Brax stood there, staring at the place where Lina had disappeared. He felt as if she had just hit him over the head with a club with the few words she had said.
He turned around somewhat absentmindedly and went upstairs. There he sat down on the bed and hit her. He immediately groaned when he felt his shoulder hit him. He covered his eyes with his hand and shook his head.
Without a single hesitation, he would kill almost half of the enemy army, he would kill an entire gang of robbers himself, he would fight to the last breath, even wounded, even with an arrow in his shoulder, almost chopped into pieces, and now a small, defenseless girl was standing against him, almost defenseless, and he was not capable of going to her and telling her a few things straight?! He would let her wriggle out of his grip and simply leave? And he, like an obedient dog, would do as she told him and go to bed?! Maybe that wasn't even him anymore!
Before, he would have grabbed her by both arms, even pushed her against the wall, and held her until he had said everything he wanted to say. But now?
Now that he thought about it, it was at least the second time he had wanted to talk to her, and twice he had failed. He racked his brains in vain over how on earth to make sure that no one would disturb them, that she wouldn't have to do something or distract him in some way.
Finally, it occurred to him that it would be best if she knew that what he wanted to do was serious, that it wasn't just some momentary whim or an attempt to make up for or repay her for her dedication and care.
If only he could give her some proof that he wanted to stay and that he would like to stay... with her.
But what proof?
He rolled over tiredly onto his other side and pulled the blanket over himself.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, as a flash of what that proof could be flashed through his mind.
How simple! - he thought to himself. But... he wondered if he really wanted to.
He tried to imagine the two paths that now lay before him and between which he had to choose - the old familiar one and the terrifyingly new one.
However, the fact that Lina would be on only one of them made his decision much easier, and that convinced him.
He wanted to be with her. He wanted to - although he had no idea whether she would want to too. What he had observed over the past two days pointed him in a clear direction, but... what if he was interpreting her behavior wrong?
Well, he would probably have to try.
Just before sleep overtook him, he realized that he had absolutely no idea how he wanted to tell her, and with a good dose of irony, he realized that he would much rather fight an entire army than face one single girl who he had no idea how she would react or what she would say to him.
As soon as Lina entered the room, she sank to the floor next to the bed on which Jalot was lying, and rested her head on her knees.
She had never felt so confused in her life.
A moment ago, looking into Brax's eyes, she had felt as if something had changed in him. The part of him she hated, the part that was only interested in killing and fighting, seemed to have disappeared or melted away, leaving only something that made her heart race and made her want to run away from him immediately, afraid that he might say something... something that a part of her secretly hoped for, while the rest of her told her she was stupid to believe such a thing. She
had to run. She couldn't imagine just standing there and listening as he told her he wanted to leave.
What if he didn't want to tell her this? What if he wanted to say the exact opposite?
Enough! she shouted at herself. She couldn't be that stupid. Did she really think he could change in a few days? That he would change his thinking and the life he had had for so many years - forever, really?
She had to laugh at herself. How naive is she?!
She raised her head and quickly wiped her face with her palm, which was streaked with a few tears that had slipped from her eyes without her noticing.
She looked at her wet hand. Why was she crying? Why?
Because of someone she had only known for a few days? Because of someone who was elevated above such mundane things as feelings or life? Because of someone who devoted her life to the exact opposite of what she believed in and did? Because of him, because her imagination had repeatedly brought her the image of him staying here - staying with her?
Lina stood up abruptly and shook her head. She was stupid, she thought.
There was no point in worrying about it or him, and thinking about it unnecessarily and shedding tears for something that would never happen anyway. She couldn't let him affect her so much, because he would leave anyway and she couldn't afford to be sad for him.
With this thought, she turned to the table and poured another potion into the mug, which she passed to Jalot. She woke him up and began to slowly pour it into his mouth.
When she had made his pillow and bandaged both wounds, she was sure of her decision.
There were people who needed her help and she had to stop thinking about stupid things now. She had to simply look at Brax as she would anyone else. As one of the wounded who needed her help. Nothing more, nothing less.
As soon as she came to this conclusion, she immediately felt calmer and felt that she could breathe more freely. She even smiled a little, and as soon as she saw Jalot close his eyes to sleep, she went to the chest of drawers in the room. She took out a pair of trousers and a shirt from it.
She went to the table and lit a candle on it. She also brought a needle and thread and began to adjust the shirt to match Brax's size.
She realized that he was still shirtless and his pants were only half-length.
She managed to ward off the fatigue that occasionally came upon her by working and occasionally changing Jalot's compress or giving him another potion.
When she was done and her shirt was fixed, it was beginning to dawn outside. Lina smiled at the reddish sky, which had been colored so much by the rising sun.
She blew out the candle, checked on Jalot, and gave him another drink. His fever had completely subsided, and now he could finally, with a cool head, rest and sink into the full sleep he needed so much.
"Thank you," he said wearily when Lina ran her hand over his forehead.
She just smiled and lightly stroked his cheek.
Then she turned and took clean clothes for herself from the chest of drawers. She wanted to go and bathe in the lake, to wash away both the dirt and all the worries and pain she had felt just a few hours ago.
Under the stairs leading to her room, she stopped for a moment and listened to the sounds coming from there. However, she only heard calm breathing, after which she smiled and ran out of the house.
She ran to the lake. There she undressed and jumped into the water.
She was cold, but that woke her up completely.
She swam only halfway across and returned.
The sun had already risen, and through the branches of the trees it was shining its rays onto the surface of the water, where it created shimmering reflections.
The girl quickly put on her clothes, which this time consisted of a white, wider skirt below the knees, a white shirt with sleeves that reached halfway down her forearms, and a dark brown lace-up jacket.
She braided her wet hair and set off back.
As soon as she returned, she went to the stable and let both horses out into the meadow to graze.
Then she began to prepare breakfast. Her mind was at peace, something she hadn't experienced in quite a few days, and a satisfied smile played on her face.
After a few minutes, her grandfather returned home.
"Good morning," he greeted her and sat down at the table wearily.
"Good," Lina replied. "Did you stay with them overnight?"
"Yes, he stayed. The blacksmith didn't want to let me go anywhere. As if I were already over the grave and couldn't get home," he snorted.
Lina laughed.
"Well, maybe you don't think I'm that old either," he looked at her with a touch of resentment.
Lina walked over to him and kissed his cheek.
"I wouldn't have dreamed of that," she said and smiled.
"I hope so," he nodded his head seriously.
He watched her for a moment as she ran around the kitchen and then touched the cheek where she had kissed him.
He smiled and asked, "Have you tried this medicine on the boys yet?"
Lina turned in confusion and looked at her grandfather. However, when she saw him pointing at his face, she blushed and quickly turned away.
"No, she hasn't tried that," she replied, stirring the porridge diligently.
"Well, I don't know, Lina, but this might get them back on their feet faster," he said quite seriously.
Lina pretended not to hear and scooped breakfast onto his plate.
With clenched teeth, she resisted the intrusive idea of how she would administer this 'medicine' to Brax.
As soon as Grandpa finished eating, he said he was going to lie down for a while before he got to work.
When he left, Lina scooped another serving of porridge onto a second plate and went up the stairs.
Brax had been awake for a good while.
Even though he didn't want to listen directly, he heard Lina's conversation with Grandpa, and he was quite interested in what she meant by the medicine that would get them back on their feet faster.
But just as he started to think about it more, he saw Lina coming up the stairs with something in her arms.
At first he wondered if he should pretend to still be asleep, so he quickly closed his eyes.
"I saw it," he heard Lina's voice and knew she was smiling.
So he exhaled and opened his eyes.
The girl placed the bowl of porridge on the table, as well as the mug with another potion, turned and went down the stairs.
Brax stared, his mouth slightly ajar and his eyes wide open, at the spot where he had caught sight of her figure, and for a few seconds he seemed to freeze.
He didn't know what it was that made her seem prettier every day.
However, he soon recovered, because he definitely didn't want her to catch him staring hungrily at her with his mouth open.
When she returned, she was carrying some cloths and ointments in her arms.
"So... good morning," she said, smiling slightly after sitting on the edge of the bed.
She put her clothes and ointments behind her.
"Good morning," he replied, smiling slightly too.
"How are you feeling?" the girl asked, starting to unwrap the bandage from his shoulder.
"Well, okay," he shrugged. "But you probably won't believe me, will you?"
"Why not?" she asked, her eyes fixed on his shoulder.
"I would say that to get out of bed sooner," he replied, watching her intently.
"Well, I'll believe you anyway, because what you say won't affect whether I let you get up," Lina said, her gaze still focused solely on the wound.
Brax suppressed the urge to clench his jaw in disapproval, and then it occurred to him that he should start working on his plan.
He thought for a moment about how best to proceed, since he needed to get out and he also had to get to the lake, which was part of the plan.
"It looks good, you're healing," Lina said, smiling at him.
But then she lowered her head, because the fixed gaze in his eyes embarrassed her, and she had made it clear to herself that she would treat him like anyone else.
With quick movements, she removed the remnants of herbs and ointments from the wound and did everything as she always did.
"I was thinking," Brax began, trying to suppress the tightness in his throat as he saw her look, "that I'd like to go take a good bath… Water does a lot for wounds, too."
Lina didn't look at him. Even though she wanted to forbid him, she knew he was right. She couldn't keep him in one room like a prisoner.
"Okay," she nodded. "You're right. But… don't swim too much. That shoulder needs at least five more days of rest to heal properly."
"Do you trust me to listen?" he asked in surprise. "You're not going to check on me?"
Lina laughed and finally looked at him properly.
"You mean I'm not going to spy on you from the bushes somewhere?"
They both laughed at the memory.
"I don't have time to hunt for rabbits right now," Lina said with a laugh.
"That wasn't a lie," the man defended himself. "I really was there for him."
Lina waved her hand and shook her head, then wrapped her arm around his shoulder. The smile was still on her face, but when she looked up, she was staring at Brax's face just as he was staring at hers.
The smile was fading from her face with every passing second.
Inside, she felt her resolve - to treat him like anyone else - crumble with the accelerated beat of her heart, which determined the direction of her thoughts completely opposite to what she had planned.
Brax wondered at that very moment whether now was not the best opportunity to talk to Lina, or rather - to try to explain to her what he had planned and what he would like if she were also inclined in the same way.
He wondered when he would have such an opportunity, when she was close to him, looking at him and it seemed that she could listen - or at least that was how her gaze seemed to him.
Her expression often changed, as did what he saw in her eyes, but right now he would have sworn that there was the same thing in them as he himself felt inside.
But he could not open his mouth to let out a coherent sentence. He was prevented from doing so by the thought that she might not trust him if she did not take that one very important step - part of his plan, and then also by the mere feeling that she was with him, looking at him, and he felt such a strong desire to touch her that it bordered on a vital necessity. But he could not move. He was afraid. He! The great warrior Brax was afraid to touch a woman!
Lina tried to recover and groped with her right hand at her side. Finally, after a few long seconds, she found what she was looking for. It seemed to finally allow her to break the long-lasting gaze.
"This is... for you," she said and took the folded shirt and pants that she had previously placed on his bed.
She looked at the fabric and tried to avoid looking at him or any part of his body.
"There wasn't much of your clothing left, and what was left I had to cut down to a minimum to get to your wounds," she added by way of explanation.
"I tried to adjust the shirt to your size, so I hope I got it right," she added, furrowing her eyebrows as she began to examine the shirt critically.
"I'll bandage your wound and apply some ointment when you get back, okay?" she asked.
She didn't wait for an answer, but immediately placed the shirt on his lap along with the pants and stood up. She went over to the table and started preparing the potion.
Brax looked at the clothes and then something occurred to him: "That was... your father's?"
"Yes," Lina replied and poured the potion into the mug.
Brax stared at her in shock, trying to find something in her expression or behavior that would indicate that she didn't like giving him her father's clothes.
But he didn't read anything like that.
He just couldn't take it and said: "But... I can't..."
The girl raised her eyebrows in confusion when she turned and saw that he was pointing at the clothes.
"Of course you can take it," she smiled. "I would give it to you or someone else who would need it. Really," she said in a convincing voice.
Brax studied the girl's expression for a moment, but finally said, "Thanks," picked up his clothes, and stood up.
He drank the potion Lina had prepared for him and began to slowly descend the stairs.
On the third step, he turned and asked, "How is he?"
Lina turned from the table and replied, "Better. He'll be fine."
Not wanting to slip back into staring at each other for so long, she turned to the bed and began to change her into clean sheets.
Brax stood there for a moment, but then he went downstairs and slowly walked toward the lake.
His eyes were on the way to the stone behind which was his hammer, the proof he wanted to give Lina of his decision.
But now he clearly realized that he couldn't get near the hammer now. He hadn't expected the girl to have a plan to follow him, but coincidence is sometimes coincidence, and what if she happened to look out the window when he was taking the hammer? What would he do then if she thought he wanted to start fighting or training?
As he was walking across the meadow, Burinsfel ran up to him.
Together they reached the lake. From there the horse ran back to the meadow, leaving Brax alone.
Lina tidied up the room and went downstairs. She peeked into the room where Jalot lay, and as soon as she saw him breathing calmly, she smiled. She managed to banish the fever for good.
After a while, her grandfather came out of his room, took a piece of bread and a much smaller piece of meat, and went back into the forest for wood.
At first, Lina wanted to start preparing lunch, but as soon as she sat down at the table for a drink, her eyes started to glaze over, so she told herself to rest for a while.
She put her hands on the table and rested her head on them. Within a minute she was swallowed up in unconsciousness and fell asleep.
She seemed to have slept for barely five minutes when she was awakened from her sleep by a scream calling her name.
The scream was immediately heard again.
"Lina! Lina!"
The girl started and raised her head.
She realized that the caller was outside, and she realized that the voice belonged to Brax. In another second, she was running out of the house. She
flew out the door and saw Brax walking toward the house as fast as he could. He was already wearing the clothes she had given him. But what caught Lina's attention most was the little girl he was holding in his arms. Her head was resting limply on his arm.
She might have been about four years old. She had raven-black hair and a plain brown dress.
Lina ran toward them.
"What happened?"
"I don't know," Brax shook his head. "When I was walking back, I noticed something brown sticking out from the path, and it looked like a piece of cloth. At first I thought, well…" he paused for a moment. "I thought it was you… Anyway, I found her there. She was already gone."
If Lina hadn't been worried about the girl, she would have laughed at Brax's initial thought. But now she walked as fast as she could into the house beside him and hurriedly reached for the girl's neck to feel for a pulse. She found one, but it wasn't very strong.
"We'll put her in Grandpa's room," she said and ran into the house.
She opened the door to the room and pulled the blanket off the bed. Brax immediately laid the girl there.
Lina then hurriedly began to examine her to find a reason for her unconsciousness, since she couldn't see any wound or anything like that on her.
She ran her hands over her head to the back of her head, but she couldn't find any injuries there either.
Brax watched her, trying hard to think of an explanation for the fact that the little girl, who at first glance was perfectly healthy, was unconscious.
"Didn't you notice anything around her, or someone... I don't know... anything that wasn't normal?" Lina asked with a hint of desperation in her voice.
"No," he shook his head and rewound everything in his head.
"There were just yellow berries with a black dot next to it, nothing more," he remembered after a moment and shrugged.
"What?" Lina gasped and shot a look at him. "Yellow little berries with a black dot on the stem?" she asked.
"Yeah, exactly like that," he nodded.
Lina didn't wait for anything else. She jumped up from the ground and ran to the kitchen. She quickly took two different colored herbs – one red like poppies and the other green. She poured them into a cup and mixed them. Once they were sufficiently infused, she strained them through a piece of cloth into another cup and ran back.
She sat on the bed, placed the girl's head on her lap and poured a few drops of the potion into her mouth.
"Those berries are poisonous. They don't grow anywhere else, only here," she explained to Brax. "I have to wake her up and make her vomit them or she will die."
Brax watched her actions with furrowed brows and clenched teeth, wishing he could do something, help somehow, and not just watch helplessly.
"And why did she eat them if they are poisonous?" he asked.
"Either she didn't know, or she confused them with other fruits that are very similar to them. They are exactly the same, except they don't have the black dot on the stem. That's the only way to tell them apart."
Lina's eyes, which had cleared for a moment as soon as she realized what had happened to her, were now filled with a worried look again. The girl wasn't waking up as she had expected.
"Well, now," she said, pouring some more potion into her mouth.
"What's wrong?" Brax asked, not knowing what exactly Lina was waiting for.
"She's not waking up," she shook her head and patted the girl lightly on the cheeks. "This is the strongest potion to wake up from unconsciousness I have. And if she doesn't wake up... well... I don't know how I'm going to get the fruits out of her," she said, looking desperately at the man.
"Does she have to wake up?" he asked, and his brain started working at full speed.
"Yes," Lina nodded, now looking at the girl's face.
She tried to get her to open her eyes with her gaze.
"Do you have nalerda and resot anywhere?" Brax asked, his eyes wide.
Lina raised her head at him incomprehension.
"Of course we do. They're the most basic types of spices for cooking," she replied, still looking at him incomprehension. "Why?"
Brax turned and, as quickly as he could, went to the kitchen and began searching among the canvas bags and spice jars for the ones he needed.
"When we sometimes celebrated victory after a battle," he said, while searching, "some of us sometimes overdid it. Well, and a few times it happened to us that the enemy sent some reserve groups of fighters against us, and that's why we needed as many of us as possible to be sane and capable of fighting."
He breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he saw the dry slices of nalerda. They were light brown in color with small pores all over the surface. Not far from him he saw a hanging resot, which was black in color and looked like a piece of reed stem.
He took one from each of them in his hand and walked back to the room.
"This is quite an old and well-known way of bringing them to consciousness when they were really under the image," he said and rubbed the spice between his fingers.
Lina watched him with her mouth slightly open.
When she saw him approach the girl's head with his hand, she opened her mouth with her hand so that he could pour the powder in there.
As soon as he put a whole pinch in there, they both watched with anticipation to see what would happen.
For a while nothing happened. Then, however, the girl's eyelids moved slightly and after a few seconds they opened. After another few moments, her vision sharpened and her eyes widened. Immediately she sat up and quickly leaned over the side of the bed and began to vomit.
"For some people… it has both an awakening and a side effect," Brax added by way of explanation.
Lina turned to him, her mouth spread wide in a joyful smile.
Brax watched the little girl and said more to himself: "I never thought I would enjoy watching someone vomit," he shook his head.
Lina laughed and took Brax's hand: "That was great," she said.
Jen realized what she had done, quickly let go of him and turned to the girl.
She was looking around somewhat dazedly and wiping her mouth with her hand.
Brax stepped back a little and watched Lina calm the girl down and talk to her. He didn't notice what she was saying, he didn't care. He just watched with his eyes how her lips moved, how her hands ran over the girl's back, how she wiped her face with a wet cloth and gave her some water to drink.
It seemed to him that his mind was strangely fragmented. One part was concerned with Lina, the other with what had just happened - that he had helped save the little girl.
It was a strange and completely new feeling for him, because he had never felt this before. He had never felt joy over someone else's life being saved. The lives of friends he had helped in some way in battle – that was something else.
He was staring blankly at the girl and didn't even notice that Lina was talking to him.
"Braxi!" Lina shouted and pulled at his shirt.
Only now did he really look at her.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Come on. We'll let Sail rest and you can go lie down too," Lina said and walked towards the door.
She turned at it and, seeing that he hadn't moved, she returned. She took his hand and dragged him out of the room.
As soon as they were outside and she could close the door, she turned to his absent face again.
"What happened?" she asked, taking his head in her hands and looking into his eyes.
When Brax felt her touch, he looked at her and knew in that moment that he really didn't want to destroy any more lives. He had thought so all the time since he woke up, but now he was absolutely sure. Maybe, he thought, he also needed some direct and clear proof, and this was it.
Lina was looking at him and she could now read in his eyes quite easily what must have been going on inside him, or at least most of it.
She smiled at him and said, "It feels great, doesn't it?"
At first the man didn't understand what she meant by her question, but then he understood and nodded.
Lina took a breath and dropped her hands from his face.
"Now go lie down. I'll come and bandage your wounds," she said and nodded her head upstairs, towards her room.
Then she turned and went to the kitchen, where she prepared clean bandages and more ointments.
Brax had meanwhile gone upstairs and sat on the bed.
He lowered his head and began to intertwine his fingers, staring at them intently—the hands that had already brought death and pain to so many people. It was perhaps the first time he had ever thought of looking at his hands like that, and it didn't feel right.
He wanted to change that. That was the only thing that calmed him down and kept him from going crazy.
When he heard footsteps downstairs, he pulled his shirt off his body and waited for Lina.
He examined the piece of clothing and had to admit that the girl's size was really good for him.
The shirt was light green with quilted edges on the sleeves and around the neckline.
He ran his eyes over the fabric, and then he heard footsteps on the stairs. After a while, Lina appeared, carrying everything needed for treatment in her hands.
She looked at him and as soon as she saw that he was shirtless, she quickly looked away. She couldn't rationally explain why the sight of him upset her so much, when he wasn't, and certainly wouldn't be, the first and last man she'd seen without clothes.
No matter how much she convinced herself and constantly reminded herself that he was like everyone else, that there was nothing special about him, it didn't do her any good.
Holding her breath, she sat down on the bed next to him and spread out the bandages and ointments.
Before she applied the ointment, she carefully examined the wound.
"It's healing well. It's only bleeding a little. Probably because of the way you carried Sail. But in a few days you won't even know you had any injuries... If you can be careful enough," she added as she began to apply the ointment to his wound.
Brax said nothing, instead asking, "How's the girl? Will she be okay?"
"Yes. I think she will. She's sleeping now. Thanks to you, she'll survive," the girl smiled at him and began to bandage his shoulder.
Since the wound was in much better condition, she could use a smaller layer of bandage this time, just as she had bandaged a smaller area of the shoulder and arm.
At this moment, when the man saw her looking at him with a smile and joy - at this moment he was absolutely unshakable in his determination to tell her everything that was on his mind and what he had come to in the last three days of thinking.
He took a deep breath to begin, but it was that look at Lina that had given him the courage to explain everything a second ago, and the thought of his hammer, still safely in the same place, that stopped him, so he let the air out of his lungs again and sighed.
Lina raised her eyebrows in confusion, because she absolutely did not understand his sigh, but she said nothing.
She stood up and went over to his leg. She pulled up his trouser leg and examined the wound. It was almost closed, but she still put another layer of ointment on it and bandaged it.
Then she returned to him and began to examine the wound on his neck.
"There's no need for any ointment here, it'll heal on its own," she smiled and ran her hand down his neck.
She lightly touched his jaw as she checked to see if the wound was healing well, as it extended all the way to his face.
Brax stopped and stared at her. He didn't dare move, just watched her with his eyes.
Lina's mind seemed to stop thinking for a moment.
The girl saw her palm press against his face and her fingers lightly touch his cheek. She didn't know why she was doing it, it seemed completely natural and normal to her at that moment.
The man's eyes were flying over her face and his thoughts were just as scattered. He knew he couldn't look away even if he wanted to.
It seemed to him that there was something in her gaze that he had never seen in anyone before. He suddenly realized that he didn't actually mind if Lina could see into his soul. Now he would be quite happy if she could look in there and find what he had been meaning to tell her for a long time.
The girl began to realize what she was doing after a few seconds. She was so surprised that she couldn't bring herself to take her hand off Brax's face, and so she stared into his eyes for a few more moments, finding herself thinking that she liked being with him like this, and that she might like it even more if she were a little closer to him.
However, this thought was enough to bring her back to her senses.
She had made a deal with herself after all! He was like any other wounded person she had cared for!
She took her hand off his face and stood up. As soon as she took the first step towards the table, she felt that she didn't believe it so much anymore. Still, she wasn't going to give up on her resolution.
She didn't want to let all this affect her any longer, and so she started to clean up the ointments and herbs as if nothing had happened a moment ago.
Because Lina had gotten up so unexpectedly and turned around, she couldn't see Brax's hand reaching out to hold her back. The girl was too fast and the man realized that things simply couldn't go on like this.
He hadn't wanted to admit the thought before, but the truth was that he was starting to yearn more and more to be able to take her in his arms and hold her for as long as he had the strength to do so.
"Thanks," he said when he saw her walking towards the stairs.
"Not much," Lina replied - she kept her voice at an even level with all her might so that it wouldn't shake.
She turned around and said, "Now, please, lie down and try to get some sleep."
Brax groaned, "Do I really have to?"
The girl fixed him with an icy look: "And do I have to answer this question?"
"No," the man replied and lay down.
It was only because he didn't want to upset Lina that he listened to her. An angry Lina was the last thing he needed. He was slowly starting to hate the bed and couldn't wait to be able to do whatever he wanted again.
"And don't even think about going anywhere. You need to rest," he heard her voice again when she was downstairs.
Although Brax had been overcome by the desire to hold her in his arms a moment ago, now he had to resist another desire, namely not to shout after her that she wasn't his mother and that he was an adult and could take care of himself.
But something inside him told him that it wouldn't be worth it anyway, because it certainly wouldn't change Lina's opinion and her behavior anyway.
He sighed and closed his eyes. On the one hand, her stubbornness irritated him, on the other, he liked her, because he realized that he liked it when he didn't have the slightest idea what she would say or do - whether she would hug him or punch him.
With a smile, he remembered their first meeting now and with this image before his eyes, he tried to fall asleep.
After a few minutes of futile efforts, however, he realized that it was useless. He simply couldn't fall asleep.
He kept thinking about how to move his plan one step further, and finally it occurred to him that the best thing to do would be to wait until Lina went to lie down for a while and then disappear outside. He would go to the stone, take the hammer and get rid of it - throw it into the lake and that would be it. Then he would return to Lina and when she woke up, he would tell her everything and it would finally be clear what he was doing.
With this decision, he got up and sat down on a chair a little way from the stairs to hear what was happening below. He hoped that Lina's fatigue would eventually force her to lie down for a while.