Accidents do happen, right?

My mind is muddled up. I can't make things out. A barrel of images flash through my mind so fast that they are incoherent, unclear. It's like I'm trapped in my own mind. What is going on? I try to put the pieces together. Then everything comes back to me.

The images.

An explosion.

A fire.

Smoke filling my lungs.

Erlan.

My gunmetal grey coloured eyes flutter open.

"Finally she's awake."

"Ughh my head hurts." I raise my hand to my head, briefly brushing through the mass of dark curls placed on it then proceed to rubbing the back of my head that is wrapped with some kind of cloth. I try to sit up, and look around. I'm in the palace clinic, I think. The sound of machines whirring fill my ears.

"Well well well. I heard you blew yourself up." My brother Kaedan speaks loud enough to draw my attention.

Kalon smacks him. Hard.

"Owww. Hey, that hurt."

"That was the point. What's the matter with you?"

"What?" He protests, still rubbing the arm she hit.

"Our sister got hurt, thankfully she's conscious now and this is the level of concern you show her." She gives him an icy glare. "Wait, aren't twins supposed to know when the other is in trouble? Like a twin bond or something?"

"Hey, don't blame me. I was not the one who asked her to blow up the place. She did that all on her own. And secondly, I'm not pyschic." Kaedan crosses his thick arms over his chest.

She gives him one more chilling glare before moving closer to my bed then sits on it. "Are you alright Karina? How do you feel?" Her expression softens as she touches and examines my head.

"Umm my head hurts but with proper rest and sleep I'm sure I'll be fine."

"We can't say the same for you teacher though?" Kaedan says.

"Wha?... what do you mean? Is he alright?" I start to panic.

"Oh he's fine." He smirks with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Oh thank goodness." I'm relieved.

"He's only sleeping... Forever." He says so causally as he picks at his finger nails.

He's dead? My insides turn. I start to hyperventilate.

"Stop scaring her Kaedan. You shouldn't upset her. It won't help her get better." Mother says as she comes in with the physician.

"Calm down Karina. Erlan is fine." Infact he's in the next room, I just left his room now."

I'm trembling and I take small puffs of air, trying to calm myself as she holds me.

"Why on Elanor would you say something like that to her?" She scolds him.

"I think she deserves it, for making the whole family worry sick about her." He towers over me.

"And besides a good scare every now and then is good for the heart, helps keep the blood pumping faster."

"Are you trying to get me killed?" I scream. Almost pulling out all the hair on my head.

"No sis. I'm sure you've got that covered." He winks at me.

Kalon rolls her eyes. "Oh dear."

Someone clears their throat. We all turn to the source of the sound. It's the physician. Oh I almost forgot he was in here.

"If you don't mind your highness I'm just going to take a look at you and your vitals."

He checks out my vitals and physically examines me.

"Everything seems to be okay for now. You just have a mild concussion and you'll be fine once you get enough rest. Does anywhere other than your head hurt?"

"Yeah, my left side and my ribs." I reply, wincing at the pain.

"Ah yes. Your scan results said so. I only asked to be sure. It's the impact of the explosion, must have been the way you landed." He strokes his chin.

"Anyway I'll send in your medications shortly. I'm afraid I'll have to ask everyone to leave so that the princess can get some rest. Physician's orders."

"Oh sure." My brother is the first to answer. "You've already made me miss practice. I'll leave you now to do whatever it is that you need to do."

He kisses my forehead and bats his long eyelashes.

"See ya later sis." He says already out the door.

Such a pain.

"Kalon, let's go dear." Mother says.

"We'll be back to check on you Karina." They both echo. The physician walks out with them, closing the door gently.

So I'm alone in the room, just me and my thoughts.

"I really hope Erlan is alright." I mutter to myself while rubbing my temple. What was I thinking? What a minute this isn't my fault, technically it is but how was I to know the arrow had some kind of mini bomb in it. Who just leaves that kind of thing lying around anyway. Okay it wasn't lying around but that's not the point. Besides Erlan's the trainer...shouldn't he have known something like that would happen? "Well turns out he didn't and I almost got him killed on the first day of training. These thoughts leave me sighing to myself.

But mum said he's fine right? What if she just said that to make me feel better. What if I've maimed him? Or now he's hideously deformed. And I'll be dammed to look at his hideously deformed face for the rest of my life. I start hyperventilating again.

"Deep breaths Karina. Deep breaths." Now I'm thinking like a crazy person, if I keep thinking like this I'm going to hurt myself. "Mother said he's fine then that means he's fine or at least he's stable and recovering." She wouldn't lie to me especially something as delicate as that.

There's a light rapping on the door which breaks me out of my thoughts.

"Come in."

The door opens followed by the entry of a healer. She's holding a long tray that is filled with different kind of medications, setting it besides my bed. I've always hated taking drugs. Now I'm going to have to swallow all these pills. Maybe I should have shot more arrows so that the explosion would have been bigger and I wouldn't have survived the impact. Cause swallowing drugs is equivalent to dying in my book.

She explains how and when I should take the drugs. Some are supplements, multivitamins, pain killers and others will help me sleep better. When she leaves I push the tray aside and hold up my nose in disgust then I try to lay on my side. Pain erupts from my left side causing me to stop midway.

I'm holding my side. "Okay maybe I'll have to take these drugs after all."

I do and after some minutes I feel relieved and my body relaxes before I drift off to sleep.