I pushed Asterix away from me as I attempted to get my bearings – but he wouldn't ease off. My hair hung around my face in limp strands and my pants were mostly torn to shreds as I continued to cough up water.

"Lie still, you've just been injured!" he said in alarm but it didn't register in my ears – I hissed back at him

"Just get away! I'm fine!" I said, and of course right after I had done so I began to feel the pain radiating from my leg. I looked down and saw that it was a bloody mess from the knee to my foot and cursed under my breath.

Asterix didn't say anything at all, just hunched down on his knees in front of me and watched me for a while with dark, speculative eyes – and I didn't like it. Obelix cleared his throat, for once displaying some sense of tact.

"There is a village not far from here where we can get that fixed – is that not so Asterix?"

Obelix carried me there with ease (after many words of refusal from me, I had to relent since the pain was beginning to overwhelm me). The black stallion followed at the back of our little group, and every time I glanced back it neighed in a soft, almost reassuring way.

I kept mostly quiet for the duration of our trip to the village of Cavignac, as did Asterix who looked deep in thought.

This village as we arrived was far different than the last we had come upon. For starters, there was no barricades that surrounded it. The buildings looked half-roman, half- gaulish. It was apparent that they had been integrated with roman culture here, but still in keeping with the old traditions. But it seemed peaceful enough, with no enforcers to be seen.

A local shopkeeper with dark hair came forward and greeted Asterix warmly, shaking his hand. His jovial expression dropped however as he saw me and the state of my bleeding leg.

"Ah, mon dieu! You should visit our healer for that immediately! What on earth happened?" he asked with wide eyes. I was in no mood to answer questions.

" A seagull got hungry." I muttered.

Their druid was similarily also dark-haired and spoke in a mix of both french and another language I was not familiar with – so much so that I had to ask as he began to clean my wounds. I winced as he roughly cleaned out the puncture marks where teeth had sunken into the flesh.

"Ah, it is spanish senorita – most of the people in the village here come from spain." he explained as I breathed out, lying down on a long table as he tended to me. The druid turned his back to me for a moment to get more supplies from a little cabinet in the room. It's ceiling was decorated with several pieces of painted glass that when sunlight hit them, cast amazing painted alight across the room.

"Why is that?" I asked as I lied there. The druid did not answer for a long moment.

"Slave-traders have a funny way of bringing us wherever they go."

When the druid was done, my leg was bandaged up with soft fabric. He had put a soothing salve on the wounds and stitched them up, just like Getafix had done. I swung my legs to the side and flexed them – feeling a bit better already, even though it still hurt quite a bit. I had been given a pair of new pants, these ones a lighter brown shade than my old ones, but I didn't mind as long as they were clean and not soaked with blood.

"They will heal quickly if you take it easy for a few days." he explained as I gently got on my feet again, testing the waters. I scoffed at his words and picked up a trinket in the room at random, tracing my fingers along the painted white skirt of a little figurine made of clay.

"Easy? I don't know if I can do that."

The druid sighed at my words and folded his arms across his chest. He reminded me way too much of Getafix.

"I suspected as much. Senorita, deeper wounds will heal only if you let them. Remember that."

"I will – I'll try."

I didn't know then that Asterix was lingering by the door, listening in on our conversation.

Obelix had found room for us with a small family nearby for the night, since it was quite late at this point anyway – the sun hadn't quite set yet as I met Obelix in the small village square. The dark stallion was with him and it came forward when it saw me, buffing gently against my head with its snout. I patted him and stroked his back, swallowing the impulse to rest my head against its flank.

"Where is Asterix?" I asked, as I didn't see him anywhere. Obelix gestured somewhere behind him.

"Oh, he went to take a walk – he had a lot on his mind I guess. " he said casually, like it was normal for Asterix to take off for a while like that. I looked around the village among the trees thoughtfully.

"I guess so."

A female villager bumped into Obelix suddenly (he was a quite large man after all) and laughed as she did. She was wearing a tunic and a loose, flowing skirt in a stark red hue, her eyes lined with dark kohl.

"Hey there strangers – you taking part in the dancing contest tonight? It's going to be fun!" she said with much enthusiasm, that I could not quite match. I pointed downwards and shrugged.

"Eh, sorry – bad leg."

Obelix however seemed overjoyed at this news, his eyes lighting up and his twin braids wiggling like the ears of an overexcited puppy.

"Dancing contest? That does sound like fun!"