Accompanied by the sound of raindrops that have not stopped since midday, this afternoon I and my five colleagues gathered at a large table to drink tea. It's been an hour since our work hours finished, and one of my co-workers proposed to do this while waiting for the rain to stop. We chatted casually about anything other than work-related.
A long time later, our division leader, Madam Macroné, came. She didn't join us for tea, unfortunately, but gave us coats so we could get home without having to wait any longer for the rain to stop. We gladly accepted Madam Macroné's kindness and went home in the rain with the raincoat.
Because of the rain, this afternoon the sky darkened faster, but at least not as dark as at night. The road is muddy, and few people can be seen passing along the road. Many vendor stalls have also closed. The occasional white light in the sky that strikes one of the tallest treetops adds to people's reluctance to simply get out of their homes to breathe in the scent of wet soil.
Approaching a hundred meters from my house, I noticed several people passing by, some carrying their horses with them. My steps stopped for a while, then I sped my steps as fast as I could towards my house. In the front yard, two horses can be seen standing there, soaked. My chest thumped. They went home!
I haven't had time to grab the doorknob since someone has already opened it for me. An exotic-skinned, reddish brown-haired, emerald-eyed woman. She was startled by my sudden appearance in front of her face. But as fast as lightning, she changed her expression with a broad, cheerful smile.
"Hey, Kiddo!" she greeted, pinching me on both cheeks, then went on to hug me and give me a peck on the cheek. "I miss you since hundreds of years ago we separated."
I laughed. She, along with her attitude and sense of humour, has never changed since my parents first introduced her to me. "Excessive assumption, Lexoui, but I admit that I miss you too."
After patting my shoulder and the top of my head, Lexoui pushed me in. In the kitchen, I saw two special people in my life, speechless over my sudden appearance. A man in a knee-length brown coat stood behind a woman wearing glasses with her ponytail hair sitting on the dining chair. They stood up immediately after their fixation, then held me like there would be no tomorrow.
"You're home!" I said it enthusiastically, looking at the two, who were smiling warmly. "Since when?"
"Two hours ago," my father replied, patting lightly on my cheek. A habit that he never let go of doing to his children, even though we were already this big.
"We thought you would be returning home from the department at the same time as us," my mother said, leading me to sit down beside her. "But luckily Linny was at home, so we were able to get in anyway without having to wait long."
I was transfixed for a while. "Where is he now?"
"In the backyard," my father put two smoke-billowing glasses on the table. "Helping others put the horses in. Oh, here he is. Lynton, are you all done?"
I turned my head back quickly and found Lynton walking in with a nod. Our eyes collided for a split second before he quickly turned it towards Father, then took his place beside him. Indifferently, Lynton exchanged words with our parents without the slightest look or even glance at me. With narrowed eyes, I had no choice but to follow his plot, at least for a while, until we stayed alone.
Mother, who is usually more talkative and dominates the conversation in the family, tells us her adventures with her company, as well as with Father as their guard. They usually travel to sell or get other goods from fellow traders in other cities throughout the country. An opportunity that makes them more open to other faces and personalities from various countries, as well as threats and dangers in every place they pass.
Father occasionally chimed in when the unexpected threats and dangers they got sometimes came from members of their own company who usually didn't know the terrain and took things lightly. Despite his medical role in the group, Father who also acts as Mother's guardian—and automatically for other company's members—must always be on standby to protect the safety of the company in addition to treating anyone who gets sick or injured on the way.
Complementary couple. I can just smile without really hearing their story until the end.
Before we knew it, the night was getting late. Mother was forced to end her adventure story in a reluctant tone and asked us to go into our rooms. We cleaned up the kitchen together before finally going into our room to take a rest.
I dimmed the light in my room but didn't turn off all the candles. I sat behind a desk while opening a notebook, started writing for the next few minutes. I deliberately did this to waste time because I wanted to storm into Lynton's room and question all the things he had done until this time. Even so, I realised my parents were still not asleep in their room, and I—more precisely, me and Lynton—didn't want to tell them until we knew more and understood the matter clearly.
After nearly an hour of waiting, I opened the door slowly. Between my room and Lynton's facing door, our parents' bedroom door seemed to be tightly closed and didn't reflect any light from the crack below. The atmosphere was quiet; only the sound of insects from outside was heard. Seeing this opportunity, I turned off all the candles left in my room, then tiptoed out and closed the door to tiptoe carefully towards Lynton's room.
Lynton should still be awake in his room because he never goes to bed before midnight or before finishing an idea that goes through his head. When I gently pushed the door, as expected, he was still sitting straight. It's just that, unusually, instead of sitting behind a desk full of books and glass jars filled with colourful stones, Lynton sat on his bed. His eyes were blank. His forehead wrinkled. His ten fingers interlocked.
"Lynt."
He glanced halfway through his reverie. He didn't even flinch at all when I patted him on the shoulder, making me wonder if he was sick. I pulled out the chair behind his desk, then sat facing his face while observing his expression.
"You okay?"
Hearing my question, his eyelashes blinked as if with it, making him detached from his reverie realm. He nodded. One of his legs moved, stacked on top of the other.
"How is it?"
He was silent for a moment, seeming to think about what I was talking about. Long after, he muttered, "Oh right, Onyx."
He gets out of bed, informing me that he successfully captured Onyx before he was expected to flee to another country. For now, Onyx still won't open his mouth, so Lynton locks him in a place he doesn't want to tell, with someone he knows well who won't betray him and couldn't help Onyx escape. Again, he didn't want to tell me who they were.
"The important thing is that he can't get away from me before he tells me everything."
I gave up. I am also confused as to why he suddenly became so defensive. Maybe Onyx told him something that makes him sensitive that he doesn't want to give clear details; I don't know. It's just that, from what I've noticed since I entered his room, the current Lynton in here is not Lynton as far as I know. Anxious and looks unfocused.
"You sure you're not hiding anything from me, Lynt?" Lynton, who was pretending to be busy looking for a book on one of the shelves, suddenly stopped his movements. "Beyond the details about Onyx, I mean."
Lynton stood still with his back to me. I wonder what he was thinking about in his head. Suddenly, he lowered his head with his hands that were on the table, gripping its edges.
"Not now, Lorry," he said. Almost whispering. "Tomorrow. You can ask again tomorrow."
Although I was still very curious about what happened to my brother, I went back to my room and left him alone with his frantic thoughts.
He has never been like this. As frustrated as he was with something, Lynton used to show it angrily, not daydreaming like before. Maybe just like me, Lynton himself also felt that kind of emotional turmoil, so the reaction he released also looked new in my eyes, as we had lived together since birth.
The next morning, after we finished our breakfast together, Lexoui and Mother's company met her beside our stables in the backyard while Father inspected the small garden of his medicinal plants in the side yard that Lynton had been taking care of. We had both just sorted out the cutlery and were about to climb back into our rooms when someone suddenly appeared from the front door. She appeared franctically without feeling the need to knock on the door and said the purpose of her arrival. With shortness of breath, she looked at both of us with her round eyes that were as dark as night. Anxious, scared, and horrified gazes were mixed in there.
I was a bit surprised by her appearance because this was the first time I saw her again since our graduation three years ago. And given her history with Lynton, which is far from good, I don't expect at all that she could visit here. Even though that's a fact, I still approach and welcome her.
"It's urgent!" she said in her distinctive voice: melodious but slightly hoarse. I noticed her round eyes, which turned out to be over my shoulders, glaring at Lynton who was standing some distance behind us. I had anticipated their argument at the count of three, but what I heard was far different from what I had predicted. "Onyx coughed up blood this morning. He's almost dying!"