The nurse watched over the halfling boy; the lines in her face drawn with fatigue as she exercised his limbs while he lay sleeping. His sleep seemed untroubled; comfortable, even. Anyone looking in on him for the first time would never know that he hadn't wakened for over a month. The woman who tended to him in her priestly robes moved from moving one leg to the other; lifting the child's bare foot and moving it back so that his leg lifted and his knee lifted up, then back again, repeating the exercise several times before letting out a small sigh.
That girl had brought the child here like this, and she hadn't even bothered to come back since that time. Didn't she care at all? Moving quietly about the room, the accolyte lifted a bowl of water from the floor and dipped a sponge into it. Silently, she lifted the boy's sleeve up and dabbed some water on his arm, then began rubbing soap into his skin before rinsing it off with the sponge. At first, she didn't notice when the boy's fingers twitched just a little.
Then his eyes opened and his hands gestured, "Who are you?"
The woman shrieked and ran from the room, still screaming, as the boy stood weakly from his bed, smiling wanly, and followed after her.
