Numair paced outside the door of the healer's wing. Luckily, the dogs had refused to attack the wildmage, but several of the hunters had shot her to bring her down. She had come out with mostly scratches where they had missed, but one of them had gotten lucky and now she had an arrow embedded in her thigh. He sighed, they had managed to get her back to the castle in one piece by using his magic as a stretcher, but the damn thing would bounce with every step he took, as he dictated where it went with his hand, and she would occasionally groan when he stumbled or took an over-long step.
He had now been waiting for some hours outside of her room in the Healers wing while Duke Barid and several others worked on her. He turned in his pacing and found himself face to face with the Lioness.
"When was the last time you ate, Master Mage?" She enquired in entirely too polite a tone.
He thought for a moment. "This morning, for breakfast, but Alanna, I 'm not-" she cut him off.
"Then we should go down to dinner," she said and promptly started to drag him by the hand to the mess hall. He balked.
"NO! I can't go and just leave her here with all those healers! What if she wakes up and I'm not here? What if she thinks I abandoned her? She needs me to be there, Alanna, and I'm not leaving." He protested.
"You give yourself too much credit, Numair. She won't have a fit if she wakes up and you're not there," Alanna replied.
This hurt more than it should. The idea of Daine not caring if he was there or not when she woke up was not a good thought. HE had always taken it for granted that his magelet would want him there to comfort her, but that wasn't necessarily true. She could find his presence dull, or worse, downright annoying. He vowed to stay away except for lessons, just in case.
Alanna led a strangely mollified Numair to the kitchens, wondering what had gotten into him. She had thought it would take much more persuasive arguments to make him leave Daine.