Wide awake

When Laandra woke up, the room was filled with the warm light of sunset.

She lay in a bed, covered with a soft blanket up to her chin. Forcing herself upwards, she discovered she only wore a white shirt…definitely not hers, yet its scent was strangely familiar to her nostrils. It only came half her thighs and Laandra hesitated before stepping out of the bed, in the friendly quietness of the room.

Suddenly she felt dizzy. Looking down at her chest she saw it was cleanly bandaged, wrapping over wrapping of runecloth.

She took a few steps, slumbering. Never had she felt so weakened, so utterly drained in her entire life.

“ Take it easy”…

The voice was soft, and the words were in Common, with only the faintest trace of Thalassian accent. Laandra turned, only to see Eireannan leaning against the door frame. The anger that weakness and sleep had quenched for a while, suddenly burst free at the forefront of her mind.

She lashed at him with such speed and agility that Erieannan was taken by surprise. He barely had time to avoid the ice shards that pierced the wall only milimeters from his head. A ball of flames followed the same way, and he dashed out of sight, stumbling on the stairs.

“ How dare you?” he heard Laandra yell as she appeared in the doorstep, where he had been just seconds before, her hands summoning intricate patterns of fire.
Eireannan dashed again to avoid her strike.

Stopping her without making use of any pain-causing spell was definitly not going to prove easy.

His back against the wooden wall of the cottage Eireannan listened to her rushed, unsure steps as she came down the stairs. Hell, she had all the right to be angry, he thought, disgusted by his own actions. However, the faint trace of self-preservation he still possessed warned him that being at the receiving end of her fireballs wasn't quite a pleasant option.

He heard her stagger down the stairs, then her imprecations become softer, laced with sobs.

He used the moment to close the distance between them and take hold of Laandra, pinning her against the wall with all his weight, her arms wrested away at an uncomfortable angle.

“I don’t want to hurt you” he yelled back at her. “Stop it!”

Laandra looked up, her eyes gleaming with tears, while weakness made her tether from side to side, her arms still pinned under Eireannan’s weight.

“ It was awful” she sobbed. “ I was dead, yet I could feel everything. And the pain…”

“ I know”, Eireannan whispered. He held her now close, his fingers caressing her ruffled, silken blue hair. “I know that pain.”

“ And then I dreamed again of Draenor…” Her sobs became really muffled now as she let herself slide down, by the wall. Eireannan followed her movement, so as not to break physical contact. Light knew what she would be able to do…run erratic all over the place, setting it ablaze.

Well, he had spent three days without eating, or drinking, after the first time he used a soulstone. Lying on a bunch of dirty blankets in the basement of a deserted house, back in the Plaguelands, nightmares sapping at the remnants of his strength. That much about taking it easily.

“ You’ll have to tell me about those dreams” he said, softly. “ But now you need to eat and I’ve cooked something…”. He gave her a gleeful smile. “ My cooking’s bad, I know…but it’s still better than nothing…”