11 The Lonesome Tree

Worry was one thing Noah had in spades since yesterday after Liora had her arm treated. Not once since had she awoken or even showed a sign of even waking. Not after he had washed her unconscious body—which was a nerve-wracking experience he wasn't prepared to feel twice in the same day. And certainly not after he had spent thirty minutes dragging her bed out of her room and into a clean one while she lay on the floor atop most of the clean sheets Noah could find.

Even now with the sun rising into the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, Liora was still asleep with soft, rhythmic breaths. There were many a reason for his worry over her, for one, she hadn't eaten or drunken anything for over a day. An issue he was all to busy with figuring out how to remedy if she didn't wake up by midday.

Noah robbed his hand over the right side of his face, letting out a small yawn while smacking his lips together. His own sleep had been… lacking, to say the best of it. He had fallen to sleep, no doubt about that. But what rest he did get was practically worthless as he only felt more tired than when he went to 'bed.' If sitting on a chair by the dinner table and kicking his legs up onto the table could be considered a bed.

Noah's eyes drew to the ceiling beams above, his mind blank of thoughts allowing the dull ache of his hungry stomach to borrow its way to the surface forming a low rumbling noise. Food had been such a forgone thought that he hadn't even had the idea of having breakfast lunch or dinner. So in terms of starvation, he was likely in the same league as Liora was.

Bringing his feet off the table, Noah stretched his body. Loosening his aching muscles and popping his stiffened bones. The worst one being his jaw which jerked to the side before realigning leaving him with a shortlived, dull pain in his left most cheek.

"Ow…" he groaned rubbing said cheek.

He had much to do today, and his tiredness would not stand in the way. Starting off, Noah pushed himself to his feet, his back snapping straight as he turned to the sink in the kitchen only lacking an actual faucet or piping of any form apart from a small, blue stone atop a curved piece of metal. Which he guessed was a faucet? Depends on if they called whatever this was a faucet or not.

He'd come to figure out through his own experiments that this little stone on the curved piece of metal acted like those automatic faucets with some type of sensor sensing when he placed his hand beneath it. Thus, causing a thick stream of water to form from nothingness. The stream clear and undamaged by any grating or filters he'd seen back on his planet that ended up causing the stream to fill with air bubbles turning it a whitish colour until it could settle in the sink or in a cup.

Cupping his hands beneath the stream, he collected enough of the water that he could splash it into his face to both clean himself and wake himself up.

Sighing as he felt the room temperature water clash against his features. Even soaking part of his fringe causing it to stick to his face. 'I should check on Liora… Then I can go figure out what to do for the rest of the day…'

Collecting another handful of water, her threw it into his face again. Proceeding to stroke his wettened hands through his hair, ruffling it to cover the strands with water to make it at least somewhat more presentable to an unconscious lady.

Just as he was about to turn away from the sink, he noticed the cups she had filled with water two days ago upside down besides the sink drying out. 'She needs water,' she actually needed many thing, good nutrition and no debt being two of them. But water was certainly something he could deal with now of all times until he could cook something up for her.

It didn't take long for Noah to find himself clambering up the staircase and subsequently towards the room he'd placed Liora in for the time being until he could properly wash out the stains in her floor.

Pushing open the door, Noah quickly strode towards where Liora was laid down upon the floor atop a mattress, having to kneel down to get close enough to her. Her lips pale, lacking their previous redness from the days prior. The same to be said about the rest of her skin. He knew it was from bloodloss, but that would take some time to properly rectify itself and come back.

Her hair laid around her, almost framing her head. Having a glossy red sheen to it from the multiple days of collected oils her body was releasing. As much as he wished to have given her a proper head to toes scrub, he wasn't going to go that far.

Kneeling besides her, Noah place the glass of water down besides her. Taking a quick once over, over the blanket covering her body.

'She looks so normal,' he sighed. What did he expect? Her to be screaming out in agony? No, right now all she looked like was a simple woman sleeping. You wouldn't even be able to tell that the lower part of her right arm was covered in leather straps and had a bright red scar running down the entire length of her lower arm.

Noah's head nodded along with the thought of, 'she needs to drink something,' even if she didn't look thirsty from a rudimentary glance over a day and a bit had passed since her last time drinking a non-alcoholic beverage.

Leaning forwards, Noah pressed his left arm under Liora's back, snacking it under her until he could grip her shoulder and lift her body up enough that he wouldn't be tossing water over her and enough that the blanket fell to reveal her ample bosom to the world.

His other lifted up the glass, slowly pressing it against Liora's lower gently tilting it up to pour a small stream of water into her parted lips. Luckily it seems even in sleep she seemed to recognize what the cool fluid entering her mouth was as her throat began to work, swallowing the water sending it to her stomach.

"Good girl, keep drinking," he mumbled words she couldn't hear. But it made him feel even just a little better not being trapped in silence.

Halfway through the cup, Liora's throat suddenly stopped, her chest heaving as she sputtered out whatever was in her mouth. Noah quickly retrieved the cup. Pulling it away from her so she didn't get any spittle into it, even if that wasn't a particular issue, he could just clean it out or get another cup for her then.

The sputtering lasted only a second before she returned to her normal, slow breaths. "No more, huh?" he muttered a worried tone. It wasn't a lot of water she had drunken. It certainly wouldn't be enough to keep her hydrated but there was nothing he could do if she didn't want it. If he had an IV bag or something, maybe he'd feel a little better. 'no point thinking about that now. She's had some water. That's enough for now.'

Noah gently lowered Liora back onto the bed. Glancing to her bust where a small blush climbed his cheeks which he quickly shook away by pulling up the blanket to cover them up and keep her warm.

He gave her one last once over, ensuring the there was no spillage of blood on her arm—which there wasn't, thankfully enough—before pushing himself up to his feet after pushing the cup a bit away from her so if she did wake up and begin moving around she didn't accidentally knock it over.

"I'll be back soon, Liora. Stay strong okay?" she may not be able to hear him, or even understand him if she could. But still, they were words he needed to say.

Making his way to the doorway of the empty room. Noah entered the hallway, his eyes falling over both the left and right halls. Catching sight of the dried, dark red stain leaving a trail across the floor. Evidence of what had happened barely two days prior.

'This is so screwed up,' Noah grit his teeth, making long strides towards the staircase, feeling he needed some fresh air and sun to help calm himself and maybe help his bouts of tiredness.

The farm was in much the same state as it was yesterday, golden as an ocean of honey unaffected by the woes of this abode. Simply sucking water from the ground and devouring the nourishing nutrients it harboured.

'What am I going to do about this?' Noah wondered as he wandered up to the outermost layer of wheat, his hand stroking through the hard bristle like heads filled with dozens of small capsules where the grains themselves were encapsulated.

They came up to his chest, reaching just below his shoulders. Was that hight normal for wheat plant? He was unsure. He was unsure about many things. Currently like what he could do to just pass the time between his check ups on Liora and general care taking of her.

He glances over the ocean of billowing gold, his lungs filled the sweet, almost perfume scent of the hay. Far in the distance he could just barely see the very tree he'd woken up laying against. While the leaves themselves weren't noticeable from so far away, he could see a soft, pink smudge of the leaves all blended together.

'Cherry blossom?' Noah tilted his head curiously. Finding his feet striding through the bristly plants. The silhouette growing larger and clearer the closer he got. It wasn't a particularly unconscious decision he made; he'd always held a love for cherry blossoms. Of all the trees he found them one of the most beautiful. He'd never got the chance to see them blossoming back home, or even see one so up close. They just weren't trees you found where he lived.

As he got closer, he noticed a large ring of earth around the tree blank of any ring, instead replaced with glaringly green grass and various white and red flowers forming the outline of the ring, strangely not a single one were sprouting from the grass.

Noah stepped over the ring with nary a thought. His eyes wandering over the grey almost white wood of the cherry blossom. Soon falling onto the thin canopy of thin clumps of pink blossoms and a few green leaves dotted upon each of the hundreds of branches that blew majestically in the wind.

"Beautiful…" Noah muttered offhandedly, drawing closer to the tree where he reached his hand out, pressing his palm against the rough, undamaged bark of the tree. It looked so out of place within the field, even more so in the ocean of green trees that surrounded the farm.

So out of place that it felt almost mystical.

Leaning forwards, Noah shut his eyes and pressed his head against the tree. Not with any force, just gently laying his head against it with eyes shut. Just listening to the wind as it rustled the cherry leaves and swept him up in the sweet scent of nature.

'I missed this smell…' memories from back home, his grandpa's farm popped into his head. He recalled running amok in the fields with Georgie, his grandpa's beagle. Only to collapse after hours of them both popping in and out of the fields with Georgie collapsing atop Noah, turning his face into a slobbery mess

He'd be lying if that very scene wasn't one of his favourite, and most hated memories. Georgie had been so active that day, like nothing was wrong. Noah would even say he was more active than he'd ever been before.

Maybe that's what he wanted, to give Noah the best, most fun day of his life before he went to sleep for the last time.

Noah turned, placing his back against the tree and slid down onto his bottom, lifting an arm to cover his watering eyes. "Goddammit, look at me getting all sentimental over something that happened a decade ago." His voice trembled, it never got better the memories. No matter how long passed he'd always become a sniffling mess.

Wiping down his eyes with the back of his wrist, Noah sniffled and pinched the bridge of his nose to stemy the flow of tears. "Hoo… calm down Noah. Your old enough now. No need to cry over him anymore." That didn't help.

Opening his eyes to the waving branches bequeathed in pinkish blossoms, Noah suddenly felt his tiredness coming to take him. 'Ten minutes should be fine…' he yawned, his eyes flickering shut, quickly finding himself falling under the influence of sleep.

All whilst he felt himself wrapped in a soft embrace as soft hums filled his ear.