Immaculate

“Quiet, we have to dry off before mom comes back inside!” Antares hisses to Alunya while they scoot up to the back of the hut. “You climb in first, I’ll follow!” Antares whisper-shouts, and Alunya nods affirmation, looking quite determined.

Alunya scrambles in through the window, and Antares follows suit, hauling himself up over the ledge and rolling down the other side to land on his feet, staggering slightly at the impact before standing upright again…

Only to be met with Reia staring him down, her arms crossed sternly. “Honestly, I can’t let you two out of my sight for one moment, can I?” Antares cringes away from the sound of disappointment in her voice. “Whose idea was this? And ugh, you’re soaking wet! Did you fall in the river?” Reia continues, putting on her lecturing voice.

“Mine!” Alunya and Antares both announce in unison. Antares glances over at Alunya in surprise, who is standing stock-upright with a dead serious expression.

Reia sighs and places her head in her hands. “Ugh, well, no matter whose idea it was, you should know better, Antares. I told you I was counting on you to be responsible. Honestly, if something happened to you, I’d…” She huffs. “Well, whatever. You two are sopping wet and getting water all over the floor. Go dry off by the fire. Once you’re dry, you’ll need to change into new clothes.” Reia instructs, in a tone which brooks no argument.

Alunya follows Antares as he sits down by the fire. Antares' moping about the scolding he'd just heard is interrupted by the feeling of Alunya's hand being placed on top of his and squeezing it reassuringly. Antares looks up at Alunya with mild surprise. "Thankyou for going out with me, Ant. It's all worth it to get to play with you.” Alunya murmurs quietly to his brother, quietly enough so that Reia can’t hear.

Reia struts across the room, thinking. “Honestly. Well if I can’t take my eyes off of you, and you’re going to be stuck by the fire while you dry off, you might as well make yourselves useful. I have to pack up the rest of the cuts of meat and throw out the offal, so you’re going to have to handle the cooking. Do you think you can manage that?”

Alunya salutes dutifully and nods. “Aye-aye!” Antares gives a sigh of relief—It sounds like they are still going to get to go to the festival. Besides, cooking might technically be a chore, but it’s fun all the same!

Kneeling down by the fireplace, Antares arranges the kindling and slabs of firewood before lighting it up, while Alunya places the ribs onto the grate. Droplets of blood from the fresh meat drip into the flames, sizzling away into smoke that smells either nauseating or appetizing, depending on who you ask. But the two have a little surprise for whomever ate the meal, as Antares opens his satchel to spread the herbs the two had gathered while out and about earlier that day.

The two boys carefully watch the fire, while Reia watches them in turn, interspersed with having to go briefly outside to properly store cuts of the guanaco which had been slaughtered. While waiting to dry off, Antares picks out the family's brush. "Alright, lemme see what I can do!" He announces, kneeling down behind Alunya.

The younger boy sits stock upright and hums idly, gazing into the flames while Antares begins combing out his hair, diligently working through the knots while Reia silently watches from the other side of the room. Alunya is being perfectly well behaved, letting Antares comb out his hair and make him presentable for the festival. “How does he get him to sit still..?” Reia idly wonders aloud to herself, shaking her head in amazement.

By the time the meat has browned on the outside, Reia just can’t manage to stay upset at them any longer; all washed up from their time in the river, all dried out from being in front of the fire, and they had done such a good job with the ribs. Reia takes a deep sniff of the fragrant scent of the meat. It smells just about perfectly, despite being done by two boys with little experience or oversight.

“Alright, you two. Good job.” Reia admits, perhaps just slightly begrudgingly, as she appraises her two sons. They mostly look appropriately tidy for the festival that night, the only exception being their clothes, still dirty with grass and mud. Silently, Reia wonders just what the boys had gotten up to that left their clothes so messy but their skin comparatively pristine. "Alunya, come here, I have something for you."

Alunya turns to look at her as Antares puts down the brush. "Yes, mama?" Alunya asks, a little anxiously, hoping he isn't in for more scolding.

Reia sets a basket down on the table. Both Alunya and Antares peer in with curiosity as Reia removes a set of slightly-fancier-than-usual tunics and trousers, fashioned from soft wool with a pattern embroidered around the trim. “I made it for you just for the festival. Go on, try it on!”

Alunya gapes at the clothes. “Really? Can I?” He hesitates as he touches the fabric. Normally, nice things like this are just for looking, not touching. Reia beams and nods at him encouragingly, so Alunya changes into the new clothes, though on his first try, his head gets stuck in the neck of the tunic, and it's put on backwards, so Reia has to help him sort that out before he is finally wearing it correctly.

“Oh my, you look so cute!” Reia squeals as Alunya rubs his arms, as if in awe of the softness of his own clothes. Alunya looks down and around himself, trying to get a good look at himself, swishing the bottom hem of the tunic around as he moves. The clothes are a tad oversized, probably as a gambit to last the fast growing boy longer.

“Um, Mom? What about me?” Antares asks, tugging on Reia’s tunic and doing his best to mimic Alunya's wide, pleading eyes.

“Oh, Antares, your clothes are a mess too, huh? Don’t you worry, I have just the thing for you.” His mother disappears into the other room for a minute, and Antares can hear her digging through the clothes, before returning with a well made, but fairly worn out tunic, about the right size for him. “This belonged to your father when he was your age!” Reia tries to sound excited, but there is an inevitable hint of bitterness or wistfulness in her voice.

Antares takes the tunic, frowning. “Um… Thanks…” He holds the outfit at some length, unsurely, before sighing and reluctantly putting it on.

“You look cute too, Ant!” Alunya beams up at his older brother, hugging Antares’s arm ecstatically. Antares jerks away, blushing.

Alunya frowns, cocking his head to the side and furrowing his brow in concern “Hm? What’s wrong, Ant?”

“N-nothing, don’t worry about it. So, are we ready to go?" Antares brushes Alunya off, eager to change the topic.

Reia nods at him. "Just let me put these on a platter, and we can head out."

[...]

Reia’s family live on the outskirts of the village, where there are only a handful of scattered buildings without any clear organization, but as they descend towards the center the village becomes more organized, consisting of concentric rings of terraces around the large central plaza. Rock-hewn houses and cyclopean walls stood over the terraces between small stretches of farms. The empty houses are dark, their fireplaces all put out while the center of the village is filled with torchlight.

As usual whenever Reia goes out, she attracts a variety of askance glances. Alunya is blissfully unaware, as he chatters on endlessly about something or another while Reia simply nods and mumbles placating responses, but Antares notices and stares back as they pass more and more people the closer they get to the center.

The festival has only just begun, a few dutiful souls rushing around the array of large tables which had been set up in the plaza for the feast later tonight, while far more gather in small cliques to share the latest gossip, catch up over a pint of beer, or try and sneak in a bite or two of food before the feast. More slowly stream in from each side; Alunya gawks at the number of people, the most he’s ever seen in one place. Singing, dancing, chattering, or just sitting back around the tables and enjoying the ambience.

But what immediately catches Alunya’s attention is the variety of games on display. Slipping away from his mother, he bobs and weaves through the crowd until he reaches a handful of men standing near the river that cuts through the plaza, throwing disks around pegs they had set up.

“Lemme play, lemme play!” Alunya announces his presence, jumping up and down to make sure they see him.

A muscular black-haired man who Alunya recognizes as Gatrick, the village coppersmith, turns to the child, narrowing his eyes with a scornful look on his face. “Aren't you Reia’s bastard? Where’s your mother, kid?”

Alunya shrugs. “I’ll go find her later, but I wanna play first!” He beams up at the man.

The coppersmith groans, flipping over the disk in his hands. "Forget it. Get lost, brat."

Alunya puffs out a cheek, pouting. "Aw, c'mon! Lemme go just once."

"Oh, of all the... Shame you don't have a father to discipline you. Get out of here before I do it myself." Gatrick growls out.

Alunya crosses his arms, looking rightly miffed. "But, it's a festival game, why can't I-"

“-Alunya, there you are!” Reia’s voice comes from behind, sounding exasperated, with Antares following behind. “Honestly, I take my eyes off of you for a moment, and you’ve already run off.”

Alunya whirls around, smiling up at her. “I just saw this game and it looked fun! Oh-” He is suddenly cut off when Reia whisks him off his feet, and he giggles, hugging her around her shoulders as she looks at Gatrick, who grimaces at her and turns away.

“Keep your bastard to yourself next time.” He growls out. Reia clenches her jaw, digging her fingers into Alunya’s back as she tenses up, warranting a protest from the young boy.

“He’s not a bastard, and he has a name.” Reia says, tersely, walking away without another word. Antares gives an askance look backwards before following her. It wasn't usual to see her like that.

Reia carries Alunya back down in front of the statue and sets him down, sighing loudly. “Honestly, the nerve… And right in front of Alunya, too…” She murmurs, absentmindedly.

“Mom, what was that man talking about?” Antares asks, tugging on her skirt. Reia ruffles his hair.

“Nothing, sweetie, don’t worry about it.” Despite her words, Reia looks quite upset. Antares frowns at her in concern. Even if he doesn’t understand, he can still tell something is off.

Reia takes Alunya’s hand and forces a smile. “C’mon, why don’t we go see what else the festival has to offer?” Alunya nods eagerly, and skips along after Reia. Antares hesitates, gives a look back at the disk throwing contest, then shouts “Wait up!”, rushing to catch them.

The trio wander the festival grounds, taking in the sights, her two sons waiting while Reia briefly chats with distant acquaintances or marvels at some of the crafts and art on display. Before long, they find their way before the raging bonfire in the center of the plaza, and by extension, the plinth behind it upon which rests a massive statue of the divine protector of the village, Hylicia.

Alunya gazes up at the monumental structure with an awed murmur. It is made of some shiny material that looks a bit like the copper they use for tools, but brighter and less saturated, almost more like the color of his hair. It could easily be mistaken as some manner of abstract art if one didn’t know what it really was, with long tendrils and coils coming out from a peculiarly shaped object towards the middle, giving the impression almost of a gigantic butterfly with massive wings and an elongated snake-like tail.

I wonder how it doesn’t fall over. Alunya ponders to himself. It looks so top-heavy. Presently, the monument is festooned in small lanterns, one from each family, mostly on the edges of the plinth or on top of the statue’s tail, though some adventurous souls had climbed up to hang lanterns upon some of the other tendrils reaching down from the main body.

“Hey, mom? Can we go over there, next?” Antares pipes up, drawing both Reia and Alunya’s attention away from the statue. The older son is pointing over to an alley between two of the buildings on the lowest terrace of the village above the plaza, where some adolescents had set up a space for throwing javelins.

Reia turns back around to look at what he was pointing at, biting her lip unsurely. “Doesn't that look a bit dangerous? I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Wouldn’t it be good practice for hunting, though?” Antares pleads, hopefully. “I haven’t gotten a chance to try!”

Reia looks away, guiltily. Normally, a boy’s father would have taken him hunting by now. “I don’t know…”

“Aw, that’s no fun! I wanna go too!” Alunya pipes up on the other side, bouncing in place.

Reia sighs and holds her arms up. “Alright, alright! I can see I’m outvoted.”

Not needing any further encouragement, Alunya claps his hands together and bolts off, sprinting right up to the terrace wall and clambering over it instead of running the longer way around. "We wanna try!" Alunya announces his presence cheerfully, while Antares jogs along behind him, huffing as he catches up.

One of the older boys turns around, looking the two of them up and down, and Alunya smiles up at him confidently. “The whiteheads wanna play, huh? If you wanna embarrass yourselves that badly, I won’t stop you. You’re going to have to wait for Vekt and Kalith to finish, though.”

“14 meters!” One of the boys calls out, signaling how far the last javelin throw had gone. Alunya watches with keen interest, as the boy pulls the latest javelin out of the ground and jogs back to return it to the pile. They had set up little markers at regular intervals to help them estimate how far they were throwing.

Another takes up position, picking out three javelins from the pile, and Alunya sits down cross legged on the path to watch, resting his head on one palm, while the boy runs and throws the javelins one by one.

“11 meters!” the runner calls out on the last throw, and the boy looks down, sheepishly, at his poor performance. He tosses the javelins to Antares. “Here, knock yourself out.” He mumbles, as he walks off away from the proceedings in frustration.

Alunya perks up now that Antares is throwing, and stands up. Just as Antares reaches the line drawn in the dirt to show where to throw from, Alunya claps loudly. “You can do it, big bro!” He cheers loudly, raising his voice enough that it can be heard over the rest of the festival sounds. Antares’s cheeks flush red as he looks back at Alunya, then away again, trying to act as if he doesn’t know him.

“Ant-Ar-Es! Ant-Ar-Es!” Alunya chants, while Antares’s blush progressively gets fiercer until it reaches his ears. Trying to ignore Alunya, Antares runs up to the throwing point and hurls the javelin. It flies straight for a moment, then wobbles in the air, and comes down to the ground some distance away.

“12 meters!” The runner announces, and Alunya cheers, clapping over his head while Antares turns to face away, burying his face in his hands. Alunya looks around, wondering why nobody else is cheering. Sure, it isn't as much as some of the older boys, but it is really good for how old his big brother is, right?

But, maybe Alunya is just distracting him, so Alunya with some effort silences himself and just watches on eagerly for Antares’ next attempt. Before he can, though, he hears the familiar gait of his mother behind him, and whirls around to see Reia walking over with a tired expression.

“Hylicia, you two boys are fast.” Reia complains. “Are the other boys being nice to you? Where’s Antares?”

Alunya nods, and is about to point out Antares when he hears “12 meters!” and whips back around to see where Antares’s javelin had fallen. “Aw, mooom! You made me miss him! He’s right up there throwing right now!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Don’t let me get in your way.” Reia gives a mellow smile and stands by, watching.

“Ant-ar-es! Ant-ar-es!” Alunya resumes chanting, before elbowing his mother. “C’mon, you cheer too!”

Reia gives Alunya a doting smile and gets caught up in his excitement, cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting “You can do it, Antares!”

Antares blushes uncontrollably, looking away. Alunya giggles, taking amusement at his brother's embarrassment, and only cheers louder.

“Are you going to throw or not?” One of the boys calls out from the sidelines. Antares sighs, shoots a mortified look over at Alunya and Reia, and then takes a deep breath before charging the line and hurling the javelin with all his strength. The sharpened stick hurtles through the air, before curving and falling down to the ground at a sharp angle.

“13 meters!” The runner announces. Antares beams excitedly and then looks around, only to be met with a rather apathetic audience just watching nonchalantly. Except for Alunya, of course, who beams up at him proudly.

Alunya sprints up and tackles Antares, making the older boy stumble in place with an “oof.” Alunya glows with pride as he hugs his embarrassed brother. “You’re amazing, Ant!” he praises. “You were like, woah, then threw it so far!” Alunya gushes, while Antares tries to wriggle out of his grip, shooting mortified looks at all the bystanders.

Finally releasing Antares, Alunya grabs one of his javelins. “Alright, my turn now! Watch me, Ant!”

“...Can you stop calling me that? It sounds demeaning, like I’m a bug…” Antares hisses out, rubbing his arms self-consciously.

Alunya blinks up at Antares. “Oh, sorry.” Alunya purses his lips, contemplating for a moment, before snapping his fingers. “How about Ari, then?”

“By Hylicia, stop with your drama and throw already!” One of the boys shouts, and Antares puts his head down, shifting off to the side to let Alunya worry about throwing. Alunya cocks his head at him as he leaves, but shrugs and takes up the javelin. It is a bit large and cumbersome in his hands, and they are probably too young to really even throw a javelin properly, but once he gets a good running start, he hurls the javelin with all his might, and it sails straight through the air, parallel to the ground, before clattering against the cobblestone.

“13 meters!” the runner announces.

Antares flinches. Already, Alunya had thrown just as well as his best attempt? He's still younger and smaller than him, how did he already throw that well? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Alunya beams over at Antares and waves at him. “Did you see that, An- uhm, Ari?” He giggles as he uses his foot to launch one of the javelins up into the air and grab it. Before the older boys can complain about him wasting time, he jogs up and throws again.

“12 meters!” The runner announces, giving an approving look to Alunya. That performance is pretty amazing, considering Alunya’s age and lack of experience.

Reia, of course, is also cheering loudly, clapping delightedly with an elated expression. The only one who doesn’t look particularly interested now is Antares, who is hiding behind a building as if embarrassed to be seen near Alunya.

Alunya picks up his last javelin and skips back to his place, prancing forward and hurling the projectile once more. This time, it flies up higher and then comes back down at a high angle, landing just a bit before the previous javelins. “11 meters!” the runner calls out as he retrieves the javelins. “My turn!”

Alunya crosses his arms, proudly, and looks up smugly, before turning around and running off to find Antares. “Hey! Hey, big bro! Did you see? Did you see?” He chatters at him, before Reia pulls him away.

“Come on, Alunya, I think Antares needs a bit of a rest.” Reia says, looking over at the older boy cringing in embarrassment.

Alunya pouts and crosses his arms. “Awww…” He complains, while Antares gives Reia a thankful look. Drawn away, Alunya plops himself down by the line of throwers and impatiently awaits another turn.