𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 ❀ 𝙏. 𝙁𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙤 ❀

VII - The Bath

"She's awake!" A voice calls out, practically screaming in my ear. It took awhile for me to focus and register my surroundings—many maids and lots of white cloth. There seemed to be a doctor's bag in the room which piqued my interest. It was infrequent that a doctor was called, the king must be sick. I didn't care much, not at all really— but if I were to fall back asleep and leave the king to suffer alone he just may kill me for my insolence.

I began to rise up from the bed only to realize— when the bedsheet dropped— that I was completely bare. Only then was I able to escape the liminal space between slumber and awakeness.

Someone was very quick to assist me back down, urging me not to move until the king arrived. I wanted to question and ask for answers but something was stopping me from talking. Not in the physical but in the emotional sense. I was being yelled at while completely naked when all I could remember is taking a peaceful bath in my chambers. I was growing annoyed and the slightest bit upset with the way things were unfolding.

There was grumbling outside the room before loud footsteps paced around. "She is up you say?" He asks. "Yes sire, she seems to be in good health as well. We will dress her and bring her to you." A voice says, sounding painfully similar to head maid Nobara barks. "No. She needs to... I will speak to her now." He says. With that, I made a frantic run for the towels lying on the chair. They were obviously not made for full bodies, it was much too small and short, but it covered enough. My chest spilled over top and my backside hung from underneath but at least the things I wished to hide were out of sight.

Though the maids begged me to lie down I refused. Not in this state. He came in, just as he said he would, and I bowed my head In his presence as he did so.

"Well well well." He says waltzing unbearably close to me, circling my frame once or twice before peering down at me from above, from his kingly and tall position. "Look at me." He demands. Of course, I comply and break my gaze with the ground. "Now here is a one, one that can run from palace guards, one that can survive in the thick wilderness for days and stampeed in with a proud grin and grass skirt. Here is one that disobeys and derogates her master. Yes, this one is the most rebellious of them all, and yet this one...She cannot be left to bathe on her own without drowning herself." The man sings to the room.

It all begins to make sense, the doctor... was for me. "I apologize sire." I was more than aware an apology wouldn't be enough to make up for my stupidity, but If he went out of his way to acquire a doctor, I could at least be comforted by the fact he wasn't planning on killing me, that'd be a waste of a physician. "It won't happen again!" I assure, my head falls back down, bowing to the man. His index finger slip under my chin and lifted my head back towards his eyes. "Oh I'm aware it." His face contorted into a sly grin at the end of his sentence. I wasn't sure what that meant but It was obvious there was something he was planning.

"Sir?" I question. He gives me no responses only a deepening of his pupils. They were large and fixed on my body. He just looked at me, from his height and angle I couldn't tell what specifically he was looking at. Whether it be my nose, or my lips, all the way down to my knees or feet. I had no clue. For a minute, only a short one, I wondered if it was my chest he was looking at. Admiring the way I practically fell out of that tiny towel barely wrapped around my body, wondering what little I was able to hide beneath it.

After his brief analytical he left the room, instructing those around us on what to do with me and murmuring a few things so low I couldn't even hear.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The day progressed as it usually did after that, I was allowed to leave my chambers and once again wait at the lord's every move and will. Though today I was rather slow, my chest is, pained and I couldn't get around as quickly as I would have liked to. Surprisingly enough sire said nothing, he did not accommodate for my poor health but he didn't condemn me for it either so I took what little I could.