Chapter 105: Dad

Alex Sandclaw’s POV:

There was a small moment of silence, then Felix asked, “You mean, home-home, as in where you grew up and… where your parents live?”

I groaned. “Yeah. There should be another town just a few hours away from here that might also have a healer. Can’t we go there instead?”

“I’m sorry Alex, but I don’t think that’s wise,” he said, though I expected that already. “You’re injured and need medical attention now, not in a few hours. Even talking like this is wasting precious time. At the very least we should check if your village indeed has a healer, and if it does, we can be in and out before your parents even realize you were here.”

I shook my head, knowing that Felix couldn’t see me doing it. He didn’t understand. My dad would know the instant I was back. But he was right that we couldn’t waste time. The sharp pain from the wound had long since turned into a dull persistent throbbing, but I felt weaker with each passing minute. Even with our best first aid efforts, I was still slowly losing some blood. I was pretty sure there had been something on the abomination’s claws that slowed healing and promoted blood loss. Hopefully Parsons—the village healer—could remove it. Or at the very least, close the wound so my body could deal with it until we got back to the Academy. It should only be a few days flying from here.

“Alright, but let’s be quick about it,” I said, knowing it was pointless. “See that white tent next to that sizable house in the middle of the village? That’s the healer’s place.”

“Hold on, then!”

I leaned in as Felix swooped down. Even from up here, I could see we already caused a commotion, and I already knew we’d cause an even bigger one in just a moment. There was no avoiding it, though. Unless I went in alone from several kilometers away, Felix’s presence was just going to cause panic. Everyone on campus knew about him, but these people didn’t. They would just think he was a monster, or otherwise, some kind of flying mount.

As expected, the moment we touched down in front of the Parson’s shop, people started shouting and panicking like their tails were on fire.

“Monster!” one shouted.

“Aaaaargh!” another shouted.

I sat up in my saddle and shouted at the top of my lungs. “Shut up!” People fell quiet once they noticed me sitting on Felix’s back, though they kept their distance. I gestured to Felix. “This is not a monster, so can everyone please calm down! This is just my flying mount, it presents no danger. I’m just here to use your healer, then we’ll leave again.”

I didn’t like talking about Felix like this, but we had both agreed after the last village that Felix talking only caused more panic, while this likely worked better. And it did. The people, many of whom I recognized—and many of whom probably recognized me—started dispersing. There wasn’t any more panic, but no-one wanted to be near the large scaly ‘beast’, nor its relatively high-leveled rider. For many people here, level 30 was higher than they’d reach in decades of life.

I turned back to Felix and told him to continue on to the tent. He huffed, but did as I ‘asked’. Once we were at the tent, he lowered himself to the ground and I got off, groaning in pain as I did so. I’d been sitting on his back pretty much all day and my muscles were sore, and on top of that, my wounds had started to scab over slightly despite the anticoagulant and moving them wasn’t pleasant at all.

Felix nudged with his snout in concern, still not speaking. I rubbed his forehead. “I’m fine Felix, though let's get inside before that changes.”

I walked through the open flap of the tent and saw the village healer Parsons sleeping in his luxurious chair. I was pretty sure it was partially made of wood. I’d never really paid attention to this before, but he was pretty well off. I guessed that came with the territory when you were the village’s—and really, the region’s— only healer.

Felix followed me inside and I closed the flap behind us. Felix barely fit in the tent with me, too much space being taken up by the several beds and tables full of supplies.

I walked over to the bed near Parsons’ chair and sat down, then kicked him in the shin. Not hard, but hard enough that his eyes flew open to see what attacked him.

“W-what?” he stammered, looking around the room. He flinched back when he saw Felix lying in the corner, staring at him intently. And then his eyes fell on me. “Who are—wait, is that you, Alex? What are you doing here?”

I rolled my eyes. “To get healed, obviously. Preferably before my dad gets here.”

His eyes went to my shoulder, and he winced. But ever the professional, he put any distractions to the side and leaned in closer to get a better look. He frowned. “Well, it’s a good thing you came, that’s a really nasty injury,” he said, then reached out to the bandages, only to stop. “Can I take a look?”

I nodded. “Of course, though I won’t be paying you to reapply new bandages.”

Parsons waved Alex away. “Of course, of course. We won’t discuss the price until I’ve seen the full extent of the injury.”

I winced as Parsons unwrapped the bandages and carefully inspected the wound. Not interested in watching someone poke around in my flesh, I turned my other way and looked at Felix. He’d lifted his head from the floor and was staring intently at the entrance flap. He glanced back at me and noticed me looking at him. He aggressively pointed at the entrance and mouthed the words ‘someone is coming’ to me.

I suppressed a sigh as I already had a good idea of who it was. With nothing I could do about it, I turned back to Parsons. “So, how much to heal this?”

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Parsons frowned. “There’s an anti-healing effect on your wounds that will be difficult to get past, so it’ll cost you,” he said, then did some quick math on his fingers. “It’ll be fifteen silver.”

That… was actually rather cheap. While traveling after I left home, I had to get healing from time to time. In the cities, the prices usually started at twenty silver for minor wounds. Still, it was more than I had. I carried a single silver with me at all times as a reminder of home, but that wasn’t nearly enough to pay for this.

Parsons must have seen it on my face because he said, “If you don’t have the silver, I also accept goods of a slightly higher value.”

I thought about it for a moment, then turned to Felix. “Felix, could you throw me my share of the mimic cores?”

Felix nodded and searched around in his pouch while Parsons stared on in fascination. He threw the core to me and I caught it. I was about to hand it to Parsons when the inevitable finally happened.

Someone wearing light armor and with a sword tied to his hip came in through the flap. A quick inspection told me that he was level 44, a little higher than when I’d left. He was of the alligator lizard type, broad shouldered, cold eyes, and with green sturdy scales. Despite that, I knew my Physical Attribute was higher than his—though I didn’t have the same combat Skills he did. And with my injury, if it came to a fight, it would be a tough match to win. But I wasn’t alone, and with Felix by my side, I knew I’d win with ease. I just hoped it didn’t come to that, and I hated that I had to even consider planning for the eventuality.

Dad flinched and cursed at the sight of Felix, then turned to us. “What’s going on here?” he demanded. “There were reports of…” he trailed off when he spotted me, his snout hanging open.

I waved weakly at the man, thoughts of fighting leaving my mind as we stared face to face. Despite everything, I had missed him. “Hi, dad,” I said. “It’s been a while, how have you been?”

Dad stood speechless, his mouth working, but no words coming out. I risked a quick glance at Felix, who was staring daggers at the man. I couldn’t blame him for feeling that way, though I wasn’t sure how to feel about him myself. On the one hand, I never wanted to see dad again. He’d said some awful, unkind, and terrible things before I left, but despite all that, I really had missed him. I missed how we would train with our swords every other day, how he would cook meals for us sometimes during his breaks, how he would give me a hug and a kiss each day when he came home. But I knew that if I had stayed, that he would’ve kicked me out the very next morning. He was a loving dad most of the time, but he had made no point in hiding his opinions—no, his hate—of gay people.

He had made it very clear what he thought of me, even if he hadn’t yet realized at the time that it was me who he was talking about. And I didn’t think I could ever forgive him for it.

Dad stood there for another few moments, trying to find the words for what he was trying to say, before giving up and rushing over and doing something I had never expected him to do in a million years—envelope me in a tight hug and cry down my shoulder. I was so surprised I didn’t even howl out in pain as he disturbed my wounds.

“Please don’t leave again,” he said through his sobs. “I missed you so much.”

Not sure what else to do, I gritted my teeth against the pain and patted dad on the back. Then I remembered how he called me a star-damned abomination, and I began feeling sick from the hug. I gently, but firmly pushed him away.

He looked confused for a moment, then glanced at my shoulder and probably came to the wrong conclusion. And maybe the right one, too—I was only here to get my shoulder healed, and then I’d leave again. If that’s what he thought, he wasn’t wrong. There was no way that I’d be staying any longer than strictly necessary.

Though maybe I’d see mom and my little brother before I left, too. If only to say goodbye properly this time.

Dad’s expression had turned a little colder, and he turned to Parsons. “You’ll heal him for free, or I’ll conveniently forget to protect your shop the next time the monsters attack.” Parsons gulped and nodded. Dad turned back to me. “I’ll wait outside. We’ll talk after you’re done.”

He turned around, finally noticing Felix again. He frowned, glancing back at me a few times, before shaking his head and making his way outside. The moment he was through, I let out a sigh of relief. I was very much starting to remember why I’d left.

I turned to Parsons and handed him the mimic core. I wasn’t going to accept dad’s kindness. “Take it. It’s quite rare and valuable to crafters and enchanters.”

He took my payment and started healing me without another word. He occasionally glanced up either at Felix or the entrance flap, but otherwise worked without distraction. After fifteen minutes of uncomfortably squirming flesh and odd smells, the wound was cleaned, healed, the scars removed, and my scales regrown. Though with what Sekera and Felix had told me about healing, I’d probably not sleep too well until I had an Academy trained healer take a look at it when we got back, but it was good enough until then.

I thanked Parsons, and we left. Dad was indeed waiting for me. He’d already wiped away the tears, and it seemed he had remembered why I’d left, since his expression was a lot less welcoming.

“You only came back to get healing,” he asked.

I nodded; it was the truth after all. “This was the closest village with a healer.”

“Oh,” was all dad said. He sounded disappointed. “I’m guessing you will not be staying long, then?”

I shook my head. “I’m not wanted here. I want to talk with mom before I leave, but I’ll probably be gone by the end of the day.”

“I see,” he said, falling silent while he thought. “For what it's worth, your mother and I are sorry we made you think you couldn’t come to us with your problems. We could’ve helped you.”

I sighed, not sure how dad had made me feel yet even more disappointed with him. “Dad, I’m gay, not sick or addicted to anything. The only ones who have a problem with that are you and mom.”

Dad took a small step back and scowled, unused to my directness, but took a deep breath. “We’ll talk about it later. Now come, let’s go home,” he said. “Your mother is probably already there.”

I climbed onto Felix’s back and told dad to lead the way. He frowned at me sitting on Felix, but didn’t say anything about it, luckily. He was probably dying to ask what was up with me riding Felix, but he cared too much about his public image to cause a scene.

We followed him through the streets and I noticed it was a lot quieter than usual. I thought it was maybe because of Felix landing in the center of the village, but that was a while ago now. They knew it was safe enough, and they’d never let something like this stop them in the past. They should’ve already been walking about and doing their jobs again.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

Dad glanced up at me, then at the empty streets around us. “They’re either huddled up inside, or have fled.”

“Why would they flee?” I asked, now concerned.

Dad shrugged. “The constant monster attacks,” he said. I expected him to elaborate, but he didn’t. I sighed and leaned back in the saddle. It was clear dad hadn’t liked me talking back to him. Well, that was too bad. I wasn’t going to let him trample over me anymore. I was gay, and that was fine. I couldn’t care less about what they thought.

I hoped.