I healed unusually quickly and well. My burns luckily hadn't been very serious, they had just hurt really bad and at first looked horrible. Tarissa told me that in time there should be just a slightly discolored skin on my back, and then if I was lucky, no markings at all. I would though, have a tiny scar under my hair line above my right eye from a flying piece of wood. I wore my wounds with pride, I had gotten them saving lives so they were worth it. I didn't regret my actions one bit.

After my initial time in bed recovering, Zac was invited to go to the fields with Kedrik, his son, and the other farmers. He accepted. Kedrik only had one son, by the name of Vanel, but he was only 10 summers or so old, so Zac's help was greatly appreciated.

I on the other hand spent my time in the house, helping with small things such as cooking and chopping. Some of the time I spent in the village proper, socializing with the townspeople. I no longer needed Zac's protection, I had gained their respect. Even the drunks pretty much left me alone of treated me with some semblance of courtesy. I spent most of my time with Megean though, playing games and just chatting away. She was a small, skinny girl with large green eyes and long light brown hair that seemed to shine even in the dark. She got along with everybody and anybody, always finding a way to lighten a dark day. She was just a pure joy to have around.

I had found a little alcove in the store-room that I claimed for myself. It was hidden from the doorway by a few barrels and there was actually a hole in the wall where a plank had been nailed over it. I removed this plank and lined the area with a blanket. There, I was warm, I was comfortable, I was safe, and I could see the stars and smell the night air. I often brought candles with me, and setting them in a safe place, wrote in my journal and listened to my Boomerang/MMMBop tape. I knew my time with both were short, the ink would run out and the batteries, along with my backups which I decided to save mostly for my flashlight, would die, but I loved my time there by the candle light too much to give them up quite yet. Sometimes I didn't even write. I just sat and listened to the music. The innocence and beauty of it never failed to touch my heart and spread joy and peace.

Even though we were spending more time apart from each other, Zac and my relationship never really took a turn for the worst. If anything we got slightly closer. I had never shown my alcove to him or told him about it but he knew when I had been there and I'm almost positive, what I did there. I wouldn't have been surprised had he known my very thoughts as I was sitting there, but I knew he got none of his info from my Journal. He never touched it, and I knew he wouldn't.

Megean made he way slowly into the storage room. She often saw her new friend Melli go in their for hours at a time and she was curious as to what she did in their. She didn't mean any harm by it and she didn't quite realize that she was trespassing on Melli's private place and things. She looked carefully around the dark room. She spotted a candle and lit it, again looking around the room. Then she saw it. It was a small corner in the room. It had a blanket in it and was obviously used. Megean made her way over and sat down. She stifled an exclamation as she landed on something hard. She pulled out a curious hard black object with some sort of string attached going into another hard thing with soft balls on either end. It was some sort of new contraption and she couldn't figure it out so she set it down. There was also a book with writing in it. She couldn't read though so set that down. Then she picked up a little blue tube and twisted it, sudden a light flashed and came from it. Startled she dropped it. Tentatively she picked it up and looked at it curiously. Finally after enough of that she twisted it again and the light turned off. She was amazed. She didn't know what these things were and she desperately wanted to ash Melli about them but knew she shouldn't. She couldn't let Melli know that she had gone through her stuff. Oh no, that would not do at all. Megean crept of of the corner and placed everything back as well as she remembered. Then she silently made her way out of the storage room, remembering to blow out the candle and replace it as she left.