When father and I woke up, Alistair was still sleeping like a dead person. We quietly packed our futtons for him not to wake up. I helped father pick the vegetables and put it on the cart then I cooked our breakfast right after.
Father set off to go to the marketplace pushing his cart, Alistair is still asleep. He's really a heavy sleeper.
I cleaned the kitchen and the front porch. It was approaching afternoon when Alistair woke up. I heard him say my name the moment he sat down.
"I'm here!" I said from the kitchen. Footsteps were heard as I gazed at the entrance.
"What time is it?" He asked.
"It's eleven thirty. You should have your breakfast and lunch altogether. Then you can go by the fall to wash up."
He was silent for a moment before asking again. "You're not coming with me?"
I shook my head. "I already washed up."
He sat on the chair and began to pick up the plate and utensils. I exited the kitchen to fix his futton but I learned that it's already been up.
----
It was late afternoon when Alistair came back by the fall with his hair all dry already. We sat on the front porch holding some books, reading.
I stared intensely at the image of the tower in the story book I'm reading. It was a brick tower for the potioneers. And I wonder if Alistair's home was like this one and what it's like and what do they really do. I peak at him.
"What's your home like, Ali?"
Alistair placed the book on his lap, thinking. "It has an exact twelve tall floors. Each floor has two wizards monitoring certain parts of the kingdom and the border. My master and I live in the fifth floor."
"Uhh, then, where does your parents live? Are they also a wizard?"
"No, my grandfather is. Father and Mother were at our kingdom's capital. They...aristocrats. Father's a Baron. I am supposed to be his successor, but grandfather foreseen that I have a silver core that father never had. He took me in the tower three years ago."
I counted in my head. If he's 15 now, then... "You're 12 when you live in the tower?" He was my age.
He gave me a little nod. "I was smaller than I am now then. I hated how small I am compared to rhe other children my age. Mother said I was a pale child, but grandfather said that my silver core had something to do with my nutrition and puberty. I had to wait till I am 16 until my true figure opened and meet the form of my age."
"Do...Do you not get sick often?"
"Sometimes, but it was never hard for me to move and practice my spells when I am."
"That's great of you."
"Thank you,"
I smiled at him. "You know if some time we met again, maybe you'll be a lot taller than I am or taller than Father. I don't know what is the silver core you're talking about, but once its fixed, you'll surely be what you want to look like."
A strong wind blew as Alistair slowly give in his smile. "You think we'll be able to meet again when I leave?"
I shook my head. "No, I don't. I'm just saying 'if'."
"Why not?"
"No reason," I shrugged. "I just believe you, me, and father are just meant to passed by each other in this part of our lives. Then you'll go on with your stuff again, and us too."
Alistair look down to his book and blinked. "Are you really 12?"
I chuckled.
That night, I had to hum a song to Alistair for him to sleep again. 'Cause if I don't, he'll go and tell me he can go without sleep for three days. I don't care if he can, I just want him to sleep.
The moment father and I get up in our futons in the morning, Alistair's eyes opened as he scratched it.
"Hng...where are you going?" He asked, his voice hoarse.
"I'm going to cook our breakfast."
He immediately jot up to help me fix the futons. While father was outside and checking the vegetable cart, Alistair followed and copied my every move. When I was cutting the ingredients for the soup, he took the other knife and chop the other ingredients that needs to be cutting. When I exit the kitchen, he followed me too.
Even after we finished our breakfast and father left for the marketplace, he followed me by the waterfall to wash the laundry. He helped doing that too.
"Hey, you can wash up there." I told him. He shook his head and continued doing what he wants.
I shrugged and ignored it as we finish doing our laundry.
"Does father's clothes bother you?" I asked him while we're on our way home. Father let him borrowed it yesterday, but it seemed big on him considering we have the same physique.
He shook his head, but I know it's uncomfortable. He's not used to baggy clothes, but he don't want to complain.
"Do you want to go to the marketplace with me today?" I gazed at his face to see his reaction. "I got to buy something."
"Hmm. But whose gonna be at the house?"
"It's fine. No one comes here at the border." I assured him.
It was afternoon when Alistair and I left the house after hanging our laundry at the clothesline. Instead of our father's clothes, I made him borrowed mine and it fits perfectly.
"We won't get scolded for leaving, don't we?"
I shook my head. "Father will understand."
He put his hands on my pocket as we go on. He said it's cold and he has no pocket to keep it warm. I told him to hold my hand but he refused. He's hard to read and he's like a toddler.
Crossing the border to take the kingdom's marketplace entrance, I kept Alistair close to me at all times. We spotted father's vegetable cart selling not from afar.
He was overjoyed seeing father, but I told him we should check on him right after I will buy something first.
"Bookstore?" He asked.
"I noticed you like reading. You've read mostly of our newspaper and ten books that father stocked in the cabinet."
"..."
"What?"
"You noticed?"
"How could I not?"
As we entered the bookstore, Alistair walk pass by the people to explore the shelves. I watched him be taken by his desire to open countless books that I had to cover him up because the bookstore keeper kept looking at him.
I can't help but to laugh.
He does not look like a fifteen year old at all. He's like a younger brother I never had.
Most of the books he opened were about the History of Gods and Goddesses. Fables, poems, folklore, legends, and such. He also kept looking at the antiques display over the windows around the bookstore.
He gazes upon me from time to time, making sure I'm around him. When he grabbed---I think--- 12 books, I was shocked.
"Don't worry, I have ten gold coins. I stole it from my master." He told me.
Instead of not worrying about the money, I was baffled by his statement.
Ten gold coins! I could rent an entire inn in five weeks using that much of a money!
"Ten gold coins? Even when you pay one gold coin, you could buy much more than that."
"What books do you like?"
"Anything."
"You can't pick?"
I didn't gave him an answer but he understood it right away. Alistair drop the books he picked by himself a while ago by the side and came back with five different books (small and large copy) ten minutes later.
One of it was encyclopedia.
He asked me if I could hold it as we went by the counter to pay. We got out of the bookstore, holding seventeen large and small books altogether. Alistair was laughing.
"The books are almost taller than us, don't you think?"
"And whose fault is that?" I raised my brows as he continued laughing.
"Aha! So I wasn't dreaming after all." Alistair and I almost dropped our books when father appeared in front of us, hands in his waist and eyebrows raised.
"Sir!"
"Father!"
"I thought I just mistook you two for other kids so I looked the second time." He sighed. "Come here and give me that stack of books, you two help me push the cart."
As we go walked, Father can't help but to scold us two, though we just kept laughing. Before going home, we help father sell our vegetables. It sold out, which rarely happens.
On the way home while we're all pushing the cart, father opened a conversation that I haven't heard for a long time.
"You know why my wife and I named her Reeves?" Father began, Alistair eyebrows turned up, curious. "There was a place only her mother and I know years ago that's destroyed now due to war. It was a special place where different kind of grass and trees grow due to the unique soil that it has. It rarely rains there, always just a ray of sunshine. During her pregnancy, while laying and watching the sky, different colors of leaves fell on top of her round belly. For her, it was a momentary occasion, like fate has told her something. She counted a total of six leaves. She urge me to think of a name that has six letters on it." Father laughed.
We listened attentively, looking at him.
"The morning after that day, she told me she wanted to name our child 'Reeves', no matter the gender was."
"Sounds like...leaves."
Father nod. "That's right." Alistair made a big smile on his face before laughing a little.
I smiled at father as he caress my back.
"But, is it okay if I ask, where is she now? I just...I don't think you told me about her...No, sorry for asking."
"It's alright. She's up there." Father said as we all looked at the sky.
When we arrived at the house, Father prepared for our dinner as Alistair and I tagged with he front porch.
"Do you still remember her face?"
"Huh, who?"
"Your...your mother?"
"Hmm. She's really beautiful. Her face is like healing and peace."
"Why did she..."
"Father told me mother died on her sleep. When I wake up one morning, I just woken up by father's cries. I was six."
"Sorry,"
"It's alright. It hurts but not as much anymore. You can always ask whatever you're curious about."
Alistair asked me about other things after that, avoiding asking about my mother anymore. When father called us for dinner, we quickly bolted out on the way to the kitchen.
After dinner, Alistair read some books before laying beside me and father. Father was sound asleep and he folded by the side, facing me.
"Reeves,"
"Yeah?"
"It's nice having conversations with you. I wish we could talk forever like that."
I faced my head to him and smiled. "I have a great time talking with you, too."
"Can you sing to me again?"
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I only nod and pull the blankets over his, tapping his chest as I hummed.
ns216.73.216.121da2
and then Add to home screen.