Varian reached the plaza soon, since the town was pretty small and his house, despite being on the outskirts, was pretty close there. He noticed the girl washing some clothes at the fountain, while chatting with the rest of the girls that were doing laundry too. Varian frowned for a moment, when he saw them there. He wanted to finally talk to her, but he had hoped she would be alone.
He didn't actually have the best reputation in the village. The Weirdo with the raccoon, the Goggle Kid, the Non-Existent were only a few of the nicknames he knew the villagers were calling him. Either behind his back or even in front of his face. Even though he had kinda got used to it, since pretty much wherever he and his Dad were moving, he was always developing such a reputation, it still didn't stop bothering him. He turned around to leave, but Rudiger, unwilling to let him walk away like that without finally speaking to the girl, jumped off Varian and started running towards the fountain.
"Rudiger, stop!" The boy called out as he ran after his raccoon, who had reached where the girls were, making them scream:
"AAAHHHH!"
"Take that thing away! It's disgusting"
"It carries diseases!"
Rudiger kept running around them, starting to kinda enjoy this, until Varian got him.
"Sorry about that. I don't know what had gotten into him." He apologized, looking mostly at the blond servant girl, who gave him just a measly look.
"Seriously, if you really need to carry this pest around the village, at least keep it under control!" One of the girls yelled.
Varian slightly narrowed his eyes hearing this.
"Are you gonna stay here for a long time, weirdo?" another girl said
"Yeah, we're working here. Not like you know what that means." the first girl said and Varian started slowly walking away, with a defeated look on his face.
Rudiger glanced at him with a regretful expression. The boy gently petted him, to show he wasn't mad or anything. After all he knew that he didn't mean to make things go this way.
"Hey, Mary, how come you're so quiet today? You didn't even tell off the weirdo with us." The first girl said again to the servant girl, who was focused on her washing.
"Can't talk. I have to clean this shirt up. It's my lord's favorite and he wants to wear it tonight, for a gathering. But it just won't clean up! I'm gonna get in serious trouble if it's not clean by tonight." The servant girl said as she kept rubbing the shirt, trying to clean it up.
Even though he was walking away, Varian was close enough to hear what they were saying and his face quickly lit up as an idea came to his mind. He ran back to his home and as soon as he got there, he headed for a trapdoor behind the main room, that led in the basement, which served as the place where he was hiding his secret: as his lab. And the secret he was hiding there was his gift: Alchemy.
Varian was an alchemist, but nobody knew this aside from him and his Dad, who was constantly telling him that they should keep it a secret no matter what. However, Varian hated this. He didn't want to keep his creations, his gift a secret. Instead, he dreamed of showing them to the world, of changing the people's lives for the better and of making his Dad proud of him and his creations. And now the girl had just given him the perfect plan of how to do it.
"All right! I got it!" Varian called out enthusiastically, as he left Rudiger on a table.
The little critter looked at him in confusion and made a curious chittering.
"Didn't you hear her, Rudiger? She said she couldn't clean a stain and that she'd get in trouble if she won't clean it up. So I can create something that will help her clean it up and BAM! I'll impress her! And the entire village as well!" Varian said breathlessly from his excitement.
Rudiger then turned his head towards the door, making the same curious chittering. He then looked at Varian with a worried expression. Varian realised what he wanted to tell himand rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Don't worry about that. I'll be done before Dad comes back. And once he sees what I've done, he will forget that I disobeyed him and he will change his mind for keeping the fact that I'm an alchemist a secret... I hope." Varian said as he wore his goggles and turned to his desk "Now it's time to get to work."
Meanwhile, somewhere far away from the village, Varian's Dad, Quirin, was getting some rest near a river after a hard night at work. He had left his horse drink some water nearby, while he was washing his face a bit. He glanced at his left foot, which he had just wrapped up with a rag. He tried to get up, but as soon as he did he kneeled back down wincing.
You winced...You actually have the nerve to wince, you fool! You brought this on yourself! Quirin cursed in his mind.
It wasn't like he could complain. What happened, happened because he didn't leave well-prepared. Because he relaxed. How could he relax?! He knew very well what job he had to do and how important it was, so even the fact that there wasn't a problem for at least two years was not an excuse. He got up again and ignoring the pain he walked to his horse and gently stroked its neck. The horse raised its head and gently nudged the man, who formed a weak smile.
"Let's go home."Quirin said as he got on the horse, ignoring his pain once more.
On the way back to the village, Quirin kept thinking about Varian. He was wondering if he had actually cleaned the house, and most importantly if he had listened and didn't do any of his alchemy. He knew how Varian felt about keeping his gift a secret, but he also knew that they didn't have much of a choice. If this secret was ever to be uncovered... if it was spread...Quirin couldn't even think of what would happen to his son. But Varian just couldn't understand. And it wasn't his fault. He didn't know. He couldn't know, he was not ready yet. And until he was, Quirin was determined to carry this burden alone.
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