Chapter 4: The House of Dale

+++Alfon's Perspective+++

I woke up past noon the next day. You really can't blame me, it had been an emotional night.

---

After we were done having a breakdown in front of the tavern, we came back in to find Swift arguing with the bartender with a drink in his hand. He turned around only to drop his drink on the floor and began apologizing profusely to my mom and me.

Mother gave him a slap on the top of his head and thanked him for doing his best before letting him go.

They then asked me what had happened to me, so I recounted what had occurred using the paintbrush and box I got from Freya.

They looked at me with wide eyes when I started writing in the sand.

"Hey Rafine, I didn't notice earlier but isn't that paintbrush...?" Prisilla started.

"Yeah."

I didn't really get what they meant so I started my story from the two men in the alleyway. After I was done my mother wanted to thank the beast woman named Freya personally but none of them knew who she was or where she lived that was; they planned to ask sometime before they left Hartford.

Oh yeah, Hartford is the name of the city and the tavern we were currently staying at was called the Spiny Tail Tavern and Inn. It had a spiked tail logo out in front; I had been wondering what that was.

Anyway, they then questioned me on why I left in the first place... which is when I told them about my plan with the tracking tag.

Maybe I should have lied because they gave me the scolding of a lifetime. Rafine and mother started yelling over each other and even Donovan joined in. Swift just looked at me with narrowed eyes while Prisilla was bent over backwards from laughing.

The only reason they stopped was because the tavern and inn owner threatened them with eviction.

It all ended with mom hugging me again.

"Never do that again okay Alfy?"

I nodded.

"Mom was worried to death you understand?"

I nodded.

"You mean the world to me, okay? I don't think I could stand it if you left me."

I nodded.

---

The sunlight through the window started tickling my eyes. That's enough reminiscing, let's go see master Rafine for our lesson.

"Alfy? Are you awake?" A cheerful face greeted me; her long golden hair brushed my cheeks.

"mhm."

"Mommy brought breakfast for you here."

She lifted me up and plopped me down on the table. We had some soup and stir-fried meat and vegetables. They gave off a tantalizing smell and looked quite appetizing, albeit a bit cold. I had a bite, mmm, tasted like chicken.

It was then that I noticed a strange looking girl on the opposite end, she had horns but was too small to be Rafine.

I waved.

She waved back.

"Alfy, this is Nina, she's going to be staying with us for a little bit, okay?"

She stared at me, and I stared back. She smiled at me so I smiled back.

At least I think I did, pretty sure my smile was terrible.

We locked eyes for a while before Rafine burst into the room.

"Sylvestra, the head of house Dale wants to see you and Alfy."

"What?" Mother's tone turned icy cold, "I thought we weren't accepting any favors? Getting caught up in a noble's mess is a bad idea."

"I know I know, but..." Rafine looked around sheepishly before Donovan stepped into frame.

"He was rather persistent about it."

Mother nodded like she understood and turned to Rafine.

"Look after Nina then, I'll be going," she spoke to the duo before turning to me, "Alfy dear, will you come with mommy? The person you saved yesterday wants to thank you."

I nodded, and off we went.

+++

I sat on a real fancy couch while mom fed me some snacks the servants had prepared.

On the way here we made a stop into the alleyway I explored yesterday looking for Freya, but we couldn't find it no matter how hard we tried. Thanks to that we were late to the noble's mansion as well.

"It's okay Alfy, mommy believes you." She fed me biscuit while I sat sulking, "maybe you got the directions wrong?"

I clutched the box of the paintbrush I had brought with me. While it was true that my memory wasn't all that sharp, we tripled checked that neighborhood and found nothing. Solid wall, not a single door in that alleyway. We asked some of the nicer locals and they affirmed our findings.

"Door? That there is just a pathway to the uglier parts of town, ain't gonna find no house there."

On a happier note, the mansion Donovan directed us to was really nice looking. Not as big as the castle mom had previously been in but everything here looked quite expensive.

Their cookies also tasted great.

"His lord Derick Dale, head of house Dale, is now entering." A tall looking man with a suit announced the arrival of a large but well-built individual, which I assume to be Derick Dale, wearing a heavily adorned medieval tunic and cape.

My mother stood up and gave a curtsy and I tried to clumsily copy it.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting Lady Adelmire."

"Please, call me Sylvestra."

The man nodded and motioned for us to sit as he did the same.

"Your little one there has done me a great service. It behooves me to give you a token of my gratitude."

"Lord Dale w-" mother was interrupted when the Lord Dale held up a hand to stop her.

"Of course, your party leader has expressed his desire to not involve the Dragon's Teardrop with the affairs of the kingdom, so I have an alternative." He revealed a bundled scroll from his breast pocket and unfurled it upon the table before us, "A lucrative escort contract for my family and I to the Talisbane Theocracy. I do believe that would be your destination as well."

"My apologies bu-."

"Please Sylvestra, as one of the heads of Avenstron's diplomatic council I am prone to the hiring of numerous mercenary or adventuring escorts. The adventuring guild have allowed my contractors to be anonymous and that privilege would extend to you all as well." Derick raised his fist to his heart, "You have my word that I am not simply deciding upon your party as repayment but also because the guild has given me your history of success. I shall not be dragging you into any political conflicts with your family Sylvestra, for this you have my guarantee."

There was a moment of silence as mother considered the scroll before here.

"Have you spoken to Donovan?"

"He has given the decision to you."

My current reading skills were not yet adept enough to decipher the words on the contract, but I could see a lot of zeros next to the payout box.

A minute goes by, then two, then a bunch more.

"Very well. Thank you for the generous offer my lord."

"Haha." A large bellowing laugh came from the big man, "Please, no need with the formalities. I'd like to remain on good terms with my bodyguards."

He stood up and motioned to his servants, "I shall be discussing the complete details with Donovan come this weekend, you are welcome to join us. Ah, yes I do have one more thing to say to you."

A gasp of surprise came from the maids at the door, for the big man bowed deeply towards us.

"My sincerest gratitude for saving my daughter, you have given me back something I could not afford to lose."

My mother hurriedly knelt, "Please Lord Dale, you are too kind, we only did what good citizens should be doing."

The big man straightened himself and nodded before leaving the room.

+++

So just like that we were now part of a noble's entourage. Instead of our usual used house wagons we now rode with knights in an ornate procession of carriages.

Swift and Prisilla were very pleased with the outcome.

"Nyahaha, this is the life." She put her arm over Swift, "Mind giving me some of those tracking tags Swift, maybe I should make a habit of saving noble children."

"Haha give me a break Prisilla, only I can activate these, they're just pieces of paper to you. Besides, it's not like noble children go missing daily."

Rafine had the same cold demeanor about her, but she has gone a little gentler on my lessons, says I shouldn't use magic too strong without my awakening.

Nina as also been joining me, partially because Rafine is the one assigned to look after her until we find a more permanent residence for her.

Although I swear, Nina was paying less attention to the lessons and more to me, she keeps giving me these weird smiles when Rafine isn't watching. It wasn't too unpleasant, but it was quite strange.

I returned the smiles occasionally though, seemed like the polite thing to do.

We also got to play with Lord Dale's kids during encampments. He had three sons and one daughter.

They were of age 9, 5, 1 and 6 respectively. The eldest, Darin Dale didn't seem to like me that much, but the second son seems to like me.

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"Uwah, look at this Darin, this kid can write but he can't talk."

"Caspian, you would do well not to associate with the commoner's children."

"Stop ordering me around, come on err," Caspian tilted his head trying to remember my name, "whatever, come with me let's go play."

I was dragged along by Caspian frequently, thankfully none of the activities he pulled me along to were dangerous, in fact the pretend swordplay we engaged in was rather fun. He would prance around like a knight, and I would clap from the sidelines. Sometimes he would drag his sister along, looks like they were close.

"Good day Alfon," she curtsied on our first meeting, "I am Earlane Dale, it is a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for saving me the other day."

She seemed very mature for someone barely older than me.

"That being said," she rushed forth and grasped my hand, holding it up to her chin, "I must ask you if you know of that young man in your mother's party."

I stumbled back, confused.

"Sister he can't talk yet you know. Oh, and I asked dad, the scout's name is Swift." Caspian came to my unlikely rescue.

"YES! Swift! What a wonderful name," she let go of my hand and did a little twirl, "He's so cool, like one of those heros daddy always told me about. Does he also have amazing powers?"

Caspian let out an exasperated sigh.

Anyway, that went on for about half a year or so before we crossed the border into the Talisbane Theocracy.

I had managed to string together proper sentences now and my mother was delighted.

"A is for Apple." I said aloud.

"Oh, Alfy I'm so proud of you." She gushed, hugging me tightly.

I began language classes with her soon after, though it consisted mostly of just speaking practice.

My magic schooling was halted when I burnt my hand from spellcasting, thus we decided to wait until I had visited one of the churches for an awakening. Unfortunately, awakenings were only safe once I was of age four, so I had about a year and a half left to go.

With not much to do I would sneak into the cargo hold to read the books there.

"I apologize once again Lord Dale; I will be sure to scold him." I was caught a few times by my mother.

"Haha, don't be, that child of yours is quite brilliant from what my knights have told me, he is free to browse any and all books we are carrying with us."

Lord Dale was a great guy though, giving me full access. On the flip side I was often followed by either Nina, who gave me strange smiles like usual and huddled up right next to me, or Caspian, who would drag me out to play.

I honestly felt bad for his sister, who would always go along with his shenanigans despite looking dead tired when trying to follow him. Thankfully Caspian would always tell her what Swift had been up to after we were done playing, and she seemed quite happy during the conversation.

It seemed like a rather strange arrangement but oh well.

The roads of the Talisbane Theocracy were in quite a bad condition, so the carriage ride got really bumpy at times. We were even attacked by bandits sometimes, but the knights and my mother's party made real quick work of them.

However, it was after the second week into the Theocracy when disaster struck.

We were planning to stop by a city nearby to resupply, but the recent storms had wrecked one of the roads, so we were taking a detour around the mountain range. Unfortunately, the quartermaster had miscalculated how much food we would have needed so we were on half rations and the whole caravan was rather cranky.

During these days Caspian was somehow even more boisterous than normal and dragged me out with excessive vigor.

"I wish he would just leave me alone." I lamented to Nina while reading one night.

"Hmm?" She shuffled a bit on my shoulder. She looked like she didn't really understand what I was saying, given that her common tongue isn't too good yet.

"He just won't stop bothering me." I sighed.

+++

During the third week when we camped for the night, I was holed in the cargo carriage reading as usual until Nina burst out from the shadows.

"!!" I jumped in surprise, and she chuckled a bit.

As I gave her an irritated glare, but she settled next to me anyway.

I read away while she quietly leaned against me but then Caspian burst in and pointed at me.

"There you are Alfy!" He looked a bit angry, "Are you with the horned girl again? Come on, let's go play!"

I barely managed to put the book down before he dragged me by the arm. It was a few minutes of walking before he turned back to me, "Hey how come she's coming along?"

I turned back to see Nina tagging behind with us, her tail swinging as she hopped to the tune of a song in her head. This was rather unusual since she never joined us before.

"Well, whatever." Caspian shrugged, not too bothered and continued walking.

We had walked a far distance away from the camp. This was relatively normal since Caspian didn't like being caught by the guards when we engaged in pretend fairytales, but I was starting to get a little worried. This would be fine if we were in Avenstron Territory.

But the lands of the theocracy got dark earlier than usual.

Eventually he stopped by a river. His sister was sitting on a rock nearby, looking rather out of breath. He must have dragged her along too.

Nina hopped over and sat beside her on the rock while I sat on the ground.

"Okay, I will be reenacting when the Hero Reinhart defeats the demon Mozeronus and stops the calamity." Caspian announced with a stick in his hand.

We clapped. I had seen this a thousand times before; Caspian truly loved this scene.

"You, horned girl, you're going to be Mozeronus." Caspian pointed at Nina.

I was going to say something, but Nina happily hopped off her rock and stood to face Caspian, "Okay!"

Huh. She was talking, this is rare. I had heard her voice very few times during this trip. She had a high pitched but soothing tone.

Caspian also looked rather taken aback, "Oh uh, you just have to fight me." He said as he handed her a stick.

"Ahem," Caspian took his stance, "Foul Demon of Calamity, prepare to meet your end." He yelled as he charged.

His sister, Earlane Dale, and I clapped as the two of them fought with sticks, looks like I was worried for nothing because Nina seemed to be able to hold her own. She was being forced closer and closer to the river though and I was getting rather uncomfortable.

"Hey maybe we should stop them." Earlane echoed my sentiment. At her words I rose to say something but at that moment Nina looked at me.

Caspian had her on the backfoot and moved in for a charging strike.

Yet still she was staring at me, blankly.

"Brother," Earlane stood up and started moving towards them, "Stop! You'll hurt her."

"Yahhhhh!" Caspian didn't seem to hear her as he charged forward, "How dare you turn away foul beast!"

But despite his cries Nina didn't stop looking at me.

An eerie blank stare.

I had a terrible feeling about this.

When Caspian was inches away her expression changed for an instance.

A smile.

A creepy, ghastly smile that lasted no more than a second but was unmistakable.

She then leapt to the side and Caspian went charging straight past her.

Nina went flying into the brush with a thud.

"Wah WOOAH!" with that momentum Caspian couldn't stop himself in time and fell face first into the river.

"BROTHER!" Earlane yelled.

"Caspian!" I shouted.

We ran to assist but the river rapidly accelerated him downstream.

"Ack, Gack!" I could hear him trying to keep his head afloat as the currents took him, "H-Help! blub blub."

"Alfy what do we do?" Earlane cried at me as she stood inches away from the river herself, "my brother is going to die!"

None of my spells could reach him from here and even if they could, none of them could save him.

"L-lets go back." I hesitated, "We need to get help."

"Okay." Earlane responded as she sprinted off.

"Nina, come on!" I ran over to where Nina had launched herself and was startled to see blood everywhere. Her head had struck against a rock and a crimson fluid was leaking from the back of her head.

"Nina! Nina! Are you okay?" I ran close and held her, trying to find a pulse.

She looked at me and gave me a smile.

A sweet smile like honey appeared on her face. It would have melted me if I wasn't panicking right now.

Before I could comprehend, she pulled me close and hugged me.

Her ruby eyes pierced through me as her pearl white hands brushed against my cheek.

She put her lips right against my ear and whispered slowly.

"He was bothering you, wasn't he?"

Her cracked voice sent chills down my spine.

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