To Caspian’s surprise, he didn’t make it back to the living room before he ran into Iris. She was standing on her feet and looked like she was about to keel over at any second. [color=#b97703]“What are you—”[/color] he started to ask and then stopped abruptly, mortified as he realized she must have heard him in the bathroom. He had been hoping she wouldn’t find out that he apparently didn’t have a strong enough stomach to handle everything they had encountered in Bel Bicis. He didn’t want her to think he was weak. It was kind of pathetic that all it had taken was a photograph for him to lose his breakfast though.

He was torn from his thoughts by the sound of her shaky voice. [color=#b97703]“Iris, you shouldn’t be up right now,”[/color] he said urgently, ignoring her question as he ushered her back over to the sofa. He didn’t want to answer her, but he was also genuinely concerned about her unwillingness to rest when she was so ill. At this rate, she was just going to get worse, which meant they were going to be stuck here even longer than they would have been if she’d taken care of herself. He was more than willing to delay his return to the capital in order to help her get better, but he didn’t want to be stuck in Bel Bicis for a whole week or more. The more time he spent away from his home, the more chances the rebels would have to track him down and kill him. He wouldn’t be safe until he was back in the care of the royal family’s security.

[color=#b97703]“Here,”[/color] helping her back down on the couch while she looked unstable, he held out the blanket he’d brought from the bedroom. [color=#b97703]“I couldn’t find any medicine, so we’ll have to let the fever run its course. Wrap this around you and leave it there even if you feel like you’re getting too hot. It’ll make it easier for your body to run a high temperature without working too hard to generate heat.”[/color] His father had caught fevers plenty of times because of his compromised immune system, so the prince could recite the instructions easily from memory. He could remember how much the king had complained when he sweated beneath layers of heavy blankets, while Dr. Emett had sternly encouraged him not to remove the coverings. Conserving as much energy as possible was important in breaking a fever quickly.

Leaving the blanket with her, he picked up one of the water bottles and opened the top, handing that to her as well. [color=#b97703]“Drink as much of this as you can stomach too, so you don’t get dehydrated,”[/color] he ordered. [color=#b97703]“I’ll throw together some food for you to eat.”[/color] Without waiting for her response, he picked up the backpack and brought it to the kitchen, where he’d left the canned stuff he’d found earlier. Truth be told, he had no idea how to cook. Ever since he was a kid, he’d had servants around to do the work of preparing his meals for him. So, looking over the options, he picked up one of the cans and squinted at the small-print instructions. Luckily, it seemed easy enough to make. All he had to do was heat the vegetables up in the microwave.

Deciding to go for it, he picked up the can opener and examined that next as he struggled to figure out how to use it to get inside the sealed container.