Chapter Text
A soft warm breeze rolled by, where the mature, broad green leaves in the trees rustled in a gradual wave at the expansive temperate forest. The three travelers felt it, as if they were being gently nudged to continue on with their journey, despite the exhaustion and hunger.
They stopped when they finally saw a potential source of food.
“Are these safe to eat?” Clyde asked. He didn’t even wait for an answer, as he picked some dark blueberries that were bunched together in a bush. His large, meaty fingers were unable to delicately pluck them into a small cloth he had in his palm. At that point, his frustration gave up the task and he decided to dive in with his mouth-open to eat the small bunches of the deliciously sweet berries in one gulp. The moonlight only made some of the berries visible, and Clyde would accidentally bite into some of the berry bushes’ leaves and branches. He didn't bother spitting those out; he was chewing so vigorously that the additional bulk from the twigs and leaves still satiated his hunger by a little bit.
“It’s okay… they were safe…” Tricia said weakly to Craig, as she stumbled against a large tree trunk. She slid against it and fell hard on her bottom, as she panted heavily.
Craig gently placed his hand on top of his younger sister’s short ginger hair and delicately brushed it down. “I’m going to get you some before Clyde eats them all,” said Craig. He then got a metal pot and went to the other side of the bush to begin collecting the berries. He was able to pick the berries that were at the top of the bushes due to his unusually tall stature. Clyde tried to dig for more berries out of the metal pot, but Craig pushed his well-built friend away and said, “Tricia hasn’t had any yet.”
“Okay, fine,” said Clyde. He normally would be agreeable to this of course, but his malnourished brain couldn’t take this insatiable hunger anymore, so his survival instincts were kicking in harder. To avoid the temptation of stealing the berries from his friends, he walked on ahead to see if he could get a glimpse of any other sign of life from where they were.
After the metal bowl became full, Craig sat next to Tricia and urged her to eat. At that point, Tricia could barely keep her dark-blue eyes open. “I’m… just so tired… Craig…” Tricia whispered, as she took deep breaths.
Craig frowned, but he got a spoon to feed his younger sister the berries. She slowly chewed each bite, while in between Craig took his turn with the mouthfuls of the berries. He could have finished the whole bowl himself too, but he avoided the urge of scarfing it all down. He promised their parents before they perished, that he will do everything in his power to protect his younger sister. Even at the expense of his own life.
They both managed to share an equal amount of the berries, before Craig put the bowl away. He wrapped his arm around Tricia, so that she could sleep on his broad, but bony shoulders. Craig sighed and carefully rubbed Tricia’s skeletal back to create some heat while she fell asleep, and got a blanket out from their packed belongings for both of them to share. He was also dozing off, until…
“Craig! Tricia!” Clyde called out, as he was hurriedly walking back to them. He almost tripped on a tree root, but caught himself.
Craig’s dark-blue eyes flung open and looked towards Clyde’s way. “What?” he called back.
“I think I saw a village!” Clyde said excitedly.
Craig was skeptical, but perhaps they were fortunate this time. The mountains they were currently in, would have a great viewpoint of any valleys ahead of them. Craig slowly got up and set Tricia down onto the ground gently so that she could continue to sleep. He followed Clyde to the ridge of the mountain.
Craig rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Sure enough though, there were several small blinks of light, and what appeared to be silhouettes of homes. Since it was too dark, Craig couldn’t make out the rest of the settlement.
“I can’t believe it. We finally found a village,” said Craig, in his deep, monotone and nasally voice.
Clyde almost had tears in his eyes from relief. “There’s bound to be enough food there. Maybe they’ll even let us stay!”
Craig nodded and said, “We’ll head down there when the sun rises.” Clyde nodded in agreement, and they both walked back to where Tricia was sleeping soundly on the cool forest floor.
“Er-er-er-er-er!” The rooster crowed as the sun began to rise.
Tweek rubbed his sky-blue eyes, stretched and then yawned. He looked out of his window of his gray stone house to see more stone houses in his neighbourhood, but also saw that it was going to be another beautiful sunny day.
The young spiky-haired blond got up to get dressed in his olive-green button shirt, navy trousers with black boots. He went to the pantry to make breakfast for himself; an egg sandwich with slices of fresh tomatoes. After he swigged down his glass of milk, he walked around the house to do some sweeping.
Tweek inherited his home from his deceased parents. It was a standard one-storey stone house, as everyone in the village had a similar one; a three-bedroom home with a kitchen, dining and living area that had a fireplace, with a bathroom in the corner of the house that contained a squatting hole. Tweek collected rainwater to use for bathing and cleaning dishes. If that supply ran out, there were plenty of wells around, and not to mention the fast-running rapids that ran straight through the village.
Tweek first sweeped his late parents’ room, which had a double-bed and several night drawers. He sighed, as he had lost both of them to Tuberculosis when he was just twelve years old. He had other villagers to help him out and raise him in his time of need, but he still missed his own parents terribly. Tweek realized he was slowly forgetting how his parents’ faces looked. He wished that he could have had something to remind him of those days, such as a sketch. He shook his head, as he knew that would never happen.
It was a routine day in the early summer for Tweek, so he got his steel hoe with a wooden handle, and made his way to his place of work; the crop field full of corn.
Tweek’s job was to take care of this large crop field full of corn, and he was the only one to do it. Once in a while, he would have other villagers help him harvest, but otherwise he was on his own. Harvesting season was months away, so his job today was to assess for any infestations, and to dig out any weeds.
While Tweek was working along the edge of the field, one of the other villagers, Bebe, walked by with a wheelbarrow full of cherries.
“Hey Tweek!” Bebe called out as he batted her long lashes on her pretty face. She side-swept her long, curly blonde hair, and made sure her red shirt and long black skirt were not wrinkly over her voluptuous figure.
“Hey Bebe, mmph,” said Tweek with his high-pitched, anxiety riddled voice, “Those cherries look great, ngh. I can’t wait until I try them.”
“Yeah, I picked them yesterday afternoon so that I can bring them into the market first thing in the morning,” said Bebe. She lowered her wooden wheelbarrow, grabbed a cherry and walked up to Tweek, who continued to work on his crop field by digging out the weeds. Bebe was about six inches away from Tweek’s celestial, heart-shaped face as she bit into the cherry that had its juices run down her chin. “Mmm, yeah, I think you would like them,” she said with a seductive tone.
Tweek gulped, as he knew Bebe’s desperate intentions. He still gave a bright smile and said, “Y-yeah, of course they would be tasting good, mmph. You worked really hard to take care of your orchard.” He continued to work on the field, as if he wanted to stop the conversation. He was not interested in Bebe in that way, as much as Bebe already knew that. He could also tell from Bebe’s green eyes that she was also not that interested in Tweek either.
Bebe sighed and said quietly, “Tweek, our twenty-fifth birthdays are coming up in a few months. Aren’t you… worried?”
Tweek stopped using the hoe and glanced at Bebe, as he did his series of tics that consisted of grabbing his shirt impulsively and shutting one eye. “Of course I’m worried, ngh. But we don’t like each other romantically, so it wouldn’t be fair to you if we were to be together in that way, just because we have a tight timeline, mmph,” Tweek explained.
“Jesus, tell me about it,” said Bebe as she rolled her eyes, “Out of all the single guys in this village, you’re the best one to choose from. But it’s not like I really want us to be together in that way either.”
Tweek gave a smile and said, “I’m sure our time will come, whenever that will be, ngh. You’re really pretty and you work very hard, so any guy would be lucky to have you.”
“Please God, let that be soon,” said Bebe, as she clasped her hands together and gazed into the sky, “Dear Lord, I just want a handsome man who can take care of me and our family.”
Tweek laughed and said, “I’m sure the Heavenly Father, ngh, will answer your prayer.”
Bebe gave a friendly smile, and then revealed a ripe cherry in her hand, where Tweek graciously accepted the small gift. He enjoyed its juicy and fruity flavour, while Bebe waved goodbye as she trotted along with her wheelbarrow to the market. Tweek waved back and then continued to work on weeding the crop field.
It wasn’t long until he was done with his work for the day, so Tweek went back home to put his hoe away. Then he noticed that his corn knife had a small amount of rust built up, so he decided to go to the market to trade it in for a new, sharp one. The blacksmith could always melt down his old corn knife to make more new tools anyway. On his way out, he remembered to get his specifically coloured voucher made out of deer hide, to trade it in for his designated portion of food.
The market wasn’t as busy today, but Tweek saw one of his friends, Tolkien, who was just putting in a freshly made supply of tools down.
“Hey Tolkien! Mmph, I’m glad I got to see you today. I have an old corn knife, ngh, I need to trade in,” said Tweek, as he handed his partially rusty corn knife to Tolkien.
“Good timing man,” Tolkien the blacksmith said, as he gave a great smile. He found a corn knife on the table and gave it to Tweek, which was sharpened recently and completely free of rust. Tweek gave a bright smile to indicate that he was pleased with his new tool.
Tweek then turned around to walk along the stalls where food was sprawled out, with only one villager manning the entire station. There were slabs of meat, bowls of fresh eggs and fresh fish on one stall, with bags of seasonal vegetables. One thing they always had was dried grains, but since it was early summer, there were more options for fruits and even vegetables. Tweek gave his voucher to the villager, and was about to pick his share of food in his basket to bring home. When he turned around, he saw that Heidi was just dropping off a wheelbarrow full of firewood on the other side of the market.
Tweek smiled, as Heidi is one of his closest friends, back from when they were just children. He hadn’t seen her for the past few days, so he started to walk towards her to greet her. Heidi herself, didn’t take much notice of Tweek’s presence, and began to walk away, but left her wheelbarrow unattended. Tweek tilted his head, as he didn’t know where Heidi was heading off to without the wheelbarrow, so he followed her at a distance.
No one was outside of the tall, wooden fence of the market, except for Kyle, the chicken farmer. He had a basket full of food for himself, and it was apparent that he was waiting for Heidi to come around to see him. As soon as Kyle saw the thin woman with the ashy-brown hair, wearing a light green shirt and a long black skirt, Tweek saw that Kyle’s sharp green eyes danced with joy, adoration and yearning to be close to her. Tweek hid behind the wooden fence and peeked at their interaction, more for the sake of relieving his curiosity, since nothing too terribly exciting happens in the village that often. He would also sometimes admit to himself that he wished someone would look at him the way that Kyle looked at Heidi.
Heidi was standing very close to Kyle, and they were whispering to each other inaudibly. Kyle gazed at her lovingly, while they would giggle in between. They were careful though, not to touch each other, except maybe when Heidi drew out a piece of straw that was buried in Kyle’s tightly-curled, bright red hair. Kyle was about to reach out to Heidi’s hand, but then pulled back. Tweek could see that Kyle's face scrunched up because he had to resist the urge to touch her.
Suddenly, Heidi’s straw hat was blown off from a gust of wind, so she had to turn around in an attempt to catch it. She immediately saw that Tweek was standing and watching them. Tweek pursed his lips and quickly hid his whole body behind the wooden fence, as he took a deep breath. Within several seconds, Heidi tapped on Tweek’s shoulder.
Tweek turned back around and saw that Kyle was long gone, and Heidi’s light brown eyes had so much fear and desperation in them, that Tweek felt pity for her. “Tweek… you saw us, didn’t you?” she whispered so quietly that Tweek could barely hear her.
The blond nodded slowly. Heidi almost had tears in her eyes and begged, “Tweek… please don’t tell Eric that I was speaking with Kyle.”
“Of course I won’t, mmph. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with talking to a fellow villager,” Tweek said with a more merry and innocent tone. He gave her a reassuring smile, and Heidi’s twinkle in her eyes came back. She thanked him and was back to her normal cheerful self. As they were walking back to her wheelbarrow, she spoke to Tweek about her day as the market’s vendor. Heidi's primary job was to deliver the goods to the market that the villagers mined, fished, harvested or collected, when they themselves couldn’t complete the task on time.
However, Tweek knew. He had always known that Heidi and Kyle had feelings for each other, because this was not the first time that he saw them together like this. Heidi was betrothed to Eric when they were sixteen, and they got married at eighteen. At first, she loved Eric, as he worshipped her and made promises that they would have the best life together. However, ever since he inherited the job from his mother to be one of the Elders of the village, he became more cruel with his newfound power, and Heidi was put away on the backburner. His primary job was to be a brewer of ale, mostly to export to trade with the traveling traders for goods they needed, but he also got addicted to this stuff. He became more abusive towards Heidi, but at this point it was all verbal. The vicious words that Eric threw at Heidi, wore her down emotionally, bit by bit, everyday.
Heidi and Kyle were always good friends since they were children, but Kyle didn’t realize how special Heidi was to him, and vice versa, until it was too late. Divorce is illegal in the village, and so is adultery. Thus why Heidi and Kyle were extra cautious on making sure they do not touch each other in public, just in case the other villagers were watching them. Word gets around fast in a village that is populated with just over two hundred people, and it could be quite boring as hardly anything ‘exciting’ ever happens here.
Tweek and Heidi parted ways, and the blond went back to his stone house to restock his pantry and to put his new tool with his other ones.
The Town Hall’s bells rang in the distance, and Tweek’s spine shivered. When the bells ring, it’s usually bad news, but all villagers are mandated to attend these meetings almost immediately when they are summoned. Tweek drew in a sharp breath as he started to head his way to the largest stone building in the whole village, with one of the only two bell towers.
Tweek could see that many of the other farmers in their crop fields stopped and dropped their tools onto the ground. Even the ones who were carrying items, either ran back to their homes as quickly as they could with their belongings, or just abandoned them so that they could join the rest of the villagers on their march to the Town Hall.
Inside the courtroom of the Town Hall, Bebe was sitting with Wendy, Stan, and their three children. Tolkien sat with Nichole and their group of well-behaved children. Tweek glanced around to see that Heidi was sitting with her mother-in-law Liane, and Kyle sat a good distance away from her, as he tried his best not to make eye contact with her. Most of the villagers already took their seats in the wooden benches that surrounded the courtroom, and Tweek sighed in relief as he realized the middle floor was empty. Tweek watched as four out of the five Elders, Mr. Mackey, Herbert Garrison, Father Maxi and Eric, sat at their designated raised desks, and they were chatting away. Tweek himself, took his seat next to Kyle, who greeted him with an uneasy smile.
“Order, order, m’kay?” Mr. Mackey called out as he banged the gavel hard several times. The villagers all fell into a tense silence, and waited to see what was going to happen next. “M’kay, bring them out Barbrady,” Mr. Mackey called over his shoulder.
The villagers could hear Officer Barbrady saying in a muffled voice, “Okay, move along now.” Within the short minute, there were new faces that none of the villagers, including Tweek, had ever seen before. A very lean, tall, and incredibly handsome man walked out first. He had sapphire blue eyes and short, shining ebony hair. He was carrying a young, very obviously frail and emaciated woman who had beautiful facial features that had the same sapphire blue eyes and medium-length ginger hair. The tall man stepped into the middle of the courtroom, but still held onto the young woman, as she clearly didn’t have the strength to walk on her own. Not even a moment later, a relatively muscular man who was slightly taller than Tweek, with chestnut brown hair and matching eyes with average facial features, also stepped out into the middle of the courtroom. Officer Barbrady took his seat with the other Elders of the village.
“These three people would like to immigrate into South Park. We have here, the twenty-five year old Clyde, twenty-five year old Craig and twenty-one year old Tricia, mmmkay,” Mr. Mackey explained, “As you all already know, we do not have enough houses for the potential immigrants to have their own, so we’ll have to ask the villagers here today if any of them are interested in taking you in, and become part of their family.”
“Oh wow Wendy, look at that tall guy! My God, he’s so fucking hot. My prayers have finally come true!” Bebe whispered to her. Wendy giggled and nodded, to say that she agreed with her. Then Bebe shot her hand right up into the air and said enthusiastically, “I’ll be happy to take you in, Craig!”
Craig gave a small smile on his thin face, where Tweek could feel his heart skip a beat. Oh God… he’s so much more gorgeous when he smiles, he thought. Then he felt his face flush with blood and then shook his head as he continued in his head, No, I can think whatever I want, but I have to keep reminding myself that I would never be able to act on my impulses…
“Thanks. My sister and I will be happy to help you out as much as we can,” said Craig.
Bebe’s face fell and said, “No, Craig. I don’t want to take Tricia in. Just you.”
Craig’s hands clutched onto the barely conscious Tricia even tighter and said with a more stern tone, “My sister needs me to take care of her. I don’t want to live in separate houses until she’s healthy again.”
Bebe gave a sad look and sighed. Then she looked towards Clyde and said hesitantly, “Fine. I can take in Clyde.”
“Wow, bitchin’!” Clyde said enthusiastically. He was looking forward to living with the attractive blonde. Little did he know that he was already sealed in his fate.
“Congratulations,” said Father Maxi, “May you two be blessed by the Heavenly Father.” Then all the villagers clapped, which puzzled Craig. Clyde was barely paying attention, as he continued to drool and stare at Bebe.
Wow, Bebe finally has someone. At least it’s someone who looks strong and can take care of her too, Tweek thought as he clapped with the rest of the villagers.
“M’kay, we have Tricia and Craig left. Who would like to take them in?” Mr. Mackey asked.
Chad, the obese, sweaty man, who is about couple years older than Tweek, shook in his seat and was about to raise his hand, but then he put it down. He asked the pertinent question that all villagers were thinking, out loud, “Tricia looks like she’s on the verge of death. Does she have a contagious illness or something?”
Craig furrowed his eyebrows and said, “No, she’s starving, but she doesn’t have anything contagious.”
“We don’t know for sure until the doctor checks her out,” said Chad, “It looks like she has tuberculosis or something. I don’t want that in my house and for me to catch it too!”
“Then get a fucking doctor to check on her then!” Craig said as he clenched his jaw, “I swear neither of us are sick in that way. We just need food, and we’ll be back to our normal selves in no time.”
“No doctor can assess you or give you any food until you’re deemed one of us,” said Herbert, as he rolled his eyes. Then he called out with an annoyed tone to the rest of the villagers, “Come on everyone. If none of you guys agree to take these two in, then we will have to kick them out of South Park pretty soon.”
“What?!” Craig yelled. Then he looked around to everyone who were very much not wanting to volunteer, as he held onto Tricia, “You would let us starve and die out there?” He almost had tears in his eyes as he hollered, “You’ve got to at least help Tricia! I don’t care what happens to me, but for fuck’s sake, Tricia is not going to last much longer if she doesn’t get anything to eat!”
Tweek saw Craig’s look of determination and anguish in his dark, blue eyes. He quivered in his seat and looked towards Kyle. Of course, Kyle wouldn’t raise his hand, as he already has his heart out to Heidi, and nothing would ever change his mind. He was unwavered by Craig’s distraught pleas. Tweek himself, however, felt so much sympathy for the dying young woman and her brother who desperately wanted to save her. He shakily raised his hand and said, “I’ll take Tricia and Craig into my home, ngh.”
Kyle’s eyes widened as he quickly turned his head to stare at Tweek, but then Father Maxi said, “Congratulations, Tweek and Tricia. May you two be blessed by the Heavenly Father.” The rest of the villagers clapped, while Tweek put his hand back down and exhaled. Oh Jesus, I can’t believe I just did what I did. At least, I will be saving Tricia’s life, for now, Tweek thought.
Craig’s face relaxed and he sighed in relief, although he was quite puzzled on why people were clapping again. Tricia’s eyes opened half-way and gave a weak smile while she made eye contact with Tweek.
“Okay, next set of business. Clyde, what did you do back in your village?” Eric asked.
“Uh, I just worked on a cow farm, carrying milk containers and bales of hay,” Clyde explained.
“We have enough farmers, but you look pretty strong. You’ll be working at the stone quarry, since we’re short on those labourers,” said Eric.
Clyde shrugged and said, “Okay, sure? I’m fine with that.”
“What was your job back at your village, Craig?” Eric asked.
“I was a mason,” said Craig.
“Then you’ll be our new builder. Good, because we haven’t had any new builders since the last one died,” said Eric, “And what did Tricia do?”
“She was a seamstress back at the village,” Craig replied.
“She can be our tailor, once she is well enough to work again. Since you’re one of us now, we’ll make sure the doctor sees her as soon as possible,” said Eric.
Craig exhaled in relief and said, “Thank you.”
Then Mr. Mackey said, “The new immigrants will start their new jobs tomorrow, so Eric will meet you all in your respective homes first thing in the morning, mmmkay.” Mr. Mackey swung his gavel down once and then announced, “Meeting is adjourned, m’kay?”
The villagers all started to disperse to go back to their business, with the exception of Bebe who went to get Clyde to bring him to her house. Tweek came down to meet the head-taller Craig, who was still holding onto Tricia. Officer Barbrady handed their belongings back, and it was clear that he searched them thoroughly. He walked away to carry on with his duties.
“Mmph, here, you must be tired from carrying her all day. If it’s all right with you Tricia, ngh, I can carry you to my house,” said Tweek. Tricia nodded and then Craig carefully transferred Tricia to Tweek so that he could piggy-back her. They made their way out of the Town Hall and down the dirt road to head to Tweek’s stone house.
“Thanks again for taking us in, especially since no one else wanted to,” said Craig, as he gave Tweek a small smile. Tweek could see in Craig’s striking eyes that he was truly grateful.
Tweek gave a bright smile, but said, “Don’t thank me yet, mmph. I will at least promise you that for the time being, I will treat you both as well as I could, ngh.” He turned back around with his lips in a tight, straight line. I just have little over two years left… before my timeline is up. Now, I have Tricia entangled in my life. I have to think of something, to make sure nothing will happen to her too, Tweek thought.
Craig frowned after he realized how tense Tweek appeared and said, “Look dude. As soon as Tricia can get back on her feet, I swear we will work our hardest to make up for your generosity. I’ll work twice as hard, for the time being.”
“Gah!” Tweek suddenly jumped up, as he was completely entrenched in his thoughts. He gave another bright smile at Craig and said, “N-no, mmph. I’m not worried about that at all. I’m happy to have you two as my family members regardless of that, ngh, and Tricia can take as long as she needs to recover.”
Craig gave a small smile back, as he gazed into Tweek’s sky-blue eyes. “Did anyone ever tell you that you have a beautiful smile? Seriously, wow…” said Craig.
Tweek’s posture jolted up, where Tricia almost slid off of his back. Tweek pushed Tricia back up with his arms to make sure she’s in the correct position. He blushed and said quietly, “Mmph, thank you.” Oh Jesus, Craig is the one who looks beautiful, not me. Oh Christ, now that he’s going to live with me, I’ve really have to watch myself to make sure I don’t give into my temptations, Tweek thought.
They walked silently to Tweek’s house for the rest of the way, while Tweek’s head was swimming to new worries and uncertainties that will come up in the near future.