Winter Shadows of the Vale

𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖚𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌

𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖚𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 (𝖛) 𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖔𝖗 𝖗𝖊𝖌𝖆𝖎𝖓 (𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖘𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖑𝖔𝖘𝖙 𝖔𝖗 𝖙𝖆𝖐𝖊𝖓)

Waking with a jolt and a loud yell, Winter sits up quickly and looks around frantically, "Duran?"

The man in question is groaning loud and moving against the flood uncomfortably. She runs over to him and kneels down, "Stop. Stop."

He finally looks up to her, tears in his eyes, "It hurts."

She holds her own tears back, "I know. I'm sorry please lay back."

Wiping her eyes quickly, she helps him lay back comfortably, "I'm going to have to clean these out. It was a bit easier when you were passed out."

He sounds so weak, it makes him cringe, "How long?"

"How long you've been out?" Winter thinks for a moment and grabs her diary quickly, "About ten days."

His eyes widen to the capacity of his physical strength, "Really?"

Winter nods and opens his short without a second thought and examines the wound once again. The stitching is doing it's job rather well but the worse part was today was the day she was supposed to change it.

"What have you been doing?" His hand lands on the thigh closest to him and she smiles at the warmth.

"Just been sitting here, hunting, and bathing. That's about it," she smiles, "Oh! And making sure you were okay."

His frown is small, "You should have let me die there."

Her gasp is so loud is makes him flinch and she hits his shoulder hard, which jolts his side, but he deserves it. "Hold your tongue!"

Shifting his gaze from hers, he lets her move and come back with Witz in tail. The horse looks at him and starts jumping. Duran chuckles, "Come here, boy."

"Gentle." Winter whispers to the steed and he wades over and gets down onto his knees slowly. He first nuzzles Duran's face, then smells him for a moment, and finally lays his head on his chest, avoiding where he got hurt.

Duran, once again, lets the tears fall and Winter leaves with the canteen to give them both some time. Taking her time, she fills the canteens with fresh water and in the process washes her face.

It's easy to come back and smile at the scene, but she frowns. "Duran?"

He looks over to her, a little more light in his eyes, "I'm sorry, but today I had planned to redo the stitching."

His smile falls, "Is it really needed?"

Winter nods, "It's been a few days and the thread is blood soaked. It's best I just redo some of the still open places. You're lucky it's healed rather nicely."

He nods and Witz gets up and makes his way back to the stream, "You got something to clean it?"

"Only whiskey."

Winter notices his grimace but he straightens up when she comes close to him, "Grip onto me if it hurts."

The large man nods as she uses a knife to cut some of the stitching. It stings when she pulls the remaining out of him. "There's still a part on your leg and your side is going to take longer than your leg."