Observation

Mairin suffered through a barrage of mental health questioning from the doctors as they treated the severe burns on her hands. She had no explanation or memory of why she did it. She was luck that the injury wasn't more severe but she wasn't going to be discharged that day. The doctors admitted her for overnight observation in the inpatient psychiatric care unit to conduct a sleep study to understand what had happened.

All around them were sterile white walls over white tile floors. Only the dark blue of the cushions of the visitor chairs brought any color to the room. The blankets, sheets, even the hard plastic of her bed frame were some shade of white. She sat with her hands bandaged on a hospital bed wearing a dull blue tunic shirt the nurses provided her. She was grateful that it was a better option than the tissue paper thin gowns. Her vitals beeped on the machine she was hooked to with an IV bag to administer her pain medications into her right arm. Her mother sat in a a chair while her father stood towering beside them beside the bed.

There was a wariness in her parents expressions she had never seen before. Eun-Young, her mom, looked smaller and more frail than normal beside her tall and skinny father, Trever. Neither of them had any grey in their hair but their concern had added a dimension of age that she wasn't used to. Was it just the overhead lighting that made their clothing look washed out?

"It's only over night, sweetie, we'll be back tomorrow to take you home," Eun-Young promised, her expression bright despite her slumped shoulders. She fussed with her bobbed straight black hair, wondering how she failed as a parent by not being more diligent. Disappointment lingered in her dark brown eyes as she looked at how pale Mairin was. "I wish we could leave you with more but the doctors..."

The doctors had forbidden Mairin to have any thing that she might possibly hurt herself with. All she was allowed were soft hospital pajamas and footie socks, everything else presented a risk to someone they thought might want to self-harm. The corner of Mairin's mouth twitched as she remembered the kind explanation from the nurses. "I understand," she replied with a nod.

Trever smoothed his hand over his daughter's hair and kissed her forehead. "We'll sort this out together. Just rest for tonight. We'll notify the school that you'll be out for a while." His hazel eyes met Mairin's amber ones and she got the impression that he too was searching for something to blame for her mental state. "Anything we should make them aware of?"

"No. School is fine." Mairin shook her head, offering her parents a brave smile. "It's just for tonight, I'll be fine."

"If you need to tell us anything, just let us know. We're on your side." Trever wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders, reassuringly squeezing Eun-Young's arm as they stepped away.

"I will dad. Good night." Mairin waved as her parents retreated from the room.

"We love you. Sleep tight, Mairi." Eun-Young added as they neared the door.

"Just tonight, princess. Sweet dreams." Trever called out as he closed the door behind them.

Alone in the droning hum of the room's air conditioning, Mairin looked at the bandaged mess of her hands. It hurt to do any fine movements. The most she was allowed at the moment was pushing the buttons on the bed's built in television remote. She leaned back against her inclined mattress with a sigh. It made no sense, the dreams nor the deliberate placement of her hands on the burner. What did she hope to accomplish?

"Things will change once you see what you need." The thing he called her attention to was the dragon. Why was the dragon important? Why was the dragon the thing that Mairin needed to see?Why was he waiting for her to wake once more? But the conditions for the gold dragon waking were also strange.

"When the sky tips into the sea, past and destiny will collide together to bring forth the dragon from the depths," the man who spoke with the wind had predicted.

What did that sort of prophecy even mean? Maybe it meant that she was going to fly for some airline when she graduated or she was going to design a logo for a travel company. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her future. There was talk about entering the military after graduation or going off to art college or any college. Her mom hoped for her to go out and do something with her life while her dad seemed happy to have her stay home. It seemed so far away even though graduation was only a few months away.

For her senior graduation present she'd gotten permission from her parents to take her first solo trip. She'd researched every mountain lake she could think of to see if she'd seen the lake in an ad or a movie and that's why it clung to her memory but she could not find a trace of it. It was a pristine location of her dreams that she didn't understand. She had hoped to take a trip to this lake but... this was perfect!

She'd found a cool inclusive package on a hidden tourism website to Sweden to go kayaking, foraging and tracking wolves for two weeks. Her parents had been concerned about her flying alone and going off into the forest without anyone else but it was a guided tour, it wasn't like she was going backpacking alone. There were others and the rooms weren't co-ed. Perhaps, the dream was changing because she was anxious about her trip. It was going to be a little bit chilly but it wasn't going to be all covered in snow where she was going. Provided she took it easy and stayed healthy, she'd be able to go.

The man at the lakeshore had felt so real. He looked so lost standing alone. Who was he waiting for? What was he waiting for?

"Of all the fires in this world, she is the only one that burns for me," he'd admitted. Which meant that he and the dragon were lovers? How was such a thing physically possible? Mairin considered the difference in sizes and shook her head. Perhaps this wasn't the best line of thinking to pursue after all. It was a romantic notion. Waiting until the end of time until your lover returned to you, encased in ice.

It reminded Mairin of a manga she read once about a lover's vow where the woman swore she'd stay by a lake and wait for him, just as she was then. The man went away but didn't return until decades later to where he'd left her beside the lake. It had iced over and she was not there. Saddened, he peered into the lake and saw his lost lover frozen beneath the ice, waiting forever just as beautiful as she had the day he left. Maybe the story had been inspiration for her dream but this waiting lover was waiting for his dragon lover's return diligently. She was beneath the ice, waiting to return to the world.

It still gnawed at her, the dragon was something she had needed to see. She wondered if she should bring it up with the doctors in the morning. Maybe there was something more to be interpreted from a reoccurring dream.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. "Miss Magee?" A female called.

"Come in," Mairin replied, looking towards her guest.

The nurse smile as she approached holding a clipboard with Mairin's chart. She was in her twenties with dark blonde hair and dark eyes, wearing red and black scrubs with a nametag that read "Kelly". "How are you feeling?" Her voice was light and cheerful.

"Just a bit tired, my hands are sore." Mairin admitted with a polite smile.

Kelly jotted down some notes with a nod before looking back up at her. "Understandably so. It says we're going to be doing a sleep study on you. Do you understand what this means?"

"You're going to watch me sleep and see what's wrong with me?"

Kelly raised her hand, taking an apologetic tone. "Just to make sure that you're okay. We're monitoring your brain activity to see if there is something going on. It might be nothing. You're in midterms right now?"

"I am."

"It might be a stress response." Kelly checked the chart for a moment. "Your parents said that you've never experienced something like this before?"

"No."

"Did you see, hear, or smell anything before you blacked out?"

Mairin closed her eyes as she tried to recall what the last thing she remembered was before waking up to her mother screaming. "It was... I heard a name... It was strange."

"Why do you feel it was strange?" Kelly watched Mairin's reactions quietly, taking notes.

"I..." Mairin opened her eyes, her brows furrowed in confusion. "I don't know the language. Does 'ki murangen' mean anything to you?"