Mmhmm.

Winter deepens, and the Ñolofinwëan city continues to grow. And then one day, she comes back early from digging out stone for it.

Findekáno? I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with something. Flu, probably.

Hmm?

...I'm getting sick.

What do we need to do?

And she goes over the basics of taking care of someone with the flu. I'll be kind of okay for another day or two, it's not super urgent.

Okay. Take care.

Yup.

She goes to tell the Fëanoreans, next.

Kay. Hope you feel better soon.

Should, thanks.

She's already feeling pretty worn down. She heads back to the city.

It's a breathtakingly lovely city. They've had a lot of time and a lot of magic.

Mmhmm.

She hasn't claimed a place of her own, but she knows where everything is. She gets herself a mug of broth and picks a nice warm fire to curl up by.

You okay? he asks a while later.

More or less. Have you figured out where I'm going to be, yet?

You mean a house? Would you like one here?

Wasn't really planning on it, I just need to be someplace where I won't bother anyone too much while I'm sick.

Sure. And he suggests a place. Though I doubt you'd bother anyone.

She teleports there and curls up again. Better not to risk it, anyway. Could you have someone bring me some pain berries?

These are brought.

That's sufficient to get her moving again for a little while, and she checks to see what's most urgent to do now if she's going to be out of commission for a couple weeks and does that and goes back to bed.

And people come in every few hours to check on her and sing to her if it's appreciated.

And so she has the flu. She spends most of it asleep, though for all but a few dicey days near the end she's awake and coherent enough for at least a little while each day to answer questions and give directions.

I should be back to normal soon, she eventually reports. I'll be weak for another couple days, but it seems to be over aside from that.

That's terrifying. This happens often?

You'll probably think so. I won't get sick like that every year, but it'd be unusual to go five years without - it's not always that bad, though.

What causes it?

Dunno. Lots of things can make it worse - not having enough food or enough variety of food or not being able to stay warm enough or having something stressful going on - but people get sick even in good years. Something does obviously cause it, though, usually several people get sick within a few days of each other in kobold tribes. And different kinds of diseases happen at different times of year, too - mostly winter.