Incognito

13

Zac groaned and stretched out his legs. He was stiff, frigid, and couldn't remember the last time he ate. He noticed that his arm felt like it was weighed down with bricks. He tried to open his eyelids but one throbbed and the other was covered in a salve and bandaged. Matter of fact, his whole body seemed to be covered in the rough, itchy, stiff bandages. He began to move but the effort caused so much pain he dozed off again.

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Rita sighed. The young woman on her table was fast asleep. She watched her as she strained the boiling water from the medicinal herbs in a jar. Dark hollowness marked underneath her eyes. Rita worried about her. In the last week had exhausted the mia between Prosper's late nights to the young man she was nursing to health. The children outside screamed playfully and the mia startled awake. Rita smirked and chuckled under her breath.

"You should try sleeping at night, my mia. It does wonders for me." She set the jar down and busied herself with collecting more supplies for Mia. At the younger girl's yawn, she suggested, "You could leave the man with me."

"I told you twice already. No!" The mia stood and picked up the jar. "All I need is more medicine and bandages."

"And when he wakes up with full strength. Mia, I am worried. He could take advantage of you."

Mia shook her head and collected the supplies for her little hospital. "For goodness sake's Rita, he is split with huge rocks, he'll cause me no harm. In a couple of days, he will wake and find himself in an abandoned hut with a mystery healer." She had tossed everything in her satchel except for a tiny, corked glass bottle. "What is this?"

"To help you sleep, darling. Take it easy." Rita turned to the fire and stirred supper around once. When she looked up again the thief was gone and on her table were only the tiny bottle and a handful of coins. Ryley strode into the room. At the sight of the coins, he collapsed in a chair. Rita rushed to kneel by his side. Insistently she gazed at him and he gave her a reassuring nod before remarking, "She leaves a trail of heartache."

Rita got back to her. "I feel sorry for the man who falls for her. Whoever he is, for Angelica, he is guaranteed to fall hard."

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Zac woke with a massive headache but fortunately, that seemed to be his only painful ailment. A bandage wrapped around his torso bothered him a little and once he tried to stand his foot held excruciating pain. Immediately he fell to his knees, head swimming and frigid winter air blanketing his exposed body. Once his vision cleared he scavenged the room. It was a small, dirty, poorly constructed hut and had little inside. He had been laying on a cot in the back made of strong, bamboo-like, slightly rotted sticks. A thick blanket lay on the earth with a trunk next to it. A tunic and a pair of breeches lay on his bed, still warm from a fire.

If they were still warm a fire must be around, Zac thought as he dressed. Peeking around the crude stick building, Zac glimpsed a dark hooded figure by a lively fire.

Darting out Zac crept through the dark toward the delicious heat. His body wanted to rush into the warmth but his head was filled with all the training tactics he had picked up over the years. He paused his silent ambush when his captor stretched but then lurched forward in attack. At the last moment, the figure turned and froze like a terrified deer. Zac roared and pounced the best he could without putting much weight on his bad foot. The hooded figure parred away the club-like stick Zac didn't remember collecting. A knee placed just above his knee revealed how fragile his weak body crumpled. He only had enough time to yank his attacker's cloak off before falling to the ground close to the fire.