The Jewel of the Five Kingdoms

James Raymond Elliot

I wake to sunlight on my face. Squinting, I spot hastily drawn curtains around a small window, the sliver of light peaking through told me it must be late afternoon.

I see just enough to catch a glimpse of rolling green hills and a small house further in the distance. I lift my head, testing my capability to stay conscious, and taking a chance I sit up far too quickly and collapse back on my side with a groan of pain. My stomach continued to feel as if I had been punched repeatedly in the gut, and I still couldn't stop trembling.

  I glance to the nightstand on my left. The prosthetic foot was still sitting on the table, a frightening contraption I still wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to get on. Beside it, a half empty glass of water sat.

I hadn't realized how thirsty I am until I saw the water. I reach out with a shaking hand to grab the glass, but a voice startled me away.

  "Don't you dare. You're going to drop it."

I turn painful to spot Nella standing in the doorway. She held a small basket filled with bandages and other things in jars I couldn't see from my bed. Different herbs that I couldn't name to save my life overflowed from the rim.

  I laugh without humor, the effort hurt my shoulder. "I can't even pick up a glass of water?" I ask, licking my chapped lips.

  Nella cocks an eyebrow, resting her basket on her hip before brushing loose strands of sunlight hair from her face. "Want to try?" She asks. Her smirk made me want to take that challenge but he truth was, I didn't.

The realization struck me hard, and I frown at the helplessness of it.

  Nella, however, smirks triumphantly at her victory in the battle of our wills. "That's what I thought," she say, placing her basket on the end of the bed and making her way around to my side.

  She sits on the edge of the bed casually, her intelligent violet eyes glance at the blanket and she picks at the frayed end of the bedspread. "What is your name?" She asks in a small voice, turning to unpack her basket and set her supplies onto the nightstand. I could tell she was trying to be nonchalant about the question, and she didn't meet my eyes as if she knew I could see her desperate curiosity in her actions.

I pause. Have I really not told her my name? Two weeks she said I have been here, and all this time I have been the stranger with no name?

  Nella rolls her eyes. "Oh come on, lad. You don't have to tell me your darkest secrets but you should at least give me your name. I'm tired of referring to you as the boy I saved," she says with a try at a goofy grin.

I wasn't sure telling the Waterwalker my name would be a good idea. Would she know immediately who I truly am? Yet she has kept me alive this long, and she surely had millions of chances to kill me.

  "James... My name is James," I say quietly. It was odd, hearing my name on my lips.

  She nods, a smile tugging at her lips. "James," she repeats. Her lovely accent made everything sound sweeter to my aching ears.

She leans forward, looking at me with those curious eyes framed with long dark lashes. Her golden hair was in a loose braid over her shoulder today, and her violet eyes took on more of a royal purple with the navy dress she was wearing.

"So James... Will you tell me about yourself? You have a burning fever and that foot of yours isn't going be healed any time soon. We might as well get to know each other." She says this casually, leaning back in her chair as if to make herself comfy.

The thought of my foot being gone still made me nauseous. Sure, I was a general and dealt with many injuries to that degree, but that was with my soldiers. I never thought something like that would happen to me. I was under a false illusion that I was invincible, but here I am lying in a bed sick and tired and in the home of my unknowing enemy.