His hair had begun to grow back, and all but the most serious of his wounds had healed, but Valdan still felt extremely weak. Even sitting upright in his bed took a lot of effort, though he could feel his strength returning, little by little, day by day. He didn’t know how long it’s been since he was nearly eaten alive by the wyvern. It must have been weeks, and he’d spent most of that time in a coma-like sleep. The chief’s wife, Dara, along with some of the other women of the village, had been looking after him, feeding him and tending to his wounds, and many of the villagers, including his friends Rett and Knut, had been along to visit him in his room in the chief’s house. He was seldom alone, though he did feel rather lonely from time to time, and he realized that it was his family whom he missed.

As for Sylvie, he hadn’t seen her once since his near-death experience. Before setting off on this journey, the thought of being rid of her unwanted attentions was all that he wanted, so not seeing her for several weeks should have made him feel great – but it didn’t. He’d been told how she had saved him by killing the wyvern, at great risk to her own life, and how she had tried desperately to revive him when she’d discovered he was still alive. She was still around, Rett had told him, helping to rebuild what the wyvern had destroyed, and protecting the village from the occasional snow-trolls and bears. She hadn’t left him to go back home, even though she couldn’t wait to get back the whole time the two of them were travelling together. It didn’t sound at all like the Sylvie he knew, and he wondered if seeing him nearly die had really changed her as a person.

One day, feeling stronger and more able than he had in a long time, he decided to find out. The chief and his family were all out somewhere, leaving him alone in the house. His clothes had all been destroyed in the wyvern’s stomach, and, so far, the only replacement he’d been given was a cloth to tie around his waist and hips, enough to cover his nudity, but not enough to provide much warmth. Still, the bed he lay in boasted several warm blankets, and he wrapped one of these around him before attempting to get out of bed and walk around. Finding his feet again wasn’t as hard as he’d thought, and he was soon walking around with relative ease. The room he was in only had a few small windows, but it did have a door which led to a small balcony. He opened this and went outside, wincing at the cold and drawing the blanket closer around him. He needed to talk to Dara about providing him with proper clothes, he thought.

Outside, the villagers were busy with their daily tasks, and not many paid attention to him. Those who did occasionally waved and greeted him, and he waved back. He still felt pretty feeble, and cold as well, and he soon decided to head back inside and maybe find something to eat. While he was still looking down at the peaceful scene before him, he heard a gigantic thud right behind him, and spun around to see what it was.

Sylvie had sat herself down next to the house, looking down at him, delighted to see him. Even while sitting she dwarfed the relatively large hut. She rested her arm on top of its roof, being careful not to press down too hard, or she might crush the house. Valdan looked up at her as if she were a stranger. Her hair had grown even longer and more tangled than it had always been, and she looked a bit thinner than he remembered. She had managed to work the shredded pieces of her fur coat back together, so that she had something warm to wear again, even if it did make her look rather wild. But apart from that she seemed fine, and he actually felt glad to see her again.

“Oh, uh, hello,” he blurted out. “I didn’t see you…I mean, you startled me…”

“Did I?” she said sweetly. “Ha, you always were frightened of me, little brother!”

“No, I wasn’t!” he yelled. His happiness quickly turned to annoyance after hearing her tease him, just like she always used to do. “I’m not scared of you, you hear me? I thought you’d changed – that’s what everyone told me – but no! You’re still the same immature…”

Sylvie sat there quietly, listening to his angry tirade and feeling awful. She didn’t think one little comment like that would get him all worked up – until she remembered the lifetime of grief she had caused him, and how she had never even once sincerely apologized to him before the whole incident with the wyvern. And now that he was up and awake again, she had gone and done it again. What should have been a happy reunion had turned into just another bickering session, and she didn’t want it to. Resisting the urge to simply grab him and stuff him in her pocket or her boot – the way she’d always ended arguments – she instead slammed her hand down on the roof, causing the house to shake, and told him to shut up. He did so instantly.

“Look,” she said, trying to remain calm, “I know you still hate me, Valdan, and I know why…but, please, let’s just stop all this fighting, all right? I’m sorry for everything I did to you! I was such a bully, and I never said sorry, but I’m saying sorry now! You don’t know how worried I was for you, Valdan! I didn’t dare go back home, because…because any day might have been your last…and if I wasn’t here…”

Valdan listened, and felt ashamed for lashing out at her just then.

“I don’t want you to be angry anymore!” she went on. “I know you’ll never forgive me, and you’ll never really like me, and that’s fine…but you’re my little brother, Valdan, and I really care about you! Yes, you are! You are my little brother, even though you’re older than me…because that’s what you’ve always been to me, and I can’t change how I feel about that. All the things I’ve done to you…that’s just the way I am…or was. It doesn’t mean I don’t respect you, or don’t love you…I do love you, Valdan, and I don’t ever want anything bad to happen to you! I’ll never hurt you again, or grab you and humiliate you, ever again! Just know that…that I’m so, so sorry, and…and…and I can’t think of anything else to say…”

“It’s all right, Sylvie!” he interrupted. “Take it easy! You don’t have to apologize anymore! I’m the one who should be sorry!”

He took a deep breath. She looked at him, clearly distressed.

“I’m sorry for being so nasty just now,” he said. “They’ve told me how you saved me, and…well, all I can say is I think you were amazing. Sure, you’ve been a pain in the butt sometimes – all the time, actually – but that doesn’t mean I can’t forgive you, Sylvie. Thank you, for saving my life, and for proving me wrong.”

“You…you mean it? You’re not mad at me anymore?”

“Well…yes, I am, a bit. You still haven’t…look, can we continue this somewhere a bit more private? I get the feeling everyone’s staring at us.”

Sylvie looked out across the village, and it was true. Everyone who had been busy with something before was now looking at them. They must all have heard her as well. Without asking his permission first, she picked her brother up and hurried away quickly. A little later she arrived at her camping spot, right beside the hot spring she had discovered all those weeks ago. Valdan had heard about this place as well, and he was amazed when he saw it for himself. Sylvie put him down on a convenient flat rock and took off her warm clothes, since it was much warmer in this area than outside in the cold.

“This is where I’ve been staying,” she explained. “I sleep over there, on that patch of ground, where I won’t freeze to death during the night. And I can take a nice hot bath whenever I want!”

“Sounds like you’re not doing too badly, then. What do you get for food?”

“Oh, whatever I can find, you know. There are lots of things living around here, believe it or not. Sometimes the people in the village bring me some of their food too, though I try not to eat too much. I would really, really love some fresh fruit right now, though, and bread, and cakes and sweets, and even that vegetable soup Mom always makes in wintertime.”

Valdan had been well fed during his recovery period, but he too missed the food he got back home. More than that, he missed the rest of his family, and the familiar environment of the castle and the town of Rismark. He still wanted to traverse the great mountains to the east – what he had set out to do in the first place – but he didn’t want to do it now. And he didn’t want to drag Sylvie along, she didn’t deserve that. He was now convinced that she had indeed had a change of heart, that she was no longer sticking around just to torment him, but because she actually cared about him. He was going to remind her of several of the more unpleasant things she had done to him – making him wear a doll’s dress, for instance, and trapping him in a jar for an entire day when he had dared to talk back to her – but doing that might just make them both dislike each other again.

“Then let’s go back,” he said, walking over to her hand and grabbing one of her fingers. “There’s no need for me to stay here any longer. I’ll say goodbye to everyone, and tell them that I’ll return soon, and then we can go.”

“But…aren’t you supposed to still be in bed? You can’t be completely healed yet. That’s what Dara had told me, just yesterday.”

“Yeah, I guess so…but I’m not going to be doing anything anyway. You’re going to do all the walking, and I’m sure you have what it takes to keep me safe until we get back…right, little sister?”

“That’s right…big brother.”

They both laughed. She picked him up again and embraced him with her arms…being careful not to injure him, of course. After weeks of constantly worrying about him, and fearing that he could die at any moment, Sylvie was overjoyed to have her brother back. She had been a horrible sister before, but now she only wanted to move forward, and prove to him that she did indeed regret everything she had done to him. Maybe they could even go on another adventure someday, together…those mountains still lay before them, unexplored. If they did, she swore to herself that she would take care of him, so that something like this didn’t happen to him again.

After the sun had set, Sylvie returned to her camp with their food for the night. She had been down to village and had told them that Valdan was fine, and that he would be staying with her tonight, since they had a lot to talk about. She also said that they might be leaving the next day, but only if Valdan was feeling strong enough. Grun and his wife accepted what they heard, but his two sons weren’t altogether happy to see their new friend leave just as he was feeling better again.

“You can come with us, if you want,” Sylvie suggested. “I’m sure we could find you a place to stay in the castle, and you will get to meet my parents.”

The boys did want to see the great land of Vandan, but they were a bit hesitant about actually meeting the king and queen. Also, they didn’t like the idea of Sylvie carrying them all the way there – they weren’t as used to it as Valdan was. In the end, they decided they’d rather stay behind, and maybe travel there with Valdan, should he ever return here first. Sylvie told them she was certain he would – he really did seem to like it here, in spite of the cold and the rather basic way of life.

By the time she’d returned to her camp, Valdan was nearly asleep. He was lying on top of her folded up blanket, but he got up and began eating the food she’d brought. Even more welcome than the food, she’d also brought him some proper clothes, having convinced the chief’s eldest son, Rett, to part with some of his spare clothes, just for the night.

“These fit great,” he said after he got dressed. “Thanks, Sylvie, that was really nice of you.”

“That’s what big sisters are for,” she said, smiling. “Hey, are you going to eat the rest of your food, or did I bring you too much?”

“Huh? Oh, no, thank you, I’ve had enough. Do you really need to eat my food? I can’t think it’ll help much – you know, to a big girl like you.”

“No, it doesn’t…but…I’m just really hungry! There is so little to eat here some days…most days, actually…I try not to let it bother me, and to pretend everything’s fine, but it’s getting too much for me, Valdan! And I’m not going to go begging the villagers for more food…I’ll probably eat all that they have in a day or two!”

“Oh no…is it really that bad?”

“Is it…Valdan, I could almost eat you right now, and I mean it!”

She lifted him carefully off her blanket and wrapped herself up in it. Even in this relatively warm spot the nights could still get very cold.

“Will you…will you be able to make it back?” Valdan asked, suddenly concerned for her wellbeing after what she had told him. “It’s a long way for you to walk…”

“Well, if I don’t try and make it back home, I can stay here, and starve to death…”

“Yeah, I see your point…Don’t worry, Sylvie – I’m not going to let you die of hunger. You saved my life, and I’ll do everything I can…”

“Oh, just go to sleep!”

“But…”

“Valdan!”

There was no point in arguing. He went off to look for a comfortable sleeping spot, not too close to her. She didn’t usually roll around in her sleep, but he wasn’t taking any chances, considering with the irritable state she was in. In any case, neither of them got much of any sleep that night. They were both aching to return home, and the first light of day couldn’t come soon enough.