Luna of the Beastly Lycan King

Chapter 23. Tending to wounds

☉DANIKA

I hated looking at Fergal’s massive back and shoulders, so lined with scars and wounds, and yet… I found that I could not. I was ensorcelled as I stared, taking in every cut, every line, down to the tone of his muscles. Fergal rolled his shoulders and gruffly asked if I was ever going to begin.

“Of course,” I gave a little cough.

I looked around. I had never been in his chambers before, and I hoped that navigating would be easy, but I was still at a loss at how Fergal’s chamber differed so very well from mine.

Where there was a space for a flower pot in my own room, Fergal’s had none, the space instead, occupied by an imposing suit of armor. On one side of his wall hung a sword still in its sheath. It had a stone set in its hilt that I admired. I turned around to give the room a cursory glance. Save for the suit of armor and the sword in the room, his bed, and a table, his room was otherwise bare.

“Did the maids bring anything up for you?” I asked. “Poultice or fresh linens or—”

“This was the first place I came straight to after the spar. Why would the maids think to get me anything?”

I chuckled at myself for asking. Of course, he would have had no time to go down to get treated. He was here all alone in his room with his wounds, after all. What did I really think had happened?

“I’ll be right back,” I said and dashed out of his room. I headed down straight to the laundry. There was no point in making a poultice right now, but I figured that a cup of tea to calm him down whilst he rested would not be something that he would not appreciate, so I had dashed into the kitchens too and made a small brew for him. When I walked back into his room with the items I had brought, balanced on a tray, Fergal turned and frowned.

“What’s all this?”

“I got fresh linens from the laundries, water for your wounds, and a towel… and I brought you a cup of tea while I was there. I thought that you would need something to drink.

Fergal turned his face away. “You didn’t have to make the tea.” Then he added after some silence, “Besides, I would have preferred alcohol.”

I smiled at him. “You’re injured. And the tea will help you. You need your strength.”

Fergal conceded. Then looked at both his arms still hanging uselessly. He managed to make his fingers twitch.

“I still can’t use my arms.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll hold the cup for you.” I made Fergal sit down in front of me, but even on a low stool, he was still at eye level with me.

The tea was steaming and the aroma was strong. Fergal complained about it smelling too herbal, but I argued that the brew would improve his bloodstream circulation and would help with his regenerative abilities and full healing. After much arguing, Fergal finally agreed to drink the tea straight out of my hands.

He scowled as he drank the tea, and I knew that he probably was not used to relying on another person. And yet, here I was, in his space. I set the cup away once he was done drinking and I had just set the tray away when Fergal groaned and I heard a splintering sound as one of the bones in his arm reset itself in place.

“Some tea.” He laughed. I laughed too and soaked the towel into the bucket of water. I began wiping at the bloodstains all over his enormous back and chest. Fergal had his eyes closed as I moved around his body. The cuts cleaned and the blood wiped off, I saw that the wounds were no longer as bad as I had magnified them in my head. I was closely looking at a cut close to his nape, watching it as closed in on itself and I marveled.

Lycans had truly amazing bodies. To heal from such extensive wounds in such a short period…

I had no idea how long it would take for his broken arms to completely heal, but judging from the way these cuts on his body were healing, it was safe to say that he would soon be swinging both arms around again with reckless abandon.

Back in my pack, we had apothecaries to tend to this sort of thing. They had all manners of concoctions that they would whip up and the pain of healing and restoration itself was a long and arduous process. But I knew that Fergal could have gotten himself easily fixed here in Cynthros. A physician could have seen him at any point in time and at the rate that Cynthros advanced, I was certain that it would only be a matter of time before Fergal would be fully back on his feet.

I rolled out the linen I had gathered and thought about crushing herbs together to use as a salve, but I had not thought of that in time. I ran the first cloth around his waist.

“Fergal… why do you hate Finarfin so much, anyway?”

I could almost physically see the bundle of anxiety bunch up in his shoulders as he tensed up.

“Danika…” he began.

“No, it’s alright. I should not have asked. I was only curious.” My hands stalled at his shoulder. The first bandaging was almost done. Fergal said nothing for the longest time. Then he said, “I don’t want to talk about it. Finarfin is someone I don’t want to talk about right now.”

Unable to keep my thoughts to myself, I blurted. “What exactly happened between you two?”

Fergal bowed his head and exhaled darkly. “Finarfin happened.”

“I see the way you look at him, you know.”

I was taken aback, but said nothing. I did not want to have to mention anything about Davina because then Fergal would know that I knew, even if I didn’t have the complete story.

“I know you and Finarfin were close once. He had brought you into the castle that day, all torn up. You were so thin back then, you were revelational. I had no idea that anyone could be that way and still be living.”

“Hey!” I barked in mock anger. “It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t intentionally mean to make myself look that skinny.”

“—I know.”

“I was starving and I was tired.”

“—I know.”

“I was…” I trailed off. I didn’t want to have that conversation with Fergal right now. I was not sure that I wanted to have any conversations at all about Finarfin right now. I let my mind drift and my fingers linger on the expanse of his broad back, feeling the texture of the linen.

Fergal placed a hand on mine. He said nothing, but his eyes communicated words. The sides of my lips curled lightly.

He took his hand away and let me pick up new clothes. “I always assumed that Finarfin just had a penchant for super skinny, close-to-death, weak females.”

I gave him a dead look and hoisted the linen in my hands threateningly at him. “Perhaps all this bandaging would be better used on your head. And how is your arm already healed?!”

Fergal laughed. A genuine deep rumbling from his belly. “I am a lycan after all, AND Beta to the Alpha King.”

As if that was explanation enough. I shrugged at him and began the second layer of bandaging around his torso. He stood up so I could go around him and when I stood in front of him, he said under his breath, “I’m sorry about Finarfin too. I know it must cut you deep, watching him in this new light. He was your savior and your friend and you wanted to always be close to him, to help him… but sometimes, there are friends that we cannot just help. They go so far out of the range of things we can do, and we are just powerless, watching as everything falls…”

I peered into Fergal’s eyes. I wondered if he was thinking about his sister. I would ask him another day, I reasoned. Right now, I just thought of how very lucky his sister must have been to have him. I smiled a little smile.

“Also, my arms aren’t completely healed. I give it till tomorrow.”

“Then why were you waving it around?!”

☆☆☆

Fergal had fallen right to sleep after I was done bandaging his wounds. He was already beginning to get some feeling in his arms and though most of the cuts were almost completely healed, I suspected that some of them would leave scars.

I had stepped out of his chambers, closed the door gently behind me and as I walked away, wondered if I should ask for the maids to bring food up to him.

No, I brushed the thought away. It was only his arms that were broken. He could get food by himself. I cackled with grim satisfaction on the inside.

“For someone who wants to train, you seem carefree.” A voice in the hallway. I wiped the smirk off my face and spun to meet her.

“Sonia!” I gasped. “What are you doing here?”

“Hunting you down. Obviously. Did you not say something about wanting to train?”

I looked at her, looked in the direction of Fergal’s chambers, and back at her.

“You are otherwise engaged?” She arched an eyebrow at me.

“No!” I said too quickly. I should have been excited that Sonia was finally going to train me, but all I could think of was how very tired I suddenly was.