Thalia's POV
The healer's eyes immediately went to Paula, as if you confirm whether I was telling the truth or not.
I can't blame her.
If you were to place a bet on who would have won the Luna trials, I would have the highest odds of not making it to the top five.
On top of that, I could tell that from the way there were dozens of different mixtures here and there, some boiling in pots, others in test tubes, some barks and leaves being roasted, the healer had not stepped out of that room in a while.
I'm sure that Paula had nodded her head to confirm my statement, and that's why the healer turned her gaze back to me.
She was studying me, looking at me from top to bottom as I was seated in front of her.
I didn't have to be a genius to know the types of questions that were running through her mind.
And she didn't disappoint when she finally commented and inquired
"Aren't you the same one that doesn't have a wolf?"
Of course. She had to ask the one thing that seemed to be on everyone else's mind.
Before I said anything, Paula was the one that was quick to respond and she immediately said,
"I wouldn't tread that path."
It was a good caution for the healer to listen to, and I was glad that she didn't enquire why.
Even though I knew that it was going to be something they would talk about later, they were smart enough not to start with it in my presence.
"Well then, I guess I better start with the rightful congratulations to you on surviving the contest and emerging the winner." She commented.
Surviving was a wild word to use, but also the most appropriate.
"Thank you." I said to her, looking down at my wrist that was still throbbing.
This was me hinting at her that I wanted her to check out what had taken me to her in the first place.
And she understood the assignment.
Looking down,she studied the bruise and I couldn't help but notice the confusion on her face.
I could tell that she had something to say, but was doing her best to hold back.
However, she could only resist it for so long.
When she finally gave in, she looked up at me and said,
"I thought you bruised your hand perhaps from trying to support yourself as you fell.....but this is inflicted by someone."
It was a very good observation, and I could tell what was about to follow next.
She had to be curious about who had left that mark on me.
"Is it....." She started talking again, her eyes dancing between me and Paula, wondering who between us was going to answer her question.
Her pause wasn't just a coincidence, I knew exactly what she was trying to imply and I didn't know whether to answer her immediately or not.
However, Paula must've gotten the hint as well as she was quick to stop the healer from making an accusation that she might have come to regret later.
"No. No. No. It's not him. It's Serenya." She immediately clarified, and the elders shoulders dropped as she relaxed.
"Ooh, her." She said with a sigh as I realized that it sounded like that was not a new thing for the elder to do.
As if she realized that I had been tense the entire time, she tried to get me to relax by saying,
"Don't let her get under your skin. She thinks just because she can read palms, she holds the keys to the future."
That was rather unusual and unexpected for me to hear someone like that say something like that.
If anything, she would be the last person that I would have expected to talk about one of the elders like that.
And given that Paula didn't react in any way when the healer said that, I assumed that it wasn't the first time that she had seen and heard the healer talk that way about Serenya.
"I have spent half of my life in this room, making medicine,vaccines, curing, and treating all types of illnesses and injuries that have come my way.
Yet I don't need to force all of you to know that I'm the one behind all of that.
You don't see me bragging about it or making a big scene out of it.
Some people really see themselves as people of power that need to be acknowledged."
This entire time that she was talking, she had been gathering some herbs and mixing them together.
She skillfully grind them together using a mortar and pestle that seemed like they had seen better days, while adding drops of a dark brown liquid.
Clearly, the healer was revealing that she has never really liked Serenya.
And by the time she realized that she had talked too much,it was too late.
She froze as she stopped grinding the herbs and stared at me as if she was waiting to see the look on my face and judge whether I was going to snitch on her or not.
I didn't expect us to be besties or anything, but seeing and hearing someone reason like an actual person for the first time made me smile.
When she saw my smile,she immediately relaxed as the realization that I wasn't my any way going to talk about how much she hated Serenya saw herself all high and mighty when in fact she wasn't.
She smiled back at me and said, "This might sting a bit."
Scooping some of the paste from the mortar, she applied it on my wrist and spread it using her palm.
She was dead wrong.
That didn't sting a bit. It stung a lot.
I expected to feel the kind of pain that you feel when you're pricked by a needle, only for me to feel like she had dumped an army of fire ants on my wrist.
The pain was sudden, making me clench my other fist and even bite down on my lip so hard I thought I was going to tear it off.
I tried my very best not to let out a loud cry for help.
I guess she didn't anticipate for the factor that I didn't have a wolf and that would have been more painful for me.
She quickly applied the paste all round my wrist, making sure she had covered all the marks, before she reached for a bandage.
Grabbing it, she wrapped it tightly around my wrist, and made sure that one of the paste was visible.
Once done, she cut the bandage and fastened it using a clip to hold it in place.
"Give it two days, and you should be fine." She said as she leaned back to look at her work, probably making sure that she had covered all the bases.
"Well, that's that. I just need to make sure that you spend the better part of your day in Kade's chambers." Paula commented.
"It's not like I have a choice." I openly said, to no one in particular.
And with that, I rose from the seat that I was in, and walked towards the door, waiting for Paula to take the lead.
As she opened the door and we were about to walk out, the healer called for me, but not in a way that I was used to.
"Luna of Obsidian Howl."
I stopped in my tracks and turned around, expecting her to say something that I had already heard before.
'You will not last long.'
'A Luna without a wolf is nothing.'
Those and other kinds of statements flew across my thoughts.
However, when she opened her mouth, she said,
"You are different. Wolfless, yet you still managed to stand tall in the Luna trials.
That speaks volumes about you."
I didn't even know how to react to that as it was one of the few times where someone had actually said something nice to me.
I was at loss for words, and I knew that I had to say something.
"Than....thank you...." I finally mumbled as I made my way out of the room as Paula started walking.
We walked in silence, the noise of our feet filling the air as we took one step at a time.
I was following her closely, looking down as I tried to wiggle my wrist as the pain from the paste was subsiding.
"She is a hard woman to please." Paula said as we walked.
At first, I thought she was talking about elder Serenya, who I had already vowed to avoid and have nothing to do with for as long as I lived.
"That's an understatement." I said to her.
She quickly looked behind and at me as if she didn't expect me to have a say in the matter.
However, it was just her realizing that we were thinking and talking about two different people.
"I'm not talking about Serenya....that one is an impossible task.
I'm talking about Dahlia, the healer."
'So that's her name. Dahlia.' I said to myself as I was making a mental note.
"She rarely talks that much about anyone and to anyone. I guess that you made her comfortable.
That's good. At least you now know that if you get hurt, you have someone that will look forward to taking care of you."
It was weird for Paula to say something like that. However,she was right.
I was in a pack where my existence seemed to bother them.
Who knows, perhaps I was going to have an 'accident' sooner than I thought.
I mean,it's not as if it hadn't happened to me in the Shadowmoon Pack.