Trivially There

A voice.

“Ada, I did it! I got it! Look!”

Clean, like a forest spring. From behind the fence. Familiar.

“Is it the girl?” asked Yuri, turning his head, and trying to look through the seams in the fence.

“The girl?” asked Ada in return. She reached up with her hands, and the moment later somehow was already standing on the ground next to Yuri, “Oh, yes, the one you came with. Yes, it’s Dad.”

There was a sudden cracking sound, and then a short scream that ended with a prompt “thump”.

“Who?”

“Dad. It’s what I call her. She doesn’t have a name, does she? You see, I’m in all black, she’s in white. I’m Ada. So she must be Dad.”

“I’m okay!” said the voice from behind the fence.

“I’m sure this will never get confusing,” mumbled Yuri, focused on finding the best angle to look through the fence, but seeing only a fragment of a tree trunk and some small moving figures.

“I know, right?”

A shadow obscured Yuri’s view. He moved to the next seam in the fence, but a plank of wood he was next to suddenly moved, and his face met with a children’s ball. He crawled back, rubbing his nose, and in place of a ball a white-haired head appeared.

The head had a confused expression, that momentarily switched to that of joy. In the next minute, with some struggling, the head turned into the entire body of the girl in a white dress, that somehow through all this did not collect a single stain.

The girl stood up in front of Yuri, patted him on the head, and immediately turned to Ada, presenting her the ball.

“Here! I got it! And you said I couldn’t!”

“Okay, okay. You did it. Good job,” answered Ada with the most “older sister” expression, “Now, children are waiting.”

“Oh, yes!” exclaimed the girl, and turned back to the hole in the fence, in which curious children’s faces could be seen, “Here you go.”

She put the ball into the hands of one small boy, who smiled, thanked her, and swiftly disappeared with the others.

Yuri had gotten himself up in the meantime, and was staring at the girl with what was supposed to be a stern expression.

“And what all that was about?” he asked, “How did you get here in the first place?”

She looked back at him, inquisitively tilting her head.

“I mean, through the hole? Oh, like how I got here from the market? I followed the doggy. It started running, and I wanted to catch it, but got stuck here. Ada helped me, and then we saw those kids, and their ball was stuck too, but not in a hole, but on the tree, and the doggy ran away, so I…”

“I think I get the point, you can take a breath,” interrupted her Yuri, “Just don’t run away on your own without telling me, okay?”

“But the doggy…!”

“You still lost it, right? Don’t worry, it’s with Gaudeamus, I saw him.”

“Okay…”

For the first time since Yuri met her, she looked sad, and even embarrassed. It took him by surprise, and now he almost felt bad for trying to scold her.

In an awkward attempt at comforting, Yuri slowly and even sheepishly put his palm on top of her head.

“It’s not something to be sad about. I was just a little worried. And I could have used your help back there. You could have saved me from a very scary man.”

“I will save you next time!” responded the girl without hesitation.

“Speaking of saving people…” slowly said Ada, stretching every sound, “Let me show you to my father. Right, you don't know — my father is a local physician. He can look at your leg.”

“And her arm!”

“That too.”

And Ada took them through the small passages and secret shortcuts, to her home and her father’s office. They have avoided going through the main roads, and got there fast and unbothered by any encounters. Even Yuri, who has essentially built the place, couldn’t have found a better path.

The back of the village was peaceful. Narrow paths between the houses smelled of warm wood and tar. They were full of small grasses and flowers at the sides of the buildings and between the bits and shards of clay pottery that were paving them. There were stray dogs, and cats that looked at them with suspicion from the ledges, and an odd children’s toy, and a sudden goose.

Yuri recalled the sensation he had as a kid, exploring the village at his grandmother’s home. Every corner hid a road to the secret realm of magic. It was so close to the ordinary world, but only children could see the way. Grown-ups grew blind to its mysterious glow. And now Yuri was the grown up, who got to an actual world of magic and mystery, by some chance at first, and now — by the guidance of a strange black-clad girl. He would not forget that gift.

Soon they were there. It was not a small house, but it didn’t give off such a grandiose impression as the Elder’s house. It was not a storefront of the village, but in some sense a beating heart of it. With only two floors, but longer, like a sleeping cat that has stretched its body on the ground. On the one side it had a small garden, and the other looked directly at the lake, with only a gentle slope and a thin sand line separating it from the water. And thus in a tightly-packed village it still gave off a feeling of standing on its own.

Seeing it for the first time in real life, Yuri thought that he wouldn’t be opposed to spending his life in a place like this.

“Ta-da,” said Ada more awkwardly than cheerfully, “It’s not a palace, but you can live with it.”

“What do you mean?” asked the white-haired girl, “It’s beautiful! Look, there are small fishes!”

There indeed were neatly carved images of fish on the facade of the building. It was sparsely, but tastefully, decorated.

“Let’s go in already,” replied Ada, and walked to the front door. She slammed it open with way too much force (Yuri noticed marks on the wood that suggested that was not the first time), and without even stepping inside shouted, “FATHER, I BROUGHT CLIENTS!”

She led them in what seemed to be a wide hall and a waiting chamber, with multiple doors to the sides, and a stair leading to the second floor. The space was cozy, with several wooden benches, wrapped in cloth and outfitted with small pillows, a pleasant warm yellow color of the walls and even some paintings.

But they didn’t have the time to take it all in, as from one of the side doors a man walked out: an older gentleman with silver hair and a longer beard ending in a sharp point. He was high, walking with a straight back, despite his apparent age, wearing nice clothes and a pair of small round spectacles. He also had a bowl in his hand, and a spoon in another, and was hurriedly finishing whatever meal he had.

“Welcome, welcome,” he said with a full mouth, “Excuse me, I didn’t expect there to be more visitors today.”

He took them through one of the doors to what seemed to be his study. There were a lot of small bottles and boxes with all sorts of liquids and powders. Yuri insisted that the girl would be examined first. But as the doctor unwrapped a makeshift bandage, they all saw that there was no bite mark. The forearm was absolutely spotless.

“And you say that she was bitten by a Woodrat?” asked the doctor.

“Yes, I saw it myself,” replied Yuri.

“You didn’t drink the so-called health potion immediately afterwards? And did not treat it in any other way?”

“Only with water.”

“Hm,” only said the doctor, and took a step to the table at the side, and then asked, “Have you maybe come in prolonged contact with a dog lately?”

He took a candle and a looking glass from the table and turned back to the girl. He slowly moved the candle from side to side, and examined her eyes, as they followed the light.

“Yes, we found this flying doggy, and it followed us, and I hugged it a lot,” said the girl.

“Well, perhaps spontaneous healing was the result of excessive physical dog contact. Though I don’t see the usual side effects. Perhaps, it was a miracle.”

He shooed the girl away, and gestured Yuri to sit in a chair and to put his leg up on a stool.

“For a doctor, you seem to be very fast to accept a miracle as a possible explanation,” noted Yuri.

“Live for as long as I have,” said the doctor while removing his bandage, “and you’ll see so many unexplainable phenomena, that you’ll get tired of getting surprised.”

As Yuri was able to look closer, he noticed that the doctor did seem quite old. Way too old to be the actual Ada’s father.

Yuri’s bite looked much worse, than the girl’s. The leg was swelling and had an unhealthy reddish color. The doctor quickly washed it with some mint-smelling mixture, and applied a thick brown cream.

It tingled. Yuri looked at his scrawny leg of a shut-in, and was glad that there was no Gaudeamus or a hulk of an Insert Your Name Here (Insert? IYNH?) around to feel inferior to.

[+3 HP]

The doctor put a fresh bandage on the injury, and gave Yuri a small glass container with the cream.

“Apply this for the next week every day at sunset. It should leave no mark. Also, I would recommend petting a dog three times a day, if you have access to one.”

“Wait, the dogs here really heal people?”

“Are they not supposed to?” said the doctor with a surprised and baffled expression, “Chamomile tea calms your nerves, steam bath helps move your clogged blood, and dogs have general healing properties. Every child knows it.”

“I guess so…”

Yuri tried to remember, if he had put this mechanic in the game. Some of his memories of the development were a bit murky, and he didn’t like it. He tried to put an imaginary camera up in the sky again, to look at the world in an isometric perspective.

Here, he is a small 2D pixelated sprite, performing an [Interact] animation with a loafy dog sprite. Then a big red [+1 HP] sign appears in the air and slowly fades. Looks about right. He may have really added it to the game. He was experimenting with having healing objects in the game world. Like a special tree or a magical fountain. Now, Yuri was almost certain that he added the same code to the dog “object” as a joke, but decided to keep it.

“It’s getting late,” noticed the doctor, after finishing with Yuri’s leg, “Do you have a place to stay?”

“No, not really,” said Yuri, “We have just come here.”

“Then, I have a proposition. Ada seemed to take a liking to you, young miss…?”

The girl took a breath, undoubtedly to say something embarrassing, so Yuri gave her an intense look, and cut in, “Let’s keep it Young Miss for now. And I’m Yuri, by the way.”

“Oh, yes, my bad. We’ve skipped the introduction. My name is Rootier, pleased to make your acquaintance. What was I saying?”

“A proposition?”

“Oh, yes. How about you stay in the patients’ chambers for today? Let’s say for medical supervision. It’s so rare to see Ada come home with friends and in such positive mood.”

“It’s very generous of you, but I feel that we don’t have the means to pay you.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. I may have a ‘quest’ to give you, as youngsters like to call it. Say, do you know how would a cloudberry bush look…?”

It was soon decided that they would indeed stay for a night here. Rootier and his wife Marie had offered them two rooms reserved for patients on the second floor, but Ada insisted that the girl should sleep with her. They have been offered a bath and a change of clothes. The evening went nice and slow, perfect after such an eventful day.

It was in the middle of a late supper, when the last event happened, as the door to the house slammed open once again, and a crying Gaudeamus stormed inside. As it turned out, he was looking for them for this entire time, as they both disappeared from his view without any explanation. The knight apologized profusely for letting them out of his sight, and offered to compensate Rootier in Yuri’s and the girl’s stead.

After this little bit of confusion was resolved, Gaudeamus left, promising to get them in the morning. The sun was almost set, and Yuri decided to have a small walk at the beach, to catch the last warm rays. The girl stayed with Ada.

He stepped out and right away was struck by something so sudden yet so expectable — the sheer beauty of this hour.

It was like someone had splashed a bucket of colors onto the world. The water and sand reflected oranges and reds of the falling sun, turning them into dancing lights on buildings and trees. The wood of the houses seemed to shine with warm and saturated hues. Such a rare and precious sight it was, that the houses themselves might as well have doubted whether they had it in them.

But the most beautiful of all was the sky. From the ethereal white of the moon, to the changing and shifting snow whites of gulls, from the space blue of the east horizon to the warm, almost huggable, yolk of the sun to the west. And the clouds! Dream-like gentle purple clouds high in the sky on the dark canvas of the east. Soft foams of clouds of apple-red and cherry-gold on the western azure backdrop.

It felt so unearned. So trivially there. The only thing he had to do to see this theater of nature (full immersion 5D 12.1 sound mega-theater) was to make a single step out of the door.

Well, maybe that was the most difficult step of all.