Aithne had awoken to find herself underneath the same rowan she had cried under as a child

Keliandre had always been a healthy girl. She always worked out in the fields, and among all kinds of diseases. Keliandre had never even caught a cold. The people on the space ship with her would have called it an extraordinary immune system. Everyone was quite surprised when, two weeks into space, she became sick and just would not get better. As far as anyone could tell, there was no virus, no infection, nothing.

Keliandre was dropped off at the most prestigious of hospital space stations. They still could do nothing for her. One doctor even said, “She should be dancing among the tulips right now.” About a month after leaving her planet, it looked as if Keliandre was about to die. The head doctor, aggravated as well as intrigued, decided to send Keliandre to a planet that had a most remarkable reputation for healing the unhealable.

Keliandre had lost a great deal of weight very quickly, and was pale under her tan as she boarded the shuttle that was going to take her to yet another place she did not know. Nothing but bad had happened to her since she had come to space. Having gotten bored very quickly, Keliandre had spent the time learning the round-eared people’s language and ways of healing.

As she sat down in her seat next to the space glass for the two-hour space flight, Keliandre almost sighed with longing. She could see a planet from here. Instead she pulled out three books. Two were medical books and one was a book listing what natural things provide what chemicals. She was engrossed in one of the medical books, using a pen to list more efficient remedies, when Arrow, a pale athletic-looking young man now, came and sat in the seat next to her. His hair was still blond, and his eyes ice-blue. Arrow opened his mouth, ready to introduce himself to this young teenage girl. Aithne however, came and sat down in the third, and last, seat. She'd grown into a fine teenager in the last decade, her auburn hair cut at shoulder length and her eyes reflecting a clear sky. Aithne looked past both of the other teenagers, and saw the planet. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Keliandre lifted her hand, and spread her fingers toward the window, quickly dropping it back to her book and nodding. Aithne, confused at Keliandre's behavior, remembered to introduce herself. “I’m Aithne. I’ve been traveling for a little over a year.” She looked at the other two expectantly.

“I’m Arrow.” He didn’t elaborate.

“Keliandre.” The sick girl spoke timidly.

“You have pointed ears." Aithne struggled to remember what they reminded her of, but gave up. "Anyway, that’s a mouthful. Have you ever considered a nickname?”

“A nickname?” Keliandre had never heard of that term before.

“Can we call you Kel?” Arrow asked. Kel nodded quietly. There was a mechanical groan as the shuttle detached itself from the station. Aithne and Arrow watched as Kel shuffled through all three of the books. Aithne was watching in curiosity, Arrow in worry. Finally giving in to his chivalric side, he relieved Kel of one of the books so that she would have less to juggle. Kel thanked him in a whisper, blushing. Aithne, even though she was aware it was rude, was staring at Kel with a puzzled expression. Kel caught her at it, and got confused herself.

Aithne sighed and asked, “Your ears?”

“Back ho – where I come from, everyone has ears like this. We’re still the same species; I’m not like an oread or something.” Kel had refused to say home. Almost as soon as she said this however, she noticed the note on impudence in her own voice and hurriedly looked back at her book. Kel was unsure how she might be disciplined for it. Arrow was listening hard now. Aithne didn’t ask what an oread was, however.

“What’re you sick with?”

“No one knows.” Kel was looking very uncomfortable. She was not used to being the center of attention for so long.

Before Aithne could ask something else to distract them, Arrow asked what he wanted to know. “What’s an oread?” Kel looked shocked, and didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what oreads were, and she wanted to describe how wonderful they were. But she didn’t want to do something that would potentially hurt what had been her only friends. “Its name is similar to Naiad.”

“Those both sound like nymph varieties.” Aithne said, wondering how the other two knew about elementals. Books on them were very rare among humans. “I personally prefer air nymphs, sylphs.” Kel really liked sylphs. When she did talk to them, they always cheered her up. But they could also be very annoying. “So, what is an oread?”

Then it struck Kel. Just because she knew about them, it didn’t exactly follow that they would think oreads were real. It then followed that maybe Arrow and Aithne didn’t know any naiads. “They’re stone nymphs,” she whispered.

“Are they similar to dryads, who have the traits of their trees? You know, bark for skin and leaves for hair.” Aithne asked.

Kel shrugged, trying to get back to her book and away from all this attention.

“You talk about these dryads like there are a lot of them. Where I come from, it’s only the Naiads, and there are few of them.” Arrow took the risk, because he felt that these two girls were alright.

“Really? There are all kinds of nymphs.” Aithne would talk to anyone. She and Arrow talked for the better part of two hours while Kel slept, something she had been doing a lot of since she'd gotten sick. Kel woke after about an hour and a half, just as they were about to enter the atmosphere. She spent about five minutes looking at her book that Arrow still had on his lap, trying to figure out how to get it off of his lap without asking or touching him.

After a little bit Kel decided this would be impossible and began trying to get his attention in a tiny voice. After five tries, she turned and rested her head on the space glass, wanting to cry. As she looked outside, they were in the stratosphere. Everywhere were male things made of fire. Her gasp was loud enough that Aithne looked over and saw them too. “Beautiful, huh? They’re Pyrans” Aithne said. Kel nodded, too preoccupied to be shy.

To Arrow the Pyrans were deadly as well as awe-inspiring. He removed his gaze from the space-glass and remembered that he had Kel’s book in his lap. “Hey, Kel, do you want your book back?”

Kel turned her attention to him and nodded sheepishly. Annoyance crossed Aithne’s face as she thought ‘Is she always this shy?’

The landing and debarking process was efficient. All the passengers onboard the shuttle were off in five minutes flat. Once in the air-and-spaceport, they were rushed out of the debarking area. In the background was the female computer voice telling them where to gather regulation parkas. They had stopped and were looking around when a young woman in a uniform came to stand in front of them. She looked about seventeen.

“Is one of you a Miss Claiborne?” she asked, looking at the two girls. Kel nodded. “Well then, I have orders to help you through customs.” She smiled kindly, “I’m Sorsha. It’s my job to get you to where you are staying without you having to touch a single piece of plastic.” Sorsha led Kel away from the other two teenagers. She kept talking, trying to prod conversation out of Kel. They reached the parka counter and Kel was given the average two parkas. They went right past the passport checking section and were in a transport quite quickly. Sorsha drove, and Kel was the only passenger. “You know, the only people actually shipped here are people in need of extreme healing and the military. I’m amazed that your friends managed to come. No one is allowed to come here. That was our biannual shuttle.” Kel was paying very little attention. Something felt bad. Unable to place the feeling, Kel ignored it. Sorsha turned out onto the frozen river, still talking. A few minutes later they reached the village, stopping in front of a large house. Sorsha unloaded Kel’s small personal duffle, and then insisted on helping Kel to the door, even when Kel protested quietly that she was fine. Kel was halfway out of the vehicle when Sorsha noticed something wrong.

“Why aren’t you wearing the second parka?”

“I don’t need it.” Kel had left it neatly folded on her seat. Kel waved at Sorsha as she went back to the vehicle and drove in the direction of the compound. Kel tuned back towards the door and had barely started to knock when an enormous woman opened it.

“Ah, you are my patient, hmm?” Her dark braids were in proportion to her body, long and thick. “I am Mei, the village Healer. Go put your bag in the room marked in green, and then come sit down for some lunch."

Sorsha arrived back at the air-spaceport and went inside just in time to pick up Arrow. He wasn’t wearing a parka and it took him a full minute to convince her that he wouldn’t need one. This started a conversation. They were on their way out of the compound when Arrow stopped talking. There was a taste in the back of his throat, like fouled water. He swallowed and ignored it, returning to their conversation. Arrow waved Sorsha off, then turned and faced the door of the large house, his duffel across his back. He was about to start knocking when Mei opened the door. She gave him instructions similar to those she had given Kel, shooing him into the house,

Sorsha returned to the air-spaceport to find an irritable Aithne waiting by the door. She was wearing both parkas. Even so, Aithne shivered when they stepped into the cold garage. Sorsha gave her the parka that Kel had left in the transport. Aithne took about a minute to become good-natured enough to start talking. She had just begun to gab when she smelled stagnant air. Sorsha dropped Aithne off in front of the same large house. Aithne did not wait long to get up to the door and start knocking. Mei opened the door and introduced herself. “Go put your things in the room marked in red, then come join us at the table.”

Aithne did as directed and entered the kitchen to find her host, Arrow, and Kel dishing up large bowls of hot soup. “We’re housemates?” Aithne smiled at the irony. Mei smiled back. And Aithne laughed.