You help me heal and I will do what I can until my dying breath to get you to Vadim.
Miriella glanced over his body again. Night had fallen and with the dark storm clouds rolled over, they were mostly enshrouded in darkness within the forest. She couldn’t study the extent of how bad his injuries were, but she imagined they were gruesome. She’d smelled the blood (could still, if she paid close enough attention) and heard the sounds the big mountain cat had made. He’d been through hell to keep her safe and now, lying flat out on the ground and prisoner to any enemy who came across him, Nahawi said he would only accept her help if she would let him get her to Vadim.
What had Vadim done to earn this kind of loyalty from Nahawi? Or was it possible that this lagoon bachelor could truly be as nice as he seemed to be? Miriella knew she would be more of a nightmare than ever if she’d gone through even half of what the stallion before her had tonight. She wasn’t sure if she was impressed by Nahawi or dumbfounded.
He further explained that he was unlike the other lagoon stallions and assured her Vadim was looking for her, that he wanted her in some way. The sadness inside her that had been longing for the large painted dunalino stallion longed for it to be true, but Miriella still had her doubts. The only way to see for certain would be to go to him, and if Nahawi could heal from his wounds and she could keep the others of the Inlet from finding him while he did, he could take her to the Badlands. She would have no choice but to face new truths there; namely wondering what Vadim would think when she showed up on the shoreline escorted by Nahawi. How she would react upon seeing him for the first time.
Were she to act how her heart wanted to, Miriella knew she would run up to Vadim and collapse against his strength, telling him how much she missed him and how she hated being apart. But she chose to remember the stallion he had always been with her, the aloof one, not the somewhat, somehow slightly soft one she swore he might be with her in the quiet. If she came to the Badlands only for Vadim to claim he wanted nothing to do with her, Miriella wasn’t sure what she would do.
She sighed and looked over at Nahawi. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll do what I can to keep the queen and the guards away from this part of the forest.” It was far away enough from the borders she didn’t think they’d have much of a reason to come by unless they were trailing her. She would have to be careful and smart when visiting him; she couldn’t make things too obvious.
Miriella glanced at Nahawi again and saw his eyelids falling as rest finally seemed to take him. Despite herself, she found her hooves remaining planted beside his body, watching over him. He had done so much for her tonight, the least she could do was stay with him while his body fought through the worst of his injuries. If she was questioned when she returned to the herd later she’d just say the ice storm drove her into the trees and she’d fallen asleep waiting it out. They wouldn’t have known their captive had stashed away a wounded Lagoon bachelor and was putting a plan in place to get away from them and back to Vadim’s side.
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