“No,” he replied simply and, very unlike other nights, where he at least deigned to look at me or at least scan me to confirm I was still alive and unharmed, Dahr circled the bed on the other side and put out the only source of light within the room to leave me in complete darkness.
“I want my own tent,” I didn’t let go of my request and, seeing how the evening was not going the way I had planned, I summarised my one wish. The one I had circled around and theorised over all afternoon.
Dahr’s deep chuckle annoyed me more than it should have. He was probably tired and looked fairly beaten up. One only had to assume that the training day didn’t go as planned and probably the last thing he wanted right now was to deal with me.
Too bad.
The last thing I wanted was to be a prisoner and to be tied to his bed night after night, but here we were.
“I can’t continue like this,” I schooled my voice into my teacher one, the same one I used when I had to convey heavy information and needed to make things as logical as possible. “You took me away from everything. You took me away from my life, from my future, from everything I love. You blatantly refuse to have a conversation with me and explain yourself. You keep treating me like an animal and have absolutely no respect towards my condition. If I am to remain your prisoner, I requiresome sort of better accommodation,” I finished my sentence with a slightly more understanding tone, hoping that he would pick up on it.
“Like what?” his heavy voice sounded tired, almost put out instead of incentivised, the way I had initially planned it.
“Like my own tent. Some freedom to walk around the camp. To be a human again,” I explained.
“You are a human,” Dahr pointed. “Your location does not change your race.”
“That is not what I meant, Dahr, and you know it,” I tried to keep my calm and even wanted to lean into the mattress and get closer to him, as though to make sure my request truly reached him.
“As I said, March, I had no say in the choice,” the man replied and, as per his usual gesture, I saw him turn to the side and display his back to me with the same position that told me he was planning to go to sleep.
“Then release me and get someone else, someone of your choice. We clearly cannot stand each other, so why even bother?”
Was my proposal the right choice? Sacrifice someone else to get my freedom?
Absolutely not.
Did I say it anyway?
Regretfully, yes.
“It’s too late to pick someone else, March,” Dahr sighed, as if sick of the conversation.
“So what, am I just to spend my days here, in your tent and be tied to your bed until I die?” I retorted. Deep pulsations raised in my throat and an urge to slap him overpowered my senses. I absolutely despised this man and the way he treated me. As if I was the most insignificant thing, just an annoyance he had to deal with before bed.
“It’s the bar if you don’t shut up and let me sleep,” his gruff tone released the threat.
“I freaking hate you!” Having no other choice but to spend yet another night on the fur covers, I leaned back and held my mouth shut. I was absolutely going to avoid losing the little territory I had gained so far. Even if I had to lose this battle, I still had to keep enough ammunition for what seemed like a long war.
“She bites,” Dahr chuckled from the darkness of the tent.
Something was shaking.
I opened my eyes as the sleep abandoned my embrace abruptly, but I couldn’t see anything apart from the heaviness of night creeping into the tent. I blinked a few times, doing my best to force my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but there weren’t too many light sources, and it was impossible to see anything.
I decided to use my other senses instead and started feeling around to try to ascertain what exactly the problem was. What that soft shiver that moved the world around me was.
Generally, I slept either on the floor, covered in the blanket Dahr had thrown over me a few nights ago, or I leaned my back into the bedframe to rest my head on a small part of the mattress when I missed the comfort of a pillow.
Unsure what was happening around me, I decided to reclaim my sleeping position and feel that small movement again to better analyse the situation.
My heart jumped into my throat thinking of some intruder coming into the tent and creeping into the night, but I settled myself at the thought that there was a warrior sleeping here and hopefully, he must have enough sense to protect himself in his sleep.
After a few seconds of stillness, I came to realise that the mattress itself was shaking, and nothing coming from the exterior forced it to make that movement. Which in turn, told me that Dahr must be the one executing it.
Was he truly so bored with his life that he needed to bother my sleep? I almost chuckled, since I had done the exact same not a night ago. Was he trying to reverse the roles and show me how bothersome he could be?
I could very well return to the floor and wrap myself in the blanket, but decided to take the bait, if only because it presented another opportunity for conversation. And I wouldn’t find my rest until I made this man either release me or confess why my presence was needed here.
