One Tail at a Time

Trial of the Spirit - 3

On his side and facing the hearth, Mo Yuans jaw was tightly set in a grimace, as the hot water was roughly dragged down over every wound.  She had barely spoken to him, other than to issue orders and nor was she interested in starting a conversation with him either.  He'd tried a few times to learn her name and even where he was exactly, but she merely barked out more orders until eventually he thought it best that he just did as he was told in the hope that she would be a little more gentle with him.

"Tilt your head back and don't move." she commanded as the hot cloth was then dragged up the side of his neck and over a particularly sore wound that came away covered in blood the moment it lowered into the bowl to be rinsed off.

"Ma'am, please .....  can you be a little more gentle......?" he asksed wincing at the sharp pain that was now throbbing behind his ear where he had obviously received a nasty sword wound.

"Gentle?" she scoffed loudly between a hiss and a lahg.  "Soldier, you have a short memory.  War games are not gentle and nor is the healing.  Shut your mouth and deal with it." she snapped before throwing the dirty cloth into the heap beside him and taking up a clean one.

"There is no need for the anger Ma'am.  I did not ask you to bring me here." he replied with a hint of annoyance in his tone.  He was the Crown Prince and he was definitely not used to be spoken to by a mere sprite of a girl and had they been in the Palace, she would have lost her head immediately.  

"Is that so?" she asked stopping the cloth halfway down his shoulder...... "I do recall you grabbing my ankle and crying for me to help you." she replied in the softest tone since his arrival, so it was rather off putting, only to be told he had cried, was enough to burn his cheeks.  She said it as if he were a mere child and the embarrassment was instant.  But there was something in the softness of her tone, that had his head slowly turning back to look at her.

Completely oblivious to him, Bai Qians eyes were fully focused on the sword wounds that were crisscrossing his back, chest and lower abdomen.  He really was a mess and having seen all manner of war dead, she really thought she would be able to handle looking after him.  After all she had been a war scavenger for a very long time so dismembered bodies, death and decay, were nothing new to her.  But this was a live person, the blood was fresh and his pitiful groans when she hit a particularly sore part of his body, twisted her belly so much that the only way she was able to cope with it, was to get angry.

Only the tears in her eyes, gave away the turmoil she was in, and had he not turned to look at her, he would have barked out a few choice words himself.  The tears came as a real surprise to him, that he couldn't help but stare, because since the first moment he awoke on her plush white rug, she had been nothing but rude and uncouth.  In fact her mouth was at times vulgar that she could have given his General a run for his money, but looking at that beautiful face, with tears in eyes for his own pain, had him realizing that she was just a girl after all.

"Why don't you take a break.  I can manage for a while like this." he said in the softest of tones while watching as an arm raised to lightly brush away a stray tear that was trickling down her cheek.

Realizing that he was looking at her, Bai Qians embarrassment at having been caught crying had the temper flaring in an instant.  It was one thing to be bleeding out all over a rug that cost her a fortune while leaving her tired and stressed at having to take care of him, but to also see her crying was the last straw.  Throwing the rag at the bowl while ignoring the water that sloshed out all over the rug and worsening its condition, she stood up angrily and began to storm off.

"There's nothing wrong with your hands, clean yourself." she spat at the pair of eyes that were slowly hooding over as she stalked off to what he gathered was the kitchen.