The Tiger Within 238 You Seem To Trust Me

They were not the normally fierce eyes of the warrioress, nor was it the gentleness that he saw when she spoke to Raina. Instead the woman looking back at him seemed younger, innocent and scared. He wanted to reach out and sooth her, but he did not, worried his touch might cause her unease.

"Kyera?" He whispered gently instead. She nodded slowly sitting up, wincing in pain as her ribs screamed in protest to her movement. Clovis gently stopped her from moving further, his hand on her shoulder. Two soft palms covered his hand as her chin came over to rest against the side of his wrist. She settled back onto the bed obediently but his hand went with her as she held it as though it was an anchor to reality. He wondered who she thought he was, or if perhaps… no he dare not think it. She was vulnerable now, allowing himself to think like that could be building a castle on a cloud.

Moments pa.s.sed and her eyes closed. A smile lightly tugged at his lips as he laid down beside her, not pulling his hand from her grasp. He left plenty of s.p.a.ce between them but allowed her to cuddle against his hand. Propping his head up on his free palm he watched her as she drifted back to sleep. The innocent's in her expression was quite… rea.s.suring. There was something there to fill the void of nothingness that he had seen earlier.

He lost track of time, watching her breathing slowly up and down. It felt oddly natural here, watching her rest. A certain satisfaction that she trusted him enough to want him here. Other than Raina, he had never watched a lady rest like this. Even the nights he spent by his own wife before her pa.s.sing had never been like this.

Sadness pa.s.sed through his eyes as he remembered the past. He noticed a strand of Kyera's pale hair had fallen across her face in the soft breeze from the window. The cool air was refres.h.i.+ng, against the skin. He reached out, gently brus.h.i.+ng the strand away.

"Clovis…" Kyera whispered in her sleeping state. Her cheek still resting against his fingers of the captured hand. The prince wasn't sure he had heard her right… but the more he considered it and tried to talk himself into believing it was wishful thinking her lips brushed his knuckles rendering thought impossible.

In her sleeping state her mind was trying to wake from this forced rest. Her senses heightened as they struggled to put two thoughts together about her surroundings. Trying to sit up, and something tangible smelling familiar pushed her back down. She couldn't help but grip that hand and pull it close, clinging to the familiarity. The feelings of lost in a  foreign environment was lessened by the sent that spread like a comforting blanket over her. Kyera tried to recognize the sent even as she felt the tendrils of sleep tugging her back in. Then the face behind the scent appeared behind her eyes. A small warmth appeared in her chest, comforting and pleasant, allowing sleep to steal her away before she could think too much.

Not far away, Shaman Half Eye sat quietly in a trance. His energies focused on monitoring his student from a distance. He felt the bleeding in her heart, the wounds in her aura from there. However to his surprise the fear seemed to drain away suddenly. The wounds in her aura seeming to stabilize centered at her chest and moving outward. Confused and a bit curious he wondered if Prince Clovis had some hidden medical tallents….at any rate she was soothed so Half Eye could tend to other matters.