The Labyrinth *editing*

Chapter 8

 XENIA'S POV

The first thing I felt when I woke up was me falling off the side of my bunk and hitting the floor with force, and a wave of strong pain coursed through me, so much that I could hardly stifle a shriek of pain. I had woken up long before I was ready to. I didn't want to ever see this ship ever again. A violent storm, and falling on my face was the reason I woke up. It shook the ship, and it jolted over the waves jarringly, which had caused me to fall in my sleep. My nose hurt very badly after the fall, and when I out my hand up to it, it came back bloody, the bridge of it sticking out oddly. I suspected a fracture. There was nothing to help stop the bleeding. I tried at first to hold simply my hand up to it, but soon, my hand was completely covered in blood.  I dared a look around. After the state I had left everyone in when I fell asleep, I felt bad. Maya seemed to have fallen asleep kneeling at Paris’ bedside. Theseus had fallen asleep sitting up, by the position he was in. Probably watching me, to make sure I didn't murder anyone in their sleep. Leon was snoring. Paris was still shaking unconsciously. Esmeralda was, of course, completely still, not even snoring. Or breathing for that matter. And I was bleeding profoundly out my broken nose. But nobody was awake to see it. Maya looked uncomfortable on the floor, with no blanket, so I crawled over to her and picked her up easily, since she was small, and I was strong, and tried not to get blood on her. I carried her carefully to her bunk that was under Alexander's, and lay her down gently, and put a blanket over her. She still looked cold, so I lay my own blanket over her since I didn't need it now that I was awake. And, alright, I didn't want to get blood on it. I then visited Paris. I didn't want to wake him to ask him how he was doing, but he looked cold too. Or maybe he was shivering because of his illness. Either way, I stole the blanket off of Esmeralda's bed, since she wouldn't be needing it any longer. I placed the blanket over him and felt his forehead. It was still hot as a coal. I brushed the sweaty hair out of his face and then attended to my own injured nose. There was no fabric but my chiton or somebody's blanket, but I doubted anyone would want me to use their blanket. Or their clothes. But then it hit me that Esmeralda wouldn't, or more like couldn't care if I used hers. She had no use for it anymore. She had no use for anything now that she was dead. Now, I wasn't planning on tearing all her clothes off or anything. I just ripped a sizable corner off the back of the bottom of her chiton, hoping nobody would notice. I made a note to take more before they disposed of her body. Maya would probably understand. Probably. But Maya did not know about this, so I did not feel bad about it. I noticed as I tore the fabric that her long brown hair was tangled, and the ribbons in it were untied. I don't know why, but I wanted her to look nice in death. I undid her hair, combed it out in my fingers. The boat swayed, I braided it into two braids, and wound them around her head, then tucked the under the hair and tied them with ribbons. There. She looked nice now. Her eyes were half opened, so I closed them gently and tried to arrange her in a manner so that she might be sleeping. She looked peaceful.  I noticed that Maya's curly dark hair was matted too, so it combed it out too, without waking her, and braided it in two neat, black braids. And smoothed out her blankets. My nose still smarted and stung, but I had no way to do anything about it, so I tried to ignore it which was especially hard, since I had nothing to do. I was just sitting by the sick Paris, combing out my own golden hair, when I let my gaze wander around, and to my surprise, I saw Theseus was not asleep. He was still in the exact same position, but his dark eyes were watching me critically. I froze and held his severe gaze for a moment and went back to busily braiding my hair, ignoring him.

      "That was quite out of character for you to be nice to them. After how you left Maya last night. She sobbed all night. You know that right?" Theseus' harsh voice said abruptly. I ignored him. Then his voice changed dramatically, into a softer, gentler voice. "It was very nice of you to do Esmeralda's hair... Maya would appreciate it, I know. Umm.. Is your nose okay?" he climbed down from his bunk, eyes trained on the floor. When he reached me, he touched my nose gingerly. He felt the bone in it and frowned. "I think it's broken... I hope not. Here, let me hold that." he took the fabric from me and held it up to my nose carefully. He held it up there for a few moments, inspecting it. I had no idea why he was being nice to me all of the sudden. He paused for a second, then he shoved the fabric back in my hand, and mumbled awkwardly,