Ding Ding
A small bell on top of a wooden door rang as the door opened.
"Good Afternoon! Welcome to Root, Remedy and Beyond!" Evelyn Cestre welcomed the woman who entered her shop with great enthusiasm. She recognized the customer to be Mrs. Rosa Bell. "Mrs. Rosa, I've been waiting for you!"
With a friendly smile, Mrs. Rosa Bell greeted back, "Good Afternoon Evelyn. I'm here for the medicine we talked about the night before." She stopped in front of the counter, facing Evelyn.
"I've already packed the medicine for you. One's a balm for the cut, and another is anti-infection paste." She smiled. "That'll be 100 and 250 Crests! 350 in total!" Evelyn beamed cheerfully.
Although she was in her early thirties, her warm and playful attitude made her seem like a woman in her twenties!
Mrs. Bell nodded with a pleasant smile, infected by Evelyn's cheeriness. She took out her wallet and handed three bills of one hundred, and one of fifty to Evelyn, and received the paper bag with medicine from her.
"W-What about the cream? Did you make it?" Mrs. Bell asked in a whisper.
With a knowing smile, Evelyn teased, "You're in quite a hurry Mrs. Rosa." She chuckled before sighing. "Unfortunately, it will take three of four more days to make the cream."
The cheeks of Mrs. Rosa flushed in a healthy pink color. "N-No, I'm not in a hurry at all. Then I'll come after four days! Take care Evelyn, come to my stall if you need any vegetables! I have fresh onions and tomatoes today!" Mrs. Rosa spoke in one breath and exited the shop in a hurry.
"Haha…" Evelyn let out a dry chuckle and shook her head. "Too shy. The people in this town are too shy." She sighed.
Throughout the day, Evelyn would head to the lab in the back to work on the cream and other medicines, and she would come to the counter when she heard the sound of the bell. She made a decent amount of money today by selling a variety of items.
She sold some cold medicine, two perfumes to two ladies, and even a medicine that helps one perform at night to a shy gentleman. Having worked to the bone, it was already evening as Evelyn sat on the small seat at the counter.
"It's getting late… Where is that son of mine.." She muttered. In fact, it was common for Zefir to come home late, but today, Evelyn was feeling quite restless. "Don't tell me… did something happen to him?" She frowned.
She had felt this uneasy feeling a lot of times in her life. And each time she felt it, Zefir had suffered from something. One time he had been bitten by a stray dog, another time he had broken his arm. One could say it was her motherly intuition. "No… let's not think like that!" She shook her head to dismiss these thoughts.
Just then, the bell of the shop rang again, and Antonio Pitti entered. Evelyn stood up from her seat, forgetting to greet him because of her thoughts.
"Evelyn." Antonio smiled.
"Mr. Antonio." Evelyn greeted with a polite smile and a nod. "How can I help you?"
Antonio arrived in front of the counter and showed Evelyn his hand. "I was careless while cutting meat and accidentally cut my finger." He smiled as he showed the cut on his finger. It was deep, with flowing blood, but it wasn't severe.
"Oh!" Evelyn quickly rushed to the shelf and brought out some items. She cleaned the wound and applied some paste before wrapping it in a light bandage. "You must be careful! Thankfully it isn't too bad!" Evelyn cautioned.
"Haha.. this is common in my line of work, but I'll keep that in mind." Antonio chuckled and looked around. "Is Zefir not back yet?"
"No.." Evelyn sighed with a hint of worry. "Did you need him for something?" She asked, raising her eyebrow curiously.
"N-Nothing." Antonio shook his head hurriedly. "I was just worried about him, because the fox escaped towards the forest yesterday." He sighed. "But he's an experienced boy, I'm sure he'll be fine." He smiled.
"Yes.. I think so too.." Evelyn forced a smile, burying her uneasy feelings deep in her heart.
Deep inside a forest, in a hidden cave tunnel, Zefir heaved heavy breaths as he sat down on the ground, fiddling with something. After his adrenaline wore off, the cut on his arm began burning with pain. So, wasting no time, he took out some medicine and bandage from his bag and began treating himself.
He applied the medicine with clenched teeth. Damn this bird to hell! It took a lot of willpower to endure the pain when the medicine touched his wound. As the cut was deep, and he didn't have anything to clean the wound for the time being, he applied the balm made for cuts and the anti-infection medicine before wrapping his arm with layers upon layers of bandage tightly.
That should do it… Feeling that his wound had stopped flowing blood, he sighed in relief. Then he moved his gaze towards the beast in front of him. Right… how do I take that object out from its chest now… He didn't bring a knife with him.
It was not that he forgot about it, but if a knife went missing from his kitchen, his mother would be too suspicious of him. And he didn't want to waste money buying old knives from old man Khom.
"Haah..", just as he sighed, he saw a speckle of light in front of him. "Huh?" He moved his gaze towards the chest of the beast.
His eyes widening, he saw an amazing scene in front of him. The light grew like threads, interweaving in on itself. It slowly formed into a spherical orb like object, shining with different colored light inside of it.
This…. Zefir was speechless. He didn't even need to cut open the beast like the snake did in his dream. The object was forming by itself right on the air in front of him.
After the object completely formed, it stayed floating there in the air, glowing with a bedazzling and bewitching light.
Zefir extended his hand cautiously, and touched the orb glowing with light blue, green and white light. Cold… He subconsciously moved his hand away. Confirming he wasn't harmed through the touch, he finally mustered enough courage to grab the orb.
He pulled the orb and examined it carefully. Fascinating.. I've never seen anything like this. It.. It feels like it's surging with some strange power… He gulped. The snake wants to devour this for its power? Right, now that I think about it, the beast did show some strange powers. It hardened it's skin like metal, extended it's legs like a whip.. That was too dangerous…. Zefir shivered thinking about his bout with the beast. I really was lucky.. He looked at his bandaged left arm as he held the orb with his right hand.
Now, will the ring come to life and devour this orb like in the dream? Just as he was about to check the ring on his hand, he saw his right hand come closer and closer to his face. "Huh!?" He was startled and tried to control his hand, but it was too late.
His right hand moved by its own and brought the orb to his mouth. Thankfully, the orb was smaller than his mouth, or the force by which his hand pushed the orb would have broken his teeth for certain.
After pushing the orb deep in his mouth, his hand blocked his own mouth, preventing him from spitting it out. Zefir widened his eyes as the cold orb reached his throat.
Gulp
Zefir gulped as a reflex, sending the orb inside his stomach. N-No! What did I just do! Don't tell me, the ring!? He glanced at the ring, but he suddenly heard a sound like a glass shattering inside his brain, and felt the orb melt in his stomach.
Then, like a jolt, he felt as if the orb had turned into liquid and had spread out all over his body, melding with his blood, bones, nerves and flesh.
"Aughhhhh!" He screamed in agony as he felt like his body was melting and freezing up like ice at the same time. What's happening to me… I feel like I must keep my focus.. focus.. Mom… Help me.. focus…. He thought about his mother, and other happy thoughts to keep his focus and fight through the pain.
"Fuck! Fuck! Aughhhhhhh!" He screamed and pulled his bag, then clenched the leather strap with his teeth to endure the extreme pain that came. He then saw an image of his heart was being carved from the inside, and the light blue, green and white liquid flow into the carved space, forming itself into a shape slowly.
"Hnggggg" He could not endure the pain of his heart being carved from the inside and could no longer think or focus. With his mind giving up, his body began experiencing a catastrophic change. Slowly, his legs began turning thin, his toes were beginning to sharpen and extend, small white feathers started growing all over his body, and even his arms extended and started to change into wings.
Due to the transformation and the pain, Zefir had already fainted. He was slowly turning into a beast. But before the changes could continue, the butterfly on his ring began emitting a light red mist. Slowly, the mist began spreading like a thin thread and reached Zefir's head. The mist then wrapped around Zefir, enclosing him in what seemed like a cocoon.
The changes began reverting, the feathers shrunk back and disappeared inside Zefir's body, his legs, toes and arms began going back to normal. The red mist even entered Zefir's body and covered his carved heart.
Because of the red mist, the shape began forming faster and faster, until a small three faced triangle with constantly changing colors formed. Two faces out the of three faced front, and the third one was facing backwards, hidden from view. Then, on one of the two front faces, an illusory blood red sigil scrawled itself in a hurry. A flowing red line snaked down and split into two, turning into a diamond like vertical eye. The left end of the vertical eye continued down into another flowing line, which continued to a spiral. The right end of the vertical eye split again, but it went inside the eye to form a vertical pupil.