Disclaimer: I own nothing. The characters were created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. Based on "Asterix and the Actress" by Albert Uderzo.


Chapter Two

On the way to Condatum things turned out to be not as Obelix had thought them to. Panacea wasn't Panacea! But even seeing the real Panacea didn't make Obelix feel better. He couldn't stop thinking about Asterix. "Just what I've done… Could a single punch cause so much damage?" Nobody around could understand why he seemed so absent, unable to react to anything normally. He freed Astronomix and Obeliscoidix from prison. Although he was happy to see his father, every time he looked at Asterix's he felt guilty. Caesar rewarded the red-haired Gaul with a golden statue… Obelix didn't care about that stupid statue so he gave it to Latraviata who seemed to like it. He didn't care much about anything.

"And where is Asterix?" Astronomix asked, worried. "Has something happened to him?"

"Well… he… umm…" Obelix paused, not knowing what to say. "He is ill".

"Oh dear!" Astronomix exclaimed. "Is he okay? Shall I go to see him?"

"When I was leaving he was fine already," Obelix lied. "It was his mother who insisted that he stayed".

"Oh," Astronomix calmed down a little. "Yes, Sarsaparilla can be overprotective sometimes. When is she going home, by the way?"

"I don't know…" Obelix felt uneasy again. "I think they will come back soon…"

So, the well-covered Gaul was on his way home. "I wish Asterix was okay!" he thought. "Well, a lot of time passed, he ought to be fine by now". He tried to remember how Asterix had behaved after their fight. Now it was obvious that Asterix had been nothing like himself then. "He would have never done what he did… How could I have not noticed that? And I almost hit him AGAIN! What a terrible friend, what a terrible person I am!" Those thoughts were driving him crazy. On the one hand, he wanted to see Asterix, but on the other hand, he was afraid of it, even though he didn't know much about Asterix's state. Actually, he knew it was serious only from the reaction of Sarsaparilla and Getafix but that was already enough. The feeling of guilt and worry grew every moment. He only hoped that Asterix had already got back to his normal self.

* * *

Asterix, however, still showed no sign of improvement. A couple of weeks had passed since that day. He had learned his own name and the names of the other Gauls but that was it – he still behaved like a child and couldn't recall any memories. Sarsaparilla had to take away his sword (it was dangerous for a little boy to have a toy like that). A lot of time and efforts were spent to teach him to shave without getting cut. It looked so unnatural – an adult man behaving like that. And nobody knew when (or even whether) it was going to end.

Other villagers looked at him with sympathy, but some of them tried to stay away from him – the whole situation was just too weird, and they felt uncomfortable.

Another thing that worried both Sarsaparilla and Getafix was that Asterix complained about terrible headaches very often. Sometimes he was running and jumping around, singing something cheerfully, and the next moment he sat on the ground massaging his temples or just clutching his head, unable to hold back the tears of pain.

Getafix did his best to help but nothing worked. Besides, the poor warrior's mother didn't trust him much which made the druid's task almost impossible.

Sarsaparilla was sitting near her son's hut, sighing sadly. Vanilla was with her to help. She was worrying slightly: it was about time for Obelix to come back.

"Poor Asterix!" Vanilla sighed, looking at her friend sympathetically.

"You know," Sarsaparilla smiled unhappily as she watched her son trying to catch a big blue butterfly, laughing loudly. "He even seems to be happy… in his own way…"

She knew she was fooling herself. She remembered one moment which had happened a few days before… * Asterix came to her and asked why other children didn't want to play with him. She tried to answer something but she didn't know how. How could she explain to her son that he was actually about thirty years older than he thought?* Sarsaparilla covered her face with her hands and cried.

"There, there," Vanilla said soothingly. "Everything will be alright".

"Mom?" Asterix asked softly, coming near them. "Why are you crying?"

"It's nothing, Rixikins," Sarsaparilla sobbed as she hugged her son who hugged her back this time. "Something just got into my eye…"

* * *

During all this time no one of the Gauls noticed one very important thing: they were being watched. And the one who was watching them wasn't Roman. His purpose was not political – it was simply personal revenge… And now, when he had such an opportunity, he just couldn't waste it…