I stood there in the rain for what felt like a long time and was probably thirty seconds and then I turned north again because apparently I was doing this.
I found her at the base of a muddy bank, on her back in the wet earth, one hand open at her side. The hospital gown was destroyed, torn through at the shoulder, soaked completely through. Her red hair was black with rain and plastered across her face and neck. The cut above her temple had been bleeding long enough to run down into her hairline and mix with the mud beneath her head.
I shifted back to human without thinking about it and crouched beside her.
The fever was coming off her in waves I could feel from here. Her breathing was shallow but it was there, chest rising and falling in a rhythm that was ragged but present. I looked
