Page 23 of The Book of Legends
“Yes.”
“It’s a strong name. Your parents?”
“Dead,” I quip. “My family. They’re all dead.”
“I’m sorry,” he says genuinely. “Now, come.”
“What?” I ask, confused.
He points toward my head. “Your head. You have a small gash that needs to be cleaned.”
Oh...” I move to touch it, but he stops me by gripping the chains from the shackles on my wrist.
“Let me.” I raise my brows in surprise at his firm hold. “You’ll just make it worse. Don’t fret. This isn’t my first time. I served in the allegiance in Elariya some time ago. I know how to treat wounds.”
He releases his grip.
“Alright,” I say, not having much of a choice. It’s not like I can do it myself.
There’s no mirror.
Come to think of it, there isn’t a bathroom or a toilet. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“Bathroom?” He asks, confused. “What’s a bathroom?”
He hasn’t seen a shower in a while. He probably forgot what one looked like.
“You know…the toilet.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t understand.”
“Where do I relieve myself?”
“Ah…I see. Where you purge or a bathery. There’s a wooden bucket in the back corner.”
My mouth drops open. “You’re joking.”
But he isn’t. There is a wooden bucket big enough for you to sit on and relieve yourself, propped near the back wall and partially hidden by a stack of straw. I’m not going to ask what I wipe myself with. I’m afraid of what he’ll say.
I flinch from the cold sting when he dabs gently on my temple. It feels like raw skin.
He pauses with a worried expression, causing the wrinkles on his forehead to form bumpy waves. “Are you okay?”
“It stings,” I confess, trying to block out the pain.
“It looks like it hurts. It’s probably why you were unconscious when they brought you in.”
“Do you know why the dark prince locked me up?”
“It’s because you look human.”
“But Lox, I am human. And so are you.”
What is it about this place and humans? It’s like we’re the enemy or something.
“Are you?” he asks, as if I could be anything else.
“Can’t you see that I’m human? I should ask the same of you.”
