Tiger's Beginning

Chapter 19: Tested

As my eyes slowly opened, the main thing that clouded my mind was the extreme pain in my head.

When I tired to open my eyes, sunlight pierced my retinas, forcing me to quickly shut them.

Vague noises found me, but I could only feel the pain.

Eventually I gave up, and let the darkness wipe away my senses as I slipped back into unconsciousness.

Because I had no sense of time, I woke up…later than my earlier spell.

The pain was still prominent, but I was able to open my eyes and examine my surroundings.

Looking down I saw I was in a dressing gown, and was lying in quite a large bed. The quality of the bedding seemed expensive, and when I looked around the room, I saw ornate paintings of regal looking people on the walls.

Torches held in place by metal claspers provided light, and a fire lived in a large fireplace at the foot of the bed.

As I tentatively reached for my head, the door to my right creaked open.

Not knowing quite what to do, I grabbed a torch form the wall and held in in front of me, trying not to sway as I stood when a wave of pain hit me again.

A foot entered first, followed by a skirt, and eventually Kamala entered, looking concerned.

I sighed in relief, and she looked alarmed at seeing me out of bed.

“Grace, what are you doing out of bed? You took a terrible fall, how are you feeling?”

I was grateful when she reached out with her arm to steady me, which I was glad she did or I would have surely fallen and hit my head, making matters much worse.

“My head hurts…a lot. What happened?”

Kamala helped me back into bed and the sat down on the end.

“Well, we came through the portal after you figured it out. Anik woke up first, and realized we had landed in the middle of a forest. He checked on Raj and I, but realized you weren’t with us. Panicked, he searched the surrounding area, and found you about a mile away with injuries to your head and a few scratches to your arms. We still don’t know how you arrived in a different location than us. Anyways, Anik came back with you in his arms, and Raj and I were awake at this point. We decided you needed help, so we started walking towards an area where we saw smoke rising over the trees. We approached cautiously, and discovered a calm village. Luckily when we went to go see a physician, the royal prince of this land was there on the way back from a hunting trip and was picking up medicine. He graciously allowed us to come with him to this castle, where his personal physician has been taking care of you.”

She leaned in closer to me and whispered with a twinkle in her eye,

“It seems the prince is quite taken by you, which makes Anik and Raj all the more annoyed and defensive. Though they are cautious, he seems like a good man.”