Moongrace

Part 17

Eleeza felt warm and cosy. Where was she? She was comfortable and suddenly she remembered. She must be at Evan's home. In some bed. She felt around her. There was a blanket spread over her. She felt for the edges of the bed. It was quite big, broader than the one in the castle. Still sleepy opened her eyes, silver light surrounded her. A flash of sadness washed over her when she could see nothing. 

I am blind, she told herself, and will always be. She just wasn't used to it. So instead she concentrated on the loud and immense density of sounds. Anyone else would have said, that it was almost completely silent. But she heard the wood aching under its heavy weight, mice dribbling inside the walls and all the other small sounds of a house. She heard a clock ticking, animals snorting and moving, the wind on the chimney. She heard a fire cracking and Evan talking. And then there was the whole sounds of the nature outside the window. She covered her hears, it was too much. But she couldn't keep the sounds out, she winced and put a pillow over her head.

Too loud! Too much! She almost panicked.

The pillow smelled of Evan. Oh Evan! 

She concentrated only on him, on her love to him. Slowly she relaxed and that helped. She was still overwhelmed but now it was bearable. Focusing on the voices of Evan and the woman, she tried to understand the words. Suddenly she could understand every word clearly while the other sounds were tuned out.
"... I have no intention to ever let her alone, but this way she is completely helpless when I am not around." Evan just said.

Even though Eleeza was impressed about the clarity of the spoken words, she felt as if she was intruding in his privacy. She focused on the animals. It was hard to ignore the talking, but she managed. Soon she got bored of just lying in the bed.

She was smiling as she sat up and tried to sense more with her hands. Behind the bed over the pillow the wooden bed frame continued a little upwards. Then there was a cold wall and when she got to her knees to feel more upwards she found a shelf with some books and a vase. It was empty but Eleeza's touching hands almost threw it down. Then she tried to sense what was to her right, but there seemed to be nothing next to the bed. On the left side, she found a small drawer. But she did not open it. Only felt the cloth on it which seemed to have small holes in it in regular intervals. 

Feeling around her was interesting so she sat up and carefully put her naked feet to the floor. There was a knotted carpet which tickled a bit. Moving her feet, she found her shoes standing tidy next to each other. She got up, in order to keep her balance, she placed one hand on the wall behind the bed. Off the carpet the floor was colder. The wood was smooth and a little dusty. Tracing along she came to the corner of the room. On the next wall, she found a small window. She tried to open it, but could not find the right lever. Still she stood a while in front of it. A slight breeze of wind found its way inside and carried with it the smell of the outdoors. There were too many fragrances to differentiate or even allot. Still she enjoyed listening to the wind, trees and animals. 

Soon she continued to explore the room. Next to the window was a chest, maybe for clothes. After she hit her foot on the chest, she found the next wall. Turning, she took a step forward and crashed into a cabinet door. The open cabinet door shut close with such a loud bang, that she startled and fell back on the chest. Rubbing her back she carefully got up, finding her orientation again as she moved back to the bed. A wound on her back must have opened, because her dress wettened. Meanwhile she already heard the rushing footsteps on the staircase. Before she could even sit down on the bed, someone opened the door. Of the way of breathing she could tell, that it was Evan.

"Eleeza, are you okay?" he asked still out of breath and moved closer to her. She just wanted to answer, when she heard the steps of someone else climbing the last steps of the stairs.

"Who is the other person coming?" she asked instead. Evan sat down next to her.

"It's my sister Zoe." In that moment, his sister entered the room.

"Zoe, this is E... April. April, finally you meet my family!"

April nodded, unsure of what to say. But she heard the footsteps coming closer and then a warm hand on her shoulder: "Welcome April! You are more than welcome here."

Eleeza smiled: "Thank you! Evan actually never told me of you, until today. But I am happy to meet you!" 

An uncomfortable silence evolved for some seconds, because Zoe could of course not hear her. Evan quickly told the few words to Zoe, but the uncomfortable silence remained. Finally. Evan broke the silence: "What happened here just the other moment? We heard a crash. Did you hurt yourself?" Eleeza heard the concern in his voice. 

"No Evan, don't worry. I just woke up and wanted to explore the room. I got to the cabinet and ran into its door by mistake. That was the source of the noise." 

Evan chuckled as did Eleeza. Evan explained it to Zoe and Eleeza heard Zoe join in. Zoe's laughter sounded very natural and good-hearted. Eleeza believed that she would like Zoe.

But first the two of them showed her the room again and told her, that this was Evans and her room for the time being. She tried to memorize the setting of the room to not run against something again. Then they led her out of the room. Evan explained to her the rough setting of the first floor before they made their way down the steep staircase. 

She needed a lot of guiding by Evan and yet stumbled. Finally, they brought her to the kitchen and offered her bread and cheese. Hungry she ate while the siblings started chatting again, explaining from time to time something to Eleeza. 

When she had finished eating she sat back and tried to relax. She ignored Evan and Zoe and concentrated instead on the sounds and smells. It smelled good, natural, of fire and fresh bread, of earth and stone, of an animal, she guessed a dog and of a family. There were a lot of smells she could not allocate, but she guessed that those just belonged to a farm. What she liked was the silence, the missing of voices of other people, strangers outside the door. The knowledge that on this farm, she would be surrounded only by a few people and else be alone, pleased her. And she loved to hear the wind rushing, blowing through the window and carrying with it the smell of the mountains, the meadows and the forest. Carrying with it the sunlight. She truly relaxed.

Suddenly she realized that the others had stopped talking. Confused she raised her head towards Evan: "Did I miss something?"

Evan chuckled: "Not really, don't mind!" 

She smiled as well: "I was lost in thoughts. This place seems very nice!".

"I am glad, you like it!" Evan responded, telling Zoe. 

Zoe added something similar, but then she added in a more serious tone: "How do you feel? Evan told me about your wounds. Maybe I can have a look at it? I am known in the valley for my healing herbs. Perhaps I could help you." 

"Oh, okay. If you want to. But I think they are already better..." she responded only to realize that Zoe could no hear her. So, she simply pushed up her sleeve to show the wound on her shoulder. Zoe made a strange sound and stood up to have a closer look: "I have never seen something comparable. I believe that it has been bigger?"

Evan answered: "Yes, it looks way better now. It almost closed now. You should have a look on the ones on her belly. Those are really bad."

Eleeza ended up with all her wounds covered in herbal ointment and in bandages. Then Evan and she went outside to sit on a bench in front of the house. Evan told her of his family and Eleeza just listened and relaxed. She was far from being well, but she was on a very good way.