"Zeph... It hurts..."
Each passing second felt like another stab to the chest for Zeph as he looked down at Nina's weakened form. She was on the verge of falling asleep, and everything about her screamed that she was sickly. Her eyes could only remain at half-mast, but she was in too much pain to even dream of fully drifting off into slumber. No matter how long Zeph sat there and held her hand, it never seemed to be enough. He had lost the words for this dreadful sensation ages ago, leaving his chest tight and his insides twisting.
"It'll all be alright, Nina," Zeph whispered instead, gripping her hand just a little bit tighter. "Alf'll be back any moment now. He's never let us down." He had been telling Nina this ever since Alfyn departed, and it was impossible for him to say if he was repeating the words more for her sake or for his.
"I... I know..." Nina murmured softly. She glanced in the direction of the door, a silent check for if Alfyn had arrived yet. Once again, she was met with an empty door.
"When Father died and left the two of us alone, I didn't know what to do," Zeph admitted after a moment of heavy silence. "The truth is... I didn't think I'd be able to raise you and protect you on my own. But Alf was always there to lend a helping hand. When he told me he wanted to study together and become an apothecary himself... He gave me the strength to carry on. He's always so humble, apologizing for being a burden on me... But the truth is, I'm the one who's been relying on him this whole time. If only I could be more like him..."
When Zeph looked down at Nina, he found that she had slipped into slumber while he was talking. He smiled to himself, almost relieved that Nina hadn't heard his words. He rose to his feet after setting her hand down gently beside her body on the bed. He moved towards the door and opened it, and when he did, he was surprised to see none other than Alfyn himself. "Alfyn!" Zeph cried out.
Alfyn was a few feet in front of the rest of the group of travelers, and the vial of venom from the viper was grasped tightly between his fingers. "Did you miss me? Sorry it took so long," Alfyn told Zeph with a conversational laugh.
Zeph threw his arms around Alfyn a moment later. "Oh, Alfyn! Thank the gods you're safe..." he whispered into Alfyn's shoulder. Alfyn was surprised for a beat before he returned the gesture of open affection. When the two men pulled away, Alfyn pressed the vial of venom into Zeph's fingers, earning him a shocked reaction from his companion. "The venom... You really did it!"
"I trust you can take it from here, eh?" Alfyn asked with a light grin.
"I'll get started at once!" Zeph confirmed with a nod. He started walking back toward the house a moment later.
"Hang in there, friend," Alfyn instructed of him gently.
Zeph nodded and walked into the house from there. The door tapped shut behind him, and Alfyn let out a sigh. He turned back towards the rest of the group, realizing belatedly that they had been watching the entire encounter. Ophilia had a gentle smile on her face from Alfyn's embrace with Zeph, but he shook it off, seemingly doing his best to not seem bothered by her silent love for his show of affection.
"Man, I'm beat," Alfyn started. "Think I'll head home and catch a few winks." He glanced up at the afternoon sky, uncaring as to the fact that it was still technically the middle of the day. He started to walk back in the direction of his home where it was waiting for him on the other side of the bridge that ran through the center of Clearbrook.
"Perhaps we could book a room or two at the hotel for the night," Ophilia suggested as she glanced towards the other four travelers. "I think that Tressa needs to rest after what happened during that battle. We could all use a moment to breathe, honestly."
Alfyn immediately turned around with that same sunshine smile on his face again. "There's no need. You can stay with me. I've got enough space, and after what you did for Zeph and Nina... I owe you all. If you want a place to stay, I've more than got it," he assured them.
Ophilia looked to the rest of the group, and when she realized that they all agreed with her, she smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Alfyn. We would be happy to," she told him.
"First, there's something that Olberic needs to do," Tressa declared, her voice surprisingly strong despite the exhaustion that was pulling at her expression. When Olberic looked down at her in curiosity, she continued. "You've been using that bandit's spear since before we left Cobbleston. I think it's time for you to finally get a replacement from the local shop."
Primrose couldn't help but laugh at Tressa's blatantly skewed concerns, and Olberic stared in shock for a long moment before he sighed and shook his head. "If you insist," he said, clearly unable to resist Tressa's charms of sweet smiles and bright optimism.
"You can meet us back at my place," Alfyn told Olberic. He pointed across the bridge in the direction of the building that he referred to as his home so that Olberic would know where to come after he was finished at the local shop. "I'll set everything up so that we're all ready to crash for a while. No need to worry at all."
Olberic nodded and walked in the direction of the weapons shop of Clearbrook while the rest of the group followed Alfyn back to his home. He opened the door carefully and gestured for them to walk inside with his trademark smile. If one didn't know better, they would have never guessed that he had spent so much time and effort moving through a snake's den and fighting a creature with the power to take lives. His mask was so perfect in its power to convince others that it was almost unsettling, but nobody mentioned it.
The process of setting up cots for everyone wound up taking longer than expected. Alfyn's home only held two beds, one of them for himself and the other for guests. It wasn't as if he had others over to his house often, so it went unused a majority of the time. At one point, it had belonged to his mother, but Alfyn had never been able to muscle together the will to throw it out. Instead, he kept it in case Zeph fell asleep while in the midst of his apothecary work, and he was certainly glad that he had kept it for the sake of this purpose alone.
Tressa wound up being the one given the chance to take over the spare bed, something the group unanimously agreed on given her injuries. Tressa was more than happy to collapse onto the mattress, and she was asleep within seconds of her cheek making contact with the pillow. Despite Alfyn's offers to let someone else take his bed for the day, he wound up using it since the others were so selfless and stubborn that they almost put him to shame. Ophilia laid on the floor near Tressa's bed beside Primrose while Cyrus and Olberic wound up on Alfyn's half of the room. As soon as everything was settled, it wasn't long before the room had fallen completely silent aside from the gentle whisper of level breathing. It seems that Alfyn's exhaustion hadn't been solely his issue after all.
When Alfyn's eyes next opened, night had fallen. It had been the middle of the afternoon when the incident with Nina and the viper took place, so Alfyn had slept right through dinner. At first, he didn't mind this in the slightest, but his stomach wound up rumbling gently as he let out a small huff of a sigh. He was tempted to roll over and return to sleep, but his worry for Zeph and Nina wound up pushing him to his feet. Before he knew it, he was out the door, leaving the rest of the group asleep in his home.
Alfyn was halfway to Zeph and Nina's home when he stopped, instead leaning over the edge of the stone bridge that passed through the center of Clearbrook. He was torn between wanting to check on the siblings and knowing that they were going to be fine, and in the end, he decided to stay where he was. He looked out over the river below, moonlight kissing his features.
Alfyn had been trying for years to improve his skills as an apothecary. He had been trying for so many years to follow in the footsteps of the one person who he had idolized ever since he was young. A nameless apothecary had passed through town and saved his life, and Alfyn would never be able to forget the kindness that man had shown him. Still, despite his attempts to find a place in the world, to follow in the path that he had yearned for all those years, he felt like he was still far from his goal. It seemed as if he couldn't reach what he was looking for no matter how hard he tried or how much he pushed.
Alfyn glanced around the rest of Clearbrook and let out a chuckle. It wouldn't take much for this small town, so little that some maps glossed over it entirely, to be blown right off the face of Orsterra. It was a small community that had nursed Alfyn to adulthood, and he loved everything that the town had done for him. Despite this, he couldn't help yearning for something more. He was grateful for all that people like Gertas, Alek, Meryl, and Henriette had done for him over the years, but something deep down knew that his internal compass was pointing elsewhere.
As he thought his way through the habits of his neighbors (Gertas' grouchiness, Alek's cough, Meryl's occasional emotional struggles, and Henriette's selflessness), Alfyn was left to wonder if he was making up excuses to stay when he knew that he wanted to leave. The greatest and most important excuse of all was Zeph, the one who had been there for Alfyn through thick and thin. They had relied on one another no matter what the world threw at them, bearing it all with a smile. What would he do without Zeph? What would Zeph do without him? They needed each other.
Alfyn was being ridiculous. Of course he had to stay in Clearbrook. Zeph and Nina had proven that they needed him just earlier that day. Alfyn had been considering this for a while, albeit silently and out of the view of others. Zeph was starting to pick up on something being amiss, but Alfyn was going to shove it back. After all, he couldn't just leave. Everyone was counting on him, and in a way, he was counting on sleepy old Clearbrook too.
"I better go see how Zeph is holding up," Alfyn muttered, breaking his vow of silence as he moved toward the familiar home of Zeph and Nina. The walk there was mercifully short, offering the chance for his thoughts to find themselves drawing to a close. He needed to stop thinking about leaving when staying was his only option.
Alfyn was ultimately interrupted just before he could approach the door. Zeph came out of the house, an adrenaline-laced smile spread across his lips. "Alf!" he cried out. "The Flame take me, it worked! Nina's feeling better by the hour!"
"I knew it," Alfyn replied with a smile and a laugh that covered up his previous musings effortlessly. After all, letting the mask slip would break his apothecary's creed, and who was he to allow that to happen? "With you on the job, was there ever any doubt?"
Zeph's hands slipped between Alfyn's fingers, and his smile spread even wider if that was somehow possible. "Thank you, Alfyn. For everything," he said, his voice still edging on that overwhelming exhaustion that had been fueling him in the afternoon. The near brush with grief and death had been too much for him, it seemed, and coming down from that emotional high was much easier said than done. "You... You saved my sister's life. How can I ever repay you?"
Alfyn just shook his head with that same sunshine smile as ever. "Don't even mention it," he replied. "I helped out someone in a bind. Simple as that."
Zeph immediately perked up, his expression pained with shock. "Those words..." Zeph murmured. He took a small step away, his eyes falling shut in gentle reminiscence. "I remember... When we were still small, and the Great Pestilence came... Father could cure every disease known to man, but for the first time, he was at a loss. Then one day, a traveler came to town bearing an elixir the likes of which we'd never seen..."
Alfyn could still remember the day well. After all, he was the one who had wound up on the receiving end of the apothecary's medication so many years prior...
Alfyn could still remember the immediate relief that had come when he drank the elixir that the traveler provided. He had been sick for weeks, unable to escape the grasp of the illness that had taken him. He had been bedridden, and everyone was preparing to say their goodbyes as Alfyn watched the one future that he had fade away. The elixir had been the first source of light for him in ages, and he finally began to feel as if maybe everything would be alright.
"Aye, this'll do it," the man had said, his voice soothing and low with cracks at the edges. He was on the older side with kind eyes that assured Alfyn that he was going to survive. He got to his feet, his cloak coming in around him and shrouding his body in the same mysterious aura that he himself endlessly possessed.
"Thanks, Mister," Alfyn replied, his eyes wide with surprise. His temperature, which had been almost impossibly high for weeks, was finally starting to drop. His mother's eyes were filled with tears, and Zeph was watching with a surprise that no words could ever hope to capture. "But... Why'd you save me? We ain't got no money, you know." All of the leaves that had existed in the Greengrass home had been spent away as Alfyn's mother desperately tried to find a doctor that could cure her son of his malady. His life was priceless, she had said, but the hopelessness in her gaze had persisted even so as she tried her best to ration what little they had left for just a while longer.
The old man just shook his head and crouched down to Alfyn's side, making sure that the young boy could meet his masked gaze. "Listen, son... And listen well. I saw someone in a bind, and I helped him out. Simple as that." His eyes were so troubled and dark while being filled with such light that it was almost overwhelming.
All Alfyn could do was stare. "Shucks," he finally managed to say. "I hope I can do that too someday."
That moment had changed the course of Alfyn's life forever. It was the exact second where he decided that he wanted to be an apothecary. As he thought back to it, Alfyn felt as if he could still remember everything that he had seen and felt with such vivid clarity that it was like he had been transported to that time once again. All too quickly though, the magic faded, and Alfyn was left with the residual doubt of the present and the whisper of the wind against his cheeks.
"Ever since that day, you've worked your damndest to become just like your hero," Zeph said, dispelling the memory in full as he spoke. "To help people out, just like he did." His smile was full of something that looked like reminiscence.
"Oh, um... Is that how it went?" Alfyn questioned. It had been meant as a joke, a way of lightening up the tension, but in the end, he did a pathetic job of hiding his thoughts. His smile started to droop slightly at the edges when he saw that Zeph hadn't found the taunt to be at all entertaining.
"Alfyn," Zeph began. He looked over and met his friend's eyes perfectly. "We've been together forever now. So I can tell... You want to leave this place, don't you? You want to travel the world and help as many people as you can... Just like him."
Alfyn was stunned silent for a long moment, and all he could do was let out a humorless chuckle under his breath after the fact. "You knew," he stated bluntly. It was a matter of fact that neither one of them could change. Zeph had known for a while; he was just taking this chance to make his awareness known.
Zeph nodded. "I'm not daft, you know." He turned his attention to the river, pressing his forearms against the stone that guarded people from spilling over the side of the bridge of Clearbrook.
Alfyn followed suit, and his eyes took on a darker quality that contrasted with his small, uncertain smile. "But still, this is my home. I know you're a skilled apothecary, Zeph. At least as good as-no, probably even a little better than me. But I can't leave you to look after the whole village on your own. Besides, who else would cut your ego down to size?" Alfyn questioned, and his laugh pierced the warm nighttime air. Excuses, the back of his mind whispered, and Alfyn pretended that he didn't think it was true. "Who'll listen to Gertas' grumblings? And Meryl's tales of unrequited love?"
"I will! I'll do it all!" Zeph exclaimed with much more explosive passion than Alfyn anticipated. "Don't you worry about anything. I'll see that the villagers are happy and healthy. I swear it on my life. So go out and see the realm, Alf. Do it with your heart at ease and your head held high. You've got those new friends of yours, don't you? Follow wherever your path may take you. I know you'll do us all proud."
Alfyn stared at Zeph in muted shock, unable to find the words that would even come close to capturing his emotions. Instead, he just smiled and said the same thing that he had the last time his internalized sense of self had overwhelmed him. "Shucks."
The rest of the group was off getting ready to start the next phase of their travels when Alfyn made his way to the back part of Clearbrook. He had informed them of his plans as soon as they were all awake, and he was met with smiles of varying shapes and sizes that welcomed him to the team. Ophilia suggested that he pack his things, and Alfyn immediately got started. Everyone else was off buying extra supplies and eating breakfast before their long day of travel ahead. Alfyn heard that they were purchasing camping gear as well, and he found himself throwing his own supplies together to fit such a purpose as well.
It was only after everything had been taken care of that Alfyn walked to the cemetery of Clearbrook. He was gripping tightly at the strap of his satchel, almost as if it was the only lifeline that he knew how to hold onto anymore. He faced his mother's grave with a smile, a bittersweet thing that consumed him so completely that he didn't know what to do with himself. "Guess what, Ma? I'm going on a journey!" Alfyn exclaimed. "Time to see just how far my talents will go! I'm gonna save folks the world over just like the man who saved me!"
Alfyn found himself struggling to hold his tongue on the matter of the people that he was traveling with. Everyone was waiting for him, so he couldn't dawdle for long, but there was so much that he wanted to say in spite of these known limitations. Even after spending so little time with them, Alfyn found that he had fallen a little bit in love with all five members of the group without even realizing it. Then again, that was something that he had always done; he fell in love with every person that the met. Alfyn gave a piece of his heart to everyone that he cared about because there was so much care inside of him that he didn't know what to do half the time. He knew that it made him happy though, and he knew that this group was going to make him happy too.
Alfyn gave another smile down to the grave as he bit his tongue, and he found that tears were welling up in his eyes. He couldn't cry yet, but he was glad for the tears; they were a sign that he was still standing, and that was something he could appreciate. "Keep an eye on me, would ya?" he asked of the grave, knowing the answer that his mother was providing from her place beyond the land of the living.
Alfyn had turned on his heel and was about to leave the graveyard when he heard a familiar voice crying his name. "Alf!" Zeph exclaimed. He dashed up the steps to the main part of the graveyard, heavy gasps escaping his lips. "Thank the gods you're still here!"
Alfyn shook his head, still smiling all the way. He pretended that the tears in his eyes weren't dangerously close to falling at the sign of care from his best friend. "Come on, Zeph. I didn't ask for a going-away party," he reminded his friend. Alfyn didn't think that he would be able to handle something like that in the first place; all of the people that he had grown up with were excuses to leave and excuses to stay at the same time, and Alfyn, overemotional as he was, didn't know how to bear something of that nature.
Zeph was the next one to shake his head. "It's just a little present for the road. It's nothing special, but..." He pressed a pile of sturdy fabric into Alfyn's hands. "I want you to take my satchel. That way, no matter how far you travel, I'll be right there with you." His eyes were so overwhelmingly sincere that it made the tears in Alfyn's eyes and heart want to fall for real this time.
Alfyn stared down at the pile of cloth before he let out a small laugh, using the sound to cover for the emotion that was starting to cloud both his mind and his vision. "Wow. You weren't kidding when you said it's nothing special," he teased.
"It was the only thing that came to me," Zeph said, his eyes falling onto the ground in a somewhat vulnerable state. He was clearly fumbling for more words but didn't know how to find them.
Alfyn closed the distance between them quickly, and he placed one hand on his friend's shoulder, all of the teasing from before melting away. "Thanks, Zeph. I'll take good care of it," he assured his companion. He crouched onto the ground and began to empty out his bag, transferring everything that he had gathered into the satchel that Zeph had provided. Once his own satchel was devoid of his belongings, he rose back to his feet. "Here. Why don't you hold onto mine too?"
Zeph's expression spread into a wide smile. "Now there's a plan! I'll put it to good use, Alf," he assured his friend as if there was ever a doubt in the first place. The two stood in the silence for a while, just enjoying the presence of one another for a few more fleeting moments.
But like every moment that had come before this, it had to draw to an end eventually. Alfyn pressed his signature smile onto his face and started to walk toward the stairs that would lead to the rest of the Clearbrook, and by extension, to the rest of his life. "Alrighty then," he began simply. "See you around."
Zeph nodded even though he knew that Alfyn couldn't see the motion. "Be safe out there, friend," he said, his voice as soft as it was kind.
Alfyn started to walk down the stairs after that, and from there, it was all too easy for him to navigate his way to the front of the town. The rest of the group was ready and waiting for him, and Alfyn couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with something new and warm at the center of his chest. He was leaving behind Clearbrook, yes, but he was off to start something new, and he had a gut instinct that it was all going to be fine. One day, he would come back home, and the tales that he would have to share would certainly make it clear that the journey was worth it.
Tressa was doing much better than she had been the day before, and while there were notable bruises on her arms where her skin was exposed to the morning sun, she didn't seem to mind. She had a bright smile on her face as if nothing was going to stop her, and such a mindset was echoed by Ophilia as well. Cyrus was flicking through a small book that he seemed to be using to track their progress up to that point while Olberic was putting away a cloth that he had been using to clean his blade prior to Alfyn's arrival. Primrose remained distant and difficult to read, but Alfyn didn't bother asking much from her in the first place. After all, he would have more than enough time to know what was going on inside her head as their journey continued to the rest of the continent and perhaps even something that was awaiting them beyond those borders.
"So... Are we all ready to go?" Tressa questioned. Her fingers were curled around the straps of her bag, and she was rocking back and forth between her heels and toes as if she had so much excess energy that she hardly knew what to do for herself. It was a step away from what Alfyn had seen from her after she woke up from the snake attack the day before, and it was a relief to know that she was back to her chipper self so soon after what had taken place.
"Yeah," was all Alfyn said in response to her inquiry. With that cue having been given, Ophilia started to walk away from Clearbrook, and the rest of the team trailed after her. The sound of the Ember in its Lanthorn colliding with Ophilia's hip graced the air alongside the gentle whisper of the Riverlands wind.
Alfyn was the only member of the group to remain for a while longer, and he hesitated for a few beats as he looked back over the only home that he had ever known. He smiled to himself, utilizing the same grin that the people of Clearbrook had taught him to display in the first place. What he was doing next was for them just as much as it was for him whether they chose to acknowledge it or not.
"Be safe out there, friend," Alfyn whispered to his childhood home. He gave it one curt wave before he turned on his heel, the ponytail above the base of his neck bobbing as he walked away from the past and toward the future. This was the start of something new in the same way that it was the closing of the only chapter that he had ever truly understood.
It was only as Alfyn began his journey and started moving through the Riverlands that eventually transitioned into the Cliftlands that he allowed himself to think about what he would have said to his mother's grave had he been given the chance and the time to do so. He would have told her about how Ophilia was so kind in an understated way, expecting nothing from others but giving them everything simply because that was the type of person that she was. She was selfless in a way that felt perfect to witness in a deeply personal way.
He would have told her about the way that Cyrus muttered under his breath, always trying to make the best out of a bad situation. He was pragmatic through and through, something that allowed him to push through all manner of hardships.
He would have told her about the way that Tressa's optimism never ceased, and her passion for her creed was something that no person could ever dare to parallel. She was one of the purest hearts that Alfyn had ever met, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
He would have told her about the way that Olberic yearned to protect all of them even though he hadn't known them for very long. He was the defender, searching for purpose even though inklings of it could be found in this ragtag group of travelers.
He would have told her about the way that Primrose held more secrets than she wanted to let on at a first glance. She was stoic and detached, but beyond that, there was a sense of care and struggling closeness that she wanted to foster more than anything.
But Alfyn knew that this was just the beginning. There would be more for him to tell his mother soon enough, and there would be more for him to learn and see about both the world at large and the people who lived within it.
And so Alfyn's story draws to a close!
This is a chapter that I really liked working on. The smaller amount of dialogue in Alfyn's chapter really did contribute to a lot of smaller character beats that I fell in love with, and I'm really happy with how it all turned out. I think that the story just keeps getting better the more that I work on it, and I'm hoping that this trend continues well into Therion and H'aanit's chapter ones before moving into what lies beyond.
All in all, I love this chapter for how simple yet personal it feels. It's understated, but I think that adds to its overall image. It's great because there's not all that much to it in comparison to other chapters that are a bit busier. I just think that it's neat with all of the space that it has to sit and breathe, and I hope everyone else feels the same way.
I don't have all that much to stay about this chapter even though I absolutely adore it, so I'm going to end things off here and not keep you all for any longer. Next time, we'll be jumping into the next segment of chapter one by introducing none other than Therion! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is always appreciated. Have a nice day, everybody!
-Digital