Spring Forward, Fall Back (Alucard x Chubby! Reader)

Chapter 82 - The Snowstorm Part 2

Reader P.O.V.

Coming into Braila from the west allowed us to land while the light of the failing sun blinded those who may look toward us. The weather seemed to understand our intentions as well because the wind began to pick up a bit more, swirling the falling snow in such a way as to pull a curtain over the area we were landing in. I'm sure that anyone who even looked this way would barely be able to see the trees a few meters ahead of themselves, much less see the few miles away where we were.

"We'll make our way toward town in the morning," Trevor said. "The townspeople might find it a bit strange to see a caravan coming toward them in the middle of the night."

"Its not just that," Adrian remarked. "Seeing me is one thing, but seeing Mother and Father coming toward them might be a bit more of a shock than they'd be able to tolerate."

Before we could say anything else, a man who couldn't have been younger than 50 staggers toward us through the windy onslaught, his thin covering flapping around his frail looking body. His clothes were tattered and frayed, a pair of worn sandals barely hanging onto his winter scarred feet. In his hand he carried what looked like a mangled version of something that might have resembled a rabbit at one point or another, the fur matted with blood and bloating in spots with obvious rot. His eyes barely focused on the road ahead as he stumbled into the side of the wagon and slid down to the ground.

Without thinking further, Sypha jumped down from the wagon and looked over the man before her. Her eyes took in the sorry sight before her and lit upon the rabbit gripped tightly in his hand. Instantly she turned and ran to the side of the road and emptied the contents of her stomach.

"Perhaps you shouldn't tend to him, Sypha," Trevor spoke. "Your stomach is already upends everything you eat, and you need the little food you've been able to keep down."

"He needs help, Belmont," she shot back, still bent over the drift on the side of the road. "It was the carcass he has in his hand that turned my stomach."

"That isn't exactly what I'd call 'a dinner fit for a king' either," Trevor remarked.

"Get him some water, would you, Adrian?" I asked as I grabbed a blanket from the back of the wagon. "And Trevor? Could you please remove that roadkill from his hand?" Trevor chuckled at my phrase and did as I asked. One of the night creatures caught it in it's powerful jaws and ran into the forest to avoid the others as they fought to tear it away.

"We should feed the night creatures before he awakens," Isaac said, "just to make sure it isn't one more thing to cause him issue." After saying so, I started toward the wagon to see Lisa and Vlad coming from the back with boxes of meat.

"I'll go hunting and see if I can find this man something that I kill rather than whatever that was he had," Adrian said.

"I'll come with you," Trevor said and the two disappeared into the forest. I looked at the man before me and wondered who he was trying to bring that back to. He looked so pitiful that I couldn't stop myself from imagining a small family sitting around a barely warming fire, waiting patiently for this man to come home with his measly pickings for one more meal.

"What has happened here?" Vlad asked. His face showed his confusion and anger at what he saw around him. "Braila used to be quite prosperous; a trading town with happy people. I came through here and bought jewelry and furs from the vendors here."

"This is what's happened since last year," Sypha said softly. "Mercenaries who swear they'll take care of the towns around here end up taking their money and supplies with no worry over who it will harm. Then, of course, there was the Church." She sat down next to the man and made sure the blanket was up around his shoulders before she continued.