Chapter 51

"Ash, who is that? What's wrong?" Myan frowned as she made her way to where he stood with an injured woman in his arms. Myan's first thoughts were Asha, and it was reasonable because she had not stopped thinking about the woman for once since she left.

"The bedroom." Ash simply said, going in that direction. She wondered if he had attacked her by mistaking her for a beast, but she followed obediently.

The bed was almost neatly done and so he just lay the woman in the white stained dress on it. Her ginger hair was tangled like it had never been combed or that it hadn't been taken care of in a while. Her dark skin was bruised, and she had scars lining her face here and there.

"Where did you find her?" Myan asked when she returned from the kitchen with a cup of water for Ash.

"In my hunt area. She was still breathing and so I brought her back here,” he shrugged, gulping down the content of the cup.

"And you thought it made sense to bring her to the mountain?" Myan wondered, staring suspiciously at the innocent woman.

"Why not?" Ash raised one eyebrow at her. He would think that Myan of all people would be warm hearted and pity the disfigured woman.

"I don't know, we've dealt with too much shit in the past to just take anybody in,” she reminded him, sitting on the floor cross legged. "Who knows her agenda or what she did to get to that stage that she is."

"So, you're suggesting I should have left her there to be eaten by wild animals?" Ash raised an eyebrow and then pulled his lips into a smirk, extending one arm towards her, "come here."

She rolled her eyes but took his hand and flinched when he pulled her close enough to hold her waist. "I know why you are upset. Are you jealous of her?" He asked in an interesting voice that got her to smile.

"I'm not, I just want us to be careful,” she sighed.

"This is a woman, I'm the Lord of this world, nothing can defeat me, especially not a wounded woman with an agenda,” he added the word agenda in air quotes and leaned in, to kiss her forehead. "I'll request for a medicine man and then we can both go bird watching so you can paint to your heart's content,” he told her, and she nodded in agreement, leaving the room to get a servant that would fetch the nearest medicine man.

***

"What happened to her?" Ash asked the medicine man who had been examining their strange guest.

"Her bones are broken, and her muscles are weak, she needs food and water and some herbs to make her right." The rusty old man who was almost bent over double and walking with the aid of a stick, said to him. His bald head and white beard looked like they needed intense cleaning.

"She was attacked by an animal, I can't tell which because the claw scars vary from wound to wound but she was definitely maltreated by someone before this, some of these signs on her are as a result of human manipulation,” he assured them, I have directed your wife and she knows what to do, treat her with the available herbs and feed her when she regains her consciousness. Call for me if anything happens to be the problem,” he said and with that, he took his exit.

Ash stared at the woman. For one, she certainly needed a bath and although Myan had gotten rid of her blood-stained dress, she didn't exactly appear attractive to sight.

He shook his head and went to the living room where Myan was.

"Ash?" Myan called for him suddenly, like she had been waiting on his presence. "I want a dragon."

"What?" He chuckled, moving to stand by her side and giving her a kiss on her forehead. "That was very random, why would you want a dragon, what do you want with it?"

"I don't know, are they real creatures?" She raised an eyebrow.

"They could be, history has it our powers developed from them,” he said.

"What about the water world?" Myan's smile faded talking about it. It felt like it was extinct because the people of the world no longer knew about its existence.

Ash noticed the drop in her face and drew her close to his chest in a hug. "It's okay…" he trailed off when there was an interruption from the kitchen.

"Hilda?" Myan furrowed her eyebrows, getting to her feet so she could go to the kitchen and inspect the cause of their troubles.

She stopped walking when their unconscious guest walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, holding her head with her face scrunched in disgust. "My head hurts,” she groaned. Her voice was a lot deeper than Myan expected.

Ash stood to his feet and like Myan, stared at her as if she had just grown a new head.

She seemed to only notice now how they both had their attention on her.

"Who…who are you people?" She took a few steps back, holding her hands up in a defensive manner.

"It's okay. We saved you and brought you here." Ash kept a blank face, making moves in her direction.

"What do you mean?" She frowned, "where was I…" she stopped talking, blinked a few times. "Who am I even?" She seemed scared to be asking the question. She had no memories of the past or how she got there or even any memories of her own identity.

"What do you mean?" Myan took careful steps closer.

"I don't remember my name or where I came from, or how I got here." The terrified woman panicked as she spoke. "Help me, please what do I do?"

"I'll get the medicine man." Ash shrugged, finding her story interesting at the very least.