Due to Lolo's injury, everyone agreed to postpone the bonfire until the following night to give her some time to recuperate. How the final match ended tainted the results of the tournament, but Standig and Lolo unquestionably won. Their pride hurt, Sattal and Tamkhee packed up that evening to leave the following morning. It was fair to say that no one would miss them.

Ming Lang visited his daughter in her room before dinner to check in and give her a hug. "I'm really proud of you for winning the tournament, but I'm especially proud of you for keeping your head and standing up to your partner, Lolo. You did the right thing."

"Thanks dad." She felt a little sheepish under his praise.

Jadu became something of a local hero and speculations of a dragon-wolf marriage in the future became a popular point of gossip that evening as Yao told and retold the story of how "the heroic young dragon saved the wolf princess as she lay bleeding out, unconscious on the cot in the medical tent. He was magnificent! A skillful surgeon! I'm just glad I got to play a small part in it by sharing my flask of alcohol. Fortunately, I always carry it with me, just in case, of course."

Philige didn't know what to do about his brother. Standig had completely shut down. Beating himself up over the accident, replaying the events leading up to it, exaggerating the severity of Lolo's injury, feeling somehow cursed to never be able to make and keep friends-- it was a fast-moving, melodramatic, downward spiral. Philige decided that it was best to simply leave Standig be as he was deaf to all reason for the moment.

Huo Lohse moved cautiously about her room and wouldn't raise her left arm above a certain point, but otherwise she was her usual cheerful self. Beta Xini absolutely insisted that Lolo stay in bed for the rest of the day if she was to have any chance at all of partying with her friends the next night. Lolo didn't want to waste a single second in bed with only a day or two left to spend with her friends, but she obeyed grudgingly.

Lolo was grateful when the first and second years (minus Standig) came to visit her in her room. "Guys, thanks for coming! I was going a little stir crazy. Mom is holding the bonfire over my head to make me stay in bed."

"How are you feeling?" Shanti asked.

"Oh, I'm alright. Just a little sore."

"Jadu asked me to check you for signs of infection tomorrow morning if you are ok with that."

"That's fine. Thanks!"

"Congratulations on winning the tournament, Lolo!" Durfein smiled.

Lolo rolled her eyes and laughed. "I've even got a memento!" She drew a few hesitant chuckles.

"Lolo…." Ulana was suddenly serious as she stopped her thought short and looked around for help.

"What's wrong?"

"You probably shouldn't let Standig hear you talk like that," Fortus said what no one else was willing to say.

Lolo's smile faded. "I noticed he didn't come with you. How is he?" Her friends exchanged glances with each other.

"He's not doing well, Lolo," Et'zana informed her. "Philige's worried about him." There was a pause during which everyone held their breath, waiting to see Lolo's reaction.

"I see. Is this why you came to see me?"

"We mostly came to check in on you, but, yes. We thought you would want to know." Zhongyan said.

Lolo's face was hard to read. "I'm really glad to see you all, but I'm suddenly very tired." They took the hint.

"Ok. Good-night, Lolo." Haowan led the group to the door.

Before walking out, Ulana turned to look at her friend. "Lolo, take care of yourself tonight, ok? We will see you tomorrow."

Lolo knew what Ulana meant, but it didn't change her plans. She watched the group of visitors dissipate from her window, and then she carefully changed out of her pajamas. It was slow, painful work. Moving to the door, she checked that the coast was clear and then slipped out. She walked as quickly as she could to Standig's room, being careful to avoid anyone. When she got to the door, she could hear someone inside.

"Standig!" She whispered loudly as she knocked. "It's me. Can I come in?" She startled when Philige answered the door. "Oh. Excuse me. Um. Is Standig here?"

"He left about five minutes ago."

"Oh. Did you see which way he went?" Philige pointed toward the front gate of Pack Hall. "Thanks." She turned to leave and took a couple steps before...

"Lolo!" She turned back. Philige's face was serious. "Lolo, Standig is in a bad place right now." He paused expectantly, but she waited for him to continue. “I wasn’t able to reach him. If... if you plan to go after him, please be careful.”

She nodded and left, hurrying toward the front gate. Once outside it, she looked around hoping to find a clue telling her which way Standig had gone. “He’d pick somewhere secluded. So not toward the city. Left into the woods or right toward Crescent Lake?” She checked for recent footprints in either direction and found some disturbed grass towards the woods on the left. “I’ll take it.” She moved down the hill and into the trees. Habit took her to the two large pine trees that she loved to climb so much.

Her side twinged, and Lolo was struck by the futility of her search. “He could be anywhere in these woods, and he has a five minute head start on me. I either need to be an excellent tracker, which I’m not, or extremely lucky to find him.” She sat down against her tree to rest for a moment and was struck by the impulse to look up. To her shock, there, up high, sitting on her favorite branch hanging over the forest canopy, was a person. “What are the odds that’s him?” Ignoring the pain in her side, Lolo started climbing. The closer she got to the top, the more the person in the tree looked like her missing friend.

With about twenty feet left to climb, Standig noticed her approach. “Lolo?! What do you think you are doing?!”

“Looking for you, and by a strange stroke of luck, you seem to have found my favorite climbing tree!” she grinned. But something in her side popped and the previously irritating pain there suddenly became unbearable.

“You should be in bed!” Standig was angry, mostly at himself, but she was an easier target. Lolo chose to ignore his tone and focus on climbing the last bit. “Go back down! You are in no condition to be climbing giant trees in the dark.”

The pain was now shooting up and down the entire left side of her body. ”I couldn’t agree with you more, but I’ve already come this far…. I’m not... giving up... just yet.” Her voice cracked a little on the last syllable as her breathing became more labored. This was a terrible place to start feeling dizzy. She was less than ten feet from the giant branch Standig was brooding on, but that suddenly felt insurmountable. She paused momentarily to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding.

Standig watched as his friend started struggling. “Lolo, are you ok?” She didn’t answer him right away, and Standig began to fear the worst. A hundred feet up in the air, a fall from this height would kill her. Standig climbed down to meet her. He helped her sit down and kept his hand on her shoulder to make sure he could catch her if she lost her balance.

Lolo looked more exhausted the more Standig looked at her: completely out of breath, trembling a little, sweating way more than she should, pale and clammy, blood on her shirt where her injury was.... Standig’s demeanor softened. “You don’t look so good, Lolo.”

Still panting hard, Lolo attempted to answer him. “I was worried about you…. I came… to find you…. You’re not doing... so well yourself.”

“Stupid girl,” Standig thought to himself shaking his head. “Alright, alright, I get it. Save your breath. You’re breathing too hard as it is.”

“It’s… my stitches.” She pointed to her side. “It’s really… hurting… all of a sudden.”

“'Want me to take a look?”

Unable to say much more, she nodded. Standig lifted her bloodied shirt and pulled back her bandages. Several of Jadu’s stitches had popped toward the top of her gash-- probably the result of her climbing-- and she was bleeding heavily again where the stitches had torn through her skin.

"We need to go see Jadu." Lolo nodded her agreement. "Do you think you can climb down?"

"Not sure." She shook her head; her eyes were getting heavy.

"I'll help you, ok?"

She smiled weakly in gratitude. Standig guided her hands and feet to branches and moved behind her. He climbed about two feet down and waited for her to follow him. When her feet were level with his, he climbed down another couple feet.

With Standig always behind and below her, they managed to safely inch their way down the tree. It was a nail-biting descent. Sometimes Lolo would manage the climbing on her own, sometimes she needed help to find her footing, and, a couple of times, Standig was the only thing keeping her from plummeting to her death. As though that wasn't enough, Standig's pants kept catching blood as Lolo's shirt reached maximum absorbency.

Feet finally on the ground, Huo Lohse laid in the grass trying to clear the accumulating fog from her head. Standig crouched down next to her, taking advantage of the break to check her injury. No more stitches had popped, but the amount of blood was worrying. It really was a deep cut.

"Lolo, we need to go. You look like you're about to pass out."

She nodded and tried to stand up. Standig was right. Her head was spinning and the nausea from earlier had returned. Standig realized pretty quickly that Lolo would need help to get to Jadu's room.

"Here," he said crouching down, "get on my back while you're still conscious. I'll carry you." She didn't argue.

Somewhere between the edge of the woods and the front gate, Standig felt Lolo's body go limp. Hoisting her up a little higher, Standig picked up the pace, arriving at Jadu's door out of breath.

"Jadu... her stitches… lots of blood."

"Come in."

"Use my bed," Shanti offered, moving a pair of books and smoothing the blankets. Standig carefully laid his friend down with Shanti's help, and Jadu got to work.

"What was she doing when her stitches popped?"

Standig hesitated, looking sheepish. "Uh, climbing a tree," he said, scratching his head.

Jadu paused to give Standig a look of surprise and exasperation. "I see." He turned back to his work. "What part of 'no strenuous activity of any kind' did she not understand?"

Standig opened his mouth to explain, but he caught a look from Shanti that told him not to bother. Instead, Standig flopped into a nearby chair to await further instructions.

After a few minutes, Jadu finished with an, "all done," and got up to wash the blood off his hands. Jadu caught sight of Standig, face buried in his arms, blood soaked into his clothes, and suggested, "Standig, get cleaned up and go to bed. You look awful."

Standig unburied his face just long enough to give a lackluster, "I'm fine."

Jadu turned to Shanti for backup, but she only shrugged her shoulders. When Jadu returned from washing, Standig was still in the chair, head in hands. "Standig, I really think you should go to bed."

Standig had been drifting between dream and reality. He jumped slightly at the sound of Jadu's calm voice. "I'll take her back to her room first, shall I?"

Once again, Jadu turned to Shanti for help. This time, Shanti obliged and Jadu moved to his bed to write in his notebook. "Lolo's in shock, and we are going to need to keep her here at least until she wakes up again."

"What... what does that mean exactly? Why do you need to keep her here?"

"She's going to be ok. We just need to keep her here to monitor her condition. Plus, it's unwise to move a person when they're in shock unless absolutely necessary."

"What can I do? I'll do anything."

Jadu looked up from his notes to exchange a cryptic look with his sister before Shanti answered. "Go get yourself cleaned up and then you can come back. Don't let Lolo see you covered in blood. You can help us monitor her tonight. We can set up a pad in the corner for you to rest in while Jadu and I take our turns, so bring a blanket."

Standig left to get cleaned up without another word.

Once she was confident that Standig was really gone, Shanti turned to Jadu. "Not family, so indebted, close friends, or lovers?"

Jadu grinned. "All three but still too early to even be aware of the last one."

Shanti laughed.