Finding Home
copyright 2021 comidacomida

Alexios was born to a poor family that lived in a small village on the edge of the Feywilds.  His father left when he was four, making his mother his sole caretaker.  She had never selected an occupation, requiring his father to bring in the income.  Once he had come of age his mother began to select prospective wives for him; he couldn't bare to tell her that he could not and would not go that direction; he preferred men.  Such a thing was not as taboo as it might have been in other nations, but everyone in the village was required to pull their own weight, and men who would not sire children were pressed into military service.

Alexios, however, was self-actualized enough to realize that he was a coward and he could not possibly serve within the military.  With no other option, Alexios came up with the only solution he could think of: he would flee his town forever.  He prepared late one night and, under the light of the full moon, the young man took his meager traveling gear.  He might have made a clean escape if not for his mother-- there were rewards for turning in deserters, and such favor could possibly keep her comfortably unemployed for some time.

The penalty for desertion was death and Alexios fled all the faster; if he were caught then he would be hung, drawn, and quartered.  Racing through the woods, the young man ducked and dove his way past the trees, narrowly missed several times by arrows launched in his direction.  Such effort for a single deserter would have been a waste of resources save that the magistrate chose  to make an example of would-be runners, and that was obviously what was planned for the hapless young man.  His flight took him far beyond the lumber mill and he had just begun to feel a glimmer of hope that he would get away until a whizzing sound followed by a dull thump was accompanied by a sharp pain in his lower left side; his optimism dared rear its head far too early.

Alexios stumbled, reaching back behind himself to feel for the wound only to cry out when his fingers brushed a wooden shaft; the merest touch of the arrow caused lancing pain to shoot through his ribs.  Stumbling, he felt a wave of nausea flow through him and the edges of his vision went black.  Only at the last minute did the young man see the small chasm created by a sunken riverbank.  Reaching out for the nearest tree limb, his hand encountered only a tuft of leaves and it did nothing to slow his forward momentum; Alexios pitched headlong, rolling down into the turbulent water.  The flow was fast and he only barely knew how to swim, which would have been difficult even without an arrow piercing his side.  It wasn't much concern for him however as he lost consciousness the moment his head collided with a rock.

He came to his senses some time later, but only enough to realize that he hadn't died... and that he wasn't alone.  Blackness engulfed him yet again and he continued to fade in and out of consciousness.  A sharp stab of agony awoke him once, but he was so weak that he couldn't do more than garble out the faintest scream.  Two voices urged him to remain still but he was so beyond focused that he couldn't make out the words beyond their general meaning; they didn't apparently mean him harm or, at least, he didn't think so.  Blackness swallowed him anew.

Alexios came to again; he had no idea now much time had passed but his head was spinning, he felt nauseous, and, despite the sensation, he couldn't so much as gag.  His vision remained hazy and he had trouble thinking but he swore he smelled the stark, musky aroma of cattle, and he realized that he was being moved, slung over a mount perhaps-- bovine fur brushing against his abdomen, which had apparently been freed from his shirt.  Where was his shirt?  With that question running through his mind, unconsciousness rose up to meet him once more.

He had several more run-ins with approaching a waking state, sometimes it seemed more like a fevered dream than reality.  At one point he realized that he was no longer outside and he felt the comforting, cushioned luxury of a bed with blankets wrapped around him.  He smelled herbs, and heard the crackling of a nearby fire... and voices-- two of them again.  The same ones from before he presumed.  They were both obviously male, with one deeper than even the captain of the guard back in town.  He didn't have much more time to consider his senses as he faded away once again into pleasant non-existence.

The next time he awoke, however, he came to with full awareness, and that was accompanied by a powerful, sharp pain in his side.  The sensation magnified several-fold when he tried to sit up and he couldn't help but cry out in pain.  He was in a room, he realized, which became apparent because the door to it opened and an older rugged-looking man came inside.  He was several inches taller than Alexios himself and had a well kept beard crowned by a shaggy mustache; the man's hair was fairly unkempt but not too long that it was unmanageable-- it and his facial hair were dark brown and showing signs of graying.

The man offered a calming smile, not unlike the ones Alexios' father used to give him after he'd fallen and scraped his knee.  The stranger's voice had the same soothing tone as well. "Look like you're up finally... good thing to.  We were worried the fever might take you."

A thousand questions ran through Alexios' head but the first one that broke through the haze was an important question, especially when he considered the risk of being too close to his village, where people were likely still seeking him. "Where am I?"

The man grabbed a wooden stool from its place by the wall and dragged it closer.  It was not a professionally made one, that much Alexios could tell, but it looked sturdy and it held the man's weight without objection.  Reaching toward the young man, his visitor removed a cloth from his head and dunked it into some water on the nightstand next to the bed; only then did Alexios detect the strong scent of herbs again.  The man hadn't answered his previous question, but the young man already had another. "You're a healer?"

The older man smiled again, shaking his head. "Nah... I'm a cattle herder, but my best friend Deacon is the village herbalist and you're in his house.  You're lucky we found you... ah... you know-- we've been watching over you for near three days now.  I've been calling you 'the kid', but Deacon made me promise to get your name when you woke up.  Mine's Ezio."

It was a casual introduction and, despite his hesitation at trusting the stranger so early, Alxios couldn't deny his apparent savior such basic information. He kept his response simple. "Alexios."

A deep, rumbling voice called out in a rich base from the other room. "Ezio-- I've returned.  How is the-- ah... finally awake, is he?"

Alexios barely registered anything once he saw the bovine head appear impossibly high, peeking around the door.  Lowering it so the two large horns crowning it wouldn't hit the frame, the newcomer stepped into the room.  Nearly eight foot tall and covered in thick, dark chocolate colored fur was a monster from countless stories the young man had heard as a child.  The creature's identity was unmistakable: it was a minotaur.  Alexios made to jump up and flee but his body cried out in objection to the move and he pitched over off of the bed; he would have hit the floor if Ezio hadn't been there to catch him.

The man hoisted him up and back into bed. "Hey there... Deacon just finished putting you back together.  You that eager to fall apart again?"

Deacon, as it turned out, was the minotaur's name.  He was, as Ezio implied, the village herbalist and, incidentally, its surgeon, healer, and apothecary.  It took some time for Alexios to calm down  but once he did it was not hard to grow comfortable in the Minotaur's presence.  Deacon had a strangely calming aura and, whether it was the combination of burnt sandalwood and alder that clung to his fur or the smooth, soft timbre of his voice, the young man finally felt a little more at ease.

Deacon and Ezio spoke to one another in Alexios' presence as the young man was provided some soup and herbal tea.  Although he hadn't felt hungry or thirsty his body quickly realized just how long it had been since it had taken in anything and Ezio actually had to slow him down occasionally so he wouldn't choke.  All the while Deacon simply stood there, the faintest hint of a satisfied smile on his muzzle. 

His two benefactors continued talking as Alexios went through his second helping and the young man took that opportunity to satisfy his curiosity observing the oddity that was Deacon.  The Minotaur was shaggy, but his fur wasn't quite to the point that he would be considered fluffy.  Although his fur was dark there were certain portion of it lighter than others; under his chin, along his neck, and trailing down his chest to where the fur disappeared beneath his waist wrapping. 

Alexios also noticed way his slightly-lighter hand-fur was dyed even darker than the rest of his body due to inks, berry juice, and soot, and how his long mane was pulled up, braided in with more fur along the back of his head to keep it out of the way just like the few scholars back in his home town.  Ex-home town, he reminded himself.  His line of thinking was immediately interrupted as Ezio stood and announced. "Well, I'm glad your patient is doing better, Deek... I've been here long enough that Gaius probably thinks I left him for you."

The two shared a laugh and the Minotaur stepped closer, reaching up to rest a hand on Ezio's shoulder.  Smirking, the healer rumbled "Well... by rights, you were with me first."

If there had been any question as to the big monster's meaning, the way Deacon planted his muzzle on the Human's face removed any doubt; the two shared a kiss.  Laughing, Ezio turned toward Alexious and, without even the slightest hint of modesty or shame, announced "He's kidding... just in case you were wondering.  I'm happily married to my husband.  And don't let the Mino-thing worry you-- Deek's a good guy.  A little 'horny', but good."

Alexios smiled when Ezio and Deacon did.  The Minotaur and older Human shared an embrace and, with that, the young man was left alone with a monster... who was also apparently a village healer.  Life at home hadn't had any real surprises-- it hadn't been great, but at least it was consistent.  Spurred on by that line of thinking, Alexios dared to ask a question of the strange creature staring at him. "Is militia service mandatory here?"

The Minotaur raised an eyebrow and both ears, obviously confused by the question.  "Out of everything you might ask, THAT is the first thing?"

The young man would later come to appreciate the question, along with the accompanying answer of "No".  He would, in fact, come to appreciate a lot of things about the new town, not the least of which being the anything-but-ordinary healer.