𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧

۱۵

☾ F I F T E E N ⭒

A sea of prideful eyes followed the northerners perched high upon their horses. Everyone gathered around the men with delight. They cheered and hooted for their stealthy return home. Some even went as far to wail, for reasons unknown to even themselves.

They were deeply attached to Kazimir, their leader. Despite his young age, he had achieved success much more than their previous leader, Kazimir's father.

Had this been under different circumstances, Kazimir would have bathed in his peoples joy for his victorious return home. But not right now. His horse sprinted past everyone, leaving them all In a state of confusion.

This was not like their new leader at all. Normally, he'd have a war prize to bring back home, a trophy to show his success. Then he'd get off the horse with pride running through his veins and bask in his peoples joy. But all he'd returned with was a sack of something that dragged across the floor, perched on top his horse. Almost corpse like.

He needed to tend to the poor girl first. That was his priority. Everything else could wait, and so it did. He rushed into his home and straight to his room with the girl in his arms. Upon the sudden commotion, a few of the maids came to see what the fuss was about, and instantly all signs of annoyance vanished from their faces.

It was their leader. The eldest maid, Agafya signalled for the maids to announce the arrival of Sir Kazimir. With a bow of the head, they did so without any hesitation. First she would go to Sir Kazimirs parents. And then later the kitchen. She was sure her leader was hungry for some real food.

"Agafya, call for a doctor this instant" ordered Kazimir, unlike himself to lose control over anything. Agafya, noticing the emergency in his tone, immediately set to the task, wondering who that young lady was currently occupying sir Kazimir's bed. Was she a nun, which would hence explain her conservative attire. But if that was the case, how did he get ahold of her. Needless, she was only here as a maid, and it would be in Agafya's best interest to not occupy much thought on the matter.

Things like this did not concern her. Tending to the houses residents instead of their personal lives was why she was here.

Kazimir looked down at the young girl, whose skin seemed to be appearing like that of a ghost with each ticking second. He checked her breathing and was somewhat relieved to know she was alive. Why he felt as such was unbeknown to him and he dared not to linger on that thought too. For now.

Thankfully, after a couple of minutes, the physician rushed into the room and got to task immediately. Kazimir watched his exchange with sharp eyes, not trusting anyone in this brittle moment.

"How much has the patient been eating these past few days, Lord Nikolai? If you have any idea at all" asked the physician with hesitance laced throughout his question. He did not want to come off as rude towards his leader. Albeit this was the first time he'd been asked to aid Lord Nikolai, and to say he was nervous was an understatement. He'd heard the rumours of course, and nothing good would come from this if he allowed for the futile words of others to cloud his judgement.

"Hardly a few bites, I'd say. She refused to eat or drink anything"

The physician seemed to understand clearly what had occured and explained it to his Lord, simultaneously writing down a few things on parchment. Kazimir looked deep into his soul to inspect for any hidden malevolence, but one look at his trembling hands and the sweat across his greying eyebrows, was enough to ease his racing doubts.

"It seems to me that due to a lack of energy and water, she must have fainted. And I'm presuming she also felt sick?" Kazimir nodded. "Well that Is a normal reaction when the body is tired and hasn't received anything to eat, especially when one is bleeding during the month. On here I've written a few herbal remedies which should help the lady. Please do not try to overfeed her, since her body would not be used to so much, and would instead make her feel more nauseous" Kazimir nodded at the information being provided to him. The physician handed him the list of remedies and directions for use.