THE PRICE OF WAR [Taka x Reader]

IX. Wounded Beast

"Hello?"

Kyria was lying on her bed, curled up like a cat.

"Can I come in?"

After several seconds, she nodded and you sat beside her.

"What's wrong?"

"Eynar..."

"Where is he?"

She curled up even more.

"They don't know..." she mumbled.

She hadn't left her tent since you arrived at the camp. She asked each soldier if they had seen Eynar or if they knew where he could be. But nobody knew. Apparently, the troop that left Hayltel in its day was divided and Eynar went elsewhere. Kyria didn't know what to do anymore. She had lost hope and nothing and no one could help her. The famous boastful soldier known as The Mighty Rock was now held in her tent as a wounded and sobbing animal. At that moment you understood that even someone as unshakable as Kyria was also human and as such, she cried and suffered like any other. You understood how much she had been suffering and how hard it was for her to act as if nothing happened. You caressed her hair and she began sobbing.

"It's alright..." you whispered.

Kyria had always been a good, smiling girl. Her parents, like yours, had died during the Rebellion and her older brother Eynar raised her. And one day, Hayltel's men were called to war. Among them were Yrion and Eynar. Kyria was left completely alone, and while you took shelter in your books, she expelled all her rage and impotence in you. She changed radically and became a poorly spoken, masculine brute woman. She had an armor made just to look like a Western soldier and promised that one day she would join his brother in battle and help him as he had helped her throughout her entire life.

"I miss him..."

"You have to be strong for him. Like you've always been" you smiled as you kept caressing her hair.

"I can't..."

"Look at me" you said.

She slightly turned around, but she wasn't able to look you in the eyes.

"You need to believe. If you don't, no one will"

She gulped and cleared her throat.

"But you already know that, right?" you smiled.

She finally looked at you and nodded.

"Good. Now let's tidy yourself up" you said while you looked for a comb.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm going to brush all that tangled mess" you signaled "Sit down"

She hesitated for some seconds but she ended up obeying you. You both sat down at the edge of the bed and you started undoing her braids and brushing through them.

"We used to do this..." Kyria told you.

"Yes, when we were kids right?" you smiled.

"Yes..." she chuckled "Your hair was soft... Not like mine"

"Well, I didn't enjoy rolling around in the mud as much as you did"

You both laughed and kept remembering your childhood while you transformed your friend's short hair into a cluster of small braids.