AWOL
Hitomi Hyuga
Prologue
That's it, I'm dead. She'll kill me when she finds out.
I paced back and forth in front of the little fire I'd built, watching my flickering shadow dance across the ground. My thoughts raced with the possibilities of what could happen to me. What was I thinking? This job could've been the simplest I'd ever performed; in fact, my job was practically done for me when he'd toppled off the side of the mountain path. All I would've had to do is go check on him and ensure that he was dead, or at least would have been later if he was incapacitated. And incapacitated he certainly was: a compound fracture of the left shin and being rendered unconscious surely would've spelled his doom down in the ditch he fell into. Not many travelers go by this pass because of the perilous narrow road, so there likely wouldn't have been anyone to see him down there and rescue him, and it's not like he could call out for help. Everything had fallen into place perfectly without me having to get my hands dirty, so why was I here in the middle of the night with my target bandaged up and resting quietly in my bedroll?
There was something about the way my heart lurched as I had watched him fall to his potential death; something told me that this wasn't the way for him to go. Perhaps it was the gentleman in me that decided that, if he was going to die, it was going to be in a more humane manner than lying mangled in a ditch barely clinging onto life. I might've been an assassin, but I assured that my targets died with dignity.
He stirred in his sleep, a pained look etched onto his face. I had given him some whiskey I found among his belongings; with no potions, all I could do was dull his suffering until I could get him somewhere safe. But now the booze was wearing off and the pain was coming back. I couldn't bear to imagine the headache he must've had. In hindsight, letting him sleep for so long after possibly concussing himself was not my best idea, but he was not ready to wake up yet. His leg injury was definitely going to keep him from going anywhere for a while. My best option was to wait until he woke up then let him watch over the campsite while I looked for a town nearby where I could procure some proper medical gear.
I shook my head. How can I think about saving his life so calmly? I was supposed to KILL him, given direct orders from the queen. For the love of the goddesses, I did not want to think about what the queen might say. I have seen what happens to those who defy her, and I would not wish that kind of treatment on my worst enemy. And once she found out what I'd done, and she definitely would, my fate would be far worse than any I had ever witnessed. Part of me wanted to just leave him lying in the woods; even though I had staunched his bleeding, he was still impaired by the broken and only partially-reset left shin. If some wild animal were to come along, he wouldn't be able to run away or defend himself. The job would be done and the queen would never have to know about my moment of disloyalty. It may not have been as humane as poisoning him, but it was effective.
Again, something I can't explain stopped me from doing just that. I continued to think about abandoning him even as I wiped the sweat from his brow. I imagined returning to the castle and reporting a job well done to the queen as I lifted up his head and tipped more whiskey into his mouth and tried to induce swallowing. I didn't know what was keeping me from acting on my instincts, but I knew that something extraordinary had to have been making me disobey the person to whom I owed my life.
To be continued...
And there's the prologue! This has been in the works for a while and I'm going to go ahead and post it bit by bit. The next chapter will be longer!
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H. H.
