“Oh, look at you princess. And here I was thinking you therians were used to living it out tough in the wilderness,” April teased.
Touya frowned at her as he watched her scoop another spoonful and blow on it. She answered his question right after as she held the spoon out towards him. He was still uncomfortable with her feeding him and felt more than ashamed to have to let her do so. On the other hand, it was showing him a side of her he'd never seen and it was quite appealing.
“Crushed oats, water, milk and a bit of salt if I know Reginald. A good source of fiber and some protein, both of which are stable nutrients for a human’s diet.”
He eyed the mixture as she brought another spoonful up to his lips. He grudgingly bit into it, but grimaced once again. Forcing himself to swallow, he eyed her carefully before he spoke.
"Perhaps I should teach him how to cook. It is a wonder that you humans survived... at least what I eat in the wild is tasteful," he muttered in response frowning once more as she offered up the next bite.
He found himself relaxing more as they sat together and she continued to feed him, Touya of course offering up distaste for each bite taken and a few choice curse words both in his own language and the common one. Finally when he couldn't take anymore -and the bowl was thankfully empty- he shook his head at her when she offered the last spoonful. He leaned back away from the spoon and refused to eat it. The Therian wasn't sure if he could handle anymore of the 'gruel' as she called it.
“That’s it for now,” she said and stood with both bowls in one hand and the other hand reaching to adjust the pants that were far to big for her.
"Thank the God's," he muttered in reply and lay back against the sofa, adjusting his body for as much comfort as possible. The time had passed by quite quickly with her keeping him company.
“I appreciate what you did back there by the way. You're a very interesting therian. Thank you, Touya. Have a good night,” her voice filled the room suddenly and Touya twisted to see her. An eyebrow lifted as he watched her, the woman's frame illuminated by the firelight in the other room. It was getting darker in the room he was in, but maybe that was because they had not thought to turn on any of the steam powered lights that ran throughout the complex.
"You're very interesting as well," he offered softly and turned away, "I would have done it for any of you. Do not thank me yet, this is far from over and I've not done anything worth being thankful for," he replied and waited a while until he knew she was out of the room.
"For you especially... I think I would do anything," he muttered to himself as he lay back against the sofa's cushions.
A stray beam of sunlight through the window upon his face was what woke him. Touya peered out of slitted eyelids to see nothing but golden sun blinding him. The rain had long since passed and the smell of newly washed earth filled the room. Slowly he pushed himself upwards as best he could and looked down at his battered body. There were far too many wounds to heal in one sitting, especially since many of them were deep and would take a lot of his energy. Reaching up, his magic radiated from him and he healed the stab wound in his chest as well as the bullet wound just underneath it.
Closing his eyes he concentrated on the other area's that had been penetrated by the bullets and began closing them as best he could. Out of the ten gunshot wounds, he healed half of them. The rest would have to wait until he had more energy but for the most part many of them were just cuts or gashes left from the bullets that had been shot at him. He pulled his legs off he bed and stood up, stretching his body as best he could.
His long hair was still braided, but it was caked with mud and blood. He needed to wash, but he wasn't sure where he could do that in the home he found himself occupying. Usually Touya would have found a stream or a lake to wash his body with, but there were no such things here. He wondered briefly where, then, had April gone to wash the night before?
"I heard some interesting news this morning," Damea's voice filtered into the living room and Touya went to it. Leaning against the door frame he listened intently as the fire mage spoke to Reginald. Touya frowned as he realized that the doctor was probably going to cook again for them.
"Seems that a few soldiers died last night. No one is sure what happened exactly, but they were both killed. One died from multiple lacerations and the others head was lopped off," Damea said as he took a drink of something in a cup.
"This happened last night?" Touya asked and Damea choked on his drink. The fire mage leaned forward suddenly and coughed harshly. Touya stood still with an eyebrow raised at the man's reaction.
"Jeez! Can't you warn us when you enter a room?" Damea asked, flustered at having choked on his drink. When Touya did not answer him, the mercenary rolled his eyes and sighed. Then the man grinned at the Therian who was even more confused at what was happening, "You look better. A good nights sleep, before that a pretty woman to feed you... you sure had it good last night."
Touya watched the mercenary without moving, his eyes steady and unwavering as he tried to comprehend what it was that Damea was talking about. How had last night been 'good' to him? He wasn't entirely sure, "I slept fine," he answered eliciting a sputtering laugh from Damea. Why were human's so confusing?
"Of course you did, you had your belly full of hot food given to you by April..." Damea's face went pale then and he turned around quickly and continued to drink his coffee. The sudden silence was not what Touya had been expecting and so he stood there with his arms crossed, still trying to sort through what had been said. Unable to figure it out, he shook his head and looked to Reginald instead.
"Is there a place where I may wash?"
Their information gathering had gone according to plan and within the day they'd made it up into the ranks of the soldiers. However, something had gone wrong and all that Val had accomplished was learning that there was a scientist testing Therians. Unfortunately he did not learn where as he had to pull out of the operation and regroup with the rest of his men. Whatever happened, he didn't know but figured it was one of his people that had sparked the suspicions all across town.
Frowning, he now glared at the city from the outskirts, hiding amongst the trees that lined the outer edge of the city and the main road. Turning around he counted once again the people with him and indeed he was still one short. His eyes narrowed as he realized then who it was he was missing. She'd not been with them long, thus making his mistaking her for never being there in the first place. Ahmeil was not with them and that proved to be quite disconcerting. She wasn't one for subtlety at all times, but he'd thought that she would have at least heeded his orders to not killing anyone and being quiet.
Val turned around again and gazed at the city. There were two options he was presented with. Go back in and find her, or leave her to her own devices.
"Val," a voice called.
"What is it?"
"Should we not leave? It is getting dangerous just staying out here on the edge. They could send out search parties to see if any Therian's remain around the city."
"As correct as that is, I would like to wait a little while longer. Ahmeil knows how to take care of herself, but I would much rather see to it myself than not."
He didn't turn around to see the man nod in agreement and melt back into the shadows. With a deep frown he pulled away from the tree and followed his comrade into the shadows of the trees. He would give her three hours. Three hours only and if she was not with them, he would leave her.