It had been an extremely exhausting day. Father had left early in the morning for Fenestrane to deliver fruits and vegetables to the King and he was going to stay there for a while. During the morning, Adrian and I helped him put all the things he had to take away in his carriage, and after that, the rest of the day was spent in the fields, picking oranges in Lord Laudan’s enormous orchard. It took such a long time to do the work that by the time I finally got home, it was already dark outside. I opened the door, hoping that Adrian had already lit the fire, so I could heat up some soup for us. However, not only did I see that the hut was dark, but it was also empty – a sign that Adrian wasn’t at home. All kinds of situations crossed my mind of what could’ve happened to him. What if he had been caught by the guards? What if he had run away? And what was I going to tell Father if Adrian never showed up? But then I heard noises inside the house, and I realized I hadn’t seen the light coming from the bedroom. I sighed with relief and I cursed myself for overreacting...and then I walked in the room. 

The smell came first. It was the intense, metallic smell of blood that filled the whole room, making me feel very sick. I would’ve left right away if it wasn’t for what I saw immediately right after. There was a man lying in Adrian’s bed. He was so tall he could barely fit the bed, and his face was contorted with pain, but he was trying his hardest not to scream. His torso was bandaged, but it was already soaked in blood, and there was another big wound in his right arm, untreated. Adrian was sitting on my bed, and he was about to rip bits of what used to be a shirt into strips for bandages. He looked at the man and checked the bandage on his torso.

“Shit!” he cursed, and that’s when he suddenly looked up and saw me standing there. We stood there for what it seemed like an eternity, just looking at each other. We were now facing a dilemma. Adrian had crossed the limits by bringing this mysterious man into our home, and he was putting our family at a terrible risk. I was certain it would only be a matter of time until somebody found out that we were hiding a man in our home and that would mean a penalty of some sort, that would make us suffer terribly. In fact, by the way the whole situation was looking, it was easier to just let this man die and hide the body in the depths of the woods, where nobody would find the corpse than to let him live. But did we really have the guts to do that? Could we live with the consequences of letting the man die without giving him a chance? And after all the injustice, had we become so selfish to the point that we wouldn’t save a stranger so that we could save our own skin? As if answering my thoughts, Adrian turned his eyes away from me and kept ripping the shirt into bandages. He saved the longest bit of the shirt, put it aside and then undid the knot he had put in the man’s torso. He tried to lift the man a bit so he could remove the rest, but I saw him struggling, as the man contorted in pain. That was the moment I made my decision: I went to my brother’s side, helped him lift the man and remove the bloodied bandages. 

The rest of the night went by in a blur, as Adrian and I did our best to heal his wounds, while the man helped too, by not making any noise, even when he seemed to be suffering the worst of pains. After many strips, some healing herbs and lots of cleaning, we managed to stop the bleedings and to make him lie on a bed with clean sheets and make get some sleep, which would be essential for his recovery – that is, if he survived, which there was absolutely no guarantee at all that he would. We were so exhausted that everything was done, both of us collapsed on my bed. I turned my back to Adrian, ready to fall asleep right then when I heard Adrian shifting his position on the bed.

“Thank you, Sara.” I heard him whisper in my ear before I fell asleep.