Noah’s eyes searched groggily while his fingers lifted weakly. The bearings that usually came to him soon after waking were not there and he thought something else was direly wrong, thus the fear came to him instinctually. As he stirred, Elann’s voice came and brought his eyes up a little more to find her lips, the first thing that came into focus. Next came the rest of her face and then the muddlement of her words dissipated. He didn’t hear her warning of him to not get up, nor did he hear her saying he needed to rest more. It was the tone of her voice that drew him to seek her out and the feelings that came to his bond that dispelled the panging loneliness and fear. He wouldn’t try to get up regardless, not wanting to put himself through the torture of moving. If that wasn’t enough, he was too discombobulated to even process getting up.

The most movement he did was to drink from the water, sipping thirsty to quell the dryness of his throat. It was a minor discomfort to him in comparison to the ache in his side and back, but it was a discomfort he wanted no part of. After he was done drinking his head settled back on her lap, turning to look off the edge of the bench to where he could hear the little girl’s heavy breathing. He couldn’t see her but could see the edge of her pallet on the floor. His hand slipped off the edge of the bench and swayed downward, landing gently on the girl’s arm. It was more in reassurance that she was real and not an apparition imagined during his state of distress.

Now confirmed, his hand crept back up to his side and slid underneath the blanket. He turned on his left side afterwards, a slight groan of discomfort coming from him as he turned to face Elann with his body. Next, his hands crept up to grasp at the loose cloth of her dress. There was a vague dizziness about his head that he didn’t like, used to having it clear and fogless. Because of it, he was turning towards a physical manifestation of his comfort, Elann, quiet the entire time. He was awake, eyes closed, but didn’t have words.