Palom began to drag the unconscious man down the stairs.  Even though he
was being jolted against every stair, the railing, and the side of the
building too many times to count, the man would not wake up.

"Gee, he must be having one _very_ good dream not to wake up when I'm
doing this to him." Palom thought.

As if to test his theory, Palom bent down and tweaked the man's nose.
Still, there was no sign of consciousness.  So Palom began to drag him
_up_ the stairs to Seyla's place.

"Seyla, Porom, wake up!" Palom yelled.

"What _is_  it, Palom?", Porom replied, the haze of sleep still in her
voice, and her vision, too.  Porom saw her brother dragging a large dark
blob into Seyla's apartment.

"I found this guy being attacked by scores of viscious soldiers.  I, um..
I started to distract them so that he could escape, but he fainted.  So I
had no choice but to kill the soldiers singlehandedly, and to carry him
here with my _incredible_ strength."

Porom gave Seyla a 'look what I have to put up with' face, and Seyla
returned a sympathetic smile.  Then, both of them turned in unison to the
man on the floor.

"Let's get him to my bed," Seyla suggested, and the two carried the
injured man onto Seyla's bed, and consequently, better lighting.

Meanwhile, still beaming at his "exploits", Palom simply looked on with
an air of authority.

"I wonder if he's badly... hurt..."  Porom shook the image out of her
eyes.  she could have sworn that the man on the bed was her long-lost
Fritz.  But it couldn't be, he obviously had both his eyes intact, and his
forehead was completely pentacle-free, and besides, Fritz had lived over
1000 years ago.  That's an awful long time to live, even for a necromancer
(or Black Wizard, rather).  But gosh, was he ever handsome - Porom
couldn't tear her eyes off of him.

"He doesn't look to be."  came a voice right beside her.

"Wha--what?" Porom snapped out of her reverie and looked at Seyla.

"He doesn't seem to be hurt, except for a large number of bruises on his
arm and legs, but for all we know, Palom could have made those when he
dragged the guy up the stairs."

Palom fumed.  "Lucky guess," he muttered to himself.

"I'll put on some tea, and hot food,"  Seyla said to Porom, "Watch over
him until he wakes up... if that's okay with you.  Or maybe you
should..."

"No problem," Porom said dreamily, staring at the injured man.

Seyla shrugged, and went off to the corner of the small room that served
as a kitchen.

Porom took a wet cloth and tenderly wiped the man's face, humming half to
him, half to herself, while Seyla continued with her cooking, and Palom,
bored out of his skull, went off exploring the small apartment and its
contents.

"Hey cool!" Palom exclaimed, but the only one who responded was Fozzy,
who came and rubbed up against his leg.  Oh, well, he'll just keep this
dicovery to himself, Palom thought as he dragged out the two coffin-sized
baskets filled with what seemed to be deflated balloons from a
compartment in the floor.  He was just about to unfold one to check it
out, when...

"Guys!  Come quick!  I think he's waking up!" Porom exclaimed to her
brother and Seyla.

The three gathered around as the man began to open his eyes.

"Yup!" Palom said, "I think he's waking up!  I think I'll go back to my
exploring now!"  On that note, Palom headed back to the balloons that he
was looking at before.

Just then a man spoke from the doorway.  "Good day, I am Cordain
Daunkipre, mercenary for hire, and I take it from your appearance that you
are not natives..."

At the same time, the man lying on the bed asked, "Where... where am I?"

"Safe," Porom replied, in the same dreamy state that she'd been in since
first laying eyes on him.  Cordain went essentially ignored.

"My brother found you on the ground and brought you here.  You don't seem
to be hurt.  Oh, I'm Porom, by the way, and this is Seyla.  The one
rooting around in the floorboards over there is my brother Palom.  Don't
mind him, though.  he's a little bit deluded."  Porom said as she
carefully helped the man to sit up in the bed.

He looked briefly around at palom, and then turned back to the two by his
bedside.

"Charmed," he said, as he reached out to kiss Porom's hand, "I am Miguel."

Porom melted.

                  **************

The next few hours were passed as Miguel and Cordain recounted stories of
their adventures to an eager Porom, while Seyla kept them both full of hot
chocolate and warm spice cookies.  At the same time, Palom was still
trying to inflate one of the balloons.

All of a sudden, Seyla let out a heartbreaking sigh.

"I had that thirst for adventure once..." she said sadly. "I just don't
have what it takes, I guess..."

Porom's heart broke.  "You can have it again, too!"  she began.  "All you
have to do is get your self-confidence back!  I suggest that you go back
to Doma, and face the skeletons in your closet.  That's the only way
you're going to be able to look yourself in the mirror again."

The idea made sense.  "But how am I going to get there?" she asked.

Palom, tangled in the cords of one of the balloons, lifted part of the
cloth and said, "Take one of these!"

"Of course, that's where I put those after I left Doma!  You're right.
I'll leave tonight.  Feel free to use my apartment while I'm gone.  I've
got to go now while I still feel..." She drew a long breath,
"...confident!"

With that, she snatched up the balloon that Palom was not tangled up in,
and walked out of the room.

"Well, that was quick,"  Miguel commented.

Porom just oogled, so he decided to retire for the evening, and find
Omega and Landho first light.

Porom was satisfied with just staring at Miguel for what seemed like
hours to Palom before falling asleep herself.  This was his chance.  He'd
been dying to try one of these things out!

He sneaked down the stairs, and, once out of town, set his balloon up to
fly.  He'd only be gone for an hour at most, he thought to himself.  No
one would miss him.