It was strange to think of how the daughter of the King Beyond the Wall could have found herself tending to the wounds of a southron lady. The years that had passed since she’d first brought a night’s watchman to her father’s tent had wrought an intricate and impossible tale.
It was strange to think that the lands of the Lake, of Dale were considered the North. She’d been born in the true north, a place of ice and shadow where only the strong met their first name day.
Even with the winter chill creeping in it felt impossibly warm here, life flourished in plant and beast, and somehow she’d found herself a home here. Here by the side of a southron lady, no, a princess. Princess. The concept of nobility was odd to her, that it was based in blood rather than merit. But Sigrid had earned her right to her father’s seat, not with blade and blood but with words and wile. Had she been born to the free folk, men would have surely bled for the chance to hunt for her, Tauriel often thought.
But in matters of this, though they were nearly equal in years, Sigrid was nearly a child. Tauriel spread the herbal salve over the raw flesh, and bound it quickly and tightly with a strip of linen.
"We have healers in the north", she explained, "But they stay with the clans, with the old and the young, if you’re wounded on a hunt, or alone, you best be able to deal with it yourself."
Sigrid watched her work, holding her arm still as the salve was spread onto it, and her arm was wrapped snugly in a strip of cloth. Â It was well done, certainly better than Sigrid could have done herself. Â While she was capable of cleaning wounds and binding them, she could do neither as well or as swiftly as Tauriel could. Â Sigrid had never been on a hunt or out in the wilderness alone. Â She had always had healers around to tend to her wounds. Â
"Thank you," she murmured as the flame-haired woman finished binding her arm. Â Sigrid lifted her arm a bit closer to her face, looking at the clean, efficient job that had been done to bind her arm. Â The injury was nothing serious, it would heal quite soon, Sigrid was certain, but it it would likely heal much quicker and more comfortably with the salve Tauriel had put on it. Â