(Continued from Sorcerer Part 5)
She pinned the bloody needle to her dress so she wouldn’t lose it, threw the cloth into the empty bucket and sat back on her heels. It was getting hard to see as the darkness creeped in, but she knew she couldn’t leave the man here now! She had just sewn him up, but had no way to move him from this spot – especially without his wound getting worse.
She glanced up at the sky. She needed to decide fast. She already barely had enough light to make it back to her house, but she supposed it was her only option. She was only one woman – she could only do so much.
So she grabbed the bucket and slowly made her way back.
She didn’t bother changing her clothes before throwing a few sticks she had grabbed into the fireplace and lighting it. After a few minutes she had a meager fire, so she laid down in front of it on her rug.
But sleep did not come to her. Even as she watched her small fire dwindle, she couldn’t bring herself to slip into dreams. She kept seeing the man’s face as he laid there, helpless – and his wound, the blood!
She groaned. “I knew today was not right,” she said to herself before once again making her way to her feet.
She was fully aware she must be insane at this point. She grabbed three blankets and two small pillows in one arm, while the other she scooped up a bucket with new water and cloth and her new candle.
She lit the candle, did her best to juggle all the things that she carried, and walked out her door into the darkness.
It took her much longer to find him again this time since she could only see a bit around her feet and she kept getting frightened and occasionally dropping something -thankfully not her candle. But she did find him again. He was still there, only now he had somehow rolled on to his back.
After checking his wound and seeing blood dried to it, she used her cloth and water and attempted to clean it again. She was happy to see that he was laying on his cloak for the most part, so hopefully not laying a blanket on top of him would be enough to keep him warm since it wasn’t too cold out.
She swore he would wake up when she lifted up his head and clumsily shoved a pillow beneath it, but after having done so much to him earlier and having no reaction, she did it without hesitation.
She herself walked 20 paces to the side of him, and laid a blanket on the earth. The old woman who had raised her had called her stupid before, but she wondered if she had done anything quite this reckless in her years.
Sure, she had slept under the stars before, but not normally right outside her house and most of the time would get frightened half way through the night and go back inside. But tonight she would be under the stars…and very close to a very strange man.
(Continued in Sorcerer Part 7)
Rozuki's Writings 