Chapter Text
”Who are you?!" Varian said angrily trying to pull the totem closer to him.
"That's classified information, Sweetheart." The blond said, pulling the totem closer to himself.
"Don't call me that." Said the black haired boy, pulling it back to him.
This continued for a while, the two boys going back and forth, yelling, and playing tug-of-war with the totem. That stopped when the stranger threw a smoke bomb.
"Catch you later sweetheart." was the last thing he said before disappearing.
"That asshole!" Varian yelled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Varian and Yong had convinced Yong's family to let him join the older boy's adventure, and they were walking through the woods. The two were trying to find ways they could potentially track down their mystery man, and get their totem back.
"Maybe we could try and get Ruddiger to pick up a scent?" tried Varian.
"Well maybe, but do you have anything that could help with that? Piece of clothing, an item you got off him, a strand of hair, anything that could trace us to him?
"Nope. Also, why would I have a strand of his hair?!"
Yong shrugged. "Just throwing out suggestions."
"Well, once we get the other totems there's got to be some sort of way we can get to the one from the fire trial."
"That won't be much of a problem.”
A new voice got their attention. They whipped their heads around as quickly as possible, Yong pulling out a pair of fireworks, while Varian pulled out the staff he retrieved from the fire trial; He had modified the staff so that it could fit small balls full of his alchemical solutions.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Varian said angrily, holding his staff up to the strangers face.
Except he wasn't a stranger. He was the one from the fire trial. The one that had stolen what Varian and Yong had worked so hard to get. This only made Varian's grip on his staff tighter.
This time, there was no mask. You could see the entirety of his face. Nothing to hide. He had a sharp jaw, and had an unreadable look on his face. (It definetley wasn’t one to trust that’s for sure)
“Well stripes, I came over to ya ‘cause I wanted to give back something of yours.” He said while reaching into his bag. He pulled out the fire totem and held it in front of him for Varian to take.
Varian straightened his back a bit, his staff now completely beside him. “What’s the catch?” He said, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
“No catch.” He said, putting his hands up in defense.
“Right, because you suddenly had a huge change of heart in the span of an hour.” Varain replied, still holding the staff up to the other.”
“Are you gonna take the totem or not?” The blond said, practically shoving the item in his face.
Varian let out a huff of annoyance, and yanked the totem out of his hands.
“Thank you. You gave us the totem, mission accomplished! You can leave now!” He said, jabbing the staff into the taller boys chest. Not enough to hurt, but enough for him to get the message Varian wanted him to go away.
“Chill out Freckles, I wanna help.”
“Help?”
“You heard me.”
“So there is a catch.”
“Whatever makes you happy hon.” He said shrugging.
Varian was going to kill this guy if he came up with any more pet names to call him.
“Varian.”
“What?”
“My name is Varian.” He said, lowering the staff. His guard wasn’t down however. If this ass tried anything funny, he would be able to react in a heartbeat.
“There we go. Now we’re gettin’ somewhere! The names Hugo, pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He said, leaning forward and holding out his hand to shake.
Varian handed the totem over to Yong, who put it in the wagon. He then begrudgingly shook Hugo’s hand, the blond grinning at him as he did so.
“Like I said, I’m here to help ya’.” Hugo said, putting a hand on his hip. “I wanna join your little journey and help you collect more of them totems.”
Varian looked at him dumbfounded.
“Come again?”
“I wanna come with you. Your ears alright?”
Varian could’nt help but let out a little snort. This guy wanted to help them? After messing with them and stealing their (rightfully earned) totem?
He was about to tell this wacko to get lost but then felt a tug at his pant leg.
He looked down to see Yong, looking up at him. He motioned for him to lean down.
“I think we can trust him.” The younger boy whispered to him.
“What?! We can’t trust him! He stole our totem! Who’s to say he won’t do it again?!” Varain whisper-yelled in response.
“Yeah, but he also gave it back! And, if you still don’t trust him, that’s fine. Isn’t there a saying? ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?’ If he stays with us, you can keep a close eye on him! Please?”
“Fine… but I still don’t trust him.”
“pspspsps”, Hugo said, mimicking them whispering. “You guys almost done with your secret conversation over there?”
Varian and Yong seperated, and stood up to face the man in front of them.
“Fine. You can come along, but I still don’t trust you.” Varian said, narrowing his eyes.
“Fine by me. Now, let’s get moving.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been about two hours since Hugo returned the totem to Yong and Varian, and they were an interesting duo.
Yong was a hyper kid, who loved to invent, but his creations never really worked out the way he wanted them to. This (somehow) never discouraged him, because he kept on making things no matter how much they blew up in his face.
Varian was a bit more complicated. He had been mostly silent for the duration of their time together, and kept to himself more than the younger boy. Hugo tried making small talk every now and then to learn about who he was going to be stuck with until the trip was over or Don said otherwise—but Varian was a tough egg to crack.
He was able to learn a little, however. He was able to learn that he was a year older than the ravenette, and that he came from Corona.
That got Hugo thinking. He had pulled a few jobs near Corona in recent times, and heard they weren’t doing so well. From what he heard, the kingdom had suffered a major attack, and there were rumors it had been done by some kid. Hugo never cared enough to look into it, but thought it might be a good conversation starter. Get him to open up, see if there was anything he could use.
He quickened his pace, and walked over to Varian once more.
“How you doin’ Stripes?” He said, walking beside the other boy.
“Varian.”
“Sure, now I wanted to ask a question.”
“Go ahead”, He said, not taking his eyes off the path ahead.
“You mentioned you were from Corona, yes?”
“What about it?” Varian’s eyes fell on Hugo this time.
“Nothin’, just heard you guys went through a rough attack a while back. Is that why you’re out here? to get away from that?” Hugo finished, grinning.
Varian’s eyes went wide, and he looked at Hugo with a sort of fear in his eyes that he was trying to mask as annoyance.
“How much do you know about that?” He asked.
“Not much, that’s why I’m askin’.” He replied with a shrug. “Now are you gonna answer my question?”
“In a way…yes.” He said, looking back down.
“‘In a way’, how mysterious.”
They walked for a little while longer, until Yong's complaining about his feet hurting became too much. They sat down in the grass and looked up at the sky.
“It’s getting late.” Varian said. The boy walked over to the wagon and took out some spare firewood he had collected from earlier in the trip.
He brought the Wood to where the three were sitting, and started to place it down in an organized pile in the grass. After he did that, he took two rocks and started to violently rub them against each other, watching little sparks fly as he did so. Varian did this above the firewood, until it eventually burst into flames.
He let out an amused sound as he sat in between Yong and Hugo.
"So what's the deal with the wagon Stripes? And the bag? Leave in a hurry?" Hugo said with a smug grin.
"Not like I had much to work with y'know", Varian snapped back. "I'm a kid with a goal, and clearly you are too since you wanted to come with us so bad." He finished with a scoff.
"Speakin' of, how old are you?" Hugo said, pointing at Yong
"I'm 11! I'll be twelve in a couple of months!" The younger boy exclaimed proudly.
That kid was 11? Jeez, he must either have some really chill parents, or he's one hell of a negotiator considering the fact he's out here.
"Okay, well, we have a fire running. I'm going to see what we have for food."
Varian pulled the wagon over to him, and found they had a couple of apples, carrots, rice, tomatoes, corn (from Yong's family), some eggs, 3/4 a loaf of bread, and some cheese.
He grimaced at the low amount of food they had. In his defense, he didn't realize he was going to have two more people come along with him on his journey. He didn't necessarily have to eat. Yong was young, and needed fuel, and Hugo...well he was just Hugo. Speaking of the older boy, he could always steal something for them...right? Even if it was just basic necessities?
No. Jeez, he needed to get it together. Stealing is wrong, and he knows that more than anyone.
He walked over and placed a (make-shift) pan he had made over the fire. "How's eggs and bread sound for dinner?" He said as cheerfully as he could as he started preparing the eggs.
Hugo just snorted and Yong gave two excited thumbs-up.
They ate and eventually were ready to go to bed. Because Hugo had joined unannounced, he did not have a sleeping bag like the other two. Varian gave him a sweater to use as a pillow, it was the best he could do for now. Hugo didn't seem to mind too much (he did make another snarky comment about Varian not being fit enough to do this, which he chose to ignore to the best of his ability), and Yong seemed to pass out immediately. As much as he tried to though, Varian couldn't sleep. He could barely shut his eyes.
What did this guy want? What was he doing here? Does he know...
Does he know about him?
What he did?
Who he is?
Something was off about him, but Varian didn't know what.
And hell he would find out if it was the last thing he ever did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hugo woke up to a weight on his chest, and something fluffy on his face. He opened his eyes to the best of his ability, and swatted at the thing on top of him. He sat up to find Varian's whole ass Raccoon on top of him.
Speaking of, the younger boy seemed to notice because he picked the animal up (which earned a screech from him), and chuckled.
"You gotta stop sleeping on peoples faces buddy!"
The raccoon stuck his tongue out in response, and Varian shook his head and placed Ruddiger on his shoulders.
The trip to the next kingdom was going to take forever
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And it sure as hell did. Hugo and Varian could hardly go five minutes without being at each others throats, Varian spent each night decoding more and more of his mothers journal, which caused him to be even more cranky than usual, Yong couldn't stop talking for the life of him--and though his interruptions were appreciated sometimes, it was a very easy way to irritate a certain sleep-deprived alchemist every now and again.
Long story short: It was pure chaos.
Days upon days of this had gone on and to everyone, it felt like it would never end.
Varian and Hugo had found themselves in a particularly heated argument over what routes to take and the next steps to get to Koto along with the air trial.
“Why can’t we take it like this?! It clearly states on the map that taking this route will be way shorter–”
“But if we go down this path, we’ll make it to Koto in 15 days instead of 20!”
“How would you even–?!”
“I’ve been down this way Stripes! Just let me–”
That's when Yong let out a frustrated yell, and glared at the other two alchemists who were suddenly speechless.
“It’s been going on like this for days!” He whined, “If you two don’t stop yelling at each other I’ll start walking home!”
It was completely silent after that, Ruddiger’s snores being the only audible sound. Varian and Hugo exchanged a look, and Varian let out a sigh.
“Okay”, He said, eyes shut while pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s been a tense couple of days. We’re running low on both supplies and morale, and planning our next move has proved to be seemingly…”, He cut himself off, shooting Hugo a glare.
”Difficult.”
Hugo only glared back and grumbled in response.
“So–”
“Pit stop!” Yong said excitedly, throwing his arms up in the air.
“That’s right”, Varian said, ruffling the younger boy's hair. He pulled the map out from his pocket.
“There’s a place here that’s close enough to where we are, and close enough to where we’re headed!” He said with as much excitement as he could.
“How much time’ll it take to get there, Stripes?”
“Five minutes”.
“Think you guys’ll be able to tolerate each other for five minutes?” Yong joked.
Varian and Hugo shared a look.
“Promise not to start nothin’?” Hugo asked, raising a (fairly suspicious-looking) eyebrow. (But that may have just been Varian)
“I won’t if you won’t” The other boy quipped back, shrugging.
Yong pumped his fist in the air with a soft “Yess!”, wearing one of the first genuine smiles since they’d been on this trip.
Things may not go so horribly after all.
Saying that it was a breath of fresh air when they reached the town was an overstatement. The boys practically pushed and shoved one another once they got there, almost falling on top of each other in the process.
They entered the town and scrambled to all different places, Yong to some (gun?) powder shop, Hugo to Demanitus-only-knows-where, and Varian to a vendor that was selling fruits. More specifically, apples.
He practically had to hold Ruddiger back as he bought two apples, each for a silver coin.
He was able to get lots of other things done too (which he felt accomplished for considering his limited funds), he was able to stock up on a bit more food, and chemicals he could turn into alchemical solutions that would come in handy.
Soon enough, they all met up back at the wagon, Yong with a bit of powder and containers (Varian was for sure going to be supervising him as he made his firecrackers), and Hugo with (a suspicious amount of) parts and gears. Varian looked at the blond’s hand, then back up at him.
“How many of those did you actually pay for?”
The boy in question let out a dramatic gasp. “Oh Goggles! I can’t believe you think so lowly of me to think that I’m not a perfectly respectable citizen who pays for their items!” He said, putting his hand over his chest in mock offense.
Varian simply raised an eyebrow and shook his head.
“Come on, let’s head back before it gets dark and see if we can make any more distance before nightfall.”
And back on the road they were.
They had just finished eating, and were setting up their sleeping bags (and sweater pillow). Overall, it had been a pretty decent day, and Hugo wasn’t…too annoyed that this was where he was going to be for, well, a while.
He liked Yong. He was a pretty bubbly kid who was always down to learn something new, but sometimes his excitement clashes with his patience, which doesn’t always go well.
Varian on the other hand…
Well he had no clue what was going on with him. He was always so secretive (not that Hugo didn’t have his own secrets but that isn’t the point). He would always give Hugo, and even Yong vague answers to any of their questions.
He was able to learn his name (obviously), age, and that it was actually his mother that had gone on this same quest many years ago, but never came back.
If that wasn’t a sign Hugo may be waltzing onto death’s doorstep, he wasn’t sure what was.
Speaking of secrets, he needed to make sure these two were asleep, or that he was in a position where he could sneak away unnoticed.
He slowly stood up and took a quick look at the other two.
Yong was knocked out cold, snoring and practically drooling. Varian didn’t look asleep, but his back was to him so he should be fine.
He walked away from camp as quietly as possible, and headed a bit deeper into the woods they were staying in. He kept walking until he heard a cough from behind him, trying to get his attention.
“You’re late.” The figure growled. He was a lot taller than Hugo, and a lot heavier too. Yet, it was all muscle.
He crossed his arms and walked into the little light available in the night sky.
“Aw c’mon Cy, is that any way to greet a friend?” Hugo said, giving him a sly smile.
“Cut it out with the nicknames, what’ve you got?”
“If I’m bein’ honest, not much. That boy won’t tell me shit.”
“Well I need something to report back to Don. You know how she’ll get if I don’t have anythin’ to bring back.”
“Well, the boy’s name is Varian, he’s 17, comes from Corona and turns out, he’s doin’ all these trials ‘n junk ‘cause his mom did ‘em way back when.”
“So why’s he here? Couldn’t his mom have just told him about it and moved on? Why do it all again?”
“She never came back.”
They stayed silent for a moment, Cyrus thinking over what he was just told.
“That’s good enough for now, but try to get more for next time we meet. Understood?”
“Hear ya’ loud and clear.”
“Good, see you in two weeks time. I’ll alert you of any changes in schedule.”
“Until next time”.