The Peculiar Alchemist

31 || Obvious All Along

The green stone glinted before it was shoved back into his pocket. There were a few burns littering his body due to the curses he endured, and he had cuts all over his body, still bleeding, as he shambled back to Agnes' cottage.

When he reached the front door, he braced himself against it trying to gather his strength. It wasn't the pain he was suffering from; it was the fatigue he felt.

It was a bit late at night, he could hear the usual owls hooting in the distance, and when he finally decided to open the door to enter the cottage, he felt like collapsing. Black spots were dotting his vision from the sudden brightness and warmth inside, and while it was somewhat comforting, it also made his dizziness worsen.

The past few days were rough.

Walking was hard, and all he wanted to do was collapse on the couch in front of the fireplace. The fact that someone was already sitting on it did not matter, he just grabbed whoever it was sitting there and pulled them from their seat so he could have it all to himself. The sound of a surprised yelp, something falling, and the person stumbling on their feet was heard, but all that did not concern him.

A relaxed sigh came out of him as he sank into the couch, he was already feeling better.

"What the hell is your problem?" Aubrey sounded justifiably upset from being thrown out of his seat so rudely like that, but all Kellen could manage was a tired groan in response. "I thought you died, and I kind of wish you had now."

Kellen opened one of his eyes with a smile. "Were you worried about me?"

"Absolutely not." Aubrey denied sounding a little bit too defensive before he reminded Kellen of a very important detail. "I poisoned you, remember?"

"How could I forget?" Kellen grinned before sitting up and leaving a few blood stains on the couch. Aubrey's eyes darted towards the newly formed red spots, and he took a moment to scrutinize Kellen a bit more closely.

The fact that he was wearing black hid the fact that he had bleeding wounds under his clothes, and Aubrey didn't know if he should worry about that or just ignore it altogether as he picked up the book that fell alongside him on the floor.

But he was unable to contain his worry, so he decided to ask anyway. "Are you okay?"

With a nod of his head, Kellen supported himself with an arm behind him lifting up his shirt to see the damage. "Just a few scratches, I'm fi-ok, don't look."

The shirt was dropped immediately to cover all the wounds, and Aubrey couldn't help but gape at him in a variety of conflicted emotions. There was nothing fine about what he had seen. Kellen's whole torso was covered in bruises, burns, and bleeding wounds.

It was a miracle he managed to walk all the way here.

"There's a spell for healing wounds." Aubrey hissed looking around the place feeling at loss. All that he could see lying around are things to harm and kill, poisons that were deadly and did the opposite of what Aubrey was looking for. There was nothing that could help at his disposal. "Does Agnes leave healing potions or something? She must keep them around somewhere..."

"Uh," Kellen sounded a little bit too relaxed for the amount of injuries he had. "I am feeling a little bit woozy, or maybe it's just you."

Kellen was yanked forward roughly by his shirt, and was being glared at by a panicking Aubrey. "I am trying to help you here, so can you please, for once in your life, cooperate with me?"

"You're actually worried about me." Kellen shook his head with a laugh as he pushed himself up from the couch he was sitting on, leading Aubrey to let go of him in the process. "There's something that might help, actually. Lemme go find it."