Andrew sat with his back against the cavern wall. It was cold and wet, the sun not having risen long enough to heat the land yet.

An empty bottle entered into his vision. Next to him, Victoria had finished guzzling the water he brought and held it out to him by the neck, like a bat.

He asked, "Was that enough?" before taking it from her.

"I don't see why you would care either way," she answered, then proceeded to tear into the loaf of bread Andrew snuck out from the kitchen earlier. He almost couldn't believe he'd done it, steal food from the castle, and tried not to smile as he sat back and listened to the sound of Victoria's vicious eating.

"What is so amusing to you?"

Andrew turned his face to the warming sky. "Nothing."

Victoria snarled, but her cheeks were too full of bread to make her words sound menacing. "I know what you're thinking," she said. "Oh, how funny it is to see a lady fall to such depths, munching on dried bread like some starving pig."

Andrew shook his head. "No, I was just thinking how quiet it usually is when we eat in the castle." He looked at her then, studying the light as it played on the blue of her eyes, heightening the resentment locked deep within them, and he felt sad. What he wouldn't give to be seen as a normal person, someone who has nothing to do with Doctor Davis and his demonic science.

He turned his attention to the outside. "I was also thinking how we could have the freshest kills placed on our table, and yet the meat will never taste as delicious as you make that loaf of bread seem."

Victoria scoffed. "I'd like some more of that delicious bread, please."

Andrew said, "That was all I could find, sorry."

Victoria wiped her hands on her filthy clothing, and stood. She stretched, yawned, and strolled in the other direction towards the back of the cave.

Andrew kept staring at the ocean. The sun had risen fully, casting the breach in gold. Crystalline waves lapped at its edges, stretching out in every direction to meet the sky. Andrew breathed in deep, filling his lungs with the salty air, and then he turned around.

Victoria was standing behind him, holding a rock above her head that was the size of a watermelon.

"That is a big rock," was all that came to Andrew's mind then.

Victoria stood frozen on the spot, her eyes wide as they met Andrew's. She had one foot raised, hovering like she wasn't sure to walk forwards or take a step back. She opened her mouth to say something, but lost her balance and stumbled. The rock slipped from her grasp, tumbling down the front of her body as it came to a crashing halt on top of her right foot.

"Argh!" Victoria let out a scream as she fell back. "Blasted rat's arses!"

Andrew got up and went to her, struggling to decide whether to laugh or be worried. "Let me see."

"Get lost!" Victoria turned away, rolled, more like. "I'm fine. I don't need your help." She tried to get up, but howled in agony as soon as her foot moved an inch.

Andrew crouched next to her and gently grasped her ankle. It was thin enough so his fingers could close all the way around. "You shouldn't try to move it," he said, making another grab for Victoria's foot. "It might be broken."

This time, Victoria didn't fight him. "Fine," she said. "You can look if you promise not to do anything."

"Of course," Andrew said.

Victoria stared at him for a beat, then seemingly having decided that he could be trusted for this at least, sat up and propped her leg against a rock while Andrew examined her.

"Is it bad?" she asked, biting her lip as she looked away.

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"Considering the rock was bigger than your head, I'd say you got off easy." Andrew ran a thumb over the bloody skin to feel for bumps, which made Victoria yelp.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, pulling her foot back again. "I only gave you permission to look."

Andrew stood up, not bothering with any explanation. "In any case, I'll need some bandages, and a splint."

"For my foot?"

"Toes, specifically." Andrew took a step towards the cavern mouth and stopped. "No, that won't work. The sheep homunculi might see me this time in the morning."

Victoria looked at him like he was spouting nonsense. "What sheep?"

"You don’t want to know," Andrew answered, pacing around the small enclosure as he thought. He couldn't risk going into the infirmary because Doctor Davis would definitely be awake by now, and he couldn't go to Ignar or any of the servants for a medical kit because what would he even say? And faking an injury wouldn't work because he'd have to use the bandages on himself to keep the lie going.

"Is something the matter?" Victoria asked. "I thought it was your castle."

"When I told you and your sister it belonged to my master," Andrew said. "I wasn't lying. I'm just one of the souls taking refuge inside its walls. Nothing inside it belongs to me."

Victoria nodded along but didn't answer. She tried to shift her weight to a more comfortable position, wincing as her foot dragged across the ground.

"Don't move so much," Andrew started to say, only to suck in his words when he saw that Victoria was crying.

"I'm definitely going to be killed now, aren't I?"

"Of course not." Andrew hurried over. "Why would you think that?"

"Because," sobbed Victoria. "I'm crippled."

"Okay, first, you're not." Andrew went to lay his hand on Victoria's shoulder but stopped. He wanted to touch her, but he couldn't be sure she wanted him to. "Second," he continued. "That was never the reason for getting you on that boat. And it obviously wasn't the reason why I saved you."

More silence answered him. Andrew heard the sound of gentle waves, of winds too far away to be a storm. He heard Victoria's voice, asking quietly, "Don't you mean tricking me?"

Andrew stood, went over to the exit, and picked up the glass water bottle from off the ground where he left it. "I'll be right back," he said without turning around, and then walked out into the sunlight.

He returned an hour later, carrying an armful of kelp and a bottle of seawater hung on his belt. He stepped into the dimness of the cave, but Victoria wasn’t there. Andrew tried not to panic. He dropped the kelp on a nearby flat rock and set the flask of seawater next to it, then went further in to look for her, but she wasn’t in any nook in the walls or behind one of the few boulders. She was gone.

Andrew started to back out. He wanted to slap himself for such careless oversight. What did he think would happen? That she’d wait here for him to lock her up again? Andrew reached the cavern entrance, at the same moment, Victoria limped around the corner.

“You’re back,” she said, surprised then sheepish. “I was just…” She held onto the wall, her bad foot lifted an inch above the ground. She wasn't looking at him. "I didn't think you'd actually come back."

“You didn’t run away,” Andrew said in return.

Victoria shrugged. "What's that for?" She pointed to the pile of kelp.

"That?" Andrew smiled. "Is for you."

Victoria limped into the cave, wrinkling her nose at the smell. “I think you've mistaken me for a fish.”

“It’s not food,” Andrew said. “Well it can be, but that isn’t what you'll be using them for.” He helped Victoria sit down, before going over to her with the kelp and seawater. “Give me your foot.”

Victoria recoiled. "This again?"

Andrew sat down on the sand. “Come on.”

Victoria kept staring between Andrew and the green plants in his hands, like she was locked in an internal debate over something. Andrew couldn't guess what it was. In fact, he didn’t have the slightest clue what was going on inside the girl’s head. In all his fifteen years alive, he'd never been with a girl for longer than it was necessary to get her onto his boat.

But he didn't have time to think about that. Someone at the castle would be starting to question where he'd been. He missed breakfast, and now he was about to skip out of lunch, too. He said, “It’s easy to get an infection out here. Any wound has to be treated as soon as possible.”

Victoria sighed. She pushed her leg towards Andrew. "You are a strange boy, doing all this without reason."

"I have reasons," Andrew said. "I just don't know what they are yet." He picked up Victoria’s foot. It nestled in his palm like a small creature, begging for him to be careful. He reached for the bottle of seawater and pulled off the top.

"This will help kill the infection," he explained when Victoria started hissing. Working quickly, he cleaned off the dried blood and wrapped the foot in a layer of kelp. “The kelp excretes a gel that keeps the tissue moist. It speeds up healing and reduces pain.”

“How useful,” Victoria said. “I was wrong. If anyone is a fish here, it’s you.”

Andrew couldn’t help smiling. He set Victoria’s feet back on his leg, and took out the length of wood he prepared earlier.

"I wondered why you didn't set the door back," Victoria said.

Andrew positioned the wood along each side of Victoria's foot, sandwiching her toes before wrapping it all up in another layer of kelp. He worked without looking at Victoria or saying anything, not because he didn't have anything to say, but because he was worried about what he might let slip if he did.

No, he didn't put the door back. But it wasn't because the chunk he took out from it made it too thin to wedge back into the rock. And it wasn't because he knew she wasn't well enough to run away. And most of all, it was definitely not because he wanted her to escape by herself, so that it'll save him the trouble of coming up with a way for her.