Ae-Ra silently opened the sliding doors, praying to every god that it didn't creak. Much to her relief it didn't.
"Am I not supposed to be here?", the strange man asked cluelessly.
Horrified, Ae-Ra slapped her hand over his mouth. That made the man scream, much to Ae-Ra's utter horror. She clamped down harder on his mouth.
"Ya! Do you want to get both of us killed? Shut your cursed mouth!", Ae-Ra screamed at him in a hushed whisper.
The man started to violently thrash his face away from her hand, and release his poor mouth from her tight clasp. Seeing that Ae-Ra loosened her grip on him.
"How can a woman be so rude?", the man asked in a horrified whisper. Ae-Ra sighed.
"Just shut up, will you?"
The man huffed. Ae-Ra rolled her eyes. She carried him as silently as she could to her room, tiptoeing across her home like a thief. Upon reaching her room she dumped him onto her floor, and locked the door.
"Ya! Why did you dump me on the floor? Do I look like the garbage to you?"
Ae-Ra shrugged.
"You do. Plus, I don't want my sheets getting stained. Also, who allows a stranger on their bed?"
"Come on I'm not a stranger to you. You are my saviour, we have a good relationship.", the strange man lazily grinned. The nerve of him!
Ae-Ra looked at him. Was he insane? Should she beat him? No, he was injured, she reminded herself. She just sighed and went to her table, and took out healing salves, bandages, antiseptics.
"Open your shirt.", Ae-Ra commanded.
The man looked at her with wide eyes and gasped.
"You are bold, when I said we had a good relationship I meant a knight in shining armour and damsel in distress kind of relationship, please don't get any other ideas."
That was it. Ae-Ra had had enough. She aimed and threw the roll of bandages directly at his head with as much force she could muster.
The man gave a short yelp of pain,
"You are not only bold but evil. Pure evil. Who hurts an injured person?"
Ae-Ra marched up to him and looked at with cold eyes,
"Then stop insinuating anything you fool. How am I supposed to treat your wound if you don't open your damned shirt!"
"Wow, you curse as well."
Ae-Ra raised her hand ready to strike the blabbering fool, but managed to stop herself. She just gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into a fist. She had saved the wrong person. Also was he calling himself a 'damsel in distress'. Weirdo.
"Open. The. Shirt. You. Fool.", she gritted out.
This time out of fear, he silently lifted up his robes to display his pale abdomen where there were angry red gaping wounds. Ae-Ra sighed. She was throughly annoyed by him, but also felt bad for him. But thankfully the wound was shallow. She begun cleaning it with the antiseptic and put the healing salve of arnica oil, beeswax and sesame. His skin was smooth and soft to touch, not littered with scars like a warrior's, or course from work like a peasant. Who was he truly? Ae-Ra's anger had cooled down, but she dared not meet the beautiful fireworks of his eyes.
"What's your name? If you don't mind me asking? I feel I should know the name of my 'damsel in distress'?"
"Ya! I am not a damsel in distress!"
Ae-Ra looked up to him. Was he for real? Who was this odd man? But she immediately regretted her decision of looking up. As soon as she met his eyes she felt a warm blush blooming on her cheeks. She swiftly looked back down from embarrassment and said dryly,
"Didn't you say our relationship was like a 'knight in shining armour and damsel in distress'?"
He looked stupefied for a minute.
"I did? Right, I did."
Ae-Ra sighed and shook her head, he was most definitely a noble, arrogant, stupid and forgetful. Then why did he wear the garb of a peasant? He was an oddball, probably trying to sneak around like her in the night. From his childish behaviour, it was obvious he was used to a luxurious life, but one thing didn't add up, if he was a noble, why hadn't she seen him before in any of the parties? Perhaps he was a wallflower, and didn't attend them, but for someone shy he sure blabbered a lot of nonsense. She begun wrapping the linen bandages, tightly, and was impressed that he did not dramatically yelp in pain when she put the stinging salve and the tight bandages. Maybe he yelped most of the time to annoy her. Like a squirrel.
"My name is Ji-Ho.", he said his voice thought full and soft, no longer joking. Did he joke to hide the pain he felt from the wound? Perhaps to prevent himself from crying in pain he joked and annoyed her.
"Ji-Ho", his name sounded pleasant on her tongue, like soft and warm summers breeze.
"Yes?"
Had she spoken out loud? Gods, she excelled at embarrassing herself. She cleared her throat and said,
"Your wound is treated. It was a shallow wound and the skin should heal fast within a few weeks because of the ointment I gave, but there might be light scars." After some thought she added,
"I hope you feel better."
This time he smiled, a true genuine smile, not his silly joking ones, but a smile which lit up his face like the sky during the break of dawn. It was breath taking.
"I do. Thank you, I hope our paths meet again and I can repay you your favour. Till then I am in debt to you.", his voice was soft and gentle now, so regal and perfect. It was like freshly brewed tea on a stormy night, warm and comforting. He seemed almost like a different person. As annoying he was, something in her made her hope their paths would cross again.
She smiled at him,
"Till we meet again."
He smiled back sweeter than any sweet in the world,
"Till we meet again."
After that, he crept out of her house as silent as a shadow, leaving her in the silence of Dawn.
******