Hi, so, yeah. It's been awhile. It has, hasn't it? I'm sorry. Magdelena88 is sorry. We're both quite sorry. But we're back and we're working on the next chapter and if you promise to review, then we promise to update faster, yea? nay? All, you guys are alright.
So please, read, review and enjoy!
Finally, they make it to the town in which there's supposed to be a helicopter to take them to the city where there are airplanes. Civilization Ichigo breathes it in deeply. He's so close to being home so close to his family. So close to being safe and not having to check over his shoulder all the time to see if evil women were coming to kidnap torture and rape him again.
The girl, however, is being strangely quiet. But he's okay with that. He rather not have her talk anymore because every time she opens her mouth he's either feeling guilty or angry and he's tired, he's tired of all of those emotions especially her eyes. Her eyes are the worst. They're so big and seemingly innocent. They convey her every emotion. And she has a lot of emotions, the most present now being hunger.
"For shit's sake, if you're hungry just say something!" he snaps.
"No, honest I'm not hungry at all." Her stomach betrays her, grumbling loudly, and clearly.
"Really, you're not hungry?"
"No, a warrior can go without nourishment for days."
"It's only been 16 hours."
She groans, retreating within herself on the horse, closing her overly large grey eyes. Ichigo rolls his own chocolate brown eyes and stops the horse.
"Well, I'm going to stop for a snack break, you can either join me or continue whatever it is that you're doing…right now…which I'm assuming is trying to be some form of a worm?" he scrunches his face up as she wiggles and squirms on the horse.
"Yeah…" he gets off the horse, and reaches into the saddle pack, pulling out some soft bread and hard cheese. He moves to a rock. Sitting down, he takes a bite out of both and chews thoughtfully. They only have meager food left, but it doesn't matter since they're already at the town with the helicopter.
She falls off the horse, landing on the ground with a hard thump. He stands, his eyes wide, wondering if she was hurt in any way. She doesn't say anything, doesn't make a sound. His heart races, he wonders if she fell on a rock and knocked herself unconscious.
He makes his way towards her, calling out her name in hesitant manner, unnaturally concerned about her safety.
She pops up, her grey eyes wide and alert. She looks to him and smile. Relief courses through him as he sees that she's alright for all about ten seconds until blood begins to trail down her face.
"Oh, Fuck!" he exclaims, rushing to her. He grabs her shoulders and looks into her large grey eyes. she doesn't seem to notice that she's been severely hurt. "Are you okay, fuck, you landed on a rock!"
"I'm sorry, but what is…fu-ck?" She exaggerates the word, it feels odd in her mouth.
"In the context I'm using it, it means shit." He mumbles, digging into the saddle bag for medical supplies.
"Sh-it?" she asks. He ignores her, using a cloth towel to clean the wounded area, which is a large gash on her forehead. Hi eyes widens at her, his heart squeezing slightly at such severe damage that she took. Despite what her and her people did to him, she still looks too sweet and kind to undergo such harm. Or at least that's what he convinces himself.
He tapes gauze to her wound, and sit on his hunches and looks at her. She smiles up at him serenely and genuine. "Thank you so much for helping me." He feels his heat beat and his face burns red, he shrugs it off.
"Whatever, it's no big deal. It's what my kind do." He moves and lifts her off the ground, sitting her on the horse, and cutting the ropes off her. She rubs her wrists, which are red and welted from the ropes. His heart squeezes in his chest. That damage was caused by him. In fact, the gash on her forehead can be attributed to him as well. If he hadn't tied her hands together, she wouldn't have fallen off the horse.
He feels like a grade A asshole.
All this damage, to a girl, nonetheless and no matter what she's done, he still considers himself a decent human being who don't cause harm to women. And here he's messed up her face and her wrist. He wants to call it quits, to release her back to her people; he can't just let her suffer abuse.
But for months, he suffered at the hands of her people. He suffered things much worse, than a gash on the forehead, and rope burn.
Like the nail cage.
But still…
He grabs the reins of the horse and leads her through the town. Many people look up at her, and he swears he can hear them talking about her as if she's a princess or something. Well, she's both to be honest. She's an evil princess, and isn't that something within itself?
"Let's…um, let's get you to someone that can help you. Get those, um…get some ointment for those." He grunts out, fighting the internal fight within himself.
"Oh, you don't have to go through all of that trouble. I brought some healing waters with me from the baths. If you just pour a little of that on my forehead it'll be fine." She tells him, still smiling, and her eyes still gentle.
"No, you need to go to someone who can help you, in case you're brain swells up."
"Please, don't go through all of that, you'll be late for the thing." She insists.
"What thing?" He stops, looking at her.
"You know…the…uh…it's starts with an H...Hel….heli…something, oh, I just can't remember It." she pouts, balling her fist.
"The helicopter?" he suggests. Her face lights up, as she nods vigorously. He holds on to her to stead her. "Yo, be careful. You just severely hurt yourself, you need to be careful."
"Oh, don't worry, I fall out of my window all the time, I've had much worse injuries than this. When I was thirteen, I stopped falling asleep because of them. So I'm totally fine." She shrugs. He's fairly certain that she's insane and not only need medical help, but mental help as well.
"Don't worry about the helicopter; I'm sure that there'll be another one."
"But what if there's not? What if it's the last one and you're stranded here forever?"
"What? Why are you so bent on this? What's wrong with you, at first, you're dying to get away, and now you begging me to go. What's you're deal?"
"I'm sorry okay; it's just that I feel terrible. Okay, I've been you're hostage for a day and already I miss my family and my home so much that I want to die. We kept you from home for 3 months. One day doesn't make up for three months. So, the sooner you get home, the better you'll feel right? So let's hurry and get you home, okay? So that you don't feel like this anymore, okay?" He can see her eyes become watery as she's on the verge of tears.
He looks away, pulling the horse. Christ, how is it that she's able to make him feel like a bad guy. How is it that she's able to make him feel anything other than disgust and content? Hopefully, their trip is almost over, because he can't take it anymore. She's changing his perspective about her; she's making him feel things for her. She's a witch in sheep's clothing and although he knows this. He's still falling for her act.