Chapter 13: Varian meets Daniel
Xavier came carrying a pair of huge wooden boxes on top of one other and almost crashed into a hysterical Violet as she stormed out of the door. How the plump woman managed to get past the huge man in the narrow door was a mystery itself, and Xavier found it peculiar how he himself managed to prevent himself from losing the boxes, but the old blacksmith knew better than speaking to a frantic woman, and just walked through the door with them, placing them near the laboratory.
He looked inside to see if his friend was there, but saw nothing. "Phineas?" He scratched his head, wondering where he had gone. But when he came out of the laboratory, he stopped.
"You don't have to be worried about me, lad. I'm not gonna do anything horrid with you." he heard Phineas' voice in the distance.
"Oh, I'm not worried, no no. You seem rather like you know what you're doing. But this is so... this is so different from what I expected. "
Xavier arched an eyebrow when he heard a squeaky voice along with his friend's. He walked to the stopped in the door as he spotted the physician; and his eyes widened and he chocked a gasp when he saw his patient.
"You see, the closest thing we had for a doctor in Old Corona was this old friar, and his methods were rather, what can I say? I'll give you an example; He made a smelly porridge made of... I won't mention, that he put on a cloth and wrapped around a broken arm... You would smell like you were dead. And then he said a prayer to make it heal." he rolled his eyes at the last sentence. "Like that would help."
"Oh gracious..." Phineas slapped his forehead. "How old fashioned... Not to mention far from hygienic. Uh..." he shivered.
"And used leeches when we were having fever. Kept preaching that our blood was bad and infected and needed to come out."
This made Phineas burst into loud laughter, and he had to lean on the bed frame as he held his belly. After half a minute laughing, he wiped his eyes and drew his breath, looking at the boy. "No my friend. I am not that kind of medic. I use modern science when I perform my work. I like to call myself a scientist more than a doctor."
"No way?!" Varian said, getting a wide smile on his face. "I a scientist too. But you've probably figured out by now that I'm not much of a doctor myself."
"Maybe so, but then again you could say; all cactuses are succulents, but not as succulents are cactuses." Varian arched an eyebrow at him, and Phineas smilingly explained forther. "That would mean that even if many doctors are scientists..." he winked at him. "...the professional kind that is, not all scientists are doctors. So tell me then, lad. What is your sort of... profession?"
"Modern alchemy. I use it to make thing easier in my village. At least I try, but, you know village people..."He gave an embarrassed look.
"Oh, don't mention it! But what if I told you..."
Xavier decided to cut himself in, and cleared his throat loudly to get his friends' attention. Phineas turned around and his almond shaped eyes widened at the sight of him. "Xavier?! I'm sorry I didn't come to help you with my things. But I got a patient thrown into my lap before I managed to pack out, and now I simply forgot time as well." the old man chuckled.
"So I see... " the blacksmith said as he entered the room and eyed the boy up and down. "But if I may drag you away from... your patient for just a moment, so you can tell me where you want all the things..." he pointed his head towards the door, indicating him to follow.
Phineas noticed that there were something more he wanted to say and nodded. "I'll be right there. Alright lad, I don't want any trouble with Violet, so if you would please wait right here? I will be back in a moment."
"I'm not gonna give you any trouble with her." Varian said. "I'll stay put."
"Good, just sit here then. It won't take long. Rest your head a bit." the old man said as he followed Xavier out of the room.
The two men went into the reception room and Phineas closed the door halfway. "Now my friend, what is the alarm? I noticed there were something on your mind, I know you too well."
"Then I will go straight on!" the blacksmith turned to face him. "Do you recall the traitor I was talking about? The one who went to attack on the kingdom and kidnapped and almost killed the Queen?"
"Yes?"
"You just got him thrown into your lap, old friend!"
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Being alone again, Varian were again reminded of his head hurting a bit, and laid down like the physician said, feeling how heavy his head were. Lying there, he puzzled a little over the situation he was in. He looked around in the room. Am I really in the Castle? he thought to himself. He looked towards the covered windows and thought for a moment to go and have a look, but he found himself tired and laid back again.
But then he heard something, like a shuffle, beside him. As he opened his eyes, he became aware of a movement at the bottom of the bed to his left. The blanket was moving, like something had just crawled underneath it. Varian forgot about his pain and tilted his head a little to spot the hiding being. He managed to get his eyes on a small foot. He couldn't help but give a short laugh. "Whoever you are, it's safe to come out! The doctor has gone."
He heard a little shuffling, and shortly after, the blanket moved again, but this time it reviled something. A little, red haired head appeared, and soon, a fancy dressed little boy appeared in a marine blue jacket with golden buttons.
Varian was a little shocked at the sudden intruder. "You're a little too well dressed to hide under a bed, aren't you?"
The red haired boy gave him a nonchalant look between half closed brown eyes, raising his turn up nose high in the air. "And you're a little too ragged to be here inside the Castle, are you not?" he said, trying to appear a little older than he was.
Varian felt his cheeks change color and temperature rather fast as he was reminded of his condition. "I... suppose I can't argue with that."
"Where you hurt?" the boy asked and lowered his gaze in normal height.
"Apparently..." Varian begun. "I got a frying pan in my head."
"Oh?" the boy asked, tilting his head to the side. "What's a frying pan?"
"Wha...WHAT?" Varian's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. "Don't you know what a frying pan is? Everyone knows that!"
"Well, explain it to me then!" the red haired boy said with a frown.
"Well, have you seen a pancake? Or a fried egg with bacon?"
"Of course I have seen it! I have that for breakfast."
"Well, they are made in a frying pan. You..." he looked around to find something to demonstrate with. He found nothing and decided to use his hand instead, holding it out the hand that still had its glove on with fingers spread.
"See here. It's like this, imagine a plate made of black iron, and a shaft to hold it with." he used his other hand to pretend his arm was the shaft. "And you hold it above fire, crack an egg's content into this and let it be fried in butter. It's how you cook."
"You mean, how to make food?" the boy's eyes widened. "Can you do that?"
"I'm not a professional cook, I'm actually better at baking."
"What's baking?"
"Eh..." Varian's mouth became a thin line and he rolled his eyes slightly while he held back a moan. "Okay... Baking is..." he thought for a moment before he said it as simple as possible. "Baking is how you make bread and cakes."
"You can make cake?" the boys eyes widened to twice its size. "Wow! You make frosting and cream and thinks like that?"
"Eh no, I mostly do bread and cookies. But they are quite good, if I may say so." he said with a confident smile. "I can even make them taste good without using sugar!"
"WOW! But..." the boy said, wrinkling his nose. "Bread aren't cake?"
"Yes they are almost, only with cake you add sugar and other things to make them taste sweet. It's like..." he thought for a moment, then spotting the fine linings on the boy's jacket, and spoke again. "If you think of sewing, you know making clothes. Your jacket and my shirt are both sewn the same way. It's just that mine is made simpler, and yours are decorated. Like a cake. Mine is just... plain. Like bread. Rough bread." he felt a bit embarrassed over his appearance and the compartment with the fine dressed boy, but he hoped it was enough for him to understand.
Apparently, it seemed to sink in somehow. "Ah, now I get it!" But then he wrinkled his nose. "But you need a new one. What's your dad gonna say if he sees your shirt is torn?"
"He's definitely not gonna like this..." Varian said. "But about the shirt, he'll just tell me to patch it up, like here." he showed his arm where the striped patched were. "See? I just cover it so there's no hole anymore."
"But then it looks like rags." This seamed completely odd to him.
"Yeah, but where I live, no one cares about that. It's not so important to dress so fancy in my village. I normally don't care how I dress."
"Me neither!" the boy said. "But my dad forces me to dress like this. If I had done something like that to this jacket..." he pointed at him. "He would ground me. You're so lucky!" he said looking away with a pout.
"Well, if my dad finds out about this, he'll probably ground me too." Varian said, leaning his forehead on his hand for a moment as he got a little worried about that matter.
The fancy dressed boy laughed. "You have a strict dad too?"
"Oh don't mention it!" Varian giggled as he shook his head."
"Will he yell at you? Like this?" He straightened up, putting one hand on his hip while he waved his other hand, pointing his finger like he lectured someone as he made a deep voice. "One more prank from you, Daniel, and you'll go to bed without supper! Is that clear?"
Varian gave a slight laugh. "Eh... No he normally just shakes his head and says..." he put on himself a frowned disappointed look as he shook his head the way his father would and spoke with deep voice. "Not again, Varian!"
The boy laughed at the imitation, and the relief made Varian laugh as well.
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"So that is the case!" Xavier finished and looked at his friend.
The old physician had been silent and listened while he spoke, and now he made a nod. "So... I don't know what to say... I am simply speechless."
"You know what I told about him..." Xavier shook his head and let out a sigh. "If only there was a way..."
"Hmm..."Phineas was silent a moment, before he spoke, without looking up. "It might be that the boy has forgotten more than I first was aware of."
"There are a month and a week since this happened." the blacksmith said.
"And his memory stretches as far as over half a year ago... to august..."he cupped his own chin, and frowned his eyebrows. Then he looked up, a determinant look in his dark, narrow eyes. "Xavier, I think maybe we have a horrid problem at hand. I think his head might be more severely damaged than I thought at first. We must be extremely careful here, or else..."
"Or else what?"
"Or else we might lose him! And then you'll lose your chance, old friend."
Both men went silent, and Xavier lowered his gaze to the floor. He sighed and got an extremely painful look on his face. The silence between them made them hear voices from the sickroom, and both arched an eyebrow when they heard a young voice along with the alchemist's. Loud laughter made them forget the matter for a moment and they both got curious.
"Maybe we should check this up?" Phineas said as he carefully opened the door to peek through it. Xavier followed and watched through the door with him.
