Theme No. 55 (Cold feet, jilted, change of plans), Part 1
Title: Splendid Isolation
Author: Nyneve
Theme(s): No. 55: cold feet; jilted, change of plans
Summary: Rei is a priestess at an isolated shrine whose sanity is starting to fail her, until she finds companionship in a strange boy with a dark secret
Pairing/Characters: Rei/Kiba (Wolf's Rain)
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Title taken from a song by the late, great Warren Zevon
AN: Since this story is too large to be posted in one shot, I've split it in half. The following is Part 1
Splendid Isolation
How long have I been running? When did I last eat? When did I last sleep? I can't remember. It must have been a long time. My bones and my stomach are aching. But there's nothing out here. I see a hill up ahead. Is that a building on it? Perhaps, if a human lives there, I can steal some food...
Rei hugged her shawl tighter around her shoulders as she raised the steaming cup of tea to her lips. Snow was on the way, she could feel it. That meant she'd have to get the rest of those potatoes out of the ground. She'd gotten the last of the turnips and carrots last week, small as they were, but she wanted to give the potatoes some time yet. When the first blizzard hit, she doubted that Cree would be able to deliver the supplies.
Speaking of Cree, he was supposed to come today, wasn't he? What was today, for that matter? She turned her dark head to the calendar on the wall. It was a year old, but she'd crossed out the names of days and rewritten them all over the next spots, making the week start on Monday and end on Sunday. And if today was Tuesday, that meant tomorrow was Wednesday. Therefore, the old man with the black truck would not be by to deliver meat, dairy, soap, or tea until tomorrow.
A sigh escaped her lips as she finished off her cup. She was only twenty-two, and yet here she was, becoming as senile as a woman four times her age. Rei suspected it was the isolation that did it. Ever since her grandfather had died two years ago, she'd had no one to talk to, save those birds who haunted her garden. And, of course, Cree, but only on Wednesdays, and only for perhaps twenty minutes or so. Then, it was back to the silence, back to the solitude.
It wasn't fair to complain though. Her father had invited her to come to the city following her grandfather's death. As one of Jaguara's underlings, he had some influence in his city, and had even managed to get a pass for his daughter. But no, Rei would not leave. If she did, the shrine would fall into disrepair. There would be no one to take care of the garden, no one to sweep the graves of her mother and grandfather, no one to welcome the rare pilgrim who wished to pray in the ancient hall that shielded her cottage like a breakwater before a harbor. And of course, her pride would not allow her to suddenly run to the man who had abandoned her to grow up in this desolate place.
Besides that, she could at least be glad her life was never idle. Year-round, she spent her morning sweeping the floor of the prayer hall and saying a few words for her mother and grandfather. Afternoons varied with the seasons. In spring, she planted. In summer, she tended. In autumn, she harvested and stored. And in winter, she wrote. Poetry, mostly, for her own amusement, but her mother had instilled a love of music in her at a young age, and had even brought a piano from the city with her when they first came to live at the shrine. It was one of the few things that chased away the silence of the shrine. On top of all that, there was also cooking, housecleaning, clothes mending, and any other odd job that arose around the shrine. There was no electricity or running water, but Cree always delivered oil for the lamps and wood for the stove, and there was a well and outhouse out behind the cottage, which in itself was small. There was a kitchen, parlor, and a loft where she slept. The cellar had a dirt portion to store food, and a stone portion to store fuel.
As if that weren't enough, there was always the chance that the shrine might fall victim to passing bands of outlaws, renegade soldiers, desperate wanderers, or wild animals. There was no doubt in her mind as to how dangerous it was to be a young woman living alone, no family or husband, with the nearest neighbor forty miles away and the nearest city almost one hundred. A road passed the bottom of the hill on which the shrine was situated, and usually one vehicle would pass each day. But recently, the travelers had become fewer and fewer. It had been over a week since anyone besides Cree had come. And even when they did drive by, they never stopped. Not even to ask how far until the next town. Not even to chat about the weather.
Still, if there was any trouble, she wasn't completely helpless. Her grandfather had left a shotgun behind when he died, and after deciding to live alone, Rei made sure that Cree delivered enough ammunition to keep her from ever running out. And while she never had to use it on a human, if some creature that looked safe to eat happened to wander onto her territory, she never hesitated to take a few shots. Sometimes she missed, usually she didn't. As a result, Rei could say that she'd eaten rabbit, squirrel, some kind of muskrat, and wildcat. She felt bad about taking the life, of course, but one thing living out here taught you was that it was survival of the fittest. If God saw fit to give you meat, you didn't dare pass it up.
The only things she didn't dare shoot were the birds. There were two of them, crows. Ever since she'd been a child, they'd lived in the garden, building a nest in one of the four pine trees that grew on the hill, the only ones visible for miles. Their tree was the one that grew over the well, and none of the other birds that came by the shrine dared to land on its branches. Rei didn't know why they lived at the shrine, nor did she know what they ate, for they never went near the garden. But they never caused any trouble, and in the past two years, she found herself conversing with them as though they were people. She even gave them names. Phobos and Deimos, Fear and Dread, two things that had no place at the shrine.
And yet, here they were.
Rei rose to her feet and cleared the table. After washing the dishes, she climbed the steep stairs to her loft, then changed into the robes she wore any time she entered the prayer hall. In addition, she grabbed a heavy coat hanging on the wall by the back door. It had belonged to her grandfather. Taking the broom from its spot on the back porch, she shut the door behind her and went to the hall, ready for one more day on her island of solitude.
The hill is farther than I thought. Larger as well. I can see there are several buildings on it. Is this a farm? If so, then which building is the barn? I can see the house, a woman has just entered it after leaving the other large building. Why don't I smell any animals? Are they dead? No, there are birds. Two large crows. Enough to keep me on my feet until I can reach a town at least. It'll be an easy kill...
As she changed from her robes into more suitable work clothes, a cold feeling struck her through the heart. Something was wrong. She had a sixth sense for things like this, even her grandfather had recognized it when she was alive. That was how she knew when it was going to snow, or if her harvest was going to be good. Or, in the case of her mother, if someone was going to die.
But the feeling that coursed through her veins now was a message. Intruder. Human or animal or something else, she wasn't sure. But it was a threat. Her intuition had a very strong sense of self-preservation. And since Rei wasn't going to start doubting it now, she took the shotgun out from beneath her bed. It wasn't loaded, but that was a problem easily alleviated. Going back down the steps, she quickly locked the front door, then went into the kitchen. Opening a drawer, she found the box of shells kept there. It was half-empty, but there were more down in the cellar. And hopefully, she wouldn't need more than the six that were here. Loading the gun, she put the remaining shells in her pocket, then went to the back window. Pushing aside the faded red curtain, she peered out suspiciously.
There was nothing there, no one. Phobos and Deimos were flapping about in the yard between the house and the garden, and a few other birds were perched on the well pump and fence posts. All was as it should be. Which made Rei bite her lip. She couldn't be wrong, could she? Was she going mad? First talking to birds, then losing track of time, and now seeing threats where there were none? Was this what living alone did to you?
No. Living alone sharpened your senses. Which is why she noticed the other birds suddenly alight. Only Phobos and Deimos, convinced of their invulnerability, remained, going about their avian business and paying no attention to their fleeing compatriots. Rei, however, was more concerned, darting her eyes all around the yard in search of the invisible intruder. Still, no one...
A flash of white. Rei's heart stopped, and there was a loud flapping of wings and horrified cawing. Another flash of white, and a rain of black feathers. And then she saw it. The white fur and whiter fangs of the huge dog that had invaded her yard, and was now terrorizing her two feathered friends. And she doubted the beast would stop at that. Strays were desperate. Once this one got the birds, it would either try to get into the house, or the prayer hall. She could hope for the hall, but no doubt it would smell the food here. And the dog was huge...
But fear had no place at the shrine. The dog was on the far side of the garden now, still leaping and barking and snapping at Phobos and Deimos, who hovered just out of its reach. Barely thinking anymore, she threw open the back door to the house and fired. She missed, but got the beast's attention.
"Get the hell out of here!" she snarled, sounding like a mad dog herself as she reloaded the gun. "Go on, get!" she repeated, shooting again. Again she missed, and the dog was just standing there, trying to figure out what to do next. Clenching her jaw, Rei aimed the gun one more time. This time she saw a spray of red, and heard a yelp of pain. But rather than falling dead to the ground, the dog turned and vanished over the edge of the hill. She didn't even see where he'd been hit. And she didn't care to.
For several more moments, Rei stood there on the back step, gun ready and loaded in case the thing came back. It didn't. Keeping the gun close, she went to the shed and grabbed her trowel and a basket, determined to get the last of her goods out of the ground so that if the thing came back, it wouldn't be able to dig anything up. And when that task was done, she went back inside, locked the door, and spent the rest of the afternoon staring out the back window, shotgun across her lap. She didn't go outside again until sunset, when she gathered water for the night and used the outhouse. Afterwards, she again locked the doors, then barricaded them with additional furniture.
When she finally lay down in bed that night (shotgun still in reach), she did not sleep.
My arm won't stop bleeding. It hurts, but I can bear the pain. I'm scared that I'll bleed to death. There's nothing to use for a bandage out here. Maybe at that house, but the woman might recognize me. I'll hide here in this hole until morning, at least. Maybe a car will come by...
She must have drifted off at some point in the night, because when Rei was next aware of her surroundings, the sun was up. Turning on the bed, she stared out the porthole window over the headboard. The sky was blanketed with fat gray clouds. It would snow before the day was out, she was sure of it, and thankful she had brought the last of the crops in the day before. As for the stray dog, there was no sign of him, and surely that white fur would stand out against the flat gray landscape. Once the snow did start to fall, however...
Rei wasn't going to think about that. As proof, she picked up the shotgun from beside the bed, and removed the shells. And then, on second thought, she replaced them, but left the gun in the loft. Wrapping a heavy shawl around her shoulders and jamming her feet into soft leather mules, she carefully descended the stairs and went into the kitchen. A glance at the calendar reminded her of the day. Yes. Wednesday. Cree would come today, hopefully before noon. Rei ladled the last of the water from the bucket into the kettle, and as it began to boil, she rummaged around in the cupboards for coffee. She rarely drank it herself, but she always wanted to make sure there was some on hand for when Cree came. She set the burlap bag aside, then took her own tea tin and added the leaves to the water. In addition, she cut herself a few slices of bread. Rei wasn't really one to eat a large breakfast.
As she ate, Rei couldn't help but glance out the windows. First the back one, checking for signs of the dog. None. But there wasn't any sign of Phobos or Deimos either, which gave her an uneasy feeling. However, she'd seen them evade the dog yesterday, and unless it had gotten them in the night (which wasn't likely; they roosted in the tree when the sun went down), chances were they were fine. After checking the back window, she glanced through the doorway to the parlor and out the front windows, watching for Cree's truck. None. But of course, it was early yet. She probably shouldn't have expected him for another hour, maybe two.
Finishing off her meager meal, Rei cleaned hastily, her mind somewhat wandering now. Cree was supposed to deliver tea, three pounds of salt pork and three pounds of salt beef, a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs, plus she'd ordered two extra bags of flour and an extra bag of sugar. And of course, he would bring any mail she might have received, although the only things she ever received were the monthly allowance and occasional letter from her father. He was generous with money, she couldn't fault him that, hence her ability to pay Cree for the goods he delivered, but as a child, Rei had wished her father had been more generous with his love and affection. But these past few years, the desire to see him faded, and now all he seemed to be was a patron who sent a small stack of bills every first Wednesday of the month.
After the kitchen was clean, Rei changed into her robes and went out to the prayer hall. She first lit the lamps in the corners of the room, then went to the firebox in the middle. Placing a large stack of kindling inside from its box near the door, she lit it with a match and knelt down as the pile sprang to life. The fire itself illuminated the otherwise dark hall (there were no windows, only a vent in the ceiling over the firebox), but nonetheless, Rei shut her eyes. Murmuring the prayers she had learned by heart many years ago, she focused on her mother first, then her grandfather. She had loved both fiercely, and losing them had scarred her more than anyone could have imagined. However, losing her father to a Noble at age four (Rei never prayed for him) had prepared her to lose her mother to illness at age nine, and losing her mother had in turn prepared her for losing her grandfather to old age.
And when I die...who will be here to miss me? The thought startled her. It wasn't the first time it had crossed her mind either. Only on days like this, the particularly cold ones, when the landscape underscored the isolation of the shrine. On every other day, Rei was content with the loneliness. But today it felt like a weight pressing down on her from above. She wished Phobos and Deimos were around outside. She would have liked to talk with them. But instead, she would have to settle for delivering a silent news update to her mother and grandfather. She told them about this year's harvest, about the newest poem she was working on, and about the dog. Of course, neither of them responded, but she visualized her mother's beautiful smile, and some of the chill seemed to vanish from the air.
So intent was she in her meditation that she didn't hear the truck roaring up the road. Didn't hear the footsteps pounding up the stairs to the top of the hill. She didn't hear anything until the door to the prayer hall was thrown up.
"Rei! You need to come quick! I found a kid wounded on the road, and he's bleedin' real bad!"
Her eyes flew open and she whirled around, her long black hair streaming like a banner. Cree stood in the door-frame, his worn but sturdy body hidden by a long heavy coat, his gray hair sticking out from under a black fleece cap. It took a few minutes to register his words. A kid? What the hell was a kid doing way out here? The nearest town was almost fifty miles away, and the only people who lived between here and there were Cree and his family. As for the other way down the road, it eventually joined up with a bigger one that ran south, but there weren't any settlements of any size that way either.
But regardless of where such a kid could have come from, if he was hurt as bad as Cree intimated, there wasn't much time to waste. Throwing sand on the fire, Rei got to her feet and pulled her coat tight around her, then raced down the stairs to the road, where the truck was parked. Laying across the bad was a young man (Rei recalled it was a habit of Cree's to call any person under the age of thirty a "kid") dressed only in jeans, a t-shirt, and leather jacket. She recognized the jacket as belonging to one of Cree's sons. The man's face was deathly pale, and his shaggy black hair looked like it hadn't been washed in years. Sick as he looked, however, he didn't have any visible wounds. But...wait. There was a speckling of blood on the t-shirt...
Gingerly, she unzipped the jacket and moved it away from his arm. A gasp escaped her lips. It was as if the entire left sleeve of the t-shirt had been dyed red. The flesh of his bicep was shredded, and although it wasn't very deep, the wounded area was the size of a pancake.
"What the hell happened to him?" Rei asked as she heard Cree come to her side. The old man shrugged.
"No clue. He stumbled into the road maybe a mile or two up from here. Damn near ran him over. But I got him into the back and figured you were his best bet. You've got bandages up at the house, right?" he asked. Rei nodded. "Okay, I'll carry him, you get what you need."
She all but flew up the steps. Although she wasn't a doctor, Rei's grandfather had taught her how to take care of wounds from an early age, and she knew time was of the essence. There was no way the young man would make it if Cree tried to take him all the way to town. If he lost any more blood, he wasn't going to make it at all.
Going into the kitchen, Rei grabbed the cardboard box she kept filled with medicines and bandages. Putting them on the floor beside the sofa in the parlor, she went back into the kitchen to grab a basin, which she then filled with water from the pump outside. By the time she came back in, Cree had laid the young man on the sofa. He had taken care to remove the jacket, but the t-shirt was still in the way. Taking a scissors from the box, Rei cut it off and tossed it on the floor. Dipping a rag in the water, she began to mop the blood off of his frigid skin. From the corner of her eye, she could see the boy's lips trembling with every breath he took.
"Hang in there," she murmured. "You're going to be fine. You're safe now. Just hang on..."
After she'd cleaned away the old blood, she took an antiseptic cream from the box and carefully rubbed it on the wound. A cry of pain escaped the boy's lips, and his eyes flew open, though she doubted they could see anything. Still, she was startled by the color. They were blue as the summer sky on the few pretty days of the year. Blue as her mother's eyes had been. However, as quickly as they had opened, they shut again, and she felt him clench up in pain.
"Stop being a baby!" Rei scolded. "If you managed to survive getting this wound, then you can survive it getting treated."
After the ointment had been applied, she began bandaging it, tying off his arm with rubber bands just below the shoulder and just above the elbow. After that, she wound a long roll of gauze around his bicep adding layer after layer until she could no longer see blood seeping through the linen. With the wound tended to, there was only one thing left. Taking out a bottle from the box, she opened it and shook two pills into the palm of her hand. Carefully, she raised the young man's head.
"Cree...can you go get me a glass of water please? You'll have to get it from the pump," she murmured. The old man nodded and vanished. Balancing the boy's head on her right forearm and taking care not to drop the pills in that same hand, she gently stroked the boy's face with her left hand. "Open your eyes," she asked. "I just need you to wake up long enough to take these, then you can rest."
The boy did not respond. Rei frowned. "Come on. I heard you make that racket about the antiseptic, so I know you're not dead yet, and I think you can still hear me. Open your eyes and look at me!" she demanded. But still, her patient wasn't going to cooperate. Rolling her eyes, she let out a huffy breath. "Okay, fine. Have it your way." Dropping the pills into her free hand, Rei popped them into her mouth and chewed them into powder, but did not swallow. Instead, she pressed her lips to his, opening his mouth and forcing the pasty solution inside.
This seemed to get a reaction. He twitched in her arms, but she only held tighter. She also kept her mouth sealed against his, depriving him of fresh air. Only when she felt him swallow did she dare release him. His eyes were open now, staring at her dazedly, but at the same time she could see sparks of rage within them. Well, that was fine. He could be mad if he wanted. But she needed to get those painkillers in him one way or another. When they wore off, she would take his temperature, and if necessary, she could give him a fever reducer. However, she hoped she wouldn't have to force them into him again.
Rei carefully laid the boy back down on the couch. He was drifting into sleep now, which was fine. Rising to her feet, she was about to go upstairs to get a blanket for him, when she saw Cree staring at her with wide eyes, glass of water in hand. She felt color rise into her cheeks, and a nervous laugh escaped her lips. "Well...had to get him to take his medicine, didn't I?" she asked, embarrassed at what her administration must have looked like. It wasn't her first kiss, that had been given away to one of Cree's sons when she was fifteen. That same boy was also the first and only one she ever slept with, one summer day when her grandfather was still alive and the two had stolen away to the prairie when the grass was tall and concealing But that son had moved to town and married another girl, and in all honesty, Rei didn't care. Such things were nothing but childhood fantasies.
"I take it you won't need this water then?" Cree asked stiffly. Rei laughed again. "Just put it on the end-table there. He can have it when he wakes up." That said, she quickly climbed the stairs. Realizing she was still in her robes, she hastily changed into old jeans and a heavy sweater, then tied her hair back with a black ribbon. Taking the two heaviest blankets off her bed, she carried them back down to the parlor and spread them over the young man's sleeping form. She would build a fire in the fireplace in a little bit, but first she needed Cree's goods.
The old man had already started unloading. When Rei opened the front door, she saw him climbing up the stairs with her flour sacks. Holding the door open for him (a concerned thought for the young man on her sofa flashed through her mind, but she would only keep the door open for a little while), Rei put on her coat and boots and went to grab the sugar and tea. Cree would bring up the two small barrels of meat, and she could grab the milk and eggs. The whole process only took about ten minutes.
"I'll put some coffee on for you, Cree, but do you mind if I build a fire first? I don't want him to get cold," she said, inclining her head towards the slumbering figure on the couch.
"Not at all. I'll even go get the water myself. You get that fire taken care of, then we'll chat," the old man replied. Rei smiled gratefully at him. Cree had been coming out to the shrine every week ever since she was a child, and you couldn't help but like the man. Her grandfather had never thought him to be too bright, but there wasn't a kinder-hearted soul within a hundred miles.
Getting some logs from the cellar, Rei brought them into the parlor and put three in the fireplace. Tossing some kindling from the tinder-box on top, she lit the whole thing with a match and welcomed the sudden warmth in the room. But still, as a matter of comfort, she wrapped her shawl around her shoulders as she went back into the kitchen. There was a kettle of water waiting on the stove, and Cree was just lighting a smaller fire within. In no time, the whole house was comfortably toasty, and if one were to ignore the wounded body on the sofa, the image of young woman and old man drinking coffee and eating toast in the kitchen was heartwarming indeed. But the expressions on both of their faces were a mixture of solemnity and confusion.
"So, are you going to keep him here?" Cree asked, looking at Rei.
She shrugged. "Well, you can't transport him in this condition. And even if you did, what would be the point? There's nothing a doctor can do for him that I haven't already done. Besides, who knows if a doctor would even see him? The kid just appeared out of nowhere, if he's carrying some kind of contagious disease or something, you know they won't let him come near the doctor's office."
Cree's already ashen complexion paled further. "You don't think he's got some kind of plague?"
"He could have the god-damned pox for all I know. But there's nobody to infect out here. You barely touched him, so I'm sure you're fine. I might've caught something from when I treated him, but if so, that's life." A wry grin crossed her face. "I'm not worried though. I got Grandpa's constitution, and you know that man was never sick a day in his life."
"Still...what if he's a bandit or something? I don't like the idea of you being left out here all alone with him..."
"Oh come on, Cree!" Rei cried, exasperation saturating her voice. "I've been all alone out here for the past two years. He's in no condition to attack me, and if he wants to rob me, there's not much to steal. And even if there was, he's got no place to go. On top of all that, you know I've still got the shotgun. Shooting a dangerous person probably isn't too different from shooting a dangerous animal."
Cree was silent for a few moments, then finished off his coffee. "So, you are going to keep him here."
"Yes," Rei answered.
"How long?"
"Until he's better. Maybe longer than that. Until he's either ready to leave or I'm ready to throw him out. Food's not an issue, I've got plenty. He can sleep on the couch, it's warmer down here anyways. As long as he behaves himself, I'm not going to just throw him out there to die," she said firmly.
The old man chuckled. "For God's sake, Rei, you sound like a little girl who just found an orphaned puppy."
"A puppy?" Rei mused, then her eyes lit up. "Oh! I didn't tell you! There was a stray running around here yesterday..."
The pair chewed the fat for another thirty minutes after that. After Cree had finished off two more cups of coffee, he rose to his feet and headed for the front door, pausing to glance at the young man. "You want me to come check on you guys over the weekend?" he offered when he opened the door.
Rei shrugged. "It's up to you. But don't go out of your way, Cree. Things will be fine, I promise. He'll probably be gone when you come next week," she said nonchalantly.
Cree didn't tell her had a feeling that prediction was one that wasn't going to come true.
Instead, he put on his hat and coat, and descended the stairs to his truck. Rei watched out the window as the vehicle started up, turned around in the middle of the road, then headed back the way it had come, until finally it vanished over the horizon.
Turning, she looked at the young man on the couch and tilted her head slightly. Color seemed to be returning to his face, that was good. And there wasn't any sign of his wound bleeding through the bandage. He was laying still now, sleeping peacefully. "Who are you?" Rei murmured. "And how the hell did you get here?"
She blinked, and saw the white dog on her couch. Gasping, she blinked again. No, it was the boy. Rei shook her head. She hadn't been able to get the creature out of her head. Why had it frightened her so much? Sure it had been big, but a dog was a dog. People kept them as pets. So what was it about that dog?
Rei shook her head. "I really am going crazy..." she murmured, going into the kitchen to begin the day's work of canning vegetables.
He brought me to her. The one who inflicted this wound on me. Should I tell her? If I do, then she'll know. She should know. I have my pride as a wolf. But I can't fight her like this. She could cut my throat and I couldn't stop her. I hate this. I hate hiding as a human. I hate her for all of this. But her kindness...why? Why is she doing this? Who is she?
The young man on the couch did not stir until almost sunset. Rei was just putting another log on the fire when she heard the crack of his joints from behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him attempting to sit up straight, and succeeding, although it looked like he was in pain. Rising to her feet, she slowly went to him. "So...you're awake. How do you feel?" she asked, picking up the box of medical supplies and beginning to rummage through it. The boy didn't answer, just watched her suspiciously. Catching his glance, she rolled her eyes. "Relax. I'm just getting a thermometer. I want to take your temperature and make sure you're not running a fever. You'll be in bad shape if that wound's infected."
Still he said nothing. Well fine. She could deal with the silent treatment. Taking out the thermometer, she took it into the kitchen and rinsed it off with water, then came back out. The boy was still watching her closely, examining her like she was some sort of alien life form. "It's rude to stare," she informed him, sitting down next to him on the couch and holding out the thermometer. He made no move to take it. Rei let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, don't be difficult. Just put it in your mouth. I promise it won't hurt," she added as an afterthought, almost convinced that he had never seen a thermometer before in his life. But to her surprise, he did as she said. She waited for about a minute, then carefully withdrew it from his lips.
She frowned. "One hundred and one. Damn..." she cursed softly shaking the instrument.
"...I feel fine."
The woman raised her head. "So you can talk," she mused. "I was seriously starting to wonder about that." Standing up, she went to rinse off the thermometer then returned it to its box. Taking out a different pill bottle, one of fever-reducers, she shook a couple into her palm and handed them to him. "Swallow these. There's water right there," she pointed to the glass Cree had put on the end-table, untouched all day. Without complaint, the young man swallowed them, as well as the water. Taking the glass from it, Rei set it aside and looked down at him. "How does your arm feel?" she asked, glancing at the wound but making no move to check the bandages.
"Numb," he answered. "What did you do?"
"I just gave you some painkillers. That's what made you so drowsy all day. They'll probably be wearing off soon, but I can give you some more if you want." She took the glass and went into the kitchen, but continued to talk, raising her voice so he could hear. "I can't give you too many though. They're not good for your body, and really hard to come by out here. Cree only gets his hands on them once a year or so."
"Cree...was that the name of the old man with the truck?" the man asked when she came back into the room with a tray of food. She nodded.
"Yeah. He brings supplies out here once a week. You were lucky it was Wednesday. Otherwise you would have probably died there in the road. Nobody comes down it these days, except Cree, and only him once a week," Rei explained, setting the tray down on the end-table. "What happened to you anyways?"
A mask of stone took place of the boy's visage. She narrowed her eyes a little, and for a moment, the face of the white dog passed before her eyes. Rei was so startled that she almost dropped the plate in her hands. The boy caught this, however, and for a moment, she could have sworn there was a look of alarm in those pale blue eyes. "What?" he asked, voice flat as ever.
She hesitated. "Nothing," Rei said finally. "Just a shiver. It's kind of cold in here." She handed the plate to him. He took it in his right hand, the good arm, and began to eat. Straightening her back, Rei went to the fireplace and added another log, then grabbed her shawl from where it lay draped over a chair. Taking her teacup from the tray, she sipped quietly and stared into the fire. Secretly, she was afraid that if she looked at the couch, she would see the white dog sitting there.
But when she heard the young man set the plate down and she dared turn back to face him, that's all she saw. A shirtless young man with tangled hair and a wounded arm and bright eyes. Bright eyes that were watching her just as closely as she was watching him. It made her uncomfortable. There was nothing perverse in it; she didn't get the vibe he was undressing her with his eyes. Or rather he was, but he wasn't stopping at taking off the clothes. He was looking beneath her skin, beneath her flesh, into her bones, into her very soul.
"What?" she snapped. "I told you before, it's rude to stare."
He was silent for a few more moments, but did not look away. His gaze did seem to soften, however, or at least became less piercing. "...What's your name?" he asked.
"Rei," she answered shortly. "Rei Hino."
"Where am I?"
"The middle of nowhere," she laughed bitterly, turning her face away again. "More specifically, my family's shrine. When people still came here, they called it the Tsuki-Gosai shrine. But now, it's just the place where I live."
"Alone?"
His questions were getting more irritating by the minute. "Well you don't see anyone here besides you and me, do you? And no I'm not hiding anyone upstairs or downstairs or out back. My nearest neighbor is Cree, and he won't be around for another week. If you're better by then, maybe he can take you into town, and you can make your way to wherever the hell you're going from there. But until then you're stuck here, and if you keep asking me all these questions, I swear I'm going to throttle you!"
She hadn't really meant to be so cross. But damn it, he unnerved her. If it wasn't his eyes, it was the absurd surety that he was a dog. The questions, casual as they were in retrospect, had also seemed very personal, ones she didn't feel like answering, although it only made sense that she should. Either way, the young man didn't seem to care. He was now watching the fire as intently as she was. He wasn't even watching her out of the corner of his eye, the way she was him.
They sat there for several moments in silence. Finally, Rei spoke. "What should I call you?" she asked, still keeping her gaze focused on the dancing orange flames.
"Kiba," the man answered without hesitation.
Almost no words were exchanged for the rest of the night. When Kiba mentioned that his arm was hurting, Rei offered him some more painkillers, and he accepted. After that, she brought down a pillow and an additional blanket, making a better bed on the couch for him. He didn't thank her, and she didn't expect him to. Around the time when the fire died, she noticed he had fallen asleep. Standing up, Rei locked the doors and hugged her shawl around her shoulders. She risked one more glance at him. And Kiba was Kiba, not a dog, just a man.
She repeated the thought over and over in her head until she fell asleep.
She's alone. I didn't think humans lived alone. I wonder what happened to her pack? Are they dead, or was she abandoned? Did she abandon them? I want to leave. I will leave, as soon as I'm able to. She'll be glad. She doesn't really want me here. We both like being alone. But why does she look at me so strangely? Does she see what I am?
Part 2
Author: Nyneve
Theme(s): No. 55: cold feet; jilted, change of plans
Summary: Rei is a priestess at an isolated shrine whose sanity is starting to fail her, until she finds companionship in a strange boy with a dark secret
Pairing/Characters: Rei/Kiba (Wolf's Rain)
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Title taken from a song by the late, great Warren Zevon
AN: Since this story is too large to be posted in one shot, I've split it in half. The following is Part 1
Splendid Isolation
How long have I been running? When did I last eat? When did I last sleep? I can't remember. It must have been a long time. My bones and my stomach are aching. But there's nothing out here. I see a hill up ahead. Is that a building on it? Perhaps, if a human lives there, I can steal some food...
Rei hugged her shawl tighter around her shoulders as she raised the steaming cup of tea to her lips. Snow was on the way, she could feel it. That meant she'd have to get the rest of those potatoes out of the ground. She'd gotten the last of the turnips and carrots last week, small as they were, but she wanted to give the potatoes some time yet. When the first blizzard hit, she doubted that Cree would be able to deliver the supplies.
Speaking of Cree, he was supposed to come today, wasn't he? What was today, for that matter? She turned her dark head to the calendar on the wall. It was a year old, but she'd crossed out the names of days and rewritten them all over the next spots, making the week start on Monday and end on Sunday. And if today was Tuesday, that meant tomorrow was Wednesday. Therefore, the old man with the black truck would not be by to deliver meat, dairy, soap, or tea until tomorrow.
A sigh escaped her lips as she finished off her cup. She was only twenty-two, and yet here she was, becoming as senile as a woman four times her age. Rei suspected it was the isolation that did it. Ever since her grandfather had died two years ago, she'd had no one to talk to, save those birds who haunted her garden. And, of course, Cree, but only on Wednesdays, and only for perhaps twenty minutes or so. Then, it was back to the silence, back to the solitude.
It wasn't fair to complain though. Her father had invited her to come to the city following her grandfather's death. As one of Jaguara's underlings, he had some influence in his city, and had even managed to get a pass for his daughter. But no, Rei would not leave. If she did, the shrine would fall into disrepair. There would be no one to take care of the garden, no one to sweep the graves of her mother and grandfather, no one to welcome the rare pilgrim who wished to pray in the ancient hall that shielded her cottage like a breakwater before a harbor. And of course, her pride would not allow her to suddenly run to the man who had abandoned her to grow up in this desolate place.
Besides that, she could at least be glad her life was never idle. Year-round, she spent her morning sweeping the floor of the prayer hall and saying a few words for her mother and grandfather. Afternoons varied with the seasons. In spring, she planted. In summer, she tended. In autumn, she harvested and stored. And in winter, she wrote. Poetry, mostly, for her own amusement, but her mother had instilled a love of music in her at a young age, and had even brought a piano from the city with her when they first came to live at the shrine. It was one of the few things that chased away the silence of the shrine. On top of all that, there was also cooking, housecleaning, clothes mending, and any other odd job that arose around the shrine. There was no electricity or running water, but Cree always delivered oil for the lamps and wood for the stove, and there was a well and outhouse out behind the cottage, which in itself was small. There was a kitchen, parlor, and a loft where she slept. The cellar had a dirt portion to store food, and a stone portion to store fuel.
As if that weren't enough, there was always the chance that the shrine might fall victim to passing bands of outlaws, renegade soldiers, desperate wanderers, or wild animals. There was no doubt in her mind as to how dangerous it was to be a young woman living alone, no family or husband, with the nearest neighbor forty miles away and the nearest city almost one hundred. A road passed the bottom of the hill on which the shrine was situated, and usually one vehicle would pass each day. But recently, the travelers had become fewer and fewer. It had been over a week since anyone besides Cree had come. And even when they did drive by, they never stopped. Not even to ask how far until the next town. Not even to chat about the weather.
Still, if there was any trouble, she wasn't completely helpless. Her grandfather had left a shotgun behind when he died, and after deciding to live alone, Rei made sure that Cree delivered enough ammunition to keep her from ever running out. And while she never had to use it on a human, if some creature that looked safe to eat happened to wander onto her territory, she never hesitated to take a few shots. Sometimes she missed, usually she didn't. As a result, Rei could say that she'd eaten rabbit, squirrel, some kind of muskrat, and wildcat. She felt bad about taking the life, of course, but one thing living out here taught you was that it was survival of the fittest. If God saw fit to give you meat, you didn't dare pass it up.
The only things she didn't dare shoot were the birds. There were two of them, crows. Ever since she'd been a child, they'd lived in the garden, building a nest in one of the four pine trees that grew on the hill, the only ones visible for miles. Their tree was the one that grew over the well, and none of the other birds that came by the shrine dared to land on its branches. Rei didn't know why they lived at the shrine, nor did she know what they ate, for they never went near the garden. But they never caused any trouble, and in the past two years, she found herself conversing with them as though they were people. She even gave them names. Phobos and Deimos, Fear and Dread, two things that had no place at the shrine.
And yet, here they were.
Rei rose to her feet and cleared the table. After washing the dishes, she climbed the steep stairs to her loft, then changed into the robes she wore any time she entered the prayer hall. In addition, she grabbed a heavy coat hanging on the wall by the back door. It had belonged to her grandfather. Taking the broom from its spot on the back porch, she shut the door behind her and went to the hall, ready for one more day on her island of solitude.
The hill is farther than I thought. Larger as well. I can see there are several buildings on it. Is this a farm? If so, then which building is the barn? I can see the house, a woman has just entered it after leaving the other large building. Why don't I smell any animals? Are they dead? No, there are birds. Two large crows. Enough to keep me on my feet until I can reach a town at least. It'll be an easy kill...
As she changed from her robes into more suitable work clothes, a cold feeling struck her through the heart. Something was wrong. She had a sixth sense for things like this, even her grandfather had recognized it when she was alive. That was how she knew when it was going to snow, or if her harvest was going to be good. Or, in the case of her mother, if someone was going to die.
But the feeling that coursed through her veins now was a message. Intruder. Human or animal or something else, she wasn't sure. But it was a threat. Her intuition had a very strong sense of self-preservation. And since Rei wasn't going to start doubting it now, she took the shotgun out from beneath her bed. It wasn't loaded, but that was a problem easily alleviated. Going back down the steps, she quickly locked the front door, then went into the kitchen. Opening a drawer, she found the box of shells kept there. It was half-empty, but there were more down in the cellar. And hopefully, she wouldn't need more than the six that were here. Loading the gun, she put the remaining shells in her pocket, then went to the back window. Pushing aside the faded red curtain, she peered out suspiciously.
There was nothing there, no one. Phobos and Deimos were flapping about in the yard between the house and the garden, and a few other birds were perched on the well pump and fence posts. All was as it should be. Which made Rei bite her lip. She couldn't be wrong, could she? Was she going mad? First talking to birds, then losing track of time, and now seeing threats where there were none? Was this what living alone did to you?
No. Living alone sharpened your senses. Which is why she noticed the other birds suddenly alight. Only Phobos and Deimos, convinced of their invulnerability, remained, going about their avian business and paying no attention to their fleeing compatriots. Rei, however, was more concerned, darting her eyes all around the yard in search of the invisible intruder. Still, no one...
A flash of white. Rei's heart stopped, and there was a loud flapping of wings and horrified cawing. Another flash of white, and a rain of black feathers. And then she saw it. The white fur and whiter fangs of the huge dog that had invaded her yard, and was now terrorizing her two feathered friends. And she doubted the beast would stop at that. Strays were desperate. Once this one got the birds, it would either try to get into the house, or the prayer hall. She could hope for the hall, but no doubt it would smell the food here. And the dog was huge...
But fear had no place at the shrine. The dog was on the far side of the garden now, still leaping and barking and snapping at Phobos and Deimos, who hovered just out of its reach. Barely thinking anymore, she threw open the back door to the house and fired. She missed, but got the beast's attention.
"Get the hell out of here!" she snarled, sounding like a mad dog herself as she reloaded the gun. "Go on, get!" she repeated, shooting again. Again she missed, and the dog was just standing there, trying to figure out what to do next. Clenching her jaw, Rei aimed the gun one more time. This time she saw a spray of red, and heard a yelp of pain. But rather than falling dead to the ground, the dog turned and vanished over the edge of the hill. She didn't even see where he'd been hit. And she didn't care to.
For several more moments, Rei stood there on the back step, gun ready and loaded in case the thing came back. It didn't. Keeping the gun close, she went to the shed and grabbed her trowel and a basket, determined to get the last of her goods out of the ground so that if the thing came back, it wouldn't be able to dig anything up. And when that task was done, she went back inside, locked the door, and spent the rest of the afternoon staring out the back window, shotgun across her lap. She didn't go outside again until sunset, when she gathered water for the night and used the outhouse. Afterwards, she again locked the doors, then barricaded them with additional furniture.
When she finally lay down in bed that night (shotgun still in reach), she did not sleep.
My arm won't stop bleeding. It hurts, but I can bear the pain. I'm scared that I'll bleed to death. There's nothing to use for a bandage out here. Maybe at that house, but the woman might recognize me. I'll hide here in this hole until morning, at least. Maybe a car will come by...
She must have drifted off at some point in the night, because when Rei was next aware of her surroundings, the sun was up. Turning on the bed, she stared out the porthole window over the headboard. The sky was blanketed with fat gray clouds. It would snow before the day was out, she was sure of it, and thankful she had brought the last of the crops in the day before. As for the stray dog, there was no sign of him, and surely that white fur would stand out against the flat gray landscape. Once the snow did start to fall, however...
Rei wasn't going to think about that. As proof, she picked up the shotgun from beside the bed, and removed the shells. And then, on second thought, she replaced them, but left the gun in the loft. Wrapping a heavy shawl around her shoulders and jamming her feet into soft leather mules, she carefully descended the stairs and went into the kitchen. A glance at the calendar reminded her of the day. Yes. Wednesday. Cree would come today, hopefully before noon. Rei ladled the last of the water from the bucket into the kettle, and as it began to boil, she rummaged around in the cupboards for coffee. She rarely drank it herself, but she always wanted to make sure there was some on hand for when Cree came. She set the burlap bag aside, then took her own tea tin and added the leaves to the water. In addition, she cut herself a few slices of bread. Rei wasn't really one to eat a large breakfast.
As she ate, Rei couldn't help but glance out the windows. First the back one, checking for signs of the dog. None. But there wasn't any sign of Phobos or Deimos either, which gave her an uneasy feeling. However, she'd seen them evade the dog yesterday, and unless it had gotten them in the night (which wasn't likely; they roosted in the tree when the sun went down), chances were they were fine. After checking the back window, she glanced through the doorway to the parlor and out the front windows, watching for Cree's truck. None. But of course, it was early yet. She probably shouldn't have expected him for another hour, maybe two.
Finishing off her meager meal, Rei cleaned hastily, her mind somewhat wandering now. Cree was supposed to deliver tea, three pounds of salt pork and three pounds of salt beef, a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs, plus she'd ordered two extra bags of flour and an extra bag of sugar. And of course, he would bring any mail she might have received, although the only things she ever received were the monthly allowance and occasional letter from her father. He was generous with money, she couldn't fault him that, hence her ability to pay Cree for the goods he delivered, but as a child, Rei had wished her father had been more generous with his love and affection. But these past few years, the desire to see him faded, and now all he seemed to be was a patron who sent a small stack of bills every first Wednesday of the month.
After the kitchen was clean, Rei changed into her robes and went out to the prayer hall. She first lit the lamps in the corners of the room, then went to the firebox in the middle. Placing a large stack of kindling inside from its box near the door, she lit it with a match and knelt down as the pile sprang to life. The fire itself illuminated the otherwise dark hall (there were no windows, only a vent in the ceiling over the firebox), but nonetheless, Rei shut her eyes. Murmuring the prayers she had learned by heart many years ago, she focused on her mother first, then her grandfather. She had loved both fiercely, and losing them had scarred her more than anyone could have imagined. However, losing her father to a Noble at age four (Rei never prayed for him) had prepared her to lose her mother to illness at age nine, and losing her mother had in turn prepared her for losing her grandfather to old age.
And when I die...who will be here to miss me? The thought startled her. It wasn't the first time it had crossed her mind either. Only on days like this, the particularly cold ones, when the landscape underscored the isolation of the shrine. On every other day, Rei was content with the loneliness. But today it felt like a weight pressing down on her from above. She wished Phobos and Deimos were around outside. She would have liked to talk with them. But instead, she would have to settle for delivering a silent news update to her mother and grandfather. She told them about this year's harvest, about the newest poem she was working on, and about the dog. Of course, neither of them responded, but she visualized her mother's beautiful smile, and some of the chill seemed to vanish from the air.
So intent was she in her meditation that she didn't hear the truck roaring up the road. Didn't hear the footsteps pounding up the stairs to the top of the hill. She didn't hear anything until the door to the prayer hall was thrown up.
"Rei! You need to come quick! I found a kid wounded on the road, and he's bleedin' real bad!"
Her eyes flew open and she whirled around, her long black hair streaming like a banner. Cree stood in the door-frame, his worn but sturdy body hidden by a long heavy coat, his gray hair sticking out from under a black fleece cap. It took a few minutes to register his words. A kid? What the hell was a kid doing way out here? The nearest town was almost fifty miles away, and the only people who lived between here and there were Cree and his family. As for the other way down the road, it eventually joined up with a bigger one that ran south, but there weren't any settlements of any size that way either.
But regardless of where such a kid could have come from, if he was hurt as bad as Cree intimated, there wasn't much time to waste. Throwing sand on the fire, Rei got to her feet and pulled her coat tight around her, then raced down the stairs to the road, where the truck was parked. Laying across the bad was a young man (Rei recalled it was a habit of Cree's to call any person under the age of thirty a "kid") dressed only in jeans, a t-shirt, and leather jacket. She recognized the jacket as belonging to one of Cree's sons. The man's face was deathly pale, and his shaggy black hair looked like it hadn't been washed in years. Sick as he looked, however, he didn't have any visible wounds. But...wait. There was a speckling of blood on the t-shirt...
Gingerly, she unzipped the jacket and moved it away from his arm. A gasp escaped her lips. It was as if the entire left sleeve of the t-shirt had been dyed red. The flesh of his bicep was shredded, and although it wasn't very deep, the wounded area was the size of a pancake.
"What the hell happened to him?" Rei asked as she heard Cree come to her side. The old man shrugged.
"No clue. He stumbled into the road maybe a mile or two up from here. Damn near ran him over. But I got him into the back and figured you were his best bet. You've got bandages up at the house, right?" he asked. Rei nodded. "Okay, I'll carry him, you get what you need."
She all but flew up the steps. Although she wasn't a doctor, Rei's grandfather had taught her how to take care of wounds from an early age, and she knew time was of the essence. There was no way the young man would make it if Cree tried to take him all the way to town. If he lost any more blood, he wasn't going to make it at all.
Going into the kitchen, Rei grabbed the cardboard box she kept filled with medicines and bandages. Putting them on the floor beside the sofa in the parlor, she went back into the kitchen to grab a basin, which she then filled with water from the pump outside. By the time she came back in, Cree had laid the young man on the sofa. He had taken care to remove the jacket, but the t-shirt was still in the way. Taking a scissors from the box, Rei cut it off and tossed it on the floor. Dipping a rag in the water, she began to mop the blood off of his frigid skin. From the corner of her eye, she could see the boy's lips trembling with every breath he took.
"Hang in there," she murmured. "You're going to be fine. You're safe now. Just hang on..."
After she'd cleaned away the old blood, she took an antiseptic cream from the box and carefully rubbed it on the wound. A cry of pain escaped the boy's lips, and his eyes flew open, though she doubted they could see anything. Still, she was startled by the color. They were blue as the summer sky on the few pretty days of the year. Blue as her mother's eyes had been. However, as quickly as they had opened, they shut again, and she felt him clench up in pain.
"Stop being a baby!" Rei scolded. "If you managed to survive getting this wound, then you can survive it getting treated."
After the ointment had been applied, she began bandaging it, tying off his arm with rubber bands just below the shoulder and just above the elbow. After that, she wound a long roll of gauze around his bicep adding layer after layer until she could no longer see blood seeping through the linen. With the wound tended to, there was only one thing left. Taking out a bottle from the box, she opened it and shook two pills into the palm of her hand. Carefully, she raised the young man's head.
"Cree...can you go get me a glass of water please? You'll have to get it from the pump," she murmured. The old man nodded and vanished. Balancing the boy's head on her right forearm and taking care not to drop the pills in that same hand, she gently stroked the boy's face with her left hand. "Open your eyes," she asked. "I just need you to wake up long enough to take these, then you can rest."
The boy did not respond. Rei frowned. "Come on. I heard you make that racket about the antiseptic, so I know you're not dead yet, and I think you can still hear me. Open your eyes and look at me!" she demanded. But still, her patient wasn't going to cooperate. Rolling her eyes, she let out a huffy breath. "Okay, fine. Have it your way." Dropping the pills into her free hand, Rei popped them into her mouth and chewed them into powder, but did not swallow. Instead, she pressed her lips to his, opening his mouth and forcing the pasty solution inside.
This seemed to get a reaction. He twitched in her arms, but she only held tighter. She also kept her mouth sealed against his, depriving him of fresh air. Only when she felt him swallow did she dare release him. His eyes were open now, staring at her dazedly, but at the same time she could see sparks of rage within them. Well, that was fine. He could be mad if he wanted. But she needed to get those painkillers in him one way or another. When they wore off, she would take his temperature, and if necessary, she could give him a fever reducer. However, she hoped she wouldn't have to force them into him again.
Rei carefully laid the boy back down on the couch. He was drifting into sleep now, which was fine. Rising to her feet, she was about to go upstairs to get a blanket for him, when she saw Cree staring at her with wide eyes, glass of water in hand. She felt color rise into her cheeks, and a nervous laugh escaped her lips. "Well...had to get him to take his medicine, didn't I?" she asked, embarrassed at what her administration must have looked like. It wasn't her first kiss, that had been given away to one of Cree's sons when she was fifteen. That same boy was also the first and only one she ever slept with, one summer day when her grandfather was still alive and the two had stolen away to the prairie when the grass was tall and concealing But that son had moved to town and married another girl, and in all honesty, Rei didn't care. Such things were nothing but childhood fantasies.
"I take it you won't need this water then?" Cree asked stiffly. Rei laughed again. "Just put it on the end-table there. He can have it when he wakes up." That said, she quickly climbed the stairs. Realizing she was still in her robes, she hastily changed into old jeans and a heavy sweater, then tied her hair back with a black ribbon. Taking the two heaviest blankets off her bed, she carried them back down to the parlor and spread them over the young man's sleeping form. She would build a fire in the fireplace in a little bit, but first she needed Cree's goods.
The old man had already started unloading. When Rei opened the front door, she saw him climbing up the stairs with her flour sacks. Holding the door open for him (a concerned thought for the young man on her sofa flashed through her mind, but she would only keep the door open for a little while), Rei put on her coat and boots and went to grab the sugar and tea. Cree would bring up the two small barrels of meat, and she could grab the milk and eggs. The whole process only took about ten minutes.
"I'll put some coffee on for you, Cree, but do you mind if I build a fire first? I don't want him to get cold," she said, inclining her head towards the slumbering figure on the couch.
"Not at all. I'll even go get the water myself. You get that fire taken care of, then we'll chat," the old man replied. Rei smiled gratefully at him. Cree had been coming out to the shrine every week ever since she was a child, and you couldn't help but like the man. Her grandfather had never thought him to be too bright, but there wasn't a kinder-hearted soul within a hundred miles.
Getting some logs from the cellar, Rei brought them into the parlor and put three in the fireplace. Tossing some kindling from the tinder-box on top, she lit the whole thing with a match and welcomed the sudden warmth in the room. But still, as a matter of comfort, she wrapped her shawl around her shoulders as she went back into the kitchen. There was a kettle of water waiting on the stove, and Cree was just lighting a smaller fire within. In no time, the whole house was comfortably toasty, and if one were to ignore the wounded body on the sofa, the image of young woman and old man drinking coffee and eating toast in the kitchen was heartwarming indeed. But the expressions on both of their faces were a mixture of solemnity and confusion.
"So, are you going to keep him here?" Cree asked, looking at Rei.
She shrugged. "Well, you can't transport him in this condition. And even if you did, what would be the point? There's nothing a doctor can do for him that I haven't already done. Besides, who knows if a doctor would even see him? The kid just appeared out of nowhere, if he's carrying some kind of contagious disease or something, you know they won't let him come near the doctor's office."
Cree's already ashen complexion paled further. "You don't think he's got some kind of plague?"
"He could have the god-damned pox for all I know. But there's nobody to infect out here. You barely touched him, so I'm sure you're fine. I might've caught something from when I treated him, but if so, that's life." A wry grin crossed her face. "I'm not worried though. I got Grandpa's constitution, and you know that man was never sick a day in his life."
"Still...what if he's a bandit or something? I don't like the idea of you being left out here all alone with him..."
"Oh come on, Cree!" Rei cried, exasperation saturating her voice. "I've been all alone out here for the past two years. He's in no condition to attack me, and if he wants to rob me, there's not much to steal. And even if there was, he's got no place to go. On top of all that, you know I've still got the shotgun. Shooting a dangerous person probably isn't too different from shooting a dangerous animal."
Cree was silent for a few moments, then finished off his coffee. "So, you are going to keep him here."
"Yes," Rei answered.
"How long?"
"Until he's better. Maybe longer than that. Until he's either ready to leave or I'm ready to throw him out. Food's not an issue, I've got plenty. He can sleep on the couch, it's warmer down here anyways. As long as he behaves himself, I'm not going to just throw him out there to die," she said firmly.
The old man chuckled. "For God's sake, Rei, you sound like a little girl who just found an orphaned puppy."
"A puppy?" Rei mused, then her eyes lit up. "Oh! I didn't tell you! There was a stray running around here yesterday..."
The pair chewed the fat for another thirty minutes after that. After Cree had finished off two more cups of coffee, he rose to his feet and headed for the front door, pausing to glance at the young man. "You want me to come check on you guys over the weekend?" he offered when he opened the door.
Rei shrugged. "It's up to you. But don't go out of your way, Cree. Things will be fine, I promise. He'll probably be gone when you come next week," she said nonchalantly.
Cree didn't tell her had a feeling that prediction was one that wasn't going to come true.
Instead, he put on his hat and coat, and descended the stairs to his truck. Rei watched out the window as the vehicle started up, turned around in the middle of the road, then headed back the way it had come, until finally it vanished over the horizon.
Turning, she looked at the young man on the couch and tilted her head slightly. Color seemed to be returning to his face, that was good. And there wasn't any sign of his wound bleeding through the bandage. He was laying still now, sleeping peacefully. "Who are you?" Rei murmured. "And how the hell did you get here?"
She blinked, and saw the white dog on her couch. Gasping, she blinked again. No, it was the boy. Rei shook her head. She hadn't been able to get the creature out of her head. Why had it frightened her so much? Sure it had been big, but a dog was a dog. People kept them as pets. So what was it about that dog?
Rei shook her head. "I really am going crazy..." she murmured, going into the kitchen to begin the day's work of canning vegetables.
He brought me to her. The one who inflicted this wound on me. Should I tell her? If I do, then she'll know. She should know. I have my pride as a wolf. But I can't fight her like this. She could cut my throat and I couldn't stop her. I hate this. I hate hiding as a human. I hate her for all of this. But her kindness...why? Why is she doing this? Who is she?
The young man on the couch did not stir until almost sunset. Rei was just putting another log on the fire when she heard the crack of his joints from behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him attempting to sit up straight, and succeeding, although it looked like he was in pain. Rising to her feet, she slowly went to him. "So...you're awake. How do you feel?" she asked, picking up the box of medical supplies and beginning to rummage through it. The boy didn't answer, just watched her suspiciously. Catching his glance, she rolled her eyes. "Relax. I'm just getting a thermometer. I want to take your temperature and make sure you're not running a fever. You'll be in bad shape if that wound's infected."
Still he said nothing. Well fine. She could deal with the silent treatment. Taking out the thermometer, she took it into the kitchen and rinsed it off with water, then came back out. The boy was still watching her closely, examining her like she was some sort of alien life form. "It's rude to stare," she informed him, sitting down next to him on the couch and holding out the thermometer. He made no move to take it. Rei let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, don't be difficult. Just put it in your mouth. I promise it won't hurt," she added as an afterthought, almost convinced that he had never seen a thermometer before in his life. But to her surprise, he did as she said. She waited for about a minute, then carefully withdrew it from his lips.
She frowned. "One hundred and one. Damn..." she cursed softly shaking the instrument.
"...I feel fine."
The woman raised her head. "So you can talk," she mused. "I was seriously starting to wonder about that." Standing up, she went to rinse off the thermometer then returned it to its box. Taking out a different pill bottle, one of fever-reducers, she shook a couple into her palm and handed them to him. "Swallow these. There's water right there," she pointed to the glass Cree had put on the end-table, untouched all day. Without complaint, the young man swallowed them, as well as the water. Taking the glass from it, Rei set it aside and looked down at him. "How does your arm feel?" she asked, glancing at the wound but making no move to check the bandages.
"Numb," he answered. "What did you do?"
"I just gave you some painkillers. That's what made you so drowsy all day. They'll probably be wearing off soon, but I can give you some more if you want." She took the glass and went into the kitchen, but continued to talk, raising her voice so he could hear. "I can't give you too many though. They're not good for your body, and really hard to come by out here. Cree only gets his hands on them once a year or so."
"Cree...was that the name of the old man with the truck?" the man asked when she came back into the room with a tray of food. She nodded.
"Yeah. He brings supplies out here once a week. You were lucky it was Wednesday. Otherwise you would have probably died there in the road. Nobody comes down it these days, except Cree, and only him once a week," Rei explained, setting the tray down on the end-table. "What happened to you anyways?"
A mask of stone took place of the boy's visage. She narrowed her eyes a little, and for a moment, the face of the white dog passed before her eyes. Rei was so startled that she almost dropped the plate in her hands. The boy caught this, however, and for a moment, she could have sworn there was a look of alarm in those pale blue eyes. "What?" he asked, voice flat as ever.
She hesitated. "Nothing," Rei said finally. "Just a shiver. It's kind of cold in here." She handed the plate to him. He took it in his right hand, the good arm, and began to eat. Straightening her back, Rei went to the fireplace and added another log, then grabbed her shawl from where it lay draped over a chair. Taking her teacup from the tray, she sipped quietly and stared into the fire. Secretly, she was afraid that if she looked at the couch, she would see the white dog sitting there.
But when she heard the young man set the plate down and she dared turn back to face him, that's all she saw. A shirtless young man with tangled hair and a wounded arm and bright eyes. Bright eyes that were watching her just as closely as she was watching him. It made her uncomfortable. There was nothing perverse in it; she didn't get the vibe he was undressing her with his eyes. Or rather he was, but he wasn't stopping at taking off the clothes. He was looking beneath her skin, beneath her flesh, into her bones, into her very soul.
"What?" she snapped. "I told you before, it's rude to stare."
He was silent for a few more moments, but did not look away. His gaze did seem to soften, however, or at least became less piercing. "...What's your name?" he asked.
"Rei," she answered shortly. "Rei Hino."
"Where am I?"
"The middle of nowhere," she laughed bitterly, turning her face away again. "More specifically, my family's shrine. When people still came here, they called it the Tsuki-Gosai shrine. But now, it's just the place where I live."
"Alone?"
His questions were getting more irritating by the minute. "Well you don't see anyone here besides you and me, do you? And no I'm not hiding anyone upstairs or downstairs or out back. My nearest neighbor is Cree, and he won't be around for another week. If you're better by then, maybe he can take you into town, and you can make your way to wherever the hell you're going from there. But until then you're stuck here, and if you keep asking me all these questions, I swear I'm going to throttle you!"
She hadn't really meant to be so cross. But damn it, he unnerved her. If it wasn't his eyes, it was the absurd surety that he was a dog. The questions, casual as they were in retrospect, had also seemed very personal, ones she didn't feel like answering, although it only made sense that she should. Either way, the young man didn't seem to care. He was now watching the fire as intently as she was. He wasn't even watching her out of the corner of his eye, the way she was him.
They sat there for several moments in silence. Finally, Rei spoke. "What should I call you?" she asked, still keeping her gaze focused on the dancing orange flames.
"Kiba," the man answered without hesitation.
Almost no words were exchanged for the rest of the night. When Kiba mentioned that his arm was hurting, Rei offered him some more painkillers, and he accepted. After that, she brought down a pillow and an additional blanket, making a better bed on the couch for him. He didn't thank her, and she didn't expect him to. Around the time when the fire died, she noticed he had fallen asleep. Standing up, Rei locked the doors and hugged her shawl around her shoulders. She risked one more glance at him. And Kiba was Kiba, not a dog, just a man.
She repeated the thought over and over in her head until she fell asleep.
She's alone. I didn't think humans lived alone. I wonder what happened to her pack? Are they dead, or was she abandoned? Did she abandon them? I want to leave. I will leave, as soon as I'm able to. She'll be glad. She doesn't really want me here. We both like being alone. But why does she look at me so strangely? Does she see what I am?
Part 2