❀ wolves in the petals | w/ tim ❀

Winter reared its freezing breath throughout Fiore, its biting frost was halted by the warm lanterns of Rose Garden. Its warm radiance pushing through his body as he stood beside a post.

Everything happened so fast.

It wasn’t even over ten months ago Tim had been accepted as a member of Silver Wolf. Since his career change from a laborer to a wizard a lot has happened. His job as a wizard threw him head-first into danger. From saving towns and villages against bandits and wild beasts to seeing magical creatures around corners of the kingdom, creatures whose stories he would read as a child. His mettle was thoroughly tested. His unwillingness to take a life was broken. And his reward was the gratitude of the lives he preserved. When the world tumbled itself into a war, he found himself between the pressures of ideologies and self-interest. He was thrown against the raging histories of nations, ones he barely felt the effects of in his life up until then. In the end, even when the year was ending Tim never reached a full cycle being a wizard. His career as a wizard was cut short, and his sole reward for his troubles was nothing but his death.

It feels…cold. He finally thought to himself. Dying feels cold, doesn’t it, Tim?

He remembered Tim’s death vividly. And he remembered where Tim was supposed to be now. Tim’s body was preserved by his mentor, a man who never accepted Tim’s death and tried to do the impossible in desperation. Tim’s soul should be claimed by now, going through the motions of the afterlife. And Tim’s legacy would be washed away through the years. Such usually happened in the mundanity that is everyday life.

What bout him? Well, he was Tim.

More specifically, he was the Silver Wolf wizard’s regret, a sliver of Tim’s being born from the wizard’s unfulfilled promises right before he died. Fighting a deity, and consequently being killed by it in a horrifically specific manner might have triggered it. Or was it because of his connection with the domain of another deity whose domain skirted over life and death? Regardless, he never learned how he was conceived, only of his purpose and the memories of his parent shard. He doubted if Tim had ever wanted this specifically to happen to him, but he won’t disappoint his creator.

It took a while since Tim’s death, but when his shard finally became fully self-aware he tried to be as corporeal as he could. He wore a dusty jacket, a dirty white dress shirt, a rough pair of thick jeans, and his old steel toes boots. This was the ensemble Tim had when he was first accepted by Silver Wolf, it was practically his uniform when he was working in Hargeon town. And this would be his skin as he fulfilled Tim’s last whims. He walked through the structures of the garden, cutting through the lives of the people enjoying the holidays. No one noticed his display, only the ones he wanted to see were able. The gardens itself was very much in the festive mood. It was as if it was a world away from the problems these people were dealing with. Then again, this also became the purpose of the holidays for many: an escape.

Hm. First order of business here is…Miss Blooms.

He smiled at the name. Tim never talked to Lyra beyond their first meeting in the guildhall when she first arrived, and that was months ago now. Her invitation was laid in the dust of Tim’s table back in his room. He knew if Tim had been alive, he would have been able to meet with her. This was his purpose, for Tim’s sake. And from what he could remember from Tim’s memories. She was a Fae, one of few Tim enjoyed reading as a kid.

He finally made his way around the sprawling dark greens of the garden.

“Watch it, bud.” A drunken drawl spat beside him as he made himself corporeal in the middle of the garden. “Ye almost spilled m’drink!”

“I’m not used to this body yet, sorry.” He huffed out a dry laugh. “You and your buddies’ next pint is on me and let’s make it square?”

“Well, I—” The man’s face lit up, even redder than the lights around. “More than square! Hear that you lot?!”

He walked past the man, patting his shoulder as he grogged back to his mates, before finally settling over to a small booth deeper in the garden. Even among the people around. Lyra was a definite stand-out for him. She was quite literally a person-sized Fae with fluttering wings, and that made him audibly chuckle. The booth itself was two connected islets, one was serving juices and smoothies while the other was the one he walked up to.

“Give those six by that bench behind me a pint, and—where…is…it…” He called the barista up, all the while shuffling his jacket pockets before pulling out a pale paper card. “Here, set me a tab and call this number if I don’t get to pay you before I leave.”

The bartender quirked her brow, but made a face when she recognized the symbol on his business card.

“Is this the one on that mountaintop?”

He nodded. “And while you’re at it. I’ll have some Brandy.”

“We have a runner for more, they’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Gimme the strongest thing you’ve got then.”

“With…?”

“Neat.”

“Your funeral.” She shrugged.

He came closer to the other side of the twin booths and went beside the Fae, who had ordered her own set of drinks and food. This half of the booth was like night and day against the one he just ordered from. But that didn’t stop him from standing beside Lyra. He called the girl by the register as he leaned by the booth. “I’ll pay for that order just now.”

“A shot of one-ninety!” The bartender called and slid the drink over to the edge of the booth. He caught the sliding glass and raised the glass, gesturing to the woman he caught it. She gave him a once over, nodding, and went back to taking orders from the other customers.

“Call it my apology for making you wait, Miss Blooms.” He smiled her way after taking a swig off his glass.

There really is a noticeable difference between people who dabbled in magic and those who are neck deep being attuned to it. Blooms looked at Tim, as if she noticed something, before catching herself and went back to her slightly shy and gentle demeanor. Either she was already well aware of his odd state, or she naturally caught his slightly less physical appearance. But she shook the feeling off and instead greeted him with the same warmth since they last spoke to each other.

“It’s been more than a few months, definitely.” Even though her outfit was keeping her as elegant as she always looked, he couldn’t help notice her baby bump. “I hope it wasn’t too taxing for you coming all this way while carrying the child around? It would have been very much alright for me to make a house visit instead.”

The wizard listened to Miss Blooms apologize for her attempt at keeping her pregnancy a secret. Tim couldn’t help frown at her unneeded distress. Tim grasped her shoulder gently before she could stammer away any further.

“Miss Blooms, please…you have nothing to feel sorry for.” Tim softened his expression and smiled at her. “Not only you’re needlessly stressing yourself out, I don’t think anyone from the guild would have this matter against you.”

Having families and children around was not something foreign to Silver Wolf. Even if they were a wizard’s guild and practically isolated themselves away from civilization, guests bringing their families were very frequent. And among the guild’s circle were the some of the staff and wizard members being from the same family. Tim heard more than once about the guild mistress’ child, though he had not met them yet. There was also the Lore family but, again, Tim might have failed to properly introduce himself to them. Miss Bloom’s situation was not uncommon, at least from where Tim looked at things. Rather, having kept her child a secret from the guild was slightly more of a surprise than having one.

Not that he was any better.

Tim remembered his first instinct when he thought of the need to bring a child into the guild house not too long ago. When Tim had journeyed to Desierto to rescue villagers from Hargeon who were kidnapped, he met a street urchin. One thing led to another and when he finally needed to return back to Fiore, he didn’t abandon her. The desiertan child, Heba, was not his. It didn’t even occur to him to adopt her as his own, but he was keen on taking care of her. Currently, she became a ward for Tim’s old bosses, not unlike how he was taken in by them years ago.

“Not to mention stress isn’t good for the future little miss—Valerie, you said?” Tim let go of his hand. “It’s a pretty name.”

He took Blooms’ offer and picked up a macaroon. Champagne would have been a better fit to go along with this, though. He slowly munched the piece as he listened to the Fae talk about her trips, all while two creatures were eyeing him in curiosity. One of the two he recognized; the frog, who looked the same as ever. But the other, a kitten, was new to the wizard. He shot a knowing nod at the frog and caressed the kitten’s forehead with his finger.

“Adventures, huh. I don’t know what would count as interesting to a Faerie…” Tim muttered to himself at his guild mate’s question. It seemed like everything happened all at once this year, even his end, but he didn’t meet with her to make her feel sorry for him. So, Tim opted to think about the job that didn’t end up with him barely living through it. “I went to the moon this year, literally. There was this interstellar vessel that picked me and another wizard up. We spent a good amount of time close to the moon.”

“It’s probably the weirdest job I’ve taken. Though having Nita with me at the time made things a lot easier.” Tim chuckled to himself. “I don’t know if you know her. She’s from another guild…Luminous Rose, I think it was called?”

Other than the Knights’ and council’s mandates, Tim never really met with any wizard from the different guilds in Fiore. It was to be expected, he was still far from an experienced wizard, after all. Tim never really delved into looking up the guild she was a part of, he never felt the need. But if they were a group that caught Nita’s eye, they either have an impressive record or a very charismatic guild master—or mistress.

“These are pretty good.” Tim’s thoughts about his adventures were halted when he finally noticed he was gorging more of the sweets than he intended. He was pleasantly surprised about the macaroons! Even with the unusual pairing with the glass of spirit, it was pretty delicious.