The loud chirping of birds outside the window woke me from my Sleeping Beauty sleep. I found myself covered up to my neck in a rather uncomfortable bed, staring blearily at an old brown wooden blanket. I briefly touched my torso and noticed bandages that seemed to have been applied to my wound. It was then that I noticed that the person who had treated my wounds had apparently removed my blood-stained and torn shirt. In fact, it wasn't just my shirt that was missing. They had also taken off my pants and bra - so I was almost naked under the covers. But I couldn't really get upset about it - somehow they had to put the bandage on me and my clothes were torn, dirty and quite unhygienic. 

However, as the bandage covered most of my upper body, I tried to sit up in bed for a moment to get a better look at my surroundings. The walls of this room, like the ceiling, were covered in dark wood, richly decorated with brass inlays and etched patterns. Copper coloured pipes and mechanical fittings could be seen all over the walls. Opposite the bed was an imposing wardrobe, its doors decorated with etched glass depicting intricate patterns of gears and steam engines. While the furniture and most of the other items in the room looked rather classy, the room itself was a complete mess. Books were scattered all over the place, some clothes had probably never seen the inside of the expensive looking wardrobe, and a beautiful leather coat had been carelessly thrown over a nearby chair. I could also see a small wooden workbench on which were small round vessels - reminding me of Cáit's grenades. "This must be Cáit's room. Why doesn't it surprise me that she's a rather messy person," I giggled, as I suddenly heard a soft, steady snore next to me.

Cáit was sleeping next to me in a comfortable-looking old chair with a soft leather cushion and wooden armrests decorated with etched patterns. However, the way she was crammed into the chair looked incredibly uncomfortable. As the light in the room was much better than in the dungeon, and Cáit didn't hide her face under her hood, I could see for the first time how young Cáit really looked.
I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Would you like to take the bed? I think I fit better in this chair.” She immediately woke up from her light sleep and hugged me without warning. 

I had expected to be in terrible pain by now, but everything felt normal.
"You're finally awake," Cáit said happily, her joy sounding genuine, "don't ever worry me like that again."
"I promise," I replied sheepishly, before asking her, "How long was I out?"
"Maybe a day. Maybe a day and a half. I don't know. Hannah and I have been taking turns looking after you for the last few hours. Right now she should be in the library reading up on the events of the last 250 years," Cáit told me proudly before muttering in frustration, "But I have to admit, if Angus hadn't been sent to look for me, I don't know if we would have been able to get you back to our headquarters alive."
"I suppose Angus is the giant?" I asked her and Cáit nodded, "But I'll give you a bit of advice. He doesn't like to be called a giant. Besides, everyone here is probably a giant compared to you." I was about to give her the middle finger for saying that, but Cáit hugged me a little tighter at that moment.

Surprisingly, I still didn't feel any pain. Unable to explain the whole thing, I pulled away from her embrace and asked her confusedly, "How come I don't feel any pain right now? The golem hit me with full force and I bled like a pig. And I'm pretty sure the second potion didn't work as expected."
"The biggest problem was actually your blood loss and the fact that it took us a while to find the cut because of all the tattoos on your upper body. The blood loss is also the reason why you collapsed on the way here. After cleaning your wound, we found that it wasn't quite as deep as we had feared," Cáit explained. I was surprised that she didn't comment on my tattoos, but maybe they were normal in this world.
"Sara got a better healing potion for you from a pharmacist friend and I washed your body first and then put this perfectly fitting bandage on you," Cáit sounded incredibly proud at that moment and I said quietly, "Thank you for everything. But..."

I was about to tell Cáit that I had no money for the potion, but she just smiled at me and said, "Don't worry about the cost. I already covered it."
"I'm sorry for being such a burden," I said quietly, but Cáit glared at me, "Listen. It was my fault. I should have stopped my quest to bring you straight here. That's why Sara has already given me a lecture. And she's right. We had more luck than judgement.”
"But then we probably wouldn't have been able to save Hannah," I interrupted, "who knows how much longer she would have lasted."
Cáit gave me a shy smile, "Don't worry. To Sara, I'm family. She was just worried about me taking so long, and if Angus hadn't just come back from his quest, she would probably have gone looking for me herself. The whole thing was pretty reckless on our part."

I didn't really know how to react, but deep down I knew Cáit was right, so I quickly changed the subject, "Cáit, where did you put my item bag? Please don't tell me I lost it in the dungeon." Cáit suddenly stood up and walked over to the workbench, where she opened a drawer.
She was simply adorable. With her loose leather coat and protective gear, one could only imagine her feminine charms in the dungeon, but now that she was wearing only a white collared shirt and her leather pants, it was impossible to miss how good-looking she was.
"Don't worry. I've kept your few possessions safe," she said, grinning as she handed me the bag. I found the whole situation amusing. She could have just thrown the bag in the corner and no one would have noticed. But I suspected she probably wouldn't have found it herself.
"You want to read the letter, don't you?" she asked curiously and I just nodded.

The only person this letter could have come from was Aurora, and by now I was really curious to know what she had written to me. I opened the letter and suddenly found myself holding a wad of unfamiliar paper money.

My dearest Emsley,

I'm afraid I've forgotten to tell you something important. I don't want you to start your new life penniless. So I have taken the liberty of sending you your savings. You won't need them in your old world anyway.

XOXO (that's what they say in your world, isn't it?)
Aurora

"Really?" I grumbled, "X O X O? Who the hell ends a letter like that these days? Cáit... can you do me a favour and burn that thing, please?"
"Sure," Cáit giggled, "but only on the condition that you tell me what this XOXO means."
"It means hugs and kisses. And since you're going to ask me that anyway... there's absolutely nothing useful written in this letter," I mumbled annoyed and as soon as Cáit got her answer she had a little fireball in her hand. Moments later, the letter was gone.
"At least you have some money now," Cáit smiled, which only made me shrug indifferently. I had saved a good 75,000 pounds in my old life. I figured that would buy me a nice life in this world for a while. Meanwhile, Cáit just started counting the money. 

"Em, that's 750,000 Yorkies. Where did you get all that money?" she asked in surprise and I replied brusquely, "According to the letter - my savings. Is that a lot of money?"
Cáit suddenly burst out laughing so hard that tears came to her eyes, "You really are out of this world, aren't you? The potion didn't even cost me 5 Yorkies. You must be one of the richest people in the area."
I didn't really care, but since I didn't know anyone in this world except Cáit, I said, "Can we keep this our little secret for now?"
"Sure," the young woman smiled at me, "By the way, it's very convenient that you have so much money. You really need some clothes. Abby has already washed your strange pants and tried to mend them, rather unsuccessfully. But you should be able to put them back on, at least for now. Your dirty shirt and that strange, tight, ugly bra couldn't be saved."
Cáit probably had no idea what a sports bra was. After all I had seen so far, I would have been a bit surprised if this world was that advanced in terms of fashion.
"Don't worry about it," I said quietly, "these things are all replaceable."

"If you feel well enough to get up, perhaps we should take a few steps. You must be very hungry. You haven't eaten anything since the day before yesterday except that one muesli bar," Cáit suggested suddenly, and at the thought of food my stomach began to growl loudly. I tried to get up slowly and, as expected, my body didn't cooperate at first, so Cáit had to hold me for a moment. Once I had regained my balance, I tried to squeeze into my trousers and quickly pulled on my worn-out chucks. Cáit also gave me one of her shirts to wear. It was so big, though, that I could almost have worn it as a dress. Then we set off to find something to eat.