My Dear Savior

Episode 8

“Oh no you don’t!” I quickly grabbed one of the concoctions my mother used in situations like this and managed to coax it into his system. Though he fought me a little, I was stronger than him now since he had lost so much blood.

After a few long seconds, his breath steadied, and those piercing eyes opened again hazily.

As he examined my efforts, I finished up the last of the stitches and bandaged up his side. I decided to wait to clean him off a bit until he had a chance to relax and regain some energy.

“Rest now. You’ll start to feel better soon.” I tucked one of our largest and heaviest blankets around his shoulders and busied myself around our little home. I felt him watching me for a while as I washed my hands in the water by the fire and tidied up the herbs I had strewn around in my hasty searching, but eventually he fell asleep.

As I peered outside, I could tell it was already well into the afternoon, so I went back out to retrieve my basket and check some of our traps for dinner though my whole body protested. Truth be told, I was the one in need of a nap after the physical and mental ordeal I had just gone through to save this enemy.

But, it was hard to see an injured, young boy and think of him as my enemy. I could not reconcile him with the legends I had been told since birth. Yes, those eyes held the fires of hell in their depths and could stun a person who had never seen such a color before, but it didn’t mean he was a demon. Surely the stories about his royal house couldn’t be true. But if they were, I would be prepared with my mother’s small dagger. I set my chin and resolved to find out more about him once he was stronger and had a chance to rest.

A light brushing sensation against my cheek made me focus on my surroundings again, and I realized that snow had started to come down fairly heavily. I cursed myself for leaving my cloak inside the house and hiked my overfilled basket up on my arm. I increased my pace to a light jog to get out of the cold downpour.