Broken Chains

Puck was unclear on how long exactly his recovery took, but later he would guess, that the first time he truly could communicate with his savior was about three months after he got attacked.

Sure, there were many moments before where he could see her and more than once he tried to talk to her, but each time he got rebuffed.

Of course, he was very grateful for being saved and still being cared for and as such he had taken the lack of information and willingness in stride.

But finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.

It was in the morning, when the Gremlin women brought him something to eat and drink that Puck stopped being calm, collected, and thankful.

He hadn’t planned it and as such the outburst was anything but controlled, but it truly came from the heart.

When she brought him his breakfast, Puck still unable to leave the bed for any extend period of time, he had a vision of himself, sitting in that same bed day in and day out, nobody ever talking with him again.

At that point it simply was too much, suddenly, and without warning Puck first started sobbing and then only second later started yelling and shouting as loud as his battered body would allow.

“Please, I can’t even express how thankful I am for what you’ve done, and nothing will ever be able to pay the dept I have accrued toward you. But I simply can’t go one like this. Please talk to me. Please, …, I …. Please!”

At the end Pucks yelling and shouting returned to a painful sobbing again were every movement of his body hurt, only now and then the sobbing was interrupted by whispered please.

Then after a while, silence.

Puck had stopped sobbing and only lay there, having closed his eyes and breathing heavily. He still was agitated and feared the reaction the unknown Gremlin woman would have.

After some time, as his breathing had slowly returned to normal again Puck opened his eyes and what he saw made him despair.

She was gone, the room he was in was empty and everything was still. It seemed he truly had managed to push away the one person that had been nice to him since, …, since ever. No, not only the one person that had been nice. She had been beyond nice to him, what she had done for him …

Slowly Puck started sobbing again and his hands curled to fists were the claws on the end of his fingers dug in his hands painfully.

He didn’t know what to do, he could try to leave to bet and search her, or would that make everything only worse? Or …

Suddenly Pucks thoughts where interrupted by a voice. Instantly Puck stopped sobbing and his entire body froze up. Better he did nothing before he made everything even worse.

“You are right, the fact that I was the one who saved you made me blind to the fact that I still was unfair and cruel to you in my own house. I truly am sorry, please accept my apology.”

The voice came from behind Puck and before Puck could answer or try to turn himself around, she stepped into his view again.

Puck, freezing like a dear in headlight could only stare and stare.

Even though Puck already had seen her before, when she came to his bed or aided him on his way to the bathroom, it had never been clearer to him how beautiful she was.

The light moose was attached to a wall somewhere behind her and as such her face was enveloped in shadows to some degree, but Puck still imagined he could see every detail of it.

A wonderful nose and beautiful eyes shining with a deep green sapphire. A body that was more athletic than the ones of any Gremlin had seen before. Like Puck she must be somewhere around the age of a young adult among the Gremlins, but she seemed much more developed than Puck or other Gremlins of his age.

It took over ten seconds before Puck came out of his shook and it took another ten for him to find the correct words to say. In that time the calm visage of the woman broke a little and she seemed slightly anxious. An outside observer would have noticed that she seemed like somebody with little to none experience in talking with other beings, but Puck had other things to worry about.

The words he chose in the end weren’t the wisest he’d ever spoken, but at least he managed to open his mouth.

“I’m ashamed for my behavior. You’ve been better too me, a stranger, than anybody else ever has. Yet I acted like this. It’s just, …”

Unsure of what to say exactly Puck trailed of and looked at the Gremlin woman opposite from him with a pleading gaze.

For another few moments nobody said something. Puck didn’t say anything because he had used up all his courage and the woman because she seemed deep in thought.

Then, suddenly, she moved again. With elegant and subtle steps, she went to a corner of a room and picked up a stool from there. After that she went uncomfortable close to the side of Puck’s bed and set down. She seemingly had lost all her indisposition as she made herself comfortable and locked Puck straight in the eyes.

“My name is Scarlet, often shortened to scar”, she started talking without any entry, and she also didn’t need any entry, Puck was ensnared anyway.

“When I was young, I loved nothing more than to lie on my bed or anywhere really and watch the ceiling and imagine what lay beyond. There was this one time …”

On and on Scarlet talked and as she talked, Puck though he thought he could imagine every scene she talked about better than all the memories of his own life.