Chapter 5.9

Chapter5.9

She could, of course, if she wanted to. "But please don't go so close to it," Rei begged, holding out her hand for her to stand up.

Quinn shivered slightly and allowed herself to be helped up. "Are you afraid I'll catch fire?" she asked, trying to lighten the situation a bit.

"No, but that my blanket will catch fire," Rei remarked dryly.

Quinn laughed softly. "I'll take care of them," she promised.

Rei nodded and headed toward the fireplace. "Good, then sit in front of it. I'll put some more wood on the fire," he said.

Quinn grabbed the blanket from the bed and wrapped herself in it before sitting down with it in front of the warm fireplace. Her eyes fixed on the fire.

The guard had taken a step to the side, so she had room and didn't feel crowded. "If you need more blankets, let me know. I'll find some," Rei said with a sideways glance at her.

"Thanks," she murmured and lay down before curling up and continuing to stare into the fire.

He walked back to the table with a nod and settled down on the chair to watch her from there. It was a real shame that she had fallen into such wrong hands. I wonder what would have happened to her if she had gotten a good dragon? Would she have been as stubborn? It was not uncommon for women to resist because they were afraid of what was coming. But it always depended on how the dragon treated her in the end.

Maybe it was a trait of hers, but it could also have been a reaction to the abuse. Rei couldn't tell.

She turned on her back and looked at the ceiling. "When I was younger, whenever it snowed outside, we would make ice," Quinn told me, sounding wistful. "We'd take snow, and then Dad would pour juice over it," she explained. "Then we'd spoon it in front of the fire."

Without interrupting her, the guard listened to her story. Then he said that the snow here was much colder than the snow she knew.

A question was on the tip of his tongue, which he asked after careful consideration. "Do you want to talk about what Harri did to you? Maybe it will help you to talk about it," he asked carefully.

Quinn closed his eyes in agony for a moment. "I don't know which of those things is true and which I dreamed. I must have had powerful fever dreams," she whispered softly.

"You don't have to talk about it. I'm offering it to you, and I respect your decision," Rei explained honestly. He certainly wouldn't force her to do it.

The young woman contorted her face in agony. "I can't talk about it," she brought out hoarsely.

"All right," Rei said with a shrug, looking indifferent as if he didn't care anyway. Which wasn't true at all. He had offered, and if she wanted, she could talk about it.

The chair beneath him creaked as he crossed his long legs and stretched them out from him.

"You can sleep in the bed for the night if you want," she murmured. "I'd like to stay here in front of the fireplace," she explained. It reminded her of home. In cold winter months, she had often lain in front of the fireplace with her mother.

Sighing softly, he said that Elgatos would come in the evening so Rei could retire. "The bed is more comfortable than the floor in front of the fireplace. You can get sick faster there when the fire is out," the guard remarked in a worried voice.

"It's warmer here," she whispered but didn't move.

"I can make it warmer for you and bring more blankets," Rei suggested.

"Do you mind if I lie here?" she asked softly.

Slightly he straightened up but didn't move any further. "It is not a place that belongs to a goddess," he clarified.

"I'm not a goddess," Quinn replied, curling up a bit. "I'm just a girl from a village that nobody cares about."

Hadn't she been listening earlier? Human women were now considered goddesses, even though many of them were dying. "You are one. And you should be treated as such," he said forcefully.

A thoughtful sound left her lips. "With us, the dragons are the gods," she murmured, "Their will is our life, not the other way around."

That was precisely how it had been long ago. But ever since the dragons had discovered that human women transformed into half-dragons could give birth to procreative children, they had been considered goddesses.

"I like it here. It reminds me of home," Quinn confessed, looking into the fire.

"Still, I didn't give up my bed-chamber to have you sleep on the floor," he remarked dryly.

Quinn turned to face him. "It is your bed-chamber?" she asked quietly, frowning. "Then where do you sleep?"

She felt as if she had heard something along those lines but had probably forgotten it.

"Not far away," Rei answered with a shrug as if it didn't matter at all where he slept. Which it did, as long as Quinn was comfortable.

The latter rose slowly and rubbed her arms as if she were still cold. "If you're going to give up your bed, I really should sleep in it," she said, even though she felt like she was too far away from the heat source. It was almost as if her own body was barely producing heat. It felt as cold as stone.

"I'll give you more blankets," Rei said, getting up and walking toward the closet. This he opened and pulled out two more blankets, which he then brought to her.

"Do you have any more then?" she wanted to know, wrapping herself tightly in the blanket she had had before. She suddenly felt so cold, and it wasn't getting any better.

Rei waved it off. She didn't need to know everything. It was his decision what he gave her and what he didn't.

It hadn't escaped his notice that she was cold. However, he assumed it was due to anxiety. "Would you like some more warm tea to warm you from the inside? And more pillows?" he asked solicitously.

Quinn nodded. "Yes, please," she said, curling up. "It's so cold."

First, Rei carefully spread both blankets over Quinn and went to get two more pillows from the cupboard before pouring her tea and asking her if she wanted the soothing herbs in it or not.

She shook her head slightly, still shaking. "No," Quinn whispered, hoping he wouldn't do it on his own.

Since she didn't want him to, he handed her the tea without the herbs. "Careful, it's hot," he warned worriedly as he held the cup out to her and waited for her to accept it.

Quinn reached for it carefully and then seemed to warm her hands on it first. She felt like her body was about to shut down, and that's why it was so cold.

Thoughtfully, the guard watched her after he sat down in the chair. "You might as well take a warm bath if you're cold," he suggested after eyeing her for a few minutes.

Quinn took another sip of tea. "I don't know if that would help," she said quietly.

Rei stood up, took the shackles, and motioned for her to give him her hands.

Quinn looked at him with wide eyes. "W-what are you going to do?" she asked uneasily.

"I'm going to go get something, hoping it will help you get warm. Since Elgatos is sleeping and I can't leave you alone, I'll have to tie you up in time. I'm sorry," he said apologetically, but seriously. It had been enough that she had run away once when his back was turned. Now that she knew what was coming, he thought another escape attempt was possible.

Quinn lowered her eyes and handed the tea back to him so he could tie her down.

Gently, he reached for her arms and fastened the restraints. In doing so, he allowed her some freedom of movement so that her joints would not stiffen. He refrained from the ankle cuffs this time.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Rei promised as he stood up and took the bowls and the used clothes.

Quinn remained shivering in bed. Being tied up now made it even more difficult to get warm, and she felt like she was getting cold even faster.

As promised, Rei came back after a few minutes with a lot of strange-looking things in her arms. They looked up like puffy pillows that had a soft cover over them. He placed these on the bed before releasing Quinn from the restraints and pointing to the pieces. "Put them under the covers. They're warm and should help keep you warm," he explained.

Quinn looked questioningly at the strange pillows before taking one of them and sliding it under the covers. She took the second one in her arms and sighed contentedly. "So nice and warm," she murmured delightedly, trying to snuggle up to it even more.

"I'm afraid that's all I have," Rei said regretfully but pleased that she liked it.

"Thank you," she murmured, seeming to want to snuggle even more under the blanket and against the warming pillows. Yet she was still cold, and her skin felt oppressive.

The guard placed the restraints back on the table and then settled into the chair. Mustering, he watched Quinn for a few minutes before letting his gaze slid to the window. The cracking sound of wood made him turn his head in the direction of the fireplace. The fire didn't need more wood yet, so he remained seated.

The room was actually warm, which was why it was strange that Quinn was so cold. I wonder if it was because of the transformation.

As far as he knew, stone dragons were relatively impervious to cold and heat. When the women came into the transformation process, it was quite possible that they could be really cold or hot because the body had problems with the temperatures and had to adapt first.

For that very reason, he felt that his blood would only bring disaster because he was an ice dragon. And that worried him.

No one could tell if their bodies could even take it. If everything went wrong, then the first glass of his blood would already kill her.