She opened the door and out she went.
The cups and tea kettle perfectly balanced on her tray. On second glance there were some snacks on it too. I followed only to have her turn around and head back in after setting the tray down on a small metal table. Something you'd see in a town house. But now rusted and on her porch.
I sat on a swing that sat out there. I could see her lounged on this in the spring reading a book and feeding her birds. Or any birds.
It was a nice thought.
Peaceful.
When she emerged from the house she held blankets and a few notebooks. One that I remember being the one she wrote in, and the new one splashed with messy colors and dirty edges. I'd come to find it was a sketch notebook. Not only that she had drawings of all her previous patients.
Many of them very obviously injured, that wasn't surprising, instead it was how many of them really had cold untouched eyes. You could nearly read what they had been through without being told.
It was really horrific.
One man was missing his ears. It was common to be missing an eye, that made me feel better about my situation. Some lost limbs, some just had large gashes over their bodies. One guy in particular had a dent in his head. It made it this gross triangle like shape at the top. As if his skull was a weird shaped cap. Any idea, more or less a miracle, how he survived.
"Hey wait a minute"
We had already been sitting. I waited for my tea to cool. I wasn't a fan of hot foods.
"You're what... 19? 20-?"
"20. Just turned"
"If you've had this many men before? How were you not injured or... well... taken advantage of? Isn't it unsafe for a young pretty girl like yourself to take care of them. I hate to be like this to men I personally know, but they are absolutely dogs. Heathens even"
"Well I wasn't up until this point. My cousin used to live with me. He wanted to get away from the family business same as me. He wanted to find solid ground before he left to be in the military as well."
"Oh. So you didn't do it alone?"
"I wasn't alone until he left. Even then I filled the absence with the injured and brain dead. And then the actual brain dead."
She finished flipping through her book. Birds, miscellaneous people she saw in town, more animals, and some flowers filled it until a fresh new page.
Out of her hair she pulled a pencil, I hadn't even realized she had it.
And she angled herself at me.
"I assume you'll be fine with me drawing you. I'd rather do it now when you aren't so heart broken looking and rather enjoying the scenery"
"Go ahead. My dad used to make me sit and have portraits painted of me as a kid. I could sit still for hours"
"How about 30 minutes?"
She gave me an amused smile that made me shake my head. It was contagious.
"Yea. 30 minutes"
***
He turned back to the scenery. Daylight was running out fast. But his eyes were still golden. He looked so much better cleaned up. His side profile reminded me of a cat. His long downturned nose paired with his eyes that, due to his race, had almost mimicked a cat all on its own.
His horns made it interesting. They had a slight s shape from the side I noticed while cutting his hair. His left ear had a notch cut out of the top part. A smaller old scar sat on his cheek on his good eye.
