Chapter 2 Chapter 2

Mira’s POV

The smell of blood filled the air making me scrunch my nose. I peeked behind the tree as I scanned my surroundings. This could be a trap, I said in my mind as I carefully walked behind the trees while trying to locate where the blood smell was coming from.

“Turns out you're such a coward,” Athena whispered in my head.

I was about to reply her when I heard the snapping of twigs again. I stopped in my tracks and looked around. The sound was getting closer, and I still hadn't located where it was coming from. I let out a scream when a warthog ran through the bush, causing me to stumble upon a root.

Wait, the root isn't soft.

Chills crept all over my body as I slowly turned my head to the side.

“Holy shit! It's a man!” I covered my mouth with my hands to avoid screaming again.

I carefully stood up, not wanting to find out if he was dead or alive. I turned on my heel and was about to leave when I heard him groan. My heart was beating so fast as I stood there dead in my tracks. With my eyes glued to the man, I carefully stepped away from him.

“Wait, Mira!” said Athena as I was about to take off without looking back.

Wait?” I asked, feeling irritated. “For what?”

“We can't leave him here to die,” she replied.

“And why can't we do that?”

“Cause it's close to where you stay dummy.” I looked up to see that we're just a few meters away from my cabin. “If he dies here it's going to draw unnecessary attention and you don't want that.”

“What do I do now?” I asked, not sure of what to do. “Besides, what if this man is just pretending to be dead or unconscious?”

“Trust me, Mira, nothing is going to happen,” said Athena.

I took a deep breath, but instantly regretted it when the smell of blood hit my nose again. With slow and steady hands, I stretched my hand to touch him. I immediately removed my hand as if he had some kind of plague. The man was bleeding badly.

“I don't even know what to do,” I murmured.

“Just take him to the other backroom of your cottage. The longer we stay in this forest, the higher the chances of us being killed or attacked by whoever or whatever did this to him.”

Athena was right. So I decided to take the risk of taking him back to the backroom of my cottage. Carrying the man back to the cabin turned out to be the hardest job I have ever done in my life. After about twenty minutes of carrying him on my back and navigating through the forest, I finally arrived at the entrance of my cottage's backroom.

I cleared some of the mess in the room and laid him down while I quickly searched for a piece of cloth and water to clean his body. After successfully finding a towel and warm water, I started cleaning his wound. Cleaning the blood off his body proved to be a lot more difficult because of the smell and it felt irritating to touch someone else's blood. Once I was done cleaning his wound, I used a longer towel to wrap around the wound so it could stop bleeding and heal faster.

After I had cleaned his whole body completely, I carried him off the floor and laid him on the pile of clothes I arranged as a bed.

“What do we do now?” I asked Athena.

“I think there is an old healer after the market, you should go get her in the morning.”

“Is that a good idea? This is going to draw a lot of attention to us and we don't want that.”

“Relax Mira, it's going to be fine. Besides, you have healing abilities like a healer, but you can't use them. But you can use this as an opportunity to get close to her and learn from her.”

“But you never told me we had healing powers,” I said, surprised by the discovery.

“Well now you know,” she replied in her normal rude tone.

“You're the worst,” I said to her but got no reply.

I waited till the early dawn of morning, then I quickly dressed, pulling on a black cloak, and then picked a few gold coins from the pouch Sophie gave me before stepping out of my wooden cottage. It felt strange that I was going through all this stress for someone I didn’t even know.

I hadn’t walked far when I noticed a man was following me. He had been following me since the grain post, and I had known since the second corner.

“I think we're being trailed,” I whispered to Athena but got no reply from her.

The earth was still damp from last night’s rain, and the air felt cold against my skin.

I shuddered a little, but I didn’t run. I tried to stay calm and act natural while thinking of a way to escape or outsmart the strange man.

I turned into a narrow passage between two supply buildings, pressed my back to the wall, and waited.

The man came around the corner four seconds later and stopped when he found me standing there. I watched his face cycle through surprise—but that was the last thing I saw. I felt something sting my neck, and then darkness enveloped me.