Awaiting The Dawn

2: Finding Her Treasure

When Hisa regained consciousness, the first thing she did was check that she had her belongings. Her throwing knives were still hidden securely on her body. Suzu's knife was still clutched in her hand.

Her clothes were unchanged, albeit dirty from the fall. One sleeve was pulled up, arm wrapped in fresh bandages.

Ah. She fell off a cliff.

More importantly, Hisa couldn't locate her hat and bag of supplies. She'd have to check the place where she fell.

Oh. She was in someone's home. And there were others in the room. Three people. One conscious, tending to the other two.

"So you're awake now." He didn't look up from his work, bandaging the young man who was clearly in a much more critical state than either Hisa or the princess.

The boy, she assumed, was the one who took her in. He was probably the one who also treated her.

She touched her left forearm—the bandaged one—and winced.

Right. In an attempt to soften her fall, Hisa had used Suzu's knife and tried to wedge it into the rock as she descended, hugging close to the stone wall instead of flailing like a fish in the air.

Somewhere in the process, a sharp foothold sliced into her arm. How that was the only place she was hurt, only the gods knew.

Aside from a few inevitable scratches, she was fine. Hisa likely fainted after she managed to land on solid ground, though the memories were fuzzy.

Hisa was able to stand, but she was wobbly at first and her vision momentarily blurred. The room smelled of earth, medicine, and blood.

Since she could walk, the first matter of business was to find her stuff.

"Hey! Get back here!" Hisa heard the boy shout as she started making her way out the room. "You just woke up after almost dying. Even if you're better off than this guy..." he pointed to Hak, the princess' companion, "...that doesn't mean you should move around yet."

She nodded and bowed her head in gratitude for his help. Hisa gestured around her head with her good arm, stopping where her hat would typically circle.

The boy was watching her, and that was when Hisa first saw his eyes. The most beautiful blue she'd ever seen. Curious, kind, wary, and resilient. He wasn't the type to trust easily.

Annoyed, he squinted at her as he sighed. "You hit your head worse than I thought," was all he uttered before turning back to his urgent patient. "As you can see, I can't stop you. Go wherever, but don't get yourself killed trying to find whatever you lost."

Hisa felt that he understood.

Before going off, she dumped out the bloody water from the basins and refilled them. All she could do to help was change the water and quickly bring him more bandages. The boy didn't say anything, concentrated only on saving the young man.

He did spare a moment to fan his hand in her direction as a sort of 'come back soon' gesture. Or maybe he intended it to be 'see yourself out and never return.'

Hisa found both possibilities amusing in their own way.

.

It took her a while to find the place where she fell. It took her even longer to find where she dropped her hat.

The bag was easy enough; sitting on the ground and closed tight.

The water-skin, rations, hunting knives, throwing knives, comb, jade pendant, pouch of money, cloak, spare clothes, and map were all safe.

She checked the bag for holes—none—and slung it over her shoulder.

The hat, she discovered, was high up a branch. Groaning, she set her newly reunited bag down and climbed the tree. Once closer to it, Hisa found that the hat wasn't just sitting on a limb. The branch had stabbed through it, meaning Hisa also had to pull it out carefully enough that the straw didn't tear.

The trouble earned itself another groan.

Nonetheless, she did it, inspecting for any other damage and swiping off some dust before jumping off the tree.

Once on the ground, she picked up her sack and looked back at the tree.

On the inside of the conical hat, thin white fabric was attached and acted as a veil. It tressed down the brim in a margin about the height of Hisa's hand, reaching all the way down to her chin and functioned to cover her face while traveling.

The hat was a gift from her mother. One that Hisa took care not to ruin in the last year and a half of walking.

It was also one she had to fix whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Satisfied with not losing any personal effects, she made her way back to the house where she knew the priest lived. She looked forward to seeing an old acquaintance soon.