"This is a right mess yer've got yerself into, Lizia Emmeline Kempton, this is! Yer could be throwed in jail, yer could. And fer what? 'Elpin' a bloomin' Tam, what would kill yer same as look at yer if she 'ad the chance! Yer a right idiot, yer are!" Lizia's conscience screamed.

"She 'as the right to 'elp, same as anyone." the Cocknelian spoke aloud, as she rummaged around in a cupboard for the medical kit. "Now where did I put that thin'? I know it's around 'ere somewhere." Her magenta eyes then settled on the desired object. "Ah, there it is!"

"Talking to yourself again, Lizia?" A humored voice spoke up from just behind the preoccupied woman.

With a start, Lizia whirled around to face the man who had just spoken, dropping the kit in its container with a metallic clang. "Bruce Octavius Kempton don't sneak up on me like that! Nearly gave me a 'eart attack, yer did! And what're yer doin' 'ere anyway?""

Bruce rolled his magenta eyes: "Uh, I live here?"

Lizia frowned at her younger sibling. "Yes, yer do, at that. But what're yer doin' 'ome at this time of night?"

"Got bored at the library. I've read everything there at least ten times, you know."

"So yer've told me. Now if yer'll excuse me, I 'ave much more important things to do wiv me time, 'stead of listenin' to yer chatter."

"Such as?"

"Never yer mind." Lizia then stooped, grabbed the medical kit, and hurried off.

"So," Bruce began, "Where's the Tamkaaran?"

His sister stopped in her tracks. "What're yer blatherin' on about? There's no Tam 'ere, there ain't!"

"Sure there isn't." Bruce through a look filled with skepticism at his younger sibling's now retreating form, before following her, silent as a feline stalking its prey.

As Lizia crossed to the bed, upon which the Tamkaaran was lying, she became overwrought with worry. For Kathrand'r lay still, eyes closed, rigid as a corpse.

Hastily placing the medical kit on the nightstand next to the bed, the Cocknelian began to shake the invalid by the shoulder, her movements becoming more frantic when Kathrand'r showed no sign of waking.

Slowly and painfully Kathrand'r returned to consciousness, murmuring weakly in the tongue of her people. Her incoherent muttering ceased immediately, as Kathrand'r looked into Lizia's concerned countenance.

"I have now returned from the extremely unpleasant realm of unconsciousness, Miss Lizia. You may now cease in your fruitful attempts to revive me." The Tamkaaran deduced that her rescuer had not heard her softly spoken words, for she next said: "Miss Lizia, you are hurting me!"

These words caught the Cocknelian's attention right off, for she instantly released the alien's shoulder. "Sorry, Kath! Yer all right then?"

"On the contrary," Kathrand'r winced, "I believe that you may have unintentionally dislocated my shoulder."

The magenta eyes blinked. "Sorry." Lizia quickly apologized once more. "Now, let's 'ave a butcher's at that shoulder of yer's, eh?"

"A what?"

"What my dear sister is saying, milady, is that she wants to have a look at your shoulder." Bruce looked amusedly at the Tamkaaran's confused expression. "Butcher's hook. Hook rhymes with look." he added, rather lamely.

Kathrand'r sprang from the bed, forgetting her pain, due to the righteous fury coursing through her veins at the sight of an unknown male in her presence.

She leaped towards the now chuckling male, seized him around the throat, and began to squeeze, her customary glare back in place. "I wish to know to whom I am speaking, what you wish of me, and how fast it will take me to strangle you before you answer."

Bruce gasped in answer, purpling slightly.

"Kath, let 'im go!" Lizia cried. "'E's me bruvver, 'e wants to 'elp yer, an' 'opefully yer don't get the last answer to yer question."

Kathrand'r looked towards the woman who had rescued her from certain death, with great risk to herself, and loosened her grip on Bruce's windpipe.

As his lungs filled with much needed oxygen, the Cocknelian glared at his would-be-killer. He then reared back his fist, before letting it fly directly into Kathrand'r's unsuspecting face, sending her sprawling, bleeding green spectacularly from her nose and lip.

"It's their way, sister dear." Bruce said smugly to his sister's scandalized expression, before taking his leave, muttering darkly all the while.

"Your sibling is a cruel and unyielding tyrant." Kathrand'r declared, while extracting several broken teeth. "Though he does know my people's ways well." she added, as an afterthought.

"Yeah, well, that's one way of puttin' it." Lizia replied. "Now, come 'ere an' let me take a look at yer wounds."

The Tamkaaran regarded the Cocknelian with a cool and unblinking gaze. "I thank you for your offer, but it is not necessary. I am extremely inept in the subtle art of the care and management of various wounds, injuries, and illnesses."

"Oh, yer are, are yer?" Lizia frowned. "Let's see it then."

So to prove herself, Kathrand'r removed her left arm from its sleeve, and with a complicated movement of the arm, manipulated her shoulder back into its socket, with a horrible popping and cracking of joints.

"I'd be willin' to bet that what yer just did must've 'urt like 'ell." Lizia commented.

"No," the Tamkaaran replied, "I felt no pain."

Lizia through a look filled with skepticism at Kathrand'r. "Yer liar! I saw yer wince. Yer looked like this." She then scrunched up her face in a grimace of pain.

Kathrand'r simply nodded in admittance of the truth. "It hurt indeed."

"Please, come 'ere, an' let me take care of yer wounds. I promise I won't 'urt yer."

"Forgive me, Miss Lizia, but I doubt your words, even though they are sincere." Kathrand'r replied matter of factly.

Lizia was indignant: "Yer beein' really rude, yer know that, right?"

"My apologies." Kathrand'r sighed. "I am merely tired."

"Ah, I see." the Cocknelian gestured towards the bed with one magenta hand. "Lay dahn an' kip for a bit. I'll watch over yer while yer sleep."

"And your sibling?" the Tamkaaran's voice came out meek and apprehensive.

"'E won't come near yer, love. 'E won't come near yer."

Lizia slowly eased the exhausted woman onto the soft mattress, and was surprised when Kathrand'r next spoke:

"I give you permission to tend to my injuries." She then drifted back into the blackness of sleep, silently praying that the nightmares of her past would not plague her this night.

As soon as Kathrand'r's breathing became that of someone who had just succumbed to exhaustion, Lizia slowly began the arduous task of cleaning, stitching, and bandaging (if required) all wounds on Kathrand'r's person.