The Cave

Chapter Three: The Cave

Day One

The cave felt smaller with a dying man inside it.

Jasmine lowered him onto the thin straw bed, her arms burning from dragging him so far. She cut away his blood-soaked shirt with shaking fingers. The wound was deep but clean. Still, her stomach twisted with fear — one wrong move and he would die here, in her secret place.

“Focus,” she whispered fiercely. “He dies if you don’t focus.”

She worked as fast as she could — clean water, yarrow powder, needle and thread. Every stitch made her heart pound harder. When she finally tied the bandage and covered him with her spare cloak, she sat back, exhausted and terrified.

He looked so young. Dark hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. Hands that had clearly held a sword, not a plow. A soldier. Maybe a knight.

She should run home right now. Tell Granny everything.

But Granny would ask about the scarf. About why she had risked everything.

Not yet.

“Kira. Guard.”

The wolf lay down across the entrance like a silent sentinel. Jasmine slipped out into the darkening forest, chest tight with the weight of what she had just done.

Day Two

He still hadn’t woken.

Jasmine returned at dawn, scarf pulled painfully tight, heart anxious. She changed the bandages. Left fresh bread and water. He didn’t touch them.

In the evening she came again. His skin burned with fever.

“Come on,” she whispered, pressing a cool poultice to his brow. “Fight. Please fight.”

She sat beside him until the light faded, knees drawn to her chest, wondering if she was dooming herself for a man who might never even know her name.

Day Three

The routine was wearing her down.

Morning. Fresh bandages. Untouched food. Evening. The same.

She left three portions this time — morning, noon, and night — and felt a strange mix of anger and worry twisting in her gut.

“Kira. Stay with him.”

The wolf gave her a long, doubtful look.

“I know,” Jasmine muttered. “It’s stupid. Just… guard him.”

Day Four — Morning

Jasmine had barely slept. Dark circles shadowed her eyes as she crept out before dawn, soup and bread in her basket, scarf knotted so tightly it hurt.

The moment she neared the cave, Kira was standing at the entrance, hackles raised, a low growl rumbling in her throat.

“Kira? What is it?”

The wolf didn’t stop.

Jasmine’s pulse spiked. She stepped past her anyway. “He’s half dead. He’s not a threat.”

She knelt beside him and reached out to check his temperature—

His hand shot up and clamped around her wrist like iron.

Jasmine froze.

His eyes snapped open — dark blue, bright with fever, sharp and suspicious.

“What’s your motive?” he rasped.

Anger flared hot and sudden in her chest — anger at his ingratitude, at her own stupidity for risking everything, at the way her heart was still racing with fear.

She yanked her wrist free. “If you’re that worried, recover fast and get out of my cave. I don’t have patience or space for ungrateful people.”

She stood and turned her back, trying to hide how badly her hands were shaking.

Silence stretched behind her.

Then, quietly: “How long?”

“Four days,” she answered without turning around. “You’ve been unconscious for four days.”

He looked down at the bandage on his waist. “You did this.”

“Obviously.”

He said “Why?”

“Because you were bleeding to death in my forest. What was I supposed to do — walk past?”

He said “Yes.”

The single word landed like a stone in her stomach. Cold. Honest. It hurt more than she expected.

She didn’t know what to say to that.

Jasmine set the bread and soup down within his reach, her throat tight. As she walked toward the entrance, his voice stopped her again.

“Wait.”

She paused, back still turned.

“What’s your name?”

She almost answered. The word rose in her throat — Jasmine — before Granny’s warning slammed into her: Don’t let anyone know you. Don’t let anyone remember you.

The fear of what she had already risked crashed over her in a cold wave.

“Nobody,” she said, voice quieter than she wanted.

And she walked out, leaving the stranger and her growing tangle of fear, anger, and unwanted compassion behind her in the cave.

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