BatIM Five Trials

Chapter Twelve

After a bit of time, Boris and Jade arrived at a rather cozy looking safe haven. Music played quietly from a radio located somewhere in the room, the exact place Jade could not see. Boris helped her over to a chair and sat her down, and then held up a finger, the gesture saying wait here, I'll be back.

The wolf walked away, leaving Jade to survey her new surroundings. There was a stove and a table within the room she was in, as well as a few shelves with various objects on them. She wondered if anyone else was here, or if it was just her and Boris. If it was just her and the wolf, she wondered then how long he had been alone.

The wolf soon returned, carrying a wet rag and some bandages. He motioned for her injured arm, which she offered out to him. During their trek, most of her arm had managed to get soaked in blood, and she wondered if she had accidentally stained Boris with the red substance.

Boris took one of the wet rags and proceeded to start trying to get the blood off of her skin. Some of it had dried on the way, so she was grateful for the rag being wet, otherwise, it'd be a much less pleasant experience than it already was to be injured and having to get blood off. Then came the painful parts. Boris cleaned the areas around the painful wound and even attempted to get the ink out, but to a painful failure.

Boris looked as if he felt horrible to have caused her so much pain. "It's alright Boris. . . you tried to be helpful, it's the thought that counts." Jade said through her hisses of pain. The wound didn't seem like it was too happy with her for messing with it so much. After failing to get the ink out of the wound, Boris then went to bandaging it. His messing with it had caused it to start bleeding again, so he wiped the blood off one last time before applying the bandage.

"Oh. . . thank you, Boris!" Jade smiled. At least, for now, there was something to prevent any more ink from getting into her injury. As she examined the bandaging, Boris went to her leg and started to repeat the process, cleaning the mixture of blood and ink off of her leg.

After a while came the hard part of her leg injury. Removing her shoe so Boris could bandage it with an ace bandage style. It would require moving her foot and leg, which would cause pain to the already sore injury from cleaning right around the claw marks. Jade mustered it as Boris watched on with a concerned expression of how much pain she was going through. After it had been removed, Boris carefully applied the bandage.

The final injury was the easiest since it was so recent it didn't have as much time to bleed or as much time to get ink in it. The trouble with it was that it was so long, it took a lot of bandages to cover all of it. Once everything was bandaged up, Jade realized how tired she was beginning to feel. Between Trial One, Trial Two, the sacrifice, and getting herself cleaned up, it took more out of her than she was used to.

When she let out a yawn and Boris looked at her. He thought of how to motion this for a second, and then laid his head on his arms, looking like he was asleep for a second before opening his eyes to see her reply. "Yeah. . . I am a bit tired." Jade chuckled a bit. Boris smiled at her and helped her get up. He walked with her into another room where there was a bed and a hammock. Jade's eyes lit up now even more than they had before with the axe. She looked at her companion. "Do you mind if I get some rest?"

The wolf shook his head, and then helped her over to a bed, and helped her settle in without hurting her injuries too much. He even tucked her in, despite her saying she could do it herself, and patted her head before leaving the room. Jade was left in the dark, and after a few minutes, let the drowsiness of her body lull her into sleep.

She woke up a while later with a yawn. She went to sit up and go tell Boris good morning. . . well, if it even was morning, but a hand placed gently on her shoulder stopped her from sitting up. Boris stood over her holding a bowl with a spoon poking out of it. Whatever its contents were smelled delicious. Almost like. . . bacon? Boris placed down the bowl and helped her sit up, carefully as to not cause pain on her injury, and handed her the bowl. Inside was what looked like soup.

Bacon soup? Well, I guess I'll get to answer the question as to what it tastes like. She scooped up a good sized spoon full and after blowing it off to make sure it was cool enough, she put it in her mouth. It was the best soup she had ever had, tasting exactly like bacon. She presumed the chunks of meat in the soup were also bacon, which was only adding to the amazing flavor. "Thanks, Boris." She smiled up at the wolf, who smiled back. He seemed glad to be able to help, or at least, to have company. Boris left the room for a minute and came back carrying a banjo.

"Oh, are you able to play?" Jade asked out of curiosity, glancing at the string instrument before looking back up at the wolf. He nodded almost excitedly. It was like she didn't even need to ask for him to play an example as he got onto the hammock, and began the process of tuning a few strings. After he was finished, he started playing. It was a song that Jade vaguely recalled from when she was very young, but she hadn't heard it in quite a few years. That and the fact that the main melody, in this case, was on a different instrument from normal almost made her think she had never heard it before, but the scheme of notes and their tones were telling her differently. She could never put her finger on its name, however. By the end of it, Jade had started humming along to the now more and more familiar tune. Boris looked over at her with a hopeful smile, and Jade could almost instantly tell what he was asking. "That was great Boris, I bet you practiced that one a lot." The wolf nodded, his fluffy tail wagging at the praise. He tried motioning his hands again for communication, but again it had left Jade confused.

Boris thought for a moment before getting up and walking over to her and then took her hand. Jade looked a bit confused, but he messed with it until it made a certain shape, and he pointed to the "B" on one of the posters in the room. He arranged it again and pointed to the "O" on it this time. This process repeated a few times until he had spelled out Boris in sign language. Boris then used his hands to spell out the same thing.

"That's your name, Boris. Was that. . . sign language?" Jade spoke the question out loud and received a nod from the wolf. He looked expectantly at her like he wanted to know something. It took her a few seconds to realize what he wanted. "Oh, you want to know my name? I'm Jade Wolfe, it's nice to meet you, Boris. Thank you for helping me." The wolf nodded as if saying you're welcome.

After she had finished her soup, Boris took the bowl out of the room and returned for a chat. He asked, after a few complications with motioning, if she liked music.

"Oh do I? I've loved music pretty much my entire life. Back outside of the studio, I'm actually in a school band." Boris seemed excited by this as Jade continued. "I play clarinet there. Mom says I'm also pretty good at singing, so there's that too."

Boris seemed to want to hear her sing, his tail wagging a bit. This caused Jade to chuckle as she looked through her mind for the lyrics of a song to sing. After she finally chose one, she took a breath and then began to sing.

"~All the leaves of the giving tree have fallen, no shade to crawl in underneath~" Her voice rang out strong, but also delicate to match what she knew of the song. The voice of someone who had practiced many times.

"~I've got scars from the pocket knife that you carved. . . your heart. . . into me~" This went on for a while, and Boris even started playing the tune that went with it on his banjo. How he knew how the song went, neither of the two had any idea. After they were done, the two just laid on their respective beds in silence, feeling nice after the music.

Maybe staying here, for the time being, isn't going to be so bad. After all, I guess I have a friend now.   

(Hey everyone, Wolfy here! The next chapter is also going to be purely time in the safe house, but I promise. Chapter Fourteen is when we'll set out for Trial Three! For now, enjoy the time with our canine friend while you can!)

(If you're curious, the song sung in this chapter by Jade is called "The Giving Tree" by The Plain White T's)

~Wolfy