as Jack wanted to sit here and wait for all his problems to go away, life is rarely so kind, and this was no exception. All three of them needed medical attention, and the longer they sat in the middle of the camp, the more likely it became that some of the runners would return.

Jack picked himself up and helped the girl to her feet. She was much heavier than she appeared, but Jack had been expecting that and braced himself for greater leverage. She looked Jack up and down a moment before speaking in a small yet worried voice. "You look so pale! We need to get you to a healer!"

S'haar barked out a laugh, followed shortly wincing and reaching for her injured shoulder before replying. "Don't worry too much. Jack may have seen better days, but that's just the way he looks. The worst physical injury he probably sustained today was when you tackled him, be a bit more careful in the future, He's much more fragile than us argu'n."

Now the girl looked at Jack with confusion, and maybe a little fear. "He's not argu'n? Is he some sort of demon?"

Jack let S'haar get another laugh and subsequent wince out of her system before speaking. He needed her to translate after all. "I'm no demon, and despite the local rumors, I'm no dragon either. My name is Jack, and my race call ourselves humans. This is my translator, guide, bodyguard, and, most importantly, friend, S'haar."

Jack started rubbing the back of his neck, awkwardly. What does one say to a child who's faced more horror in one day than many people will in a lifetime? "What can we call you?" Jack couldn't help but feel a little lame.

The girl seemed to make up her mind about something and nodded her head before replying. Folding her arms in her lap and performing what was an obviously formal bow. "My name is Em'brel. Thank you very much for saving me, master Jack, mistress S'haar!"

S'haar was amused when Jack's awkwardness jumped up a few levels at the spoken title. She couldn't help compare him to the men of her village again. Most of them would have preened under such a title. Instead, Jack just looked uncomfortable. He confirmed as much when he spoke. "Uh, Jack is fine. The only thing I'm a master of is getting into trouble. Also, given everything we've all been through, let's just drop the formalities altogether for now."

Jack looked around, taking stock of the situation. "Anyway, we all need medical treatment. Let's head back to the cave. After we're back on our feet, we can take you wherever you'd like."

Em'brel looked off in the distance, her mask of calm slipping for a moment before she was able to get it under control. "I... I don't have anyone else... My father was taking me to be married to some lord's son I'd never met, and now he's... he's..."

Jack calmed her again, stroking her "hair." He was a little nonpulsed by the feel of the boney hair her people had as well as the soft clacking sound it made as he stroked it, but the girl seemed to take comfort in the action. "Ok, ok, we don't have to decide anything at the moment. For now, let's get healed up. Once we're back in shape, we can worry about whatever the future holds."

After translating, S'haar turned to Jack. "What about the cart full of iron and kovaack? Also, are you sure you want to take her into your cave? That might raise... complications."

Jack started walking, and the other two followed as he spoke. "First and most importantly, if we need to, we can replace everything in the cart, including the cart itself. However, you and the girl can't be replaced. So we're getting you both treated. Second, this time of year, it'll probably be fine. It's getting too cold for any argu'n to be far enough out where they could find it. Third, How could we move it if we wanted to? Your arm needs healing, and the two of us simply aren't strong enough."

S'haar couldn't fault his logic, Jack continued. "As far as taking Em'brel home, I'm aware of the complications, but again, what choice do we have? Neither of us is in any condition to escort her anywhere, and I'm not leaving her on her own out here."

Once again, S'haar couldn't disagree with him.

Em'brel cleared her throat and spoke in that same small voice as if afraid what she was saying might get her in trouble. "Shouldn't we go to a village rather than some cave?"

Realizing what she'd said, Em'brel suddenly looked both worried and embarrassed. "If it's your home, I'm sure it's a very nice cave, but you two need a healer!"

Jack smiled. The poor girl was in for a bit of a shock. Best to ease her into it a bit. "The... cave we're headed to isn't like a normal cave. Among other things, it just so happens to currently house the best healer in the world, my sister."

Em'brel had that look all kids get when they think they know more than the people they are talking to but was polite enough not to vocalize her thoughts.

-

As the group approached the cave, S'haar got down on one knee and looked Em'brel in the eyes as she spoke. "Now listen carefully. What you are about to see will be stranger than anything you've ever seen in your life. The strangest of all is Jack's sister. However, you need to understand, nothing in there will hurt you so long as you don't try to harm Jack or myself. Do you understand?"

Em'brel was starting to look worried again as Jack merely smiled off to the side. When Em'brel finally nodded, S'haar stood up and let Jack lead the way.

As Jack walked into the cave, it quickly grew dark, and Em'brel grabbed hold of S'haar's right hand. Despite the darkness, these two obviously knew the path they were traveling well enough, but Em'brel jumped with every sound bouncing off every hidden corner.

S'haar had been surprised by the contact at first but quickly realized the girl was still dealing with everything she'd been through, S'haar gave the girl's hand a comforting squeeze, and soon Em'brel had wrapped her other arm around S'haar's arm as well, walking while hugging S'haar's arm to herself.

Off to either side of the cave were occasional tunnels that looked like they had been recently dug. However, neither Jack nor S'haar seemed worried about what might be inside, so Em'brel kept her eyes straight and continued walking. Eventually, the cave started lightening up as they walked. It didn't flicker like firelight, it looked almost like daylight, but they hadn't gone anywhere near far enough into the mountain to be coming out the other side yet.

As the light grew brighter, Jack approached what looked like a dead end. There was just some random wall in the middle of the cave, and unless Em'brel was mistaken, it was made from a fortune's worth of metal. As Jack walked up, a part of the wall slid to the side on its own, revealing a bright and cheery room like nothing Em'brel had ever seen before.

Jack walked inside, and with a squeeze of the hand, S'haar led Em'brel in as well. Inside was pleasantly warm, as though a fire was being tended nearby, but Em'brel couldn't smell anything burning. Everywhere she looked, there were fine metals, leathers, and several materials Em'brel had no concept of. Until now, her father had been the wealthiest person she'd ever known, but even when he'd had his wealth, he wouldn't have been able to afford a fraction of what was on display in this room.

True to S'haar's words, the strangest thing of all was Jack's sister. Her body was shaped more similarly to Jack's than an argu'n, but that's where all similarity ended. First of all, she was tiny. Second, she flew through the air. Third, she glowed blue.

As they walked in, the blue woman darted for Jack, speaking in the same sing-song language of his, but much more rapidly. As soon as S'haar walked in, the blue woman exploded into energy flying around them at dizzying speeds while speaking in a continuous strain of syllables.

Finally, Jack barked out a few words, and the blue woman came to a halt just in front of Em'brel's face. "Ohmygodyouaresocute, Iwanttospeaktoyou, butIneedtogetS'haartreatedfirst!"

Em'brel realized the blue woman had switched to a language she understood but spoke so rapidly that all the words bled together until it mostly sounded like gibberish.

S'haar kneeled and looked at Em'brel again. "You doing ok? It's a bit overwhelming at first, but Jack and Angela seem to be as decent as they come."

Em'brel Looked at Jack, then back to S'haar. "I feel like I walked into a new world. Did I die back at the camp, and this is the afterlife?"

S'haar cocked her head to one side. "You know, I wondered the same thing the first time I woke up here. After a while, you get used to it. Wait until they show you a movie for the first time." The last she said with a smile.

S'haar looked over to Angela, then back to Em'brel again. "Now we have to go let Angela give us a checkup. That part won't hurt, but the actual healing might hurt a little. However, Angela can heal in a day things that would take weeks or longer. I'll go first so you can see what it's like."

The girl nodded, and S'haar stood and lead the way. Em'brel followed her into a smaller room off to the side where S'haar stood in the middle of a large circular device. The machine soon came to life with parts moving and gliding with a life of their own as they passed over S'haar. Angela explained. "What I'm doing right now is scanning S'haar. It's a way for me to see all the damage she's suffered, on the surface and hidden under the skin. The more she can remain still, the quicker this process goes."

After a few minutes, the scan ended, and S'haar stepped out. Angela approached her and started creating images of enlargened sections of S'haar's many injuries out of nowhere. "Most of the damage you received is minor and can heal on its own. However, if you'd been treated anywhere but here, you would have likely lost the arm."

Angela brushed away all the images but the arm. She then did something to enlarge the image and make the arm see-through. "The good news is I can heal it. The bad news is it's a significantly more severe wound than Jack received the other day. It will take at least a couple days, and the first day will be the worst. Rebuilding and reattaching a nervous system is excruciating, and you WILL have to be unconscious for it. The pain alone would put you into shock. Even after I'm done, the nerves will take some time to adjust, and you'll likely experience pain for a week or more."

S'haar gave a one-armed shrug. "It's better than losing my arm. When can we get started?"

Angela looked at the other two people in the room. "I'm pretty sure yours is the most demanding injury, but some injuries can be subtle until it's too late, so I'd like to at least get some scans of the other two first, then we'll decide on a treatment plan for the three of you."

Angela floated right up to Em'brel. Tilting her head to one side, she spoke much calmer than before, her voice radiating a soothing feeling. "Em'brel, do you think you can do this next? It won't hurt you, and it will help me know where you need healing."

Em'brel looked up at the machine with obvious trepidation, and having everyone here look at her so expectantly didn't help any. However, these were the people who had delivered her from the nightmare her life had been descending into.

That thought brought unbidden memories of her father on the ground that made Em'brel's eyes snap shut. Her arms wrapped tightly about herself, and she started shivering uncontrollably. As she began to fall to her knees, she found herself wrapped in another hug.

The shivering stopped, and she heard Jack speaking his nonsense words in her ear again. As she cracked her eyes, Angela spoke up. "Jack said, you don't have to do anything you're not ready to."

A little embarrassed at her reaction Em'brel pushed away and hesitantly took a step toward the machine. Turning back to Jack, she spoke with an apologetic smile. "No, it wasn't the machine... I just remembered something else..."

As Em'brel spoke, her eyes darted to the floor as she tried to fight back the images of her father dying before they could retake hold in her mind. Shaking her head a little violently to banish the memories, she stepped into the device as she had seen S'haar do before. "I can do this. I need to do this."

Angela spoke up, "Alright, just let me know if you need to stop for any reason." and the scan began.

As the lights strobed around her, Em'brel tried to focus her attention on Jack and S'haar on the other side of the machine. Every once in a while, the light would pass in front of her eyes, temporarily blinding her. Every time it happened, a vision would come unbidden into her mind. Her muscles tightened at this, but she reminded herself that the more still she was, the quicker this would be over.

Eventually, everything came to a halt, and Em'brel was able to exit the machine. She stood there somewhat shaky for a moment before looking up. "Do you have someplace I can go..." She fumbled for the right words for a moment, not understanding why something so commonplace was hard to put into words.

Angela came to her rescue. "We have some very excellent facilities on the ship. We call them bathrooms. Let me show you how they work, then maybe we can get you a bite to eat. These two have to decide how we'll proceed with treatment."

Em'brel was a little nervous about leaving Jack and S'haar's side but didn't want them to be present while she used this "bathroom" either. So she nodded her head and followed Angela out of the room.

-

As soon as Angela and the girl left the room and the door shut, another Angela rematerialized in front of Jack and S'haar. While this slightly surprised S'haar, it was such a minor thing compared to everything else these two did she barely reacted.

Angela turned to the other two with an uncharacteristically serious look on her face. "That girl is severely damaged in more ways than one. Luckily no one physical injury is too severe, she has more abrasions and contusions than I can easily list, and she has several cracked ribs as well as a few minor infections starting, but I can treat most of that in a day."

Angela waved away the physical damage as though it was nothing. "On the other hand, as I was scanning her, I saw signs of severe emotional trauma, shock, stress, exhaustion, and more. She's one small step away from total collapse. What in the world happened to her?"

Jack was grimacing in a way that expressed how uncomfortable he was with the subject. "As far as I can tell, her father was taking her to an arranged marriage with some guy she's never met when they got ambushed by raiders. Now he's dead, and she has no close friends or family left. We rescued her from the raiders, which is how S'haar got injured, and we brought her back here. When we rescued her, she'd been with the raiders for over a day, give or take, and it looked like they severely abused her in that time. That's pretty much all I know."

S'haar spoke up. "Given the formal bow she gave us and the way she spoke, she is probably the daughter of some minor lord. If her father was the one escorting her himself, rather than hiring some guards, he was likely in financial trouble and was marrying her off to secure a deal of some kind."

Jack and Angela both looked at S'haar with surprise on their faces. S'haar returned their looks and shrugged before responding. "While working in the guard, I was involved in many dealings with minor lords and ladies. It comes with the job."

Angela looked introspective for a moment before speaking to herself. "So she was facing an unwanted marriage, was present when her only close family was killed and was severely abused by raiders before the two of you showed up and rescued her? We're going to speak more about that later, by the way. No wonder she's at her limit. That's enough to break anyone."

She turned to Jack. "So, what's your plan?"

Jack was quiet for a minute while he thought. "I have some idea what she's going through, it sounds disturbingly similar to my own history, but I have no idea how to help with that. I still haven't figured it out myself..."

S'haar looked at Jack like he was missing the obvious. "Why don't you just ask her?"

Jack and Angela turned to her with a surprise for the second time, and S'haar continued. "She was about to be married. In our people's eyes, she's an adult and able to make her own decisions. Talk with her and let her decide her own future."

Jack couldn't agree with the adult part, but he understood wanting to be involved in deciding your own future. After his own trama, everyone had been quick to tell Jack what was best for him, what he should do, and where he should go. No one had bothered to listen to his thoughts and feelings on the matter. No one except Angela.

S'haar reached her good hand out to rest on Jack's arm and smiled. "Just show her the same respect you've shown me, and you'll do fine."

Jack wasn't so sure, on the other hand, what choice did he have?