Chapter Text
The streets of Carcosa were silent, except from the few gusts of wind here and there.
But in the castle, a knight rummaged through the drawers of his room, desperately searching for a piece of paper he could write on.
His head hurt like hell, whilst finally finding what he was searching for. Almost spilling the ink bottle over his wooden table, he scribbled onto the paper.
"Run Avery."
"In three days. The king is gonna choose you to claim the gift of knowledge. Do not be fooled, run."
"Leave the kingdom as soon as possible, never return, don't listen to it. It's not what you think."
Over and over, same words telling Avery to run away from the city.
Derek knew what it did to those who saw it's true form, and he needed to warn Avery. Quick.
Upon arriving at the flower shop that Avery's family owned, he threw the letter through Avery's open window, which.. hit Avery in the head, waking him up from his slumber.
Avery shot up in a sitting position, rubbing his eyes, before noticing the small extra bit of weight on his blanket.
He turned on his lantern that sat on the bedside drawer, before getting out of bed, and walking to the window to see who thought it was a good idea to throw a damn letter at his head this late in the night.
But he heard or saw nothing.
With a tired sigh he walked back to his bed, reaching for the letter, before opening one of the drawers and tossing it inside.
He has no time for this right now, and he decided he'd just read it tomorrow.
With a raised hand, he turned off the lantern, before pulling blanket up his body and drifting back to sleep soon after.
Avery woke up to the usual loud noises coming from the busy kingdom streets. Being used to this, he stretched in his bed, before deciding it was time to get up.
He kicked off the blankets sprawled over his body, before letting out a big yawn and getting up from bed to go downstairs and help his family (and to have breakfast of course).
After getting dressed up in his usual clothes, he headed downstairs, joining his family at breakfast, getting himself a piece of bread with honey and yogurt.
He looked around the table, noticing that his younger brother was absent "Where's Charlie?"
I bet he's at Jonny's. Avery thought to himself
"He's hanging out at Jonny's." His mother replied, before taking a bite out of her own food.
Knew it.
Jonny was his brother's best friend and they hung out basically everyday, since Charlie was still a bit too young to help out at the shop and had basically all day to himself.
Lucky bastard..
Avery licked the sweet honey off his fingers, after being done with breakfast, walking over to the shop to set stuff up for the day.
It didn't really take him long, since all he had to do was water some plants and turn over the "open" sign that hung on the door of the shop.
Not soon after the door of the shop swung open, ringing a bell that alerted Avery, letting him know that the first customer of the day had arrived.
Why did people need flowers anyway? I mean.. his family had other plants, seeds and equipment, sure, but they mostly lived off flowers.
People bought them for many reasons really. From home decor, to proposals, to funerals, to them being gifts, and for other occasions.
Avery liked flowers.
Especially sunflowers.
Those were his favorite.
He had a painting with sunflowers that hung above his bed. It was a gift from his mom that he received on his 18th birthday.
He helped around 6 costumers, before deciding it was time for a break. He could use that extra hour to read more of the new book, he bought a few days ago.
Upon returning to his sunlit room, he walked over to the bed, reaching out for the drawer handle, pulling it open, but what he reached out for wasn't a book.
It was that damn letter, that woke him up last night.
Whoever wrote this has great aim.
He kind of forgot about the letter, but he could just read it now. Now harm in that.
He untied the poorly tied string around the rolled up letter, before holding it open with both hands.
"Run Avery" said the first sentence.
What about a nice proper greeting?
Reading through the messy hand writing and a few splotches of messed up ink on the paper, he got a chilly feeling in his stomach.
Who would even write this? There was no signature, no sign of whoever this could be.. expect for well.. the messy writing. Maybe that could be recognized.
Even with how messy it was.
What about the three days thing?
If he would be chosen by the king, wouldn't that be a good thing?
It's said that if you were to be chosen by the king, you would receive the gift of knowledge, that would bring you great things in life.
Wouldn't that be good for Avery and his family?
Why was the person in the letter telling him to run?
He needed to find out who wrote it.
And to question that person, of course..
You can't just throw a letter at my face and expect me not to give a fuck
Walking around the kingdom, he was deciding on who to ask.
Right.. he could start at the post office. That would be a good start.
He greeted some of the regular customers that visited his family's shop almost daily, while nearing the post office, until the building was right in front of him.
Upon entering, the smell of new books and ink hit his face.
The person sitting at the front greeted him warmly, with Avery greeting them back.
He made his way over to the register, placing the letter on the desk in front of him. "Hello.. i received this strange letter last night.. do you have a clue on who wrote it?"
Avery only showed the first sentence. The rest seemed too private, so he decided to keep it that way.
The person standing behind the register, examined the paper for a few seconds before speaking up. "This paper looks like it came from the castle. They use this kind to write gala invitations."
How the hell did he not realize that sooner?
"Alright, thank you"
He rolled the paper back up, before walking out, not really knowing where to go next.
Well he couldddd return back to the flower shop, since he was pretty sure there was no way he would be able to find the person, who wrote the letter.
Especially since the person who wrote it got it from the castle.
Avery was finally back at the flower shop, deciding he'd continue with his shift.
He'd spent all of his break looking for the person who sent the letter, and at the end he still had no clue on who it could be.
Great.
He entered the shop, noticing that a few knights from the palace were looking at flowers.
They'd had knights visiting the shop before.
Mostly for their wives or to honor the knights who got killed during some battles.
That was a rarer occasion, since Carcosa was a safe place, quite far from any big danger.
He walked up to the knights checking if they needed any help with their choice. "Hello, do you guys need help with anything?"
"Just deciding what type of flowers to choose." Said one of the knights.
"What's the occasion, if i may ask?"
"One of our knights, disappeared over night. Derek Hutchins. No message or traces left behind. We thought that the least we could do was honor him with flowers."
Avery paused for a moment. What are the chances that this was the same person who sent him that letter?
"I'm sorry to hear that. May i recommend the flower forget-me-not?"
He guided them towards that flowers and that's what they ended up buying.
After they left, the thought of that missing knight wouldn't leave his head. He couldn't even consecrate during dinner.
"What's on your mind?" Said Avery's mom, noticing his expression and the way he pushed the food around his plate with a fork.
Avery looked up from his plate, at his mother's question. "It's nothing, i just got lost in thought."
For the rest of the dinner, they talked about random stuff, however the letter wasn't brought up.
Avery felt like it should stay private.
He felt bad for hiding it from his family, but what was he supposed to say?
Oh yeah i got a random letter thrown at me last night and it told me to run far away!
So his best choice for now, was to stay quiet, until he figured out what to do.
After dinner, he walked up the stair steps, reaching his room and flopping down on his bed.
What was he supposed to do now?
The person who sent the letter could be that Derek Hiccups or something guy.
In their words. Avery had only two days left. So he came to a final decision.
He was gonna find that knight.