Moving back to place the glass of water on the floor, I raised to my knees and started pulling Dahr’s body towards me, doing my best to shift his weight fully onto his back. It took me a good minute or two to pull the giant’s massive limbs towards me, the entire situation humbling the thought of the strength I thought I held. Because if I struggled so much when Dahr was passed out, I didn’t even want to think how my attempts to escape wouldbe when the man was fully recovered and well. Fine, my hands barely reached him, and I had to base most of my skills into my non-dominant hand, but still…
Once I was satisfied with his new position, I grabbed the extra pillow I had contemplated stealing many times and removed its covering, then spent a long while pulling and ripping it apart until I obtained long pieces of fabric.
Or at least that’s what I hoped, my temporary blindness preventing me from observing the quality of my work.
The hardest part, however, was making journey after journey towards the carafe of water, trying to wet the pieces of fabric one by one without wasting more than necessary and feeling my way around towards Dahr’s body to stretch the pieces of wet fabric over his naked and burning torso, shoulders and arms.
And keep doing it over and over again, because this man’s skin was like a stove and less than five minutes after I’d placed a piece of cloth over his skin in a poor attempt to decrease his body temperature, the fabric came up dry.
To say I spent one of the longest and most uncomfortable nights of my life would be an understatement. I prayed for the first tendrils of the day to arrive, but when they did, they brought anything but the relief I was hoping for. I could finally see Dahr, shivering and sweaty, his skin aflame and almost crimson, so at odds with the beautiful golden tan he usually displayed.
I would not lie, I had studied the man’s every single feature, and some of them were for absolutely selfish reasons. But seeing him like this, powerless and so different from the ruthless man I had come to know did something to my chest.
Something I immediately pushed away and did not allow myself to feel, choosing to focus instead on the never-ending journey to place more wet cloth over his body and try to calm down his fever.
My movements had become so abrupt after repeating the same motion over and over again, that I didn’t even realise I had bruised my wrist and part of my arm from the pull of the leather binding that kept scraping up and down my skin.
Even though it had started to hurt and swell, I was determined to continue my work and hoped that someone in the camp would search for him and come to my aid.
My wish was granted only a few hours later, after the camp started its daily commotion and chatter clung to the tent. I started shouting for help and telling people that Dahr needed assistance, but the voices frolicked over my own as though I hadn’t even spoken. I decided to save my energy, since the water was almost running out and I didn’t know what else to do to help my captor.
I had already removed the furs from the bed and pulled his pants lower, forcing the waistband to lie on his hips and barely cover his manhood, with the thought of giving his body more space to cool. Ideally, I would have wanted to pull those leather pants down completely and let his legs breathe, but I couldn’t reach lower than his knees, so the last thing I wanted was for someone to come in and find their leader half-naked with his manhood out and me on top of him.
With the light of the new day, I noticed that part of the mattress was stained with blood, and it looked to be coming from the other side of his hip, but no matter how much my fingers tried to find the cause, I didn’t feel or see anything protruding out of his leg. I couldn’t reach him too well however, he had to be turned and examined once more, but the sleepless night and exhaustion caught up with me and my strength.
I chose to let him rest on his back and kept changing the wet fabrics his skin continued to dry up every few minutes.
“I didn’t take you for a man who gives up after a beating, cousin,” Markos’ voice came as the answer to all myprayers when he opened the tent flaps and made his stunning appearance into the tent.
At the sight of me, his blue eyes grew wide.
“He’s sick, I need help,” I immediately shouted, urging him to come help me.
The tribe lord ran towards to bed and pushed me aside in his need to reach Dahr’s feverish body. I fell on the floor, over the furs, my back pushing the jug of water and spilling the remains I had treasured for so many hours.
“What did you do to him?” Markos shouted as he grabbed Dahr’s limp body into his arms, trying to shake him into alertness.
“It won’t work,” I said without taking offence to his reaction. “I already tried that,” I added, making a stand again and moving back towards the bed in slow and noticeable motions, lest he think I was approaching them with ill intent.
“What… what happened?” Markos kept shaking his friend and probably taking in the pillowcase remains I had just recently placed over his cousin’s shoulders and torso.
“He’s been like this most of the night. I tried calling out, but no one came, so I tried to lower his fever. He’s not shaking as much as before,” I spilled the summary of my entire night and the more information I gave him, the wider Markos’ eyes became, shining their curiosity at me.
“You cared for him?” the tribe lord barely asked, his brows so furrowed that they completely covered his eyelashes.
“I tried to, but I only had some water, so I used it to lower his fever. I think he’s bleeding from his leg, but I can’t reach,” I explained, making sure to show him my bruised wrist that kept me connected to the other side of the bed frame.
Markos was paralysed for a long moment, the only thing moving was his gaze, which spun from where I had shown him Dahr’s suspected injury, towards me, then back again. His pupilsdilated, as though he was looking through me rather than at me and I could almost touch the thoughts he was spinning in his mind.
“Who else knows about this?” He asked, tone as harsh as his leader.
It was my turn to blink at him, partly surprised and partly shocked. Had he not seen my situation? Had he not realised that I was tied to the bed? Probably understanding the futility of his question, the leader stood from the side of the bed where he had rushed to Dahr and turned towards me.
“I will be back in a few minutes. Stay with him.” He pinned me with a sharp gaze and did not break a move until I replied. “I will.”
A few blinks later, the tent flaps opened again, this time to bring in both Markos and his mate. Karisha’s hair looked dishevelled, and her dress did not carry any of her usual adorning details. I assumed that she was in the process of getting ready for the day when Markos required her assistance.
Greeting me with a quick smile, Karisha was careful to take a seat on the mattress next to me and open a small wooden box, which she carefully placed by Dahr’s side. Within it, there were various potion bottles which reminded me of a herbalist's bag.
