**RAYAN'S POV **
I woke up and I was lying on one of the mats we used to sleep on while we stayed in the Woods, above me was a ceiling made of dirt and some roots were hanging from it. The walls surrounding me was mainly made of small boulders which was the main reason this place hadn't collapsed. I saw our belongings which were placed close to what must have been a camp fire which had already burnt out. The sunlight that penetrated the entrance of the cave made me certain that it was close to noon.
I tried to sit up but I had no strength in me, guess I had lost a lot of blood, I touched the spot where I had been injured only to find that it was bandage, wait a minute am I shirtless, I checked my body to see one of my own shirts surrounding my upper body like a makeshift bandage and what was also strange was that my pants were changed.
"oh you are finally awake," Elena said as she walked in with a bundle of twigs and a strange plant. She had changed into a light blue dress which made me assume that I was out for a while. She walked over to the burnt out campfire, placed the bundle of twigs down, she crouched down and took out my scimitar from my bag, surprisingly my scimitar was clean, she placed the strange plant on a stone and started grinding it with the hilt of my scimitar.
"how long was I out?" I asked as I used my elbows to raise myself up.
"well one day then you woke up and passed out again for another day," she said as she started to grind the plant on a rock with the hilt of my scimitar.
"that long, wait what do you mean by I woke up and passed out again?"
She pulled back her hair and I could see some bruises around her neck.
"you did wake up and strangle me, before passing out again," she said but her tone was casual as if she didn't even care that I strangled her.
"I don't remember that but..."
"but what?"
"did you change my clothes," I asked as I eyed myself specifically my pants.
"well who else would change them." she said coyly.
All this time she was avoiding making eye contact pretending to be focused on whatever she was doing but now, her ears were bright red and she stopped what she was doing.
"you did, that means you saw my manhood," I yelled and I tried to stand up but the wound on my back must have opened up because a sharp pain sent me back to the mat.
"well the blood was attracting flies so I had to," she said quickly as she turned around and now I could see that her cheeks were now a brighter shade of red.
"so you did see it?"
"well I didn't mean to but..... ." she hesitated and turned around.
Oh fuck she saw it, can't believe that the first woman to see me naked would be her. Damn it! After she had finished grinding that plant into a green paste, she placed my scimitar back in the bag and walked over with the rock. She undid the bandage and pushed me so that my back was exposed to her and started applying whatever that was surprisingly it made the wound feel cold as it was being applied.
"what the fuck is that?" I asked.
"well it's medicine, I think." she said in an unsure tone.
"wait you think."
"well I remember reading about them, it's supposed to prevent anymore bleeding and cleans the wound."
"wait you are treating me with something you read about in a fucking book," I said in an irritated tone.
"well it stopped the bleeding and your wound stopped turning blue so yeah seems to be working," she fired back at me.
I was curious of how she procured a meal, the thought of princess hunting didn't make any sense also it was slightly funny, it took me a while to master hunting but she did the most basic thing to acquire food she bought it. She fished out my money from my bag and used it to buy food for herself, to make matters worse she bought it from the same place we had just left.
Her genius assumption was that our pursuers wouldn't expect us to still frequent there after the attack, not going to tell her but it's clever. She applied her 'medicine' two more times that day, it was weird never really had someone tend to my wounds, so I would subconsciously stiffen my body in awkwardness as she did that, also the one tending to my wounds was her after the things I did to her I was half expecting her to abandon me.
She was strangely careful with how she handled me, she tried to use as little force as possible in applying the 'medicine', which I don't trust at all, and she tied the bandage making it not too tight or too loose, I'd have confused her with a nurse if I hadn't met her.
After a long silence between us she asked me to tell her what happened after I was shot. Well judging by my wound, I guess we would be here a while so. Might as well get it over with.
**LITTLE RAYAN'S POV**
I was lying on my back slowly bleeding out on the ground from the arrow inside of me, half of the arrow had broken from my fall leaving only a small piece of wood and the metal inside me. The men were now in sight both the supervisor and the two guards. It only took them two steps and a jump and they were now surrounding me. Even with my blurry vision, I could see the rage on the three men's faces.
The supervisor raised his foot and dropped it with all his strength right in my solar plexus. I coughed up a large amount of blood as the foot landed, the blood was enough to cover every spot inside my mouth, teeth and my chin.
"we hire you and you pull this shit!" he said while his foot was on me. He pulled his foot back and he then kicked me in the ribs over and over and over. The two guards face now showed a bit of pity but none of them dared to do anything.
I wanted to beg him to stop but the pain and the loss of breath in each kick that kept landing made it hard for me to open my mouth, I could only cough up blood. He stopped when he was sweating buckets and gasping for breath.
"how about we take him to the boss and let him decide what to do with him," one of the guards said in hope of maybe alleviating some of the beating.
The supervisor thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement, he bent down slightly and grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulled me up to a sitting position and started pulling me back in the direction of the vineyard. The fear that spread through my body served as a small pain killer, I didn't want to be handed back to that bastard.
Not now, not when I couldn't even fight back, the pain I felt in my body was excruciating, from the headache coming from my hair being pulled to the burning pain in both my back and collarbone from the arrowhead embedded there to lastly my ribs which was kicked to the point it felt like it broke but maybe it did.
"hmm, what did the boy do to deserve such a... Punishment," a voice said.
I must have been close to losing consciousness because the moment I heard that voice the darkness covering my eyes had slightly cleared up and I could see a man with messy hair that had a few white hairs standing in front of us well he was standing in front of me due to my position but the way the supervisor and the guards were the man was standing behind them.
The man himself was a walking contradiction from his clothes it showed that he was a noble, but the unkempt stubble and the horrible walking stick, he must have picked up somewhere suggested otherwise. He was missing his right foot and in his other hand he had what could only be third rate rum. He was looking at me in his inebriated state.
The supervisor roughly let go of my hair making me fall back on the ground. I groaned in pain as I landed. The supervisor and the two guards turned around and faced the man.
"none of your fucking business," the supervisor said.
"sorry I was just curious, well then carry on," he said as he started walking away.
"hmm stupid cripple," one of the guards said.
"what did you just call me," he asked though I couldn't see if he had turned around or if he still had his back turned on us.
"I said stupid cripp..." before he even finished saying cripple the beer bottle the man was holding crashed right into his face
The guard dropped down on his knees as he held the spot where the bottle had just hit. A mixture of the beer, a mucusy fluid and blood spilled from the spot he was holding. He slightly let go of it and the spot where his left eye was supposed to be was empty there was a dark red hole there that almost made me throw up.
"oh what a waste of perfectly good rum," he said in a casual tone.
I couldn't see the faces of the supervisor and the guard but I could tell that they were furious. I on the other hand was grateful for the crippled drunk, although he was in for a beating at least he gave me a moments rest before my impending doom.
"tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Damn is an empty eye hole disgusting, oh before I forget which of you two is going to pay me for the rum?" he said.
"what!" the supervisor yelled.
"well the only thing the kid has is an arrow through his shoulder, so logically you two are the ones who will have to pay," he said as he straightened his walking stick. The other guard with the now missing eye stood up, ready to make the cripple pay for his missing eye.
" hmm guess you are done screaming, even the kid didn't scream when he has an arrow right in his shoulder. Learn from him," the cripple said with a slight slur.
The supervisor and the guards had enough of the man's nonsense and charged at him. I was lying on my back which made me unable to see the cripple get dealt with, I heard a few thuds and groans before something fall on the ground with a huge thud, the thud was really loud for one person just how much did he weigh?
"useless cripple, should have at least lasted a minute." I thought to myself.
I heard footsteps slowly approaching me and to my surprise, I didn't see two feet standing next to me, I saw one foot and the end of a long stick which had some blood on it.
" hey kid, they aren't paying me for my rum, "he said and turned around," well now they aren't, so you'll be compensation for the rum. "
He grabbed me by my shirt and swung me over his shoulders from my new position I could see the three men on the ground passed out, I also saw a bit of teeth on the ground. Due to my arrow wound, my blood spilled over his shirt.
" dont worry about it kid, old Mr Lance will take good care of you," he said as he struggle to walk with his walking stick while he carried me.
I don't know if it was the blood loss or the fatigue of running or maybe his words but I didn't fight this time. I just let my consciousness slip away from me.