Island Dream [a Damian Priest fantasy story]

7 Physically or mentally?

Days passed in which Damian and Sanja only had eyes for each other. Seeing the smile on her face was so delightful for Damian that he could think of nothing else. In this short time, she had turned everything he knew for sure upside down. Nothing made sense anymore, but at the same time, nothing had ever made more sense.

Sanja had left their cottage to check on the animals while Damian went to freshen up. He looked at his arm. It didn't hurt a bit, so he was sure that the arm wasn't broken after all. Therefore, he decided to remove the cast. He knew that Sanja wouldn't be happy with it, but he finally wanted to be able to help her more. He owed her that. After all, she had saved his life. He was sure of that. If she hadn't found him on the beach so quickly, he would either have frozen to death, bled to death or the wild animals would have finished him off.

He carefully removed the cast and put it to the side. Then he began to gently move the arm. To his satisfaction, he felt no pain, not even a tug. Nothing at all. Damian breathed a sigh of relief.

"What did you do?" asked Sanja behind him.

"My arm is fine. Look!" he said and showed her.

She put the bucket of fresh water down and carefully took his hand in hers. She slowly slid her fingers over his skin and made the same movements as he had just done. She kept a close eye on his face to see any signs of pain or discomfort. But he didn't show any reaction at all.

"Are you sure it's okay?" she wanted to know.

"Of course it is. All thanks to you." he replied and gave her a kiss to distract her a little.

"But you have to tell me immediately if it hurts again," she said sternly.

Damian nodded. But then he noticed a small tear in her top. He pulled the fabric aside a little to see what had happened and discovered blood.

"What happened?" he asked angrily.

"I got caught on one of the fences. A nail must have come loose. I just want to clean it up quickly before I have to fix it. I don't want the animals to get hurt. Don't worry. It'll be gone in a minute,' she replied as she reached for a piece of cloth and the bottle of alcohol.

She cleaned the wound quickly, just as she had done with Damian. As he watched her, he noticed something. He reached for her hand and took a closer look. But he could hardly believe his eyes.

"How is that possible? It's already healing...." he said, perplexed.

"I know." she replied evasively.

"But... how?" he asked.

"I don't know... That's the way it is with us. As long as we're on the island, wounds always heal quickly. Large wounds, on the other hand, take a little longer. And we're not immune to infections. I lost my parents that way. The wounds the jaguar inflicted on them were too severe," she explained to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Sanja... I'm sorry." he replied, not knowing what else to say.

"That's life. And they were already very old. Older than you'd think." she said.

"What do you mean?" Damian wanted to know.

"Do you remember what your first question to me was?" she asked instead.

He nodded. He would never forget that first moment with her.

"I wanted to know if you were an angel... And you said you were far from it." he replied.

"Well, the thing is... as long as we are here, drinking this water, living in harmony with nature... we age very slowly. Probably only a quarter or a third of what would be normal. I'm much older than I appear to be. When we're out sailing with the ship to trade and stuff, we age normally. That's why we're never away for long. We can feel it. We can obviously still die. At old age, we can simply decide that the time has come," said Sanja without looking at him.

She didn't want to see how he reacted to this undoubtedly absurd explanation. But it all made sense to Damian now. Why she always gave the impression that she was wiser beyond her years. That she had so much knowledge inside her. And why she was so worried about her family.

"And how old are you exactly?" Damian wanted to know.

Sanja laughed at his face. His surprised expression was so funny that she couldn't help it.

"Physically or mentally? You probably think I'm younger than you. But the truth is that I'm probably almost a hundred years old," she finally replied.

"Well... you still look very good for that." he joked to release the tension from his body.

Now they were both laughing. And Sanja was sure that this knowledge wouldn't bother him. Because he was already pulling her into his arms and giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Are you all right?" Sanja wanted to know.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be? I'm glad to know more about you," Damian replied.

She stretched up and wrapped her arms around his neck. Damian's arms snaked around her waist to pull her even closer to him.

"Thank you," she whispered before pressing her lips to his.

She sighed in relief as she melted into him. For a few minutes they enjoyed each other's closeness until suddenly the cottage was shaken by a slight quake. It was the first time Damian had experienced this. Instinctively, he held Sanja a little tighter.

"Everything's fine. Nothing's wrong. But we have to get to work. It means there's a storm on the way," she said.

She tried not to let it show, but Damian immediately sensed her concern. Another storm wasn't good now that her family was still out there. The wind was already picking up. They both heard it whistling around the cottage. It sounded threatening.

"Let's go then." Damian replied, but gave her a kiss on the forehead before she grabbed his hand and the two of them went outside.