The Dark Beast's Love

I yelled out Riven's name as soon as I saw that the new lump on the edge of the river was the body of a human, and in the process, I dropped the basket of vegetables as well. I ran up to the river, the soft grass against my feet and the sun too bright as my heart beat violently in my chest, hoping that however they were that they were okay, or at least alive. I sank to my knees as soon as I reached the body, taking who I realised was a boy by his armpits to drag him away from the cold river and the streams of fish that curiously swam around his feet.

To my instant relief, the boy was breathing, even if the breaths were shallow and came with whistles from his protesting lungs. I placed my hand over his cold chest just to feel his heartbeat for a while, to make sure that it wasn't going in a tempo that was too slow for his survival. When the moment had passed, I instantly started doing heart compressions. Not because his heart was too slow but because I could practically hear the water in his lungs as I breathed and I couldn't remember what to do with a person who'd almost drowned but was still breathing and had a beating heart.

Somewhere in the background, I recalled Riven yelling out my name as he approached, his hands hovering desperately over me and the stranger as if he wasn't sure if an extra pair of hands would help or if it would only be distracting. Before my mind had the time to figure out what more I could do for the stranger, he woke up and violently started coughing up water, puking out what seemed like a mix of his food and the water from the river in a puddle next to himself. I carefully patted his back as he continued retching out whatever his body allowed him to, hoping to offer even the smallest hint of comfort if possible.

Once he was emptied out, he fell back on his back and stared up at the sky with wide hazel orbs that revealed that he wasn't really present. That's when Riven took off his shirt.

I couldn't help but stare as I saw his toned pale stomach, muscles moving elegantly as the fabric was off his body. I had caught a glimpse of it when I had been standing over him with a knife, but the dark had covered up how eternal his body actually was. So now, here in direct sunlight, his body almost glistened in its glory, and the sight made my throat grow dry as my eyes just remained on his abs without even a hint of shame or reservation for his privacy.

"Liliana," Riven said as he started manoeuvring the stranger's body, and my cheeks flushed pink while I hoped that I hadn't been caught, but Riven mentioned nothing of it if he did. "Help me get his shirt off him so that we can put him in something warmer."

Almost immediately, my hands started moving and followed his direction, stripping the stranger of his wet cold shirt that stubbornly clung to his body as Riven held him upright against his chest. The stranger's physic was nothing like Riven's, but instead something closer to mine, narrow and starved, ribs slightly visible through the thin layer of dark skin that covered his body. Once the shirt was off, Riven handed me his own and helped me put his head and hands through the slightly warmer but certainly dryer piece of clothing. The boy was small in comparison to Riven, younger too if I read his facial features right, at least within a year or two. This caused the shirt to hang loosely over his body, covering even part of his hips as the length was adjusted to someone far taller than him, but in this situation, the more coverage, the better.

Riven heaved the boy's unconscious body away from the grass and into his chest in a bridal style, and started walking towards the house without saying another word. It took me a moment before I followed him, the sight of his back muscles fascinating me as Riven continued carrying the boy without any signs of struggle or inconvenience, as if the weight of a boy was nothing compared to what he usually carried.

I wonder if he kept the strength the world had in this form or if it was just the years of maintaining his own land and building barns that kept him fit.

The stranger was gently placed on the bed as I started to rummage through the cabin of clothes which I had done a thousand times since I came here, searching for a pair of thick and warm pants for the stranger as Riven in the corner of my eyes pulled off the stranger's own soaked ones. I handed him a pair I found acceptable enough, while being careful not to see anything inappropriate and I could have sworn that I heard Riven chuckling behind me, and then the boy started coughing again.

"Bring me some water and a bucket from the bottom cabinet to the left," Riven ordered me, tone now serious as commanding and for the first time since I came here, I didn't protest against his words, just simply followed his instructions. Despite his direction, it was a little bit difficult to find the bucket he was referring to, but when I did, I hurried back into the bedroom, a glass of water in one hand and the bucket in another. When I reached them, I saw that the boy had gained consciousness again, and not the same out-of-mind state that he had previously but something that seemed more alive. He was sitting up, with the support of Riven behind his back, and obviously trying to stop his shaking as he stared down at his hands. Meanwhile, Riven was whispering comforting words into his ear, assuring him that everything would be okay and that he was safe and that he would feel better in a little while.

I handed Riven the glass of water and put the bucket down on the bedside table before taking a seat in front of the boy, careful not to accidentally sit on his leg or other body parts. Without really thinking it through, I took his shaking hands in mine, and his gaze snapped up. From this angle, I could see that my suspicions about his age were correct. He was younger than us, and not only because of the way his flesh and skin hugged his facial bone structure but also because his eyes were raw and unguarded. He was afraid.

"It's okay," I said as gently as I could, cupping my hands around his to give him some warmth. "You're safe."

He looked at me as if he didn't believe me, but he had relaxed slightly in my touch so I continued to talk. "What is your name?"

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He tried to answer, but it only came up as another coughing fit that we all patiently waited out, Riven once again patiently patting his back and I wasn't sure if it was on purpose or if it was instinctively this time. Once the boy had calmed down, Riven handed him the glass of water, warning the younger one to drink it slowly in order to avoid throwing it all up again. And thankfully for us all, he listened, slowly gulping down the water and taking occasional breaths between each swallow to satisfy his lungs before returning to the water glass, repeating the process until the glass was emptied.

Meanwhile, I studied Riven's face and noticed the troubled expression he had as he watched the young boy, eyes expressing something I could only detect as sorrow as he gently took the glass of the stranger's hands, but I couldn't really blame him for the sadness, could I? This boy was young and afraid, and that was without knowing that he would be stuck here forever, with no way out that didn't guarantee death. I grieved his freedom, the way I still grieved the loss of mine. Riven had been here for a longer time than both of us combined, so maybe he was past grieving his own, but somehow still grieved the little boy's life.

I made a mental note to ask him about it later. Not because I wanted to get to know him and his past more, but because it felt as if I owed him something after trying to kill me, especially since he had done no harm to me after finding out my intentions, yet at least.

The boy sunk back against Riven, probably taking advantage of his body heat the way I was giving him mine, and sighed. When his eyes started to flutter shut, I could only imagine the exhaustion that overcame him after whatever the river had put him through, and when his breath started evening out, I thought that he was asleep, tucked away in a world where this was nothing more than a nightmare. I was about to relax myself when I heard him speak, his words slow and a little raspy due to his sensitive throat but still a whisper in the silence.

"Theo," It came out as more of a sigh than a response. "My name is Theo."

I looked over the boy's shoulder to find Riven's green eyes staring back at me.