Worlds Apart

Bravery

The morning comes sooner than I would prefer but when I go to move my arm, it takes me all about two seconds to realize it is locked in place. Turns out my arm closest to Eadric has been anchored by his rough grip over my wrist. I reposition myself to face him, glancing behind me only to see he is already awake. After taking a moment to process his even expression, I nod towards my forearm, nearly covered by his hand before raising my eyebrows in question.

"To make sure you didn't try to run." He says simply, his voice even more gravely from the morning. His lips part as I scoff, and another moment passes before he finally releases my arm and proceeds to stretch. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and quickly rise, walking to the washroom before he has a chance to beat me to it.

Once in there, I shiver from the realization of what had just happened but I know I just need to get my blood flowing. I get ready, cleaning my teeth with a mint paste Eadric's people make then proceed to flip my hair around until I just decide to leave it down altogether. Those damn accent braids, though, they are not worth tending to, I reckon. But when I look around, I see that my clothes, meaning my pants and jacket, are nowhere to be found.

"Hey," I call, walking out of the washroom into the bedroom where he is already fitting his gauntlets, fully dressed in his armor.

"What is it?" He asks, facing me.

"My jacket and pants, I thought I left them in the washroom."

"You did," he confirms, "and I gave them to my servants to see if they could get the blood out of them for you. There should be extra clothes in your drawer. Your shirt and socks are probably in need of a wash as well." He adds.

I nod, but then he is in front of me, reaching a hand out and I just stare at him in disbelief for a second until I remember how little affect this kind of exposure has on his people. Still, I pull my shorts up slightly to cover more of my stomach before finally removing my socks and top and handing them to him, leaving me in my shorts and black bra.

He respectfully averts his gaze the entire time, not acknowledging my obvious discomfort as he takes the clothes from my hands. I do notice his eyes flick briefly to the scar left by the shock stick from when I was detained on Superior, however. Those things really do hurt like a bitch. Luckily, Eadric says nothing before quickly taking the clothes from my light grip. He leaves with a quick goodbye after providing me brief instructions to report to the clinic today to start my job.

Once he is gone, I immediately go to the drawer and find a pair of black fitted pants and a dark red tunic when I remember that these are the two colors his people wear most often. But still, I cannot help the feeling of relief once I slip into my black combat boots and make sure to grab my black, fingerless gloves and flex my bare fingers as the gloves, even made of the same, leather like, material as my shoes still fit comfortably now that they have been worn down a considerable amount. Like I have seen Eadric do multiple times now, I make sure to tuck the sleeves of the tunic into the gloves before finally leaving the home.

As soon as I exit the home from the latter, I am greeted by crowded midday village life which is so different to me I cannot help but take a minute to absorb it all. But then I see Kiche making his way through the crowd, the basket of herbs he had the day prior now on his head as he weaves his way through the busy streets. I do not bother to call out to him knowing it would do little good in this crowd and eventually make my way through the villagers to get to the familiar reddish orange tinted tent. Kiche is near the front due to his recent arrival so I immediately make my way towards him and the second he sees me, he greets me with a warm smile that I now associate with his normal demeanor.

"Aurora," he greets, taking my gloved hands in his bare ones stained with various medicines, "I was so glad to hear your position at our clinic was becoming permanent. You did remarkably well on the man wounded by Eadric, I simply had to do everything in my power to put in a good word for you to the court."