Playing With Fire (EDITING)

Homesickness

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for 460+ reads!! I was elated when I saw that and I love each and every one of my readers. If you enjoy the story, please vote and comment. Is there anything I can do better? Let me know! I'd love to hear from my readers! Warning: this chapter has Thor: Dark World spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie, it's alright but there's a major spoiler.

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When I regained my feet, bit back a snarl of frustration and pain, and returned to the mattress, sitting on the pillow was a small book, maybe an inch thick with yellowed pages crudely cut so that each page was unique from its direct neighbors. The brown covers were worn, and the titled had faded to illegible long ago. When I gingerly opened the first few pages, the binding creaked and I began to flip through.

As I started reading, it didn't take long for me to recognize the story; it was a book Grandpére had read to me when I was younger. The title didn't have to be printed on the front for me to know its name: Evangeline, Un Conte de l'Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I smiled and began to read, slowly at first to accustom myself to the eloquent French wording before settling into the fluent rhythm.

As I read, I became unaware of the sun rising toward its zenith and returning to the horizon again. Whenever I came to a break in the plot, I would nap shortly before waking again and continuing to read. An hour or so after my stomach told me it was time for lunch, Raelynne entered bearing a tray.

"Good afternoon, m'lady," she greeted. "I see you're enjoying the book."

I smiled and marked my page before accepting the tray. "I am, thank you. It's one of my favorites."

"The archer said you would enjoy it," she replied, crossing the room to a door I hadn't noticed earlier. It closed seamlessly into the wall but swung open at a gentle push. Curious, I hopped off the bed, peach in hand, and limped to Raelynne's side, heavily favoring my right leg.

Taking a bite of the succulent fruit, I gazed around a pristine marble bathroom. The floor was made of solid white marble that met marble walls extended high to an arched ceiling with large gaps at the top that allowed in the golden sunlight. Every immaculate white surface caused light to reflect and rebound until it accumulated in the lower portion of the room, giving it a warm, fresh atmosphere.

"Wow," I breathed. "Now this is a bathroom."

Raelynne giggled before leading me to a large white tub. Expertly, she twisted open three valves and steaming water began to fill the basin. With another turn of her wrist, a fragrant liquid was added to the mix and bubbles began to form. The aroma of lemongrass, sage, and spring rain filled the air and caused my head to swim. When the tub was filled, she closed the valves and nodded to me before turning to leave.

"Thank you," I called after her before she could shut the door.

She smiled sweetly in response before closing the door behind her.

As soon as the door was shut, I pulled off the kimono and nightgown and slipped into the soothing bath. When my right leg hit the water, it began to sting. The pain reminded me strongly of when I had stepped on a ground wasps' nest when I was eleven. The pain of more than a hundred stings had been the worst pain I'd ever felt until the battle on the cliff.

After I'd found a washcloth and scrubbed my skin spotless, I soaked my hair; when my leg protested any more movement, I relaxed in the steamy water, sinking in until the bubbles reached my chin and threatened to climb my nose.

I must have dozed off because when I woke again, the bubbles were gone and the water was lukewarm and a blissful golden light had filled the room- the kind that comes on a late summer's day an hour before sunset. After being still for so long, I felt the need for movement. I stood and wrapped myself in a fluffy white towel before drying off and tying the silk kimono around myself once again.