Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

The Smallest of Beginnings

Tev let his thoughts churn as he continued staring at the canopy.  'The last I remember, I was battling the Crimson Shadow in that hallway.'  He groaned out loud in frustration as the details darted into his mind's eye.  'And damn it to the Seventh Dragon, if I had just waited a minute or two, Hestefan would've been too big to move.  Instead of darting in and getting, . . .'

Tev's mental voice slowly stammered into silence as he realized where he was.  Somehow in the depths of his pain he had been thrown into yet another one of the memories that the S'ia box had given him.  The only question now was where in time was he?  And in whose memory?  And why did this one feel even more real than the last one had??

As he contemplated the answers to those questions, he found himself moving uneasily under the heavy covers swaddling the bed.  And in doing so, he disturbed the equally heavy bandages wrapped around his face and body.  Feeling them pull at his injured body, he quickly realized that the wounds were of a different nature than the horrible ones he had gotten at the hands of the transformed Mardish, Hestefan.

Instead of brutal bite marks, Tev now sported what felt like deep sword wounds, his bones, other than a broken rib, whole.  Groaning, he sat partially up.  'Those kinds of wounds I can deal with', he thought grimly, taking a bit more time to examine the room he found himself a-bed in.

Other than the fact that his memory had dug out the fact that it was a lady's room, nothing else marked it as familiar.  Paintings and tapestries hung on the walls and a single, double paned window of high quality clarity filled most of the wall to his right.  A chest of drawers dominated the wall to his left and several man-tall cabinets were scattered throughout the room, heavy and massive, their double doors all closed.  The room was lit by a set of candlesticks set close to the door, which was directly in front of him.

As Tev examined that door, an intricately carved portal of dark wood blessed with images of flowers and wilderness scenes, the handle turned and it swung open to reveal what was easily the most beautiful woman the human had ever laid his eyes on.  Beautiful enough to snatch his breath away.  Yet she was also clearly anxious, grimacing when she saw him sitting up.  Quickly she closed the door behind her and moved swiftly to his side, brushing aside gauzy curtains to sit on the bed beside him.

"No, no, no.  You shouldn't be sitting up," she said in a smooth, silky contralto that, while it was honey-coated with sensual energy, was also intelligent and educated.  And there was no mistaking the concern in her voice.

Careful fingers rolled back the covers then checked his bandages, which were nearly soaked through with dark blood.

"Blessed Maker, your wounds have opened again," she whispered, her face tightening.  As the woman tugged on the thick strips of fine linen, Tev found himself gazing into her heart-shaped face.

She had eyes the color of fine emeralds, skin soft and golden and features that the Dragons themselves had crafted into perfection.  The relatively simple dress of creamy blue and gold that she wore closely clung to her womanly curves, revealing a young woman in her physical prime: breasts full and firm, belly flat and taut and long, graceful legs.

The dress's sleeves came all the way to her wrists where snowy lace tumbled over her delicate, long-fingered hands.  More lace crowded around her neck and her long red hair had been piled high on her head, held in place by a network of diamond-laced, gold wire.  And again Tev silently named her the single most beautiful woman, elf or human, that he had ever seen.

Speaking of which race she belonged to, she looked like no elf he had ever seen.  Or human, for that matter.  Yet her angled brows and pointed ears, which were almost completely hidden by her luxurious hair, confirmed the fact that she was, indeed, elven.  Despite the fact that the language she now spoke was like no elven tongue he was familiar with.