“...Cain?”

“Theodore?” He said, a little less confused than me.

For a moment, we just looked at each other. What was he doing here? The last time I saw him, he was like a statue when Lyon left him. That’s when the thought hit me.

‘Oh no, he is angry. He is angry at Lyon and wants to take it out on me!’

“No! Cain, please no bath! I’m sorry!”

He pulled back his head in confusion, weirded out by my loud apology.

Shaking his head, he said. “What are you saying? Bath? Why would I?”

When he said that, I felt a lot lighter for some reason, and the pain in my butt from the crash wasn’t there anymore.

“Anyway, next time Theodore, watch where you are going.”

“Y-yes. Sorry.”

I quickly picked up the book as his brown grew high. “What is this?”

“Oh, em...” I waited. I didn’t know if I should tell him or not.

I didn’t like Cain. He was aways mean to me and Lyon. When Lyon asked him to explain a word, he aways said no, or when I asked Papa a question, I’ve seen him many times, more than six, roll his eyes angrily. And most of all, he aways frowned when we called Papa ‘Papa’. Papa was Papa, how else should we call him? Bartholomew Archibald Pembroke Dubanowski?

Looking back at the book, I nodded and flipped the pages to the Gentian.

If there was something else about him, was that he cared about Papa just as much as I and Lyon did. When I told him what happened, he wanted to run to Papa. If it wasn’t for me stopping him by hugging him, which was very hard and gross, he would have gone in the middle of the night. Didn’t he know monsters come out at night? For someone two times me, he was very stupid sometimes.

Maybe he wasn’t answering Lyon’s questions because he couldn’t.

Finding the page, I gave him the book. I couldn’t help but grin as more time passed. Since I was the one to find the magical flower that could help Papa, it was only natural for him to praise me.

I could already picture it.

“Hail Theodore our savior! I, Cain, the terrible, stupid, and grumpy big brother, could only hope to be someone close to your genius. Oh, your greatness, what should we do?”

“Don’t worry Cain! I, as the genius I am, of course, know what we should do! We should go to Mr. Orion and ifom him of Gen... Gen... em... op the flower!”

“EH! Why did I not think of that!? Ah, it must be because I am not a genius! Yes, Theodore, let’s quickly go! Come on, I’ll take you on a piggyback!”

While preparing my speech, making sure I didn’t make any mistakes, Cain’s brows reached closer the more he read. Doing my best not to ruin the moment and spoil the fact that I knew exactly what he was going to say and act, I waited. After a minute, he finally looked back at me.

The moment I was waiting for was here!

“I’m pretty sure you don’t have to worry about your skin, so the reason you gave me this it to tell me you wanted… tea?”

Suddenly, the music that played for my geniusness stopped.

“...what?”

He turned the book around, showing me what I gave him. At that moment, the image in my mind crashed down. It wasn’t Gentian. There were five pictures of the same flower in its different colors: red, white, purple, blue, and orange.

‘Where did it go? It was right there!’

Quickly taking the book off his hands, I flipped the page, and depression hit me where it hurt the most. It was the next page, pickles! While giving the book to him, it flipped over!

‘No! My piggyback!’

All. I lost it all. The praises... the music... the piggyback... All of them gone because of a single mistake. Pickle page!

Angrily turning the book around, having lost my piggyback, I pointed and said.

“It’s this flower. It says here it can help Papa. Read!”

“Okay, okay, why are you so angry?”

“You wouldn’t unestand!”

Cain’s brows turned pointier, but I was too angry myself to care. Thankfully, he did not say anything back, because I might have been in trouble.

Giving him the book, I again waited for him to read, but I didn’t let my mind run wild. I knew better because that’s what a genius does haha! Only a true genius learns from his mistakes, such as myself.

Having said that, it didn’t mean the music and the praises didn’t return. They were there, and stronger than ever. They slowly whispered that now, since there wouldn’t be any mistakes, nothing would get between me and my piggyback.

‘No, no, why am I even thinking that? Cain doesn’t like me, why would he give me a piggyback? But maybe…?’

The seconds passed slower than ever until the sound of the book closing made me open my eyes.

‘Huh? W-what is going on?’

Cain was smiling, the same smile he had for the last week when he ‘awakened’, but most of all, he was... hugging me. It felt... weird. Super weird!

‘What is this? Ah, stop it, you weirdo!’

Cain had never ever hugged either me or Lyon... And maybe it was for the better... A few seconds passed, and, feeling weird, I hugged him back. Finally, after what felt like more than 6 seconds, he let go.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Thank you, Theodore. With that, we can help Father. Let’s go quickly and show it to Mr. Orion.”

“Y-yes. Oh... em...”

“What is it?” He stopped, turning back to me.

“Can... Can you take me on a piggyback?”

“No.” He said, without even needing time to think.

‘Pickles! It was worth a try.’

I was excited that what I found could help Papa, but I was getting worried the closer we reached Mr. Orion’s home. Standing before the door, we could hear Papa and Mr. Orion talking, but not clearly enough to unestand what they were saying. That was until we put our ears closer to the door.

“...shit.”

‘EH!’ I jumped back. That was Papa’s voice. He... he said a bad word!

“Pap-asdgasd!” Before I could scream, Cain quickly covered my mouth.

“Mmmm mmmmmmm!” Of course, he ignored me and instead pressed his ear against the door.

See? He is so bad! Not a shush or a finger, but all his hands holding my mouth shut. If he shushed at me, I would have stopped but no, he used a hand so that I couldn’t speak even if I wanted to. Truly unpeakable as Papa would say.

Neither Papa nor Mr. Orion seemed to have heard us because we could still hear them. Giving Cain the angry look he always loves to give me and Lyon, I also put my ear over the door.

“You know, you have to stop with the cursing. How are you even raising children with a mouth like that?”

“Obviously, I never curse out loud when I am around them. And I’m always with them for your information.” Papa said angrily, as if he wouldn’t ever make such a mistake, forgetting that he had done the exact thing a week ago.

“Really? Because the last few days, I only hear you swearing.” Mr. Orion pressed, but his voice sounded like he was having fun, unlike Papa.

“If a doctor wannabe was a bit more gentle, then I wouldn’t need to curse, now would I?”

“Oho, well, if you were more careful, you wouldn’t have ended up with this wannabe doctor, now would you?”

After that, the one-uping competition began, and in the next minutes I heard Papa say so many bad words, I didn’t even want to scream at him anymore.

‘We need to buy more soap!’

“Look, jokes aside, you’re a real mess. And it’s not even the broken arm, nor is the burned one. If you continue like that, that’s gonna be the least of your worries. But you already know that, don’t you?”

“I know, Orion, I know. Better than anyone. But, what am I going to do, cry about a broken core and never use Quint again? No. I’m not going to stop over something so trivial. Cain just awakened, and Lyon and Theodore just learned about Elemancers. You think they will magically stop wanting to learn more about it?” Papa was serious. Maybe even more serious than when the beasts arrived in the vocano.

“I will show them, and teach them whatever they ask of me, and if the core breaks then it breaks. Let me remind you what I said when I returned here fifteen years ago. I returned for these children.”

“Yes, yes, I remember that day.” Mr. Orion butted in as Papa spoke. “Everyone in the village does, and none of us will forget. ‘The pride of the village has returned!’ Everyone was yelling that for weeks. But, to keep it real with you, I never understood why.”

There was a silence. My brows turned pointy, and I pressed my ear harder to the door. Papa saying all these things made it really hard for me to not just run inside and hug him. He was sick but wanted to take care of us. But hearing Mr. Orion also made me wonder why he would do that.

Still, no voice came from inside. I sniffled my nose and cleared the tears that hadn’t left my eyes. Cain also looked very sad, but not crying like me. He looked back at me angrily, but it only made him look funny. It made me laugh a bit, and that made him even angrier.

“Because I promised I would,” Papa’s voice came from inside, spinning both mine and Cain’s heads back to the door.

With a sigh like Papa’s, Cain straightened his back and prepared to knock, but before he could Papa suddenly laughed loudly from inside.

“Bah! You never understood why? Why do I need a reason to return to my home village? You even made me say something so cringe, damn you.”

Cain’s shulders dropped.

Before Mr. Orion could say something to Papa, Cain knocked on the door. When the door opened, it made a funny sound, and Mr. Orion was surprised to see us. “Cain, Theodore, what brings you here at this hour? Is everything alright?”

“Ah... Hello Mr. Orion. Yes, everything is fine, it’s just...” Cain pointed to the book in my arms. “We wanted to show you something.”

“Of course, come inside, come inside. I’m sure you want to see Zephyr and he will be more than happy to see you.”

Following Mr. Orion inside, I ran at Papa, climbed onto the bed, and hugged him. It had only been a few hours... minutes? It was more than six, so it was a lot and I missed him. Cain played it cool and only nodded, but I saw him biting his lips.

“So, what was it you wanted to show me?” Mr. Orion asked.

‘Oh, right.’

“Em... this book. Em... it’s about flowers, and em...” I flipped through the pages to the Gentian. “It’s this one. Em... it said it can help with burns, so em... can it help, Papa?”

Mr. Orion took the book off my hands.

“Well, Theodore, skincare is always important after a certain age, but I don’t see how it can help with the burns. Or is it that you’re referring to the red one that makes good tea?”

My mouth dropped to the floor. ‘Again!? It happened again!? How!?’

Cain facepalmed and shook his head. “Mr. Orion, it’s the next page.”

“Oh, let me see... Ah yes, Gentian, I’ve heard of it before. Well, Theodore, if it makes you feel any better, Gentian can in fact help with Zephyr’s condition.”

Hearing that did make me feel better.

“But...”

‘I don’t unestand Mr. Orion. First, you tell me it can help but then you say but? Why do this? Is it fun? Maybe I should try it someday... I mean what is it?’

“…sadly, I don’t have any.” He paused but kept reading.

Pickle! Just when I thought I saved the day, it turns out it didn’t matter in the end.

“However...” Mr. Orion spoke up again.

At this point, he was doing it on purpose.

“Here it says where we can find it.” He paused again and continued reading.

‘Wait...’

“Still...”

And here it was.

“It will be very hard and dangerous to do so.”

“What? Why?” Cain asked, more than a little angry by Mr. Orion’s way of speaking.

“Because Gentian is a rare and delicate flower that only grows in the high reaches of the mountains, where the air is thin, and the environment is harsh. And on top of that, its petals are very fragile and can easily be damaged.” Mr. Orion explained, finally stopping with the big pauses.

“Still, that doesn’t explain why it is dangerous. Sure, the flower can be damaged, but we’ll just need to be careful.”

“It’s not so simple, Cain. Let’s just say the problem isn’t the thin air, which would be the biggest for children, you don’t factor that beasts will be lurking around.”

“Facor?” I asked whispery.

“Factor means, ‘take into consideration’,” Papa said in a low voice so that we didn’t interrupt the talk.

“I am not a child, and I am sure you’ve heard Mr. Orion, I awakened not long ago.” Cain put his hands to his sides and puffed up his chest.

“And that’s why I am not against it but, it’s not my decision.” Mr. Orion said, turning to Papa. “So, Mr. decision maker, what do you say?”

Papa looked at Mr. Orion with sharp eyes for the comment, closed them and, when he opened them again, said a single word. “No.”

“Why?” Cain asked as if he was in a hurry.

“Because it’s too dangerous,” Papa said without even needing time to think.

“But Father, I am not a child anymore. I am nine! And an Elemancer! I can do it.”

“Yeah, and I am coming as well!” I found the perfect time to strike... Or so I thought.

Everyone turned to look at me, but no one said anything. So many people looking at me was scary. It didn’t look like the perfect time to strike anymore.

“...What?” Papa asked, his voice scary, with no smile on his face.

“I... I want to go as well...” I said, my voice coming out low and shaky.

Papa’s voice got softer. “Theodore, it is very, very dangerous. There is no way I would be letting either you or Cain go into the mountains to find a flower over some trivial wounds. Orion here will fix me up. There is no reason for you to do so.”

“That’s not what we heard earlier...” I said in a whisper so low, I only unestood it because I was the one who said it. “We want Papa to be hethy again. And... we are sad without you... And, and we went to the vocano last week. If we can go there, why can’t we go to the moutains to find the flower for Papa?”

I felt my cheeks grow very hot and bit my lips to prevent them from trembling as I looked into Papa’s eyes. Holding his robe tightly, my lips hurt from the bite.

Papa wasn’t saying anything. He first looked away, then back to me, and after six and one seconds, he closed his eyes and sighed bigly.

“Fine, you can go to the mountains and find Gentian...”

“Yeah!” I threw my hands in the air.

“And...” He turned to Mr. Orion and smiled funnily.

“Mr. Doctor here will be helping you prepare for the trip and everything you’ll need help with. Won’t he?”