Tale of the Princess

XXVII

Shyra felt her consciousness sharpen, this time without the headache bashing through her skull. Her sense of smell was the first to return, and she could sense medicinal herbs brewing over a fire. She even recognized a few of them- herbs for wounds and bleeding.

Then she realized that she was lying down on a hard surface, and a soft pillow was protecting her neck from spraining. She tried to move her limbs, but her body felt too tired to sustain any movement. So she relaxed and focused on her ears, trying to find clues about her location.

She could hear faint murmurs from a group of people. They were too hushed for her to make out the words, but a male voice was speaking in a non-stop string of sentences. It vaguely reminded her of the way machine guns fired.

She soon grew bored of lying down with nothing to do, so she began moving her fingers again. To her delight, she was able to twitch the ends of her fingers. After that she cranked open her eyes bit by bit, letting herself get used to the increase in light before attempting it again. By the time she was able to open her eyes, everyone else in the room noticed that she was awake and began crowding around her, making it difficult for her to breathe.

"Give her a little space, guys," the male voice from earlier said, and they moved away, giving her breathing space. She sensed them waiting as she took her time to stretch her body and swing her legs over the edge of the cot.

To her surprise, once the heaviness of the tranquilizer wore away, she felt more clear-headed than she had felt for a long time. So she took a moment to observe her new environment.

The room they were in was a simple healer's cabin, with rows of herbs lining the walls, table, and cauldron. She even spotted modern medicine in the fray, but it being expensive, she only spotted common medicines for painkillers, colds and bruises. The rest of the room was bare, and the furniture was a couple of chairs that her friends were occupying, and the cot which she'd been lying on.

"Ahem," the guy said, clearing his throat and drawing everyone's attention to him. Shyra narrowed her honeyed eyes as she took in his presence.

The first thing about him that caught her attention was his age. He seemed to be in his late twenties, and after hanging out with people of her age for so long, an older guy like him caught her by surprise. He had shaggy black hair that hung over his eyes in a manner that made her want to reach out and brush it from his eyes. He was wearing a loose white achkan and matching white pants that were bundled around the ankles. Even his sleeves were folded up to his elbows.

"What's happening?" she asked, remembering that they were supposed to be on a spaceship, and not in a stranger's house. "Why are we here? What are we... What happened to the ship?"

"The thing is," Naor began, gripping his long staff, "When our ship crashed here, it plowed through this guy's carrot field. That was the voice we heard before you fainted."

"Oh," Shyra said, her eyes wide. She looked at the guy again, this time in a new light. "I'm so sorry for the damage we must have caused. I wish there were something we could do, but we're on a tight schedule."

"I know," he said, speaking for the first time since she woke up. "Your friends told me about what happened to Emperor Mahi and the others. And that you're on a mission to save them."

"Ah, I see," she said, casting a glare at them for revealing all their secrets. Naor turned his palms up and shrugged. "Well, since you know everything, I hope you'll let us go."

"Let you go?" he laughed. "I'm not the one keeping you here. Your broken ship is. Until the local mechanic fixes it, you can't go anywhere."

"So we're stuck here?" Shyra whispered, fisting her hands on her lap. Hira reached over and unclenched her fists, and Shyra got the message and took a deep breath. "Okay, it's fine. It's cool. We can wait for a while-"