A pair of eyes flickered open as she stirred. And tried not to hiss at the surging pain running through her body, for it felt as though her throat might explode if a little more fuel was added to the fire.
And then she started to panic. With a quick dart of the room with her eyes, she found the place was entirely unfamiliar. She'd never seen anything like it before. Well, she supposed it might resemble a hospital, but the architecture was way too odd, and the content of the room was completely different from anything she'd ever seen in a hospital before – but she couldn't think of anywhere else it might be, so she settled with that.
So, that brought up the question: What was she doing in a hospital, and why was she in so much pain?
She tried to sit up for a better look at her surroundings, but quickly found herself unable to move without provoking the fire on her flesh to get hotter. She actually had to look down to check whether or not the fire was metaphorical. Fortunately for the owner, this bed would not be burnt tonight.
So, she couldn't move. The only thing she could do was lie there and wait for the pain to either ease or bring her to her death. And think. Maybe if she could just remember what had happened in order for her to end up in such a weird, frightening place with such an aching body...
She had... she had had a fight with her parents (the bigots they were!). Her memories ran a little blurry and red tinted for tears had stung her eyes. She remembered stuffing all of her things into her trunk and hoisting it out the front door.... and then she ran. She ran as far away from the house as she could – and what better place to rid them than the forest? She was the only one who could find her way through it, what with it being much of a second home, and despite a shriek of her name (Eia! That's right, she remembered now, her name was Eia) her parents would never dare to follow her, even if they wanted to.
But... she was confused and panicked and hysterical because of what she'd just done. And then her memories started to faze again, but this time it wasn't because she had been crying.
The next thing she could remember was waking up in a strange place with burning skin and aching joints.
And the only thing that outweighed the pain was curiosity. "What the heck happened to me?" she thought, frustrated at being so uninformed and immobilized.
Her irritation grew stronger every passing moment, as her pain slowly ceased.
And then finally, finally, someone entered the room. She had been willing someone to come in since she had woken up, but now they were here she hadn't a clue what to say.
"What-?" she croaked, but a sharp stab at her throat stopped her.
"Shh," the woman hushed gently. "You shouldn't talk or move for another two hours. The transformation is almost complete but it will take a little while to adjust to your conscious form."
Transformation? Adjust to her conscious form? What on Earth was this stranger talking about?
"You are at St. Mungos, Felicia. You're very lucky you got here when you did – it isn't likely you would have survived if you hadn't. I'm Healer Cartruce and I've been assigned to take care of you while you're here. I know you probably have a lot of questions, dear, but I'm afraid they'll have to wait until you're feeling better. You absolutely will not attempt to move or talk until I say otherwise," she ordered sternly.
The woman nodded her goodbye, and left the confused girl to herself again. Eia found herself reading into the woman's words too deeply, but it was all she could do. There was another two hours of this immense pain to go, after all.
So she began to wait for pain to end, wondering if running away was really worth it.
Eia Hunt by TrippleZeroItalics
Chapter Notes: Prologue.
Chapter Endnotes: (Yet to find a better story title... )
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