Injury

I shot up once I felt a searing pain in my chest. My eyes roamed the room, my mind fully awake from the pain. I was back in the house Tori was letting us use, from the looks of it I was placed in one of the back rooms. I put a hand to my head as everything started to come back to me. I was shot. I killed a bunch of people. I lost control of my abilities. My head kept producing all these sentences, images of blood and scorched bodies replacing them as my mind reeled.

A hand touched my right shoulder, pulling me out of my dark thoughts. My eyes filled with the sight of Tori, Yona crying softly behind her. I don’t know how I missed them, but the sight of their tired faces gave  me a strange sense of relief. I moved forward to embrace Tori, but I cried in pain once the arrow moved inside my body. I looked down, seeing crusted, black blood begin to give way to fresh one. I also noticed the clothes I was wearing before was now replaced with some old, light brown robes, the front loosely tied and the left sleeve was completely off my body so that it didn’t brush the arrow. My left breast was open to the world and I felt so exposed in that moment as I attempted to cover my bosom with the robe, but the movement made me wince in pain once again.

“Don’t move so suddenly, jeez.” Tori berated, as she flicked my hand away in order to examine the wound, bringing a cloth around the shaft to put pressure on it. The exes cloth hanging down covered most of my breast, making me feel better and I knew Tori knew this too.

Yona’s small voice called my attention, her eyes lowered to the ground,

“I’m so sorry.” She sounded terrible; her voice rough from holding back tears. I looked at her as I turned towards her more, crossing my legs.

“Not your fault- he used me as a shield.” I muttered for a moment. She said nothing, my answer obviously didn’t take off the guilt she pushed on herself. Tori was the one who spoke first, her eyes intent on the projectile sticking out of my chest,

“Now that you’re awake I can treat you. I couldn’t pull the arrow out while you were sleeping.” She threw her head towards the door and hollered out,

“Yoon!” In a loud voice, scarring Yona for a moment, but her eyes still graced the floor. Yoon popped his into the room, his arms carrying bags of herbs.

“She’s awake?” He questioned with hopeful eyes until he saw me, a smile spreading across his face as he moved across the room. Tori nodded as the boy placed his pre-made poultice next to her.

“I need you to hold her down as I pull out the arrow and then while I put pressure on the wound you need to put the medicine I helped you prepare on it.” He nodded seriously at her as he helped me lay down on my back. The arrow wasn’t all the way through, but it was close, so laying down was painful in itself. Yoon placed his hands on the dip of my good shoulder and forearm, putting pressure so that I couldn’t move that side and my heart rose in my throat and. Tori stroked my hair gently,

“I know you don’t like being restricted, especially pushed down like this, but it’s only going to be for a moment. I promise, Shoe.” I swallowed hard as I nodded,  but I suddenly felt another pair of hands on my other arm. Yona, tears still glistening in her eyes but face stern, helped push down my arm, weary of my shoulder. I felt calmer somehow with her touch on my skin and I looked to Tori, who placed herself at my head. I nodded to her, indicating I was ready and she nodded back. She took a breath before looming over me, putting more pressure on the reddening cloth, the arrow in between two fingers as she grasped the shaft tightly with the other.

“One, Tw-” She yanked the arrow proficiently from my chest, my body attempting to arch forward, but the hands on me prevented it.

“Three.” She said with a content sigh as she tossed the bloodied weapon away. My mouth agape as I glared at her, pain flaring anew in the wound as she put consistent pressure on it. Tori simply smiled at me, shrugging as she beckoned Yoon to get the medicinal herb concoction. The pressure being released from that side made me sigh, the panic I had felt at being pinned now gone, though Yona still had her hands on my arm- not putting any pressure on it, just touching. She still looked generally frightened and I moved my arm up to show my hand, she gratefully took it as she squeezed our palms tightly together.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. This isn’t the worst would I’ve gotten, trust me” I chuckled as she wrapped her free hand around me, ignoring Tori’s hand  still on my wound and I suppressed a grunt- not wanting her to feel bad at all.

The poultice smelt almost refreshing with its earth scent and it immediately started to sooth the irritation pricking at my skin. Tori examined the layer of mashed herbs and nodded her satisfaction to herself,

“Okay. Yoon, Yona, I’m going to have to ask you to leave while I bandage the wound. I’ll call you in afterwards.” Yoon nodded without any hesitation, gathering the remaining bags of herbs as he began to leave, but Yona looked desperately from Tori to me and Yoon stopped to look at her. Tori leaned in, speaking to Yona in a whisper,

“She’s a shy one, this one. So if you’d please…” I narrowed my eyes at Tori’s audacity, but I ignored the comment as I squeezed her hand before letting it go.

“I’m right here, don’t worry. So go on.” I patted her head as she nodded, Yoon coming up behind her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder as he escorted her sullenly. Yoon had seemed to be just as shaken as Yona, but he was tad better at putting up a front.

I sighed as I sat up again, not feeling embarrassed as I shrugged off the other sleeve to the robe. Tori tapped one side of the bandage underneath my breast to hold it still as she began to circle it around my body. As I looked down at her working I couldn’t help but look at the scars littering my stomach. Embarrassment aside, I didn’t want anyone, especially Yona, to see these scars.

“So, someone recognized you?” Her words caught me off guard as I looked up, the feeling of a lecture coming on.

“No, not exactly.”, I paused as I raised my arms up so that she had an easier time wrapping as she came back around my person,

“They were from the Light Tribe, but they didn’t question too much how I knew that. But them being in the village and having ties in human trafficking spells out trouble back home.” Tori had that look in her eye, the one that said she was thinking of a thousand problems and a million solutions for them all at the same time. She stayed silent as she continued to tightly wrap the wound, my arms getting tired from being raised for so long. They were slowly falling down, but at Tori’s voice I raised them higher again,

“You’re the biggest idiot I know, you know that? What were you thinking going to that town like that? You thought you could just beat up anyone you saw and it would solve everything?” Her voice was coarse, but her eyes showed compassion.

“You know that man, the commander from the Light Tribe, wasn’t the head of the operation, I can guarantee you that. Just from what I observed earlier tonight these strings of kidnappings run deep and it’s going to take a lot more than defeating a few dozen men to nip this in the butt.” She sighed after a moment, tying the end of the bandage and tucking it underneath the rest of the wrapping in finalization.

“The independent actions of these men can do harm to our country, it could start a war if others found this connection and presumed the royal family had a part in orchestrating this.” I couldn’t find any words, I knew she was right and I knew this was bigger than I made it seem in my head.

Tori moved away, tidying up her surroundings as I put the robe back on, tying it properly this time. I looked to her as she turned to me, placing her hands gently onto her fine garments,

“ Your highness, after tonight I’m going to need to return home.” I blinked for a moment, looking at her as she continued,

“I need to do some investigation on our end and construct some plans. I can only leave now because I know I don’t need to worry about you if you’re with them; I trust them with you. Besides, they were really upset when I wouldn’t take the arrow out to the point one said I was trying to kill you, Kija I believe it was.” I sat their, shocked.

“Kija? You sure it wasn’t Zeno or someone else because I’m quite sure he doesn’t care that much about me.” Tori chuckled at this, raising a delicate hand to her lips at the memory,

“Oh, yes, quite certain. He was freaking out so much he ended up taking out that large hand of his but Hak hit him over the head and dragged everyone out, saying you’d be fine.” Whoa, so many things I did not expect. I didn’t realize they all cared to that extent. I was touched by their worry and would need to thank them later, but as I thought this Tori placed a cool hand on my forehead. The difference in temperature was astounding to me,

“You still have a fever, an affection, I fear. There wasn’t much I could do with the arrow still in you and putting you into a state of shock by pulling it out while you were unconscious was too high, but with the medicine from our land it’ll be no problem to keep it under control.” She pushed me back into a laying position, bringing the blanket to my chest, but I felt it was way too warm for that.

“You’ll have to tell Yoon how to take care of you. You know what times to take the medicine and I don’t have time to lecture him properly on it. He’s a smart boy so he’ll pick it up quite quickly, I’m sure.” She stood up as I rolled onto my side, kicking the blanket off as she headed to the door. As she opened it she nodded to someone on the other side, I raised an eyebrow as Kija busted through the door. He has large tears rolling down his face as he flung his hands into the air and tackled me, making me wince, but it looked like it would have hurt more than it did.

“Hey, Kija, that hurts you know!” I audibly whined as the white dragon pulled away, fatter tears falling away as he realized what he had done. He put his head into my blankets as he blubbered apologizes. I chuckled at him, patting him on the head, but he still persisted on crying and apologizing at the same time.

Author's Note

Another chapter yay.

Reviews

[AliciaB]

Yay! Love it. The parts with Yona laying her hand on Shoe's arm and Kija "attacking" her out of concern at the end are really sweet. I also love Yoon and his helpfulness - he's adorable. Finally, I'm really interested in learning the backstory behind Shoe's scars. Great chapter! Can't wait for more!

[andrew mitchell]

Sorry I don't review stories!