Chapter Forty-six
Nara sat the armchair in the dark with the two lamps dimly lighting the room. She watched the boy as he slipped between the conscious and unconsciousness. The flickering flames revealed her fear and hope etched on her face. She listened to his short breaths, shuddering his whole body. His eyes twitched behind fluttering closed lids. She was alone in the house, Calemir had yet to return, and Izza had left to be with her young son after doing what she could. Nara had asked if there was another healer that could help apart from Finn. Unfortunately, there wasn’t, Finn was the only healer in Uruloki. She also found out elves with a natural ability to heal were scarce, there were only a few of them and didn’t have a habit of revealing themselves to people.
Nara was dozing off when moans awakened her. Her eyes flew open. She shifted on the sit properly and looked down at the boy, feeling sorry for him. He groaned again before his eyes weakly opened and mumbled unintelligibly. She leaned closer. His hot breath scalded her cheek as he muttered again with difficulty. “Father.”
Nara leaned back slightly. “What father?” she asked softly. Please, Odin let it not be what I’m thinking. She prayed desperately.
“My father” the boy whimpered, his eyes glazing with tiredness. “He…he” he choked with pain. “did you see him?” looking at her with hope. “He was behind me.”
Nara’s heart teared. There had been no man behind the boy except the vile creatures. If he had been with his father, then his father hadn’t made it.
“Shh,” she cooed instead when his face twisted with pain and tears dropped from the corner of his eyes.
“You need to rest,” Nara said softly, putting her hand on his head and brushing his hair gently. “Sleep” she urged when he tried to speak. The excruciating pain from the wound and the potent remedy they had given him to make him fall asleep when he had been thrashing and crying when Izza sewed him up seemed to overwhelm him. Slowly his eyes closed and he fell back into the unconscious. Nara couldn’t tolerate listening to his screams any longer because they hurt to hear. The agony on his face had torn her. Thus she had asked if there was anything they could make him take and sleep and wouldn’t feel a thing as Izza worked on him.
What were he and his father doing in the forest anyway? She pondered. Coming into the elves’ territory and do what? It didn’t make sense. No sane human dared to enter in elves’ lands.
Nara looked at the boy’s face again, her eyes questioning him.
The night blended to another day, the sun gloating from the sky at the misery which gloomed her room. Nara hadn’t left her room, specifically the boy's side. She hadn’t done much other than taking care of him by removing his dirty tunic and wiping his face and torso as much as she could. She checked on his wound from time to time, sterilizing it from his sweat. The boy had grown scalding hot during the day. His body consumed by fever. The fever seemed to spike by the hour.
“Go bath, I will watch over him,” Izza said, as she strolled into the room.
“I’ll do it later” Nara replied tiredly. She hadn’t bath or change her stained blood clothes from yesterday. She didn’t want to leave the boy’s side. Nara was afraid if she even left for a minute, something horrible would happen. She was the only person familiar to him. Human. She was the only person he could talk to without being terrified. He had already been traumatized by strange creatures and if he woke up and an elf was the first thing he saw…it might be too much.
“Okay” Izza muttered softly then quietly left the room.
Nara was again putting a damp folded cloth on his forehead to bring down his fever when she saw the scar on the side of his shoulder. Gently, she pushed one of his shoulder up to get a better view. Her eyes widened. Long old scars ran down his back. She quickly removed her hand when he stirred.
What did the freak happen to him? Nara frowned, anger boiling her blood. Who has done this to him? Her questions weren’t answered until later in the evening. His fever had gone considerably down, and he woke. “What were you doing in the forest?” she asked him when he had finished eating the soup she had prepared for him.
“They pushed us in” the boy replied then grimaced from the ache on his side. Nara expression turned disgusted. What evil man pushed a child into the hands of cursed spirits.
“Who?” she asked.
The boy’s face grew terrified as if seeing his tormentor. “My father’s master.”
“This master, is the one who gave you the scars on your back?”
The boy looked down and nodded. “yes, the Muri man.”
Nara turned impossibly rigid. Although she didn’t want to believe him and wanted to refute his claim, she knew it he spoke the truth. She had heard of masters who mistreated their servants. However, what the Muri master had done to the boy caused her to feel terribly ashamed and guilty. Nara looked away, fearing the boy would realize she was also a Muri and judge her to be cruel too. “Where is my father?” the boy asked, worry plain in his face and voice.
“Your father” Nara stalled… “Uhh” Her throat tightened, voice refusing to come out. She swallowed, glancing away from the boy’s imploring eyes. The boy had more than enough on his plate. He was still extremely weak and wounded. She didn’t think to suggest that his father was probably dead would be a good remedy for fast recovery.
“Nara” Calemir called her. Calemir had been standing by the door for a whole good minute unnoticed by the two as they talked. He had visited the site where Nara and the boy had faced the cursed spirits. Terror had sunken in his bones when he had gazed down at the rotting corpses of the creatures. The creatures had never left the forest borders. They were bound there. But with the event, it appeared that was naught. This was a problem, a very huge problem. To make matters worse, there had been another attack. He had gotten word that the attack had where Finn had been patrolling in a village just outside Uruloki. The two attacks happened on the exact same day. Calemir clenched his fists, looking grim. Nara whipped her head in his direction while the boys wore out features stretched, his fatigued eyes widened with the shock of seeing him. Calemir glanced at Nara. “I need to speak with you.”
Calemir took in the state she was in as she walked up to him. Distraught shrouded her face, her stained clothes telling him she hadn’t done anything other than watch the boy since yesterday.
“What’s wrong?” Nara asked, keeping her voice low between them as she stood just a foot from him.
“The boy’s father is dead” he muttered, his eyes meeting hers. Calemir hadn’t stopped just at the curses spirits corpses inside the land, he had gone into the forest to search for answers or a clue of what had made the spirits enter the grounds. Upon his search, he’d found a body of a human man, discarded under a tree. Usually, cursed spirits devoured their victim’s flesh, but they hadn’t with the man, except leaving his chest torn and gaping with their stench cloaking him. From overhearing the boy asking about his father, he knew the man was the father.
He is here. A sickly sensation rolled in his stomach as the three hissed words slithered in his mind. Who was here? Who was this HE?
Nara’s sigh dragged Calemir back to the present. “I thought so.”
She glanced down at their feet for a moment before lifting sad eyes to his. “I-I don’t know how to tell him.”
“I really can’t” she added quietly, her chest tightening with sadness and sympathy for the boy. She gritted her teeth as anger slowly surged in her veins. She closed her eyes and counted, trying to maintain her composure. She was angry. Her eyes flew open when Calemir put a gentle hand on her shoulder, his voice was soft when he said, “Let me talk to him.”
Nara chewed on her bottom lip before nodding. Calemir strode past her. The boy’s eyes as those of a frightened prey watched him warily as he approached and sat on the chair. Wanting to be close as he broke the news to the poor lad, Nara stood beside Calemir, lips pressed into a thin line.
Sympathy had flashed in Calemir’s eyes before they turned emotionless, as was the rest of him. He commanded the boy to look at him with his eyes, then said the words that ripped his weak heart. “Your father is dead.”
The boy’s eyes narrowed, unconvinced. Calemir just looked at him as the boy searched his eyes, searching the lie he wouldn’t find no matter how much he dug for it. froze, his mouth hanging open as the shock wore off and the truth he didn’t want to believe sank in. The creatures had killed him. Chin trembling, tears slid down his cheeks as everything turned blurry. The room seemed to spin and turned coldly dark. His face flushed with dizziness as pain pierced his breaking heart. He whimpered. “Father” he sobbed, his body shaking, violently. “Father no!” he cried, his voice breaking, overwhelmed. He clutched his chest as his pinched his eyes shut, tears streaming like a river. Oh, gods! It hurt so bad! Snort flew from his nose as he sobbed in agony. He was all alone!
“Do something” Nara spoke, unable to watch the poor boy suffer. She touched Calemir’s shoulder, making him look up at her. “Do that thing you do…please lessen his pain” She knew he had the ability to sort of alter moods. He had done it on her on a couple of occasions. Perhaps he could do it on the boy. “Please” she begged him when a muscle in his jaw twitched. Her pulse gave a leap of gratitude when he relented and turned to the weeping boy. He didn’t lay a finger on the kid, he just looked at the kid. Slowly as time ticked, the boy’s loud cries turned to choked sobs. She felt the slight numbness too that was settling over the lad as his sobs regressed to whimpers then silent tears. She glanced at Calemir. His green eyes had turned a richly gleaming color.
“Sleep,” Nara told the boy. Sadness, hurt and the pain was still visible on him but not prominent. He still ached beneath the numbness that overtook him. Deciding to find solace in sleep than from the two strangers, with a grimace from exerting his weak body Wúlf leaned back on the pillow and closed heavy lidden eyes. His chest rose and fell weightily as tears managed to slip under his wet lashes.
“You should rest too” Calemir’s voice pierced the silence once the boy finally fell asleep. He stood so that they were both on their feet, him towering over her by few inches. Nara sighed. She was tired, she hadn’t slept a wink as you know, but she also hadn’t bathed. She could smell her own sweat. Nara scrunched her nose. “I have to bath first.”
Calemir looked around her room, then back to her, “You can sleep in my room.”
Nara blinked. “That wouldn’t be necessary, I’ll use the chair.” Like Calemir had suspected, she chose the chair that was far from comfortable. Sleeping on the floor looked more welcoming than that old chair.
Calemir gave her a pointed look. “The boy seems fine, he just needs to rest, as you do. You won’t be much help to him if you are exhausted. And both you and I know you won’t be able to sleep on that chair.”
Nara sucked on her bottom lip before releasing it. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“I’ll sleep on the couch downstairs.”
“That won’t be fair. We can share the bed.” She said. It was Calemir’s turn to blink. “I’ll be fine.”
“Is your bed big?” Nara asked.
“Yes,” he replied skeptically.
“Then it would be okay. We both had tiring days. Let’s not fuss about this” Nara waved her hand dismissively.
“Okay.” Calemir agreed.
“Okay,” Nara repeated.
******
After agreeing to share his bed, Calemir had excused himself and left her room. Not wanting to make any unnecessary noise that would disturb the boy, Nara had decided to take her clean clothes to the bathing chamber. She took her time bathing and thinking how bold she was to suggest the two of them to sleep together. She rolled her eyes after a minute of useless thoughts. She had slept before in poor conditions with some of the Elite members when they were on missions and had to compromise in difficult situations. She would be able to tolerate sleeping with an elf. Nara plunged her hands into the sleeves of her nightgown, then wore the loose pants. She folded the dirty clothes and placed them on the small stool nearby.
Nara looked at the boy one more time before extinguishing the candles and heading out. Her stomach knotted as she walked toward his room. Nara halted at the slightly ajar door. She rapped her knuckles against it and waited.
“Come in.” the voice invited from the daunting room.
Taking a deep breath, Nara entered the bedroom, leaving the door as she had found it. Her eyes raked over the room, illuminated by the moon and lamps burning. She hadn’t bothered to study his room the first time she had been in. The room was spacious with simple furniture, a closet, shelf of scrolls and books and a bed. She eyed the large bed, covers stretched neatly over the mattress and the pillows positioned near the base of the headboard. It was certainly large enough for two adults. “Go ahead.”
Nara cocked her head to the direction of the deep voice. Calemir emerged from the bathroom, his hair damp. He was cladded in an undertunic and trousers, his feet bare.
Nara rubbed over her arms once and moved toward the bed. She perched on edge before sliding beneath the bedcover. The lines were crisp and fresh beneath her as she scooted and adjusted the pillow and slipped the dagger under then rested her head on the pillow. Nara closed her eyes and listened as he silently walked toward the lamp and blew the flame out, then closed the curtains of the window, plunging them into darkness. She opened her eyes when the other side of the bed dipped under Calemir’s weight. Her body tensed when he laid down and pulled the bedcovers over himself. It wasn’t until much later did she fall asleep when she gave up listening to his rhythmic breathing. She knew he wasn’t fully asleep.