Innocent

~12~Azalea

I can feel my body grow weaker with each step. My wounds are infected and I refuse to ask for any help. We will be at the castle soon enough, I will get into the hidden storage unit, retrieve everything I need from inside, and then return to Primrose with a better plan.

I catch Xki's long glances at me, I just glare at him. He notices everything and it pisses me off. I can barely keep the small amount of food I eat down and of course, he has to see me heaving it all up when everyone is supposed to be asleep.

I truly am bleeding out of more than just the puncture holes, at least I don't have to feel guilty about it. I'm losing a lot of blood that should really be kept inside my body.

In a couple of days we will pass by a small town, they should have a healer there. If I don't get these injuries even slightly under control in the next few days I might not even make it.

~~~

We are in a small town a couple of days travel from my own, Xki and some soldiers are purchasing food for our next period before we reach another town. 

I use as little energy as possible to get out of my restraints and ask around to find out where the healer of this town is.

I found out that the healer is from a young girl who looked like Primrose. The healer is in an alleyway which is honestly more comfortable than an official building.

I walk over to the corner where an elderly woman is sitting on a stool. She looks up at me and smiles.

She waves me over with her bony hand, "What can I help you with my dear?" I lift my shirt to show her the puncture wounds, "Do you want me to ask who did this to you?" I shake my head, "Do you have money?" I shake my head again, "I'll see what I can do."

I walk towards her, "Thank you."

Her eyes widened, "You know Arabic." it wasn't a question.

"I do. Is the a problem?"

"No, it's just I remember when there were more languages than just English. Language is so beautiful and the king from generations ago destroyed lots of beautiful things." she reaches her hand out to touch the wound, "Stabbing?" I nod.

"Do you know Arabic?" I question.

Her face looks pensive, "I used to, it was so beautiful." she looks back to the wound.

"Why do you not speak Arabic anymore?"

"Oh, because there are no people to speak Arabic to." she pauses, "Listen dear, I can't do much for you but as you have probably noticed your wound is very infected. You clearly don't eat a lot but I have noticed other scars which makes me assume you have been through worse." I nod, "What I can do is put a temporary stitch spell." I nod as if I know what that is, "It only lasts four weeks, you hear me dear, four weeks. What the spell will do is stop the bleeding, it will make it invisible too. What it does not do is take away pain, stop infection, or heal the wound. When you reach your destination you must see another healer immediately, if you do not it will start bleeding again but you will lose blood much faster and for a longer time, seeing your health conditions, you will die if that happens."

I nod, "Ok, ok, I can do that, yeah, I can do that." I meet her eyes, "What if there is no healer where I'm going?"

"You'll die."

"Yeah, ok, got it, need a healer. Ok, let's do this. Thank you so much for this, I promise I'll come back sometime to pay you."

"Are you sure dear?" she looks a little worried.

"naeam bialtabe." (Yes, of course.)

"hasanan." (Good.)she responds. 

She positions her hands so they fully cover the wounds, and she starts chanting something. I feel a tingle rush over my skin, my skin feels like it's on fire, it feels like the flesh is falling from my body, and then... nothing. I feel nothing anymore, I look down and the wounds aren't there anymore. I stand and imminently feel the same pain from before.

"I told you it didn't take away pain," she comments.

I bow to her, "My thanks to you, I am now in your debt."

"Not if you die first," she says with a smile.

~~~

When I return to where we set up camp on the outskirts of the town I see Xki yelling at his men. He keeps making grand gestures probably telling them that they need to find me. 

I use the distraction to climb silently into a tree, I hop from tree to tree until I am directly above Xki. No one has noticed the shadow in the tree yet.

"What the fuck? Which one of you were on duty for watching her?" he points at each of them.

"With all due respect Sir, she is a woman, she couldn't have gotten that far, she is weak, I don't even really believe she killed all those men."

Xki scoffs at this comment, "Couldn't have gotten that far? Are you stupid? That woman is stronger than all of you combined, her brain works differently. You think your training is hard? You should hear some of the stuff she had to do. She's probably somewhere in the trees where no one will find her, could you climb a tree, I don't think so." he's really angry.

He's about to continue but I cut in, "I think you're correct about all the statements you just said." everyone snaps up to see me on the highest branch of the tree, "Oh, and my thanks for all the compliments." I chuckle a little.

"Ah Nyx, so nice for you to join us," Xki says.

"The pleasure is truly mine," I hop down a couple of branches so everyone can see me, I wince a little from the pain, "Did you miss me?" I say.

"We were just about to get moving," he says.

I make the final jump from the tree, "Let's get going." after everyone leaves I turn to Xki, "Because we will sadly be spending more time together, you can call me Zalea." I wink at him then leave to go put my shackles back on.

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A/N

Well, this was fun.