The wolf came back with a dead hare in his mouth. He walked up to the man and put the hare next to him, sniffed him from head to toe and after sneezing vigorously, he returned to the woods. Guess the strong herbal scent did not please him.
Elantia hadn't noticed that she was hungry until then. She waited a bit before daring to take the hare. She used her sharpest blade to gut and skin him. She seasoned it with fresh thyme that she just found before roasting it on a stone on top of the fire.
Elantia had a hard time keeping herself from eating it before it was completely cooked, so hungry was she, but the hare was still a good size and could have fed three people. Once she had her full contempt she put the rest aside for the wolf's return.
Elantia began to suffer from the bite of the cold despite the fire. Soon, she too would be at risk of falling ill. Her woolen cape still enveloping her patient, Elantia was dying to snuggle up in it, but the idea that Brenos found them in this posture would be embarrassing. She started to lose hopes for them to be rescued before the next day,with the night covering the forest with its dark coat, the men of the tribe will have to return, if wandering in the forest during the day is generally safe, it is definitely not the case at night, all the nocturnal beasts start hunting, the packs of wolves are famous in that area for not leaving large remains of their prey. They would have to both survive this night out. Brenos will find them in the early morning, she was sure of it.
For a blacksmith's son, he was rather frail when he was young, very tall, but thin as a reed. He was made fun of because of his size, the other children in the village often ran after him to beat him up, but for that... he still had to be caught; with the advantage of being so thin and light as a feather with long legs, he has almost always managed to escape them and find a hiding place, until their ardor dies down, or it was time for supper. Once he got caught but Elantia was wandering around and was able to step in and stop those bullies. The advantage of being the chief's daughter anyway is that she was trained to fight back from an early age and that her status gives her a certain freedom in threats... the "I'm going to tell my father!" was rather effective.
Ever since, Brenos had followed Elantia everywhere. Even if their relationship was more of a brotherly bond for Elantia, it was not the same for Brenos. As he grew up, his feelings for Elantia only strengthened,same for his body, no one would dare to attack him anymore given his stature now, working in the forge with his father made him build the muscles he was missing as a pre-teen.
He used to wander in the woods with her and knows her favorite foraging sites, beside that, he was the best at tracking and hunting along with her. That's why she was so confident he would find her. Thinking about Brenos actively looking for her was comforting, but she still needed to warm up and quickly!
Elantia started packing the man's clothes, then gathered and piled up some more wood for the night, she sorted the herbs she had harvested earlier, and spread them out by the fire to dry overnight. She also cut branches of shrubs around them which she piled up with rocks to create an alcove near the fire which should protect them a little from the icy night breeze. She came back to check on the man regularly and renew his treatment, his temperature was still low but closer to the living than the dead, his lips were still purplish, but that was expected, the poison will take time to be eliminated from his body.Trembling more and more, and overwhelmed with fatigue, the idea of taking refuge in the alcove under the cloak becomes less and less embarrassing. What good would an embarrassed dead woman be? With that thought, Elantia slipped under the cloak, just large enough to cover entirely the man and only part of her own body. She curled up against him as much as possible, trying to cover herself as much as possible without uncovering him, but her back was inevitably exposed to the freezing air.
The warmer she went, the more conscious she became of the naked man's body against which she desperately pressed herself. Elantia had already seen naked men, during the care she observed from her grandmother and also at the river behind the village, it was not uncommon for men to bathe there, many women chose this moment to wash their clothes there. And before Ilipa was old enough to take care of it, Elantia had followed the groups of curious young women many times. But being glued to the stranger's naked body awoke unsettling sensations in her entire being. Her heart started beating faster and her breathing quickened, if he was awake he could have seen the sudden flush of her cheeks. She could smell the river scent lingering on him, and feeling the warmth from his body radiating to hers, the scicelled muscles of his arms resting along her chest, and his large torso slowly moving with the rhythm of his breathing, she couldn't resist but to brush slightly his exposed skin. Her fingers followed the intricate tattoo on his neck, she followed the outline of the tattoo coming from his back to his shoulder, it was like a series of knots filled with runes, but some of them was not the ones she knew, all forming the body of a mythical two-headed animal, a wolf rolling up to his chest, and from shoulder to forearm, a long neck and a huge reptilian head with large scales, blowing fire from the elbow to the wrist. The men of the tribe also wore tattoos, but less detailed, and which did not cover the body as much, most wore them on their arms, some status signs could be marked on the face as for the representatives of the gods, the Uatis for example wears divination runes all over his bald skull and Talusius, the Father of Elantia wears a tattoo in the shape of a triskelion on the forehead while his grandmother wears it more finely on the left hand. This is the first time that Elantia has seen such a massive one. It almost looks like the two head beast is resting all wrapped around him waiting for his awakening.
A draft of air slid down her exposed back causing her to shudder, coming back to her senses she wrapped her leg around his, trying to escape the cold bite by squeezing herself closer.
She then felt something soft covering her back. The wolf had returned and laid down beside her, covering what was exposed of her with its thick, warm fur. She then finally closed her eyes and blissfully fell asleep, as if nothing else mattered and as if she was in the safest place in the world.