The Soldier and the Maiden

Now the rain came down blocking my sight and drenching my blood-soaked tunic down to the very fibers. My sword dragged behind me marking the ground in an uneven groove in the ground next to my footsteps and dark red earth. My right hand was holding a deep gash on my shoulder, trying to keep it covered and closed the best it can.
The light from the open shack was my only beacon, leading me from this miserable red rain to people who might help me. But only feet from the door was what I stumbled to as my knees buckled and caved in, throwing me face first into the mud.
The mud splashed into my wound and very quickly the soil around me was turning a deep red. I groped the dirt trying to get to the door, but didn't make it very far before complete darkness enveloped my vision.
Warmth was the first thing I became aware of. The warmth from a flickering flame alighting my cheeks and nose, the warmth of a padded bed under my back, and the warmth from a small hand lying gently upon my forehead.
My eyes tried to ignore my request to open and shook and flattered in mad protest. I heard a gasp and the hand moved from me. I finally won in my eyes and opened the weary pupils to the warm world around me.
The light from a small, white candle stood tall in the dark room not far from my resting head on a bedside table. The roar of the storm outside was pounding on the thicket roof but not getting in.
There was a shift in the shadows beyond my vision and I turned toward it, but the darkness was too thick.
I whispered a ragged word that slipped near silently from my lips and was heard by the angel in the shadows.
Now my eyes began to cut through their fog and I quickly found two wide, almost frighted eyes. They were a reflective blue-gray, like a cloudy day on a beautiful lake, and almost seemed to produce their own light.
"...help..." I tried to say and she must have heard it for she quickly rushed out of the room to return moments later with a wooden cup filled with water and mixed with crushed leaves of some unknown plant. It was tea that she had brought me.
She set down the cup on the table next to the lamp and tended to my head, propping it up and easing me into an upright, sitting position. She tended to me as a mother would her child and let me sip from the cup.
It didn't taste very good to me but I knew it was rude to protest, not that I could.
After the tea was finished the angel put my head back down and began to leave the room. I wanted to cry out for her to stay but the words were lost in my throat.
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