The road and weather had been kind to the mortal traveler marching through the misty forest and on the road towards Lake Aelin, though he was unaware of his destination at the moment. He was content on just walking forwards, having had a wonderful time in a cave with a wonderful woman who was just a few feet away from him at this moment, knowing that she happy following him to where he was going, even though he had no idea where in particular he was going.

“Arg…”

The skin on his arms had become irritated some how, and just lately turned a shade of red, causing him to scratch and make it a deeper red. He figured that it must have been a plant he might have rubbed against in the forest, but both his arms had the same amount of redness and it completely covered all of his lower arms and hands. Not quite ready to touch any other part of his skin with his hands, afraid to spread, what could only be a rash in his mind, he put his hands in his pockets to try and stop himself from scratching the skin off his own arms.

“It won’t stop itching and I don’t know what is wrong with them. They are almost starting to hurt. I never thought that a burning sensation would be so annoying.”

His arms weren’t looking good, the burning description looking more like what was really going on with his arms as his skin began to be slowly covered by bubbles to Abenforthe’s horror.

“Wha…does this happen to other mortals?”

Something was wrong now, since this wasn’t a normal occurrence, and no rash that Abenforthe knew about in his time in this world did anything this drastic. He looked over to Maya, wondering what he should do, since his arms were starting to hurt more.

Maia walked along just for the joy of it. The world was so alive compared to her sleep within the mountain. Things moved around in the very air filled with a gentle mist that lingered farther away from them. The sounds of animals and the clear weather were things she enjoyed after all. She had also found, or been found, by someone she really liked. He wasn’t a human though, so perhaps those who had frowned on her love for the human who had never returned her love would not give her such a hard time. She practically glided over the ground and had slowed a bit to peer at the sky when Abenforthe spoke. She was surprised by his comment, as he hadn’t mentioned anything about it before. Maia stopped walking when he spoke, then rushed forward to him.

“Abenforthe, mortals should never have a burning sensation at all. It is from pain, an infection or something. Or even something like a sunburn, though I don’t think this is sunburn weather. You should have said something sooner… Here, let me see.” Maia insisted and touched his shoulder so he would stop walking for a moment and face her. When she saw how red his arms were it reminded her exactly of a burn, but not from the sun. It looked like he had just plunged his hands, up to his elbows, in scalding water. What surprised her was the fact that that was imposable. First of all there was no pot or boiling water, but she doubted that he would have put his arms in water like that. What she felt she needed was snow. Abenforthe might not know it was frozen water and it would draw the heat away from him and stop the pain. There was no snow though… water? She only had a small leather skin at her side that she had filled at a spring on their way. Now she wished they could turn back to it, but it was too far away. Maia took a step back and looked around. There had to be water somewhere around here, though it would be off the main road. It was already blistering, so she couldn’t use anything harsher then water. If the blisters burst his skin would be raw and the broken skin would need to be removed. She wished then she knew more about healing like the kind woman she had spoken too so long ago. She doubted she was still alive though…

Water… she didn’t see anything. Was the sound of water nearby?

It was taking nearly every last bit of strength Abenforthe had not to scream in pain as the burning progressed. There had to be a reason for why this was happening and from the look of his skin he didn’t have much time to figure it out as his skin…was starting to bubble and turn yellow. Abenforthe didn’t want Maya to see this so he tucked his arms into his chest bent over, doing so causing more pain to his arms and it shooting throughout his body.

“I didn’t want to worry you with what I thought was just a skin irritation. GAH!”

His first idea wasn’t finding water but he was thinking about it now, thinking that it might stop the burning if the water was cool enough, but in his head he figured that the water would almost evaporate on contact.

“There has to be a source of water some where, we are close to a huge lake, there has to be something!”

He stood up and started running in the direction they had been walking, moving full tilt in speed the pain shot through his entire body, nearly buckling his legs at one point but he was able to persevere.

“I can hear water, ugh, I can hear water…”

Abenforthe’s natural instincts to run away from water were trying to fight the pain so that he didn’t have to use the water to help him, but the pain was just too much. Soon he was able to spot a small stream that he would be able to dip his arms in. The though made him sick in his stomach, but anything that might soothe the burning would be a blessing at the moment and he was ready to at least try it.

“Just up ahead, gck… There is water just up ahead!”

At this point and time he could not even feel that his arms were still attached to his body, yet the pain was still there, but he was so close now.

Maia became instantly worried when he doubled over and she stood there not sure what to do. She became only more concerned as he himself started looking for water. She took a step back as he pulled himself to his feet and she reached out for him when he started to run. He had heard water? Without even thinking about it, she followed him as fast as she could, but he was faster then she was and fear rose in her chest as he started to pull away. She pushed herself harder, but he was still faster… then she was a stream up ahead and heard his voice. There had to be something she could do. She could see his arms now and it honestly looked as if the skin was trying to boil itself from the inside.

Water might not do any good at this point, she doubted even snow would help, but she didn’t dare voice that thought. She was honestly afraid for him. She didn’t want him to hurt like this and she only wished she knew how to help him. Maia didn’t know what was happening any more then he did though. She put on a burst of speed to catch up as he slowed a bit getting close to the water. His natural fear of water was slowing him down enough for her to catch up with him. The water was the only solution she could think of though and it should be cold water in this season. Careful not to touch his arms at all, in fear of hurting him more, Maia urged him to the stream’s edge. “It should help, it should draw out some of the burning. It will help, it will.” She urged softly only hoping she was right. If it was some sort of oil based poison like poison ivy or poison oak the water would cool it, but the oil would have to be rubbed off with sand or soap. She hadn’t been to a town yet though, so she didn’t have any soap on her. She was afraid to use sand as it would open the bubbles forming on his skin and might make him bleed. That would hurt more, not less. Tears threatened to escape her gray eyes. She didn’t want him to be in pain…