Eight Intertwined

139 - Miguel

After the travelers arrived in Saintsbridge, they navigated back to the inn without any issues. From there, they put all of their things down and decided to head out to the border of town to gather herbs. Alfyn brought his satchel with him as per usual, but he added an extra book into his bag for the sake of herb identification. He would be able to pick up most things he needed while he was there in the general area of Saintsbridge, but if he ran into something extra special, he could identify it before he decided to take it along or not. Plus, he could pass the book around to the rest of the travelers so they could help him with finding what he needed to speed up the process. That way, they would be able to get back to relaxing and enjoying their time in Saintsbridge as soon as possible. 

At the very least, that had been the plan, but Alfyn was distracted just before they could leave town. There was a commotion coming from somewhere nearby, and when he glanced up, he saw two men arguing with one another rather loudly. One of the men had red hair, and he was doubled over in pain on the ground at the feet of another man dressed in all black like he had just come from a funeral or was perhaps some kind of grim reaper. Alfyn didn't catch all of their conversation at first because of how quietly they were speaking with one another, but he heard enough when the redheaded man began to cry out in desperation. "W-Wait! Have some mercy! Ye can't just leave a man to die!"

That was enough to get Alfyn's attention, and he ran over to the two men. The man in black was starting to walk away already, but Alfyn was quick to get in his way. "Hold it, hold it, hold it!" he instructed, holding up his hands in a bid to make the reaper stop walking. His gaze dropped to the man's side, and he saw that the reaper was not an agent of death at all. Instead, he was meant to save lives, and the satchel hanging from his shoulder was proof of that... But he didn't seem interested in following his creed at all, at least not now. "You're an apothecary, ain't ya? How can you leave a man you examined to suffer?" Alfyn questioned, his voice shocked and sharpened. He couldn't imagine leaving behind someone he knew he could help. He wouldn't ever be able to do something like that. He wanted to help everyone he could, and that included those who others would have left behind. He had assumed all apothecaries thought the same way he did, but it was becoming increasingly clear that was not the case.

The man in black wasn't interested to hearing Alfyn lecture him though, and he glared at the man in green. "And who the hells are you?" he asked in return, his voice somehow even harsher than Alfyn's had been. The judgement in his eyes only increased when he saw the crowd of the other travelers that had gathered behind Alfyn. The apothecary had run ahead when he heard the commotion, and the others were only just now catching up with him. 

"Name's Alfyn, and despite appearances, I'm a travelin' apothecary myself," Alfyn explained as he crossed his arms. He didn't care how intimidating the other apothecary tried to make himself; Alfyn was fine with offering a lecture he knew was deserved given the man's reckless apathy when it came to leaving others to die. 

"A fellow druggist, is it?" the man asked, not that he seemed to care much about how Alfyn responded. Instead, he just shook his head, not even bothering to give the man on the ground behind him another glance. "Well, listen up: I'm a free man with the right to choose my patients."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alfyn fired back. He glanced past the man at the redhead on the ground behind him. He was still curled over himself, a wound marking his abdomen where a blade had obviously cleaved through flesh and muscle very recently. The injury was clearly deadly, and Alfyn felt himself grow sick with rage at the thought of the man being left to die. 

"It means just what I said. Some lives aren't worth saving," the man replied bluntly. Before Alfyn had the chance to retort, the man brushed past him brusquely, his shoulder hitting Alfyn's and sending him stumbling. He was gone soon afterward, off in the direction of the rest of the city.