The Angelus Brothers Chronicles - The Golden Hind

CHAPTER TWELVE

"I'm going to open the door. There will be light for a moment until I close the door." 

"Okay" Came the girl's voice. Inside her office, the skeletal girl sat on the sofa against the wall wearing a coat that swamped her. Marie didn't know how anyone so emaciated could be alive let alone conscious and sitting up.

"Did you manage to eat any of it?" She asked, indicating the bowl of porridge Winston had brought from the house.

"A little, it was very filling." The warm porridge had been delicious, she was sure there was honey in it. She had wanted to eat it all but her stomach just couldn't take anymore.

"Is this light level hurting your eyes?" 

"It is not unbearable. I am adjusting to it. It's nice to see things." She said looking at the female wolf, Marie was a small woman, short with black hair piled into a bun on top of her head. The hind didn't know what accent she had but she liked the woman's gentle lilting voice.

"I'm Marie." 

"I'm Kaia." 

"That's a very pretty name, Kaia."

"Thank you." 

"Would you mind if I examined you?" Kaia looked down at herself then back up at the woman. 

"I am not ill like Rouge." 

"I know, but I would like to make sure you are as well as possible." Kaia thought for a moment before answering.

"If it pleases you, but can I ask for something?" Marie smiled at her warmly, her gentle face creasing around her bright blue eyes.

"Of course."

"Is there a lake nearby? It has been so long since I bathed. I dream of feeling clean once more." Marie looked at her matted hair and grey dirt-encrusted skin and gave her another warm smile.

"I think I can do better than a lake. Let me have a look at you and then I will run you a bath." Kaia didn't know what a bath was but if it meant being clean it would be amazing. 

"Kaia, would you think me rude if I asked what species of creature you are?" 

"We have lots of names, we just called ourselves sisters. But others called us Ceryneia hinds, beasts with golden antlers, golden-horned hinds. Rouge called me a golden hind." Marie frowned, she was sure she'd heard the others use the term more likely to find a golden hind than whatever they were looking for because they were extinct. 

***

The hind gasped as Marie turned the silver taps above the huge white basin and water began to splutter out of it. She crouched holding the coat around her and tried to see where the water came from. 

"By the goddess. Is it magic?" She asked as she put her hand under the streams of water and pulled it back quickly as the hot water scalded her hand a little. 

"Careful, that's the hot tap. It's plumbing, not magic." Marie held a bar under the flowing water and bubbles began to form on the surface. Kaia was transfixed, running water and bubbles that smelt like flowers. After a moment Marie placed the bar on the side of the tub next to a fluffy white flannel. 

"That's soap, it'll help you get clean and leave you smelling lovely. There's a flannel there too." Moving to a bar screwed into the back of the door she took one of the fluffy white towels that Winston must have put out and placed it on the floor by the tub. "Stand on this towel when you get out and dry yourself off on the other." Pointing to a white nightgown she had hung on a hook by the door she moved to leave the room. 

"Pop that gown on when you're done. Take your time and if the water gets cold just pull out the plug and run some hotter." With that Marie left the girl to clean herself in peace. 

Kaia watched the running water for a moment more before letting Cassiel's coat drop to the floor and gingerly stepping into the tub. The water was so warm and felt so good as it covered her cold grungy skin. This bath was like nothing she had ever seen or felt before. She let herself slide down the tub and laid back so the still running water covered her aching body. Within moments of getting in the water had turned black. Feeling a little ashamed of the centuries of dirt that covered her she did as Marie had said and pulled the plug out. She shivered as the black water ran away and left her sitting in the now slippery cold tub. Turning the taps back on she did as the wolf had done and held the bar of soap under the streams of water and watched as it made bubbles. This century was magical, with hot water in taps and soap that smelt like flowers. What other amazing things would she find in it. 

Refilling the tub for the fourth time Kaia was starting to feel so much cleaner. Her formerly bronzed skin looked pale to her now but it was clean and her hair was slowly coming clean too. Lathering it up again she tried to pull some of the tangles out with her fingers but they wouldn't come. Would her coat when she was a deer be affected if she cut it all off as Rouges had been? She didn't fancy being furless but it was so matted. Laying back she rinsed the soap again and was relieved to see the water only turned greyish and not black.

Letting the water out again she watched as it swirled down the small hole. Chara, one of her sisters would have loved this bathtub. She had always loved frolicking in the lakes and ponds near their home. She had always been the bravest of them and the first to go and explore. She felt tears well in her eyes as she thought of her beautiful sisters.  She so wanted to believe these new people were wrong, that they were still with Artemis.

'Goddess, please. Don't let my sisters be dead.' She pleaded silently in her mind. Sniffing and wiping at her eyes she put the plug back into the hole and turned the taps back on. 

She could stay in this bath forever. The water felt so good on her muscles and made her feel warm which she hadn't in centuries. What other wonders would this world have if this was in it? 

***

Artemis woke with a start and looked about her Chambers. There was no sound, nothing that could have woken her. Ignoring the distant prayers that always plagued her existence she listened intently.  She could have sworn she'd heard her youngest hinds voice calling beseechingly to her in prayer. Stroking the pendant around her neck she dismissed the idea as the stuff of dreams, it wasn't like it was the first time she had thought she'd heard one of her long-dead does. Laying back down to sleep she sighed heavily. Her hind were gone, that was all there was to it.