“Well, it’s simple: Do nothing. If you never try anything, you’ll never fail. But that also means that you’ll never grow.”
“Huh?”
That wasn’t the answer I expected. Sure, if you never did anything, you wouldn’t mess up. But didn’t that sound super boring?
The look on my face must’ve been funny because Gramps laughed softly. When he spoke again, his voice sounded calm, like it was settling into the quiet air around us.
“Alto, you don’t have to be afraid. People grow by failing. Even when their lives are on the line, they still make mistakes. That’s why we fail before it actually counts. We stumble beforehand so we don’t when it really matters. What’s important is learning from those mistakes and making sure to never repeat them.”
“Master says that, too. He always tells me not to make the same mistake twice.”
“Really?”
“Did you mess up a lot, too, Gramps?”
“Oh, more times than I could possibly count.”
We reached the riverbank as we were talking. Gramps gently set me down, and I took off my wet clothes, used them to dry off, then pulled a change of clothes from my bag to get dressed.
As Gramps was rolling his pant legs back down, I noticed something on his left ankle.
“What’s that decoration on your leg?” I asked.
“Oh, this? It’s a magical tool.”
“A magical tool?” I was really curious, so I asked him all sorts of questions, but Gramps just laughed and wouldn’t tell me anything.
Maybe he was teasing me. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he grinned and said, “Come now, don’t be mad.” I told him I’d forgive him if he shared a story with me about one of his mistakes.
“Well, I suppose I can’t say no to that,” he said with a chuckle, and began talking about when he was a kid.
He told me about the time he’d nearly drowned in a river, just like I had, and that his friend had pulled him out. How he’d eaten some kind of fruit that looked delicious but turned out to be poisonous. When he jumped off a cliff he thought was just a small drop but was actually really high up and broke his leg, so his friend had to carry him all the way home.
Every one of his stories was more unbelievable than the last.
But what really stuck with me was how the same friend showed up in almost every single story. They must’ve been best friends. Sometimes Gramps got a wistful, quiet look in his eyes. I wondered if he missed them. I wanted to ask but remembered how he said he couldn’t travel long distances anymore, so I decided not to bring it up.
Still, I couldn’t help but think how amazing it would be if Master, Gramps, and I could go on a journey together someday.
“So what now? Want to keep fishing?” Gramps asked.
“Oh, right! I have to catch some more fish for Master!”
We kept fishing until a little past noon. I was just starting to get hungry when Gramps suggested we head back. Even though I wanted to stay a little longer, I nodded and packed up my things.
There was an unfamiliar carriage parked at the gate when we got back to our house, carrying our buckets full of fish. As we got closer, the door opened, and Sophia stepped out. She was one of the women who came to the dinner party last night.
“Hello, Master Ragi. Alto.”
“Hi, Sophia! What are you doing here today?”
“I came to thank you for the lovely dinner yesterday,” she said with a warm smile. She handed over a basket she was carrying, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I looked up at Gramps.
“Well, that’s very kind of you. Thank you for the gesture,” he said.
“You’re more than welcome. I had such a wonderful time yesterday. I was hoping we might talk again, if that’s all right.” She looked a little shy as she smiled at us.
“How about joining us for tea, then?” Gramps asked, smiling back.
He opened the door and invited her in. As soon as we got inside, Gramps went to the kitchen to prepare tea, and I showed Sophia to the living room.
Once she was settled in a chair, Sophia asked about my treasures, so I told her about them one by one, mixing in stories about Master as I went. By the time Gramps came back with the tea, I was so into it I was already heading to my room to grab an insect shell to show her.
“Why don’t we save the shell for later and have some tea first?” Gramps said with a laugh.
I didn’t know why we had to wait, but I did as he said and sat down.
Once my tummy had stopped grumbling a bit, Sophia asked, “Did you enjoy fishing today?”
I showed her the bucket, and she looked really surprised. She’d probably never gone fishing before, so I told her what made it so fun. She listened the whole time, smiling, laughing, and even worrying when I talked about almost drowning.
“What do you usually do for fun, Sophia?” I asked, turning the question around.
“Hmm, let’s see… Well, I usually read or do embroidery, I suppose.”
“Oh. You don’t play outside?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that I do.”
So she stays inside all the time? She doesn’t ever want to run around and play?
“Do Georges and Fred not play outside either?” I asked.
I knew Cyrus did, because he’d gone fishing with us before. But I was curious about the others.
“I’m not sure if ‘playing’ is the right word, but both Sir Georges and my brother train in martial arts. They spar with swords, go horseback riding, things like that. I can ride a horse, too, so sometimes I join them when they go out.”
“Wow! You can ride a horse? Really?!”
“Yes. I can’t gallop at top speed, but I can go quite fast,” she said with a smile.
“That’s so cool… I wish I could ride a horse, too.”
“You want to learn how to ride a horse, Alto?”
“Yes!”
I told her how I was the only one who hadn’t been able to ride when I’d gone on that quest with Master and Gramps to explore the ruins. I’d felt so left out.
“Have you ever asked Setsuna to teach you?” she asked.
“Well, Master’s really busy. And we don’t have a horse.”
We could borrow one from the guild, but they gave priority to people who were on actual quests, so it was tough to get one just for practice.
“I see…,” Sophia murmured. “Well, in that case, would you like me to teach you the basics?”
“Well yeah… But we don’t have a horse.”
“My father’s heading out on a hunting trip the day after tomorrow, so we won’t have the horses after that, but I can arrange one for you to use until then. You can come by my house to learn how to ride if you want.”
“…”
I really did want to learn to ride a horse, but going to a stranger’s house alone felt a little scary. And leaving Gramps behind felt like I’d be ditching my original quest of looking after him. I was just about to turn her down when…
“Would you mind if I joined as well, Sophia?” Gramps asked.
He must’ve sensed how I was feeling and stepped in to help. My tail automatically started wagging.
“Of course not,” she replied.
“It’s really okay if Gramps comes too?”
“Yes. You can come together,” Sophia said with a gentle smile.