༄ؘ 𝑨𝑹𝑪𝑨𝑵𝑬, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦

༄ؘ ✧ 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑭𝑰𝑽𝑬

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ ༄ؘ 𝑭𝑰𝑽𝑬 ༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑵 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑵𝑬𝑿𝑻 𝑴𝑶𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑪𝑨𝑴𝑬 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵 𝑾𝑶𝑲𝑬 𝑼𝑷 𝑶𝑵 shore instead of in the boat from the night before, she was definitely a bit confused. But when she looked around and saw the others sleeping as well, it cleared up that said confusion. They all definitely needed rest after yesterday's events.

Callum was the only other one awake at the early morning hour, messing around with the glowing cube toy he'd put their lives in danger for the day before. The hurt in her heart was still as fresh as it was the night before, much like the dull ache in her arm from her still-open wound. It wasn't bleeding anymore━Rayla's tourniquet made from Marin's armband had made sure to stop the blood flow so Marin wouldn't bleed out━but it was still open and needed to be cleaned.

Instead of greeting her brother like she usually would in the morning, she ignored his presence and his guilty face as she got up and headed over to sit at the riverside.

Marin didn't bother to hide her hiss of pain and discomfort when removing the tourniquet from around her arm. She inspected the torn and bloody armband that was utterly useless now and sighed before taking off her other one as well and throwing the dirty one in the boat a few feet away. The clean one, however, she figured she might as well use to wash her wound of the dirt and grime that had gathered overnight.

But after she'd wetted the cloth and went to place it to her forearm, a hand next to her own stopped her. "Can I...?"

A few seconds passed before Marin silently handed the wet cloth to Callum and watched him sit down next to her from the corner of her eye. He hesitantly but gently pulled her arm into his lap and tried as carefully as possible to clean away the filth of the wound so it wouldn't get any worse than it already was. Marin tried her best not to wince too much, but it was still a lot more painful than any cut or scrape she'd ever had. Probably because it was an arrow wound, but that was beside the point.

"I'm sorry," Callum suddenly blurted after he'd finished cleaning her arm.

Marin raised her eyebrows, waiting to see what he had to say for calling elves bloodthirsty monsters like all the rest of the humans thought. She wanted to embrace her heritage, but that was hard to do when anyone could kill her for just being who she was. It was hard. She just wanted a place in the world like everyone else.

"I really didn't mean any of the things I said to aunt Amaya, I was just trying to get her to back down and let us go! You know I don't actually believe any of that right? I mean, you're my sister! And you're beautiful and you're smart, and kind and I never saw you for anything other than being you! I just don't want you to think that I don't like who you are, because I always have."

Marin took the cloth of her other armband out of Callum's hand and threw it into the boat with the other one, pulling her brother into a gentle hug to keep from hurting her arm any more than it already was. "I know you didn't mean it, Cal. But it hurt, a lot. Especially coming from you. You know I love you and Ez more than anything, and I'll always forgive you, but it really hurt me when you said that."

"I know," his voice was muffled in her shoulder. "But I'll do better, I promise! I'm really sorry, Marin."

"Callum."

"Right, sorry, sorry. I'll stop apologizing. Is your arm okay now?"

Marin chuckled and pulled away from her brother. "Not yet, it needs to heal. It should heal faster now that its clean, though. Probably a few days if I keep water on it, hopefully that will speed it up a little bit. I'll be fine, Cal."