Alphonse Leonel

## A Series Of Dreams

*Alphonse was born with little fanfare in a boulder-sized medical hut, to a father that had been an officer in one of Taldor’s many noble armies before retiring due to an injury too severe to continue with, while his mother was a woman whose job revolved around serving drinks in the local inn though she was a pure maiden compared to her peers.*

*The childbirth itself was painless, resolved with nothing more than a minor mistake from one of the housewives, she had lost track of time and noted down a wrong birth date. An issue that was corrected and moved past with nary a glance. Alphonse himself was almost as unremarkable as his birth, plain features that while handsome didn’t exude as much presence as his father’s worn down but tough exterior or his mother’s soft and gentle demeanor, still both of his parents had high hopes of his future. The father seeking somebody to inherit his profession just as his father had sought somebody pass down his military training, while his mother sought simple happiness in the calm green meadows of their village and in a way that’s what his father wished as well, it was one of the few reasons he had come to the village rather than stay with his lord. The peace he desired was sated well by the beauty and simplicity of village life.*

*Indeed things remained simple for a while yet, Alphonse was cute if somewhat overly energetic toddler that couldn’t get enough of either of his parents while said parents spent their days finding something to get busy with, neither of them were old enough to be satisfied with occupying a child’s attention, as big of a work out as it could get. And they spent many days in the city, alternating shifts or leaving their babe with a babysitter. Once he got old enough, at the age of four, he began to get a bit of training from his father. Which consisted of playing chess and being taught basic strategic planning in simplified terms, through this exercise his father found him average in intelligence but with very high wisdom for a child his age, naive he was not and despite the constraints put upon his mentality by his age.*

*He managed to pull some minor tricks over his father, not many but enough for him to feel relieved that his son did have talent when it came to seeing through deception, even better he was quite agile. Both from a natural gift and a large amount of exercise he got with his friends. His babysitters also mentioned how fast they felt time fly by when they were taking care of the boy, though they did feel exhausted of the workout he put them through with his seemingly boundless energy. Everything seemed to be going well for the family.*

## A Terrifying Nightmare

*Two years later, on a moonless night, things went wrong. A small incursion by raiders occurred near their settlement, the noble responsible for the lands took their time mobilizing a force to deal with them, and a young boy was carrying his father’s rapier back to his room with a gleeful smile under the cover of midnight. He had stolen it right under the old man’s nose, a prank that would surely make him equal parts livid and proud of his son.*

*Throwing himself onto his small bed, he hugged the silver pommel of the blade and closed his eyes, still glowing with satisfaction at his accomplishment.*

*The next few hours were quiet, and he didn’t open his eyes until the sound of sand flowing forced them open. For a moment, he felt disoriented and shuffled around in the small space he had, made even smaller by the blade he was carefully cuddling. That is until the sound of smoldering flames and pained screams shocked him into wakefulness. Getting out of his bed while rubbing his eyes, the boy entered into their house’s hallway and immediately shrieked in terror at the sight holding his gaze. A female figure laid obscured by darkness on the floor, but the red flames of their burning furniture illuminated the blood seeping from a hole in her stomach, while her lifeless eyes store off in the distance.*

*Far more terrifying than that sight, however, was his father hunched over the figure, a wound in his neck. The body still twitching in its last death throes. A dark figure stood over both of their bodies, armored from head to toe in full plate, wielding a two-handed war ax. it took one step towards him while glaring with burning eyes, the boy shook but didn’t move. Like a rabbit staring down a wolf, he was too scared to move, only having the strength to hope for a quick death. The figure continued moving forwards and his fear rose higher to contrast his hope of this being a nightmare sinking lower, the marauder hoisted its shining ax into the air and another scream left the boy’s lips. Exhaustion ebbed from his body suddenly, and pain flourished in his chest, darkness obscured his fading vision and the last thing he saw before it clouded it completely was the marauder’s body twisting into rotting metal chunks.*

## Eternal Glee

*Despite blacking out, Alphonse dreamed of things that he had never imagined, large orbs containing indescribable colors inside of them twinkling as far as the horizon. A sea of suns that burned in eternal defiance of mortality and bathed him in their light, and finally, a ginormous creature mass of flesh and tentacles with a maw in its center. A maw that opened wide in a grin as it looked at him and began to speak, the tongue in which it communicated hurt his mind in how alien yet comprehensive it was. Each word battered his psyche, yet despite how much it hurt the mass insisted that it was for the better, that hurting now was the only way some part of him could continue. That it was his patron, and that there was much to learn about both itself and the power he wielded.*

*His memories, both of the nightmare that had happened and his childhood, disappeared once he woke up. A large smile mirroring the one his patron had given him was the first thing to appear on his face once he did so, an incessant ticking sound rattling around in his mind, like a clock ticking towards a countdown. He was saddled on a saddle, a large hooded figure controlling the horse he was on, it immediately realized he had woke up and told him about his situation. That he, or so the figure referred to itself, was saved from a settlement under a raid by marauders. His unconscious body had been found in a house with three people inside, a man that had almost been headed, a woman with a split torso and the mangled corpse of one of the marauders. It’s body and armor aged to near dust while the few solid pieces of its body were misshapen into spirals. What had happened, he had no idea, all he knew was that the boy had some kind of spell power related to time. Or so was his current theory.*

*Alphonse just laughed and continued laughing, all he knew at the time was his name and the language they were speaking as well as his patron’s mortal name, Yog-Sothoth. He didn’t even know why he was laughing, or why that laughter turned to sob, everything was new. It was as if he had just been born.*

*The pair eventually reached an inn, and the hooded man identified himself as Elric to the inn-keeper, proving his skill in diplomacy by convincing the man to let the battle-hardened figure and the half-cackling half-sobbing child into one of the rooms for as long as they could pay. Once there Alphonse was thrown into one of the corners, snapping both his breath and the maniacal cackling, returning his features to their plaintive smile and curious expression. Elric proceeded to ask him plenty of questions, none of which the boy answered, being as cryptic as his memory. Eventually, the man gave up from frustration, moving the boy to the bathroom before changing clothes and taking him out again.*

*Elric’s physique was worn down, toned and well-maintained, middle age had done hardly anything to him. He took the boy out of the inn and on a nearby grass field, ignoring his rambling about where they were going and what they were about to do, and gave him a rapier. Gleaming white, that froze the boy’s rambling for a moment before he continued, clearly untouched by the sight of the weapon Elric had found in the same house as his body. He pushed him into a practice match, which he showed surprising talent in, blocking a few of the choreographed blows from Elric’s blade, but it showed no prior memory of actual sword-fighting. Just an innate reflex to use it. The true evidence that Elric needed, and saved Alphonse from being thrown into an orphanage, was when one blow struck his torso. Immediately something went wrong and the boy’s speed increased, it was no mere adrenaline rush for his movements were unnaturally agile, none the less with one sweep of Elric’s legs he was down and out. Rendered unconscious and bleeding from the nose, clearly exhausted by the sorcery he had made. A wide grin split Elric’s face.*

*For the next few months, Alphonse was put through heavy training in the blade, though he was naive and struggled to understand the concept of a “Bad guy”, falling for feints very easily. The beating still did it’s purpose, manifesting his powers once he was close to losing the fight or when a heavy blow was made on his body. Their stay at the inn ended after the first week of their new...companionship. Elric dragged the boy from town to town, dealing with his mission of seeking and ending the lives of many aberrations while teaching fighting and how to turn one’s dexterity into strength. Alphonse eventually renamed himself to Leo, because of how many times he had tangled his name up, and took to the training with glee achieved through naivety. And a determination set by an echo of a memory, somebody warm and strong telling him about how a good soldier fought and what their purpose was, to protect the people.*

*Indeed Leo enjoyed protecting the people, he enjoyed playing with people too...to the point that Elric had to carol him from area to area, always resisting his big puppy dog eyes when he would feel distraught at leaving one of his new-made friends. Several of them were morally ambiguous, others wanted to use him for their ends and were dealt with a sharp blow to whatever extremity was deemed most fitting but the biggest reason he was kept away from people wasn’t to protect his innocence but to preserver the discipline Elric was building within. He didn’t see just somebody granted a powerful gift they could not control, he saw somebody that could inherit his duties of guarding the world against the incomprehensible terrors that sought its end.*

*Little did he know that during the night, the boy would dream with such a terror, though not all of his dreams involved the patron. Enough of them did for a bond to develop, and for Leo to consider him a friend, though that didn’t say much. This friend of his spoke a lot about many things, of time and perspective, which was funny because each time their dream ended the boy had a new perspective on things. From the constant ticking that eventually began to infuse the background of his life, which nobody else seemed to hear, to the times in which he would speak to somebody then blink once and find them several seconds in the past. It was odd but whatever, he approached it with an unbound optimism. That’s what one of the voices he heard said, “Always look on the bright side!”*

*Years past by, and he learned to harness his powers, talked with his Friend more and learned to appreciate every person he met along the way towards adulthood. Elric began to get impressed with his progress and told him that once he reached eighteen years, he would be free to go alone on his journey, in the mean-time the man continued his justice dispensation and taught the boy some of the teachings of his order. Sometimes leaving the child alone in his room for several days at a time as missions tended to drag on, but no matter how much time he was left alone, Leo always had an unphased smile to show him. For some reason he had stopped growing altogether, stuck in the height he had once he was eight, which only endeared him further to Elric due to his height issues. There was a bit of a scare, once the boy reached nine since Elric had to leave to help out in the fight against a Rovagug spawn rampaging across Taldor. At least as much as he could, but in the end, he never saw the front-lines and remained in more of a communicative role, which probably saved his life.*

*Once Leo reached eighteen, and turned into a man in Elric’s eyes, he was gifted a suit which caused him so much joy that he threw himself into hugging Elric for five whole minutes. Only giving him up after a small blow to the sides. He had always dreamed of owning such an official suit, it bore the symbol of an organization he couldn’t identify but he had seen on Elric’s cloak’s and robes, as well as the many people that came in to talk with Elric, an eye with scratch marks scrawled across it and the word’s “Don’t Forget, So Others Can” written in common above it. He was free, and though he didn’t want to part with Elric, his Friend had told him that there was stuff he needed to do so there was no choice. And after buying himself some supplies, and laughing after Elric suggested he bought rations, he made his way out of the Taldorian city they were in and began to journey, towards Absalom.*

*That was the city he had horrible dreams about when monsters had begun to attack the world, nightmares that were only broken by his Friend shattering them with glistening light from its orbs. It said that Absalom was the heart of the world but also the heart of the universe, or something like that he was focused on one of the orbs sparkling, and that he needed to be there in case another massive disaster occurred and his Friend needed somebody to be dealt with.*

*Thus, despite his love for Elric, he traveled and traveled until finally, he reached Absalom. With a smile on his face, and both a metaphorical and literal hunger.*