Chapter 33

I slowly got out of bed, removing the covers off my body, feeling neither refreshed nor drained, just a little tired, but that was just the usual.

It would seem that I got up at the beginning of dawn, the same as every morning, it didn't matter when I went to sleep, or how many hours I slept.

I was always the first to get up.

So, I undressed, and changed into more appropriate clothing, just some casual garments, leather boots, and silken pants and dress shirt. They were colored cerulean blue, and were embroidered with the images of flowers.

Stepping out of my room, I went straight for the guest room across from mine. Walking up to the door, I took a deep breath, before putting my hand on the handle and opened the door.

Striding through the entrance, I could see that the little girl was still wrapped in her blanket, looking to still be in deep sleep.

But, as I approached her, I could feel slight irregularities with her breathing. 

"Are you awake?"

Nothing.

Not a flinch, not a single change with her breath, in fact, it kept the same irregularities as before, demonstrating an immense level of control, to be able to keep her complete composure.

She still believed that she was in great danger, obviously having spotty memories about the night before.

Moving all the way up to her side, nothing about her changed, not being able to resist anymore, I put my hand upon her body, but she was still unmoving.

Deciding to get it over with, I ripped the covers off her, and at last she reacted, as she shrunk into herself, and her eyes opened, fear being all that I could read out from those crystalline orbs.

I was unsure about what to do, not ordinarily being in this sort of position, the last time I comforted her, I merely acted out of instinct.

So, all I had to do was replicate that.

I lowered myself down to the level of the bed, then moved my body onto the mattress.

Shuffling forward, I slowly inched closer to her, being careful, not wanting to provoke any sort of frenzy, that I have heard was often quite common in victims of profound traumatization.

Reaching her, I pulled her back into my chest with my arms, hugging her from behind.

I could feel her highly tense frame steadily melt, until all I could feel was something that was there the whole time, a fragile scared little girl.

One that had fought so hard.

No one should ever be subjugated to torment of this nature.

To be reduced to our most primal instinct, to have our very sanity stripped away, to have to resort to the things that this girl had to.

I once more remind myself why I had to push myself further, so that I could prevent this sort of event from ever happening under my watch.

I wasn't foolish enough to consider completely eradicating evil, but what I wanted was, for that as long as I existed, no one before me would ever suffer under another's wickedness.

Even though I was in my feelings, my senses weren't any less sharp, undulled by the torrent of righteous fury that relentlessly coursed through my veins.

I could hear that someone had pulled up to the front of the chamber, judging from the weight of their steps and rhythm of their breathing, it was most likely our fearless leader.

Unless, of course, he had somehow changed his way of existing in this plane, I sarcastically thought to myself.

Using a little humor to clear through the fog that was my heart, something I realized that I was doing more and more.

Something I had never done before meeting this party of mine.

Probably picked up from Wrai, since he was the one with the most developed sense of humor, often cracking a dark joke whatever horrible situation we found ourselves in.

But, in the end, that just reminded me that even he couldn't muster anything in the face of that dragon's artistic endeavors.

Refocusing back onto the child I was embracing, I felt that she was finally relaxed enough to have a conversation.

"Hey." I whispered softly into her ears, I could feel her slightly tense up before relaxing, hopefully feeling safer than she felt back in the cave.

"Do you want to talk?"

No response, and for several minutes we stayed like this.

Wrai had long since left, probably for breakfast.

But, right as it seemed like she wouldn't answer at all, I could hear a quiet raspy sound flow from her unused throat, something that I wouldn't have been even able to notice if it wasn't for my elvish senses.

Quite ironic.

"I-I-I… I-hure." She stuttered, unable to voice even a single word, as a heavy shiver ran through her, one full of unfiltered emotion.

I just waited patiently. Distantly, in the back of my head, the idea of using my valuable time to train, was brought forth, before I succinctly dismissed it outright.

Her efforts stretched on and on, but no matter how hard she tried, nothing came from her, not a single word.

After a while, I felt her shivering and shaking intensify, as droplets of water fell upon my arm, tears poured from her, as she choked and sobbed

Not being able to do anything else, all I did was tighten my embrace, pulling her wracked form into me.

But, there was no cure to such emotional agony.