He found the boy face down in the dirt several feet from where the flowers started to grow. He reasoned that Lucian fled through the back woods and emerged into Weeping Lily Valley where he succumbed to their poison scent.
Directly ahead of his body was a trail of broken flowers that ended some distance away. Beyond that was a mound of dirt with a stone marker set upon the top. Brian knew that the dirt was too fresh and the formation too suspicious, to be natural.
When he pulled Lucian's head gently away from the ground, he was surprised to see him sputter.
"Lucian? Lucian, can you hear me?" Carefully, Brian pulled Lucian over onto his back and eased his head upon his lap. Lucian continued to cough and his eyes roamed, unseeing. Brian popped the lid off the top of his canteen and splashed water across Lucian's face. It did nothing but wash the mud from his pale cheeks, and still the boy murmured incoherently.
"What happened here, Lucian?" Brian whispered, gently rubbing at Lucian's wrists. After some time, he pulled a blanket out from the large bag strapped to his back and slipped it under Lucian's head. The boy fell silent and seemed to sleep.
Brian stood up and squinted his eyes against the sunlight. None of the flowers were stirring, and he felt that something horribly wrong had taken place where he stood. His hand resting upon the hilt of his sword strapped to his side, Brian carefully stepped over Lucian and crept into broken flowers. He took care not to breathe too deeply, nor to inhale through his nose.
"These evil weeds should be burned…" he muttered, as he followed the trampled stems and came to clump of dirt. He stood before it and inspected it carefully, then turned back to look at Lucian's still body.
"Someone you know…" he whispered, and bowed his head, realizing the significance of Lucian's journey.
He stood there for a long time, damning the entire field and finally drew his sword in a rare moment of hostility. His blade met with stems left and right as he turned and started to walk back to Lucian. It didn't matter how many he decided to cut, since they grew like wildfire in that one spot.
But it was for the boy.
His sharp eyes detected a glimmer nearly beneath his feet and he tore at the plants to dig at it. Unearthing a small, crystal earring, Brian held it up to the sun. It shimmered all colours of the rainbow, catching the light. He whistled, and pocketed the gem.
Lucian groaned from a distance and Brian looked up quickly. Sheathing his sword, he stepped away from the mound and flew to the boy's side.
"Lucian, Lucian!" he cried, but still Lucian's murmurs would not make sense.
Brian sighed and knelt beside him, deciding it was time to truly whisk Lucian away from the village of horrors.
He smiled slightly and began the long, gruelling trek out of the mountains with a mechanical, unseeing Lucian at his side. The mate to the pocketed earring sparkled in the ground beneath the makeshift grave, unseen.
Lucian truly woke up with a gem in his palm and a sabre at his side. An elderly woman smiled at him and suggested that he not speak just yet. His head was swimming with hurt and nightmares and he didn't comprehend the face peering into his.
"The kind gentleman gave you these,"
Words drifting in and out.
"W-here, where am I?" the boy stammered, and once more, his eyes closed.
He wasn't awake to hear the response.
Certain characters and events copyrighted by Square-Enix. The rest were thought up by me to flesh out a rather loose and intriguing storyline that was not elaborated upon. If you'd like to learn of Lucian's fate after he arrived in Gerabellum, play Valkyrie Profile!
The end, sort of.