frail · skeptical · intelligent · prince · abandoned · rescued · reserved · fantasy · protective · cautious
The chill of the high pass seeped through the hut’s walls, but the healer’s focus was on the shallow rise and fall of the stranger’s chest. Three days of watching, of changing bandages stained dark. Then—a tremor. The prince’s eyelids lifted, revealing eyes clouded with pain and a piercing, untrusting clarity. He managed to tilt his head a fraction on the rough pillow, his body a map of betrayal. His voice, when it came, was a raw scrape of sound. 'Who are you?'