Outlander: Found on the Path of Life. Part 1

Chapter 5. Look Her in the Eyes!

Kakashi finished treating the wound and sealed it with a special plaster, complaining that ideally it needed to be bandaged for fidelity, for which it would still be necessary to undress to the waist. Having again received a decisive rebuff, he simply handed Arina the bandage and offered to try and do it herself. Taking the opportunity, Arina asked if she could wash herself and also clean her clothes — to the extent possible.

The cave was conveniently located on a river bank, so there was no problem with cleaning the clothes — there was even some soap and an old brush. However, there was still one problem: what to change into while the clothes were drying. After a little thought, Kakashi suggested that Arina wrapped herself in his traveling blanket. There wasn't much of a choice anyway.

Kakashi walked Arina out of the cave and showed her a path up, as well as another one along the riverside, where one could move away for more privacy and conveniently go down to the water. The girl shyly retreated behind the reeds, and Kakashi went back into the cave, although later Arina noticed him coming out again and going somewhere in the opposite direction from her. Moreover, to her surprise, he crossed the river diagonally in three jumps, going to the other side. She peered for quite some time, trying to figure out how he managed it — no other way than there were some rocks sticking out from the water, although that was quite some knowledge one should have had... But he couldn't walk on water, could he?..

While she was washing herself — the water was quite cold, but tolerable — and washing her clothes, an appetizing savour began to reach her from the cave.

Remembering the bandage, Arina hastily, not particularly carefully, wrapped her torso around the wound. Wrapped in a blanket, she went back to the cave, where she discovered that while she was away, Kakashi had managed to cook a simple meal: fish fried on fire and some rice.

Bathing and washing exhausted her, and Arina would have willingly gone to bed without dinner at all, but the body demanded some nutrition, and she did not want to offend the "host" either. She didn't notice that while she was splashing in the water, Kakashi occasionally checked to see if she was still there, also not quite understanding how, after such an injury and fainting, the girl still managed to hold on at all.

Seeing Arina, Kakashi put down the book he was reading and gave her some strange pill, explaining that it was to prevent possible inflammation. Arina was uncomfortable swallowing unfamiliar medicine, but she reasoned that if he had any bad intentions for her, he could have easily implemented them without auxiliary means, therefore she thanked him and took the medicine complaisantly.

When Kakashi handed her a fish strung on a thin bamboo, Arina looked at him questioningly — what about him? He explained innocently that she'd been away for so long that he had already eaten. Slightly disappointed — after all, she could have seen his face — Arina started eating awkwardly under his curious and slightly ironic gaze. Nevertheless, he soon went back to reading his book, only occasionally glancing at the girl over the pages. However, the further, the more he was distracted from the book.

To say that Arina has not eaten in field conditions for a long time was to say nothing, especially such a dish. So it wasn't easy. Elegance and manners could be forgotten, and she was getting more and more frustrated. Besides, she rarely used chopsticks and couldn't use them very well, so in the end she preferred to just nibble the fish.

"No, you definitely are not from this world," Kakashi finally remarked with admiration, looking at her torment. He even put the book aside, and Arina got completely flustered and turned away.

Kakashi grinned amusingly, rummaged in his backpack and left the cave for a while, so Arina was able to finish the meal in relative peace. She looked curiously at the book he had left behind — the title didn't say anything, but its combination with the cover design suggested certain ideas about the contents, — and began to look around their temporary shelter.