I felt a sharp pain in my cheek and I snapped back to reality.
"Stay with me! You won't wake up again if you go to sleep!" A human with a medical bag stood over me.
The man force-fed me a blue liquid and I felt a warmth engulf the area where the root hit me.
"He should stabilize, but he will likely fall asleep, but he'll be fi- WHAT THE?!"
Orin burst through the door, panting incessantly. He shrunk down to a less intimidating size and stood near me.
"Ingen? Are you ok?"
A woodcutter's ax came from above and Orin deftly dodged it.
"Dad! It's ok! He's a friend."
"He doesn't look like it!"
Orin was standing over me, he had grown and bared his teeth. "What are you doing to Ingen and Laura?!"
"Orin" I wheezed out "he's the healer who saved me."
At that, Orin went back to a reasonable size and bowed his head in respect.
"I apologize for barging in, I sensed Ingen was in critical condition so I panicked."
The man returned the bow, "I apologize for the ax, I was hasty with my response."
In an unspoken agreement, Laura and her father carried my now unconscious body upstairs to a bed.
********
About an hour later.
"Ugh, I hurt everywhere..."
"Well, no shit dumbass! Why do you keep trying to die?!" Now Laura sounded like an angry version of my mother.
I felt... strange, like I wasn't fully where I was, I heard a distant voice in the back of my head. Suddenly Laura was replaced by my mother.
"Mom, help me, I'm hurt." my voice was lofty.
"Dad! He's awake!"
"Grandpa is alive momma? I thought he died before I was born."
Laura was ignoring my words, and I was incensed.
"MOM! You said you were afraid I was going to die! Why are you ignoring me?!" The voice continued to try to get my attention
Laura's dad came through the door.
"Easy there kiddo, you're hallucinating, it's just a side-effect of the healing potion."
His words fell on deaf ears, and suddenly he looked like Teacher.
"Larry! Is that you? Why are you at my house? You're supposed to be at the school!"
Laura chuckled "Is that what Teacher's real name is? Ha! That's hilarious!"
"I'm going to have to hit him with a sedative." He pulled a syringe out of his bag and filled it with a fluid. The voice became frantic.
"Hold still kid, this will only be a pinprick."
He tried to poke my arm with the needle, but I resisted.
"Get away from me, tree monster!"
Suddenly my blanket started moving, pinning down my arm.
"AHHHH! Blanket monster!"
I was poked in the arm by a needle and I felt sleepy.
--------
The next time I woke up my mother was really there, and my "Blanket monster" was still on my chest, snoring adorably.
"Huh? Why am I still at Laura's house?" I tried sitting up, only to be stopped by both my mother and Orin simultaneously.
"You are in an unstable condition, I'm afraid we can't move you."
"Whaddya mean unstable condition? I feel just fine."
"Hmm, I wonder why?" She pointed to my chest
I noticed a deep green aura surrounding a bare spot on my chest, it was obviously scarred over.
"Oh dang, that was almost my lung."
"No, that was your lung, you're lucky your friend had the wit use the security array to take you to her house, otherwise I would be in mourning." At that, mom let tears roll down her face silently. "Why must you make your mother worry?"
"So other mothers don't have to worry or mourn. Maybe so someone's father can drink with their son instead of lighting a pyre. Maybe it's just because I'm going through the binding, but even if that's why, I don't want to change." I reached up as if I were grasping the stars. "I just need to get stronger so I can add one more mother to the list." My voice was solemn like I had suddenly aged.
My mother was taken by surprise by my suddenly heroic attitude but didn't like my answer.
"I've failed as a mother, no kid should speak like that." This time she didn't cry, she just looked really sad.
"WHERE IS MY SON!?" My father shouted.
"Upstairs." Father stormed up the stairs, and Laura's father sighed. "Geez, our hospitality only goes so far."
Father burst into the room "Ingen? Are you ok?! We took down the Treant and I came as fast as I could."
"I'm ok dad, I'm gonna make it." I thought for a moment and a random thing came into my head "Wait, Laura's a natural, but her dad is a human. How does that even work?"
"She's not a natural, but she will have to tell you about it, for now, we need to talk."
My parents chastised me about being reckless again, but it was half-hearted, they knew it wouldn't do much.
After a while, I was allowed to go home, but I needed to talk to Laura first.
"Thank you very much for saving my life." I gave a bow and turned towards her father "I am also thankful that you patched me up." I bowed again.
"Now we're even, so don't you use it against me that you saved me once before."
"You got a deal. Now, what would you like in return, mister."
One of the natural girls, presumably Laura's sisters, threw some trash at Laura, only for a giant fox to stand in between the girls and growl.
Like nothing was happening, Laura's father spoke."First, call me Nelan, second, I want my family to have dinner with your family, hospitality for hospitality."
"I'll ask my parents. Mr. Nelan, expect a letter about it soon."
At that moment, the front door of the cottage burst open and an older natural woman stumbled through with a bottle in her hand.
"Mother!" All of the girls except Laura rushed over and hugged her.
Laura grabbed my sleeve and was visibly angry.
"It's time for us to go play with Orin, don't you think?" I read the room and offered an escape to Laura.
"Yeah, I think so." She replied through gritted teeth.
No amount of liquid courage could make Laura's mother stand in the way of the six-foot-tall fox as we left, but it didn't stop her from throwing things, bottles, rocks, whatever, they were fair game, yet not a thing she threw met her target. Laura had the barriers of two mages protecting her.
"This is your fault!" The angry mother shouted. "I drink because of you!"
"Shut it! Cheating whore!" Laura replied.
The woman kept shouting as we left, but we never looked back.