The morning was young as ever, birds were singing in perfect harmony. People might be complimenting the beauty of nature at this time, to Damian however, this melodious chirping felt like an irritating alarm, making it very difficult for him to remain asleep.
He woke up, rubbing his eyes, only to find out he had been sleeping on a chair half leaning on the bed on which his sister was still sleeping soundly.
This was nothing new for him. If anything, he felt at ease beside his sister. Looking at her sleeping peacefully he wondered how different life would have been for both of them if May was just another normal girl.
If only she was healthy. If only she wasn't always sick.
Damian had always seen her in this state. To him, his sister was someone akin to a fragile glass statue which could break anytime if not taken care properly.
In a sense of course, not that he thought of her as a non living thing.
If anything, she was the one for whom he cared most in this world. Sometimes she would boss him around, make him understand important things and sometimes it was the opposite when she behaved like a little spoiled kid.
Damian was happy in both scenarios.
All he wanted was for his sister to be happy.
Fate however, doesn't work in favour of anyone. It was a ruthless power which neither cared about living beings nor about their emotions.
Maybe that's why his sister was destined to suffer this cruel fate.
Their father pleaded to every capable doctor. But even professionals weren't able to cure her illness. Their mother, who hailed from an atheist family, turned to the gods praying for her daughter's life before goddess Elaria. She pleaded to every god, to every deity but it turned out all of her prayers went unanswered.
The Gods it seemed didn't care. The doctors weren't capable enough.What was worse, they branded May as a lost cause.
Leaving her to face the cruelty of death, alone.
While their parents were with her on every major step of her life, this was something even they weren't able to come to terms with. Therefore, it was May herself who managed to accept her fate before anyone else and of course better than everyone else.
Damian, her brother, when got to know about the cruel truth, blamed himself. Again and again he thought maybe it would have been better if he wasn't even born. He thought he had taken the rest of her life all for himself —being born as her twin. He thought maybe it would have been better if he was the one suffering from this grave disease.
That's why he decided that he would devote the rest of his life to taking care of his sister. Even if she never intended for that.
'its morning already'
Damian let out a yawn stretching his arms upwards. Now, like always he had to warm some water up for his sister to drink.
He once again looked at her, now suddenly being reminded of the previous night. When she had somehow collapsed. It wasn't like this was something new, May had collapsed before once or twice because of exhaustion.
This time, he didn't know what that strange irritating boy had done for his sister to fall unconscious.
Maybe it was his fault after all.
'I will teach him a lesson one day'
Well, not that he could blame Augustus either. It doesn't feel right to accuse someone who wasn't even in his right mind.
'That boy'
Monster subjugation was never such a hard task back at home. Damian does acknowledge that the monsters here were slightly more dangerous than the ones he had fought before. Even then, it is taught to the mages from a very young age that while engaging in combat with a non-human foe one has to keep his cool and fight accordingly. Which was completely opposite to how that idiot boy fought which almost cost him his sanity.
A shiver ran through his spine as Damian remembered the glimpses of that harrowing battle. Not to mention he too felt amazed how Augustus sliced those great abominations purely with his sword skills. He was good with the sword. Too good perhaps.
Not like it matters anyway. A person using a weapon without thinking is nothing more than a blood frenzy beast. The arachnid and its horde attacked the town in order to feed upon the human probably. Therefore Augustus being that starved to kill them doesn't make him much different from those monsters.
'And why didn't he use his elemental aspect?'
Whatever, not like Damian was suddenly interested in him. If anything, he hated how easily that guy happens to get along with his sister.
'I'll kill him for sure'
Damian sighed, realising that this was just a matter of some days. They had come to spend a vacation in this town after all. Not that he was going to live here or anything. Maybe he would never probably see that weird guy Augustus again.
Damian sat on a chair in the kitchen beside the burner where the water was heating steadily. From one corner of his eye he saw Augustus with a bored expression. The weird boy was sitting there with a weird book in his hand.
It turns out the strange boy has a hobby of reading ancient books.
'How outdated'
Damian didn't care to bother with him and took lukewarm water for his sister to drink. It turned out his sister was already awake and It seemed she had no intention to get out of the bed for now which served all but good to Damian.
He left the room and sat on the kitchen chair again. And the strange boy was still sitting on the verandah reading his history book perhaps. He was surrounded by many more other books. It seemed he was trying to find the meaning for something.
'More I watch him, stranger he gets'
In the afternoon when Damian was finally bored of sitting at the same place, he felt like going on a walk. To his surprise Augustus reached out to him with a strange proposal just like the boy himself.
— — —
'Why did I agree to this?'
Damian thought again and again walking on the streets of cobblestone with his sister and Augustus accompanying him. The spell on which the wheelchair of his sister used to work, was working pretty well moving her across the path without much effort.
Occasionally Augustus would speak, providing them with the information about various places they crossed along the way.
After a while they had reached the big building which stood at the centre of the whole town. Which looked quite magnificent as compared to the rest of the infrastructure here. Damian was born and raised in the capital city which had various magnificent skyscrapers so he wasn't that amused by the building.
But considering the place where this town stood, the building was quite of the masterpiece itself. Even for this place however, he thought the mansion of Lord Valerius looked more luxurious.
"This is where elementary knowledge about core elements is provided" Augustus said, attracting a curious expression from May. Damian for some reason thought he saw a hint of emotion in him …disappointment perhaps.
The streets were spacious, the infrastructure was dominantly made of wood. Many houses lay in perfect rows behind each other. Despite sharing a corner with a dangerous forest this town seemed well planned and surprisingly safe.
"This is built in case of emergencies" Augustus pointed at a cylindrical skyscraper which towered high in the sky. An enormous golden bell was peeking from the top of the tower. Having been built within the close proximity of the townhall the long slender tower seemed like an elongation of it.
Damian did feel somehow interested in those various places but he didn't let it show on his face. He couldn't probably give that strange boy a sense of satisfaction now, did he? His sister on the other hand, never hid her intention of looking at the beautiful sights and places this secluded town held.
And it seemed she was quite enjoying herself, asking one or two questions occasionally. Augustus seemed good with this arrangement, well he was the one to propose the idea in the first place.
For a moment Damian thought of letting go of his little hatred toward the boy.
"Where are we heading to next, August?" May asked the boy with curiosity washed all over her face.
"You haven't seen the fields here have you?" he replied, returning her curious smile with more interesting replies.
It seemed Damian's sister was enjoying his company afterall. A little too much perhaps.
'I'll kill him. Yeah definitely'
'Who is he trying to get comfortable with? I mean who the hell does this boy think he is?'
Damian looked at his sister for a moment. She seemed …happy? Well, this was a good thing. So for this reason alone, he thought of forgiving Augustus for trying to look cool in front of his sister.
Also when did his sister become so close with this guy?
'August? She said'
Why short form though? It isn't even that short.
After walking for a while they arrived at the plains covered with the fields of various crops. The rectangular boxes on the land were all planted with different crops. Some stood tall, easily reaching the height of an adult person, while some remained stuck close to the ground, some crops had long curvy vines while some embraced long green stems.
"This is where most of our town's food supply comes" Augustus stood on his knees, pressing against the muddy ground and touching the leaves of a ground dwelling plant gently, "these are the main fields since our town is led by agriculture. May not look like it but the place provides enough food to meet the requirements of the whole town."
Damian suppressed a silent gasp of surprise at his words while his sister simply stared at the seemingly never ending terrain of countless fields in astonishment. They both without saying a word listened to him with their curious gazes.
They continued the walk, crossing through various types of fruits and vegetables on the way. Surprisingly Damian never felt even a hint of tiredness while walking across the town. Maybe it was the curiosity within him which slowly made its way to his heart. He never felt too curious to see all of this town but now he couldn't suppress his interest also.
A moment from there was a beautiful bed of flowers which stretched far into the lands, covering a whole valley for itself.
There were four coloured flowers lined systematically in rows. Red ones seemed vibrant, the violets aside made the world look so different, yellow flowers were covered by various flying insects hovering above them, the ones with the coloured wings were to be also seen occasionally.
The last rows of flowers were different, a lot from the ones beside them. However that didn't mean they were somehow of lower value or vibrance than the others. The black flowers shone with dark light. Dust particles settled on them felt like stars in the boundless night sky.
"Those flowers… aren't these a bit unusual?" May asked in a hesitating tone.
"They are exactly what they are meant to be," Augustus replied while plucking red fruits from the nearby tree. He offered the ripe fruits to May and then Damian.
Only then Augustus seemed to have noticed something strange in his expressions. Damian asked, letting out a bored expression forcibly,"Now what is that supposed to mean?"
"I …uh don't know exactly aside from the fact that these are called Necroflowers" Augustus scratched his nose and then smiled in embarrassment, "That is something father told me when I asked the same question as you. The only thing I remember is that he always plants flowers whenever father goes out to exterminate a monster tide or two" Augustus turned to the field of flowers and continued,
"...and those dark flowers are something I never saw him plant. And he never liked to talk about these as well. That's why I have no idea."
Silence seemed to wash over the surroundings for a moment or two but then Augustus turned to them,
"Shall we head to the next location then?"
— — — — —