24 Come Home

Macha's neck hurt from being jerked back so quickly. Her face winced in pain but turned to anger. "Let go of me," she demanded. She did not know why this woman held so much hostility towards her. She wondered how Tyr could have loved a woman like this.

"Sure. After I leave a little present for Tyr. Remember what I said about your pretty little face? I'll be nice though." Fenrir raised a sharp nail and dug it across Macha's cheek making an 'F'. Macha tried to struggle free, but Fenrir's friends helped hold her in place. Blood trickled down Macha's cheek and stained her top. After Fenrir finished, she shoved Macha away and walked off laughing.

Macha clenched her jaw to calm herself. Flexing her muscles caused her cheek to sting, and she grimaced from the pain. She wanted to fight back, but knew her own strength. Dueling would only lead to more pain. Macha took a deep breath and let go of her anger. She had to hurry home if she wanted to clean her wound and freshen up before dinner.

****

Macha opened the door to the apartment. The bags rustled as she moved to put them on the counter. She looked over and recognized Tyr was where she had left him with his eyes closed. "I knew he needed rest," she thought.

Tyr heard Macha enter the apartment and opened his eyes. While she did her shopping, he had gotten his wounds taken care of. There were light scars because the wounds were not tended to quickly, but the damage was insignificant. He knew scars heal with time, so he was not concerned with them.

Tyr stood up to help Macha with her bags. He realized that she had bought a lot when he saw her struggle while entering the room. Tyr got closer and as he reached for the bags, he saw blood on her face. His hand lashed out to tilt her chin back, drawing his face nearer to inspect the wound. "Who did this to you?" he demanded. Anger exuded from his body.

Macha shuddered. She had never seen him so angry before. The cold anger in his eyes frightened her, and she lost her voice.

Tyr assumed she shuddered because she thought about what happened to her. "Who did this to you?!" He said it louder and with more force this time. The temperature of the room felt like it dropped a few degrees.

"F-F-Fenrir..." Macha said in a soft voice that trailed off.

When Macha uttered Fenrir's name, Tyr's eyes widened slightly. He did not think Fenrir would do such a despicable thing, but Macha had no reason to lie. He peered into her frightened brown eyes but sensed no guilt or deceit.

This was his fault. He did not correct Fenrir when she implied Macha was his new lover at the restaurant.

Feeling guilty, Tyr took Macha in his arms and flew down the stairs. He opened Mathis's door and put her down next to Mathis, who was reading a book in bed.

Mathis had one arm bandaged all the way to his shoulder and his hair stuck up on one side. His eyes bounced between Tyr and Macha and asked, "Uh, how nice of you to show yourself in. What's up?"

Tyr grabbed Macha's chin and moved her face closer to Mathis. "Look what Fenrir did. I need you to heal it." His eyes were full of concern.

Mathis chuckled, "Look at me! I'm still recovering. Go have some kid heal it up. It's something that a novice healer can do." He then picked his book back up and searched for the paragraph he was reading.

Macha's cheeks were squished in Tyr's hand. She gave Mathis an awkward smile.

Tyr gave Mathis a steely glare. He tossed the book aside. "I don't want some novice testing out his skills on her. If it's so easy just do it quickly," he snapped.

Mathis looked at Tyr and said nothing. He couldn't believe his friend made such a ridiculous demand. Macha had a small scratch in comparison to the wounds they have endured throughout the years.

The tension in the room was palpable. Macha wanted to ease the situation, so she held out a canvas shopping bag. "I got these for you. I hope you get better soon," her voice was muffled from her cheeks being squished together by Tyr's hand.

Mathis looked at the bag. His lips twitched. "Thanks, Macha. Since you're so THOUGHTFUL let me inspect your cheek." He made sure to emphasize 'thoughtful' as he glared back at Tyr.

Mathis raised a hand and rubbed his thumb along the scratches. As he did so, the scratches became shallower until they disappeared. He fell asleep after he had finished. Although Tyr made a small request, his body was too weak to be doing any healing.

****

Macha and Tyr sat in the living room listening to music. She had made Tyr a cup of passionflower tea and he sipped it. Now she studied his face, wanting to read his mood. All the anger that painted his face earlier had disappeared. He looked relaxed while he gazed back at her.

Tyr kept looking at Macha's cheek. He wanted to make sure Mathis did a good job and that there would be no hint of scarring. While he inspected her face, he admired the seductive curves of her lips.

Macha brought out the box of chocolates that she bought for them. She handed a chocolate with crushed nuts on the outside to Tyr, then took one for herself. "I think you should apologize to Mathis. It wasn't very kind of you to force him to exert himself today," she ventured.

Tyr popped the chocolate into his mouth. "He's fine. He can take all the time he wants to heal, but if your face was left like that for too long it could scar." He wanted another chocolate, but Macha had put the box on her other side.

"I care about Mathis's health. We could have gone to a novice like he said. Also, when are you going to get your back healed?" Macha wanted to bring up Tyr's back because her scratch was not as serious as his back wounds.

"I already got it taken care of while you were shopping." He saw that she still did not eat her chocolate, so he plucked it from her hand and ate it.

"You did? Oh, well, I still think you should apologize. Some people say you're difficult to deal with. I don't think you are, but I don't want Mathis to feel that way." Macha opened the box and took another chocolate out for herself. This time she took a small bite out of it to claim it as her own.

Tyr listened to the music for a few bars. He reflected on the concerns that she had voiced. He did not feel he was difficult to deal with, he felt it was the opposite. Everyone else wanted to annoy him. In Tyr's mind, Macha made one good point. It was that Mathis worked when he should be recovering. "Fine. I'll apologize tomorrow."

Macha smiled, satisfied with his answer. "I'll make brownies for you to bring over."

****

Dinner with Luna was full of laughter and stories of their childhood. Macha was intimidated at first by the way Luna looked. Luna fell off a cliff, but she used a spell to harden her bones. While the spell helped, it did not keep her unharmed. Luna broke over forty bones and had a lot of external and internal bleeding. She barely survived.

Now, while continuing to recover, casts wrapped around her legs and arms. Medics were scheduled to come in daily to heal her bit by bit. They estimated that Luna would be back to normal within a two weeks.

Luna had just finished telling a story about how Tyr wanted to be a sorcerer at first because Luna had trained to be one, and when he was given Aži he cried. She said Aži felt wronged and refused to listen to Tyr for a month.

Tyr defended his actions, "I just wanted to be a sorcerer because I wanted to beat you at one more thing." He crossed his arms and looked away from Luna.

"Yeah right. You know you don't like to sit down and study all day. You would have been a terrible sorcerer!" Luna laughed. She winced in pain from the laughter, which caused Tyr to laugh.

Luna's wolpertinger entered through a small portal positioned at the bottom of her front door. In its mouth, it held a telegram. It hopped up on the bed and handed it to Luna. It said:

Luna,

Come home immediately. I do not want you playing guild with your brother anymore. It is time you settled down and got married.

~Mother

Luna gave a long sigh and handed the note to Tyr. "I'll have to go home and play nice for a bit. Don't worry, I'll be back. I just need to scare off a few guys."

Tyr had regret in his eyes and lamented, "Sorry. It's my fault this happened to you. I should have protected you and Mathis better."

Luna whacked her brother's shoulder, "Please. This is nothing compared to the time you tossed me in the well because I gossiped about you." She looked at Macha and pouted, "He didn't tell anyone I was in there for two days. All he did was toss food down for me. He would stand above the well demanding I apologize. Krystof found out and pulled me out. I had a cold for a month." She gave Tyr a dirty look.

Tyr crossed his arms and looked away. "First of all, you refused to apologize. I would have taken you out if you did. Secondly, you know I don't like strangers finding out about my personal life. You were just telling those girls things about me to make more friends."

Luna yawned. Weariness showed on her face.

Macha noticed that her friend tried to stay up for them. She turned to Tyr and declared, "Let's go. I think Luna needs to rest now."

Later in their apartment, Tyr was putting away some dishes that dried and Macha was feeding Aži a leftover snack that they had for dinner. Macha fiddled with her hands and asked, "Do you think Luna will really be able to come back to the guild?" She was worried that she would not be able to see Luna as often.

Tyr put the last bowl away and walked over to sit on the couch's armrest. "It will be fine. She is actually mother's favorite and can usually get whatever she wants. Luna has always been good at convincing people to go along with her schemes. She'll find a way to get back here."