Payment

Rest

Note: Rewritten but not triple checked for spelling and grammatical errors. If you see any feel free to comment.

It had been an entire day since I'd seen Dominik's face. Yesterday, while I was helping Vera in the kitchen, Dominik was taken away by a worker muttering things about official business. I haven't seen Dominik since. He's been shut in his office with a large gray wolf lounging before the heavy set of doors. It was so weird seeing it there. I had never seen one with my own eyes before, and yet, there it was.

It was big, gray, and so fluffy. There was so much gruff around his neck, I could hardly tell if he had one. It sprung out like a lion. I wanted to touched it. But I hadn't even mustered the courage to go near the giant animal. He'd simply eye me every time Id attempt to approach the door and instantly id change course.

It was frustrating not being able to reach Dominik while he's so close. I'd been doing this since breakfast. Having eaten alone, I was pegged with a feeling of uneasiness. And since, I'd tried a dozen times to walk the hall and enter those doors or so much as get a stroke of its fur in but every time, I'd turn around half way to it.

Peeking around the corridor, I watched the wolf lay in silenced stillness. He didn't move an inch in so long, I almost had the thought that he swapped himself with a fake. Of course, that didn't any sense.

I felt like he knew I was here but he wouldn't look in my direction. It was almost as if he were waiting for me to try to approach the door again so he could test me with a glare, to see if I'd run for the hundredth time. Honestly, it was tiring. I had lost my strength the last try and now I felt like a limp noodle.

"Roza?" Came a familiar voice from behind me. It shocked me out of my concentration and I almost fell to the floor in surprise. I looked over my shoulder to find Kana wrapped around a stern faced man's arm. One of her hands snaked under his finely pressed shirt, not an ounce of embarrassment or restraint on her face. At a loss for words, I stood there with my mouth open, not a thought processing through my brain. "What are you doing?"

I just looked at her, unable to say anything. What was I even supposed to say? I'm stalking your brothers room, trying to get past the guard so I can interrupt his work? No! I must look ridiculous standing here with my mouth gaping open, unresponsive but I was truly as a loss.

"Roza," Detaching herself from her companion, she came to scoop my face with her hands and look me over, "you look pale as a ghost. Why don't you go lay down and rest? I'll have Vera bring you some ginger tea and something to eat."

"I'm fine!" I chuckled pushing her hands from my face. "But maybe, I will go lay down for a little while."

I found myself suppressing a heavy sigh as I walked around her and the man she reattached herself to. I had wanted to see Dominik, even if only for a second. But now I had no energy left to try getting past that wolf again. I was weak and my shoulder buzzed with irritation, the rough fabric of my dress having been rubbing against my stitches for hours. I wanting to lay down and close my eyes. I wanted to feel the warmth of the feather down blankets wrapped around me and the cushion of the bed underneath me. But when I found myself in front of my bedroom, I felt annoyed.

Letting my feet take me away, walking down the cold familiar hallway. I turned a few times and arrived at a brilliant door buzzing with warmth. I pushed his door open and was welcomed with his seductive scent.

It was everywhere.

I recognized this room. It was old looking. It's navy blue paint was chipped and lacked a sort of luster you would see in a kings bedroom. The canopy over his bed was so heavily covered in draping's that I almost couldn't find the bed. Those were new, at least to me. They look like they belonged there, like they hadn't been moved in a couple hundred years.

I walked across the rug, kicking off my shoes so I could feel it beneath my feet. It was new. I knew that from Vera. I had seen her weaving liner on other side. It was huge, spanning three of my arm lengths. And it was the softest thing my feet have ever touched. I let them shuffle along as I made my way to the bed.

When I pushed back the curtain his scent hit me so hard, I half expected to find him laying there. But it was empty.

I attempted to crawl in and snuck under the covers like they were my own, vowing that he would never know about this. I was just going to take a nap. That's all.

And when I heard the door open again, with me sticking half way off his bed, I quickly jumped back. My eyes raced to the face across the room, to the giant smile.

Vera stalked in without a word, handed me something and left. Just like that. I stood there a moment, stunned, my arm still outstretched from where I had accepted what she was giving.

When I looked down, I found a little square of canvas in my hand. Quickly I opened it up and found that it was the one from the party. It looked intact, apart from a tiny spill of blood along one edge. It looked as if Vera had tried to get the excess out but there was no helping it. All that I cared about was that it was now again in my hands.

I crawled into bed and looked at it, looked at Dominik. And I fell asleep.