Chapter 8 - Acclimation
***
Another two years passed since Vlad stepped on his fragile legs, and the progress he made was visible from the following year.
When he turned thirteen, showing some little progress that brought joy to the boy, which he kept solely to himself, remaining quiet and minding his own in his dark world for most of the time.
The city people learned about Vlad and his struggles since he first came with the merchant ship, word spreading out from the sailors who were shocked by his transformation, which became a known story in Picodras.
A boy with his entire body broken has survived that ordeal, now walking among them.
It made them interested in this young man, but that was all they were interested in. Everyone began knowing him for a blind and treated him slightly differently when encountering him walking with his crutches alongside Patrick, sometimes with Arik, Lagos, Nelson or Jervis.
Most times, his companion in the walks that supposedly were to refresh his mind was Arik.
Some of the citizens were patient with him, others were giving him hateful glances which only Arik could see, but usually, people didn't bother him since he was known for being close to Patrick, one of the Islands leaders.
They also didn't receive a reason to be bothered since Vlad spent most of his time inside Patrick's home.
Nevertheless, those walks of his apart for refreshing his mind began a weird routine for the young girls of Picodras to peek at the passing young man, becoming infatuated with him rapidly since he was by no means ugly.
His once malnourished face recovered its luster, which Patrick, Lagos and most sailors discovered that the bruised, broken, young child grew up to be a handsome lad.
His face made some sailors butthurt, especially of the ugly ones, leading to various stories from this close group of certain sailors who wanted to take revenge on Vlad, but all in a joking manner.
Arik, who was taken as an apprentice by Patrick in the navigation and sailing path, was aware of those underground jokes, and it made him happy to see that Vlad was having so much success with the girls.
Whenever he would pass by with Vlad past a group of girls that gathered specifically to see their hot blind boy, they began screamed like little girls seeing their idols when Vlad glanced in their direction with his abyssal eyes, being an instant turn-on for them, feeling captured by his mysterious colored eyes, but did he care about their advances?
Not at all. Vlad still didn't feel his Testorone and hormones kick in, activating his sex drive.
Still, he wasn't the only one who grew up from the two with Arik, too, turning out into a fine lad from what Patrick and Lagos told him, helping him visualize this interesting boy, who helped him unconditionally with his blindness.
Arik kept his hair short and built a strong body to help him on the ship, carrying the goods that were to be transported on the sea, from Picodras to Valent city, the Trading Center of the South Blue, belonging to the Kaysang Kingdom.
He was initiated in the craft of sailing from Patrick and Lagos and the rest of the experienced sailors.
Those two were known in the city as close brothers, something that Vlad didn't try to change as he found Arik quite handy in turning away girls that tried to approach him, wooing him, and apart from this, the young man was also his pair of eyes whenever they would walk in the city, visiting various shops, especially the stalls that were selling herbs, medicinal plants, plant sprouts.
Above all, when he wasn't working on building his strength and body, he enjoyed visiting the Market and exploring the various plant shops and stalls where he could use his regained sense of smell that he only recovered when he was a 12 years old lad.
It was an activity that relaxed his mind, and the merchants weren't too harsh on him, allowing him to touch their product.
"Be careful, little blind child. Those plants cost more than what your old man can fetch from his trade in Valent." warned some of the merchants when seeing Vlad start touching their booth to find the plants.
"It will be fine. I can smell most of the plants you got here on display. All are common plants, so don't get me started that they cost a fortune. I might be blind, but stupid I am not."
"Hahaha, well said, little blind. This will teach that cheap bastard not to boast that he has the best plants from the entire Picodras. Hah, how is it? Have you really gone to Galena to pick those plants, or are they from your garden?"
"Ahem, no need to quarrel, sirs. I don't really care where your plants came from. Well, I am thankful that you allow me to train my sense of smell. It will be easier to make the old man's potions in the future."
"Aye, brat, we can't disagree with this point of yours, so be free to smell our plants and guess which one is which.
We'll be fair with you. Your friend is here to attest to it. Maybe we play a game for some money?"
"Mhmm, like gambling?" inquired Vlad, who opened his dead eyes to look directly at the merchant that talked to him, which creeped out the man at how black his eyes were with no light refracting from them.
"Only if you want, I don't want to hear you going to Lord Patrick and mention that we stole your money."
"I only have 10.000 đť”… with me. This is all my allowance for this month."
"Brother Vlad, I also have 50.000 đť”… that I gathered. If you want, I can give them to you."
"Is not required. That is your money, keep it warm, spend it however you want, not on some games of mine. So, mister, will my 10.000 đť”… be good for you?"
"Fine, 10.000 đť”… will be one round. Are you in?"
"Count me in." mentioned Vlad to the merchant in question, who began shrewdly rubbing his hands.
While he cleaned up his table of the plants he put on display, he lowered himself down to pick his rare plants for this battle of wits, and before the entire game started between Vlad and the merchant, most of the people and merchants that were on this section of the Market got interested.
"Hehe, this will be interesting, little blind. Are you ready?"
"Anytime."
"Good, then tell me what the plant I just placed on the table is. To give you a chance for a competitive game, I will allow you 2 failures, okay?" mentioned the merchant who placed on the table a white flower that had a delicate texture to it, even tender, which made the herb merchant look impressed at the plant taken out.
Vlad touched the table while he lowered himself to the level, starting sniffing it, where he found a clean, refreshing smell which was quite rich in the herbal fragrance, and opened his eyes as he touched the flower with a soft touch, and after 5 minutes he told the merchant the name of the flower.
"Peacebloom. Mister, I take back my words. You guys also have interesting plants and herbs."
"One more?" asked Vlad, who extended his hand, asking for his money.
"You want one more game? You'll have it. Lower your hand since you'll be leaving the Market with a sour expression."
"I doubt, but sure, let's do it."
Next, the merchant took the Peacebloom from the table, and brought out another flower.
This time it was a flower with unfurled bloom spirally arranged, where the flowers were trumpet-shaped, in a pure white color, but this wasn't all about the flower. Each petal had a hue to them.
It gave the spectators the sensation you were staring at a unique flower, but Vlad had no way to see this appearance of the plant, which was precisely what the merchant was betting on, taking advantage of his blindness.
Vlad approached the same, starting sniffing the flower and touching the petals gently, making the merchant nervous, as he began to wonder if Vlad could sense the hue by using his touch.
However, Vlad couldn't feel any of that hue, instead approached the subject in question differently from what the people looking at him thought.
Instead of guessing them using his luck, he was visualizing in his mind, using the vivid description of the plant delivered by old Patrick, and the touching he did was to make in his mind the shape of this flower and use his building database to check which one was right.
"This one is Morning Glory?"
"No. You have failed once." replied the merchant, who felt excited that Vlad was losing the game.
Yet soon, he got nervous because the plant he took out belonged to the same family of flowers, and his worry was confirmed.
Without getting upset that he failed once, Vlad thought for another couple of minutes and gave his final response.
"Dreaming Glory. It is the variant with the light hue.
Sneaky.
Mister, you want to take advantage of the fact I am blind? Not bad."
"Aren't you angry, boy?"
"Me? Why should I? You make it more fun for me.
Go on, take advantage of me. Let's see what happens. My pocket has 40.000 đť”….
Do you want to continue?" asked Vlad whose voice gained some life, feeling some excitement from this game.
"Argh, let's. But only one more round since I don't have so much money with me."
"I only got 50.000 đť”… left on me."
"I see, then we'll do it for all my money. Show me, my next opponent."
'Tsk, annoying brat, I will teach you a lesson since you are confident.
Little blind, you shouldn't make fun of adults.'
The merchant quickly searched in a bag full of plants and herbs, until he stumbled upon a brown plant that had golden thorns on it, similar to a rose stem, but this one didn't have a flower, only the golden thorns.
When everyone saw what plant the merchant took, it garnered a reaction. Some seemed to be pleased, while others frowned.
Arik was among them, and even though he didn't know what plant the one taken out was, he walked toward Vlad, approaching him to warn him, but was stopped halfway.
"He took out something interesting, right, Arik? Stay put. I don't require you to help me with plants."
"Go on, young man, can you guess what plant you have in front of you?"
Vlad once again opened his eyes, and this time even his face switched a creepy smile and without responding back, started humming.
He searched for the plant with his hand, and immediately when touching the thorns, he was cut.
Yet, the merchant could see Vlad continue smiling creepily as he was palpating around the plant, covering it in his blood that it scared out the girls in the audience.
"Good one, sir. I'll be honest with you, I have absolutely no idea what plant you took out.
I have those 5 plants in mind when I touch this plant, it could be [Bruiseweed], [Brianthorn], [Dragon Teeth], [Deadnettle], or [Goldenthorn].
So you know what I will do, sir. You said I am allowed 2 failures, right?"
"Mhm, correct."
"Then, I pick my first choice [Deadnettle]"
"Wrong."
"I see, it makes sense. The thorns in this one are sharper and harder, while Deadnettle has smaller thorns, like a nettle plant. Also, I doubt you have the luck of getting a [Dragon Teeth] as they rarely appear in coastal areas, then, [Brianthorn]?"
"Wrong." responded the merchant who saw the twisted smile Vlad was giving him.
Each moment his hands bled out rapidly, it scared him that he still didn't take his hands off the plant, instead continuing to touch the thorns and harm himself.
"Indeed, is not [Brianthorn] if it was that plant, I would have killed you right now for trying to poison me. But we are good friends, anyway, right? Your intent wasn't to harm me. This is just an honorable game."
"Indeed, you wanted rare plants in this game, and I gave you rare plants." said the merchant, who saw Vlad close his eyes and stop smiling, hearing the young man say with a calm voice.
"Keep those 90.000 đť”…, and whenever I visit your shop, you'll show me what you got without asking me dumb questions. Got it?
Let's go, Arik." remarked Vlad, who used his shirt to wrap it around his palm while he continued to walk calmly without Arik's assistance.
"Wait, you didn't say the name of the plant."
"No need. See you another time."
.
Vlad and Arik made their exit from the Market in a fashion that only heroes from the novels people would fantasize would do, with the protagonist teaching a lesson to the arrogant antagonist.
Nevertheless, on their way to Patrick's mansion, the brown-haired young man kept assaulting Vlad will all sorts of questions.
"Brother, why have you done that? Wound yourself for no reason? You didn't take the money home. Also, it is clear as night that guy wanted to harm you. So why did you leave him alone?"
"It isn't required for me to do anything, simple as that. I don't want to make any enemies and only wanted to play around a bit since the old man keeps annoying me with his wishes to see me play around like a young man my age."
"Yes, he did say that, and you always decline me when I ask you to tag along with me playing around with my friends. Sigh, brother, you are always by yourself. What would you do without me?"
"You want an honest answer?"
"..."
"I'll probably be the same. Well, not really. I will feel bad for the first couple of weeks, maybe months, and move on."
"Damn, brother, that pirate really messed you badly. Why would you think like that?"
"Heh, why? You know, Anik, we humans are social creatures, but we initially started as hunters. We are predators.
Regardless of one's circumstances, our instincts will always prevail. So if I am into a social circle, or if I am alone, in my opinion, it will not change me with anything."
"Fine, fine, I will no longer ask you about those things. How is your hand?"
"Some of the healing potion, and the wound will close. It's not that deep anyway, it's just my skin that got pierced. Irrelevant. When will you go with old Patrick to Valent?"
"In a couple of weeks, why? Do you wish I could buy something for you?"
"Mhm, if you are so kind, would you buy me some old books that you can find from the city?"
"Why books, you can't read them anyway."
"I know, but this doesn't mean that others are so dumb not to know how to read."
"I'll not read those stories for you."
"Don't worry, it's not like I had you in mind in the first place."
"... You know, brother, sometimes I really think you are an asshole."
"Hmm, I know." replied Vlad in a stoic way, moving without requiring Arik's assistance, as if he learned the path from the mansion to the Market and back.
"..."
Arik didn't have a comeback from that direct answer, with Vlad agreeing to the whole point he brought, making him quiet on the entire walk home.
.
.
It was such a case where his recovery took a full year to fully regain his body functions and be able to walk, with only a small limp on his right leg, as trauma from the heavy damage he suffered.
This didn't faze him, and he simply went about with his normal life, not rushing anything, and slowly accumulating the information Patrick was sharing with him.
Since the incident in the Market, the merchants viewed Vlad differently and no longer messed with him, but this remained only inside their small circle of herbalists, and they would help him around with the plants.
What shocked those merchants was that one time, when Arik departed with Patrick toward Valent along with the entire merchant crew, where they journeyed to Valent to trade the goods of the Island with the goods offered by the Kingdom that they lacked, such as linen fabric, and other expensive goods.
Vlad brought along with himself 3 old books and told the merchant who he put in place calmly.
"You remember what I told you, right? Read those three books for me. I heard from old Patrick that they talk about the medicinal effects of plants and their applications. I doubt you care that much, only seeing money as God, but for the amount of 90.000 đť”… you'll be under my services."
"Got it?"
"What if I don't want to do it?"
"Well, that's also an option, but I'd rather have you not. Trust me, you'll also learn something from this book, and it is not like you are needed at something. You are sitting on your stool all day long and barely sell some herbs. Lucky for old Patrick and me. Otherwise, you'll be searching for another job."
"Elias, don't upset the young man, and read his books." shouted the merchants on this market section, hearing Vlad's cold words.
"Fine. Come and sit on a chair, and make yourself comfortable."
"Got it. Can you read the titles of the books first before I tell you which one to start?"
"Damn, okay."
Then the merchant started reading the book, he picked from the tree, and to also pass his time, so he would be sitting idly while listening to the book, he took a large stick that he came with, and from his pocket, he brought a knife which scared the merchant.
"Ahh, don't be scared. This isn't for you.
I try to make a walking cane since it troubles me when I step on terrain I am not familiar with.
This stick will be like a third arm, where I check the path I will be required to go or if I shouldn't go. Continue with the book since it reached an interesting part."
'Damn, what a weird kid. Are all of the blind kids so weird?' thought the merchant who saw Vlad casually using the knife, taking some of the wood from the thick stick, polishing it with his knife