Her Secret

Tiny Men

After leaving the oracles house. I didn't feel the least bit unlighted, quite the opposite. "But did you hear she said?" I ask Charles for the hundredth time. "Yes, I did." He responds. I can tell his patience is wearing thin.

I shut my mouth as we walk a away from her hidden house, away from the Lycan pack and away from the past few days. The silence eats at me as I look up at Charles.

His face is hard and void of emotion, like it often is. I take my hand in his to which he moves it away from mine and closer to his body.

An ache forms in my chest at his response. I clasp my hands together in front of me and follow quietly behind him not daring to repeat that humiliating action

I don't know what I did to upset him this time. He suddenly tenses up before quickly ducking down. "Get down!" He yells but it's too late.

Pain erupts in my stomach and I look down to see an arrow with a rainbow-colored tail sticking out of my abdomen. "Ouch." I mumble as shock rockets through me and my heart races.

"Charles?" I look up at him to see him scanning the area. He hasn't noticed that I have been struck. "We mean you no harm." He calls out as another arrow whizzes past his head but he skillfully ducks and it misses its target and strikes a tree trunk.

"Prove it fire demon!" An angry voice yells. I drop to the cold forest floor as the shock and adrenaline leave my body. Charles drops to his knees and puts his hands up as small men come running out from behind the trees. "I think I prefer the water." I whisper as my vision goes in and out and my breath becomes shallow as the pain grows.

Charles looks back to me his eyes wide, like he is just now noticing the fact that I have an arrow sticking out of me. "Angelina." He whispers as hurt races through his eyes as well as worry.

My eyes meet his and he breathes out a sigh of relief at my small response. "Help her." He grits out as the men come closer. They are not even five-foot-tall, how peculiar, I try to make out the details of their faces but my eyes won't focus.

"We help water child, not you." The one with the bow says as they bind Charles hands and force him to stand. I notice his eyes flicker to orange as I fall to the ground my strength leaving me. "HELP HER." He roars with fury in his tone as his veins glow orange and his teeth turn to fangs.

They inject him with something causing his eyes to return to their natural state. My eyes get heavy as I see a couple of the small men coming closer to me. Before my vision completely fades, I notice Charles go limp as they inject him again.

***

My mind wakes before my body. I can hear the steady beep of a machine near me and I can smell sanitary solution.

My eyes slowly open and I notice a dull light that I make out to be the sun. I am not in a hospital but a hut of some sort. I look around me and notice that the walls are what looks like bark and the sunlight is streaming in from a window in the corner. There is a candle beside the bed and the beeping is coming from an alarm that is set on the other. I click it off and groan softly as pain shoots through my stomach at the small movement.

A bag of liquid is attached to my arm through an IV as well as one full of blood. I can now tell that the smell is coming from a tray a couple feet away from the bed full of metal objects and bloodied gauze pads.

I look down and notice pulsing black veins coming from the bottom of the bandage, my top has been wrapped leaving me in only this bandage and shorts, thank god they wrapped my whole top half and my hair has been put up, probably easier to wrap me with it up. "Arrow had poison. We fix though. Bandage more secured wrapped " My eyes shoot up to a small man that has just walked in. He gestures to his chest area as he says the last part.

He has jet black hair and brown eyes. He is about four and half feet tall. He is wearing what seems to be some type of animal skin. "Where am I?" I ask him.

"Safe." Is all he says. "What about the man that was with me?" I ask.

He eyes me but doesn't say anything. "He is very important to me." I try again. "Fire demon locked away, not safe for water child." He explains.

"He is safe, he is my beloved." I say trying to make the man understand. Something clicks in his head as his eyes change and he nods before walking over to me. Charles would never hurt me intentionally.

He he grabs some scissors and I flinch waiting for some kind of pain. He holds his hands up cutting a piece of gauze. "Must change." He says pointing to my stomach.

I nod and he slowly unravels the bandage to reveal a blood-soaked gauze pad. He takes it off and applies some kind of ointment to the new gauze and places it on my stomach gently. "Better." He says wrapping the bandage around me once more.

"Once fire demon awakes, I shall take water child to see it." He says nodding before moving to the door. "Thank you." I say breathing out a sigh if relief. "Water child stay. Roan will bring food and water." He says pointing to himself taking the dirty gauze with him.

I lean back gently on the bed and grimace at the pain. This must be a tribe of some sort. My mother has talked about people like this but I didn't think she was telling the truth. I never thought she was telling the truth about anything.

He soon comes back with buttered bread and a cup of water. "Eat. Drink. It will help heal water child." He says placing the tray down and walking back out.

I finish off the bread and the glass of water setting the tray to the side. There is a small wooden table near the bed that holds the candle. In the corner of the room is the entrance and opposite that is a dark wooden stand full of old books that look like they have not been read since the earth began.

The room gets darker as the sun is put to rest leaving me with only the light of the small candle and the pale moonlight that replaces the light of the sun

"Light." Is all Roan says as he lights two more candles. "Roan, is he awake?" I ask causing him to halt in his tracks. "Fire demon sleeps still. Strong sedative to calm beast. Quite enraged at sight of dying water child. Sleep now." He says nodding to me before walking out.

I lay down on the bed and watch the shadows of the candle light flicker. Just going and coming from the oracles would have been too easy for us, right goddess

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~scarletbride30