Chapter 43. He fainted?

“He fainted?” Everyone was unsure.

“S-sister? You woke up?” Orchid completely ignored Gran’s situation awkwardly stepped towards her sister, the look of disbelief in her eyes as if she had witnessed a miracle.

“Mhm.”

“Sister!” Orchid lunged her body at Roselyn and embraced her tightly. Tears started to flow down her eyes as she cried on the shoulder of her eldest sister.

“There, there.” Roselyn softly patted Orchid’s back. “I’m okay.”

“Sister!” Boohoohoo Do you know how worried I was. I thought you were gonna die! Orchid silently cried to herself her mind still couldn’t comprehend the sudden awakening of her sister.

“Mother?” Cobble’s voice was hushed as he was still unsure if he was dreaming or not.

Orchid smiled at her son indicating that she’s awake.

“Mom!” Cobble sidestepped his father who was placed on the ground by Pebble and rushed over. “You’re okay!”

Both Cobble and Pebble ignored their father completely and swarmed to surround their mother. Their face was ecstatic and happy as they worriedly asked her if she was really okay.

Seeing that his patient was being surrounded after waking up Dr. Galil had to intervene.

“Everyone, move aside she just woke up, let me check on her.” Dr. Galil waited until the two moved away and gave Roselyn a cursory look. “I’m Dr. Galen Galil may I ask are you feeling unwell? Any pain anywhere?”

“I’m okay doctor, no pain.”

“May I check your pulse?” Roselyn reached out an arm and silently consented, Dr. Galil placed his fingers on her wrist and closed his eyes. Her heartrate was stable and better than ever, Dr. Galil then focused his mind to the fullest to see how Roselyn’s internal energy was faring.

He released his grasp and nodded his head. “She’s in perfect health.”

“Yay!” Everyone was overcome with joy as they huddled around Roselyn expression their concerns and spitting out whatever was on their mind. Roselyn answered and warmly smiled back to all their questions and concern.

A few minutes passed by before Dr. Galil could get ahold of the situation again as he got their attention.

“Now, now don’t go overboard, she just woke up.” Dr. Galil stated. He then continued “Let her rest for a bit, she’ll come out and talk to you all then.” Dr. Galil opened the door and watched as the three walked out.

He then eyed the motionless person on the ground and said, “You too.” However, Gran remained unmoved. Dr. Galil sighed at the person who wouldn’t admit that he was awake.

Pebble and Cobble turned around and was about to carry their father away when Roselyn spoke up and said, “It’s okay, just leave him there.”

With her words spoken, both Pebble and Cobble left the room and departed downstairs with Orchid. Dr. Galil also excused himself shortly after and followed his way out.

“Gran, stand up.” Roselyn words were like an absolute command. The once fainted husband of hers peeked single eye opened and pushed himself off the floor. He smiled apologetically at his wife and scuttled over.

“Come closer.” Roselyn motioned Gran’s face to come closer. Gran obliged and knelt down before her. An arm wrapped around his back as she pulled him closer to her, embracing him in a warm hug. Gran’s expressionless face finally broke again since the day she had been asleep. Tears streamed down his eyes to finally see his wife of over thirty years finally awake again.

“Are you crying?” Roselyn whispered; her face was smiling as she could hear Gran weakly huffing his tears away. Both of their face was a wet mess as they embraced each other again.

Once they managed to settle down their emotions enough to talk Roselyn teased Gran about what he had said earlier the moment she woke up. “You heard everything?” Gran asked.

“Mhm.” Roselyn was inwardly laughing inside. She was amused at what she had heard, her mind was the first thing to wake up when Orchid and the doctor was in the room, yet her body wasn’t able to keep up until Gran’s desperate plea. It was only then that her body finally caught up to her mind and she regained full control of her body.

The first thing she saw when her eyes fluttered open as she tilted her head to the side was the powerfully safe backside of the husband of hers. She then turned her eyes to the shocked expressions of both her sister and sons along with Dr. Galil who she overheard when she was mentally awake.

Roselyn scooted herself closer to the wall leaving enough space on the bed for the two of them. She patted on the empty spot and directed Gran to lay beside her.

Laying beside the woman he loved, Gran gently caressed her pregnant belly and relaxed himself. It was hard on him this past week, he promised the Samuel to train the kids, but his wife also suffered the moment they arrived. As a man who always had a sense of obligations and promises to keep, he kept himself busied with work hoping she would wake up.

“How long has it been?” Roselyn turned to her husband and brushed her hand through his beautiful red hair. “A little more than a week.” Gran replied, as he enthusiastically patted her belly, his face was full of content.

“Is everything okay? How’s the festival coming along?” Roselyn asked. The festival was going to happen next week. During this time friends and families of the school children poured in from all over the continent populating Rouge, Boulderville, and Asmar.

Most would pass through Rouge, and Boulderville to stay in Asmar to wait for their kids who were arriving home from Naturelle. However, Inns and lodging would quickly fill up resulting in friends and families to stay in nearby towns until their child returned home from across the Continent.

The inhabitants of Boulderville also had kids and friends who are coming home from Naturelle and Lumiere soon and was getting very excited.

“You’re just in luck, tomorrow is the day we scare them.” Gran was excited for tomorrow’s event. “It’ll be our scariest one yet. We’re going to make them feel terrified for a long time.”

“Hm? Aren’t you boys going to just run around with your mask and jump out and scare them?” Roselyn asked. This was normally how the pre festivities would start when friends and families would swarm to the village.

Gran beamed a mischievous smile and told Roselyn about the plan. He noticed Boss’ training with the kids a few days ago and asked Boss if he could do this on full scale creating an entire teleporting mazeway with the Village. Boss agreed and tomorrow friends and family of the returning school children will suffer from being chased by masked men while also being randomly teleported to other locations and getting jump scared by villagers stationed nearby.

“Remember, no scaring those who can’t handle it.” Roselyn replied. The first time they did this event they told no one who entered the village about it and scared the crap out of them. Kids were traumatized, villagers got attacked, and old grandparents’ hearts gave out. Luckily no one died during this incident, but it served as a reminder for Roselyn and Gran.

“Ahaha, don’t worry how many times have we’ve done this now? Most people know what’s going to happen. However, since this year is different, we’re going to have guards at our entrances to inform them. Hopefully we’ll be done by the evening. Gran replied.

“Did we receive a message from Lumiere? When will the kids arrive here?” Roselyn changed the subject and asked.

“They’re being escorted by the Teachers and will arrive here in a week.”

“I just want to go pick him up in Zeldova.” Roselyn said with a hint of annoyance. Lumiere was located in Zeldova, however the Headmasters along with the Kings of past generations have forbid families from picking up their kids in the Kingdom and instead would send them off with Teachers.

“You know we can’t, it’s tradition, we’ve done it too. It’s for them to learn how to weather the landscapes and form social bonds with kids around their age. It’s also how we first met.” Gran replied.

“I know, it’s just that I never thought about it until Pebble came along, and I just wanted our sons to be safe.” Roselyn replied.

Gran sighed and continued to comfort the wife beside him. “It’ll be fine, nothing ever happened to the kids being escorted by Teachers on their way back. Nothing is stronger than an army of school children wanting to go home.”

“Mm”

Gran and Roselyn remained in bed for another hour comforting and talking to each other. Even as the years gone on by their love and adoration for each other remained as strong as ever.

“Let’s go downstairs, we shouldn’t keep the kids waiting. They’ve been awfully worried about you.” Gran got up and reached his hands out for his wife.

“Mm, okay.” Roselyn held his hand and got up. She followed him downstairs and the entire family had a long chat over dinner that night.

“Rawr!” Arthur put on the silver Demon mask made for him and growled at the mirror in front of him. Everyone had just finished taking a bath and the bruises and marks on their body were gone. The mask was for those who are participating in the pre festival scaring event.

“Boss! Am I scary?” Arthur asked. Boss pointed at the puppy on his bedside and said, “You’re as scary as Barkie over there.” The puppy lying on the bedside opened its eyes and woof’d in acknowledgement.

“See it recognizes you as something scary.” Boss laughed.

Arthur paid Boss’ comment no mind and placed the mask beside the bed and asked the fake kid before him “are you going to scare people too?” Boss shook his head “I won’t be scaring those people.”

“Oh.” Arthur replied and went back to toying with the mask in his hands. Not once thinking about the underlying meaning in Boss’ words. Boss however, maintained sitting on the bedside observing the kid that was standing before the mirror growling at himself. Or more specifically, he was observing the qualitative change within the silver haired boy.

The boy had no awareness that ever since he left home, the mass of internal energy that had encompassed his heart had begun to spin in a cycle. It was progressively increasing in speed and condensing into a smaller purer form of energy. This progression only spiked again the day everyone fainted within Roselyn’s room.

Boss knew that it was only a matter of time until the boy will subconsciously choose how his energy will form.

Knock knock

Arthur heard the knocking on the door quickly tip toed to corner behind the door. He silently motioned Boss to open the door.

“Who is it~” Boss decided to play along and went to get the door.

“Shelly.”

“Coming~” Boss hopped off the bedside and waddled over to the door, slowly pulling and covering the boy behind it. A little white-haired girl with a white demon mask on her hand and a silver kitten perched on her shoulder gave the room a curious glance and decided to put her own mask on.

She pointed at the door beside her silently asking if Arthur was behind it. Boss nodded his head and gradually walked back to the bed. Boss glanced at the puppy who witnessed everything shushed it with his finger. Shelly didn’t say anything and walked to another hiding spot and waited.

Hearing absolutely nothing after the door opened Arthur got curious. He was expecting Shelly to ask Boss where he was or either of them to say a few words to each other. However, neither of that happened which confused him even more.

He slowly peeked his head out only to see Boss sitting at the bedside and slowly pushed the door closed. He looked around and saw that only Boss was sitting in the room acting as if nothing had happened.

“Where is Shelly?” Arthur asked.

“Oh, she looked inside the room and saw that you weren’t there and left.” Boss replied.

“What!” Arthur slammed the door closed and stomped over to Boss slightly dejected he couldn’t scare her.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t wanna.”

“Freaking Boss, you’re too unreliable.”

“I know.”

“Next time, we’ll do the same thing okay?”

“Okay.”

The boy prepared himself for his next victim since the first one and walked over to the mirror and began to practice his jump scare tactics.

“Rawr, rawr.”

Shelly peeked her head out and made eye contact with Boss. She nodded her head indicating she was ready. Boss in response sent a blanket flying through the air and cover the little silver haired boy entirely.

“Rawr?”