Not That Far

Chapter 12-Something I Don't Understand

   I blinked up at canvas suspended by a pole above my head. Moon light was sleeping through the tiny holes, casting little, white pinpoints of light all around me. I didn't know where I was, and that's always a bad thing, so I glanced around with my eyes. I did my best to keep my head still in the process. The memory of our capture came crashing back with searing finality. I immediately longed for the precious few moments when I had forgotten about it.

  I was alone in a tent, that much was certain. I was laying on a pallet, covered up to my chin in blankets. I touched my nose gingerly, expecting dried blood, and found that it had been bandaged. I sat up and found that all my other odd little bumps and scratches I'd picked up on my journey had been tended to. I guessed that was Daichi's way of saying sorry for hitting me.

  I froze when I heard someone outside the tent shift their weight and sniff loudly. So I was being guarded then. There was nothing else in the tent besides the blankets, so I tried to get up onto my knees, only to find that I was hobbled. I followed the line from my ankles to a stake set deep in the hard, frozen ground.

  I wouldn't be able to get more than a meter before they caught me. I wanted to scream and smash something, but that would only alert them that I was awake. Something I feared would only bring people and ultimately Daichi. So I stifled it bitterly. He was a fool if he thought that I wouldn't find a way out of this eventually.

  I heard muffled foot falls followed by talking outside of my tent. One set of feet retreated and the other stayed. They must be taking shifts. I immediately started counting as I laid back down silently.

  One hour. That's how long a shift lasted. And several passed with me still wondering what they had done to Shay and Drayan. Several times the current guard would burst in the tent to see if I was awake, probably hoping to catch me by surprise if I was foxing. But I kept my eyes closed and my blankets pulled up to my chin as I counted the minutes off on my fingers.

  Daichi came to check on me himself once near dawn. The guard told him that I was still asleep, but I heard an "Oof!" followed by a solid thump as Daichi shoved him out of the way. He barked at him to leave and the poor idiot readily complied, kicking up snow on the side of the tent in his haste to obey I laid perfectly still with a blank face as he stepped in. I stopped counting as well.

  He sat down beside me and hesitantly touched my bruised jaw. I literally had to will myself not to wince and shy away at the webs of pain that shot through my face. I think he might've done a little more than bruising if it hurt this much though. Normal bruises wouldn't send pain sprinting up and down my jawline.

  "I'm sorry I did this to you..." he spoke up. I hadn't expected him to say anything, so I started a little. But I quickly covered it up with a shift in position and a deep breath, like I was I having a dream. He bought it.

  "...I...I never meant for it to go this far." I felt him brush my hair out of my eyes, just like Shirabi had done back home when I was a kid. he actually sounded...regretful... Him? Sorry? Nah.

  "I just- I just couldn't lose you again." Again? What is he talking about? Maybe he knows I'm awake and wants to make me curious. But if that was the case I didn't rise to the bait.

  "I don't know what that Niren told you to make you hate me so much...but you and your mother were supposed to come home with me. You were never supposed to go live with them." he growled the last word menacingly. As if I'd had been stolen right out from under his nose. Had I?

  He removed the blankets and pressed something cool and smooth into my right hand, curling my fingers around it. Like he was worried someone might take it while I slept. It was agonizing not to open my eyes and look at it. But I held on to my charade. He'd be furious if he knew I was playing possum, well, sorta.