Though his sleep was shallow, he was unwaking. He thrust his subconscious trust into the girl and her warm touches. There was a shift in the air flow as Noah was disconnected from the outside at the closing of the flap. He could hear the murmuring voices of the people outside that only grew duller once the flap was closed entirely. It was then that his bondmate drifted from him, herded out by another moving presence that Noah assumed was the doctor’s wife. Warmth stayed around him despite the loss of blood and he found himself entirely within the care of the doctor and his daughter, though she wasn’t doing much. The girl’s quiet shushing could be heard just barely whenever Noah’s face contorted in an unconscious wince.

Noah did not know how long he was being operated on, but at some point he felt the doctor’s hovering presence slip away. The little girl’s didn’t waver though, the soft stroking of his face continued as they held hands, Noah on the bench and her kneeling on the wagon floor. It seemed she did not wish to budge either, only moving to help her mother drape the naked man in blankets after his surgery was done. Soon the wagons starting to move woke him slightly, but his slitted eyes met the girl’s deep innocent ones. She gave him a look of assuring, that he had survived the ordeal and now her father was done treating him. All he had to do was rest now was what the look said, and so Noah rested, falling back to sleep to the slow rhythm of the wagon rocking.

He was unsure if Elann was in the wagon with him, but his steady waking and sleeping happened every few minutes. She would be able to tell when he was conscious because their bond would buzz with his quiet activity, though he wouldn’t open his eyes. If anything it was a brief assessment of the world around him before he slipped away again.

Three hours after his already three-hour long operation, Noah finally stirred in full, opening his mouth to groan dryly. The pain in his body was apparently seen on his face, the creasing brow and cracking eyes whose irises searched for someone familiar. He didn’t spot the girl immediately, the ordeal apparently taking a toll on her as well because her mother had put her down for a nap. He swallowed dryly and whimpered through a closed mouth the next time. His hand moved, fingers searching blindly for something to grasp in his sudden sense of fear and loneliness.