A Whisper to the North

Chapter XLI ✠ Training Branches

Una woke up with her body aching worse than she had ever felt before. The light pierced her eyes like sharp blades and her ears rung like the resonance of a bell. Her joints popped, and her muscles were sore. She felt like she had woken up after the first day of battle. Worst of all, she was nauseated.

She rolled off her back to her side, and her arms bumped something. She could see the light bouncing off of their hair as they rested peacefully at their side. Una could barely speak due to her queasiness.

"In...grid? Una rubbed her eyes as she moaned.

Una watched as the figure rises slightly to pull more blankets on them, exposing their bare shoulder. Una froze when she gazed at their back. Ingrid definitely did not have broad shoulders. Ingrid was petite and dainty looking. Una hesitated for a moment until she remembered what happened last night. She had been drugged.

"Please, I hardly slept," Alaric mumbled, pulling the blankets up to his neck.

That was definitely not Ingrid's voice.

"Eek! Why are you in my bed?" Una said, startled.

Alaric's eyes slowly opened, and he sighed.

"Oh, sorry about that. I was so exhausted I must have fallen asleep putting you to bed." Alaric said as he pushed the blankets back and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Putting me to bed?" Una said, holding her stomach.

Her nausea was getting stronger.

"Don't you remember? I drugged you. I couldn't have you lying on the floor of that cold room." He laughed as he stood up.

Una's eyes nearly bulged out of her head when she saw Alaric stand and walk over to the window in the far distance. His backside was utterly bare.

"Oh, sorry!" Una said, averting her eyes.

Alaric was very tired. After he had come back to the castle, he made sure Ingrid was in her room safe. He went around and made sure that everyone was in their beds, hoping that they would wake up and think they all had gotten drunk. Alaric did this by emptying most of the mead bottles, wine, and liquors insight. For a second, he caught the gaze of Wilona running back to her room. Terror consumed her. She was frightened by the presence of Alaric and that Arawn the God did not harm him.

After Alaric was sure that the castle was prepared to awaken, he went to Una's room. There he opened the large wardrobe to find Una still peacefully asleep, cuddled up in the corner. He grabbed her and laid her gently in her bed. He sat to rest for a moment, digesting everything that just happened. It shook Alaric to the core. It was overwhelming, and he became distraught looking at Una. He checked her wrists more than a few times to make sure that he wasn't going mad, that everything really did happen. He wept quietly as he saw that Una was safe and unharmed. More than anything, he cried because Ingrid was brought back to life. He wondered so much what she saw and experienced as she took her last breath and when she was brought back.

Ingrid was his rock, the only thing that reminded him of his old life. Now what he knew as his old life was in jeopardy after what Arawn told him. He sat at the end of Una's bed for so long that soon he felt the irresistible urge to sleep. Naked as he was, he didn't care. He snuffed out the lamp and crawled under the wool blankets. He laid close to Una, but yet he didn't touch her. He gazed into the darkness, wondering how and why this happened. It was a miracle and a curse at the same time.

"Oh, forgive me! I was unaware!" Alaric said, squinting his eyes in the blinding light of morning.

He felt his face burn with shame.