The Bluest Gaze
"Thorn!"
Thorn sat up from her straw mattress where she had been waiting and quickly slipped outside her tent.
"You better wipe that smirk off your face unless you want this to be a truly violent experience." Lathan said to her quietly so that Druce would not be able to hear.
Thorn's smile grew a tidbit wider.
Both Druce and Lathan stood beside her as she headed toward the direction of Torhte's shout. She had been waiting for it all morning. She leisurely brushed a loose strand of light brown hair away from her face as she walked. In her other hand was her wooden staff. She casually studied her staff as Druce fidgeted nervously and Lathan frowned at her.
Thorn loved her staff, and Thorn almost believed that it loved her in return. The wood of the staff was a healthy brown color and it was strong and firm in her grasp. What made her staff different from other staffs, however, was what was around her staff. For a long stem of a rose bush circled the staff, from top to bottom. The design reminded her of a red and white peppermint candy stick that she had seen in a village once during a holiday. The red stripe had circled the white stick in the exact way her rose bush stem circled the wood of her staff. Even stranger was the fact that even though the rose stem did indeed have thorns, it had never pricked her. Not even once.
"Thorn, what exactly is this." Torhte stood in front of the Rider whom she had visited last night and his tent. Or at least, where his tent should have been. Instead, someone had dismantled his tent and it lay limp next to the Rider. And in front of the Rider were several mushrooms. Mushrooms that had definitely not been there when the Rider had first been placed in his tent.
"I do believe that those are things known as mushrooms, Torhte. Perhaps you've spent too much time in the woods, not to know such a simple thing like that--"
"Shut up! What in all hells are they doing here?" Torhte glared at her, and if his hostility had been tangible, it would have probably clawed out her eyes.
Thorn shrugged. She felt the Rider watching her carefully, and she knew that he was wondering who she was. Torhte always required that she wear a hood to cover her face when they were out in a raid and dealing with enemies, so when they had first met, she had been wearing her hood. And last night, it had been too dark to see her face. She kept her voice steady and casual as she spoke to Torhte. "Well, they grew there."
Torhte simmered with anger. "And WHO grew them there."
"Who do you think?" She asked in a tone that was almost taunting. "I did, of course."
Torhte darted forward in a movement so quick that she barely saw him move. But she did feel the back of his hand fall across her face in a painful slap.
Thorn stumbled and staggered to the ground under the power of the slap. She paused a moment to catch her breath, and then folded her legs beneath her and placed the hand that held the staff on top of her knees in front of her; the other hand joined the first hand by placing itself on top. She bent her head forward and let her hair fall like a curtain around her face. The very picture of a submissive servant. Except for the staff which lay horizontally in front of her, tightly held in her grip.
"Just as I had looked after the injured ones with my poultices and my herbs, I looked after the uninjured one's hunger. You told me to look after the prisoners, did you not?" She asked levelly, knowing very well the answer to her question.
"Not this one, Thorn. I did not want this one looked after, and you know it." Some of Torhte's anger had dissipated with his slap, but his dark tone told her that he was still left with plenty of it.
"My mistake." She murmured, head still tilted forward so that none could see her face. She suddenly realized that there was a taste of blood in her mouth. She had bitten her tongue when Torhte had slapped her.
"You planted mushrooms for him to eat, but how did he eat them? Did you finger feed him yourself?" He asked scornfully.
She made no reply. Or movement.
"No, I don't think that our Thorn is the type. Our Thorn isn't the type to get so close to a stranger. Our Thorn is the type to let him feed himself." He continuously emphasized the words 'our Thorn'. He was flaunting his power over her. Again. "Is that what you did? You untied him, didn't you?" He was becoming angrier by the moment. "Didn't you." By this time, his words had dropped dangerously.
Before she could answer, another voice spoke.
"It is not she who is at fault. I figured out that she had come to me without permission. I threatened her, saying that if she did not untie me for awhile and let me eat and relax, I would alert the rest of the camp. I forced her do it."
Thorn's head jerked upward as she blinked in surprise. She gazed at the Rider in astonishment, and he stared right back at her with his bright blue eyes. Then her gaze turned into a glare. She didn't need anyone to protect or defend her. Especially not this strange Rider.
She pointedly turned her gaze to Torhte. "That isn't true. I chose to do what I did. Nobody forces me to do anything." She immediately regretted her last sentence. She had just given Torhte another opportunity to show off his power. And he, being an opportunist, didn't pass up on the chance.
"Nobody, Thorn?" Torhte's tone had changed from angry to sly. "Are you sure about that? Perhaps its been too long since I last forced you to do something. Maybe I should --"
Her anger sparked. "You are a different case, Torhte." She coldly interrupted. "Instead of challenging me, face to face, one on one, you cower behind Asianna. You know that you aren't man enough to hurt me, and as a result, you threaten to hurt her. You are too cowardly to face me without her."
All of Torhte's anger was back and more. "Why you insolent little --"
Torhte's hand flashed toward her again. More as a reflex than a desire to protect herself, she quickly raised her staff in a block.
Torhte suddenly released a curse and stepped back. He raised his hand and she saw that his palm was quickly becoming soaked with blood. She quickly glanced at her staff and saw that four of the thorns on her staff were also covered in blood. Her staff had…pricked Torhte's hand.
She felt Druce take a step back away from her. Lathan glanced down at her, a quiet scowl apparent on his face.
Thorn stared at the four bloody thorns on her staff. With an amazingly steady hand, she reached toward the thorns. She let her hand fall over them and gripped her staff hard, completely covering the thorns in her hand. And she felt no pain. No piercings of the skin. With a slightly less steady hand, she pulled her hand away. The thorns that had pricked Torhte's hand were still there. But the blood was not.
There were resounding gasps from everywhere around her. They all knew that Thorn was able to handle her thorn covered staff without hurting herself, but knowing it and actually seeing it were completely different things.
Then, the rose stem around her staff suddenly stirred. Thorn felt a quiver of power, and then she realized there was movement from the top of her staff. She bent the top of it down toward her and watched as a bud suddenly appeared. Then the bud started to enlarge and blossom. In just moments, Thorn found herself staring down at a fully blossomed red rose. The rose leaned toward her, as if the staff itself was offering a gift. When she didn't respond, it shook itself slightly at her. When she reached up toward it, it simply fell into the palm of her hand without her needing to cut it off first.
::A gift.:: her staff said to her.
Thorn blinked in surprise. Her staff had actually spoken. Plants usually didn't think with human words. Sure, she understood plants and plants seemed to understand her when she spoke to them, but they just didn't think like humans do. They think with something more akin to emotion than words. And yet her staff had spoken. And she hadn't even initiated the…conversation.
::Thank you.:: she said back a bit uncertainly.
Her rose stem settled itself back around her staff in reply.
She slowly settled back into her submissive posture again, one hand wrapped tightly around her staff and the other gently curled around a fresh rose's stem. She quietly waiting for Torhte to speak. She felt herself tremble at the thought that she had gone too far. What if he decided to hurt Asianna for this? Thorn had never bloodied him before.
"I will go assemble a poultice for your hand." She finally said quietly.
Torhte laughed a humorless laugh. She knew that he knew what was on her mind. He knew how much Asianna meant to her. How afraid she was that he would hurt her. At the moment, he had complete control over her, and he knew it. How she hated him. Her offering to assemble a poultice was as much as an apology or peace offering that he was ever going to get.
"Yes, you go do that." Torhte said to her coldly.
Thorn kept her shoulders from sagging and visibly showing her relief. So he wasn't going to hurt Asianna. Or at least not yet.
Thorn slowly got to her feet and turned toward the direction of her tent. Lathan and Druce followed somewhat behind. As she left the group of assembled men, she was careful to meet no one's gaze. Especially not a blue eyed one.
