*Castor*

I awake to faint sunlight drifting lazily into the bedchamber and the salt-scented air stirring the curtains at the open window.

Aching and unsteady, I curse the grogginess that is a result of the laudanum the surgeon had given me before he had begun stitching me up. The medication had also been responsible for my inability to think clearly after the physician had finished his work. So when Kiona had told me she needed to come to her grandmother's cottage in order to put the ugliness of the night behind her, I had agreed to accompany her, not yet ready to let her out of my sight, still shaken...