Grat looked at me closely.
“You’ve never plucked a bird before, have you?” he guessed, and my heart dropped with dread.
Now that he’d discovered how useless I really was, would he kick me out? Would I have to hide in the tree again, terrified of every sound in the swamp?
He crouched beside the goose. “Come here. I’ll show you.”
Relief gave me speed. I promptly got down on my knees next to him as he turned the bird over on its back.
“Start from here.” He pinched a few feathers on the bird’s chest and plucked them out.
It looked simple enough. I grabbed a handful of feathers and pulled, too, but didn’t get a single one out.
“Not so many at once or you’ll risk tearing the skin. And make sure to pull in this direction, like that.” He corrected my grip. “Now yank hard. There you go,” he murmured in approval when I managed to pull the feathers out. “Good girl. You learn quickly.”
Pride spread through me. Never in a million years had I thought I would pluck a wild bird. But I’d do anything for Grat to keep me around. If he needed a servant, I would earnestly attempt to be that for him rather than going back into the swamp.
Except that Grat didn’t treat me as a servant. He didn’t make me workforhim, he was workingwithme.
While I was striving to pluck the goose to the best of my abilities, he skinned and cleaned the rabbits, then set water to boil for our tea. It took me forever to rid the bird of all its feathers. Even when they all seemed gone, I kept looking for more, trying not to miss a single one.
“Good job,” Grat approved after inspecting my bare goose. “Hard to believe it’s your first time.”
“Thanks.” I beamed proudly.
“Now that you know how to trap and clean a prey, you’ll never go hungry again, Khala.”
I realized what he’d been doing all day. Grat hadn’t just made me help him, he’d been teaching me the valuable skills of survival in the Wetlands. While taking care of me, Grat also made sure I was able to take care of myself if needed.
When going to bed that night, I sat on the edge of my bunk, bracing myself for another inevitable nightmare while Grat was getting ready for bed too.
He liked to sleep naked, and he certainly didn’t feel the need to change his habits for my sake. Taking off his clothes, he folded them neatly on the short, wide log that served as his nightstand.
Moonlight filtered into the cabin through the cracks in the window shutters, highlighting his bulging muscles, shining off his bald skull, and glistening in the golden hoops in his ears.
My curiosity about him never eased. Everything about Grat fascinated me. His kindness attracted me first, and his “ugly” looks failed to repulse me. The more I studied him, the more attractive I found him. I appreciated the inhuman strength of his body as much as I admired the firm control he held over it.
He lifted the covers to climb under, then noticed I was still sitting on the edge of my bunk.
“What is it, Khala?” He dropped the cover.
The moonlight tangled in his thick chest hair that tapered into a thin trail below his belly button. I followed it with my eyes down to the nest of dark curls between his legs. His thick cock grew hard under my stare, rising higher.
He caught me staring and promptly climbed under the covers.
“Go to bed,” he barked from under the blankets.
Why did he get so shy all of a sudden? I’d seen him naked a few times by now, and it’d never seemed to bother him before. Or was it his erection that he didn’t want me to see?
“Are you still afraid of nightmares?” he asked, since I hadn’t moved from my spot.
“Yes,” I admitted.
He heaved a long breath.
“Fine. You can sleep in my bed one more night.” He tossed back the cover on the opposite side of his bed.
Relief spurred me across the room, as if giving me wings. I climbed into his bed and sighed contentedly.
