Chapter Seven: Found

"Do you want pasta for supper?" Rita asked as they strolled through the market. "We could buy some tomatoes. I know you wanted to try that sauce recipe."

"Hm?" Estelle tore her eyes from the ground. "Oh, um, sure, if you want."

"It's not that I want it, I just thought you did."

"I don't really care."

Rita rolled her eyes. "Well, what do you want for dinner, then?"

Estelle sighed. "I'm sorry, Rita. I can't really concentrate on food right now."

Rita was quiet for a moment and then nodded. "I'm worried about him, too."

Six weeks ago, Yuri said he might spend the night, but might not. He hadn't shown up, so she'd assumed he'd elected to skip Halure and go straight on to Dahngrest. She'd been a little disappointed they didn't have time to visit, but thought nothing of it. And then… oh, she still remembered that day three weeks ago so clearly. Karol and Judy showing up at her door, asking if Yuri was still here. Finding out he'd never made it to Dahngrest, and then then going to Zaphias to confirm he'd left Flynn's place on schedule. They knew he'd reached Halure, but couldn't find any information about where he'd gone after the knights dropped him off. Somewhere between here and Dahngrest, he'd vanished off the face of the world.

"Hey… is that smoke?" Rita stood on the edge of the road by the hill. She was pointing toward the Quoi Woods, and sure enough, a cloud of smoke drifted into the white winter sky.

"Oh no! Someone might be hurt." It sure looked like more smoke than you'd get from a campfire. "We have to go check it out."

Rita seemed to follow her logic, and made no argument as they ran through town toward the exit. Just as they reached the road out of town, a man carrying a bag came running from the other direction to join them. Estelle glanced his way as they set off toward the smoke and then remembered who he was.

"Oh, you're Doctor Ryan, aren't you?"

The older man paused and looked over. "Ah, good evening, Your Highness. Yes, I am. Did you see the smoke as well?"

She nodded. "I was worried some travellers in the woods got caught in a fire. I wanted to help."

Ryan smiled at her as they stomped through the snow as quickly as possible. "That's very kind of you. There's actually a family that lives out this way. When I saw the smoke, I worried there was trouble at their farm. They keep to themselves mostly, so I didn't expect anyone else to pay them much heed."

"No one at all?" Rita asked.

There was no road this way. If there was, it hadn't been maintained since the snow fell. They had to trudge through almost a foot of it, and Estelle wondered what kind of family hadn't come into town in the five days since the snow fell.

"They're an odd bunch, the Messers." Ryan led the way toward the smoke. "Mr. Messer always unnerved me a bit."

The dark grey cloud of smoke hung over the woods and Estelle could smell it from here. Visions of injured people flashed through her mind as she struggled to move faster through the snow. What had caused the fire? A cooking accident? "What about him was unnerving?"

"Well…" Ryan pursed his lips and sought an appropriate answer. "I always felt there was something strange about the way he treated his daughter. Whenever I saw them together, it felt very icy. I don't think he treated her well."

The house came into view over a snowdrift. Flames licked the charred frame of a collapsed house. Estelle's heart throbbed; she really hoped no one had been inside when the second story caved in. "How many people lived there? Did they have any children?"

"Yes, two. There's a young boy, Jonas, and their grown daughter, Clara. She's a grown woman now, but she still lives at home."

Oh, no, she hated to hear that even one child lived in that house. "And she doesn't have a family of her own that might have been in there?"

Ryan shook his head. "No. She was an odd one, that's for sure." His eyes filled with sadness as he looked at the smoldering house. "I do hope nothing's happened to her, though. I've known her since she was quite small. She used to come to my office regularly."

"What for?" Rita asked. "Was she sick?"

"In a way... she always came in with stomach problems and her mother complained she'd been up vomiting all night. This lasted most of her childhood."

"What was she sick with?" Estelle asked.

Ryan's expression darkened. "You want my honest opinion? Poison. I could never prove it, but I always suspected Mrs. Messer was giving her something toxic."

Estelle's face snapped to his and a puff of fog escaped her mouth in a gasp. "What? Her own daughter? But why?"

Ryan sighed and shook his head. "Sympathy, I imagine. The chance to cry in a doctor's office about her poor daughter, be comforted by nurses, care for her daughter and show how much she loves her. What a good mother she is. I tried to get Clara to tell me the truth once she got older, but she just kept going along with it. I never did understand it, but she was always totally bewildered and appalled when I tried to talk to her alone about the possibility her parents were abusing her."

Estelle gazed at the smoking farmhouse with a long face. She thought of her own childhood, being raised without any friends, so isolated from community. She'd learned who she was through books, stories taught her what the world was like. Had Clara grown up on this tiny farm, isolated by her parents, exposed to no one but toxic family and her own thoughts? Estelle was driven now not just by a need to help the family with any injuries from the fire, but to find this young woman and show her what life was supposed to be like.

"Estelle, look." Rita grabbed her arm and pointed. "Someone's outside."

Estelle saw the figure lying in the snow. They weren't moving, but she hoped this meant someone at least had escaped the burning house. It was the kick she needed to power over the snow and race toward the house in long bounds. Snow fell into her boots and chilled her ankles, but the heat from the house warmed her face.

"Are you ok?!" she cried as she got closer, hoping they were conscious. In case they could hear her but not reply, she kept talking. "Don't worry, you're going to be ok." She reached their side and even over the smell of smoke and burning wood, the reek of sweat and filth hit her nose. Part of her hesitated to move them until she knew their injuries, but she couldn't leave them face-down in the snow any longer or they'd freeze. She grabbed their shoulder as gently as she could and pulled.

Estelle shrieked and dropped him when she saw the victim's face. "Yuri! Yuri!" That scream got Rita running faster and Estelle turned Yuri over as quickly as she could. He was unconscious, and his face was pale as paper. But there was pink around his nose and the tiniest mist of breath escaped his cracked lips - he was alive.

But barely. The skin that wasn't ghostly pale was covered in bruises and cuts. His lips were chapped and he was thinner than she'd ever seen. She could tell from his hair and the smell that he hadn't bathed in weeks and a glance down his body showed raw, torn skin encircling his wrists and blood-stained bandages around his fingers.

"Oh, Yuri, what happened to you?" She couldn't even focus on the rest of the house now and pulled him against her chest. Later, she could wonder about why he was here and how he'd been so injured, but for now she could only think about how elated she was to have found him.

There was a groan from her chest and Estelle away to see that Yuri's eyes had cracked open. He stared at her without expression while Estelle couldn't shake the beam from her face.

"Yuri?"

"It's really him?" Rita had run up to her now. "He's alive?" She seemed to be trying to hide how relieved she was, but Estelle could hear the gratitude in her voice.

"Can you hear me, Yuri? I've got you." She supported him on her lap, not even noticing how cold her legs were sunk into the snow. "I don't know what happened to you, but it's going to be ok now. We're going to take you home."

He didn't say anything at all, but his eyes focused on her face. It was shock, she assumed. Whatever had happened to him, she could tell from his condition he'd suffered horribly. They just needed to get him home, fix any injuries, clean him up, and get him sorted out. He was alive, and that was what mattered.

Doctor Ryan's footsteps crunched as he walked toward them. Guiltily, Estelle remembered that there were other victims of this fire, too. She looked up at him, but before she could ask, he shook his head.

"I don't think there's anyone still alive here, miss. I was able to get into the kitchen - the fire seems to have started around the basement entrance because everything is already burned to cinders there. There was a charred body on the steps."

Estelle grimaced. "And… the rest of the family?"

He heaved a sigh. "There are human remains in the barn. You don't want to see them."

Rita made a disgusted face. "Were they that badly burned?"

Ryan gave her a steady look and carefully said, "No… it wasn't the fire that did that to them. Who is this?"

Estelle wanted to ask about the Messers, but Ryan clearly didn't want to talk about what he'd found in the barn and, guilty as it made her feel, she wanted to focus on Yuri, too. "This is our friend. He's been missing for six weeks. I have no idea how he ended up here, but he's hurt badly."

Ryan nodded. "Right. He's the only one living here, so let's find some wood to use as a sled and get him back to town."

It didn't take long to put together a rudimentary sled from a charred door and some rope at the side of the house. They dragged Yuri onto it, and Estelle felt a tiny shiver as his empty eyes fell on her. He'd been awake for the entire process of building a sled, but said nothing and didn't move until they lifted him.

He's been deeply traumatized, Estelle told herself as the prepared to set off for town. Probably not even fully aware of his surroundings right now… once we get him patched up back in town and the shock of whatever was done to him wears off, he'll be back to his old self in no time.

It was a pleasant thought, and she really did believe it. There was only one thing that played in the back of her mind, and it wasn't even a concrete thought. It was just… and she was sure this was just an effect of the flames still burning on part of the house and toying with the light… but there was just something off about Yuri's shadow.