“Makes sense.” I ripped open the packet, smeared cream on the inflamed parts, and applied two bandaids to the worst spots.
Then I put my head back on the pillow again. “It rained. I had to bathe in a stream, almost drowned. There were horrible biting bugs, bad guys, long days of slogging all the way across Scotland, so much riding?—”
“Where did you sleep?
“An inn the second night, then what Torin called a ‘wayside house.’ That was after riding in the rain. Oh man, the food was sobad, probably why I got the vomits. There was a cauldron on the fire and I was told it had been there, likely, formonths.”
Her eyes went wide. “You can’t eat that!”
“I know! But still I did!” I grimaced.
“Then we stopped for lunch the next day, and by that night I was sick. I was in some inn somewhere and don’t remember much at all. Torin just carried me into a room and put me into bed.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she cocked her head. “So tell me about Torin.”
I said, quietly, “I don’t know what there is to say, not really.”
“Try, I want to hear about him.”
“You met him.”
“No, I mean, he’s become very important to you. I want you to tell me about it.”
“Oh.” Then I frowned. “I don’t…” I whispered, “He heroically took care of me for days.” I dropped my head back. “And now he has left me.” I raised my head. “He kept doing that, you know, I’m actually furious. He left me in the woods alone that first night so he could murderously rampage. Then, when he thought we were being trailed, he put me behind a rock and left me, while he followed the creeps for a while to make sure we were safe. I was so freaking mad at him, scared out of my mind.”
She didn’t look quite upset enough, so I explained, “What if he had died, Jen? Or gotten lost and couldn’t find me again? It was dark and rainy! He had the vessel, so I would have been stuck in the middle ages forever!”
“Holy shit, what would you do?”
“I have no idea! Prostitution? That’s all I would ever be good at. I couldn’t even understand what they were saying most of the time.”
She said, “You know what you would do: go to a library or find a newspaper or something, get a story done on you, written down, and then we would be able to find you.”
“It’s the year 1558, Jen, don’t think that there are reporters looking for their next story?—”
“Oh right, when was the press invented, anyway?”
“You should know this, teacher. The Gutenberg press was invented in like, mid-fifteenth century, then there was a printing revolution. We learned it in school. But just because there were books printed, doesn’t mean there’s a way to get my name in one. Besides, even if I could get a message to you, what are you going to do about it? Do you have a vessel hidden around here?”
“Nope, you’re right, dumb idea.”
“Yeah. So I was terrified. And you know, I knew he couldn’t be beside me twenty-four seven, but knowing thatandbeing reasonable is not easy when you’re thinking you might die alone in medieval Scotland. So I wasn’t always reasonable.”
She nodded sagely. “Of course not. No one could be reasonable about that, and he’s a monster to have left you.”
“Yeah… he is. And then he left me here, and now he’s gone. Do you think he’ll come back?”
She shrugged and chewed her lip.
“I mean, what did he say?”
“He told us to take care of you, get you to a hospital, to protect you, and um, that he wasn’t coming back.”
I exhaled. “Yeah, and Torin means to be a man of his word. That means he won’t, probably.”
She said, “Oh, and he also said something about ‘farewell, molanan’. What does that mean?”
I raised my brow. “Really, he said that?”
