Ktheg!lik woke slowly, feeling as groggy as after a night of tasting fenefel with friends. She kept her ears over her eyes and groaned, “What in...?” She stopped talking because her throat was so painfully sore. Then she spread one ear, her eye wide. Wait. I spoke.

  Her hand flew to her mouth, which no longer had the breathing tube in it. She took a breath, then a deeper one. It was still...uncomfortable, but she could get air. Her throat was no longer closed off. Her head was pounding, though, and she still felt hot.

  She was lying in Nik!eh's nest, in darkness. Did the golem go quiet again? She struggled to sit up, and the lights abruptly turned on. Ktheg!lik flinched and fell back into the nest, covering both eyes tightly.

  “More small light,” she managed to whisper desperately, and the lights mercifully dimmed to half brightness, easing the terrible pressure in her head. She breathed a painful sigh of relief. I need something for the headache, and something to soothe my throat. But we don't have anything like that. I wonder if the golem can make those.

  The door abruptly slid open, bright light from the hall stabbing into her brain. “Ktheg!lik! You're awake!” Odaual cried out.

  “LOUD!” Ktheg!lik shouted, immediately regretting it due to a sharp stab of pain in her throat, and another in her head. Her voice egg was very tender. I probably shouldn't speak until it heals.

  “How are you feeling?” Odaual continued, only marginally quieter than before.

  “Ktheg!lik.” The golem spoke her name only, and fell quiet again. She held up one hand to telll him to wait, and used her other hand to nod, and apparently Petra had picked up the meaning at some point, because it resumed speaking. “Petra wrong.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “'Petra wrong?' About what?” she whispered. I need those tablets to write with.

  “Petra make wrong medicine.”

  “Explain,” she whispered.

  “Ktheg!lik need smaller medicine.”

  It overdosed me. It almost sounds as if it were apologizing, but it can't apologize, can it? It's a golem. It doesn't have feelings. She heaved a painful breath, but she could breathe. Worry about it later, she told herself. Bathroom, then pool.She tried to get to her feet, and found that she didn't have the strength.

  At least I'm not carrying around the oxygen tank any more...

  “Odaual, bathroom.”

  His ears spread a bit. “There's a bathroom?”

  Ktheg!lik lifted one ear to stare at him. Dare I ask...?

  “I went outside,” the man defended himself. “Just before sunrise.”

  She just shook her head and pointed. Eventually Odaual got the idea and half-carried her into the bathroom, where she showed him the controls, then shooed him out. After dropping water, she decided to wash before climbing into the pool, noting that the gurgling sounds had gone away and the water pressure was back up where it had been originally. She removed her clothes this time, putting them in to be cleaned, and adjusted the temperature of the water to shock her awake a bit without being painful.

  After a few minutes of that, she felt almost fuak!a again, though she did wish for soap. Once she was as clean as she was going to get, she exited the bathroom and walked into the pool area. She lowered the lights, then climbed down the stairs into the water and breathed a sigh of relief. Oh, that's better.

  The radio had been removed, but that much was to be expected. Odaual could have just followed the shouting, and he would want to use the radio somewhere more comfortable for him. Ktheg!lik was just as happy to stay in the dark and quiet, and try to recover. She remembered that she didn't have an oxygen tank this time, so she sat on the steps to keep her head out of the water in case she fell back asleep.

  I do feel somewhat better, though I could have done without the hangover. Golem, if you saved my life, apology accepted for the headache. I'm sorry, too. I'm sorry that I got Nik!eh killed. She started drifting off to sleep again.

  I'm sorry, Nik!eh...