The wooden ceiling stared back at Gabriel. He was lying completely naked while he listened to Naomi taking a bath in a tiny cubicle of the room they were in. Not that the space he was in was much bigger.
It was a square room, with walls built in the time of the Ancients. The paint was already peeling, even the oldest layers of paint were meeting the same fate, in many places resembling tree leaves sprouting. There were two doors in front of the bed where Gabriel lay sprawled; one led to the hallway, and the other to a small bathroom, from which Naomi's humming could be heard, blending with the sound of water.
Gabriel glanced at his chest and saw the marks left by the bear's blow. Numerous bruises, ranging from small to large, covered his body between the chest and ribs. The simple movement of looking caused a sharp pain to run through his ribs. He decided not to move for a moment and placed his hand on a purple area, with a slight greenish tint. He poked the spot, feeling a pleasurable ache.
Finally, Naomi emerged from the bath, accompanied by the steam from the hot water. She was drying her hair with an old gray towel. The woman briefly assessed her partner.
"I don't know how you got out of that without any broken bones."
A new twinge of pain shot through the young man's body as he lifted his chest to sit up. He managed a faint smile at Naomi.
"I'm lucky!" he joked.
"Of course you are," she replied, dismissing his comment and walking over to a small wardrobe, the only piece of furniture in the room, aside from the bed. "Still, it would be good to stop by Susan again."
"Naomi, please! Yesterday, when we got here, I went with you. She said nothing was broken."
Susan was the Crow responsible for the health of the members of Nest 34. A woman in her fifties, which was impressive for a Crow, as both Gabriel and Naomi were only twenty-five and twenty-six, with Gabriel being the youngest. The old healer was not only responsible for medications but also for poisons and antidotes, which was somewhat ironic, because anyone who saw her so small and thin would never guess she was capable of that.
Gabriel lay back down, hiding a grimace of pain, and nodded in agreement to his partner while watching her pull a set of black clothes from the wardrobe.
"Are you going out?"
"I want to take a walk around the Nest; it's been a while since we've been out," she said, putting on a shirt, and then added, "I'll stop by Aldrey, she can tell me more about everything that happened while we were away."
Gabriel nodded. He knew Aldrey. She was the woman responsible for one of the bars in town and had somehow taken a liking to Naomi ever since they arrived as recruits many years ago.
Naomi hopped a little to make the tight pants fit perfectly, letting out some irritated sounds until, finally, she conquered the fabric. She sat down next to her partner and started putting on her boots.
"I need to talk to Jonas too," she said, almost to herself.
Ignoring the sharp pains, Gabriel moved to sit beside his partner, feeling the warmth in his chest from the fever in the area.
"Strange, Naomi. Usually, you talk to him as soon as we get back from a mission," Gabriel said, pretending to be indignant.
Jonas was the leader of the Ravens in Nest 34, one of the forty-eight villages, not counting the Bunker. And Gabriel knew Naomi well enough to understand how focused and strict she was when it came to the rules of the organization.
"It would have been fine if it weren't for someone who had their ribs crushed," she sniffed in response.
"Touché."
Crouching down, she searched under the bed, where they kept their gear, for her knife, retrieving it quickly. She swiftly drew it from its sheath, which had two strings attached to the belt, and lightly ran her thumb along the blade to check its sharpness. Satisfied, she tied the back of her pants, hiding the weapon under her loose shirt.
Gabriel simply watched Naomi's entire ritual. He knew the Ravens' rules; since they had just returned from a mission, they were entitled to a short break and could spend their time as they wished. They could walk around the city, but only with knives, as it wasn't a patrol.
"Gabriel?"
"Yes?"
"While I talk to Jonas, you need to check in with Will."
Gabriel just smiled to himself. He knew Will, the Ravens' armorer, Susan's partner, and the one responsible for the arsenal of blades and bullets, as well as the eccentric requests from some. Gabriel was one of those. To start, he had a customized weapon. But Will wasn't known for his skill with deadly objects; he was known for his perpetual bad mood.
"I love Will."
"Gabriel, please, no jokes. You know you're the one who bothers him the most."
With a sudden movement that caused several sharp pangs between his ribs and chest, Gabriel made an exaggerated indignant face, and Naomi simply ignored the performance.
Naomi walked to the door and grabbed the rusty doorknob. She paused to give one last look at him, who still had an indignant expression.
"Just take the gear to him and make sure to check in with Susan."
"Alright, I'll just sleep a little longer and then go."
Naomi nodded and left the room, finally leaving him completely alone. He closed his eyes, with no intention of sleeping, but all the accumulated fatigue took over, and he fell asleep almost immediately.