As time went on and Gavin didn’t return to the tent, Crow eventually fell asleep again, finding it more pleasant to be unconscious than it was to battle against the pain in his body. As always, he was unable to tell how much time passed before he was awakened by the sound of approaching footsteps. Blearily, he blinked his eyes open and glanced at the entrance of the tent, where two figures were making their way inside. He was quick to recognize Gavin and Jane, the latter of whom had an irritable look on her face as she walked over to his bed with a neatly folded blanket in her arms.

“Here,” the physician muttered with obvious resentment as she unraveled the thick fabric and draped it over the thief.

Right away, Crow could feel himself beginning to heat up, and he sighed in relief. Hopefully with something to keep himself warm, the cold wouldn’t do nearly as much damage, and he would be able to heal more quickly. He glanced at Gavin, wondering how the knight had managed to convince his comrade to help him. He had never taken the man to be very persuasive, but perhaps there was more to him than met the eye.

“Gavin, help me with the thief,” Jane grumbled as she began to set up her supplies to redress his wound. “I need him sitting up, so I can unwrap the bandages.”

The knight just nodded wordlessly in response and stepped up to the edge of the bed to help Crow get up from where he was laying. Once he was in an upright position, the thief leaned back on his hands like he had the night before while the physician got to work on treating his injury. He winced slightly at her rough touch, but made no verbal complaints, since she was barely willing to work on him as things were. Even though she wasn’t as gentle as Hazel, any treatment was better than none at all.

As the old bandages were removed, Crow snuck a peek at his wound, curious to see how bad it was since he hadn’t had much of a chance to look it over the last time Jane had redressed it. The sight of the stitching made him feel sick, and he swallowed nervously, finding his old aversion resurfacing a bit. He could see now why it was hurting so much. Even his old stab wounds hadn’t looked this gruesome. Thinking back on the battle, he remembered that Jaxon had twisted his sword before pulling it out. The motion must have torn into him quite a bit more than a normal stab wound would have.

He bent slightly at the waist, leaning to the left and right as he tried to feel the path the blade had taken on the inside of his body. As he did, he noticed a slight twinge in his back, and he frowned, bringing his free hand around to touch the spot the hurt. Before he reached it, Jane slapped his hand away.

“Stop that,” she chided sternly as she unraveled a new set of bandages for him. “If you play with the suturing, it won’t heal properly.”

[i]Suturing?[/i] Crow thought bemusedly. It seemed that he’d needed to be stitched on both the entrance and exit wounds from the sword. The thought of being run completely through to such a degree made him shudder. He was glad he was still alive after enduring something like that.

After she finished redressing his injury, Jane put her supplies away and stepped back. “He’s healing fine,” she said curtly to Gavin. Her dark eyes flickered to the thief before she added: “Do you think you could guard him a little while longer? I have other [i]knights[/i] that I need to tend to right now.”

Crow wanted to roll his eyes at the way she emphasized the word ‘knights.’

“Of course,” Gavin dipped his head politely. “I’ll stay as long as I’m needed.”

“Thank you,” Jane seemed to relax at his willingness to help. With no more reason to keep her near her criminal patient, she headed for the flap of the tent. “I’ll be back later. Make sure he doesn’t cause any trouble while I’m gone.”