My eyelids opened to the sight of Leu standing over me with a bowl of food.

"How are you feeling?"

I blinked a few times, still groggy with sleep.

"Better," I told her. "But still tired."

She crouched down beside me, bringing the bowl to eye level. I took in a deep breath of the comforting scent of soup. "Can you sit up?"

"I'd better not try," I said. "I don't want to push myself too hard."

Leu nodded. "That's fine. Here, Kletasuah told me to bring you this. She made you a bone broth with activated charcoal in it." She brought the dish to my lips, and slowly poured the steaming broth into my mouth. My muscles worked slowly; I could only swallow a little bit at a time. The warmth of the liquid consumed me. I could feel it heating my bones. I shivered slightly. It's funny how heat reminds you of how cold you are.

I managed to finish the entire bowl. When I was done, Leu wiped my mouth with a cotton cloth.

"Do you want more?" she asked.

"No, I'm full." The broth had been very satisfying, the perfect amount.

Leu set the bowl down nearby. "Are you tired?"

"Not really," I said. I'd practically been hibernating for the past three days, with a few waking hours.

"Is it OK if I keep you company?" Leu asked.

"Yes."

"Oh, good! It's been awful not being able to see you the past few days."

The corners of my lips tugged into a smile. I'd missed Leu too - when I was awake that is.

Leu plopped down on a rock nearby. "It seems like the charcoal has been helping."

I winced inside. Leu must have seen my expression change, for she quickly added: "Or maybe just the rest. You need it after all the stress of trying to weave those dresses."

I nodded, but the thought lingered in my head. What if I had been poisoned? And if so, why? These ideas would have to wait until Nal m'se returned, but they occupied my thoughts at almost every waking moment. And I'd already had at least four dreams about being poisoned, perhaps more that I didn't remember.

"Are you bored?" Leu asked, jolting me from my thoughts.

"Yes," I replied weakly. Bored was an understatement.

"Then let's play a game," Leu suggested.

"How?" I laughed. "I can't get out of bed!"

Leu's eyes crinkled as she pondered this dilemma. Then, her eyes began to sparkle.

"I know! We'll play hide-and-go seek, but we won't actually hide or seek. You just think of a place in this room where you want to hide, and I'll try to find it. All you have to do is tell me if the place I'm guessing is right or wrong." 

"OK," I agreed. It was better than not doing anything at all. Besides, I desperately needed a distraction from my melancholic thoughts.

I didn't even need to search the room; I knew the perfect hiding spot in the cave. A couple years ago, I had chased a beam of light into a crevice in the rock. Upon inspecting the cave walls, I figured out that if I moved a certain rock in the front of the cave, it revealed a small, inner room. I once showed it to Leu, but I doubted that she'd remember that it was there.

"OK, I've thought of the place," I told Leu.

"Perfect," Leu said. She gazed around the cave walls, pacing a few steps. I giggled inside. If she doesn't remember the inner room, she'll be pretty stumped!

Leu continued to survey the room, her eyebrows knitting together. "If I were Celisae, where would I hide?" She turned around dramatically, and pointed to a few jagged rocks poking up from the ground.

"Nope," I said. She snapped her fingers.

"Hmm, there aren't many places to hide in here," she stated. She looked around again, her eyes resting on an animal skin on the ground. "Under the animal skin?"

"No."

She frowned, clearly stumped. "There really aren't many good places to hide in here," she commented. She began to circle the room, but stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait! I think I know your hiding spot," she announced. I grinned. She must have remembered.

Leu began examining the walls. "The only problem is, I don't remember exactly where it is." She headed to the front of the cave and began pushing on the rocks. I watched as she drew closer to the secret entrance. Her hands rested on the correct rocks. They gave out under her pressure, revealing the inner chamber.

"You found it!" I exclaimed.

"Yes!" Leu cheered. Her grin stretched from ear to ear. She turned to move the rocks back into place but stopped. Her head tilted to one side as she stared into the dimly lit room.

"What is it?" I asked, perplexed by her curiosity. There was nothing of interest in there, other than the fact that it was a hidden chamber.

"Did you put this box here?" she asked me. Confusion came over me. Did I put something in there and forget about it?

"I don't think so," I told her. Leu pulled a huge wooden chest out of the secret room. As painful as it was, I forced myself to sit up in order to get a better look at the odd discovery. It was a plain wooden box that was very large. No doubt, it probably took up all the space inside the secret room.

"What do you think is inside of it?" Leu mused.

"I don't know, I've never seen it before," I replied.

"Does anyone else know that the secret room exists?" Leu asked.

"As far as I know, no. Not even Gea knows," I said, my intrigue rising. Leu's fingers twitched, wanting to tear open the box like a present.

"Should we open it?" Leu deliberated.

"I don't know," I said. Our eyes fixed on the box. Finally, Leu reached out her hands and tentatively removed the lid.

Light burst forth, stretching itself out from being trapped inside the box. My eyes popped out of their sockets. I was dumbfounded. What!? How!?  I didn't even know what questions to ask, I didn't know how to react. That can't be what I think, can it?

For there lay the three dresses that I had made. As I surveyed the handiwork, I recalled the specific threads that I had woven together for each gown. The dresses were radiant, the pure light from the sun, moon, and stars shining unapologetically. I saw the minuscule mistakes that I had made and tried to hide, the signs that showed that this was the work of an amateur weaver. There was no mistake about it, these were the dresses that I had made.

Numb with shock, I moved closer to the box, and lifted the starlight gown out of the wooden chest. Leu's eyes were glued to the dresses. Though she'd never seen them before, she clearly could recognize what they were. Just to be sure, she asked:

"Are these the dresses you made?"

A tiny smile spread across my face. "Yes."

Her fingers traced the weaving of the moonlight dresses. "They're gorgeous." She ducked her head. "More so than I would have thought."

I beamed. "Thank you."

Leu's awe faded. All of my questions began to spin in my head. Why were the dresses here and not at the gathering? How did they get into the secret room in my cave? Did Nal m'se put them there? If not, then who did and how did that person get a hold of the dresses?

"What should we do?" Leu wondered. "The dresses are supposed to be at the seasonal meeting."

I shook my head. "I don't know. We'd better put them back where they were for now."

Leu nodded. I carefully set the starlight gown on top of the others, and Leu put the box back inside of the chamber. She carefully slid the rocks shut, before sitting beside me. I lay back down, my muscles relaxing from the strain of holding me upright.

"Well, at least we got some excitement," Leu concluded.

I laughed dryly. "I guess."

We sat in silence, trying to calm ourselves. After a while, the echo of footsteps and chatter made its way to us. I frowned.

"Do you hear something?" I asked her.

Leu craned her ears to the distant clamor. "Yes, I think so. It's probably Nal m'se and the others returning from the seasonal meeting."

"How many days have they been gone?"

"Six." Leu paused, realizing how odd it was for them to be back so soon.

"Shouldn't they be back tomorrow?" I said.

"Maybe everything wrapped up sooner than expected," Leu suggested.

"I guess," I shrugged. I settled down under the animal skin blankets.

She was probably right. There probably wasn't very much to discuss at the meeting, especially since they couldn't make the alliance without the dresses. Maybe Nal m'se had forgotten the dresses and had returned to the Mountains to get them. Yes, that's probably what happened. That certainly would make sense, since it's a three day journey there and back.

I forced myself to relax, reassuring myself that the conclusion I had come to was correct. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that something wasn't right.