“Just what were you thinking?” Reia is demanding Alunya, who was sitting alone at the family’s table, looking off to the side with irritation. The table is cleared; No breakfast in sight. “Actually, no, don’t answer that question, I’ll answer it for you. You weren’t thinking. And now you’ve undone years of hard work from me trying to make you boys respectable in this village! Clearly, I have been far too lenient with you.” Reia lectures in her finest scolding voice.

  Alunya crosses his arms and glares back at his mother rebelliously. “I didn’t do anything wrong! You should have heard the things he was saying about Antares!” Alunya protests.

  Reia shakes her head dismissively. “I don't care what he said. Words are just words, actions are actions. And now you’ve broadcasted the message to the whole village that you’re every bit as savage as they think you are. I hope you’re happy with yourself.”

  Alunya bolts up from his seat, clenching his jaw. “How is anybody going to respect us if we can’t stand up for ourselves? I’ve tried doing things your way, it never works! At least this way I shut him up!” Alunya raises his voice. It doesn’t matter what anyone says, I did what I needed to. Alunya thinks with utter self-confidence.

  Reia huffs in irritation. “You broke his nose, Alunya. You broke. His nose. I don’t even know how you did that, you’re like half his weight. Now not only do we have to make sacrifices to Hylicia to stay in their good graces, but you’ve ruined our relationship with his family, too.”

  Alunya puffs out a cheek and huffs right on back. “Hmph. As if! They didn’t respect us before and they don’t now!” Alunya retorts. “I’d rather have them be scared of me than look down on me!”

  Reia is livid now, shaking her head furiously. “No, no, no, you just don’t get anything, do you? This is a community, we all rely on each other. Thanks to your actions, we’re social outcasts, and I’ll need to do everything I can to get back in the village’s good graces again.”

  Alunya rolls his eyes. As far as he is concerned, they’d always been outcasts; Nothing had changed, now. Besides, the men were always boasting about how strong and tough they were; Surely if they flinched at a little bit of blood they weren’t any better than the womenfolk they were always talking down to.

  But Reia isn’t done. “We can’t afford the food we’re going to have to give up in sacrifice, so you’re not going to eat until we’ve paid it back. Maybe a good bit of hunger will give you a new perspective on what life is like without the gods’ blessings.”

  Alunya’s stomach didn’t like that suggestion, but he isn’t going to back down that easily, so he just crosses his arms and puts his chin in the air, refusing to respond to his mother any further. He could just get food from the forest, anyways; It was summer. Maybe that would be a big deal in winter, but… No, even then he could catch fish.

  “...And, because I apparently can’t trust you to interact with anyone without constant supervision, you are grounded for the entire summer.” Reia was continuing.

  Alunya feels his heart sinking. That might put more of a damper on his mood… It was a bit harder to catch food if he couldn’t, you know, go outside.

  “Mom! That’s totally unfair! He was the one that started it anyway! He pushed Antares!” Alunya protests. He hated pleading his case like this, but he couldn’t just accept it.

  “I don’t really care who started it. You certainly finished it, and now it's up to me to deal with the fallout.” Reia dictates. “You’ll understand one day. I’m doing this all for your sake. You’ll ruin your chances of ever finding a wife if you don’t get your anger under control. And then where will you be? You’ll be like me.”

  Alunya growls. Was she seriously still on about that whole thing? Wasn’t yesterday the day where everyone was just obsessed with marriage? “Who cares about that?” Alunya shouts back. “I don’t even want to get married anyways!”

  Reia grits her teeth. “You’ll change your mind when you get older. You’ll see, I’m doing this all for your own good. I know you think you know everything but you’re still just a kid, when you grow up you’ll see. I just don’t want you to ruin your marriage prospects.”

  Alunya rolls his eyes aggressively. This speech again. He was already sick of it, and he was sure he would get it plenty more times in the future. I just, I can’t even deal with this right now.

  Thankfully for Alunya, Reia seemed to be done with him, as she sighs heavily and places her head in her hand. “Just… Go to your room. I have work to do.”

  Gladly. Spinning on his heel, Alunya stalks off back to his and Antares’ room. “Just remember, you’re grounded. It’s best if nobody sees you around for a while anyways, so I can try to do some damage control.” Reia was calling after him as he leaves, but Alunya’s attention was already set on something else. Antares was still unconscious, slumped over onto his back with his mouth open drooling.

  Alunya blinks at him; he isn’t even covered, he was still asleep despite it being well past sunrise, and most unusually of all he was on his back. Alunya had it on good authority- namely, his own personal experience- that Antares was a side sleeper, and rather a neat one at that. Not one who tended to drool and… snore. By Hylicia that made a racket…

  “Ari, c’mon, Ari… Wake up…” Alunya begs, shaking Antares. Reia hadn’t gotten him up; Summer wasn’t the busiest season so that might be why, but it probably had more to do with needing the time to scold Alunya.

  Antares took several attempts, each shake on Alunya’s part becoming more violent and intense than the last as Alunya grew more and more concerned that Antares wouldn’t wake up at all, until finally Antares wakes up with a noisy groan.

  “Rrrrgh…. Go away…” Antares drones out, squinting his eyes shut and raising his hand to his head. Alunya frowns in concern.

  “A-Ari? Antares? A-are you ok?” Alunya asks, hesitantly, but Antares just bats him away.

  “Go away! And stop making so much noise…” Antares complains, though Alunya was being overwhelmingly soft-spoken in the first place.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Alunya hesitates, eyes big and round in concern as Antares shuns the light and pulls the blanket over his head, moaning in dismay. Alunya darts back over to the main room where Reia was making breakfast- For two, of course.

  “Mom! Something’s wrong with Ari, I think he’s sick!” Alunya explains. At Alunya’s urging, Reia eventually pulls herself away from cooking with an irritated glance at Alunya to go check on her older son; She goes up to him to place her hand against his forehead.

  “No fever. Hm. How are you feeling, Antares?” Reia asks, though Alunya can’t help but think she was far too nonchalant.

  “Go away… Too noisy… Head throbbing… Everything hurts…” Antares moans. Reia looks over at Alunya and shrugs.

  “Don’t worry about him, he’s just hung over. He’ll get over it.” Reia explains.

  “Hung… Over?” Alunya asks, uncertainly, his eyes not leaving Antares’s face.

  “It just means he drank more than he could handle.” Reia states. “He’ll get used to it after he’s had time to get acclimatized to the alcohol, but for today, he’ll be fine after a few hours. He just has to sleep it off.” Reia explains. Alunya can’t help but think she wasn’t acting nearly concerned enough.

  ‘Alcohol’. Alunya remembers the vile beverage Antares had tried to get him to try the other day. So, that thing is why his brother is acting so weird..? Come to think of it, he had been acting pretty bizarre last night too… He’d even gone along with Alunya when Alunya wanted to dance with him. But more importantly, he’d gotten all mopey and upset.

  “I’ll try to keep quiet, Ari, but I’m worried about you. I gotta make sure you’re ok.” Alunya whispers, though he isn’t sure if Antares had actually heard him. As soon as Alunya is sure Reia has left again, he climbs up into the bed and gets behind Antares, lightly holding him close to his chest.

  “What’s going on? Am I dying?” Antares asks in a miserable, low, droning voice. Alunya frowns and shakes his head.

  “N-no, mom says you’ll be fine in a few hours. You just had… too much alcohol last night.” Alunya says the last part distastefully. Somehow whenever that stuff was involved everyone around seemed to act weirder. Plus, it smelled dreadful; he could still detect it in Antares’s scent even now.

  “Last night… What happened last night…” Antares mumbles, struggling to think. After a long moment, his cheeks flush bright red. “Oh. Oh no. How did I let you talk me into that…” Seemingly that thought drove Antares to try to get up, but as soon as he was sitting upright, he doubles over in nausea, and heaves a decent chunk of last night's dinner onto the floor below. Alunya shrieks in repulsion and scoots away rapidly, not wanting to get any of it on him, looking down at the sloppy mess below with squeamishness. “U-um, Mom! Antares threw up!” Alunya calls out, the loud noise giving Antares more of a headache again.

  Reia appears in the doorway, staring with suspicion up at Alunya- he was not supposed to be in bed with Antares. “Well, you’re going to be stuck inside. Why don’t you clean it up?” Reia asks, pointedly.

  Alunya stares back incredulously and grumbles. You’re lucky I love my big brother so much… Alunya thinks to himself, sighing and hopping down. “I’ll go get the rag…”

  [...]

  2892 P.C., the fourth of Summer, Hylicia’s Vale.

  Antares looks back over his shoulder to make sure Reia isn’t watching as he enters the room with his little brother. “Now, be careful Mom doesn’t see you eating…” Antares hisses out as he pilfers the smuggled scone from his sleeve and offers it to his brother.

  Alunya nods eagerly, his stomach growling. “Mhm!” He keeps his anticipation as quiet as he is able to, and clambers into the corner of the room behind the bed where he isn’t in the line of sight from the doorway.

  Antares is feeling fine by now, though his hangover the day after the festival had lasted the entire day. But there are chores to do again… Doubly so, since Alunya isn’t allowed out and about. With just a look back, Antares sighs and heads out.

  It’s past noon when he’s on his way back home, carrying a bucket of harvested crops from the fields, winding through town. Antares looks up at the sky, wiping the sweat off his brow. He would be back to work as soon as he had delivered these home; there was enough of a yield today to warrant multiple trips.

  But as Antares returns his attentions back to the path before him, he finds his path blocked by an unfortunately familiar face…

  At least, it would have been familiar if it wasn’t presently swollen in all the wrong places, its nose twisted at an odd angle, and a massive pair of black eyes taking up half of it. But of far more interest to Antares at that exact moment, the body that face was attached to was grasping a gleaming, copper knife in one hand.

  “Looks like I finally caught you without your freak of a brother.” Kuzir spits, cracking his knuckles. “It's time for some payback.”

  Antares doubles back, looking around for another way out, but quickly finds his escape cut off by one of Kuzir’s companions down every road leading away. There are houses nearby; it’s broad daylight, yet somehow none of them seemed at all concerned about the confrontation. A window nearby slammed shut; Antares guesses that means he’s on his own, as he drops the bucket on the ground.

  “Wh-what do you want?” Antares blurts out, unable to keep the fear from his wavering voice.

  Kuzir motions dramatically at him with his knife. “I want to cut up that pretty face of yours till your slut of a sister- Oh, I’m sorry, brother- won’t be able to recognize you anymore. Grab him!” The boy behind Antares runs to grab him in a headlock as Kuzir approaches menacingly.

  Antares shrieks in a mixture of fear and rage, struggling against the older male. “Let me go! There’s no way Hylicia will let you get away with this!” Antares pleads desperately. Invoking the god’s wrath was not really his normal style, but surely he would be protected, right? He’d done nothing wrong!

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. Hylicia’s protection doesn’t extend to freak whiteheads like you.” Kuzir states, drawing the knife along Antares’s skin, leaving a shallow, light cut.

  Desperation takes hold and Antares swings his head forward as hard as he can, connecting with Kuzir’s already broken nose. Pain explodes in his forehead, but he is sure his nemesis got it worse, as Kuzir doubles over, screeching in pain. Getting his arm free, Antares swings his elbow back and connects with the abdomen of the adolescent holding him from behind. That isn’t quite enough to get his grip to release, so Antares stomps down on his foot with all his might and bites his forearm as well, finally managing to get loose.

  Kuzir curses and lunges at him with the knife. Antares barely dodges to the left, leaving the knife to nick Kuzir’s own friend. Hylicia, he’s really trying to kill me. Antares realizes in disbelief. Now that he is free he is able to survey his surroundings; There were three assailants, and they had blocked off every avenue of escape. Every avenue except…

  Antares leaps up onto the terrace wall above him. The remaining adolescent who he hadn’t tangled with yet attempts to grab his legs and pull him down, but he is able to plant his heel onto the assailants face, and with strength granted by desperation, heave himself up over the top of the terrace wall, rolling forwards and staggering up to his feet as quickly as he can.

  Without hesitating to look back, he takes off sprinting, not stopping until he had reached home.