She lays down on the cot, staring at the ceiling.

Eventually, Puck came to get Claire

She looks over at him, getting up. "All better?"

The room was dark; candles flickered erratically, and mushrooms on the walls glowed with a soft yellow luminance. Puck stood over her, grinning as usual, the light casting weird, fluttering shadows over his face.

"Yeah, I'm all good now. Come on, Princess. You slept all day and missed the fun. Our lovely nurse got a few of her friends together to make you a dress. They refuse to show it to me, of course, so you have to march in there and come out wearing it."

She chuckles, nodding. "Alright."

Puck led her out of the room, where the nurse was waiting for her in the hall, a small, pleased smile on her lips. "Ah, there you are, Miss Chase."

She smiles, nodding.

The nurse led her down the hall. "The stubborn fool is walking now, and even challenged Robin to a sparring match this afternoon. I stopped them, of course, though Robin was only too happy to fight him, the idiot."

"Hey," Puck said behind them. "Im not the one who offered. I was just doing the guy a favor."

The nurse whirled and fixed him with a gimlet eye. "You--" she began, then threw her hands up. "Go get ready, idiot. Youve been hovering at the door like a lost puppy all day. Tell the prince well be leaving as soon as Miss Chase is ready. Now, get."

Puck retreated, grinning, and the nurse sighed. "Those two," she muttered. "Theyre either best friends or darkest enemies, I cant tell which. Come with me, Miss Chase."

She pushed open another door and stepped through. They entered a small room with shelves and potted plants encircling the walls. Two other gnomes, as shriveled and wrinkly as the nurse, looked up from three-legged stools and waved cheerfully.

She smiles and waves back, chuckling.

They were working on a dress. A floor-length, blue satin gown hung from a mannequin in the center of the room, rippling like water in the sun. The bodice was embroidered with silvery designs and glittering ribbons of pure light, and a gauzy blue shawl had been draped over the naked shoulders, so sheer that it was almost invisible. A sparkling diamond choker encircled the mannequins neck, sending prisms of fragmented light across the walls. The entire outfit was dazzling.