“Why didn’t you tell us you were injured, miss?” She spoke to me with care, her voice low, as though she was scared to address me. I myself was taken aback with the shock of hearing her speak to me at all, but when I saw that she was here solely with the intention of taking care of me, I started relaxing.
“I thought Dahr knew,” I replied earnestly.
“Grannicus is furious,” she confessed and looked at me, as though I had something to do with this. In truth, I did. I hadbeen the one to make Dahr angry, but it was not my fault. And I didn’t plan on accepting the blame for something I did not do.
“I think he went to have a chat with the men that hit me,” I told her my suspicion and hoped that she would confirm, but Mira snorted.
“A chat… you can call it that if you wish…”
I had so many questions, but when Mira started working on my face and the burn of alcohol touched my open wound, I decided to keep quiet and stop moving my chin more than I needed to. The woman also kept silent and worked in peace, using clean cloth and essences to massage my face and cover my injuries with.
We maintained some sort of silent camaraderie, where her hands and my cheek had their own understanding and way of communicating, where I already knew how I had to move my head to give her better access and she touched me in a way that caused the least amount of pain.
That was, until we both jumped with a fright from Dahr’s scream, that sounded more like a battle cry than actual words. Mira and I exchanged looks for a mere moment, before we made the joint decision to walk to the tent entrance and pull the flaps open just enough to see what the commotion was.
“Oh my god,” I shrieked and moved behind Mira, my entire body shaking at the sight of Dahr, standing just a few metres away from the tent, in front of what looked like the entire camp.
Holding two severed heads, still gushing with blood.
“Oh my god,” I said again and grabbed Mira’s arms in a poor attempt to stop my hands from shaking. Air didn’t flow into my lungs anymore and stopped in my throat and… everything started spinning.
“Control yourself, miss,” Mira urged as she continued gazing outside, fully intrigued by the commotion.
I moved over to the side, ensuring that her body covered most of what was happening outside and let myself fall onto the fur carpet, my hands pressed over my chest with the desperate need to sense the airflow that was slowly settling back into my lungs.
I didn’t have to look twice to know who those two men were. I recognised their faces. Or, what remained of them.
“Anyone who dares to touch my woman again will share the same fate,” he shouted. Dahr’s voice was like a dagger shooting through the crowd and finding its mark every single time. It was sharp, steady and effective.
I tried to stop the sound from coming into the tent and blatantly refused to listen to the chanting that took place after that. The entire camp cascaded with an ovation of ‘Grannicus!’, ‘Grannicus!” which flooded the entire surface of the camp, as though they wanted to make his name reach the very stars.
I felt disgusted by this man.
Disgusted by their traditions, by the fact that he had to go and decapitate two men to make a point.
I felt absolutely disgusted.
Disgusted… and appreciated.
It was official. I had truly and completely lost my mind. I had lost my senses. There was absolutely no reasonable explanation as to why I had spent the night the way I did. Why I had jumped in Dahr’s arms when he arrived back in the tent, without caring that his body was covered in fresh blood. I didn’t even want to think where it was coming from. All I cared about was that he was safe, and he was back.
That he took it upon himself to punish those two men, even though it had been in a drastic way. I might have even experienced guilt or terror, were his touches not gentle and caring. After he hugged me and made sure I was safe, he thanked Mira and ordered her to come back in the morning to redo the bandages she had covered part of my face with to treat the swelling.
“Would you like to have some dinner?” he asked me after he cleaned himself once more, making the golden shine of his skin gleam with more temptation than ever.
“I’m not hungry,” I replied but still, walked closer to where he had just finished cleaning himself by the table. “I’m pretty tired…” I felt the need to add, the exhaustion of the day and the hundreds of feelings that battled my chest overpowering the rest of my needs.
With that, Dahr nodded and moved over to his bed, from where he pulled the cover up and motioned for me to get in.
Wordlessly, I did.
And that was it.
That was my night.
Dahr circled the bed and got in from the other side, then moved just slightly closer to me and asked me if I was in pain or if I needed anything before bed. When I told him that I was well and only needed to rest, he pulled the heavy blanket over my body, covering me with it, as though he could sense I needed an extra layer of protection.
And we both let the night carry us into the world of dreams.