Days passed quickly after that strange phenomenon. Most of the time was used for practice but a few days ago Jovian was suddenly called in an urgent quest and quite coincidentally, mother too left town. I don't know the details or the exact reason but just like last time, she called me and William (Jovian had already left by that time) and explained that for some reason pertaining work, she needed to go out of town and wouldn't be able to attend my baptism.
Not that I really wanted her to be there with me at that time because I hated the Church of Craven and I didn't want mother to be there, getting all embarrassed because of one of my stupid antics.
And thus, all of a sudden, our house became a little empty without mother and Jovian. As for father, he already took a whole bunch of money from mother and off he went to the gambling bars. And so, for the time being, I and William stayed home. Alone.
The weather turned a lot chilly in these few days and made us feel a lot empty and desolate and scared. I tried to pass my time by practicing with the little dagger that Jovian gave me but William was bored out of his mind.
…
It was the night of baptism's eve and both me and William were lying on the floor of the living room bored like hell. My arm was stinging from all the practice I had done in the morning but William's condition was far worse. He looked lifeless, almost like a zombie. Heck! He even talked like one.
"Wwwhhhhaaattt … tttiiimmmee…" he asked in a long, drawn zombie voice but all I replied with was a curse.
"…Fuck off…"
Time passed slowly and even though our stomachs were rumbling and rioting, we still ignored it. After all, we had near zero experience cooking, not to mention the empty inventory we had and the fact that our muscles had already fallen asleep.
Crrreaaaakkk…
William's ears perched up like a dog's when he heard the door open. His eyes glowed expectantly but who came was nothing short of a nightmare.
"Get the fuck outta here, you rats!" screamed father as he staggered into the room with a bottle of booze in one hand and a lady in another. William sprang up from his position as he saw that he was in father's collision course but for some reason, I felt anger growing in my heart and thus I didn't move.
Trip!
"Fuck!" cursed my father as he tripped over me but turning over, a vicious look appeared on his face and without feeling an ounce of remorse, he moved his drunken yet quite powerful leg in a sweeping move, kicking me right under my ribs.
"Puh!!" I spat as I wrapped my arms around my belly and a feeling akin to having my insides churned and violently push upwards overwhelm me. The feeling and the pain instantly rocked me out from my rebellious thoughts.
"You dirty bastard!!" he cried as he was about to kick me, giving me no chance to recuperate but suddenly, the other lady who came with him also 'tripped' over me and fell right into his arm.
"Ahh! Thank you, my prince, for saving me!!" she said in a coy tone as she suddenly kissed his neck flirtatiously. My father looked shocked for a second before his whole attention was grabbed by her.
"O-oohh!!" he cried exuberantly as he felt a soft sensation near his crotch area. "Forget the 'boulder' and let's continue our adventure, my Prince." She said coyly.
"Of course!" father acknowledged readily, without even thinking about the fact that his son, not biological again, was lying there astonished at the sudden change of atmosphere.
I looked astonished but then it started to get serious with both of them getting undressed. But right when father started furiously kissing the neck of the stranger lady, the lady turned her head a little sideways and looked at me with her purple eyes, which was eerily similar to my mother's.
I was shocked but she gave me a simple message with her eyes, 'get the fuck outta here'.
And therefore, without further ado, I picked my hurting body and ran away from the room. No sooner did I leave, quite forceful 'oohs' and 'ahhs' erupted from the room. Cold sweat broke on my back but what surprised me more was that William was standing right beside the door, peeking inside with awe and … excitement.
Goddammit! You're too small to be feeling excited, kid!!!
'What the fuck are you doing here!!' I whispered to him as I pulled him away. And fortunately, he was too excited to put up any resistance. Only when his view was completely blocked by a wall of brick did he furiously bit back.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, bro!!" he spat at me.
Turning back, I point towards him and replied angrily, "You're too small to be getting excited on that sort of things!!"
"Why?!"
"Because I said so!" I gave the ultimate big-bro statement to him and he reluctantly pouted and followed me. But not a second passed before I heard crunching and eating sounds.
"Nomnomnom! Crunch! Nomnomnom!"
'… illusion ...' I explained to myself but then came William's wretched voice.
"You sure you don't want this?"
"huh?" I said as I turned back a little only to see that wretched fingers grabbing one fried chicken nuggets after another and tossing them into his black-hole like mouth.
"Where did you get it?" I asked surprised.
"The stranger—nomnom—lady gave it to me."
"Don't you know—" I was about to lecture him on not to take food from stranger but then my stomach gave a cry of mercy. I thought a split second and without any hesitation, I snatched the packet from his hand and started to eat.
"Heyy!!!" of course William wouldn't allow that but who is he to stop me? Hehehe!!
…
"…ugh…"
'The nuggets were drugged…' were my first thought when I woke up the next morning. I don't clearly remember what happened last night but when I saw both me and William sleeping like logs on the ground with the chicken nugget packet in William's hand, I didn't even need to think to know that the nuggets were drugged.
"…ugh…" I cried again, feeling oddly refreshed yet quite alien. It felt like all the sores and pains I've been feeling since the start of the training have vanished into thin air. Along with that my mind felt clearer than usual and my vision sharper, which was again quite alien.
And just as I was contemplating all the changes in my body, someone had quietly snuck up into our attic room.
"Knock! Knock!"
"Wah!" I jumped in shock when I heard the alien voice but turning around, I saw the same strange lady looking up into the room from the ladder which connected the attic to the down floors. The strange lady, who was quite near my mother's age, late-twenties that is, looked at me with a smiling face.
"Howdy boy!" she said as she jumped into the room but nearly bumped her head with the low ceiling.
"Ouwyy! You have a small roof here, kiddos!"
"W-who are you?" I asked a little scared, after all this woman had hijacked the house in a mere night (by bewitching father and feeding us drugged chicken nuggets. But man! Those nuggets were some fine one!)
The lady smiled at me gently, well I can't say it is gentle because of her quite demonic purple eyes but since she's so similar to mother in many ways, I will try to trust her and not scream at the top of my lungs.
"My name is Caitlyn and I'm one of your mother's co-worker." She said in her coy tone.
"Yea…" I said uncertainly but then she kneeled infront of me and a quite fragrant and … bewitching smell infiltrated my senses.
"How did you like my chicken nuggets?" she asked with a smiling face.
I gaped at her but before I could answer, William cocked his head up and replied in a sober tone, "… Drugged…ugh… my head…" he cried before dropping his head back down.
"Of course, that is supposed to happen after all what I gave you wasn't a drug but an elixir." She replied like it was a common fact.
"Elixir?!!" I asked both shocked and confused. Why was I shocked? Cause it sounded expensive…
"Yes," she nodded her head and continued, "It's a quite low-level body-cleansing elixir, expensive nonetheless but like its name suggests, its job is to clean the body. Well, it has the same side-effect of alcohol but nothing too severe. Well, it was meant for Aiden in the first place."
"Me?" I asked.
"Yes, your mother was worried about your prospect about joining the Adventure Guild and therefore as a promotion gift, she wanted this. You should be proud of her." She said righteously but I was a little shocked.
"She was promot—" I cried but then stopped abruptly. A wretched expression surfaced on my face and looking at my face, she seemed like she anticipated it.
"Have a nice trip!" she smiled but I wasn't interested at all. Why? Because a huge pressure was building up inside me and without any curtesy I ran downstairs to the bathroom.
"MOVE AWAY!!!!!!!!" I screamed as I ran towards the bathroom.
Pooooohhh!!!
"What happened—blergh!!" William made a wretched face as a vomiting feeling erupted within him when he smelled the most horrible stench in the whole world.
…
"How was it?"
"Awesome!" I replied unconsciously as I immersed myself in the otherworldly lightness that I was feeling. I think I pooped all of my insides in one sitting. I feel so light that I think with a little breeze I can leave the ground and soar high into the sky, like a bird.
I was practically jumping on my feet.
"I never knew it would have such a vast effect. Not that I tried it myself." Said Caitlyn with a smile.
"Mhmm!" I nodded happily, my initial wariness of her evaporating into nothingness. But then from the other side came the little devil William, anger flushing across his face.
"Thanks for destroying my taste, bro."
"?" I looked confused for a second but then it hit me that he smelt my triple-extra-nasty fart up close. "hihi!" I giggled happily as I slapped my hands over his shoulders but he replied harshly, "Hands off, ape!!"
"C'mon, don't be a sissy!!" I said as I rushed after him but then Caitlyn called me urgently.
"Aiden! Don't forget what day it is!" she said but I replied with a smile.
"Don't worry, I didn't forget that today is the baptism. I will get ready in a jiffy." I smiled at her as I rushed towards the cupboards but then something hit me. Turning back, I looked at her with a questioning gaze and asked, "Hey Caitlyn!"
"Hmm?"
"How come you didn't faint from my terribly bad fart?" I asked shamelessly.
She giggled a little and replied, "You would make a terrible man, Aiden."
"I'm still a kid." I countered.
"Well, lets say I've my own secrets." She denied me with a coy smile but that smile had no effect on me. Shrugging my shoulders with a nonchalant attitude I dashed towards the cupboards.
…
"Is everyone ready?"
"Yes father."
"Aiden?"
"Yes, I'm ready." I replied as I tugged my only clean white shirt into my brown pants. Buttoning the cream-colored coat, I stood silently, a little nervous. Father looked at me silently for a moment before coming towards me.
I felt my heartbeat violently for a second, thinking that I would again get a scolding but by some unknown god's blessing that did not happen. Instead, he kneeled infront of me and silently straightened my collar. It was after a long time that I saw his face this close. His freckled, old and wrinkled face looked … kind of solemn. And sad. But that's impossible.
This bloody bastard of a man who has no love for his family and no manners to conduct himself couldn't possibly show complex emotion like solemnness.
"Don't be mischievous." He said in his strangely solemn tone before standing up and reverting back into his position at the head of the family. He took Caitlyn's hand into his and said solemnly, "For this day, lets pretend that Caitlyn is both of your's mother. If the priests of the church ask then let me or Caitlyn talk with them, as for the rest don't bother." He said coolly but all I felt was anger.
'My mother isn't gone even for two days and he has already started calling another woman his wife! What a bastard!' I thought but that didn't mean I'm blaming or cursing Caitlyn. No!
Heck! If there was a group of ten people out of which nine were blasphemous cannibal criminals and one was my father, even than I would call him a bastard and a bloody asshole.
"As for you, William, stay in the back and watch the baptism carefully. It will be your turn after two years." He said before turning around and saying, "Let's go."
…