Ah, lost again

Aether had no clue where he was. Razor had wanted to travel to Wolvendom to get some Wolfhooks, so all Aether knew was that he had to be somewhere in Wolvendom. Even if Aether was an adventurer, it was usually his sister who took care of navigation back then. All he had to worry about was gathering any shiny materials he saw and fighting any monsters that came into his sight. Truly the simpler times. He thought to himself.

After coming across what seemed like the same tree stump twice, Aether was finally fed up. It was getting late and he had been walking for what seemed like hours. Just as he was about to teleport back to Mondstadt, he couldn't help but catch the sun setting in the corner of his eye. Peeking around the bush, he could see a giant field of rolling grass and flowers in front of him. The sun was just beginning to dip over the mountain top and its rays were illuminating every part of the field, making it seem like the rippling waves of a bright orange and red ocean.

Aether was rooted on the spot, even if he's seen the sunset a million times, it never failed to leave him in awe. Stuff like this couldn't help but remind him of why he enjoyed adventuring in the first place.

"Such beautiful scenery, isn't it?" Aether was so caught up in the view that he didn't even notice someone was sitting right next to the bush he was peering over.

Aether whips his head over to the source of the voice. It was a young man with blond hair pulled back into braids and his eyes were a piercing blue. His eyes were unmoving from the sketchbook in front of him. And… truth be told, Aether thought for a split second that the blond was just as great of a view as the sunset. Just as fast as Aether looked over at him, he looks back away and coughs, "Huh? Oh, yeah."

Looking back at him, Aether couldn't pinpoint the boy's face to a name, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen the boy somewhere before.

Without even glancing up from the sketchbook he was scribbling in, the boy says, "You're Mondstadt's famed hero, correct? The traveler from another world?"

"Y-Yeah, who's asking?"

The boy finally puts down his brush and lowers his book, giving Aether the opportunity to see a very detailed watercolor painting of the sunset. He glances over at Aether, "My mistake, my name is Albedo. I am the Chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius."

Aether slaps the front of his forehead, startling Albedo a bit, "Oh! You're the one Sucrose is always talking about."

"Ah... yes. She's my assistant."

Aether props his arm up on the bush to rest his chin on his hand, "Hm, for some reason, I imagined you to be a lot more intimidating."

"How so?"

Taller, Aether couldn't help from thinking. "Ah, never mind," he says instead, for once, holding his tongue. Usually, he had no problem saying the first thing that came to mind, but for some reason, he didn't want to risk insulting the boy in front of him.

"Erm… if you don't mind telling me, what has brought you out here to Dragonspine?"

Aether feels a chill suddenly run down his spine. "D-Dragonspine?" He stutters.

Albedo tilts his head in confusion, "Yes, that is where you are right now. Though it's more so the outskirts of Dragonspine."

An awkward silence falls on the two. Aether can't help but wonder how he could have managed to get this lost. Sure he's gotten lost before, ending up at Eagle's Gate, after overestimating his ability to remember where things are, instead of the Temple of the Lion, but at least they were in the same region!

"Do you, by chance, not know where you are?"

Aether rubs the back of his neck and mumbles, "Yeah…"

Setting down his sketchbook, Albedo walks over to Aether and pulls out his map. "That's alright, you are new to this world after all. Here, let me help mark it on your map."

"Uh…" Aether stares blankly at Albedo, not having the heart to tell him that he doesn't even have his map on him. "A-About that, my friend Barbara actually has it on her..."

"That's fine," Albedo looks around the forest, "where is she right now?"

Aether couldn't help but feel the heat rise a bit into his face, "N-Not with me right now."

"..."

"I might have gotten lost."

Albedo awkwardly puts his map back into his bag, "Oh, erm… that's unfortunate, do you all have any sort of protocol in case things like this happen?"

Aether waves both of his hands in front of his face, "Nope! I don't get lost that often, haha."

Why am I lying?

"Oh, is that so," Albedo brings his hand up to his mouth to think aloud. "It's probably best if you wait here for them then. Moving around while you're lost isn't the… wisest thing to do."

Way to call me stupid! Aether wanted to do nothing less than to drive his head into the ground. Back home, he was taught to never rely on someone else to find him. After Lumine left him in the middle of the forest when he ran off for a single second, he wasn't too keen on letting history repeat itself. He just didn't have the best sense of direction is all.

Albedo suddenly speaks up again, "Actually, I could wait here with you. I have a few questions I want to ask you, if you don't mind, of course."

"Uh, sure. I don't mind."

Albedo quickly walks back over to his sketchbook and gently flips to a new page. He sits back down and Aether follows to sit down next to him.

Albedo goes on to ask him all sorts of questions about his homeland, but aside from the wings that Aether and his sister used to have, there wasn't much of a difference between the life of his home and Teyvat. Although both worlds had the most obvious differences, being different ecosystems, different sources of power, etc. the laws of life between those in Teyvat and those in Aether's homeworld were fundamentally the same.

"Sorry if I didn't tell you anything you wanted to hear," Aether says while rubbing the back of his neck.

Albedo makes a point to flip to another page in his sketchbook, "Nonsense, you've told me a variety of interesting facts about both your life and your world." He flips a few pages back into his sketchbook and takes a moment to marvel, "I think this might be the most I have written while asking someone questions, you're truly an interesting specimen."

"Still, wish I could've told you something a bit cooler," Aether sighs before flopping onto the grass to look at the stars above them. He hadn't even noticed how dark it had gotten in the time they had been talking. Maybe he talked a bit too much, I mean, it had been a while since someone had asked him about his home. He couldn't help but admit that it did make him feel a little bit homesick.

His reminiscing quickly dies when he hears his stomach growl. He turns to Albedo, "Tell you what, I could try and mimic a dish from my homeworld."

Albedo's pencil stops, "Ah, that would be nice. I was actually thinking of asking you to cook me something as an experiment."

Aether hops up and begins to rummage through his bag looking for ingredients. "I actually have enough for moon pie too, it pairs well with-" Aether doesn't even finish his sentence before Albedo's stomach growls in response. Even with the little light being given off by the lamp Albedo had placed next to him, Aether could still see an embarrassed blush creeping across Albedo's face.

He can't help but laugh, "I guess you have a sweet tooth."

"Well, high-energy foods do provide an effective boost to both physical and mental capacity."

Aether chuckles again as he gets up to prepare a fire, "You could just say you like sweets."

"T-That too."

It doesn't take long for Aether to get a fire going. Even if he hadn't brought the essentials of an adventurer (aka, a map), at least he still had his cooking supplies.

A peaceful silence falls on the two as Aether focuses on his cooking. Occasionally, though, Aether makes sure to sneak a few glances at the boy sitting across from him. He was blond, had shoulder-length hair that was halfway tied up into a ponytail, and had an elegant aura to him… but what was most interesting was the star on his neck. At first, he thought that it was a birthmark, but the more he looked at it, the more unnatural it seemed.

The scent from the boiling pot soon hits Aether's nose, quickly snapping him out of his trance. Carefully, he takes the pot off of the fire and places it down. When he opens the top of the pot, a pleasant seafood smell wafts around him.

Aether uses a ladle to scoop some of it into a bowl, before handing the bowl to Albedo with a smile. "Alright, dinner is served."

Albedo smiles and accepts the bowl. After the first scoop, he pauses and places his fingers on his chin to think.

Dozens of thoughts race through Aether's head at once. "Do… do you not like it?" He hesitantly asks.

"Oh, no, no. It's incredible, but as I anticipated, there's nothing different about your cooking to the cooking of someone who lives in Teyvat." Albedo then reaches for his journal and scribbles a few words down before eagerly eating the rest.

Aether lets out a breath of relief and reaches to grab a bowl for himself.

A splash of ice-cold water suddenly hits Aether from behind, completely soaking him.

Aether jumps to his feet and unsheathes his sword. "What the fuck?" He yells. When he turns around, he's met face to face with Barbara. Upon seeing the displeased, blonde, it's almost as if another splash of water has hit him on the back as chills run up his spine.

"Aether! I really can't believe you ran off!" She huffs. Although her voice still had its typical calm and sweet tone, Aether could still tell she was frustrated.

"Aether!" Another voice from beyond the bushes yells. Nearly tripping on his way out, Bennett manages to pry himself from the bushes.

Last, but not least, Razor calmly follows behind the two of them. Next to Razor, he sees two wolves slowly appear at his side. "Lupical help Razor find friend," Razor grunts, he seemed just agitated as Barbara was.

Albedo sets aside his bowl and stands up. "Oh, I see you're traveling with Barbara."

Barbara looks behind Aether. "Hello, Albedo!" She says, happily smiling and waving at him, to which Albedo waves back at the friendly deaconess.

Bennett was the only one who seemed to be happy about the situation. He brushes the bush leaves off of himself and swings an arm around Aether's neck, pulling him into a side hug. "Woah! What is this? The third time? We really thought we weren't gonna find you for a second there." He smiles, clearly happy to have found his friend.

"Can we not bring that up," Aether groans. The other times he's gotten lost wasn't as bad… he just had to look for them for around an hour before finding them.

Bennett is about to continue teasing him when from the forest, a bundle of twigs suddenly snaps. Everyone looks toward the forest and without making a sound, pull out their weapons to confront whatever may be there.

Aether steps in front of Albedo to guard him, but Albedo politely steps away and manifests his own sword. The sword resembled a rapier and had a brilliant shine to it. "No need to worry, I'm a Knight of Favonius as well," he whispers.

Out from the treeline steps five hilichurls and three mitachurls. Razor sprints toward the mitachurls and swings his claymore wildly, meanwhile Barbara and Bennett take care of the smaller hilichurls. However, as Aether moves to help Razor, he finds himself rooted on the spot. Albedo had already moved to help Razor and… never in Aether's entire life had he ever seen someone with such elegant swordsmanship. Albedo's stabs at the mitachurl looked less like attacks and more like an experienced dancer's steps.

Aether was fully enchanted.

"Aether! Mind helping?" Razor yells as he barely manages to push back a heavy swing from the mitichurl.

Aether shakes his head and snaps out of… whatever he was just in. "Y-Yeah!" He yells, running to join Razor and Albedo.

By the time the hilichurls and mitichurl s were defeated, Aether was exhausted.

"Do you think they followed us here?" Barbara says in-between breaths.

"Maybe," Aether replies, "we should be on the lookout for more."

After they had all caught their breaths, the group goes to the fire to sit down and relax. Aether is about to sit down when Albedo walks toward him. "Traveler, are you not an Anemo user?"

Aether turns to him, "Hm? Oh, I recently visited Liyue and resonated with the statue there, so I'm using Geo right now."

Albedo blinks, and for a second, Aether can swear that he saw a shimmer in Albedo's eyes. "Traveler, would you mind coming with me to Dragonspine?"

"What?" Aether freezes and wonders where this is coming from. Barbara and Bennett turn to the two of them, both of them looking amused by what's going on (Razor is too preoccupied with the pot of food Aether made to turn around).

"Well, as of right now, I'm in the middle of researching an interesting specimen–" Albedo notices the concern growing on Aether's face, "–ah, don't worry, the experiments I have in mind aren't particularly dangerous, but I do think that you would be a great aid to my research."

"Uh…" Aether scratches the back of his head, "I'm not too good at science, I've only ever been good at math, so I don't think I'll be that useful…"

Albedo grabs his notebook and flips through its pages. "You won't need to do anything like that and you have more in common with this specimen than you may think."

Out of Albedo's eyesight, Bennett nudges Aether forward. Aether bites his tongue to prevent himself from chewing out Bennett. "Sure, why not?" He says nonchalantly, trying to hide his excitement.

Albedo was definitely going to be the death of him.