Stranger in the Woods

Chapter 3

Happy Birthday Maria, this is my present to you!!! :)

Elethia couldn't help but roll her eyes and smack her forehead.  Of course he didn't know what a blood oath was.  It was something normally only done between sorceresses and sorcerers, so it wasn't well known outside of their circles, or common knowledge they shared with outsiders.  "Basically, if I break the oath, I die.  The oath is made by combining the blood of the two people making the oath by using a simple spell,” Elethia told him.  Killian studied her for a while, looking for deities knew what.  Elethia held his gaze, until finally, he nodded his head almost imperceptibly.  "Alright, give me a second to get everything that I'll need gathered up," Elethia said as she stood.

She started walking over to her sorcery chest by the potion cabinet.  "Elethia,” Killian called, his voice a bit softer than it had been before.  "Hmmm?" Elethia responded while rummaging through a hole in the wall to get the key out of it's hiding place.  "You don't have to make a blood oath, the fact that you're willing to do it proves you mean what you're saying."  "Are you sure, I mean it's not that hard to do and-" "Elethia,” Killian cut her off.  "Yes?"  "It's fine, honestly.  You've shown me nothing but kindness and good intentions, you haven't asked for anything in return, or hinted at wanting anything.  I shouldn't have been so quick to judge you."  Elethia turned around and gaped at him, "That almost sounded like a complete sentence!  I accept your apology," she grinned at him, heading back over to the bed. 

"It's just, I've had.... bad experiences, with witches in the past,” Killian said, his voice sounding as though it was in another world again.  Elethia shrugged, "Technically, I'm not a witch I'm a sorceress if that helps at all,” she told him.  Killian's eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened in surprise.  "You DO have facial expressions, your face isn't just a mask!" Elethia exclaimed, clapping her hands together and grinning.  He quickly schooled his features back into their mask, but Elethia just smirked at him.  "Sorceresses are very powerful, and rare, I never thought I'd actually meet one,” Killian said with what sounded suspiciously like a hint of awe in his voice, but Elethia figured her ears were just playing tricks on her.

She had a smart response on the tip of her tongue, but one look at his exhausted eyes shut her up.  Mentally kicking herself for being so oblivious to his fatigue, she unstopped the blood loss potion.  Although Killian hid the fatigue from his face well, she could tell he was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion and everything he'd been through that day.  "Here," she said offering him the potion.  Killian lifted an arm to take it, but about halfway to the potion, it fell back on the bed beside him.  Elethia could see the shame burning in his eyes, shame that he had betrayed so much weakness, and that he couldn't even drink out of a flask on his own.

"It's alright," Elethia told him softly.  She gently propped him up and held the flask.  "This won't have any taste, it'll just be like drinking water, alright?  Once you're finished, there's a sleeping agent in the potion that'll put you out for a while, so don't be surprised if you start feeling extremely drowsy," she waited for an affirmation to go ahead.  Killian nodded, and Elethia brought the flask to his lips.  He drank it down quickly and sighed as Elethia lowered him back down on the bed.  "Tomorrow we'll go and get your supplies from the clearing," she informed him.  Killian gave a slow nod and said, "Ssounds good, I need a fresh shirt, the other one'ss all torn up."  Elethia suppressed a giggle; she'd forgotten how loopy the sleeping agent in the potion made people and how quickly it kicked in.  She noticed Killian staring at her and quirked an eyebrow at him, "Can I help you?" she asked, trying not to laugh.  He studied her face for a moment more then said, "You have purple eyes, did you know that?  Eyes don't come in that color," and dropped off to sleep.

Elethia burst out laughing, to the point where she was rolling on the floor in amusement.  She didn't get a lot of humor out here and what little she got couldn't even compare to the hilarity of listening to someone who was probably a trained assassin babble about nonsense.  Finally her laughter quieted down, and she realized that she had quite a bit of work to do before they headed back to the clearing in the morning.  She gathered up all the rubbish that was left over from stitching Killian up and put it in her waste bin, then held the needle over the fire to sterilize.  On her way back to the medicine cupboard, she grabbed a cloth to wipe of the blood that had gotten on the floor while Killian had been holding the sword to her neck.

The sheets wouldn't be able to be washed since Killian was lying on them, but she didn't really want him lying in his own blood either.  Elethia sighed, although she was a sorceress, she didn't like using sorcery to do everyday things that she could do on her own, she never wanted to be dependent on sorcery for her life.  Pointing a finger at the sheets she said, "poik agar, clean blood."  The familiar tingle of magic went down her arm, into her finger, and a bolt of silver energy shot out toward the sheets.  The magic expanded over the blood covered sheets and dissipated into the air, taking the blood with it.

Elethia took a look out the window and saw that the sun was at about the seven o’clock evening mark in the sky.  Was it really that late?  She still had so much to do before they were ready to set out to the clearing!  Blowing a strand of honey brown hair out of her face, she crossed over to the fireplace and added another log to the dying fire.  Although the days were comfortable, the nights could become very cool in the Marrellian Forrest, not to mention dangerous.  Once the sun went down, all the nasty beasties came out to play.

Flipping her waist length braid out of the way, Elethia went over to the trap door that led down to the cellar next to the fireplace across from the bed.  She grabbed one of her saddlebags that were hanging on the wall above the cellar door, and brought them down into the cellar with her.  Elethia had to hand-sew them with deerskin instead of purchasing them from the market because of her pegasus’ wings.  Right as she reached the bottom of the stairs in the cellar, on the right, there was a bag on a hook.  It was a bag Elethia kept pre-packed with medical supplies for when she was packing quickly for long journeys.  She grabbed it and placed it in the saddlebag she’d brought down.  Next to the medical bag on another hook in the wall was a ready to go survival kit.  It contained enchanted waterproof matches, rope, a lantern, a hatchet, emergency food bars, two water flasks, a fillet knife, fishing hook and line, and an extra blanket.

Adding that to the saddlebag as well, Elethia crossed over to the left side of the cellar where she stored her food.  Grabbing some dried fruit, jerky, and traveling bread, she stuffed them all into the saddlebag.  Elethia looked through what she had packed so far to see what else she needed.  Medical bag, survival bag, food, check, check, check.  Weapons, emergency potions, clothes…yeah, she still had a lot to do.  Going back upstairs, she set the bag by the entrance to the cellar and went over to the bed to check on Killian.  He was still sound asleep and his wound wasn’t bleeding at all anymore. 

There seemed to be something different about him, but Elethia couldn’t tell what it was.  She studied him for a while, and then it dawned on her.  He actually looked, relaxed, peaceful even.  It seemed as though Killian couldn’t keep up his emotionless mask in his sleep.  Elethia was amazed at how much younger he looked without his stoic front, she had originally thought he was at least 30, but now she was pretty sure he couldn’t be any older than 27.  What had caused him to become the harsh, cold man he was today?  It didn’t seem as though he’d had any childhood to speak of, Killian had the look of someone who had been forced to grow up much too fast.  Whatever he’d been through or done, Elethia’s heart broke for him.  The innocence of childhood was a wonderful, fragile thing.  Once it was broken, it could never be put back together or regained.  She knew all too well the feeling of having that blissful ignorance torn from her and she felt as though Killian had lost his at a younger age or never been blessed with it to start with.

She realized that she’d been just sitting on the edge of the bed for who knew how long lost in her thoughts with plenty still left to do.  Elethia went back over to the cellar entrance and took the other saddlebag off the hook and brought it over the foot of the bed.  At the foot of her bed was a chest that held all of her clothing.  Elethia grabbed two pairs of trousers, four tunics, one vest, and undergarments.  Rolling the clothing as small as possible, she added them to the saddlebag as well.  Elethia realized Killian had no clothes to speak of and would need fresh ones in the morning.  She drew in a deep breath, let it out, then moved on to the chest next to hers.  Slowly, reverently almost, she opened the lid.