Nate left her only momentarily to run to the tree line with his dagger in hand. Nate didn’t want to venture too far from where they would set up camp, so he made due with what he could find around the clearing. Thankfully, it was enough.
He found a few bushes that he knew grew herbal solutions to swelling and took a few of the leaves from the crippled branches. He found a fern that was good for healing broken blisters and uprooted some of them. A certain type of tree that grew wild and almost everywhere in Deceiver’s territory secreted excellent sap to use for pain killing and healing open wounds. Nate stabbed his knife into the trunk of the tree and let a good amount of sap run down the blade, accumulating at the hilt.
Once he was done collecting everything, Nate returned to Kiara’s poor deformed feet. He used one of the rags to gingerly scrub away the blood so that Nate could distinguish which blisters needed tending to the most. He rubbed the sap gently over her skin while cradling her heel in his palm, being sure not to prick or cut her with the dagger’s razor sharp edge.
Through the entire affair, Kiara didn’t so much as squeak or wince. Nate thought this very odd for a female. He’d seen women cry over a simple splinter, let along this kind of bloody mess.
“How could you not show any discomfort while walking with such pain?” Nate contemplated out loud, not really expecting a response.
“I just tried to ignore it. I couldn’t say anything, remember?”
Nate grimaced at his own stupidity. At least when she was talking, he was aware of any problems she was having. If he hadn’t been so selfish and just let her talk, then maybe some of these fresh blisters wouldn’t be there and the older ones wouldn’t have broken. He wouldn’t convey such guilt to her, but inwardly, he scorned himself. He would never force that game on her again.
He applied the last of the fern leaves, then completely wrapped her feet up to the ankles in the rags.
“We’ll set up camp for the night until those heal a little,” Nate decided, taking out the two sleeping mats and the other camp supplies they would need. Kiara probably still thought they were playing the conversation game, because she hardly said anything. Nate enjoyed the silence as he gathered the rocks for creating the fire pit, along with the fire wood.
He’d done this thousands of times, so by now, he was a pro at starting fires and setting up camp. He had everything ready for nightfall within less than half an hour. The only problem was that they had no food. Nate had neglected to buy any food in town, being confident in himself that he would be able to procure some type of food for them out in the forest. And, as Kiara had yet to mention, the woods were crawling with animals - they were just all scared off by her excessive talking that they wouldn’t come within a mile of the two wanderers.
“I’m going to go get some lunch. I’ll be back in an hour or so. Stay here and if you get into trouble, just scream,” Nate recommended as he gathered up the bow and quiver of arrows.
“Oh, believe me, if I was in any trouble, you’d hear me,” Kiara replied with tickled surety.
“I know. I just thought I’d say it anyway… Don’t get into trouble.” And with that, Nate disappeared into the forest.
Kiara watched him vanish behind the trees and bushes, wishing he could have stayed. She didn’t like to be alone very much. If she could help it, she would choose to stay around close friends or her family. Maybe that was why she clung to Nate so much despite his indifferent demeanor - because she was lonely and missed her family too much to do anything else but look for comfort in someone else’s presence.
But, she knew that such attachments weren’t welcome for Nate. She knew that as soon as he brought up that game. She may have been born at night, but not last night. Kiara knew that Nate was getting tired of her chattiness. Looking back on their time together now, his behavior and poor opinion of her was justifiable.
Kiara had stared at just about everything in the camp, examining every little detail of the objects such as the backpack, the stones that Nate had used to make the fire circle, etc. She heeded Nate’s advice and kept her feet elevated. She didn’t see the point as the blood was already clotting and there really wasn’t much pain now that she wasn’t walking. However, her bottom was growing increasingly numb from sitting on it at such an angle. So, with careful maneuvering, Kiara spread out one of the sleeping mats and laid down flat on her stomach, with her feet up in the air and her forearms resting on the ground to support her upper body from falling over.
She kicked her feet in the air, in a bored manner and plucked pieces of brown grass from their roots, only to fling them off to the side. If she encountered a bug, she would either let it crawl onto the back of her hand for a while or flick it across the clearing if she didn’t like the way it looked. Kiara’s thoughts, however, were not focused on the grass or insects.
Kiara couldn’t help but wonder what her family must have been doing at that moment. She hoped all were relatively happy and content with her gone. She didn’t want her father to mourn her disappearance too severely. He had a kingdom to manage after all. It would be poor leadership if he ignored his responsibilities like that. The show must go on, even if an insignificant member of the cast was missing.
She missed Heather and the orphans. She didn’t know what would become of them if Kiara wasn’t around to bring them food. They could survive well on their own, but the orphanage just wouldn’t be the same without her. The morale of the children may fall due to her absence. Kiara wasn’t sure, but she thought the children really did love her for more than the fact that she brought food to them every now and again.
Kiara even missed her new puppy. She hoped that maybe Ruth or one of her younger siblings would take good care of the pup. She missed her room, she missed her bed, she missed her chambermaids, she missed her wardrobe, she missed the wonderful balcony that she was standing on the moment before she was kidnapped. And dare she say it, she may have even missed Sir Claude. At least he showed more courtesy for her than Nate did.
But, then again, if Nate really was the heartless rogue that he appeared to be, why would he go through so much trouble to bandage her feet, set up camp and go hunting for food when she knew very well they hadn’t traveled ten miles like they were supposed to.
Even if Nate was a little mean and inconsiderate, the way he looked at her and the way he spoke to her in private greatly contradicted the way he was in public. The day before, Kiara thought Nate was the rudest person on the face of the earth. But, once they left Peh and were on the trail, he seemed to soften a bit. Maybe she thought this way just because she hardly saw his facial expressions that he must have been making while she was just yammering away most of the morning. But, she felt that if he had discovered her wounded feet in the village that he wouldn’t have lifted a single finger to ease the pain. But out here, he went through the trouble to apply some strange ointments and leaves and wrap up her feet with hardly a sign of hesitation. That had to prove something, but what?
And Kiara was being constantly nagged by some urgent feeling that she knew Nate from somewhere else. Although he seemed reluctant to tell her from where, she knew she must have seen him or known him from somewhere before. She just couldn’t find that memory. There was plenty of time to figure it out, but until then, she strived just to get him to open up more about himself. It would be a shame to walk away from such an adventure like this without becoming friends with the man. Maybe she could even twist her father’s arm into employing him in the castle as a servant or stable boy.
An hour or so had passed by in pure boredom. Kiara had to keep herself from going insane by humming tunes that she liked and playing with the little ladybugs that crawled across the sleeping mat. It was at the end of this agonizing time that she heard a rustling coming from in front of her.
She propped herself up into a sitting position, glancing around for any potential weapons. But, before she could find one, Nate stepped into the clearing. Kiara’s heart stopped and her jaw dropped.
In
walked Nate, carrying a baby deer across his shoulders and over his neck, holding the animal’s legs between his two hands on either side. It wasn’t the dead expression on the poor deer’s face or even the arrow wound that was lightly bleeding from its neck that made Kiara flabbergasted. It was Nate, himself that surprised her.
Nate was wearing absolutely no shirt. His white shirt and vest was tied securely around his waist, exposing his tan flesh that had been underneath. Kiara had never seen a man with his shirt off. The new experience was frightening, yet exhilarating. Nate’s chiseled abs, broadly muscled chest and canons for arms were enough to make all of her sisters swoon with ecstasy and maybe even faint if they were there. Kiara was more fascinated than lustful. She wondered if this was how all men looked with their shirts off. She shuddered to think of how Justin, Eshean or her father must have looked like. She didn’t want to know. It was enough to see Nate in this fashion. She would never want to see any other man in this way. It could be said that Kiara was spoiled now. She couldn’t even think of Sir Claude’s physique being so ripped and toned like Nate’s.
The one problem with Kiara’s astonishment and attraction to the way Nate had just presented himself was that she was staring very impolitely at him with her eyebrows raised slightly and mouth still hanging open. Nate didn’t seem to notice until he spoke, asking her if she was hungry and he received no response. Kiara may not have been very hungry, but her mouth was certainly watering and her stomach gave her a very uneasy, nervous sensation.
“Uh… Princess?” he asked, stepping no more than five feet from her, the animal still stretched across his shoulders and staring down at her in a peculiar fashion. Him being this close, Kiara could see the droplets of glistening sweat that were speckled across his upper body and face. Now, she felt like swooning as she stared up into his bright blue eyes that contrasted so beautifully with his tan skin and black hair.
Nate kept a wary eye on her as he walked over to the fire and threw down the kill, his bow and his quiver of arrows. Kiara continued to stare, but realizing that she was unable to cast her eyes down in shame like she wanted, she at least tightened her lips together and swallowed the pool of saliva that was collecting in her mouth.
He stood up tall and valiantly, as usual and kept looking at her with one eyebrow cocked, waiting for her to say something or at least look away. What was coming over her? Why couldn’t she look away? Kiara couldn’t explain what she was feeling. It was a mix of horror, anxiety, passion and - dare she think it - longing. She hoped such a feeling would pass, but before it could, the subject of her staring changed. Before her eyes could wander in other forbidden ways, Nate carefully untied his shirt from around his waist and slid it over his head, then concealing the rest of his upper body.
The spell was broken and Kiara could look away to the ground to blink for the first time in perhaps a whole two minutes that seemed to pass on like an eternity. Nate must have realized why she was staring and took the subtle hint to not surprise her with such an odd spectacle again.
As Kiara’s eyes were focused on the ground instead of Nate, he pulled out his dagger and began skinning their next meal - whether lunch or dinner.
“I’m sorry. That was rude of me,” Kiara muttered with pure repentance, refusing to look back up to him.
“It’s fine. I should have known that a sheltered palace brat like you would be shocked by that.”
Kiara’s eyes were now filled with sudden anger. If her feet hadn’t made her partially handicapped, she would have walked over and slapped him for such an insult. She took back every thought she had of his character being more than what he had shown in town.
“I am not a palace brat! And maybe I am a little sheltered, but I wasn’t shocked by a sight like that!” Kiara retorted proudly.
Nate looked up from the carcass and gave her a smug look. “If it wasn’t shock, then what was it?” he questioned.
Kiara paused and thought for a moment of the answer. She hardly knew herself what it was. “I don’t know. But, I know it wasn’t shock.”
Nate chuckled a bit, and then returned to ripping the skin and bones out of his kill. Kiara could hardly look at such a gruesome scene without gaging, so she diverted her gaze to the blades of grass again, trying to ignore the gut wrenching smell of death and flesh.
“You’re husband will get jealous, you know, if you keep looking at me like that,” Nate stated boastfully to her.
Again, she wanted to get up and give him the beating of his life for such words.
“I have no husband, for your information!”
“Then, whoever it is you’re courting or betrothed to will be awfully mad if I’ve spoiled you.”
“What an arrogant, pompous man you are! You assume that just because I stare at you in a certain way means that I had some unholy thoughts about you! You’re more proud than I thought.”
“Well, wasn’t that what you were thinking?”
“No, it wasn’t! I was thinking of absolutely nothing.”
“Oh, so I made you speechless and senseless.”
“The only one here who is mindless is you!” Kiara affronted, looking at Nate with fire blazing in her eyes, “If you make such a comment again, I’ll assure you that no reward will be given to you for my safe return.”
This threat seemed to grab his attention. He glanced to her and rolled his eyes indignantly. “Fine, fine. I was just saying that you should be safe that this journey doesn’t ruin you for your loved ones back home.”
Kiara simmered down a bit and let her eyes fall back to the ground. “I’m sure he wouldn’t care anyway,” she muttered, mostly to herself, concerning Sir Claude.
“So there is a lover in Aleph?” There seemed to be a hint of surprise and anxiousness in his voice.
“Yes. Unfortunately, there is.”
“Why do you say ‘unfortunately’?”
“I’m not very sure I want to be betrothed to him…” Kiara felt melancholy rise up within her. “He’s much like you, actually, very proud and obnoxious. I hardly know him and I know I wouldn’t be happy with him.”
“Then, why don’t you just insult him like you do with me and leave him?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Because, my father approves of him and I’m of marrying age. Financially and politically, it’s a good match… For me, it would be a disaster.”
It was silent in the clearing, with only the sound of Nate trying to strike a fire with two stones clicking through the air. Once it was lit, he set up two strong branches on either side of the campfire and skewered a piece of meat to be set over it, supported by the two branches. The rest, Nate seasoned and wrapped in more rags to store for later. Some, he carelessly tossed off into the trees to get stuck in the branches.
Kiara knew that one downside to surviving this journey would be that she would have to marry Sir Claude. Maybe not right away, but it was inevitable. That made her even more listless and somber than ever. She laid herself back down onto her stomach, feet elevated again and chin resting on her folded forearms on the ground. Nate was quietly rotating the meat to cook it thoroughly when he spoke again.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I just miss my family, that’s all,” she replied delicately. She could feel his eyes upon her as he sat to her left in front of the fire, but she didn’t return the gaze.
“You want to talk about them?” he asked, almost like he cared to hear what she had to say for once.
“I thought you didn’t like to hear me talk so much?”
“If it would help you miss them less, then you may talk all you like. If it would make you feel worse, then no words should be spoken.”
All of the sudden, Nate seemed so philosophical and wise that it made Kiara glance up from the blade of grass that she had been twirling in her fingers. He was staring right back at her, thoughtlessly twisting the skewer over the fire. After silent deliberation, Kiara looked back to the dry soil.
“My father, he’s the kindest man I
know. Well, besides my brother and Eshean, of course…” she paused, wondering if this really was going to help her home sickness or not. Her heart ached for her family so much.
“Who’s Eshean?” he asked.
“He’s my father’s advisor. I’ve known him as long as I can remember. And my brother, his name is Justin. I’m sure you’ve heard of him, too.”
“I’ve only heard of Malcolm. I knew he had an eldest son, but I wasn’t sure of his name… I assume they’re all kind to you?”
“Very kind. I’ve never known any cruelty to come from them, at least none that is centered on me. I may not be the baby of the family, but they very much favor me above my other siblings. I’m really the only one in the royal family that spends any time with my father. I guess that could be why the others shun and exclude me.”
Kiara wasn’t sure she wanted to talk anymore. She leaned her head down again, looking away from camp and into the darkening forest, feeling more depressed as the moments ticked by without her family by her side. She closed her eyes as tears trickled down from them.
Nate seemed to notice this affect and pressed the subject no further, but continued rotating the meat over and over above the fire. Kiara wasn’t sure how much time had escaped her, but when she opened her eyes again, it was dark and the only light came from the moon above and the orange-yellow glow of the campfire.
She turned her head towards Nate once more and saw him cutting off a piece of the meat for him to eat. To Kiara, it smelt good and her stomach growled in earnest. She struggled to push herself up into a sitting position, and then she scooted up next to Nate and off of the sleeping mat.
“How are your feet?” he asked with his mouth full.
“Fine. They don’t hurt right now, anyway,” she replied, apprehensively picking up the knife and edging towards the cooked meat that was still on the stick stuck in the ground. She didn’t know how to use a knife, but there was no better time to learn.
But, before she could make a single cut, Nate swiftly snagged the dagger from her fingers and insisted on cutting a piece off himself. She sighed and sat back as he sliced off a good chunk of meat and handed it to her. Kiara took it and ate it as gingerly as she could.
The Princess and Her Rogue Page 8