Page 14 of The Botanist and the Beast

"You're too weak to protect yourself, too, right? Can you even get up?" The prince scowled and Theo knew he couldn't. "I'm not leaving you out here to get eaten." He pulled him up and his own arm stung with pain, but he fought through it. "Hold my shoulder. There you go. Which way back to the castle?"

Sebastian nodded the general direction and the two started their long cold trudge back in the dark.

Chapter Thirteen

While everyone else slept, the two of them made their way to the castle, up the stairs, and into Sebastian's bedroom.

The fireplace still was well lit as Theo carefully helped Sebastian into a dark blue velvet wing backed chair and draped the throw blanket around him for modesty. He rushed to the prince’s decadent bathroom. After some rummaging around, he found first aid supplies, dampened a towel, and came back.

"Why didn't you let me drown?" Theo asked as he sat back on his heels in front of the prince. "Wouldn't your people prefer me dead?"

"I don't want any more people to die here." The prince closed his eyes and leaned on his elbow as he spoke. "Not even you."

"Well, thanks," he said, organizing the first aid supplies. "Do you know who that being of light was next to you when I sunk in the water?"

The prince opened his eyes now and stared at Theo on the floor for a moment. "There wasn't anyone next to me. You might have been going into shock from the cold. You should go to bed. I fixed it best I could so it shouldn't wobble. I also left warmer sleepwear in there as well."

I'm certain I saw someone, but I've never nearly froze to death so perhaps he's right. "I'll go to bed after I help you. I'm going to wipe your wounds. Sit up and hold still."

"I can clean and bandage myself," the prince snipped.

"You couldn't walk."

"This isn't walking."

"Tell you what." Theo held out the towel. "Take it from me with ease and I'll leave you be for the night." The prince tried to reach for it and winced. "That's what I thought. Sit back and don't be stubborn. I don't want your men to come in here and find their prince dead tomorrow. Keeping you alive benefits me as well."

Sebastian rolled his eyes but didn't argue this time.

Sitting in the bedroom under the light of the fireplace, he could clearly see the prince's muscular body splashed with splotches of opal stone.I guess that makes sense. He's partially a powerful animal.

Theo carefully cleaned off the dried blood and his throat tightened when he saw how bad the damage was. His skin was sliced open in long, crisscrossing claw marks. He got them clean of dirt and dried blood best he could. Then, he moved on to the ever-glinting opal stone splashed on Sebastian's body.

The stone itself was still pristine, but the border where the stone met the skin had sprigs of fragile dry plants stained with blood.

With careful hands, as if he was tending to his flowers in his shed, he cleaned the plants. Using the tip of the towel, he wiped their leaves, thorns, and stems.

Theo brushed the jagged edge of a wound and Prince Sebastian hissed like an angry cornered cat. His ears pinned back and his large tail lifted off the floor, towering over Theo.

"I'm sorry!" Theo recoiled.

The prince put a hand over his mouth and instantly his demeanor changed. His ears drooped to the side and tail lowered to the floor. "Don't apologize. I shouldn't have done that."

"I understand it hurts." He forced a small smile to show there were no hard feelings. The prince's leopard ears twitched and flinched multiple times until he was clean. "I can see you stiflinggrowls and hisses. You can let it out. I won't panic now that I'm expecting it."

"I don't want to scare you more than I have." He shifted under Theo's hands. "Also, I'm sorry about the other night. I was irritable and lashed out at your door when I wasn't mentally present. I promised no harm would come to you and I have let you down twice now."

"I appreciate the apology, but I'm not that scared of you right now. Besides, you said no harm would come if I followed the rules and admittedly I haven't." Theo shrugged. "Sure, you attacked my door, you've chased me, and you also kept trying to bite me out there." He motioned for the prince to lean forward so he could wrap his wounds. "But you also saved me. It's confusing but tells me you don't want to harm me. You were just disoriented."

"Something like that," Sebastian mumbled. One of his leopard ears twitched as the bandage was slowly wrapped around his body.

He decided to take advantage of the prince's more talkative mood and get more answers. "Is everyone in the kingdom able to shape shift like you?"

"No. We're nymphs. We're similar to humans, but we're children of the veil so we're one with a particular part of nature. My element is water." He paused as if choosing his words carefully. "No one else here can shift into an animal. I'm the only one that's part shifter."

"I see." Theo nodded, trying to understand. "So, what animal do you shift into exactly? I've never seen anything like you roaming around back home."

"A snow leopard." He looked away as he answered.

---