Epilogue:
Even if We Meet Again
GLENN SPENT SEVERAL DAYS in the Central Hospital after coming back to life. He was tested for many things with Sapphee—who refused to leave him—right there, but all the results were fine. The conclusion was that he’d even been in perfect health before he collapsed. The fact that Cthulhy had no idea what had happened was giving her a headache, but there was nothing physically wrong with him at all.
Glenn started examining patients at Litbeit Clinic right away.
“Yes, mother and child are both healthy, Shirsha.”
He smiled. The young minotaur wife—Shirsha Theseus—was now a mother of one.
The newborn child was drinking her mother’s nutritious minotaur milk and growing well, with an adorable horn emerging from the middle of her head.
“Um, Doctor…Are you all right? There was a lot of commotion and they said you fainted.”
“Ha ha. Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine now.” Glenn smiled as he answered the laid-back minotaur’s question. “I plan to take good care of myself so I can keep all of you healthy. I’m sorry for all the trouble.”
“Oh, no, it’s nothing.” Shirsha smiled too, picking up her baby. “I think…you’ve become a much more capable doctor than before. We will come see you again.”
“Yes, please come anytime you’re worried about anything to do with your little one,” Glenn responded.
He watched Shirsha leave the exam room, then filled in his findings on her chart, face serious.
“She really praised you, Doctor,” Sapphee said, slithering up to him with narrowed eyes. She had been in the corner, so as not to get in the way.
“Ha ha—well, it’s true that I had everyone worried. I need to work hard to regain my credibility as a doctor,” he explained.
“You know she’s married,” Sapphee warned.
“What are you talking about?! It’s not like that,” Glenn insisted, laughing.
“I wonder,” Sapphee muttered, staring at him the whole time. Then she dismissed it. “I’m joking—I don’t feel the need to be jealous of every little encounter anymore.”
“Really?” Glenn asked.
“Of course. I am your wife, Dr. Glenn.”
Sapphee giggled mischievously. She was swaying her tail side to side, so Glenn could tell she really was in a good mood.
We’ve been through so much.
Everyone in Lindworm was fed up with the heat wave still racking the city. Shirsha had come by because she was concerned the heat had made her baby ill. The child turned out to be fine, but it was understandable a mother would be worried.
Still, this heat was a natural phenomenon. It was far healthier than the heat he had felt in the Underworld, which stood in contrast to his far-too-low body temperature.
At least I got back somehow.
Glenn and Sapphee would be married at the end of the month. The ceremony Sapphee had spent so much time planning would finally seal their bond. Dying right before his own wedding would have been the unluckiest kind of bad omen.
Although that does sound like something I would do.
It was his nature to find himself in trouble.
He made eye contact with the fairy who was managing the medical exam supplies. It was Cottingley, in his hat. Despite sharing that adventure in the Underworld, they hadn’t spoken since they got back.
“We cleaned up,” Cottingley reported shortly.
“Yes, thank you,” Glenn replied.
The chatty fairy Glenn met in the Underworld was no longer present. His language skills had returned to what they used to be—no doubt he’d only talked that much back then because they were in the Underworld. Still, there was no doubt in Glenn’s mind that he’d only made it out of the Underworld thanks to Cottingley.
“Thank you, really.”
“Next task?” Cottingley prompted Glenn to assign them tasks faster.
Glenn called in the next patient to move things along.
“Brotherrr!”
“Hm?!” He opened his eyes wide at the sound of yelling.
Sioux bounded into the exam room.
“Brotherrr! Sioux heard that Brother died! What happened… And before he could even marry Sister—wait? You are…alive?”
“Sioux, I thought you were in the human realm!”
Sioux’s face was dripping with tears and snot. She stared in blank amazement when she spotted Glenn. A few more familiar faces entered the clinic after her—Souen, Plum, Illy, and even Saki.
“That’s why I told you to listen to me, you boar of a sister—”
“Brother! It really is you, Brother?!”
“Yes, it’s me. I’m sorry, Sioux. I really created a commotion.”
Souen looked at Glenn’s face and let out a huge sigh.
“I heard reports that you had come back to life, but I see it’s true—apologies, Glenn. I planned to keep the details from Sioux, but she eavesdropped on me and heard that you’d died,” he explained.
“I was not eavesdropping! Brother Souen, why would you hide information as important as Brother’s death from Sioux?!”
“Because you rushed back to Lindworm without even hearing the whole story, you idiot! You didn’t even think about how it would affect Lady Plum and Lady Illy!”
“Because it was terrible news—oh, oh?”
Souen’s scolding made smoke plume from Sioux’s head. She swayed, like she was dizzy.
“Whoosh…” Sioux let out a breath.
“Ahh, it’s because you ran too fast—Saki, get the water,” Souen instructed.
Glenn sighed at the sudden increase in patients.
“D-Doctor. For real, Doctor? Man, I was so worried too,” Plum added in.
“It’s true! I was so shocked to hear you died! We rushed back and here you are—are you really alive?!” Illy chirped in too.
“Oh, yes. I’m sorry for making you worry, too. I’m fine now—thanks to Illy,” Glenn assured them.
“Huh, me? Why?”
“Well—I don’t think you’d believe me,” Glenn said.
There was no way he could explain that he’d met Illy’s phoenix ancestors in the Underworld. He hadn’t even told Cthulhy, Skadi, or the second-generation Molly about what happened down there. It all felt like a dream to Glenn now, and he didn’t know how he could prove any of it.
He was now the doctor who’d lost consciousness, then miraculously recovered. The lantern gathering had been a prayer to the dragon for his recovery. That was how everything had been explained to the public, anyway.
“Okay, okay. The doctor still has patients to examine, so now that you’ve seen for yourself that he’s okay, please leave. Saki and Sioux, you can rest on the bed,” Sapphee instructed.
“Yes, thank you very much,”
Saki easily lifted the overheated Sioux onto the bed. Illy and Plum were shooed out. Then there was Souen, who glanced at Glenn.
“Don’t create so many problems,” he scolded.
“Yes, I’ll be prudent…” Glenn dutifully bowed his head. He understood all too well that he really had caused Souen a world of trouble this time.
“But well—I’m glad you’re all right,” Souen said in a low voice before leaving the room.
Glenn laughed to himself at his prideful brother.