Immaculate

The rest of winter passes by in a blur of happy memories and play, and before long Antares is once again kept busy, as the snow melts away and the earliest part of planting season starts. To make sure the family had enough food, despite limited labor available, Reia always had to start planting as soon as possible- even if that meant being out in the miserable cold rain of late winter.

Such a time was incredibly boring to Alunya, being left without a playmate and forbidden from going outside because of what a mess the poor weather would wreak on him. But there is one thing to look forward to. The spring equinox is not as important of an occasion as the fall, since food stocks are still weak after winter and the harvest holds more importance. But for Alunya, it is the most special day of all, for it was his birthday.

81st of Winter, 2891 P.C.

[...]

Alunya whistles idly to himself as he deftly maneuvers the sewing needle through the piece of fabric in his hands. There was precious little to do indoors, so he’s taken to practicing his sewing with whatever scraps of fabric he can find.

But as the door swings open, he just about jumps out of his skin and hastily hides the piece of cloth underneath himself. For whatever reason, even though Reia had asked him for help repairing some of the family's clothes that had gotten worn out in the first place, she got awfully upset if she ever caught him practicing on his own. But as Reia enters the room, it seems she hadn’t seen, and Alunya breathes a sigh of relief.

Actually, that is rather odd, isn’t it? What is she doing back? It hasn’t been that long, has it? Alunya nervously glances out the window, worried the entire day had somehow gotten away from him, but it still looks no later than midday. Normally, Reia—And Antares, who was following just behind her, bouncing from foot to foot with readily apparent eagerness—would be gone the entire day.

“I have some good news!” Reia announces, beaming at Alunya. “I had a chat with Tavr; you know, Vekt and Risa’s father? Anyways, he’s agreed to take you and Antares hunting for your birthday!”

“Huh? Me?” Alunya blinks.

Antares runs up to Alunya and takes his hands in his own, eyes shining excitedly. “Yep! You and me! We’re going to get to go see the mountains in person!” Antares squeals, barely able to contain his own excitement.

“I felt bad that you hadn’t had a chance until now.” Reia adds on. “So I pulled a couple strings here and there and did some talking, and now you’ll have your first real opportunity! Plus, it’s a good way for you to meet some more kids, maybe make some new friends.”

“Come on, Alunya! We gotta go practice!” Antares starts trying to tug Alunya out the door, and Alunya stumbles after him in a bit of a daze.

“Huh? What are we practicing, Ari?” Alunya asks, in an awed tone.

“We gotta go get ready for the trip! That means we gotta practice with the bow!” Antares proclaims. But before they could leave, Reia grabs Alunya’s tunic, yanking him back again.

“Oh, no you don’t you two! You still have chores to do today.” Reia tells Antares. “And I need to make sure that you are presentable before the trip. You’ve put off getting your haircut for long enough, the winter’s ending so no more excuses about it keeping your head warm!” Reia dictates to Alunya.

Alunya gasps in apparent horror and covers his head. He remembers last time Reia had cut his hair, the bizarre feeling of the air on his scalp. “No, you can’t!” Alunya protests desperately. “I like my hair!”

Reia puts her hands on her hips, sternly. “You and Antares are going to be representing our family when you go, so I won’t have you embarrassing me!” Reia dictates in a tone that brooks no argument.

Alunya shakes his head furiously, whipping his hair around, but Reia is apparently at the end of her patience. “If you don’t sit still and let me cut your hair, I’m marching right back over to Tavr’s place and telling him I’m canceling our arrangement.” She declares.

Antares’s expression projects pure horror as he hears this, and he gives Alunya a pleading look. “Alunya, please, just this once?” He holds his brother's hand in his own, giving him the big doe eyes he had learned from Alunya.

Alunya bit his lip. He did want to go, and he couldn’t ruin it for Antares either… But…

Looking noticeably depressed, Alunya sighs and sits down at the table, puffing out a cheek and crossing his arms. “Fine…” He grumbles..

[...]

Alunya paws at his hair as he looks in the river, dismally. It feels so strange having his hair so short! Plus, now his scalp feels freezing cold. And when he shakes his head, he can't even feel the hair flowing in the wind! What a disaster… Alunya thinks to himself.

Antares must have been able to tell what he was thinking, because as he sits down next to him he wraps one arm around his shoulders. “Oh, come on Alunya, it’s not that bad. I still think you look cute!”

Alunya gives his brother a wistful smile. “Thanks, Ari.” Alunya leans against Antares, staring down at both of their reflections. At least I look more like Ari now. Alunya thinks to himself- Their reflections are so similar now, to Alunya it looks more like he is staring at two copies of Antares than himself and his brother. Their heights were almost even, leaving the only noticeable difference a slight distinction in build and somewhat more mature features on his brother.

Alunya finally looks away from the water and stands up, stretching. “Well, you wanted to practice before we go hunting, right? We have time now, don’t we?” Alunya cocks his head to the side questioningly.

Antares nods vigorously in reply. “Mm-hmm! C’mon, follow me, we got something special for the trip!”

Antares takes Alunya’s hand and leads him back to the crates behind their hut, where he digs through them and pulls out a pair of simple ash self bows, which probably took some whittler no more than an hour to put together, with oval cross-section and strings made of rawhide. Antares hands one of the bows to Alunya, who tugs on the bowstring experimentally.

“No, look, you gotta pull it back like this.” Antares instructs Alunya, showing how to hold the bowstring. “I’ve seen some of the men using them, just follow my lead.”

Alunya copies after Antares, pulling the bow back with three fingers. It isn’t easy, and takes alot of his strength, but he manages to draw the bow back almost to his cheek.

“Ow!” Alunya yelps as he dry fires the bow, feeling the bowstring slap against his wrist. “That hurts!”

Antares frowns. “Oh, you shouldn’t fire the bow without an arrow. You gotta just relax your draw on it gradually, so that doesn’t happen.”

Alunya frowns back. “...Aren’t we supposed to have something on our wrists to protect them? I’ve seen that’s what the hunters all do.”

Antares rubs the back of his head. “I guess so, yeah. But we don’t have any, so we’ll just have to make do.” Antares handed a bundle of arrows to Alunya. “C’mon, we gotta practice our aim so that when we go out we can actually hit the broad side of a barn. Let’s try hitting… Hm. We don’t have any targets… Maybe we can just aim for that tree?” Antares points over to a medium-sized oak a bit behind the house, standing a little bit away from the rest of the forest. Alunya nods, looking determined, and draws back his bowstring…

Twang. The arrow flies off, landing some ways to the right of the tree.

Alunya gapes in dismay. “Huh? That’s not where I wanted you to go!” He complains to the arrow, as if it had agency and was able to respond, before shaking his head.

Twang. Now Antares’s arrow flew, digging into the ground some ways before the tree, and Antares looks at Alunya sheepishly, laughing nervously.

“Eheh… I think we might have alot of practice to go.”

[...]

The days between the announcement and the spring equinox pass quickly, and soon enough, Alunya and Antares’s time to prepare has passed.

Alunya looks down towards the middle of the village, both excitedly and a little wistfully. Where normally he’d be getting ready for his birthday celebrations, or maybe even the spring festival, instead he would be going out; Tavr always went out during the festivals. Maybe he doesn’t like the crowds..? Alunya wonders idly to himself.

“Alright, you two. Remember, this might be a special event for you, but Tavr is taking you on as a favor to our family. So don’t demand too much attention, and do your best to fit in. And Alunya, remember what we talked about!” Reia lectures her two boys, who both stand upright and nod dutifully.

“Roger that!” Alunya chimes in. “Oh, Ari, before we go, I got something for us!” Alunya presents a simple vambrace made of wool with some scraps of rawhide on the inside, intended to help protect the wrist when firing the bow.

“...Where did you get that from?” Reia asks uncertainly, as Antares takes a look at the vambrace before sliding it onto his right wrist, flexing his hand to see how it feels.

“I stitched it together from whatever I could find, duh.” Alunya says proudly, putting his own vambrace on.

“You shouldn’t…” Reia starts, before sighing. “...Nevermind. Just come along, you two.”

Reia takes her two boys' hands, and after a quick check to make sure they have everything they need—Bows, arrows, fire pistons, satchel, snacks, hunting knives, and more—they set off for Tavr’s residence.

Tavr’s residence is not far away, only a quick stroll. It is larger than Reia’s abode, although not by much, and probably is more cramped if anything given that more people lived there. The first to greet Reia and her sons is Yuvia, who is sitting out in front.

“Good morning!” Yuvia calls out.

“Good morning!” Reia replies back, bowing briefly before the steps of the hut. “Thank you so much for taking my boys in, I hope you know how much we appreciate the opportunity.”

Yuvia smiles back at Reia. “It’s no problem. It takes a village to raise a child, after all. Go ahead and head on in, Tavr is getting ready inside.”

Alunya looks around curiously as he steps inside; it isn’t very often that he gets to see the inside of any building other than his own family’s cottage. The inside is a cluttered if homey mess, considerably less organized than his own house, although that is in significant part just because there are more possessions in general compared to the fairly sparse cottage he calls home.

And of course, there is Tavr. A stout and rather hairy man, with a greasy complexion and strong odor that had hit Alunya as soon as he entered the room. Alunya wrinkles his nose and grimaces in disgust, resisting the urge to say something snarky about the older man with some effort. He’d not actually been in close quarters with an adult other than his mother, before. At least, not that he could remember. Do they all smell like that? Gross. As if the odor isn’t bad enough, he looks altogether ungraceful, not at all the image of a dashing hunter that Alunya had formed in his head. Focus, remember, you don’t want to ruin this for Ari… Alunya reminds himself, glancing over at his brother, who is standing stiffly upright, nervousness plain in his body language.

Tavr stops what he is doing, and turns to the newcomers, appraising the two brothers for a moment before standing up. “Alunya and Antares, I presume?” Tavr’s voice is gruff and low, grating to Alunya’s ears. “Name’s Tavr, this here is my son Vekt and daughter Risa.” Tavr motions at his two children sitting at the table. Alunya recognizes Vekt from the festival of course, but he hadn’t ever met Risa, who waves hello at him as Tavr continues. “ …Now, which one of your birthdays is it?”

Alunya raises his arm eagerly. “Me! Me!” Alunya announces to Tavr, who stares back down at him, making Alunya’s excitement lapse as he remembers who he was talking to. Thankfully, the adult didn’t seem to notice Alunya’s consternation.

“My, your mother wasn’t joking, you are tall for your age…” Tavr mutters to himself, before turning to Reia. “Alright. You can leave the boys here, we were just about to have breakfast before we set off.” Tavr says to Reia, who releases her boys’ hands and bows again.

“Thankyou again for taking them. I don’t know how they’d ever have a chance to learn this kind of thing without your help.” Reia affirms gratefully.

Tavr gives her a pointed look. “Well, you could just get remarried finally…” He mutters sullenly. “But I guess you’re a bit old for that now, aren’t you?”

Reia grits her teeth but does her best to keep a pleasant face on, laughing awkwardly. “Aha, I suppose so.” She replies, her voice strained.

“Well, whatever. Rest assured, they’re in good hands with us. We’ll return them to you spick and span in a few days, and maybe they’ll have picked up some more appropriate hobbies, eh?” Tavr laughs.

“Well, I’d better get back to my chores. Have fun, you two!” Reia says to Alunya and Antares, giving them each a final pat on the head before turning on her heel and departing back towards home.

Alunya watches Reia depart before turning back to Vekt and Tavr. As he looks at Vekt, he tries to avoid frowning. He still remembers how mean the boy had been to Antares during the festival, but now he and Antares were guests. Vekt had somehow resisted saying anything particularly venomous to the two of them now, though he has a bit of a self assured, smug look.

“Well, you two, go ahead and take your seats. Risa, go fetch us something to eat, and some corn wine.” Tavr announces, motioning for the two boys to take a seat. “We want to have a full belly before we go out.” His daughter meekly nods her head and takes off.

Alunya purposefully takes the seat across from Vekt, so that Antares doesn't have to sit near the boy who had mocked him so last festival, while Antares sits across from Tavr.

“So, either of you boys know how to shoot a bow?” Tavr asks, and Alunya and Antares look at each other before nodding emphatically.

“Um, Mom got us bows in preparation so, we’ve been practicing!.” Antares reports, puffing out his chest proudly.

“Well, that’s a start at least. How about traps? You ever make a snare?” Tavr follows up.

Antares awkwardly shuffles. “Well um, no, I can’t say I know how. I thought we were just going on a trip though, wouldn’t leaving traps take alot longer…?” Antares asks, meekly.

Tavr thinks for a moment, before shrugging. “I suppose you have a point there.”

Before the conversation could continue, Risa arrives, carrying a platter with bowls of potato soup.

“Thanks, Risa!” Alunya cheers, smiling sunnily at her as he takes his food. “Did you make it? It smells good!”

Risa looks startled, and Vekt glares over at Alunya. “Huh? Oh, I helped mommy make it, but she did most of the work.” Risa replies self consciously, rubbing the back of her head.

“Now go fetch us four satchels and fill them up with biscuits and nuts for the trip.” Tavr instructs dismissively.

Alunya blinks. Four satchels… Wait, Four? Alunya counts everyone in the room. Antares, Risa, Tavr, Vekt, and me. Wait, that’s not four! Alunya gasps in dismay, and Tavr and Vekt both look at him blankly, while Antares turns to him quickly with a concerned look.

“What’s wrong, ‘Lunya?” Antares asks before anyone else can react.

“Why only four? Am I not going?” Alunya protests, while everyone else just looks at him confused.

“...You, your brother, me, and dad.” Vekt responds after a pause, counting each one on their fingers. “Hylicia, don’t you even know how to count…?”

Alunya blinks. “Huh? But what about Risa?” Alunya furrows his brow in confusion. How was Vekt going to go hunting without his little sister?

Vekt laughs, while Antares touches his hand to his temple in embarrassment. Tavr just sighs and shakes his head. “No, Alunya, Risa does not come hunting. Her job is to stay here and learn from her mother.”

Alunya quirks his mouth, not really understanding, but shrugs. At least that meant neither he nor Antares were to be left at home, so it wasn’t anything to worry too much about.

Breakfast begins in relative silence, save for the sounds of munching; everyone is eager to just finish eating and get on with the day. Antares elbows Alunya, who is presently slurping the soup down without a care in the world, painting the sides of his cheeks with starchy residue. “C’mon, Alunya, show some manners, we’re not at home.” Antares hisses out through clenched teeth. Alunya rolls his eyes dramatically, but reluctantly slows down, wiping off his mouth.

“Stay here everyone. I just gotta go get a couple things so we’ll be ready to go. We’ll leave as soon as I get back.” Tavr announces once he has finished eating, standing up.

As soon as he is gone, Vekt leans forward, looking suspiciously at Alunya. “Don't think I didn’t see you trying to butter up my sister. I have my eye on you.”

Alunya blinks at him in confusion. What is he talking about? “Huh? What?” His brow furrows as he tries to figure out what Vekt meant by that.

“You think that just because my father invited you over, you can make a pass at Risa? How would a sissy boy like you protect her anyways?” Vekt clenches his fist, hostility in his voice.

Antares jolts up from where he was sitting, gazing fiercely at Vekt, placing both hands on the table. In the meantime between the last festival, Antares had just about caught up with Vekt height wise, though he was still scrawnier. “Don’t talk to my little brother that way.” Antares growls out.

Vekt flinches, startled by Antares’s sudden ferocity, but quickly shoots back another venomous glare. “Yeah? What are you going to do about it, mama’s boy? You’re just a kid not even old enough to have grown out your first beard!” Vekt smugly puts his chin out, showing off the fine stubble that had developed on it since the last time they’d seen each other. He was, apparently, quite proud of it.

Alunya blanches. Does he honestly think that’s impressive…? Alunya wonders, almost in awe of the boy's apparent stupidity. That's like, the exact opposite of being cute. Alunya stares dully at the boy, but quickly decides he has to take Antares’s side, even if the subject of the argument still eludes him. “He’s already taller than you, and I bet he knows how to-” Alunya cuts himself off when he hears the door close behind him, and Antares and Vekt hurriedly sit back down while Tavr returns to the table.

“...Everything alright here?” Tavr asks, suspiciously, standing over the table. There is something subtly off about his posture, a bit more aggressive despite a level tone.

“Yes, father. We were just chatting and got a bit excited.” Vekt reports. Alunya can’t help but note that he looks a little pale. His father nods after a moment, placing the canteen Alunya just noticed he had returned with on a hook on his belt. “Alright, I got what I needed. Let’s head out.”