Page 27 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Eat it, or something like that. This time, this man’s words were easy to decipher. Once again, he took a spoonful and ate it in front of her, before handing her the bowl.
Even if he hadn’t eaten some before her, Alezya would have probably given in. Her body was just begging for food, and whatever was in there smelled good. She tried to recognize the food before tasting it; it looked like some sort of orange soup, with little chunks floating at the surface...
She tried just the liquid first. It was good, and even better, nicely warm. It had a slightly sweet taste, despite clearly being savory. She ate one of the chunks next. Some sort of vegetable. Another, brown piece. Meat! She was given meat? Why would they give precious meat to a foreigner, especially one who is most likely a prisoner? She was confused again.
To her surprise, when she glanced at him, the man was faintly smiling. ...That man was definitely strange.
He turned around, leaving her with the bowl, and went to take care of the fire. Then, he opened the entrance a little, exposing the room to the cold air from outside.
Alezya pulled the blanket over her a bit tighter. Because she needed both hands to hold the bowl and eat, she had to keep the blanket under her armpits and hope it wouldn’t slide down. If that man was the one who had bandaged her, had he... seen almost everything already? She didn’t care much anymore.
She kept eating, trying to convince herself she was going to need to heal fast if she wanted to go look for her daughter, ignoring the voice that was insulting her for filling her belly while her child’s whereabouts were unknown. She had to be stronger than that voice, at least while she waited to know for sure. And then, she’d accept whatever punishment there was. But right now, she needed anything she could get to feed that last shred of hope.
At least that soup thing was good and filling. Since Lumie’s birth, she’d only ever eaten rabbit meat—it was all she could catch on her own, and she hadn’t been allowed to touch the clan’s food. Her traps must have been bad, because she’d only managed to capture a handful of rabbits.
But the meat in the soup wasn’t rabbit. The bits were thicker, and it was tastier, making her curious.
She finished the bowl, and the man walked over, taking it.
“Inkir?”
She hesitated. He probably asked if it was good, so she nodded, but to her surprise, the man left right away. This guessing game was going to be a headache...
Less than a couple of minutes later, he returned with the bowl full again. Alezya was stunned, but then she realized hermistake. More! He’d asked her if she wanted more, not if it was good...
Now that she thought about it, it was probably obvious she liked it from the way she had emptied the whole thing. He handed her the newly filled bowl, and she took it helplessly, feeling like an idiot. He’d given her a full portion again, with even more meat floating at the surface.
Was it really alright? She did have space for a bit more. Alezya ate, feeling obligated to finish it now that this had been brought for her. Most importantly, she mentally noted thatinkirmeant “more” or something like that...
She had a harder time finishing this bowl and had to eat slowly, but she loved whatever meat was in there. Perhaps that man was really rich to be able to afford some stranger two servings of such good meat. The tons of furs lying around might have meant so too.
Alezya vaguely knew the Dragon Clan was likely wealthier than most of the clans, but she had no idea how different the scale was. While she ate, the man took off his coat, and Alezya almost dropped her spoon.
He was covered in those orange tattoos! Most importantly, they were shining strangely for tattoos... or were they fire-colored stones? She was utterly confused. She’d heard of a clan that liked to put beads under their skin, but this was different; most of it was exposed, not under the skin...
It really looked like that dragon’s scales were completely painted over his muscles. And she had seen few warriors as physically blessed as this man.
“Mahi?”
She raised her eyes, blushing to have been caught staring. The man had asked her something, but once again she was clueless. He grabbed the jug from earlier and pointed at it with his index finger.
“Mahi?” he repeated.
Water.Mahimeant water. Alezya nodded, more to confirm her guess than because she was thirsty.
He left, and sure enough, brought back water a few seconds later.
Mahiandinkir. She’d forgotten that other word when he’d brought her the food before, but at least her vocabulary was growing, and perhaps she would get to understand him and let him know what she wanted soon.
As someone who had the mind of a survivor, Alezya knew how to set her priorities despite the gloomy thoughts about her child.
Alezya had already made up her mind: it didn’t matter if Lumie had survived or not, she would go and look for her. She had to know, and she wouldn’t stop. She wasn’t the type to just let fate decide her and her child’s futures, and she had to know for certain. Even if it took days, weeks, months, or years, she wouldn’t allow herself to grieve for her baby if she didn’t know for certain what had become of her.
At least, that was one good reason to stay alive, get better, and go back. She ought to know. Hence, she ate her soup until the second bowl was empty and her stomach was full. Surviving in a completely foreign environment would at least keep her busy while she tried to heal. She still couldn’t understand why that man was taking care of her, nor his intentions, but she was going to use him until she could go back.
As he saw she was done with the bowl, he took it away.
Based on the amount of light she saw as he lifted the flap of the habitation, she could guess it was the evening. So, at least several hours had passed since she’d parted ways with Lumie...
