The Understudy of an Alchemist

72. Freeing The SunDrop

By the time that I awoke in the nestled pile of old blankets, it took me a moment to realise that the room was now completely empty of people, unlike it had been last night, with the pillows and blankets folded up and placed in neat little piles beside the door.

Rubbing my sore, reluctant to open eyes, I sat upright and stretched, feeling the tension in my back achieved from sleeping on a wooden bench cracking and releasing. Warm, but very weak winter sunlight shone through the small grimy window and upon my shoulder blades, as I shifted off the table top and slipped my feet into my boots waiting down below for me.

I then pushed the covers on the benchtop aside, hunting for my scarf, before finally locating it shoved into one of the gaps between two different planks. Smoothing out the wrinkles the best I could, I knotted it around my neck, adjusting the tightness of it slightly by slipping my finger underneath the material.

Finally, I combed my fingers through my ebony black hair in an attempt to make it look less like I had walked through a bush backwards, and then gathered up the blankets and folded them as neatly as I could manage, which granted, wasn't really that neat.

Plopping the plush square and cushion in the pile next to the others, I then opened the door and stepped out into the front room where everyone was situated. It was bustling with people, Vladimir filling Bierkrugs with liquor and passing them to the out-stretched hands behind the counter. "Nothing like day drinking during a crisis." He elaborated to a questioning mother, who huffed and walked away, carrying her toddler son under her arm like a suitcase.

As I awkwardly side-stepped the masses, I scanned the room until I spotted Varian, Ivy and Petunia, the latter who was waving frantically in my direction. I cautiously pushed past the swarms of people, and made my way over to them.

"Sorry we didn't wake you." Was the first thing that Ivy said once I reached them. "You just looked so cosy that no-one could bring themselves to do so." Petunia nodded, making a pretend angry glare in my direction. "Why didn't you tell us that you were a blanket thief!!!!" She stated the words as if they were the most disgraceful insult to ever receive. I laughed at this, as Varian looped his arm around mine and squeezed it. "Never-mind, it's good to see you up at last." The temptation to kiss him arose once more, but I dismissed the idea just as soon as it came. It would be a stupid idea.

We all slowly transitioned into silence for several minutes, all of us with the same burning question, yet accompanied with the same reluctance to ask it. The eerie silence continued for what felt like eighty-three centauries, until without warning, Petunia, who was fiddling with the cuffs of her sleeves, blurted out, "What exactly are we going to do??"

All heads turned to her, as if we hadn't had that inquiry floating around in her own heads. Varian exhaled several times, before eventually admitting, "I....I don't know." His eyes darted over to the door, then back to us. "We just have to wait until Rapunzel returns."

My blood rate seemed to rise by six folds, as panic took ahold of me. "Where is she??" I practically demanded, as Ivy waved her hands reassuringly. "It's okay, she's just gone out for a ride on Maximus. We got Eugene to sweet talk Arianna into going with her to ensure that she didn't attempt to take back Corona single handedly."

She looked back over to me for almost confirmation. "She did try to do that with the Saporians after all." I nodded in agreement at this. "Good idea. She can be a little reckless on some occasions." Petunia then without warning thrust a piece of buttered bread on a wooden plate towards me. "Oh by the way, here's breakfast."

I took the outstretched plate and inspected the food upon it. Petunia noticed my critical expression and simply shrugged. "Sorry, it was all that they had. You need to get some food into you for today. We've got a big day ahead of us." I nodded, and took a bite of the slightly stale bread and offered her a small smile. She beamed excitedly as if she'd just seen a small kitten and duckling sleeping together.