Entralling Bloom

3.) Commute

Albedo

Albedo woke up early, shuffling around in his near ground-level cot to face his camp entrance and the snow that reflected the glistening sun. 

Albedo saw that the sun had indeed risen, thus beginning another day of below-freezing temperatures on Dragonspine, the icy mountain range located hundreds of miles east of the city of Mondstadt. Although the sun was just barely visible, Albedo knew he needed every ounce of daylight he could get. Today he received a summons from Mondstadt to arrive in the city for a briefing that the Knights of Favonious had planned.

Apart from when he received these summons, Albedo seldom left Dragonspine. He was the Chief Alchemist for the KOF, as well as the captain of their investigation team, so his obligations to the knights forced him to attend their meetings, despite his reclusive tendencies. 

Frankly, it was hell getting all the way to Mondstadt from a mountain range, but it would be impolite to ignore a summons, and doing so could even threaten Albedo's employment status depending on the severity of the situation. So, Albedo always traveled to Mondstadt whenever the knights called for him but he was always very tempted to ignore his summons in favor of staying in the mountains. 

 To make it in time for a KOF briefing Albedo had to travel for hours. The only thing that kept Albedo committed to such long trips was that they also served as an opportunity to collect supplies in town, and to check in with the only other two alchemists in Mondstadt, his assistant, Sucrose, and his student Timaeus.

However, even with his students in mind Albedo felt almost determined to stay in bed today. Despite its hostile climate, Albedo enjoyed living in Dragonspine, it was free of the hustle and bustle of city life and was home to countless rare species of flora and fauna for him to study. The way Albedo saw it, the knights hardly needed him in the mundane city of Mondstadt anyways, the crime rate was near nonexistent, so there was never anything dire to investigate. 

"Uggggghhhhh", Albedo groaned as he rolled over in bed and reluctantly spiraled out of the small cot he kept in the corner of his laboratory.

After standing, Albedo's feet were instantly met by the cold bite of the frozen ground. He shivered briefly, but quickly adjusted to the cold and stretched, and began moving about his lab. 

The "lab" was Albedo's campsite, and the campsite was the space within the mouth of a cave on the side of the mountains. The place wasn't much to look at but it was spacious. The area within the cave could hold a fire, bed, stove, and even a makeshift desk for experiments with plenty of room to spare. 

Albedo rubbed his eyes and began his preparations for a descent down the mountain. He walked over to a corner of the room behind his makeshift desk where a bucket and mirror were laid against the wall.  Albedo inspected himself in the mirror. His bright blue eyes stared back at him, reflecting his shaggy bangs and shoulder-length blond hair. Albedo grabbed a comb from on top of his desk and went to work combing his hair, subduing his thick locks in a "half-up-half-down" style. The "up" half was kept in a ponytail formed from two intersecting braids and the "down" half curled slightly at the ends framing his slender pale shoulders.

 After getting his hair in order, Albedo donned the uniform the KOF had given him. For the Chief Alchemist, the uniform was a highly stylized labcoat with short sleeves and a gold embroidered dark blue waistcoat. Black trimmings, gold bracings, and chains decorated the whole ensemble. To match his top, Albedo simply wore fitted black leggings under a pair of shorts and calf-length boots with metallic garters.