Fractures: Rewritten Chapters

Cabin Days Pt1

First published on April 3rd, 2022

The sun was setting as the little spruce wood cabin came into view. Ciara, Kane, Rain and Stella came out of the snow covered forest with two horses in tow.

They left Kane and Ciara's little camp at the first sign of dawn and took a detour to Rain and Stella's camp to pick up some of the supplies Rain left behind the day before, and on their way there, they stumbled onto a destroyed camp. It appeared that Djinn, the Nether assassin responsible for the whole "hound Stella" mishap, had passed by during his chase of the two and decided to add two more innocents to his body count. Their horses, a bay mare and a white stallion, were left behind. They were still fully saddled and tied to a post by the time the squad came by. Kane insisted on bringing the animals along, much to Ciara's displeasure. The mare was distrustful of the bunch and refused to let anyone touch her but Kane. The stallion, on the other hand, was gentle, allowing Stella and Rain to pet his nose and gladly carrying some of their retrieved supplies all the way to the cabin.

Kane led them inside after instructing Ciara to bring the two horses into a small stable behind the cabin. It's not a large cabin, the thick walls made from spruce logs made the interior small but cozy. A small furnace sat on the right side of the room, directly across from a couch. There's a door on either side of the room, the left one led to a small bathroom with a big wooden tub inside while the right one led to a long, narrow bedroom with two bunk beds.

After plopping down their bags and lighting up the small furnace, Kane went outside to check on the horses. Stella quickly excused herself and retreated into the bedroom, leaving Rain alone.

Rain sighed, picked out a clean set of clothes, his only other set of clothes, and went into the bathroom. He had finally decided to wash the blood off of himself and take a look at his injuries. 

After figuring out how to heat up the water, he took off his armor, leaving them in a pile by the bench inside. He stared at the black patch of dried blood on his left arm for a long while and then took in a deep breath. The bleeding was stopped from the bandages wrapped tightly outside of his hoodie, removing that and the hoodie can potentially cause the wound to reopen, which would complicate things. Slowly, trying not to use his sore arm, he eased his other arm out of the sleeve before pulling the hoodie over his head, leaving his left arm in the sleeve.

Rain sighed, "Well, no going back now."

He reached down and pulled out the hunting knife on his boot. With extreme care, he cut through the bandages on his left arm with the blade. Both the bandage and the hoodie fabric where stiff from the dried blood. Removing his arm from the bloodied clothes was an excruciatingly slow process, but he did it. Rain then realized that his shirt has to go as well, since the injury was on his bicep and the elbow-length sleeve was soaked with blood. Three painful minutes later, the bite wound was finally exposed. 

It looked surprisingly clean, considering that this wound was two days old. The marks from the hound's incisors had scabbed, and thin trails of blood trickled from the puncture holes of the canines. Rain sighed through his nose, those are going to need some stitches or they will take longer to heal and might get infected in the process. He quietly splashed the scalding water over the bite wound, grinding his teeth to not make any noise. His eyes glanced at the freaky-looking scar across his chest, a constant reminder of what happened, what he did. 

You killed the Nether Princess, Rain, not Abi. We've been over this.  Rain took in a deep breath before dunking his head into the tub.

-Meanwhile-

In the bedroom, Stella laid on the top bunk while hugging the pillow. She had spent the last 15 minutes tossing and turning before finding a comfortable position that didn't make her sore shoulders scream in pain, which happened to be laying on her stomach. Her sensitive ears picked up the quiet creak of the floorboards as Ciara entered the room. Her heard her sit down on the lower bunk across from her and made no effort to acknowledge her existence. 

This entire ordeal had been...exhausting, to put it lightly. All of the new sounds, smells that came with her enhanced senses after she got cured, if she can even call herself cured, were too much to deal with, not to mention the fact that she has a tail now. Stella just wanted some peace and quiet, but her attention wandered as her ears twitched to the sounds behind the walls: the muffled crackling of the fire inside the furnace and the wind whistling through the trees outside. 

Among all the sounds, Stella could make out Rain sitting on the couch, presumably tending to his wounds as she could hear his occasional hisses of pain. Her ears perked up at the sound of footsteps. That's probably Kane, she thought. An awkward moment of silence later, she heard Kane's say, "You could have asked me to stitch you up, you know."

"I'm fine. I'm done now anyway." Rain retorted. 

"I'm sure the two holes under your arm would say otherwise."

"Oh yeah I forgot they existed-"

Kane sighed, "At least tell me you put something on those cuts on your face." The couch creaked as he sat down, presumably beside Rain. He said something else, but the words didn't reach her ears. Her stomach twisted painfully and her breaths caught in her chest.

She did this. She did this to Rain. She hurt him so badly that he needed stitches. Tears welled up in her eyes as she recalled the taste of blood and how it- how much it excited her.

Stella buried her face into the pillow and choked back a sob. She didn't care that Ciara or the others might hear her. All she could think about is how she's going to face Azura and Lyria after they go back to Frostbourne. Nothing's going to be the same anymore. I'm a monster. What if everyone hates me? What if they don't accept me? Where will I go then? The thought of her friends turning her away made her heart clench painfully. Stella burst into tears and clutched the pillow tightly before turning to face the wall. She didn't want to deal with the judging gazes of the others. 

Hearing the muffled sobs from the top bunk, Ciara glanced up from her book. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she would be lying if she said that she didn't feel bad for the girl. It must be hard, knowing that you turned into a deranged feral beast, hurt someone you cared about and now the beast is a permanent part of you. And, judging from her crying, she remembers everything she did as a hound. Part of her wanted to comfort the girl, because she knew that someone dealing with so much emotional pain would appreciate it. Her thoughts wandered back to that day, that horrible day four years ago, the day she lost everything... If we knew what we know now, would things turn out differently? Would father still be alive?

The huntress shook her head. You are thinking too much again, Ciara. Just tolerate them for a couple of days and you don't ever have to deal with them again. She covered her face with the book and fell asleep within two minutes. 

A/N April 3rd, 2022:

"Just tolerate them for a couple of days and you don't ever have to deal with them again"
*laughs* Oh Ciara, you fool. You're never getting rid of them-