Isabella could only see darkness. There was nothing else for her to see, only the pure eternal blackness surrounding her. From time to time, however, she could feel the ghost of cold, dead hands trailing through her body. The revolting sensation would send a shiver down her spine, and get goosebumps in her arms. She would try to get-rid-of those hands on her, desperately seeking peace, only to find out that it was all in vain. Then, she would hear a loud female scream of pain that would feel like knives in her eardrums, until all she could do was bring her hands to her ears, covering them, trying unsuccessfully to stop herself from hearing that heart-breaking shriek. But by the time her ears were covered, another, and another scream would join its singing. Three, five, eight, twelve...She couldn't count how many girls were screaming; she could only hear and suffer while tears ran down her face and her ears began to bleed.
She always woke up the moment those voices ceased their torment to cry, in unison, for help.
Isabella gasped and bolted upright. She brought a hand to her chest and felt her heart pounding exceedingly fast under her fingertips. Each inhale and exhale of breath sent her lungs in a burning circle of pain, but she willed herself to respire deeply, till her heart was no more than gently palpitating and breathing was no more than a dull ache. She slowly touched her cheeks and was not surprised to find them wet. She had doubtlessly cried in her sleep. Just like she had done for the past five days since her journey with the four fae males had begun. Isabella surveyed her surroundings, it was difficult to decipher anything in the dark but she only owned one bag –which she often used as a pillow- with all her belongings inside, and the blanket covering her body was the only thing still not packed away so there wasn't much for her to look at. There were no distractions inside her tent, nothing to make her forget, momentarily, the anguish screams in her mind.
She took one more deep lungful of air before throwing her blanket aside and walking out of her tent. She always slept with her clothes and shoes on, in case she had to run away in the middle of the night, but, lately, she had only taken advantage of sleeping all clothed when she woke up from her nightmares and went out to clear her mind and surround herself with trees and green grass. Once outside, her eyes caught the low glowing embers of the fire in the middle of their "camp". Around the dying fire, Fenrys, Gavriel and Rowan slept profoundly on the floor with only a light blanket to protect them from the decreasing temperature of the night, while Lorcan stood watch. He barely looked at her while she walked away from the camp, only gave her a slight nod in her direction and kept doing his job as the night's guard. She didn't nod back, she could barely concentrate on taking step after step. Her body had quietly composed but her mind was still racing ahead, torturing her with reminders of her nightmare while flashes of unending darkness appeared in her sight every few seconds. She stopped moving when she was sure that her figure was covered by the trees around her, and when she was away enough that she felt like she had some privacy. In reality, their fae hearing was too good for that to be true, and she knew that even at her current distance, they could hear her, but her human mind still felt like this was private space for her to break down.
Isabella ran her hands through her loose hair. She had told herself many times to sleep with her hair braided because it would be more comfortable and easier for her that way, in case she had to run, but she had always liked to sleep with her hair loose, and she needed every bit of conformity she could grasp. Her knees gave out as soon as her feet stopped in their tracks and she managed, ungraciously, to fall on the grass with her back on a tree. Her hands had begun trembling, or maybe they had been shaking since she had woken up and she just hadn't noticed, she didn't know. Isabella put her head between her legs and took a slow, deep breath. She kept breathing in that position until her hands were still and her mind was not a spiral of dark thoughts, but rather a calmed darkness to which Isabella was more used to.
She'd had nightmares for years. She should have been used to them by now but they still unsettled her enough that she needed to take several minutes to come back to her reality. However, Isabella had realized, not long ago, that not all her nightmares were the same. Sometimes they were not so horrible she would wake up in the middle of the night, they would just be a lingering memory that would make her cry in her sleep; other times, she was able to dream tranquilly until a nightmare took form inside her mind long after dawn had settled and woke her up -allowing her to, at least, rest through the night-; but, most times, her nightmares woke her when the moon still shone brightly in the sky and the stars danced calmly in the veil of the night sky. But there was always a dark dream. Always. Regardless of its form or time.
The five of them had travelled a great distance since the beginning of their journey. She was significantly surprised by how fast the males could move. She always rode the only horse in their camp, but the four of them always walked or ran next to her. They were able to perfectly keep up with her when she was rapidly horseback riding or slowing her horse to a stop. She knew that it was only possible because of their fae blood, which was unimaginably magical. And she had known it even before appearing in this world, but it was still a surprise to her every time she was gasping for air at the end of a day, after riding for hours and hours with no break, and the males were only covered in a thick layer of sweat. They were not short of breath, sore or in desperate need of a pause like she was. Their stinky sweat was the only sign that proved that they had been running around all day. It was spectacular, the way their bodies were stronger and capable of such phenomenal achievements, but it was also a bit unnerving. Isabella didn't think it was normal for anyone –fae or not- to be in such great physical condition. And their good state only made Isabella feel worse for barely being able to walk after stopping for the day. Only after sleeping a little bit was she able to walk without wincing in pain or cursing her body for being so weak. And, even then, her body still ached.
Isabella let out a pitying sigh and leaned further back against the tree. She wanted a hot bath, clean clothes and, honestly, another plate of whatever animal Rowan had hunted for them to eat only a couple of hours ago. She had been in much worse living conditions before, spent much longer than five days in dirty clothes and smelling as if she had never bathed in her life; but it was so easy to get used to the "good life". A couple of days of bathing in a lake and being given clean clothes almost every day and she was already itching all over from her five-days-old dirty clothes. Nevertheless, Isabella had no idea where they were, and she hadn't seen a lake since their second day of travelling. Venturing alone to look for a lake was not really an option, the males never told her where they were going -fuck them for that-, even when she explicitly asked them to tell her. They just made her follow them. Besides, Isabella was not as stupid as they thought she was, she knew there were dangerous creatures wandering through the forest and she had decided long ago that she would not risk being eaten by a magical wolf or bear –though she wasn't sure if those animals really existed here- unless she had to run away.
Isabella looked at the shining stars and wondered if they were welcoming her back, since she always looked up at the sky whenever a nightmare was too much for her. It was a nice thought, she believed, for the stars to shine to greet her a welcome back and the moon to glint in the sky to smile down at her. She started yawning. She knew that she would probably wake up again because of a nightmare if she went to sleep but she still needed the little rest she could get, so she stood up and walked back to the camp.
. . .
"WAKE UP" Fenrys yelled from outside her tent. Isabella rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands while that same voice yelled again, "C'MON, BREAKFAST IS READY" She heard the sound of his footsteps retreating to wherever he had come from without waiting for an answer from her. He had probably heard the sounds she had made while waking up with his good hearing and left after realizing that his task was done. Isabella yawned. She had slept terribly, but she was already used to it. She braided her hair as fast as she could. Her hair, a dark brown mane, was long, dirty and tangled, but she didn't bother with a hair-comb. Not that she had one, anyway. She couldn't care less about her hair as long as she was fully clothed. Isabella packed her blankets back inside her bag and put it on. Gavriel had told her that she should lock her back on the horse's back after their first night out, but she had refused. What if she had to run away and there was no time for her to grab her bag? No, it was better if she carried it with her at all times. The safer, the better.
Isabella walked out from where she usually slept and began to dissemble her tent. She was the only one, out of the five of them, who had a tent, and she suspected that the only reason why they had given her one was because she was human, and her body was not made to resist the change in the weather as theirs were. Fenrys had taught her how to assemble and disassemble it during their first night out and ever since then, she had made sure to do it all herself. She didn't want them to do things for her, she didn't want them to feel like she was a dead weight and decided to leave her behind. Even if she knew they needed her. She also did it because she wanted to be as independent as possible. If she decided to run away, she would need to know how to do all these things by herself, so it was all a good practice.
Once her tent was nothing but a small ball of fabrics and retractable sticks, she saved it all inside her bag and went to where the four males were all seated eating breakfast. They were all around the new fire in a circle. She sat down a good distance away from the four of them, but not far enough that it looked as if she didn't want to eat breakfast. Gavriel handed her a plate with bread and scrambled eggs and resumed his eating. Isabella had noticed that they may not grow tired as much as a normal human being would, but they ate more than four humans together. And stunk more than four people together, too. Especially when they were all freshly sweated. But she could not complain, she was sure she did not smell much better. And at least her sense of smell was not as good as theirs, she could not imagine how strong their abhorrent scent must be with their magical sense to detect smell. She shivered by the mere thought of it.
"Ugh, eggs again?" Fenrys asked while looking judgingly down at his plate. His very big and full plate, Isabella noted.
"If you don't like it then don't eat" Rowan snapped before eating a good handful of bread with eggs.
Fenrys rolled his eyes, the perfect image of drama and boredom, "I need to eat, Rowan. I'm still growing" he said, and petted his stomach as if to emphasize his argument. Isabella wasn't sure when fae stopped "growing" but she wasn't about to ask.
"We all need to eat, Boyo" Gavriel said, his tone neutral. "Just look at Lorcan, five centuries old and he's still eating as if he were a growing faeling" he added, pointing at the male in question, and Isabella was surprised by the playful tonality of his voice. She had never heard it before.
They all turned their gaze and focused it on Lorcan, who was too busy putting as much food on his mouth as possible. He ate as if it was his last meal. Isabella wasn't even sure if he was actually chewing, but he didn't seem to be choking, so she didn't say a thing. The male, noticing the unwanted attention of everyone on him, snorted and kept eating. Isabella hadn't known people could eat that fast before. But Lorcan wasn't really a person, anyway.
Fenrys grunted in disapproval, "You don't need to eat like a savage!" He said while gracefully moving his eggs to the side with his portion of bread. He really does look fancy while eating, Isabella thought.
Lorcan hissed at the youngest male through his teeth and, since his mouth was still full of food, ended up spitting crumbs of his barely chewed breakfast on Fenrys, who looked absolutely indignant and ready to throw his plate at Lorcan's head; but seemed to think better of it after taking an almost unnoticeable look at Lorcan's muscular arms -that were bigger than Fenrys' head-. The male sighed and chided, "What I was trying to say before I was rudely interrupted" he said to Rowan, but looked sideways at Gavriel and Lorcan, the former hiding a smile with his food, "why can't we eat anything but eggs for breakfast?"
Rowan didn't respond, he just kept eating, unbothered by the complaints of the youngest male. Gavriel, however, decided to intercept. "Eggs are healthy and give us great energy"
Fenrys rolled his eyes, again, "I know that, but I can't help but think that these are Rowan's eggs"
There was a long silence in which everyone seemed to stop eating, even Lorcan. Rowan turned slowly to look at Fenrys but it was Gavriel who asked first, "What?"
"You know," Fenrys said while gesturing distractedly with his free hand, "because Rowan's animal form is a bird"
"I'm a hawk!" Rowan almost yelled, shortly explaining to his companion why these were not his eggs, "Not a CHICKEN"
"Okay, but are you saying that these are not your eggs?" Fenrys asked, pointedly, as if he had discovered a loophole in Rowan's words.
"YES"
The young male looked slightly disappointed. "Can you even lay eggs?"
"I. AM. NOT. A. CHICKEN"
"But not only chickens lay eggs," Fenrys said matter-of-factly.
Rowan gritted his teeth and had a murderous look on his face, if Fenrys kept talking; Isabella had no doubt that the male was going to be seriously injured. She wondered if she would be able to finish her breakfast before they decided to start a fight.
"I'm a MALE bird" Rowan said, as if that was enough explanation.
"But some male birds do lay eggs" Fenrys told Rowan, as if this were a fact known by everyone and Rowan was not making any sense.
"NO, THEY DON'T" Rowan screamed, his whole body tensed, and Isabella recognized that his body was ready for attack, ready to fight.
"He's going to kill him" Isabella heard someone whisper, and looked sideways at Lorcan, who was closely talking with Gavriel about the other males' interaction.
"He is, isn't him?" Gavriel said, sounding more tired than worried.
"Do you think we can convince Fenrys to turn into his wolf form before Rowan kills him?" Lorcan asked thoughtfully while his eyes remained fixed on Rowan and Fenrys, who had both left their unfinished plates forgotten aside.
"What for?" Gavriel asked, confused.
"To eat him. I could never eat him if he's in his fae form but if he's a wolf..." Lorcan trailed off.
To Isabella's horror and surprise, Gavriel did not reprimand Lorcan for having that kind of thought. Instead, the male said, "Mhm, I've got the feeling he would taste good"
Lorcan nodded excitedly, "I know, right?"
Isabella was completely horrified by their conversation and truly hoped that that was the males' way of joking when "AAAHHH" A startling sound came from the other side of their circle, Isabella directed her attention to the origins of the sound and saw Fenrys trying to shove a bird off of his face. The animal, a beautiful white-tailed hawk, gave a hoarse, scream kee-eeeee-arr while attacking Fenrys' face with its claws. Isabella noticed that Rowan was nowhere to be seen, and realized that the hawk was, undoubtedly, Rowan. Fenrys managed to hit Rowan and send him flying to the side, but the male did not relent. Instead, it came back stronger and -Isabella could have sworn that she saw a frown in the animal's face- angrier. She saw as Rowan changed strategy and positioned itself on Fenrys' head and began to pull his hair with his beak and claws, all while flying up. Isabella heard Fenrys screaming at Rowan to stop while his hair was pulled harshly up, making him helplessly stand on his toes, in a desperate way to reduce the pain. But Rowan was unforgiving; he kept his attack until Fenrys shifted to his animal form. A white wolf. The two animals began an even sharper fight, in which Rowan mocked Fenrys by pecking at his head and back, moving swiftly and faster than Isabella could have thought possible. She saw Fenrys on his hind legs trying to catch Rowan with its front paws but the hawk was too fast for the wolf.
Isabella heard Lorcan howling, and saw him in the same position he had been before the fight. He was still sitting on the floor, eating his –probably third- plate of food while laughing at the other two males. Gavriel was next to him, but had the decency of containing his laughter. Isabella, on the other hand, couldn't help but worry. What if they hurt themselves? Was this a real fight between the two of them? And why weren't Lorcan or Gavriel stopping them? What if they ended up injuring each other and they had to stop their journey?
As if he had heard her thoughts, Gavriel turned his gaze toward her direction and smiled apologetically at her, "Do not worry, they do this all the time" She raised both of her eyebrows in surprise, why would they do this all the time? He must have seen the confusion on her face, because he added, "It's very normal for soldiers to fight like this. Especially when travelling with so few people" Gavriel shrugged, "They get bored so they pick fights with each other"
"Cavemen's behavior" Isabella muttered under her breath.
Gavriel heard her comment and laughed at her words, "Yes, I suppose that it is quite barbaric"
Isabella, who had read Ice Planet Barbarians before, thought that even barbarians behaved better than Rowan and Fenrys, but did not mention it. "So they will not hurt each other?" She asked, instead.
"Oh, they probably will, but nothing too serious. At least, not serious enough that it would prevent them from travelling" Gavriel said, with no amount of worry in his words. They really must do this often, Isabella thought.
At that stupid discovery, Isabella resumed eating her breakfast as if nothing were happening. Unlike Lorcan, she couldn't eat three plates, but she was eating more than she used to a mere week ago, and she could notice that she was slowly regaining her weight, so she finished her food and stood up. "I need to attend to my necessities" She informed the two males who were still in their fae form and left them to go deeper into the forest to have some privacy. She made sure to wash her hands with water from her canteen when she was done. Rowan and Fenrys were still fighting, but it was obvious now that they were not trying to gravely hurt the other. Isabella made sure to grab a spare apple from their supplies and gave it to her horse, trying to avoid the fight occurring mere meters away. Fenrys had also taught her how to properly equip the horse, so now it was one of the things she did every day and night. She had found that she liked the horse. It was not as responsive as a dog but it was still beautiful, and it carried her on its back every day so she made sure to spoil it as much as she could. It deserved it.
"Fine! I give up" the words were said by Fenrys' familiar voice. Isabella turned curiously to look at the male. He was splayed on his back and his hair was so tangled that Isabella wondered how he would manage to comb it. He had a few red scratches on his face and arms but, apart from that, looked completely uninjured.
At his words, Rowan shifted back to his fae form. He towered over Fenrys' form and grinned smugly at him. "Next time I'll make sure to break the eggs on your head if you are so tired of eating them"
"It's not that I am tired of eating eggs" Fenrys responded, and then seemed to think better of it. "Well, yes, I am but it's going to be so awkward to eat the eggs now that I know how you acquire them"
"How does he acquire them?" Isabella asked, trying very hard to hide her growing curiosity at Fenrys' words. She had always believed that they found them on close nests from where they camped, she hadn't even known that it was Rowan who was in charge of breakfast, but she had been clearly wrong. She also wondered how Fenrys had found out about where the eggs came from, since he had believed them to be Rowan's only minutes ago. Perhaps Gavriel had told them to appease their fight while she was gone.
Her question surprised the two males. Fenrys leaned back on his elbows to have a better look at her. She saw startelement in his eyes, which were wide and incredulous. Rowan had tensed all over and he was barely looking at her from over his shoulder, as if he didn't want to bother with her existence, but her question had also caught him by surprise, she noticed. She couldn't blame them for their surprise. Since their journey had begun, she had barely spoken with any of them. She didn't want to be their friend, she was not sure she liked them –not the real them, anyway- so she had decided to politely isolate herself. She would answer them if they asked her something, she would only ask them something if she really wanted to know and she would thank them if they did or gave her something; but, apart from that, she practically didn't speak with them. And they had noticed her decision and respected it, because they barely spoke with her, either. Fenrys was the only one who didn't seem to realize that she didn't want to talk with anyone or that she didn't want to hear him talk about his favorite inns in Doranelle every day.
The youngest male cleared his throat, "What?"
"How does he acquire the eggs we eat each morning?" She repeated, more clearly this time.
"Oh, well..." Fenrys began and then looked up at Rowan pleadingly, begging him to respond. Was the answer so horrible? Isabella wondered. But Rowan was not looking at the male, he was still looking at her from over his shoulder, his mouth a thin line on his face, his gaze cold. She glared at him.
"He turns into a hawk and steals the eggs from different nests" responded Gavriel while he distractedly washed the dishes.
She looked at Gavriel and considered his answer. There was not much difference between fae Rowan stealing eggs from nests to hawk Rowan doing it, so why was Fenrys so uncomfortable by that idea? She shrugged after not coming up with an answer to her own question and Gavriel's confession.
"It's bird treason!" Fenrys exclaimed after noticing her indifference. She raised a single eyebrow at him, confused. He sighed, exasperated, "He –Rowan- is a bird and flies from nest to nest stealing other bird's eggs! That's theft and cannibalism for him!"
"How is that cannibalism, Fenrys?" Gavriel asked him, utterly confused and incredulous at the males' stupid words.
"He is a bird! A thief bird! A bird that eats other birds!" Fenrys exclaimed while standing up from the floor, shaking his hands in the air, trying to make them understand his point of view.
"We don't eat fertilized eggs, genius. We are not really eating birds" Rowan snapped.
"It's still an egg!"
"BUT THERE'S NO BIRD"
"IT'S STILL ALIVE"
"NO, IT'S NOT BECAUSE THERE'S NO BIRD"
"BIRDANIBALL!" Fenrys accused Rowan, and it took Isabella a couple of seconds to realize that he had united the word bird with cannibal.
Rowan rolled his eyes and punched Fenrys on the face. The blow fast and hard, the sound of skin to skin connecting loud. Fenrys staggered back and brought one hand to where Rowan had hit him. "You punched me," He said, accusingly.
"Yes" Rowan said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And read a book about birds and eggs" He said, and left to finish his breakfast, leaving the young male standing incredulous alone, with a hand still positioned where he had hit him. Fenrys followed him with his gaze, his eyes narrowed. Isabella noticed that Rowan made sure to look pointedly at Fenrys whenever he brought a good quantity of scrambled eggs to his mouth. She couldn't help but hide the little smile that threatened to erupt from her face at Rowan's actions.
When the males were done eating, Isabella mounted her horse and heard Fenrys complaining about his hair. They resumed their traveling and began moving. Isabella raced herself for a long trip that day, since they had decided earlier -after Fenrys was done complaining about the swollen side of his face- not to stop for lunch today. Lorcan had informed them about a small town close to where they were going, and everyone had agreed to get there as fast as possible to stay there for the night. So no lunch for them today.
. . .
The town Lorcan had told them about was, truly, small. It had very few buildings with no more than three floors that looked old and were all made of dark wood. It was dark when they stopped at an inn that appeared to be the oldest building in town. Before she could get off the horse, a small boy came out from the building from where he had noticed them and said something to Isabella in a language she did not understand. When she looked at him dumbfounded, he gestured at the horse and she nodded in understanding. Isabella dismounted her horse and handed it to the boy, who took it to the inn's barn.
Before they could climb the short stairs to enter the inn, Gavriel stopped Isabella in her tracks and turned around to look her in the eyes. "People here will not speak your language so try to open your eyes as much as you can and listen to anything in case you may recognize more of your kind here" She nodded at his instructions, though he hadn't told her anything she hadn't planned to do already. He looked at her for a couple of seconds more, as if he were deciding if he wanted to tell her something else.
The inn's door was abruptly opened by a man coming out from the building and the light coming from inside showered them all. Lorcan and Fenrys took this as their opportunity and entered the inn while Rowan stood behind her and Gavriel remained in front of her. He decided to say something else, then, "If anyone tries something on you or you feel uncomfortable, let me know" He said, and left to enter the inn.
. . .
Isabella was given her own room while Rowan and Gavriel shared one, and Lorcan and Fenrys another one. She was grateful for this, and still surprised by Gavriel's earlier words when an old woman wearing a stained dress knocked on her door and told her that she had brought her water to bathe. Isabella practically jumped into the water when the woman left her room. The water was hot and it did wonders to her sore body. She washed fervidly with a white soap she had packed in her bag and, after realizing that she had no shampoo, she used that same soap to wash her hair. She still had no hair-comb to use but at least she was now clean and wearing clean clothes. Her boots were the only thing still dirty but since she only had one pair she didn't think much about it. She tried to comb her hair with her fingers the best she could and left her room to go down to the inn's dining room. She didn't know if she should have waited for any of the males to knock on her door to escort her or not but she didn't care and left anyway. She walked through a dark corridor and went down the stairs until she found herself in a small room with old dark wooden tables and chairs, a small fire burning in the center of a wall, and the same woman who had brought her water cleaning a table. There were only three tables occupied. Isabella scanned them fast, and after realizing that they were all men, sat down on the chair furthest from where the other people were eating.
She waited for the males to show up. But after some minutes and still no appearance from them, Isabella started to wonder if perhaps she should have waited for them to come get her to her room. She knew where their rooms were and that they had planned to eat here because she had been there when they had discussed their plans for tonight but she hadn't imagined that they would take longer to bath and clothe than her. Isabella began to feel uncomfortable after noticing the eyes of the other men in the room on her. She didn't remember the social rules of the world from the books, she wasn't even sure they were the same as the ones from this world, but she knew that it was not like where she came from. In her world, if a woman entered a restaurant alone, nobody would think much of it. But here, where women still wore corsets and big gowns and men wore linen white shirts and knee-high boots, she didn't know if perhaps the sight of a woman, alone, during the night wouldn't mean that she was offering herself to them...
The sound of loud footsteps caught everyone's attention and Isabella turned to see Rowan towering over her, his nostrils flared and he looked like he was angry with her. When he didn't sit down to wait for the others with her, she asked, "Are the others coming?"
"Where were you?" He said, instead. His words sounded cold and restrained, as if it had been a pain for him to say them.
Isabella was puzzled, "Here?"
"You were not in your room"
"No, I came down to eat. I thought you would all be here already but when nobody was here, I decided to wait" She explained, quickly.
Rowan closed his eyes and Isabella was sure he was counting down numbers, trying to calm himself, but Isabella couldn't understand why. "Next time wait for one of us to come looking for you"
"I can't wait for all of you to come looking for me as if I were a child" she retorted, angry at him for being angry at her when she had done nothing wrong, angry at him for the way he had ignored her since the night of her confession, and angry at the worlds for being such dangerous places for women.
"You are a child," he said.
"That's because you are all old as fuck!" she snapped, raising her voice, feeling utterly indignant.
Rowan blinked in surprise, and she could almost see the spark of amusement in his eyes before he extinguished it. "I am not old" He told her, trying to sound serious but sounding nothing but defensive.
"Yes, you are" She said while crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back on her chair, raising her chin up at him. "You are ancient" she mocked him.
"Your hair looks terrible" was all he said in response, clearly tired of their conversation and just trying to annoy her. He sat down in the seat across from her and copied her posture.
She opened her mouth in surprise and saw him gazing at her lips quickly before going back to looking boringly at her. Somehow, the action made her blush and she was suddenly angry at herself for blushing. It was a good thing there was not much illumination in the room. Hopefully, he hadn't noticed it. "Yours doesn't look any better" she told him, and she cursed herself for not coming up with a better insult.
He raised an eyebrow at her and prepared to respond when Fenrys' voice was heard, "Oh, here you are" he said to her and threw himself on the chair next to her. She tried hard not to flinch at his sudden movements and tried to move imperceptibly further away from him. Fenrys didn't notice it, he was too busy complaining about how tangled his hair was because of Rowan's attack and how he needed a new hair-comb. At that, he turned his gaze at her and examined her hair, "Did you comb your hair?" he asked her.
Isabella blushed harder; did her hair really look that bad? She had combed it with her hands and hadn't thought much about it. "No" she told him, "I don't own a hair-comb"
"Oh" Fenrys exclaimed, "Poor thing, a hair-comb is an essential item. But do not worry, I'll lend you mine, I need to buy a new one, anyway"
"Thank you" she whispered distractedly, because by then, the other males had appeared out of nowhere and were now on their table, talking. Isabella saw Gavriel ordering for their food and, after a couple of minutes, saw a trail of plates full of potato. She ate her plate and, since she was tired and didn't want to wait until all the males were done with their fourth plate, excused herself and went back to her room.
She threw herself on the bed, it made a sound of protest at her weight. Her room for the night was small and made, like the rest of the inn, of dark, old wood. It had a small bed in the middle of the place with a nightstand next to it, a short wardrobe and a door that led to a small bathroom that only had a bath and a toilet. Isabella was tired but she found that she couldn't fall asleep easily that night. She laid down in bed for some time until the sound of footsteps and a knock on her door made her bolt upright. She opened her room's door and found a hair-comb in front of her room's door. She looked to the sides but found no one in the dark corridor. She picked the hair-comb up and closed the door. This must be the hair-comb Fenrys was talking about, she thought. Though she couldn't imagine why he hadn't given it to her in person. She shrugged uninterested in the answer and combed her hair. It was a hard task due to the fact that her hair was very tangled, but she persisted. After some minutes, her hair hanged loose and straight thanks to her hard work. She left her new possession inside her bag and went back to her bed.
She found sleep easier this time.