Fangs and Thrones

Chapter 15

The villagers rushed forward when the soldiers and children returned. Rai helped three kids off of his horse that one of his men had brought to him when they arrived to help. Parents sobbed and clutched their children, who also wailed at finally returning home and being able to put the nightmare behind them.

His injured men were ushered into the inns, many offering up their best rooms or even their own homes to the wounded who helped save their neighbors children. Katsu helped the last limp into the closest inns, several of the physicians rushed from one to another, checking their injuries.

Rai glanced around, looking for Lyra or Hiroki. He spotted his son trying to carry a few cloths for a physician, doing what he could to help. "Hiroki."

Dropping the cloths, the boy ran and embraced his father. "You're okay!" Rai hugged him back. "What happened? Did you get the monsters? Where's Lyra?" He asked, looking around seeing if he could spot her nearby.

Frowning, he dropped to his son's eye level. "You haven't seen her? Did she not send for our soldiers to come and help us?"

Hiroki nodded, relieving Rai of his fear. "She did, I didn't see her though. Kenji spotted her and came running inside saying that you need aid. Eriko took a bunch of soldiers and rode off with your horse too."

Ruffling his hair, Rai thanked him for helping and asked him to head back inside. Excited about being given an order, he rushed off. Rai noticed Kenji standing and directing others on where to go.

Kenji sighed when he noticed his king walking toward him. "I hear that we missed out on some fun. You should have brought more men."

Rai snorted. "Quite entertaining, indeed. We were fortunate that we didn't lose anyone. Everyone alright here?"

"All the injured have been put up for the night and the kids are back with their parents. And your wolf girl is in a bath house that we have been given free-rein to use." Kenji smirked when Rai glanced at him curiously. "She almost gave me a heart attack by-the-way, a massive wolf coming out of the trees and stopping in front of me...I thought a demon was coming for me. That was until she changed back and told me what was going on." Kenji pointed to a bath house just off the main road. "Someone offered to escort her since she was covered in blood and dirt, telling everyone that they were welcome to join. You'll find her there if you want to head over, we've got everything handled here and I could tell that she was hurting." Rai started off in that direction. "Oh, I want to hear about what happened!"

The bath house was quiet, a physician bustled past, making sure to bow low before him before continuing on his path to his patient.

"They use a special blend of herbs and oils to help with healing here." A short woman spoke next to Rai, suddenly appearing beside him. "This place is quite famous for them actually, a safe guarded secret that I find even myself indulging when I get the chance." She tipped her head to Rai. "Follow me."

Rai followed behind the woman closely. Long blonde hair hung down to the back of her calves, tied with a strand of leather at the bottom. Her eyes were what caught Rai off guard, they seemed to share the same colors of a rainbow. A prism of different colors and seemed to almost shift and move on their own.

"You are welcome to bathe in here. Enjoy." Rai glanced at the door, but was surprised to notice the woman was gone when he looked back to ask her a question.

Lyra turned at the sound of the door to her bathing area open, she was even more surprised to see Rai waltz in, a towel wrapped low on his hips. The thick steam obscured her vision of seeing him clearly, but she could tell it was him.