The fuzzy face of his assailant taunted him in his sleep, unwilling to make itself clear through the fog. The docks at Rivers Ward creaked beneath his feet, alerting his attacker to his presence. He'd overheard something, something important, but it still evaded him.
The faces of his sisters, his mother, swam through his dreams, too. How innocent and vulnerable the twins were and something nagged at his heart, telling him that they were could be implicated in the danger he'd stumbled across. A plot. An unexpected enemy. His sisters with their long black hair and lavender eyes were captive, and then they were burning... They were burning! They were burning and he couldn't save them.
A hoarse scream lit in his throat, but as he came to his eyes landed on the small fire and the young woman tending to it. No. No, his sisters were not burning, it was just the smell of the campfire weaving its way into his dream. They were safe, safe in Jadenshine with his mother. Pulling the blanket closer around himself to protect her modesty, Grian wondered why she remained. Surely she would want to send for help so he did not delay whatever journey she was on? He felt guilt for being a burden, something he was entirely unaccustomed to. Others had always depended upon him, but that was usually because he'd never let his injuries get as serious as this one had.
"Thank you for the fire..." Leaning cautiously forward, he took one of his daggers and rested the blade in the fire until it turned red with the heat. As it did, he let the blanket drop into his lap to expose his bare chest which was covered in bruises and cuts from his passage down the rivers. Tentatively he peeled her makeshift bandages away, blood welling up again, before gripping the sheath of his dagger between his teeth. Taking up the hilt, he quickly pressed the hot steel against the wound, a strangled growl emerging as his teeth cut into the leather of the sheath. He pressed the hot blade against his skin again and again, leaving it long enough to cauterize the wound, but not so long as to damage the healthy skin around it.
With the task quickly complete Grian fell back, chest heaving as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to pass out again. All he could think to himself was Damn! Damn! Damn!