Toland woke to find himself lopsidedly sprawled over Kinic’s fireside chair with a painful crick in his neck.

He groaned and got to his feet, taking in the sight of his father and Kinic also asleep in chairs of their own.

Rubbing his neck, he wandered into the front room where the patients were kept. There, he found the man still unconscious and the girl asleep sat on the stool by the table, flopped forward so that her head was resting on his chest.

Awake she had seemed threatening and somewhat alien, almost feral, but asleep she seemed to be just any other girl, breathing softly on what he presumed was her father’s chest.

Her hand was still clutching a handful of the man’s shirt and as he looked over it he noticed the blood stain on her forearm.

He gently went up and pushed aside the cloth to reveal a deep wound exposing torn muscle and chipped bone.

His eyes widened as he examined it further, the cleanness of the slicing meant that this was done with a sharp implement, much sharper than a claw or tooth, and with a great deal of force. Surely this must have been immeasurably painful for her, but she had moved about like it hadn’t been there at all. Not for the first time he wondered if she was entirely human.

Still, this needed attending too less it get infected. He gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her and she bolted upright, standing with enough force to send the stool she was sitting on flying away and shattering against the wall.

Toland jerked back in horror, holding his hands up in an appeasing gesture.

“I’m sorry,” he said as she looked about, as if struggling to remember where she was, “You have a wound on your arm. You could probably do with getting it bandaged before it gets infected. I’m sorry to startle you.”

She looked down at her arm as if noticing the wound for the first time herself, then she seemed to relax.

“Sorry about your chair,” she said and rolled up her sleeve so they could both get a better look at the wound.

Toland went to the water bucket to set the kettle boiling, only to find it empty.

“I just need to go get some water from the well,” he said, then had a thought and ran back into the other room.

He returned with the blanket he had found over him this morning and handed it to her.

“Here, you must be cold.”

“Its fine,” she replied, “I don’t feel the cold.”

“Everyone feels the cold, even the Unishi feel the cold and they dive into frozen lakes.”

She frowned but took the blanket and wrapped it around her.

“There is another stool just behind there if you want it, or there’s a seat through that door by the fire. I’ll be right back.”

She nodded and he headed off to the well with the water bucket in hand.

It was strange seeing the well without old Shudlow around, his small shelter empty, but he quickly set the bucket in the pully and filled it, carefully trudging back to Kinic’s house.

Once there he found the girl had found a new stool to sit on and had returned to her silent vigil over the man.

Toland put the water in the kettle and stoked up the fire underneath it, then found bandages and one of Kinics salves that fought infection.

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He poured the hot water into a bowl, placed a clean cloth in the water and carried everything over to her side, pulling up a stool next to her.

“Here,” he said, “Hold out your arm.”

She once again rolled up her sleeve and placed her arm on the table in front of him.

“This might be a little hot, but it needs to be, so please try not to jerk away from it.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

He carefully touched the wound with the cloth and thankfully she didn’t jerk away from it. She didn’t even flinch, or for that matter show any reaction to it.

Unsettled once again, he carefully began cleaning the wound, working away to clean out mud and dust and grime. It was a minor miracle it wasn’t already infected.

As he worked, he noticed that her skin, while pale and smooth, was as hard as stone to the touch.

Eventually he had the wound cleaned and the salve applied and set about wrapping the bandage around her arm.

He looked up for a moment and met her gaze. She was looking at him as though he were the strange one, her almost predatory gaze returning, but he didn’t hate the look. Her eyes were the deepest, most vibrant blue he had ever seen. He had never seen the ocean, but he imagined the endless expanse of shimmering water from the stories must look something like this.

Catching himself before he ended up staring, he quickly tied off the bandage and withdrew his hands.

“That should be okay now.”

She nodded, “It will be, thank you.”

“Just watch out for any signs of infection.”

She nodded again and he longed to ask her who she was and where she had come from, but the way she looked at the man on the table, so empty and crushed, he didn’t want to make her relive anything.

“I’m Toland by the way,” he said gently.

“I am Katrina,” she replied monotonously, without taking her eyes off the man.

He smiled slightly, “Do people call you Kat?”

“No. They do not.”

Toland bit his lip awkwardly.

“But you may, if you wish, Toland. We owe you and your kin a great debt, one that we will probably never be able to repay.”

Toland’s smile returned, “It’s fine, out here we don’t really keep track of debts. Its good to help people, life’s much better that way.”

She nodded, “Your master said much the same. Still, we owe you much. If you hadn’t been there when you were I don’t know what I would have done.”

Toland blushed slightly and was thankfully saved from her noticing by his father walking in.

“You two up then?” he said, yawning and cradling his neck as he tried to rub away his own crick, “Well, if its okay with you, young lady, we’ll move you both to somewhere more comfortable. We have space in the attic room for two beds, give me and Hudlow the morning to get ‘em made up there and they can be yours for as long as you need them.”

The girl thought for a moment then replied, “Thank you, Unilir, I would not normally make such demands of anyone, especially after all you have already done for us, but I cannot see another option. I can only thank you once again.”

Rin smiled, “Bless ya’ lass, but it’s just Ir, Rin Ir Kenkarten to be precise, there isn’t a noble around here for near 300 miles.”

“Perhaps you are not, but you are far nobler than many who do bear that title.”

Rin laughed at that, “Well, we do like to think so, I’m sure my son here has introduced himself, he’s Toland Kenkarten, you’ll meet my wife Ophelia later I’m sure, along with this one’s elder brother Fel.

She nodded again.

There was a groan from across the room and the three turned to see the village chief waking up, clutching his head then his chest then his shoulder, moaning hideously the whole time.

“Duglan Ir Shan!” Rin said, “You old fool, stay still or I’ll have to beat you unconscious again. Who do you even think you are, trying to kill a direworlf like that? Thank all the gods and the spirits and the damned linuri as well that Herdru was there to save you.”

Ir Shan opened his eyes to look around the room but returned his arms to his sides.

“Rin Ir,” he croaked, “Bring me some water, please.”

“Bah,” Rin said belligerently but grabbed the bucket of water and a small jug which he used to tend Ir Shan.

Over the noise of the two old friends arguing over what they should have done about the wolf, Toland and Katrina heard the stirrings of the man on the table, as he slowly opened his eyes.

“Jaran?” Katrina asked hesitantly.

He groggily opened one eye struggling to keep focus.

“Ka…” he began.

“Shush,” she cooed, cutting him off, “It’s over, we escaped. Rest now.”

He sighed and closed his eye again, falling back to sleep.

Toland smiled and breathed a sigh of relief, and she, for the first time, returned a hesitant smile back.