The Runaway

Chapter 14

"Can you?"

He faces down at me for a while before opening Callista's door. She immediately nudges me with her muzzle. I put my hand on her face, and she huffs air in my face. She's too sassy.

"Can I?" She huffs air in his face. He sighs. "Not right now, you have to see the healer."

He turns around, walking to the other side of the castle around the back. Callista follows us. She keeps nudging me every time she can and huffs in his face every time, he tells her to go away.

Eventually he walks in the secret side door that he showed me the 1st sunset here. He uses this door to go everywhere he takes me, even if it's on the other side of the grounds. He won't go up either, only down. So many secrets.

Once he opens the door Callista hits her hoof on the ground a few times and her tail is swishing, ears are twitching. There isn't enough space here for her to follow us. I hold my hand out to her, past his shoulder, and wave.

"I'll come back for you, baby. Don't worry."

She snorts for a last time before nudging the door closed and I can hear her walk away. I love her. She has to come home with me. The kingdom stole me, I'll steal their Pegasus. She probably likes me more anyways.

After walking through the halls for some time and down some stairs, we reach a room. He knocks on it. It isn't too bad being carried around. If I actually lived here, I would break all my limbs, so they carry me around.

I'll do that when I get home so Kian has to carry me everywhere.

After some time, the door opens to a sweet old man with gray hair, white eyes and wrinkles all around him. Oh wow, he must be really old. No one has wrinkles or different colors on their skin. He is so pretty.

"Hello, what can I do for you?"

I can't stop staring at him. How does someone have white eyes? Plain white, no iris or pupil or anything. Can he see? Is he blind or does he see more? Everyone here is so different then at home.

"We were wondering if you could do anything to help her injuries, sir."

He looks at me, I can't tell if he is actually staring into my soul or not. Maybe he can't see straight and can only see on the sides of everything like horses. He looks me over before turning back in the room, leaving the door open.

Mystery man walks in the room, closing the door behind him with his foot. He sets me on a huge black, leather ottoman. The walls here match the walls in Luna's room. Dark gray stone, as the floor too. Candles on the walls light the space a soft yellow. It's quite calm here. Quiet everywhere else.

Mystery man is leaning on the door with his arms crossed. The light only outlines the mask. I would have pulled his hood off earlier to see who he is but that would be horribly rude of me.

The extremely old man walks over.

"Lay down."

I do so. He walks to my left side, his back now to the opposite side of the room from the door. He kneels beside my arm, unwrapping it. I'm sure it is more healed now, but I turn away. The cool air feels weird on the compressed area of my arm. He then moves to the other injury on my calf. At least everything is on one side, only one half of me is useless.

"My goodness. Who wrapped the bandage over the clothing? They did a horrible job."

Mystery man shrugs and stays faced away from me. I wave my hand at him to get his attention. He turns to me. I have to see who he is.

"This will hurt, her highness but bear with me."

Oh no. He looks around the room before pointing to a thick book about herbs on a shelf.

"Get me the book."

Mystery man gets the healer the book. The healer puts it under my ankle. Who makes a book this thick? It's outrageous. Mystery man comes to my right and squats beside me. He holds his hand out to me. What?

The healer starts unwrapping the bandage, each layer closer he gets. The more the pain grows. I grab his hand and involuntarily squeeze it. Once the last layer is removed, the air is very cold. I see a glimpse of blood on the wrapping and look away as much as possible, closing my eyes too.

The healer grabs the bottom of my pant leg and carefully lifts it up my leg. The pain of the fabric rubbing against it is torturous. I bite my arm to stop myself from making any noises. It hurts so much. Once the last thread is off, the pain considerably lessens. I take my poor arm out my mouth. It looks like some crazy person bit me, but oh, I'm the crazy person.

"Breathe, princess."

I'm still holding his hand. I'm too exhausted to move or open my eyes. I breathe like I just ran, trying to calm myself. I hear the healer get up and walk to another part of the room. He grabs something before going back to his previous spot. He folds my leg outwards a little. I roll on my side to take the strain off of myself. After a second, he puts something extremely cold on it. I bite my arm again as soon as it starts burning. I can hear it, each second it gets worse. I try to keep the tears at bay. Mystery man rubs little circles on the top of my hand with his thumb. I can't stop squeezing his hand, hopefully it's okay.

"This one has no tolerance to pain. Such sensitive skin," the healer claims.