The Unfinished Story by Char Marie Adles (the rosie project txt) 📖

We went to our tent to talk and just hold each other for this would probably would be the last night we have together till we get home. After he slipped off into sleep, I went out of the tent to the one that held the young man who had been badly injured. I stopped outside of the door to his tent my hand raised to open it when I heard a Girl’s voice.
“You’ll be fine Kei. Don’t leave me…please you’re all I have left you can’t die! What would father say?!” I knew that voice. It was the youngest of the girls. She was begging him to stay here.
I opened the door. When she saw me she stopped talking. I came over a sat down beside her.
She held his hands in her’s and her tears had soaked his dressings on his wounds.
She looked at my with her tear filled gaze. “He still hasn’t woken up yet. It’s been three days,” she whispered.
“He would be dead now if the blood hadn’t stopped, but every time he moves he bleeds. His fever is very high and I have plans for him tonight. Do you wish to help?”
She nodded, and clung to him.
“Alright then. I need you to get me a tub of hot water, a metal needle, silk tread, and lots of cloth, and a pair of my clothes. Do you understand?” I asked.
She nodded, stood, and left to do my bidding.
I closed my eyes remembering the medical book I have read. If I did this right he would live a long life, but if it went wrong his short life would end. I went over it again and again to make sure and she was back soon. I cleaned my knife and took out the stitches I had done on him. And just as I thought when to wound opened blood poured out. His was bleeding inside too. I used the cloth to clean out the bleed and set to sewing up his cut organs it small even stitches, wiping away fresh blood every few minutes. When I saw that he no longer had any open wounds inside I pulled out two small veils I had made this morning. I took the stopper off the one with a jelly inside and rubbed it over his organs inside. It would numb them so it would not cause him pain for a few days.
Then I sewed up the surface wound and added a little more to that. I put the stopper on the bloody vile and took out the stopper on the second one. I looked over to the girl.
She had sat there watching without making a sound. Her eyes were filled with tears, but her expression was one of great determined.
“Come hold up his head, this job is off you. Sit behind his head there. Yes, now take a drink from the vile, but don’t swallow it. Now press you lips to his and make him drink it. Yes that’s it. One should be enough for I made it super strong, but one drink should be good,” I said guiding her through it. I took the vile back half empty now and put the stopper in. I looked at her.
“You did very well. Because of you he will live a long life,” I stopped and noticed that her face was red. Could it be? I would know it anywhere. “Was that your first kiss?”
She nodded.
“But he’s your brother so it shouldn’t count,” I said.
She shook her head. “His is not my brother by blood, but by marriage. His mother married my father.
Oh. "I think from your reaction that you love him?” I asked.
She turned redder, but said, “Yes I do. Since I was very small.”
“Did you see that man I am always walking with?” I asked. “The man with the silver eyes?”
She nodded.
“Well I love him, just like you love your brother,” I said with a smile.
She looked shocked.
Oh yeah she thought I was a guy! No wonder.
I grinned at her and put a finger to my lips. “I’m really a girl, promise you won’t tell anyone?”
She looked so stunned I wanted to laugh. Then she smiled. “I promise.”
“You want to be friends?” I asked.
She grinned and nodded.
I looked around us. The ground was littered with cloth soaked with blood, I was covered in blood from head to toe and so was she. And Kei wasn’t looking much better.
She followed my eyes around and lost her grin.
“We all need a bath and this stuff needs to be cleaned.” I announced.
She nodded.
So we picked up all the stuff and put it in the tub.
“Let’s take a bath at the hot spring I found this morning in the woods behind us okay,” I asked.
She looked a bit scared, and then nodded.
“Carry the tub and the clothes, and I’ll carry Kei.” I said.
She looked at me with wide eyes. “No, we shouldn’t move him!”
“Relax; I know how to carry him. Plus his covered in dry sweat, wet sweat, dry blood, and new blood. I say he needs a bath more then you or me. Plus his fever is high and he freezing. It will do him well, not to mention the medicine we gave him will work better.” I said.
She paused, agreed and we went.
I lead us to the hot spring. She set down the lamp, tub and clothes on nearby rocks. I undress myself first and smiled when she saw my chest.
“You really are a girl! And you have such a big chest!” she exclaimed, and then turned red.
“It’s okay.” I said.
While she undressed and undressed Kei.
He was a fine looking young man, but none could compare to Kail.
I slipped into the water with him in my arms.
This was my first warm bath in over ten years. It was good.
I smiled at her as she stared at us in the water. Her face was red again.
“My guess is you have never seen a naked man before.” I said.
She nodded. “Or a woman.”
“Are you calling me old?” I asked rising a brow at her. “I’m only sixteen.”
“No. You look so young and beautiful. I wouldn’t have known how to guess your age before. You’re so beautiful and mature it would be hard to tell. Your mother must be beautiful.” She said with a smile.
“She was before she died. I was only a few months old when she died, but I always had pictures. She looked like me ,but she was taller and had hair the color of moonlight. But I have her eyes.” I said setting to work washing Kei, and then myself. I washed all the blood from us and then I laid him out on the grass beside the pool. I went to wash her off.
The once crystal clear water of the spring was now a dull pink.
“He should be fine in a few weeks. I’ll have to take out the stitches on the surface, but the stitches inside him will be there forever. But he will never notice and it will not cause problems. For the next week he’ll need to stay in a bed and not move as well you will be need to give him his medicine twice a day, everyday for a week like we did tonight, okay? Can you do that?”
“Yes, I will. Thank you for saving him.” she said turning around and giving me a hug.
I gave her a hug back. “Sure.”
I took Kei into my arms and sat in the water to relax, he will be cold again soon.
“Yume I would let you hold him to I believe you are a bit weak to hold up a man his size and height. But please don’t tell your sisters about me okay?” I asked.
She giggled. “I won’t but to make sure you know all of them have a crush on you for saving them. They all like the beautiful man who saved them from death.” she said dramatically with a wink.
I heaved a heartfelt sigh. “Great just what I need.”
Soon we were done so I dressed in my men’s clothes again and did the same for Kei. I helped Yume into her kimono. I washed out the clothes and folded and put them back in the tub. She carried the tub and lamp back with us. She followed me to Kei tent and I left her there to be with him. I was grateful I had read those books in the Future.
I went back to my tent after saying good night to Sen and Momo who sat by the fire in each other’s arms. I slip in the futon and Kail in his sleep reached out for me calling my name softly. I wrapped my arms around him, grateful that I had him and he was safe. My nightmares didn’t come that night, but rather a dream so sweet I wish it was real and cried when it was over.
Soon we would be at the Imperial City. Kail had taken me to a mansion in the mountains after the fire. How much he cared for me.


Chapter 11
Caught in a twist


The early morning skies told me that the sun had not risen yet, but would soon. It truly was beautiful this time of the year in winter. I was glad now that I had come here, because here I found my home, the person I will always love most in the world. Soon we would pack up and leave to the Imperial City. The girls would go home and the young man would live and it would be my hope that he and Yume would love each other.
The mountains were ending and the plains begin to form and stretched there long arms before us, and in the distance I could see the thick walls the sounded that palace and the city. It truly was beautiful.
What ever did I do