Little Preparations

As Alfroth leaves the comforting hot water, he quickly puts on spare clothes and rushes out of the bathroom. Meanwhile, Mauka argues with Carmilla for the key to the room where she stayed that morning, where all her gear is stored there.. Alfroth ignores the commotion and hastily makes his way to his room to escape the useless argument, which will have no result. As he changes into comfortable night attire, he can't help but overhear snippets of their conversation. As usual, Mauka argues for the room with Carmilla, but soon the voices calm down, signaling that a victor has emerged.

He focuses on preparing for the night, carefully arranging his belongings, cleaning the floor, making his bed and taking a moment to gaze out of the window at the moonlit sky when suddenly Mauka barges in. 'Hey, Carmilla's being stupid, so let me sleep here for the night.'

'No,' Alfroth instantly rejects her.

'What do you mean NO? Remember I am taking you with me tomorrow, so listen to me for once,' Mauka speaks aggressively dismissing any further attempts from alfroth.

Mauka makes her way to his bed and sits on it, looking outside with her brother.

'Pretty, isn't it?' Alfroth asks her. Mauka nods, and Alfroth asks her again 'Sister, how much have seen of the world?'. 

'Not that much' mauka replies in a dull voice.

'Where was the farthest place you went to?' 

'i don't know' 

Before Alfroth can bring up any more questions, Mauka kicks him off the bed and tells him to prepare a bed for himself on the floor with the extra sheets. Alfroth, knowing that arguing with his sister wouldn't result in anything, simply complies and prepares a bed for himself.

Mauka grabs the lantern, turns the wick down, lifts the glass, and blows the flame out, leaving only moonlight in the room. After a long day, both of them feel very tired and swiftly fall asleep for their trip tomorrow.

As the first light of the morning falls on Alfroth, he wakes up to an ordinary morning. He changes his clothes to something more fitting for work and runs to the front counter of the inn where Carmilla sits, wiping the floor. Alfroth greets her with a "good morning" and offers to help, but she refuses and tells him to tend to the chickens instead. Without any hesitation, Alfroth runs to the back of the inn.

Before heading to the chicken coop, Alfroth stops by the bathroom to splash some water on his face, washing away the last remnants of sleepiness. He makes his way to the metal container filled with grol juice situated just aside of the coop and, with a bit of strength, pours a full bucket for the chickens.

Knowing the chickens' ferocity while drinking grol juice, Alfroth carefully moves to the side of the coop and slowly opens the little door. The moment the coop opens, four hens rush out and straight for the grol juice, completely emptying the whole bucket, leaving only some for the two yellow chicks that follow behind. Alfroth looks inside for eggs, but he finds none. 'Bad day,' he thinks to himself as he watches over the chickens playing with the chicks, mostly pushing them around, but that is normal for them to do.

Suddenly, he hears Carmilla's voice calling out, 'Alfroth, come quick.' Upon hearing this, he rushes inside towards Carmilla.

'Go wake up your lazy sister. Both of you need to get ready for today,' Carmilla's voice sternens as she tries to wipe a stain off the floor. 'And don't forget to tell her that she needs to head out to do her chores instantly.' Alfroth nods and follows her command, making his way to his room. He quietly opens the door only to find his sister half awake.

'You're awake already? That's unusual,' Alfroth says with a hint of surprise.

'Shut up you moron' Mauka replies being annoyed by her brother.

'Well, then please fix the bed, and Carmilla aunt told me to tell you to go do your chores this instant,' Alfroth says as he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. Mauka sighs, knowing the amount of work she now has to do because of this, she relaxes her muscles not wanting to leave the comfort and warmth of her bed.

Mauka musters enough strength to stretch her hand and her body, picking up the pouch Carmilla gave her the day before. She walks outside the room towards the counter and leaves the inn, ignoring Carmilla's gaze. As she makes her way, Alfroth calls out from behind her, asking about her destination.

'To the Bazaar, I will be back in a bit,' Mauka responds, she starts walking to the bazaar, leaving him behind.

'But we have to go, don't we?' alfroth shouts to her

'After the bazaar' she says while waving one of her hand in the air.

'She always does this' Alfroth mumbles to himself. Disappointed, Alfroth returns to the inn to tend to the chores around the building.

An hour later, Mauka returns to the inn and finds Alfroth sitting alone, looking bored. She walks towards him and tries to engage him in conversation, but he ignores her, facing the other way. Letting out a sigh, Mauka slams a big satchel onto the counter, capturing Alfroth's attention.

Mauka puts her hand into the satchel and brings out a set of clothes, handing them to Alfroth, saying 'Go get changed into these.' Alfroth questions the clothes, but Mauka pushes them in his face. not seeing any point to argue, he makes his way to his room and disappears trusting mauka with his appearance.

While Alfroth is gone, Mauka goes to the room at the back of the counter with the satchel in her hand and knocks on it. A voice replies, 'come in.'. Mauka opens the door and enters the room. 

'Fraadh, why are you not sleeping?' mauka asks while closing the door behind her. Mauka turns to see the room, and sees fraadh laying on the bed adjacent to the window, looking a bit more frail and weak than before. His long, silky black hair still maintains its shine as it cascades around him but he still maintains his smile, some pills lay on the bedside table with a glass filled with water.

'I don't sleep all the time, you know,' Fraadh replies.

'So, did Carmilla tell you about our departure?'

'Yeah, she keeps me up-to-date on pretty much everything.'

'How about you, are you feeling better now?'

'Not really, but it's fine. I get to see the chickens playing around all day.'

Suddenly, Fraadh blocks his mouth with both of his hands and then with one of his hand, he points towards one of the buckets laying around. Mauka follows and immediately brings one of the buckets towards him and holds it below his mouth. After his session, Mauka removes the bucket and gives him a towel.

'There is so much blood now,' Mauka says, shocked, looking inside the bucket.

'Don't worry about it and just leave it. Aunty will take care of it,' Fraadh says, while cleaning his mouth.

'It's way more than before. Your illness got worse again,' Mauka says in a concerning voice.

'Mauka, please don't tell Alfroth about this. That kid would get way too concerned.'

'Fine, I will not tell Alfroth. But you know that this is very, very bad. We need to take you to a healer soon.'.

'With what, Mauka? I don't want to waste any further of yours or Aunt's Bama on me,' Fraadh replies repulsively and now breathing heavily through his mouth. Calming his breathing as he relaxes on the back of his bed again

'But—'

'Mauka, listen, my legs and stomach have already blackened, and soon it will reach my heart. At most i may only have a year left now. So please let it be,' Fraadh looks to his legs covered by white sheets.

Suddenly the door slams open with Alfroth standing there in his brand new set of clothes surprising fraadh and mauka.