The Island With No Parallel

Wounds

“Good idea,” she responded. She went off to do what she was asked.

“Garlic? What’s that for?”

“To put on the wound. Its an old Naiad remedy my mother taught me a long time ago.”

Yunara replaced her soft touch on his shoulder, the tenseness in Manuel’s muscles leaving as soon as she did so. He suddenly realized how close she was to him in that moment, her hand on his bicep as she examined his injury. His mind went to when she was fighting earlier. She was amazing. He wondered where she could have possibly learned to fight like that. And she was an incredible quick thinker.

Kailu came back with the water and with a bottle of alcohol. “I’ll go get the garlic and honey now. I’ll be back soon.” With that, Manuel and Yunara were left alone in the room together.

Yunara left for a moment and came back with a long piece of ripped fabric.

“Why don’t you just use my shirt?” he asked. There was no other use for the bloody thing now, anyway.

Yunara shook her head. “It’s too dirty. It’ll only make the infection worse.” She ripped off a small piece, wetted it with the alcohol, and wiped her hands with it. Then she took a bigger piece off and wet it in the bucket of water. “Don’t move,” she warned. Then she started gently wiping at the cut.

“Ah!” Manuel grunted.

“I told you to be still!”

“It hurts!”

Yunara sighed. “That’s nothing. Just wait until I use the alcohol.”

“Don’t be so rough with it,” Manuel said briskly.

“I’m being as careful as I can, just don’t move.”

Yunara moved gingerly across his shoulder with her makeshift rag. But she worked with a look of displeasure. He remembered when he was helping her with Spanish. She smiled a lot more then. But she didn’t smile around him anymore. She was leaning in close to him as she worked, but she was stiff, like she didn’t want to be in his presence.

If he was being honest, he knew the way he was treating Yunara had changed since when he first met her laying there on a bloody haystack in his horse’s stables. He didn’t know why. She did nothing to deserve it. But for whatever reason ever since the letter from Fernando showed up, he couldn’t help the feeling of not sadness or despair, but anger. And even moreso when they left. He felt like the letter woke up a lot of dormant emotions that he didn’t think he had to feel anymore. He didn’t understand it, but all he felt when he thought about his parents and their secret life, about the man that took their lives, Lord Stretton, was an anger that was hard for him to contain. Leaving Fernando’s masia had left Manuel with a lot of feelings he didn’t understand.

Yunara wet the rag with the alcohol as she shook her head. “If you thought the water hurt... now, don’t move this time.”

As soon as she touched his skin with the fabric, a searing pain flared up that left him cursing like a sailor. “Stop, just leave it alone,” he said, pulling away from her.

“You act like a child!”

“I’m not a child. It burns. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“If you think I’m doing such a bad job, clean it yourself.” she threw the cloth on his lap and started for the door.

“Wait, where are you going?” he got up and reached for her arm to stop her.

At his touch, she jerked away. “Unhand me.”

Manuel moved his hand away, some part of him wishing he didn’t. “Where are you going?”

“You obviously don’t want my help, I don’t see what I’m doing here.”

“So you’re just going to leave me here?”

“What, would you like me to stay here and coddle you?”

At this point Manuel was getting mad. She had such impatience with him! Who did she think she was? “Maybe you should. It would teach you how a proper maid is supposed to act.”

That last phrase froze air between them for a moment. “What did you just say to me?” Yunara asked incredulously.

Manuel spoke off of his anger and couldn’t stop. All of his frustrations poured into his words in that moment and blinded him, and he was going to let it. Because what he was really feeling in this moment, alone, with her, he wasn’t willing to face. “I said it's about time you knew your place as a servant. I don’t know what kind of castle is run in Ecencia that they let someone with your kind of attitude work there, but here in Spain it’s unacceptable. It’s unheard of for a servant to completely ignore a Lord the way you’ve ignored me, constantly eyeing me with a chilly stare. I hope you remember I’m here to help you. Is this how a maid shows gratitude to her Lord in Ecencia?”

Manuel was fueled only by the heat of his emotions. He only realized the gravity of what had he said when he was met by Yunara’s icy silence. She didn’t respond right away, and it tortured him every moment that passed with not a sound in the room.

“I honestly don’t know what it is that has changed your attitude towards me,” she spoke with ice. “but ever since we went to Fernando’s masia, you’ve barely even spoken to me or acknowledged my existence. Something has changed in your manner towards me, not the other way around, Lord Suarez.”

Something pierced Manuel in the chest to hear her use his title instead of his name for the first time since he’d known her. Suddenly the pain in his shoulder seemed numb in comparison.

“I am not your maid,” she continued. “thank goodness I never got to be. And as such, I don’t give a damn to tell you whatever I like, Lord Suarez. Your comments are uncalled for and above all, selfish. And I don’t tolerate them, because despite my being a maid, I have too much self respect to believe you can treat me this way, or anyone for that matter. You can treat your own damn shoulder.”

With that Yunara left the room and slammed the door.

Manuel went back to his bed and kicked over the bucket of water. He looked at the bag of seeing powder that sat next to his bed, right next to his father’s second book. He was tired of putting it on every morning. But he couldn’t stop using it now. He couldn’t let Yunara know.

Why was this happening to him? He pushed a hand through the curls of his hair in frustration. The truth was he stopped needing the seeing powder since he left Fernando’s masia. He could see her without it. The truth infuriated him, but yet he couldn’t let it go. He had fallen in love with that Naiad.

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👀👀
Aaaaaaaagh! I loved writing this chapter so much, it's really sad. This chapter is a little on the longer side, but I think it does its job. I also love switching to Manuel’s POV.

So what do you think about Manny? Hiding from her the fact that he doesn't need the seeing powder! What do you think will come out of this?

Be sure to comment, rate, and subscribe while you're at it :)