The Elemental Journey

A Wound Revealed

His face was just as soft as his expression. His eyes staring at mine as if they were the most beautiful things he had ever seen. i realized he was literally holding me in his bed, as his hand was on my side softly. He sat up and scanned my body. He had his arm still halfway around me so I couldn't exactly sit up as well, since his grip was a bit stronger on my own. His eyes traveled down from my shoulders down to my legs, and his expression suddenly went stern. He released me and stood. He walked to the small room he disappeared in the night before, and leisurely walked back out after a few moments. Though those moments felt like eternity, being away from him almost felt like a dark curse. His soft hands held a wooden box, those perfect hands that had lulled me to sleep so easily.. He quietly sat on the bed beside me, turning his figure towards me as he set the box down. At this point, i realized i was still laying down, so i sat up, only to be gently pushed back down by him. He looked at me, his dark brown eyes stared into my soul. He didn't say anything for awhile, as i laid there on the bed with a confused expression. before finally, with his deep, soft voice, he spoke.

"Please, allow me to take care of this for you..." He said.

"Of what..?" I replied.

His gaze averted from my eyes down to the side of my stomach. I followed his gaze with my own, and realized i had forgotten to change the bandages from my stab wound the day before considering i was put to sleep. A small amount of blood was seeping out of my long-sleeved shirt. I nodded slightly at him, giving him my consent as i started avoiding his eyes. He looked back at where the blood was, and got the small box from beside him, setting it just by my torso as he adjusted his position to treat me better. He reached over and started to unbutton the shirt I was wearing. When he was done, he opened it to reveal a much bigger blood stain than expected. His eyes widened, and he used one hand to open the box beside him, the lid was faced towards me so i couldn't see what was in it. He didn't pull anything out, but instead looked back at me.

"I'll need to take this off..." He gestured towards the undershirt i was wearing.

"It's okay, I have something underneath." I replied reaching a hand up to the neckline of the top, going underneath and pulling a small strap from underneath to show him that I indeed had an undergarment underneath.

He nodded slightly. I sat up and slid the undershirt the rest of the way off. Then the same hand that pushed me down before did it again, while his free hand took the clothes and put them on his other side. He looked at The place where i had been stabbed, his hand reached into the box, He pulled out a small cloth and a small vile of bright green liquid. He opened the vile and put the cloth on the opening before dumping it over. he closed the vile after it was half-empty and put it back in the box.

"This may sting a bit.." He warned me.

I nodded and he put the cloth down on the wound. I winced and brought my hands up to cover my mouth. But my hands were quickly grabbed and held by his, he left the cloth there. It still hurt the same, so my expression turned. He released one of hands and held onto the other one, tightening his grip. I closed my eyes and covered my mouth with my free hand, putting my head to the side.

"I have reason to believe the cause of your pain is because the weapon used to inflict this upon you bruised one of your organs. The substance that is on this cloth shouldn't hurt you at all." He explained it to me in a stern tone of voice.

He looked at me with a pained expression.

"Does it still hurt?" He asked.

The pain hadn't gone down, so I was still holding on to his hand as tight as before.

"Yes..." I managed to muffle a response, failing to say it without much interference from a gasp ofpain as it came to me in pulses.

"I can't clean it until it does its work... So it'll have to stay there until it doesn't hurt anymore.." He said, still having the same expression as before.

Just then, a guard opened the door. And the queen walked in. She was dressed in a gown that had a similar design as the small hairbrush she was holding the day before. It was a dirty white with black embroidered roses on the sides leading to the inside of her arms and down them on the sleeves, They went down her arms and hugged her wrists. The sleeves extended to her hands at a small ring attached the fabric to her middle fingers. Her hair was in a half-up ponytail with small braids on the sides of her hair. She wore a soft smile on her face as she walked to the side of the bed to face me.

"Are you alright dear?" She asked me.

Her hand reached down to my head and she pat my hair as she asked. Afterwords sitting down in the stool next to the bed. I leaned in to her touch but winced again as another wave of pain hit me.

"I'm treating a stab wound currently. I do hope it'll ease up soon.." Adair told her.

I couldn't move, much less talk to her. But i soon realized i was getting hungry. I looked over at my bag on the stool to the other side of the bed, i couldn't move to get my food out of the bag even though i wanted to. I looked over at Adair, he got the message.

"Mother, do you think it would be possible we could have breakfast sent here?" He asked.

She looked down as if thinking about it, and looked over to the guard outside of the door, who was listening to our conversation simply for the purpose of carrying out orders if there were issued any. The guard looked over, seeing as the room had gone silent, and seen the queen looking at him with a soft smile, having heard the request from the prince, he guessed what her silent order was and called someone over, speaking quietly in order to not disturb the room. She looked back at me, with a similar expression that Adair had a bit earlier.

"I hope you feel better soon Thana.." She told me.

With that she stood and walked out of the door. The guard closed the door behind her.