Free All That Is Red by Anna Caltabiano Page A

the age of the boy and me. Further still, he was no stranger. It was
Nalin.
    I was astounded by the discovery, but my hand never faltered. Soak the towel with water. Clean a gash. Wash the blood off the towel in the basin. It was an unconscious ritual and I didn’t
have to think about it.
    “I’ve got to go and help with the other injured,” the boy said. “You’ll be okay?”
    “I will,” I said. How could I have said anything other than that? I knew the boy worried for me, because his heart was in the right place, but he had other people who depended on him
even more than I did.
    I continued washing and dressing Nalin’s cuts and slashes until he finally came to. I didn’t notice exactly when he regained consciousness, but soon he was sitting up.
    “I’m sorry about your bed,” he said, and even at a time like this, he chuckled in his special way.
    I couldn’t respond to that, so I focused on wrapping the deep cut on his forearm. It had to be tight enough to stem the bleeding.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    I lost it at those words. I didn’t mean to snap, but his words were the final bricks I could take. “What’s wrong?” I thundered. “Here you are, with more than twenty
gashes and countless broken bones and you ask me what’s wrong?”
    “I didn’t know you cared so much,” he said.
    I balked. “Of course, I care.” I finished bandaging his wounds in silence. Nalin didn’t utter a sound, although I knew he must have been in great pain.
    “So, what happened out there?” I asked, after I had calmed my temper.
    “What do you know about it?”
    “All I know is that your group was out hunting and this isn’t a normal hunting incident,” I replied, gesturing toward his numerous injuries.
    “We were finishing the day’s hunt,” he said, reaffirming what I had heard earlier. “We were only about thirty minutes away from the encampment when we were
attacked.”
    “Attacked? By the unfeelings?”
    “Yes, by the White,” he said. “Only some of us managed to escape.”
    “And the others?”
    “They were all either killed or captured.”
    “What will the unfeelings do to the captured men?”
    “Kill them if they’re merciful,” he said with a blank face.
    “And if they’re not?”
    “They’ll make them wish they were dead.”
    I was mute at his words. They were harsh, but I knew that they were true.
    The boy brought in Nalin’s meal and asked if I could help in distributing food to the rest of the injured. I looked to Nalin for a sense of permission to leave his side, but he merely
laughed and waved me on my way.
    “Are you sure you don’t need anything else?”
    “Only a pencil and some paper,” he responded.
    I crossed swiftly to the desk and found precisely what he wanted. At the boy’s questioning look, Nalin explained and what he said brought a long lasting smile to the boy’s face.
    “I like to draw.”
    Helping him carry the food, I made the meal rounds with the boy. We went to each room and visited every injured man. They were all being tended by weeping family members, mothers, daughters, or
sisters, who were all thankful that their boy was one of the few who survived. However, every one of them also felt guilty with the knowledge that there were those who hadn’t been so
lucky.
    The boy talked softly and greeted everyone we met by name. The people in turn talked to him. They confided in him and told him their fears. The boundaries holding Trigons and humans apart
didn’t seem to apply to him, as I saw the boy connect with both species in a way I knew I never could. He felt the same emotions they did and it was clear that he really cared and did his
best to help.
    We finished our rounds and went back to my room again. The boy left on another errand for one of the Trigon families. Nalin was sleeping, as tranquilly as possible for a recent near death
experience. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I found myself outside again.
    Deciding that I had an