By some strange miracle, Antares is able to get by the rest of that summer without further interference by Kuzir- In fact, Antares doesn’t see Kuzir at all. Perhaps he’d just decided Antares is more trouble than he’s worth, he doesn’t know… But he isn’t exactly complaining.

  Meanwhile, for Alunya’s part, that season is the most dreadfully boring one in living memory. Lazing about all day with nothing to do, unable to spend time with his brother… But there are a couple saving graces. First, Lyrin drops by a handful of times; He hadn’t been at the festival, given his age, but he had heard what happened secondhand. He and Alunya chatted at some length about how unfair their parents could be, and Alunya got Lyrin to share details on what he was working on. Second, Vekt and Risa popped in a few days after the festival to cheer him on and tell him what a great fighter he is; a message that Alunya took with pride, though he is glad Reia was not there to see it.

  And that message kindled another thought in Alunya; If he wanted to protect his brother, he needed to be better. Stronger. He had always wanted to go on adventures, but if he wanted to slay a dragon, he would need to have the strength to wield a blade first. He was locked inside anyways… He might as well make the most of it. After all, if there was one thing Alunya wasn’t, it was lazy.

  And so, the boy trained in whatever ways he was able to; Cuts and thrusts with any farm tool he could lay hand on, target practice with the bow (...But only when Reia wasn’t around), exercising his arms and muscles, and roughhousing with whoever he could get to co-operate- Mostly Antares, since the other kids he knew got exhausted way too quickly.

  Even so, Alunya is overjoyed when the summer finally ended and he gained a reprieve from Reia’s grounding. Oh, it isn’t like he’d literally not gone anywhere that whole time; Reia is, after all, gone most of the time, and hardly able to enforce her rules. But he is also perfectly aware that she had asked other villagers to make sure he was staying home, and trying to be all stealthy about going anywhere was just a pain.

  Alunya took to his fall chores with gusto, even on the day of the fall festival; Getting the farm work out of the way as quickly as possible was after all the best way to make sure both he and Antares had time free, and there was nothing more he wanted in the world than to catch up on lost time playing with his older brother.

  [...]

  2892 P.C., the twenty-seventh of Autumn, the windswept forest on the southern side of Hylicia’s Vale.

  Antares lifts his kite, a simple rhombus on a thin birch framework, bound with simple-weave flax cloth- The weave was Alunya’s handiwork, naturally, but the slender birch branches had been whittled by Antares. With a hint of nervousness- He had put quite a bit of time into making the kites, if they didn’t fly now he would be sorely disappointed- Antares tossed the thing airborne.

  It doesn’t work on the first try, and Antares felt a growing wave of consternation overtaking him, but eventually, after his third attempt, the kite stayed airborne long enough for him to grab hold of the cord attached to it and chase it against the wind, letting more and more of the cord slack as the kite began to build up altitude.

  “Woah! It works!” Alunya cheers, lifting his own kite.

  Antares smiles over at him blithely and nods. “C’mon, now you try!” Alunya nods his head eagerly and hurls the thing airborne, the kite doing a lazy loop before coming to rest on its backside. Alunya brushes it off and tries again, and after a couple more false starts, manages to get it airborne, quickly tugging on the cord and giving it the momentum needed to catch the wind currents and ride higher in the sky.

  The two of them had picked the clearest part of the hills for flying their kites, but there are still enough trees to present a certain hazard; Nowhere in the valley is truly clear, and Alunya has to twist his arms and choose directions carefully to keep the kite from getting caught on a branch. The slope of the hill is certainly making it harder to race against the wind, but at least the kites are flying high in the sky, Alunya raising an arm to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun.

  “Let’s head uphill, it's windier the higher up we go!” Alunya calls out, guiding the kite while scrambling over uneven ground. It certainly makes it harder to go up the hill, holding the kite as he is, but it just means he has to take a bit of a longer route and make sure the kite stays airborne. Thankfully, the wind is well strong enough even when Alunya isn’t moving.

  “Be careful you don’t lose the cord.” Antares warns. “I spent a long while looking for good branches for these, you know! They gotta be thin and sturdy all the way through, so they’re strong enough without being too heavy.” Antares notes, more than a subtle note of pride finding its way into his voice; He guessed he could understand the appeal Alunya found in making things with his own hands, it was special seeing the product of his own craftsmanship flying free in the sky like this.

  The two boys make their way up to the pinnacle of the hill, where the kites could fly higher than before, releasing the cord far enough to where they were just holding onto the base; There was no proper grip, so Antares had to be sure to wrap it around his hand for fear of losing it. But given some time, the wind starts to die down, and the kites sink gradually lower in the sky, the two boys having to rope them in bit by bit.

  “I thought I’d find you two up here.” Alunya whirls around to see Vekt, hiking up the hill, looking rather exhausted.

  “Huh? Oh, hi, Vekt. What are you doing here?” Alunya asks, pulling on the cord of his kite.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I could ask you the same thing…” Vekt pants out, resting on his knees. “Don’t you two ever get tired? It's quite a hike up here.” After a moment of catching his breath, Vekt straightens out again. “So! My dad found something up in the mountains on his last hunting trip, a cave that nobody’s ever seen before. He went to go tell the smith about it, ask if he wants to go look for ores up there.”

  Alunya immediately perks up in interest. His experience at the smithy told him that finding ore is a very rare occurrence, one that surely warrants investigation. But, that still didn’t really explain why Vekt was looking for him and his brother. “So? Why are you telling us?” Alunya’s mind was whirring with possibilities. Maybe Gatrick had offered to save some of the copper for him? Well, no, that didn’t make sense… Gatrick would never be that nice, and even if he was, he hadn’t even been told about the trip yet.

  “Well…” Vekt begins. “It's a few days' journey, so we need someone who can cook, and so Risa is going to tag along. And I just thought… You two are pretty good hunters, and could help look after her. So I thought I would invite you to see if you wanted to come. I’m sure you’d like to get out of the village for a bit, right? Kuzir’s been making the rounds again.” Vekt smirks a little. “Not that I would mind getting to watch you put that smug prick in his place again.”

  “Huh? I mean, I can cook, why not just let me if you’re worried about Risa?” Alunya asks, cocking his head to the side questioningly. Vekt looks noticeably crestfallen.

  “Ugh, I forgot how shameless you are…” Vekt grumbles. “Alright, look, don’t say that. Not only is it really weird that you’re so open about that, but Risa’s really excited to get to come along. If she isn’t needed then Dad won’t let her come. So please just be quiet about that, ok?” Vekt pleads.

  Alunya nods, contemplatively. That makes sense to him, and it was charming how Vekt was looking out for her.

  “What makes you think your dad will even let us come along? You don’t even know for sure if the smith is going, yet.” Antares questions.

  Vekt gives a toothy smile. “Oh, I’m pretty sure he’ll let you. Dad likes you two, ya know. And I know Alunya spends a lot of time down at Gatrick’s, so I doubt he’ll complain either.”

  Antares shoots a quizzical look at Alunya, who whistles nonchalantly. Hadn’t Reia forbidden him from going down there..?

  Alunya scratches his head. “Well… When are you going? We’d have to talk to mom.” Alunya says, a bit distastefully. I’m sure he wishes he could just set out right now. Antares thinks, with a knowing smirk.

  “”Knowing dad..? Probably as soon as he can get Gatrick to go. I dunno the smith really, I don’t know how long he’s liable to take. I guess you would know better than me.” Vekt responds. “But I thought I should let you know as quickly as possible so you could have time to prepare.”

  Alunya and Antares look at each other, and Alunya starts reeling in his kite. “Well, Alunya, you wanna go ask Mom?” Antares asks, deferentially, and Alunya nods eagerly in response.

  [...]

  A couple days later, Alunya and Antares met with Vekt and Tavr on the outskirts of town. Reia had been quite willing to let them go-in fact, Alunya privately feels she had appeared positively eager-and now they were just waiting for the remaining arrivals.

  The next arrival is Gatrick, who arrives together with his son, Lyrin. Alunya beams and waves- he wasn’t expecting Lyrin to be coming, too! He runs up to greet him while the two older men greet each other in turn.

  “You’d better not be pulling my leg, Tavr. I don’t have time for another wild goose chase, there's still work to do back at home.” Gatrick grumbles.

  Tavr rolls his eyes. “I’m telling you, it's a pretty good sized cave, and I have never heard anybody talk about it. I’m sure it’s been found recently.”

  Vekt was looking around anxiously. “Um, dad? Is Risa going to get here anytime soon?” He asks, poking the ends of his fingers together rhythmically.

  Gatrick crosses his arms. “Another thing. Do you think this is some kind of camping trip? You’re still insisting on bringing your girl, and these two brats with us?” Gatrick grumbles. “It’s a long walk, they’ll just slow us down. And I am not going to entertain them.”

  Tavr waves Gatrick off dismissively. “Oh, give it a rest you old badger. I’ve been out with them before, they mostly just stick with each other. Besides, my son wants them along for some reason. Maybe he’s scared a beaver will jump out and attack him again.” Tavr guffaws while Vekt looks down, embarrassed. “And like you said, it's a long way. If you want someone to cook your meals, we’re going to need the girl. Besides, they can help carry our supplies.” Tavr points out.

  Alunya looks over at the conversation, wanting to interject that he could do it just fine… But remembering what Vekt said, he keeps his mouth shut. It wasn't a favor for him, exactly… But he would feel bad for Risa if she got left home alone without her brother.

  Gatrick huffs. “Fine. But don’t expect me to go easy on them or slow the pace. We need to be quick.”

  Right on cue, Risa appears from the village, struggling to carry two large sacks of who knows what. “I’m sorry I’m late! Mom wouldn’t stop nagging.”

  There is an audible slapping sound as Tavr backhands Risa across the face- not hard, but enough to sting. “Don’t make excuses, and don’t talk about your mother that way. Now let’s get a move on, we’re behind enough as it is.” Tavr turns back around while Alunya frowns.

  Should I do something..? The interaction was already over, though… And as much as Alunya is happy to attack people much larger than them, even he doesn’t think he could take Tavr. Just as long as he doesn’t dare to lay a finger on Ari. Alunya promises himself quietly, silently taking a protective stance near Antares.

  Seeing Risa was struggling to carry the supplies she had left home with, Antares motions for her to hand them over. “C’mon, my brother and I can carry those. You look tired.”

  “Thanks. These are too heavy for me.” Risa remarks, relieved, while Antares and Alunya take one sack each. They aren’t that heavy, but then again, Alunya is only carrying one now. It’s nice to have someone who knows their limits for once at least, Vekt or Antares would bluster so much if you tried to help them with something like this. Alunya thinks, wryly.

  “Enough dilly-dallying, let’s get a move on.” Gatrick grumbles. And so, perhaps a couple hours before noon, the party set off for the north-eastern mountains across the valley.