“Fisticuffs with a bear?”
“Aye, somethyng of that nature.”The uninjured side of his mouth turned upwards.
She grabbed his arm and tugged him into the kitchen with her.
“Sit on the bench.”
She left him to wash her hands and then retrieve a jar of boarberry salve.She pried the wax top open as she brought it over to him.He did not argue or protest.She dipped her fingers into the salve and began her work, focusing on the scratches and cut on his lip.She usually had julica for bruising, but her stores had been depleted.
“These wounds healeth quicklie,”he said, like one accustomed to such injuries.
“They will heal more quickly if they’re tended.I wish you’d told me, or preferably shown me, sooner.”
“Nay, ‘twas worse.”
“Yes.That’s the point.”
He exasperated her with his strange ideas of what he needed to keep hidden.She may not have been a healer, but she possessed knowledge, had seen things, and had picked things up so that she could look after herself.
His fur did not register to her touch under the thick salve she applied.But she had touched him without the barrier of the salve while bringing him in.She could not recall it feeling strange or unnatural, but she hoped he did not notice.
When she finished, she resealed the jar.
“Should I find food for you?”
“Nay,”he said.“Y came to byd thee farewell.”
She put the jar down on the counter, but at his announcement, it came down harder than intended.The frustration and upset from earlier flared up.She took a deep breath and tried not to betray the strange mixture of emotions that muddled her mind.
“Why?I thought we were getting along.”
“‘Tis naught to do with thee — naught to do with us.Y can smell that thy tyme ys comyng.”
“My time?”
“Thy monthly tyme,”he said.
“I finished my courses.Is it so bad that you fear for your safety?”
“Nay!Y desyre thy safety above else.Y mean not thy blood time.Y mean thy fertylytie.”
Her ovulation.
“Will you return when it is over?”
“Aye.”
“Humans do not smell such things.”
“Anymals smelleth such,”he countered without betraying anything,“and Y do too.”
“So you are leaving for my safety?”
“Thy scent wouldest addle my senses.Y dare not rysk yt.”
She sat on the bench beside him, not so close as to touch him, but close enough.
“Be safe, Baró,”she said.
