A KINGDOM OF DEAD HEARTS [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 47: WOULD THERE BE A CHANCE?

Airin recovered as days went by. With each passing day, her body became slightly stronger and her mind clearer.

Xander would come and visit her every day after his tasks were done, or in between tasks.

Something that made Airin smile was that Xander made it a point to bring a Halgardian snack or drink for her to try every time he stopped by. "I have tried pasta, pizza, that amazing Cantonese-style fried rice you made from your Mom's recipe, instant noodles—the gods know how much I miss noodles here in Halgard winter, bread with sprinkles and peanut butter and grape jam, all these in your universe are so delicious. Here are some of Halgard's best for you ..." Xander said while extending a plate filled with candied nuts made in Halgard's style.

Airin was not a champion in trying out new food, she got that from Mom who was also quite a picky eater. But for Xander, she tried each and every food. Candied nuts was her favorite, followed by forest-grown apples that looked like a combo of apple and pineapple—it tasted like pineapple but looked like mini apples, thin slices of wheat pancakes filled with smoked deer meat, and winter pear tea.

To fill her time as she was on healing journey, Airin had started folding origami again, and she taught Xander how to fold the crane, a symbol of hope and longevity, her favourite origami. Xander found it difficult at first, but he persevered and did fold two cranes in the end, he kept one for himself, and one he gave to Airin.

Xander had also kept the glittery pink sticker from Lyanna that had come off of his hand. Airin had to chuckle when Xander showed it to her, the crinkled, muddy sticker that Xander had carefully folded and stored in a little wooden box.

But the black cloth-bandaged wound on Xander's right palm was the one that always got Airin's attention. It was like she was drawn to it. She wished for it to be well soon because she could see sometimes Xander still grimaced in pain though he tried not to make it obvious for her to see. A silent groan, an inconspicuous massage of his left hand on it, all these made Airin think that the wound was actually a bad one.

Xander did not wish to talk about the wound. He just shook his head when Airin asked if it still hurt, or turned his gaze away and found something else to talk about if Airin asked if it was going to heal.

That wound worried Airin. How about if it got badly infected? People had had their limbs amputated because of badly-infected wounds. She hoped the wound would heal soon, it hurt her to see Xander in pain.

<<<>>>

Airin got well enough four days after she woke up from her coma because of Leidra's poison to agree to Xander's offer to take her to see elegarii in real life, not from his mind.

The elegarii was heavily guarded with soldiers manning the guard posts dotted along its banks. Some of the guard posts were under renovation after the war. But Xander brought Airin beyond the guard posts, right next to the river itself.

They walked quietly along the bank, quiet because Airin was so in awe with the orbs of lights that swam under the surface of elegarii that she was just speechless. She stared at the river and the orbs with unblinked eyes and mouth half open. That was all she did besides walking. Xander had to walk slightly faster and remove some tree branches and rocks that could trip her on her path because she was just not paying attention anymore in terms of where she was going.

They stopped walking at the end of the river where the river water then tumbled down the waterfall into the well of elegarii. Xander took her hand and led her to a massive rock where they then stood and watched the water, the orbs, all just tumbled down to the well. The waterfall was high, maybe about twenty meters or so. The well down there was just a simple rock well about two-three meters in diameter, perched on a kind of human-made rock pavement that looked like a big altar of sort.