It was bad enough halfway waking up face to face with Toad. Up close and seen through the slits of my swollen eyes, he looked monstrous. When I hollered for Winter Mist, the only answer I got was a hail of hard tossed stones and obscene growls from the ones who woke to my miserable cry. Startled by the noises, Toad puffed up and with a toad talk curse of his own got ready to launch himself into one of his great leaps. Who could blame him? I grabbed at him and caught his hind legs just as he was about to make a getaway. Then I thrust him roughly under the cloak my sweet wife left behind, hoping that would calm him, as it was still warm and smelled sweetly of her wilted flower sweat.

Now she's squatting beside me with the insults and snarls of our family still curdling the air around us. I recognize Da's voice rising above all the rest while Winter Mist's smile melts the pain that was stomping across the middle of me face. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing Da has survived the night and seeing the sidhe-queen of us all holding out her hand to me, like a child expecting a treat.

I plant a kiss on her palm and try to smile back at her but the smile turns to gnashing teeth locked down in a bolt of hurting. A soft groan of pity leaks from her lips and she shakes her head. Oh. She wants Toad in her hand. I pull the squirming wart-bag out from the cloak and pass him over. He chirrups happily and all is well - at least in his world.

In ours, things are not so well. By the mottled bruise color of the skies, another day has passed while we slept. Lasair is still gone. Da's croney love wears his green brat knotted cleverly around her bony bawd. Her spindly nimble fingers dance slowly up and down his back like two pale spiders. His groaning grimaces could be pleasure or pain. He's still hunched more than he should be. Between groans, he coughs, which makes him groan all the more. Flecks of blood dot his beard.

To make matters worse, my elf-wife announces that she's going off to An Caiseal!

"Not alone you won't," says I, jumping up. Everything whirls around me in a crazy spin and there are now two Winter Mists. Double joy but I know it ain't right. I feel dizzy enough to have drunk a whole keg of Niafer mead to meself. With a thud, I'm back down on the grass again.

She says naught and goes off to poke at the fire. When I try to follow her, the ground falls away and shadows close in from the corners of me eyes. The next thing I know she's pressing another one of those hot rags over me eyes and nose. "Stay here and keep Toad out of trouble," she says. "Till you heal that's all you're good for."

She sneaks off with the setting of the sun. Somebody is making a fire. I smell meat and it rankles me belly. As if from a far, far distance I hear mutterings of what should be done next, which quickly blows up into arguments. At the very last, Da speaks up and things quiet down into a rhythm of back and forth talk. The poultice cools and oozes green slime down the front of me. My head is huge and empty. Feeling miserable, I hold onto Toad and croon to him for awhile before sleep takes me out of here again.