The Bard And The Owl (A Raeda Fanfic)

Chapter Seven

Raine brought Eda to her room and set her on the bed. They rushed all around to find medical supplies. They grabbed rags and lots of different healing potions and returned to Eda's side.

Frantically, they read over the labels on each potion. It was unorganized, making it hard to look through, but finally they found pain reliever and wound treatment.

Raine looked at Eda. Her breathing was shaky and she was tense all over.

"Hang tight, Eda, okay?"

She nodded nervously.

Raine soaked a rag with some water to remove contaminants from Eda's wounds. Eda was struggling to stay still.

"Try to relax," Raine said gently.

They began to hum a familiar melody to keep her calm. Eda slowly breathed out and gradually let go of the tension in her body.

"That's it... You're doing great."

Eda focused her gaze on Raine's face. Raine kept re-averting their gaze back and forth between the wound they were cleaning and Eda's face, wanting to constantly be checking if Eda's facial expression showed any signs of extreme distress, so they could try their best to comfort her if it did. But Eda was decently calm– as calm as one could be when they've just been viciously attacked.

Raine finished cleaning Eda's wounds and applied the healing potion. Then they bandaged each gash. Lastly, they put a dose of pain reliever potion in a cup of water for her to drink.

"Here," They said, handing it to Eda. She quickly swallowed it.

"Are you feeling okay? Any better?"

"Yes. Thank you, Raine..."

"Of course, Eda."

"Now, I'm sure you're wondering what the hell happened earlier tonight..."

"I am," Raine said, "but that can wait. You just rest..."

"No, it's fine. I have the strength to talk." Eda insisted, sitting upright. "Besides... You deserve to know the truth."

Raine sat down on a chair by Eda's bedside. "Alright. Tell me."

Eda took a deep breath. "When I was little, I was cursed. Funny enough, my sister cursed me purely by accident. She picked up a scroll that she thought was a plant spell for her dying Venus Flytrap, and read it out loud, and next thing I knew, I had feathers, claws, the whole shebang. I was myself again in a moment, but now whenever I'm in emotional distress, I transform into... That. So when you saw that... Monster... Earlier tonight... Well..."

"That was you."

"Yes. I'm the owl beast. That's why folks call me Eda the Owl Lady, because I'm cursed to be an owl. And I hadn't meant to frighten you. But with that otherworldly screech, I probably scared you, and I'm sorry about that." Eda said. "And I should've told you this earlier, but I didn't… It's not that I didn't trust you or anything like that, it's just… I didn't want to scare you away. I didn't want you to be afraid of me. I should've told you, though. I'm sorry…"

"It's... It's fine, Eda." Raine said.

Eda looked at them, slightly confused. "How are you so calm about this? No, wait, better question-- why did you save me after I'd literally just told you I was that thing that scared you half to death?"

"I... I don't know. It's not that I wasn't shocked or scared or anything-- I was. But..." Raine said. "I couldn't just stand there and let it happen, let you bleed out… You were hurt, and I wanted to help you. But most importantly... I trust you, and as much as I was terrified and in shock when you told me... I know damn well you'd never hurt me."