Chapter 8

I felt warm. No, I felt too warm. I woke up with a groan. I remember Ariella and the egg. My arms were empty. I sat up and scanned the area, looking for the egg. It was right beside me, wrapped up. We were both near fire, most likely made by Jeremy. Everyone was doing something, and I couldn’t believe they didn’t see me wake up.

“Oh my god, Alexander!” It was from Anna. She dropped the firewood that she had collected from the forest. Everyone turned towards me and stopped what they were doing. Dianna collapsed to the floor and put both of her hands up to her face. I could hear her sobbing.

Mom rushed over to me and hugged me. She was squeezing so much that I couldn’t breathe, but then I heard her hiccuping and she was shivering. Was she crying? She finally made eye contact with me. There were many signs that showed she had been crying for some time. Her eyes were red and puffy. A tear started to trail down her puffed-up cheeks.

“Alex, don’t ever do that again. Don’t ever-”. Mom was breaking down. She must have worried about me, a lot. Dad came up and hugged mom and me, mostly me. He must have been scared too. Arthur probably just joined because he thought it was just a family hug.

“Okay guys, I’m going to make breakfast.” I looked over to see Aston walking over to the egg. I started to panic. He was going to do what I am thinking, right? He proved me wrong by picking the egg up.

“No! Aston, down!” He froze when he heard his name and slowly looked towards me. Mom and dad broke up the hug, just to stare at me. My pronunciation was a little off, but they were able to understand. I clarified a bit more. “Egg, mine!” I made an angry expression to show him that I am serious.

“Aston, I’ll go hunt something. The egg probably has meaning to Alex or why wouldn’t he let go of the egg when he fainted from the cold.” Thank you, Jeremy. It was great to know that I held onto the egg and was able to keep it warm. I wonder how long I was holding it with me.

Aston put down the egg and I got off of mom’s lap to crawl over to the egg. I put my ear to the egg to see if I could hear it moving or any sign that she was alive. I listened for a while until I heard her move inside. I held the egg close to me the whole time, even when we were eating or when we got into our carriage.

I held onto the egg, trying to keep it warm as possible. I looked at Arthur to see him sleep on Anna’s lap. Well, his head was on her lap and he was sleeping pretty noisily with all that snoring.

“When do we reach Flores?” Mom was getting tired of this long journey. 

“You can see the city if you look out of the window.” That definitely made mom happy. I handed the egg to mom, which she accepted. I grabbed the outer wooded part of the window and tried to stand up, but the carriage was shaking a lot. It was making it hard to find my balance. When I finally stood up, I heard many claps, gasps, and talking. It was their first time seeing me stand up. I tried not to feel too proud.

I looked out of the window to see a beautiful kingdom with tall walls protecting the city. The castle was right in the middle. The whole kingdom was huge. You must be thinking about how I am able to see everything. The kingdom was below us. We were riding on a cliff.

It took half an hour to get to the gate. I peeked out the window again to see soldiers coming towards our carriage, once we stopped near the gate. The wall looked huge from our tiny carriage. 

“Can we have you I.D, sir?”

Aston came inside through the front curtains. There was a bag near the front of the carriage. He rummaged through it and finally found the papers that he needed. I got off the seat and followed through Aston. I didn’t go outside, but just peeked through the curtains. My head was the only part that was visible.

“Jake, be careful of Alex. He is right behind you.”

Dad looked back to see my head poking out. He picked me up and put me on his lap. Now I could see the full view. The big bronze-colored gate was opened up, revealing some parts of the city and some people walking around.

“Alex, say hello to Flores! This is where we will be staying.” Dad said to me as we drove through the gate. I watched many people walking to cafes, homes, shops, and every other type of place in this city.

“So, do you know an inn that we can stay at where the expenses are low?”

“You don’t need to know. We already paid for you.”

“What? How much was it?”

“No need, my friend. All of us paid together for your inn. It’s like a welcome gift and also a congratulation gift for the littlest one.”

“I don’t know what to say. I am so grateful.” Dad put his hand behind his neck. He always did it whenever he was nervous or embarrassed.

Aston gave us a little tour of the place. I found out that my parents fell in love in Flores and lived here eight years ago. I wonder what made them move from a nice city like this to a dangerous forest filled with manabeasts. Could it be that they are being chased by someone? They did talk about something like that back at our old house. The city was so huge that we barely got a tour of the whole place before night time. By the time we started, it was already over.

We arrived at a semi-classy inn. Mom tried to wake up Arthur but he wouldn’t budge, so Jeremy offered to carry Arthur. Dad handed me over to mom and helped with unloading the bags. I was happy that she had the egg safely wrapped up in her other hand. After a short good-bye, they left us. We were troubled about what to do with Arthur, still sleeping after our efforts of waking him up. Mom wanted to take Arthur, but I was in her hand. I reached to the floor. I wanted to tell them I can walk by myself. When she still wouldn’t let me down, I had no choice but to speak.

“Walk!” Mom was surprised and looked at dad for an answer.

“Why not? He needs to start somewhere.” I clapped my hands in approval. Mom set me down. With the help of mom’s leg, I stood up and started to wobble a little, but I got my balance. I started to wobble away. My dad got all the luggage in one try and mom was carrying Arthur and the egg.

It took a while to get there, especially since I was trying to walk with about zero leg strength, whatsoever. My parents helped me whenever I fell down. They even tried to pick me up, but I rejected every offer. When we got to the room, it was like a miniature version of our house. There were two bedrooms, a kitchen, and some space to sit and eat. Everything was set up like beds, tables, and all necessary things we might need during our stay.

Mom took me and Arthur into our temporary bedroom. There were a bed and a crib. Aston and them did a really good job ordering for us. She carefully put Arthur and me into our beds. She gave me a milk bottle, so I didn’t get hungry. Mom was about to take the egg with her until I stopped her by grabbing onto her shirt.

“Egg. Mine.” I tried to pace my words, so my parents wouldn’t get freaked out. 

“Why do you care so deeply for this egg, Alex?” She was really curious, but I couldn’t talk about Ariella.

I didn’t know how to explain it to her without spilling too much, so I just said something simple.

“Bond.”

Mom’s eyes widened at what I said. She looked at the egg and back to me.

“There is no way-” She was mumbling to herself. She then made a small nest with the towel that was wrapped around the egg and put the egg inside. 

I fell asleep shortly after to only wake up from a small noise inside the room. I opened my eyes to see two figures inside. It was definitely not mom or dad, intruders.

“Should we take the child or the baby?”

“The child. They will miss their eldest one the most because Valerie and Jake spent more time with the child than the baby.”

“But wouldn’t the baby be easier to kill.”

Kill? They were definitely assassins. They were going to kill one of us. Damn it. 

The only thing I could think about was how to save my brother, but I need to avert their attention to me. Without thinking much, I started to cry loudly which startled the unwelcome guests.

They must have panicked because they started to whisper-shout. I saw one of them come closer to me and cover my mouth with a towel or something. I started to feel drowsy. Damn, there was something in it. I tried to cry even louder.

“Alex.”

At first, it was a lazy call. Then he saw one of the intruders with me and the other one with Arthur. Arthur was fully awake now and was looking at the dagger that the assassin had in his hand. The assassin got ready to stab Arthur until dad slammed him into the wall. That was all that I saw until I fell unconscious.