When he regained consciousness again, his head ached. With his vision still blurred he saw a figure in green watching over him. "V-Virizion?" asked weakly, trying to pry his arms to pull himself up, and failing miserably. "Do I look like Virizion to you, sweetface?” Replied a sassy female voice.
Salazar blinked a few times, trying to focus on the person who was in front of him. It was a full figured woman who smirked happily at him. No one that had ever seen before. He even didn’t recognize the room where he was lying. But he still felt too confused and tired to understand. "Who are you? And where am I?" he muttered, finally managing to sit up on the bed. "Well, I certainly couldn’t let you in stay in the street unconscious as I found you the other night, right hon? And for whom I am..." she ran her hand through her hair charmingly "Cynosaura is the name, very pleased.” She seated elegantly with her hands on leap, next to the bed.
“And now tell me, what’s your name, and what was doing a precious little thing like you collapsed in the middle of the road like that?” Salazar blinked a few times. Did he passed out….? In the middle of the road? He slowly began to remember, then suddenly froze on the bed. So everything hadn't been a bad dream, after all. His parents, Devin... it had all happened for real.
The sudden realization of that overwhelmed him, and he felt again on the verge of tears. He was so tired of crying. His eyes were still swollen from all those tears he had shed the night before. But he just couldn’t help it, it was more than he could stand on his shoulders.
The woman sat down on the bed beside him and clasped his shoulders with her arm. "Oh no, no, don’t you cry. Did I say something wrong? It must have been a bad night for you, isn’t it? What's your name darling?" "S-Salazar. My name is Salazar…" he was about to say his last name, but stopped. His father had disowned him, and that didn’t allowed him to use the family name, which made him shake with sobs again. “Salazar huh? Very well." she said with a gentle but firm tone. "I don’t know what happened, and you don’t have tell me if you don’t want to." She wiped his tears with her fingers. "But now you have to take a deep breath and calm down. Crying is no use, unfortunately." Salazar nodded and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. In fact it seemed to work and stopped crying. She was right.... the tears won’t have changed anything. There was nothing more to do.
"Now tell me, is there anything I can do to help you?" she asked, getting up and pouring some water into a glass, handing it to him. Salazar sipped and shook his head. "Thank you very much for your kindness ma’am, but I don’t think that you can do anything for me. I... I don’t have a place to stay. And I don’t know anyone who can give me an accommodation. I have to rebuild my entire life... it’s just that I don’t know where to start....” “Actually, I could be able to help with that.” Answered her, pondering with her head resting on her hands. “You see, I am part of a team, and we’ve been here to stay only for a couple of days. We’re going to leave and continue our journey. I could ask our leader if you can join us! What do you say about that?"
A team? Salazar never even thought of be part of one, as he wasn’t really made for fighting or adventures in general. But it was surely better than the idea of traveling alone, having no experience. He nodded. "Yes, thank you very much. I would like to join you, if you can" it was the only thing he could do in that moment. The woman smiled and clapped her hands. “Very well, then dress up! We’re going to go ask right now! We’re going to meet all in Castelia city.” Only in that moment Salazar realized that he was wearing a nightshirt, while all of his clothes were folded on a chair. "Oh ... but how did I took off my clothes ...? Wasn’t I unconscious the entire time?" he asked, confused. Cynosaura shrugged. "Of course, I've removed them obviously, cutie pie" She winked at him and walked out, closing the door behind her.
Salazar blushed heavily at the thought. Who exactly was that woman? Why did she wanted to help him? Clueless, he dressed quickly. In that moment he noticed something on the night table. It was the piece of tapestry he must have dropped the night before. He hesitated for a moment. It was so dirty and ruined that it looked like a piece of trash now. But in the end he took it and put it again in his pocket.
When they came out the building, he saw that he still found himself in the forest. He was a little nervous as they walked towards the exit along the main road, and jumped in surprise when was called by name. He turned around, recognizing at once the female voice, and found Clarissa in front of him. She stood out with clenched fists and an indignant expression on her face. Salazar wondered what his father had said to break the engagement between them. Maybe she wanted to clear up with him about it.
"There you are. I’m glad that I found you before you could fly away like a coward, and give you a piece of my mind." She hissed with a hard stare. Cynosaura put her hands on her hips with a not so impressed expression. "Listen, I don’t know what my father told you..” He began. "Your father? HA!" She interrupted him, looking up, with a bitter smile. "Clueless, just like anyone else. My congratulations, I thought you were weak and spineless, instead you had a lot of courage to lie to everyone about who you really are!" the smile became a disgusted expression. "And all of this for another man ...? That’s sick.” Salazar froze on the spot. Was it possible that his father had told them the truth? But in that way he would have publicly exposed the scandal and besmirched the family name!
Cynosaura, that until then had remained silent with an annoyed expression, couldn’t help herself anymore. "What's this tramp's problem? Do you know her, darling?" Clarissa widened her mouth in an expression of absolute disdain. "How dare you? You don’t know who you’re talking to" sibilate. Salazar made a gesture to stop Cynosaura, who was about to answer back.
“I'm sorry that my father has told you all this.” “Your father didn’t say anything you idiot!” she burst out, not minding her manners very much anymore. “I was the one to catch you in the act! That’s right, I saw you!" she added, seeing the confused look on his face. “I came to your house to be with you, but your mother said you were to those Leavannys, so I come there! And when I saw you in the company of that guy I followed you, just in time to see you spooning in the forest! You even hadn’t the dignity to hide it! You’re loathsome.”
It took a few seconds to Salazar to realize what she was talking about. That noise Devin had heard in the forest... it was her? She had caught them kissing! And went to tell to their fathers about it! So everyone knew about what happened. His father couldn’t even cover who his son truly was, and why he had disowned him.
Salazar felt really bad about it. And he even hoped that she would have helped him breaking the engagement. "Why? Why you didn’t come to spoke to me ..!" He began but was harshly interrupted again by her slap. It wasn’t particularly strong, coming from that graceful maiden, but it hit him right where his father struck far more violently the day before, awakening the pain again. "Who do you think you are, huh? You think you can mess around with people's feelings as you like? What were your plans, to continue to see this man as your lover even after becoming my husband? But that’s no longer a problem for you now, isn’t it? Because thanks to you the engagement was broken! And now I'm left with nothing! How do you think I feel? Did you even thought about it? I guess not! You should be ashamed of yourself!” she stood still in front of him, on the verge of tears, but trying to keep an angry dignified expression. Cynosaura growled weakly to the slap, but Salazar stopped her again. "Please don’t worry about it. She's right. It was all my fault.”
That slap had made him realize, bringing him back to reality. Was Clarissa in love with him perhaps ...? No, of course she wasn’t. The truth was that the girl wasn’t so different from him after all. Born in a narrow-minded family, she had been educated to become a good wife. Just like him, a good marriage was the one thing she was raised for, and it was what she wanted the most, because she had never had the choice of being able to be someone else! Even if Salazar wasn’t exactly the husband she had dreamed off, she must have been happy for the engagement, being a great catch. And now she had seen everything fade in front of her eyes.
Salazar looked down, feeling ashamed. He didn’t understand those feelings before because he had never really thought about it. Not even for a second he had considered how it could feel the girl who should have become his wife. He knew that had to apologize, he had to make things right, at least with her...! “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you felt that way.. I’ve been blind and insensitive, and I hurt everyone. But believe me, I really didn’t want to make you suffer..” he spoke softly, hand on his heart.
But the girl grimaced, rubbing her eyes. "I don’t need your apologies! You’re nothing for me. Never show your face again! You’re a horrible person!" Salazar looked sadly at her while she ran off into the woods and disappeared. How could he have hurt so many people without even realizing it?
Cynosaura touched his shoulder. “I don’t know you what happened between you and that girl exactly, but you don’t seem like a horrible person at all. And now let’s go away from this place already.” He nodded slightly, giving a last look at the forest, then followed her towards the exit. When they arrived in Castelia city, they head out to one of the piers. There, the rest of Cynosaura’s team was waiting, three people in total.
The leader was a muscular but affable looking woman. She gave a puzzled look at Salazar when Cynosaura asked if he could join them. "He looks a little delicate... at least you can fight, yes?" asked. He swallowed hard, thinking back at the first and last time his father had tried to teach the art of battle and the sword to him; He could hardly bear the tough warm-up exercises, provoking the wrath of his father, and that made him feel like a failure once again.
"Uhm ....I can’t fight.. But I can still be useful in other ways!” He added hastily, seeing how the woman had furrowed her brow in a dissatisfied expression. “I can sew! I can mend your clothes! And I know how to cook! Or do any other kind of job that could be useful to you!” His voice began to sound pleading. He had to look really miserable at the eyes of those people. "Oh come on, we can keep him with us, right?" exclaimed Cynosaura behind him, putting her hands on his shoulders. "And it will just be until he finds a better place to settle down! Isn’t that right, sugar?” Salazar nodded vigorously. "I don’t want to be a burden, I promise."
The woman sighed, but then smiled. "Alright. The only thing that I ask is that you’ll keep up our pace. I don’t want slowdowns on the schedule.” “I won’t ma’am! I can’t really thank you enough for your kindness!" he exclaimed, with a bow. To which she and the others laughed. "There is no need to be so formal; you're part of the team now. And please call me Tracy." "Welcome among us darling" happily chirped Cynosaura, linking her arm to his. “Luckily you already have everything with you, because we’re leaving immediately! It’s time to go now!” Salazar nodded and turned towards the forest, one last time. Now he could only see the tips of the trees, over the bridge. The place where he had spent all of his life had become alien and distant. It was really time to go, and he wouldn’t have returned back.
