Your fingers trembled with effort as you tried not to cut too deeply into the bandages. Yuriko only had a knife that she could give you to change the bandages.

With his stomach drawn in and his breath held, the samurai tried not to be cut by the cold blade. Lost in thought, you shook your head slightly.

His name was Jin. It would be better if you got used to calling him by his name.

Although you knew that in Japan it was only allowed to address someone directly under certain conditions. Mostly it was titles they favoured and their clan names.

"Jin was your name?", you asked into the silence.

He exhaled so deeply that his chilled skin tightened. His face tensed as he did so. Your gaze travelled down to the wound. A small trickle of blood ran down his ribs.

"Jin...", he gasped. "Sakai."

Yuriko's eyebrows rose in delight. A smile spread across her lips. You ignored it. This was not the best time to worry about the fate of Japan resting on his shoulders.

He wasn't quite out of the woods yet. The fever hadn't gone down during the night and the wounds hadn't closed as you had hoped.

"Who... are you?", Jin asked Yuriko.

She bowed so low before him that her forehead touched the ground.

"I'm just a simple woman, Lord Sakai.", she said, pointing at you with her hand. "But she is your saviour."

Heat shot into your cheeks.

"Don't.", embarrassed, you tried to hide between him and the dirty bandages.

Warm blood stuck to your fingers. Immediately there was the smell of iron again. But also something else. You frowned.

"What is it?", Yuriko bent over him to take a look.

Your fingers travelled along the first wound.

Suddenly Jin grabbed your wrist. It was a quick movement, targeted and powerful. He held you in such a way that it didn't hurt but would hurt if he wanted it to. As if he was leaving nothing to chance.

"The beach...", he gritted his teeth, his lips were slightly blue. "The Mongols...."

Shaking your head slightly, you relaxed. He was no danger and had no intention of hurting the woman who had saved him.

"They overran the island.", you put a hand on his knuckles.

He was trembling, whether from pain or anger was hard to tell.  Although he was a warrior, his hands were surprisingly soft.

Dark eyes widened. Yuriko averted her gaze. She couldn't bear to be confronted with reality any more than she already was.

"My... my uncle...", Jin had to breathe in heavily. "Lord Shimura... what about Lord Shimura?"

Beads of sweat ran down his temples. His hair, black as raven feathers, stuck to his forehead.

Your eyes jumped briefly to Yuriko, but she just kept turning away, grabbed the bowl of bloody water and hurried off under the pretence of getting more.

Something in your chest grew heavy as the expression in Jin's eyes changed. There was this man lying in front of you, bleeding and wounded as only a warrior could be. But a little boy was looking at you. A boy who was afraid of reliving something he had never wanted to experience again.

Taking a deep breath, you gently squeezed his hand.

"Khotun Kahn executed him.", you said softly.

His fingers loosened. For a moment, various emotions seemed to move across his face. Then he took a deep breath and collected himself. A learned expression returned.

Discipline. Learned coolness.

"I'm sorry.", you whispered.

You carefully felt your way along his ribs. He didn't even react when you applied light pressure to the swollen areas. It was as if he had become completely deaf to the world. All that was left was an empty shell.

"May I clean the wound?", you smiled gently as he looked at you out of the corner of his eye.

There was a deep sadness in the brown of his eyes. But you liked it. It was warm, profound. Perhaps a little too thoughtful and burdened. Nevertheless, it was beautiful to look at, as if you could lose yourself in those eyes.

"Death didn't take me because you saved me?", he asked.

His voice was rough, somehow melodious like the melody of a flute in the wind. You loosened the last bit of bandage. Air on open flesh made the wound burn. He grimaced slightly.

A mild smile curled your lips.

"To be honest, I was looking for spoils.", you healed some of the ointment on your fingers so that the touch wouldn't leave dirt and infection. "A samurai... he was still alive, but he could no longer be helped."

He frowned.

"Did you steal from him?", he didn't look at you but you could hear him trying not to judge you.

"Not from him.", you cleaned the seam. "But from others."

"You are a thief."

"Yes. But I am alive. And just because I'm alive, you're alive too. The dead are allowed to rest. They don't need anything anymore."

"So you'd even steal their clothes from their corpses?", he bared his teeth but flinched in pain almost immediately.

Taking a deep breath you leaned back and pulled away from him. It was better to give him some space. No one could tell what an injured person could do once they reached their limit.

"No.", you sighed. "Even the dead deserve some decency. Then again, I've never been desperate enough to know what it would take for me to steal a corpses clothes off their back."

Even though Jin didn't seem to agree with this way of thinking it was enough to calm the hostility that burned in the brown of his eyes.

His shoulders relaxed a little but he remained cautious.

"Why... did you save me...?", he glanced at you, eyes narrowed. "Out of all the Samurai..."

You shrugged.

"I didn't pick... actually... the samurai that couldn't be helped. He asked me to find lord Sakai."

"Why..?"

"I don't know. But he sounded... so sure. In his final moments he wanted you to live. Call it fate. Or luck. But it is kind of funny that I did find lord Sakai. Even though I didn't even know who he was."