Scorned by the Beastmen, Loved by their Healer Chapter 04

Scorned by the Beastmen, Loved by their Healer Chapter 04

Huer took me back to his cabin.
He didn’t leave.
All night, he sat by my bed.
I had a fever.
A bad one.
Half out of it, I felt someone pressing a wet cloth to my forehead.
Someone fed me medicine.
Bitter as hell.
I wanted to throw up, but that hand was steady. Not a drop spilled.
“Drink.”
Huer’s voice was low.
“You have to live.”
I opened my eyes and looked at him.
“I don’t want to live.”
He didn’t say a word.
He just kept feeding me.
I lay in his little cabin for three days.
He never left my side.
He changed my dressings, gave me water, wiped me down.
He didn’t talk much.
He almost never started a conversation.
When I asked him something, he either didn’t answer or gave me a few words.
“Why are you being so good to me?”
He said nothing.
He turned away and went on grinding herbs.
I didn’t ask again.
On the seventh day, I could get out of bed.
Huer said he’d take me out for a walk.
I followed him out of the cabin.
Outside was a sea of flowers.
All kinds were in full bloom—red, yellow, purple.
The wind blew, and petals rained all over me.
He asked, “Pretty?”
I froze for a second.
All the time I’d known him, he’d never asked me something like that.
“It’s pretty,” I said.
He crouched and started picking flowers.
One by one, careful and gentle.
Then he sat on the grass and started weaving.
I watched him.
Sunlight spilled over him. His profile looked really good.
“What are you making?”
“A flower crown.”
He said it casually.
But he worked with total focus.
His fingers flew, threading the flowers together.
Done.
He stood up and walked over to me.
Then set the crown on my head.
“When you were little, you said you wanted a colorful flower crown.”
I had said that, but no one had ever made me one.
My heart lurched.
“You remember?”
“I remember.”
His eyes were calm.
But I caught a glint deep in them.
“I remember everything you’ve said.”
That day, he took me to do a lot of things.
We caught fish by the river.
Climbed trees for fruit.
Rolled around in the grass.
Just like when we were kids.
I laughed, really happy.
I hadn’t been that happy in a long time.
But laughing, I wanted to cry.
Because I knew.
None of this would last.
I was still going to die.
At dusk, we sat on the hillside and watched the sunset.
The horizon burned red.
“Huer.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
He glanced at me and said nothing.
“Thank you for being so good to me.”
“No one’s ever treated me this well,” I whispered. “Not since I was a kid.”
Something in his eyes darkened.
“From now on, I’ll always be good to you.”
I shook my head.
“There is no ‘from now on.’”
He turned and stared at me.
“What do you mean?”
I didn’t answer.
I just leaned on his shoulder.
“Let me lean on you for a while.”
“Just for a bit,” I murmured as I closed my eyes.
That night, I went back to the cabin.
Huer went to gather herbs.
He said he’d be back soon.
Told me to wait for him.
I sat on the bed and waited till he was far enough away.
Then I stood.
I rummaged around the place.
Found a bone knife.
Not enough.
Not sharp enough.
I walked out of the cabin and down to the river.
There was a patch of sawgrass by the bank.
The leaves were tough, the edges lined with tiny serrations.
I crouched and yanked one out.
I ran my fingers along its knife-like edge.
Sharp.
Good enough.
I took the sawgrass back to the cabin.
Shut the door.
Sat on the bed.
I looked at the grass in my hand.
I felt calm.
It didn’t hurt anymore.
It really didn’t.
Because I knew it would all stop hurting soon.
I pressed the sawgrass to my neck.
Took a deep breath.
Then sliced hard.
Pain.
It hurt like hell.
But compared to the ache in my heart, this was nothing.
I fell.
My thoughts went fuzzy, bit by bit.
Someone was shouting in my ear.
From so, so far away.
“Sanna!”
“Sanna!”
It was Huer.
He threw himself down beside me.
Pressed his hands to my neck, trying to stop the bleeding.
But there was too much blood. He couldn’t.
“Why would you do this?” he demanded.
“Why?”
His voice shook.
I’d never heard him shout like that.
I wanted to say, “I’m sorry.”
But my mouth wouldn’t open.
Everything went darker.
The sounds got farther and farther away.
In the very end—
I think I heard the god of this world.
[Host deceased.]
[Mission still in progress.]
What did that mean? The mission was still going?
I couldn’t feel my body anymore.
I drifted up.
I looked down and saw Huer holding my body.
Covered in blood.
He was crying.
Sobbing like a kid.
I’d never seen him cry.
I wanted to reach out and touch his face.
But my hand went right through him.
I couldn’t touch him anymore.
“I’m sorry…”
I whispered.
But he couldn’t hear me anymore.