Vaeri heavily huffed as she opened the door to the front of her house. She thought due to her height and the state of the human's body, she would be light. Oh, how wrong she was.
The human was in and out of consciousness, mumbling soft words near her ear. Vaeri didn't understand a single thing and opted to focus on keeping them moving.
She was sick. The moment Vaeri touched her, her hand burned similarly when touching fire. For an elf, that kind of temperature was a death sentence.
As she carried her on her back, both of her arms remained limp on the side of her head, carelessly brushing against the bushes. After caressing her face, the human went limp. Vaeri watched her try and fail again and again. She had quite the willpower, unfortunately, her body simply shut down. She must have built up quite the fatigue for her body to act like this.
It made her wonder about the circumstances of how the human found the portal.
From the looks of it, it was purely unintentional. There were no signs of tampering or rituals. It was a sight that was similar to her daughter's arrival. Even then, she didn't have an answer due to Niana being incapable of speech.
By the time she arrived home, her back felt like it was going to melt off from the heat.
She watched her daughter peak out of the closet the moment Vaeri entered the house. Her wide, red eyes looked at them with curiosity.
"Mama? What's that?" Her little feet padded against the wooden floor as she approached her mother. Those eyes remained on the human on her back.
The human's head lifted when she heard a new voice. Seeing a child, she smiled before all the strength in her body left her again.
Niana's smile split her face. In response, she started hopping in place as she fired a dozen questions at her mother.
All of them being, "Will she be staying with us?", yet worded differently each time. Her childlike excitement brought a smile to Vaeri's tired face. Each question was answered with either a nod or shake of her head.
Climbing the stairs was a battle with her breathing. It wasn't a long walk from the crash site to their house, yet Vaeri felt exhausted from doing so with a human. She didn't know if it was due to her lack of strength and stamina or the human was just that heavy in comparison.
She approached her bed. There, she placed the human to lay on her back. Vaeri carefully unequipped the metal armour on her person, allowing for the human to breathe easier as she lay.
Vaeri checked her temperature again. It was a constant heat. From the looks of her, it had worsened as she went through the portal.
She continued to strip her down until she was naked, noting down every scar she saw on the woman's body. "Niana, would you be a dear, and grab the medical box?"
Niana, who was watching her mother closely, sprung up and saluted. "Yes, Head Mistress!"
Vaeri raised an eyebrow at her daughter's retreating form. "What did you say?"
"Eek!" Niana retreated faster.
Vaeri sighed. She shouldn't have let her daughter freely read the books in their library. There wasn't anything inappropriate for her age, but there were some that were Vaeri's guilty pleasures.
And it seems as though those guilty pleasures are being reflected on her daughter's behavior. Vaeri didn't know if she should be disgusted or proud.
A little later, Niana came back with the item, a proud smile displayed on her face.
Vaeri gently petted her head. "Good job, baby."
The praise easily went to her daughter's head. Niana began dancing in place, her cute little hands wiggling like a snake.
Vaeri went to work. After checking her body for other kinds of injuries, she confirmed that the human was terribly ill. Fortunately, it could easily be cured over the next few days if she were to consistently drink medicine and properly rest.
The unfortunate news was that Vaeri lacked the proper medication for a human adult. The ones she had were for Niana and they were diluted and mixed with different herbs that assist the child's body. It wasn't the same for an adult.
She should be able to make the appropriate one but it would take the entire day.
Vaeri opened the medical box and pulled out the empty runes she had there. These were supposed to be used for emergencies due to their high potency but she should be able to split them into multiple pieces and convert them to ice.
"Can I help?" Niana asked, her celebration from earlier dying down as she carefully watched her mother's expert fingers.
Vaeri smiled at her, "Of course, darling. Could you get a bucket full of water?"
"Yes! I can do that! I've been training my arms." To show off, she flexed the flabby arms with great concentration. Vaeri made a show of gasping and congratulating her daughter for being well prepared in their crisis.
Once again, Niana left.
As she waited for the water to arrive, she crushed the empty runes into smaller pieces. Every time she did so, she felt as if her wallet was slowly getting lighter with every move.
There was a reason why these kinds of runes were for emergencies only. Their high potency was a rare find in nature. They could be made by hand but it would take her months of preparation and materials to make a single rune.
And here she was, crushing two for ice of all things.
She could have used cheaper runes but they ran out. Their winter supplies were close to nothing now, with the addition of this woman, she calculated that they wouldn't last two days with what they have now. And if she were going to add the woman, they would need twice the supplies to make it through spring. She would need to touch her savings to meet their needs.
Vaeri questioned the situation that she got herself into.
Her father had always scorned her heart for being too soft. He was right in the sense that it would lead to situations that exposed her to too much danger. He was right in a lot of things. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't wrong in some.
She knew that helping this human was the right thing to do. The scars on her body made her seem dangerous. Vaeri chose to believe that there was some good in her. There was a gentleness there when she caressed her.
Those lonely silver eyes that screamed in voices Vaeri couldn't name.
She doubted that it was aimed at her. But it did mean that it was aimed at something.
Caring takes a good amount of strength and courage. Being able to care is a skill that could easily be taken away by a multitude of factors. That's why, when the human looked at her like she was her world, Vaeri chose to help her.
The small runes were ready. She took some and squeezed them into the palm of her hand. Frost crystalized at the surface of her skin as it exuded a cool mist.
That hand went over the human's face. Vaeri grabbed another handful in her other hand and closed her eyes.
She was going to perform a small spell. A spell that should help her body rest and recover, as well as, cool down the extreme heat of her skin.
She etched the runes at the back of her skull, drawing them to life with soft enchantments. The ice runes that were near the human's face, drew in a part of her mind.
A rush of thoughts came to her. Thoughts that she could understand.
"Where am I?"
"I feel like I'm about to explode…"
"I saw Lilith. I must be dreaming…"
"I need to escape!"
"Did I die?"
That... was not supposed to happen.
Vaeri pushed past the rush of emotions and thoughts to finalize her spell.
"Finz!" She chanted. The runes in her hand crumbled at the end of the cast before she blew it all over the human's body.
Vaeri took a moment to recuperate and gather her thoughts. She could still feel the human's presence linger in her mind. A desperate voice, muffled by the weight of responsibility.
The recovery spell was very basic. It was an entry-level thing that children were able to perform. Vaeri mastered that spell long before she reached teenhood. There was no way that she was the one that messed up the casting.
Which meant that the human must have tampered with it somehow.
She placed a hand on her skin and was relieved to know that the spell worked at least. The human was breathing a bit easier, the frown on her face finally leaving her as she fell into deep slumber.
Whatever happened with the runes, she would eventually get her answers when this woman wakes up.
"I'm back, Mama! Look! I didn't spill any of the water, and I brought clean towels too even though you didn't ask!"
Vaeri stood up, her heart melting at her daughter's proud smile. She pulled her in for a hug and kissed her all over the face. "My, aren't you just perfect, my love. Thank you, Niana."
Niana giggled, an innocent blush spreading across her face. "You're welcome, Mama." She said with a kiss on her mother's cheek.
When her eyes eventually went to the sleeping human on her mother's bed, Vaeri already knew how they were going to spend the rest of their morning. "Do you want to help wash her?"
"I can?" The child beamed.
"Of course. But you have to be very careful."