Travelling Chronicles: Chapter 3

**Users Involved:** Justtochi, UltimateDadMight
**Date Started:** September, X943.
**Setting:** Eugenia (Fiore)
**Characters Involved**:
* Nathaniel Ethan Alandris, Carwyn Abriam, Elysia Alandris

## A Bit Under the Weather

A few days had gone by since Nath had met Carwyn in Clover, far to the west of their current position. At least, according to his loyal compass, which had always done his job right despite its old age. As he came in view of a small town, that the mountains seemed ready to swallow under their enormous weight, the young man held up high his old navigation tool and raised his hand to protect himself from the sun's bright rays. It next went to his clammy forehead with the hope to dry it of all of Nath's sweat, that kept pouring endlessly.

Despite the chilly air of mid-September, that had made his teeth clatter and grind when they took shelter under the trees for the night as he curled up against his sleeping daughter, rolled in their only blanket to protect her from the cold, it seemed the temperature had risen and he wouldn't stop grossly sweating. So much for taking a bath a few days ago... At that moment, as he walked under the blinding sun, he was dying to simply toss his shirt and let the air chill his overheated skin, but he perfectly knew why he couldn't do such a thing.

All of that was making him terribly cranky, and he tried to show absolutely none of it by smiling brightly. Whenever he was pained or anguished, he'd smile to trick the pain inside into believing it was but an illusion. It didn't often work on himself, but Elysia wouldn't see the difference.

"If I remember the barman's instructions right, this should be Eugenia. It's not exactly well-known, but I was told there would be work for us here. Something along the lines of a few monsters roaming around, nothing too complicated." he told his party, especially Carwyn, as he pointed the town they were getting closer of. "I heard they cultivate a rare type of plant that only grows in these mountains, can't remember what properties they have though. Something like healing?"

"Oh, my sister knows a lot about healing! She might be here actually." She tapped her chin with a light hum before moving her hands to her hips. "Monsters won't be much of an issue. Let's get checked in to an inn, some food, and then we can be on our way to fighting evil monsters!"

"Your sister, eh? Since you guys are twins, I bet we're gonna find her soon. But you're right, the inn comes first, if only for a meal." Nath nodded, smiling almost painfully as he tried to keep a brave face. In his arms, a grumpy Elysia was moving wildly, her little feet kicking the air angrily as she sucked in a few breaths, pouting slightly. "Elysia needs her meal, and I want to be sure we have somewhere to return to and to let her nap while we do our job. It could be too dangerous to go."

Well, he didn't need a meal one bit, and he'd rather get done with the job quickly so he could dump himself into the nearest fountain, but Elysia came first and Carwyn surely needed a bit of rest as well before they fought. As the man of the party, he felt that it was his job to ensure his two companions were happy and healthy, and rest was essential to the latter of those things.

But seriously, how could the temperature change so much from night to day? And how were all of these people dressing so heavily? He didn't remember having ever lived such a hot September. Weird.

Diligently, he guided the party to the city, then through the streets with the help of a few pedestrians with very helpful advice, and let out a relieved breath when they finally arrived at the town's inn, a warm place full of warm people, and for all its friendlyness, Nath wasn't eager to spend much time in there because he was already suffocating with heat, and more people always meant more heat. After reserving a table to the barman, Nath let himself fall on the nearest chair and put Elysia down, who promptly begun to look around with round, curious eyes.

"Don't worry about taking your time to eat, we have all day." he told Carwyn as their plates arrived on the table, and he grabbed Elysia once again to sit her on his knees and help her eat.

Carwyn was definitely not taking her sweet time eating. She was eating as if she hadn't eaten in weeks, as if the world was ending and this was her last meal. And considering that she could also pay for herself, she ate a lot. When she was done, she had gotten through eight slices of pie, three plates of bacon, and two cups of coffee. She blinked owlishly at Nath.

"I'll pay for all of this..."

Nath chuckled. "Wow, was the food while we were travelling so bad? Or maybe you have a bigger stomach than I thought!" He laughed, a real laugh this time, genuinely amused by her antics. Although he was happy to see her with such an appetite, he felt sort of disgusted considering he didn't have one at the moment, having only nimbled on his part of the plate and being more focused on feeding Elysia. The thought of food made his stomach churn uncomfortably, so he simply fed the excess to his daughter. It wasn't lost for everyone!

She smiled lightly but noticed he hadn't eaten anything, if much at all. "Hey, you okay, Nath?" She questioned lightly, brow creased in worry. "You haven't eaten much."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nath smiled dissimissively, using a pocket handkerchief to wipe Elysia's mouth as she banged her small fork on the table with impatience. "I'm just not very hungry. That's just gonna sit on my stomach as we fight and I don't like that much. Plus, the heat usually tends to cut my appetite, and with how hot it is today..." he chuckled, now using the handerchief to wipe his own sweating forehead with a meek smile, ignoring the beginning of the headache that was building up in his head.

"No you - I mean," Carwyn cleared her throat awkwardly. "Nath it's freaking September. It's cold as heck. Dude, are you okay?"

"It is hot... right?" Nath asked himself, looking puzzled. Why was he the only one to feel that? Was he really? Maybe some obscure magic was at work and affected either him only or the whole town minus him. Did it have to do with the monsters? Were they the source of it? What kind of spell could that be? Thinking about the possibilities only seemed to make him sweat harder, and he looked around suspiciously, feeling claustrophobic and observed. He didn't like the place. Maybe it'd be better if they found somewhere else where he could leave Elysia, he didn't want to leave her with these scrutinizing strangers.

"I'm fine. But we may have less time than I thought. It feels like there's magic at play nearby. Maybe the monsters set a spell on the whole town... But what for? We shouldn't stay around anyways, I got a bad feeling about this..." he started muttering to himself, eyes darting all over the place but overall staying on his precious, only daughter, observing her as if she was walking on a mine field and he was trying to keep her from walking on any of them. Did the monsters have an interest in his daughter that would justify such a spell? He didn't get it. The cogs were turning too slowly in his head and he couldn't get the logic of all of this.

All that he knew was that he felt trapped, and wanted out of it.

"Nath, I don't think the monsters could cast a spell. I think you should sit out and stay with Elysia. I can probably handle the monsters myself." She sighed, shaking her head. "You're unwell. Someone needs to watch Elysia anyways. Monsters can get pretty rough."

When hearing the words, Nath's mood immediately went from cranky to straight up furious and he slammed his fist against the table, shaking it and its contents for a faint second. Tremors of rage seized his clenched fists and, in a rare show of agressivity, he snarled at her, blinded by false convictions that his growing headache imposed to his mind.

"No way. I came all of this way, so I'm coming! What are you taking me for?! Some cowardly, weak-arse *girly* running at the slightest glimpse of danger?! I've fought dozens of monsters before, and if you think a few more are gonna stop me just because it's a little hot, then I'm sorry but you're a poor judge of character!" He snapped, before slamming his money for the meal on the table, grabbing Elysia a little roughly and walking toward the stairs that lead to the inn's rooms.

Right before taking them though, he whipped his head around to meet Carwyn's, and blurted out a last few words to her: "Meet me outside when you're done eating. We've wasted enough time already. This whole god-forsaken town could be cursed for all we know. Then, I'll show you *weak*." He then disappeared in the staircase, only leaving behind the sounds of furious stepping, until the sounds themselves were gone.

Carwyn narrowed her eyes at his quick temper. *No one*spoke to her like that, usually not if they wanted to live. If he's going to be like this, than so be it. She can just make it a point to simply not care. She crossed her arms, no longer hungry for anything. She pushed the remains of her food away and paid before heading outside.

The vines across her body squirmed with an itch to fight, and had she been a girl, they wouldn't be as harmless now as they were back then. She clenched her fist tighly, but did nothing to act on her anger.

Elysia was quickly put to bed and without fussing, probably feeling how on edge her own father was and thus deciding not to cause him too much trouble, only whimpering a bit when Nath almost forgot to give her Pacy and Lily so she could have a peaceful nap. Children were more observant than they were given credit for, but exactly none of that was on Nath's mind. It felt as if every part of him was *burning* today, not only in temperature but in temperament as well.

His patience was on its last legs, having submitted to the ugly feelings of anger and paranoia that churned within him. The more the minutes passed, the more he felt trapped and observed, caged within a fate that was not his to control or to influence. The strangers in the inn's restaurant had grown fangs spitting poison and eyes on their necks, spying his every movement, and even the walls had grown eyes that wouldn't seem to stop looking at him. He stepped outside, hands pouring with sweat, and took his most confident stance, or at least the best one his mind could provide him when all of the ugly he would never let people see boiled under his skin, at hand's reach, threatening to spill over and destroy everything he cared about.

He was never afraid of the anger the moment it seized him. He was only ever afraid *afterwards*, when left standing in the middle of the mess he'd have made.

"Let's go, we've already lost enough time." he barked lowly with sounds akin to growling mixing themselves into his speech. He wasn't afraid. *He wasn't afraid.* He wouldn't show it. "The monsters' base is located a little to the north of the town, at about ten minutes at foot. We are to bring back proof that we defeated them by bringing back one of their horns, and we can pretty much do whatever we want to them as long as they don't reach town."

She let out a low growl before she silently began her journey north. She wasn't going to speak to him. She was too angry to. How could he speak to her like that? What was up with him? She was a little worried, but that could wait until he was in better spirits.

The previously mentionned den for the monsters came in sight after long minutes of silent walking. It was a wide cavern whose mouth looked oddly threatening with how stalactites and stalagmites dangled above their heads precariously like a trap about to close itself on them, deadly spears of rocks that'd kill them in a second before the monsters could even set their eyes on them. Dread was slowly filling Nath's chest with unsettling cold, that froze him to his bones while he had been burning just a few seconds ago. Clenching his teeth to keep them from chattering, he muttered nonsensically about how they didn't know the monsters' strenght or intelligence and how that could very well be a trap, a spell or anything threatening at all.

As they walked forward silently into the cavern, the light that reached them dimished with the passing minutes, and it soon became hard to see a meter ahead. Wiping his sweaty hands – it had become hot again, almost suffocatingly so, and the sudden changes were really weirding Nath out, but he prevented himself from remarking on it – he reached for his torchlight in his backback and turned it on, only for it to shine right into the eyes of the monsters they were looking for.

Scaly, winged monsters, with claws and horns and sharp teeth that glinted with pooling saliva.

Fucking *wyverns*. *Of course.*

"Fuck, you better get ready, these things are at least A Class monsters. Would have been nice to be, y'know, *warned*." He groaned as he took out his numerous swords with his Telekinesis, holding them close protectively. The space was cramped and the creatures copious. Definitely not the best environment for him to fully deploy his weapons. Fuck. He'd have to use his other, much less used and mastered assets. That was gonna be a pain in the ass.

"You seize them, I strike." he commanded with an authoritative tone of voice. "We'll see who deals the most damage then."

"Who deals the most damage doesn't matter. Wehave to take them down. Together. Unless you want to go ahead and do this yourself." She snapped, the vines on her body quickly shifting from two dimensional to three. She was prepared for the fight, but not if Nath couldn't seem to work with her.

The wyverns seemed too big, even for her vines. She'd need to tap into the earth if she was going to get anywhere near defeating them. The cavern was entirely stone, too, so there wasn't much hope for her.

With a raging scream, Nath threw himself at the wyverns, blades answering his every gesture as they brought havoc on the creatures and spun out of control, planting themselves between the creatures' scales. With his growing headache screaming for blood and fire intertwined with ice in his veins, he pushed back the creatures relentlessly, hoping to keep them trapped in this tiny cavern. If they escaped and had the space to fly, Carwyn and him would be doomed but as long as he cornered the beasts, no real harm would befall them.

So he slashed and cut and kick and bit, mindless to the blood that escaped the cuts on his arms from his clumsy handling of his own swords in the cramped space. He fought off the wyverns without a stop, blinded by adrenaline and his overwhelming paranoia that pushed him to tear the monsters to pieces for the sake of his daughter, but also for his own sake at well, obsessed with the idea that the *wrongness* clinging to his skin was nothing but a curse of theirs.

It was brutal and gut-wrenching to watch, and one walking on the scene would not help but wonder who truly was the beast between the two.

She watched him, a bit surprised by his violent behavior. She quickly ushered to his side, trying to help him from injuring himself further, but the cramped space made it harder to fight and protect at the same time, so while he attacked, she did her best to use her vines to keep him from causing more harm than he had already done . It caused her to get hurt as well, but she wasn't the one with a daughter that needed a father.

"Nath!"

For a split second, he turned his attention away from the monsters. For a split second, he turned toward Carwyn's alarmed voice, her tone sending his mind reeling with blaring danger. It took only that split second of inattention, that split second of distraction for him to lose control of his telekinesis-controlled swords and to miss one wyvern raising its claws in his direction.

And suddenly, his breath was stolen from him and the world went astray, blood drops mixing with the weird motion of gravity as he went flying. He blearily registered being shot out of the cavern before a terrible sound put an immediate stop to his senses and he lost himself to the all-encompassing sensation of *pain*.

The world tilted, and went dark.

When Nath woke up, it was to a soft, comfortable bed that reminded him of his childhood, sounds of the orphanage filtering through his ears like the mirage of a distant path. He was almost hearing Jona's voice when his muscles woke up enough for him to register the throbs of pain niggling at his arms, legs, and especially at his torso and head, that cried from the abuse. A cool, wet piece of cloth was resting on his forehead and he was itching to poke it.

That's when he noticed that he was no longer wearing his shirt and that the tightness his torso experienced wasn't from his binder, but from the bandages around his lower torso and waist. And, although his unprotected chest was hidden under his bed's covers, Nath's immediate reflex was to bring his arms around his chest, only for the motion to send pain rolling off from his arms in waves like he had slammed them against something hard repeatedly. He muffled his groan of pain.

Carwyn had been playing with Elysia as she waited for Nath to wake up. She hadn't meant to distract him, but either way she blames herself for her foolish actions.

When she heard his muffled groan, she looked up at him and moved to sit at his side.

"You awake, Nath?" She whispered quietly, fiddling with her hands nervously.

"Hm... Yeah... Ugh..." he kept groaning, pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to lessen the headache. "Did you *have* to undress me? Ugh, I feel disgusting now... But anyways... How long was I out? And what happened?" he asked, trying to sit up in bed, alas the pain was too strong to let him, so he simply ended up slumping back against the bedframe with another groan. He did *not* feel good at all.

She frowned at him, nearly ready to whack him into next year but refrained from doing so. Instead, she inhaled sharply and narrowed her eyes. She was thinking of ways to scold him without making Elysia cry and as much as she wanted him to know how *very*important it was that he should listen to what his body tells him, she did not need a crying toddler on her hands.

"Nath! I swear to the high heavens above if you do something so foolishly stupid like that again and I will... I don't know what I'll do, but it won't be good!" She hissed, sighing heavily. "Fighting? With a fever? I am not your babysitter, Nath. You have a child to take care of! A beautiful, adorable, sweetheart of a daughter who needs you more than anything! You do something like that ever again and I will get angry!"

She had blown over his previous questions in her seething rage that was clearly still going on, but she managed to calm down just a little bit.

"I didn't look at anything. I left the binder on, but I know that it's unhealthy to leave it on for two long...I had to undress you to see how bad your injuries were. They were.....pretty bad. You were out for a few days, but I took good care of Elysia while you were recovering!" She didn't want to tell him about the wyverns.

He attempted to sit up again, but only rolled back like a puppet whose strings were cut off. "Alright, alright, I'll be more careful in the future, just... don't scream please, I've got a killer headache... Do you mind... taking care of her a bit longer...? I don't think I can get out of bed just yet... Or do much on my own... I'm sorry..." he half-whimpered, trying to look tougher than he was feeling, but his fragility was obviously peeking through.

With a groan, he buried his face in his hands and curled up onto himself a little on the bed, movements clumsy and uncontrolled. He hated feeling weak and owing a debt to people, which was why it was so much easier to remain alone whenever he could. Opening himself, showing vulnerability was asking to be stabbed in the back but strangely... Strangely he trusted her. Even though he couldn't quite be sure of who she was – after all, she hardly ever spoke of herself and of her family life – he couldn't help but trust her. And such irrationality simply disturbed him.

The hallucination of his orphanage made him homesick, and he wanted to return to the old days where everything was easy and where he had no house to find, no food and shelter to provide to his child and no heart broken by the evil of a man; he wanted the time when he could simply play in a little boy's pants with Jona's boy toys and when his friend could just do the same with his own clothes back. Just Nath and Jona, Jona and Nath, and nothing else. No trouble befalling him. He felt like sobbing.

Carwyn smiled sadly before she remained seated at his side. "I don't mind. Do you need anything? I can get you some food or water if you're up to it." She quieted down, not wanting to make his headache worse than it already was.

"Definitely some water..." he croaked out, throat obviously dry. "And maybe some food, but not anything too heavy, please... Just... enough to make sure I'm not gonna die of hunger anytime soon..." he asked, sinking deeper into his covers and looking blindly for the wet cloth that had fallen off.

She sighed and grabbed the wet cloth, returning it to it's rightful place. "You got it, Nath." She smiled at him, gently patting his shoulder reassuringly. "I'll make some soup for you. And don't worry, I'll take good care of you Nath. You're my traveling partner, I won't let anything happen to you."

"Thank you." he smiled, before surrendering himself to darkness again.

Carwyn had managed to pull a few strings in the kitchen which happily allowed her to hand prepare the soup for him. She insisted she make it herself to ensure that it was made with love as food always tasted better when it was made by someone who cared for you.

When the soup was ready, she took a small little treat from a tray for Elysia, figuring she might like a little something to enjoy to cheer her up a little. She ascended the stairs and returned to their room, revealing the treat to be a little sweet tart. She returned to Nath's side, setting the bowl of soup aside.

"Nath?" She whispered quietly.