"Don't worry, I will get rid of them," Colin said with a growl. Emalia was left there upon the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She could hear the sound of a very angry small voice coming from outside of the cottage, but could not clearly make out anything. The worry tugged at her stomach but she was resigned to lay back and wait for Colin to return. It was the sound of small, but determined, footsteps that had her roll her eyes to the door, waiting to see who would enter.
Nephesh came toward the bed, his little face red obviously angry. He held out a note which Emalia had no opportunity to read before Colin spun the little halfling around by the shoulder. "Now listen here. Emalia has been through enough and you will NOT upset her again."
"What did the note say?" Emalia asked, attempting to reach the fallen note before realizing she couldn't. The small boy pushed the note toward her, and as Nephesh and Colin discussed what had happened (which was very one-sided from Emalia's ears, since Nephesh had appeared to have lost his ability for speech), she looked at the handwriting: 'What have you done to father?'
Emalia let her hand with the note drop onto the bed. She felt completely drained, and the daunting task of having to explain anything more plunged her into a deeper area of her soul. As she lay there, Colin had literally lifted Nephesh out of the room, but upon his return, Emalia once again reached into her own soul for the sake of another. She sent Colin off to speak to Nephesh and to offer him the pony. All of this was beginning to hurt each time, and she was having difficulty recovering from every encounter. Soon, the voice of Colin grew faint, the surroundings of the room began to vanish into a haze, and Emalia finally drifted off to sleep - hearing, seeing, and saying nothing more.
