By the time the door opened again, Tyura was already sitting back on the floor.
Fade looked at Nave and nodded his head in Tyura’s direction.
Nave nodded back and looked at Tyura.
“Come. You need to bathe, you’re stinking up the room.”
Tyura followed Nave, leaving Fade in the room. He made sure to take in his surroundings as he walked.
The room they were in immediately led to a short hallway into a slightly bigger room. There was a small square table in the middle with two chairs and on the side was a rusty black cauldron hanging over a fireplace.
The smell of cooking meat caused Tyura’s stomach to rumble loudly. He placed his hand over his sunken stomach and inhaled painfully.
“Well, I think I would rather eat first.” Nave said and Tyura looked up at her gratefully. The corners of her lips lifted in a smirk as she pulled out one of the chairs at the table.
She pointed at it. “Sit.”
He did instantly. Not only was he starving but the pain in his foot made it hard to walk.
Nave chuckled and grabbed a clay bowl and a spoon from a shelf in the corner. It was the only piece of furniture in the house aside from the bed.
After scooping whatever was in the cauldron into the bowl, Nave set it down in front of Tyura and sought down in the other chair.
Tyura began to eat as soon as the bowl was down. The food was mostly hot water with chunks of some strange meat, but Tyura was too hungry to care. He ate in big gulps and in the end he lifted the bowl and drank every last drop of it.
“More.” He ordered. Then, after a pause he added, “Please.”
Nave lifted an eyebrow, the smirk still on her face, but said nothing as she stood and made Tyura a second bowl.
Tyura finished this bowl as fast as the first one, but he still wanted more. Nave continued to give him bowl after bowl until he realized she wasn’t eating anything and was just watching him.
When he realized this, Tyura slowly put the bowl on the table and tried to smother his
rising embarrassment.
“Done already?”
Tyura opened his mouth to speak but then nodded.
Nave laughed.
“Hungry boy.” She stared at Tyura for a while and Tyura, in turn, stared at the plain clay bowl.
Finally, she gestured to the door with her head and stood up.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Tyura followed Nave outside, and around to the side of the house.
The first thing he saw was the carcass of the beast from before, hanging upside down from a tree. It had been skinned, and bits of meat had been sliced from it.
Tyura thought about the strange meat he had just eaten and turned his head from it. He felt slightly sick, but he held it down and decided to just ignore it.
Tyura wasn’t sure what he thought when Nave said he would bathe, but a bucket of water and a torn piece of cloth sure wasn’t it.
He picked up the cloth and then looked at Nave.
She simply put her hands on her hips.
“What? Do you want me to turn around?”
Yes. Tyura thought. “There’s no soap…”
“No, there isn’t.”
Did they even have soap here? Tyura sighed and slowly stripped his tattered “clothes” down to his waist.
He paused there, glancing back at Nave, before closing his eyes and taking everything off.
Tyura plunged the rag into the water, which turned out to be freezing cold, and scrubbed his body.
When he got to his leg and foot he gently took off the bandages and rinsed the injuries. His leg wasn’t as bad as he thought but his foot was swollen and bruised. Tyura sucked in air through his teeth and he dipped his foot into the water. It hurt, but it had to be cleaned.
After that, since Nave didn’t bring him any new bandages, Tyura had to reuse the old ones. He left his leg uncovered and used that bandage for his much more worrisome foot.
When Tyura was finished he covered himself and turned to Nave. He shivered. That water was really too cold.
Nave nodded and gestured for him to come forward with her finger. She then turned and disappeared around the side of the house.
Tyura stiffly followed after her, just in time to see her pulling on a rope that led to the roof.
Eventually a sack dropped from the roof and Nave dumped the contents directly onto the ground.
There were clothes of different varieties. Silk and sateen clothes with ruffles and laces. Even some plain cotton clothes were there but they were still better than what Nave and Fade wore.
Seeing this, Tyura knew there was much more out there than just what he had seen. There were probably towns and even kingdoms. Which means there were people who might know how to get him home. Tyura felt something light up in his heart that he hadn’t felt in the few days since he first got to this world.
Hope.
While Tyura was lost in thought, Nave had been rummaging through the pile of clothes.
She picked up a puffy lavender dress with a large ruffled bow in the back and held it up to Tyura’s body.
“Hmm.” She tilted her head as she contemplated.
Tyura looked at the dress in horror.
“I’m a boy!” He said a bit too loudly. But the thought of putting on that things…
Nave sighed and tossed the dress to the side. She looked back down and picked up one of the more plainly made cotton shirts and a pair of silk yellow trousers that were slightly too long for Tyura.
The styles didn’t match, but Tyura was just glad to finally have on something clean.
After that Nave stood and dusted her hands off.
“Ok, now that that’s done…” She looked at Tyura blankly. “Put all of this back in the bag.” With that she walked away.
Tyura looked after her and then looked down at the pile at his feet.
He didn’t make the mess but he still had to clean it up?
Tyura tsked but still bent over to pick everything up.
They did save his life. So he would “be good” for now. There were still some things he needed to find out, like where exactly he was for example. Once he got all the information he needed and regained some of his strength, he would leave.
Comments (0)
See all