Immaculate

2890 P.C., the First of Autumn, Hylicia’s Vale.

Alunya’s eyes spring open, a bright smile already on the boy’s face. Throwing the blanket off of himself, he leans down from the top bunk and climbs down towards where Antares is sleeping, his hair dangling towards the ground. Holding himself up on the top bunk with one arm, with the other he reaches forwards and nudges Antares’s sleeping form.

Antares’s eyes blink open, and he flops onto his side, meeting the excited face of Alunya staring at him. “What is it?” Antares murmurs, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

Alunya clasps his hands together excitedly, holding himself anchored to the upper bunk by his legs, upside-down, giggling. “It’s the festival day! C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!”

Antares groans and rolls back over to face away from Alunya. It is indeed the day of the fall festival, but that isn’t until sundown, and it is quite apparently nowhere near sundown. “Let me sleep in, I’m tired!” Antares complains, throwing a pillow at Alunya before burrowing back down into his blankets.

Alunya grips the upper bedpost and swings down onto the lower bunk, nudging Antares from behind. “Aww, c’mon Ant! I haven’t gotten to play with you in ages!” For weeks, Antares has always been too tired from his chores to play with Alunya. But today is different; nobody works on the day of the festival!

Antares delves even deeper into his blanket, grabbing one of his remaining pillows and hugging it close to him. “Just lemme rest a little longer and I’ll come play with you.” Antares pleads, his voice muffled by the pillow.

Alunya looks down at Antares with his characteristic big doe eyes. “Promise?” He asks, pleadingly.

Antares rolls over, his gaze softening as he looks into his brother's eyes. “...I promise.” He replies earnestly.

Alunya smiles and claps his hands together. “Yay!” He jumps up and runs a lap around the room, holding his arms outstretched like wings, before rushing out into the kitchen, running two laps around the hearth before Reia manages to get him to slow down.

“Someone’s in a good mood today!” Reia laughs as she picks him up and spins him around, eliciting a “Wheee!” sound from the boy. “Where’s your brother? I made pumpkin scones for you two.” The table is already set with them, amber-colored biscuits with a very light amount of honey drizzled over the top, making it a real treat.

“He’s being a big sleepyhead! He didn’t want to get up yet!” Alunya announces, his legs swinging idly in the air beneath him.

“I’m here, I’m here!” Antares proclaims, dragging his blanket behind him as he trails into the room, yawning.

“Good morning, sweetie!” Reia sits down at the table and smiles at Antares.

Antares sniffs the air, his stomach audibly growling. “I heard you say… pumpkin scones?” He asks, hopefully, as he climbs up onto his chair where he can see the tantalizing treats laid out on the table.

“Now, now, don’t eat too many- You’re going to eat plenty tonight at the festival, I’m sure.” Reia lectures, though it is doubtful either Alunya or Antares hear her by the way they’d already started stuffing their faces.

Reia snickers and holds her hand up to her mouth while Alunya chews on his food, crumbs covering his cheeks. She reaches over to wipe them off, while Alunya blinks up at her with his big silvery eyes.

“Doesn't your hair get in your eyes?" Reia asks, brushing it out of the way. "Do you want me to cut it so it's not in your face?”

Alunya shakes his head vehemently, whipping the hair in question from side to side. "Nuh-uh, I can see just fine! See?" He blows a huff of air up, clearing the strands from his face.

"But don't you want to look nice for the festival?" Reia asks. "Everyone else will be looking their best, you don't want to stand out, do you?"

"No, I like my hair!" Alunya protests, holding his hands over his head protectively as if worried she would steal it. It had grown out past his shoulders and over his face over the past year, Reia had tried to cut it several times but every time Alunya struggled too much.

"Alright, alright!" Reia throws her hands up in mock surrender. "At least let me comb it out for you. Everyone's going to be at the festival, you two need to look your best." Antares, of course, is largely left out of this, since his hair is quite short and he can brush it himself just fine anyways.

Alunya struggles against Reia as she tries to brush it out. His hair would just get messy again by the festival anyways, so what does it matter if it’s brushed now? Alunya looks desperately over at Antares for help, but Antares is just nibbling on his scones, watching his little brother and mother struggle with bemusement.

Finally, Reia finishes combing out his hair, and Alunya sighs in relief. "I need to head out to get everything ready for the festival. Antares, take care of your little brother while I'm gone, alright?" Reia announces, standing up. The scones have all disappeared by now, with a coating of crumbs still over Antares's mouth while Alunya's is spotless after receiving Reia's attention.

Antares looks at Reia pleadingly and tugs on her coat. “Aww, do you have to go? Can't I come with you?”

“Well…” Reia hesitates. “I don’t know…”

“Ooh, me too, me too!” Alunya jumps up and down, waving his arms to get Reia’s attention.

Reia looks uncertain, but eventually relents. “Oh, alright. I guess you two might be able to help. Alright boys, then follow me.” Reia swings the thatch door of their stone hut open before the entourage of three march off towards the outskirts of town.

“Where are we going, mama?” Alunya pipes up, prancing along following Reia as she puts up a good pace.

“Just out to the pastures, sweetie. I’m not sure our old guanaco will survive over the winter, so it’s best if we take care of them now.” Reia responds. “It’ll be alot of work to prepare the meat before the festival, so we’d better hurry, alright?”

When the three of them reach the pasture on the side of the village, Antares goes to find their guanaco- Watching the village’s pasture was one of his most common chores, so picking out an individual head from the herd was a skill he had plenty of practice with.

The family’s guanaco is an old female, distinguishable by noticeably being the oldest of the herd, well past reproductive age. Most guanaco’s were butchered well before this point, but since it is likely the family's most valuable possession Reia has held off until now.

Antares leads the old doe back to Reia, shivering a little at the mellow, tired look in the guanaco’s eyes and averting his own. The guanaco is older than he is, completely oblivious of the fate that lays in store for it. Taking a deep breath, Antares steels himself; Reia thinks it’s best for them to butcher the guanaco now, so that's what they will do.

Reia takes the guanaco from Antares, and leads it back with her boys, stopping only once they had reached just outside of their home.

“Alright, now watch closely you two! You’ll need to know how to do this one day, too.” Reia instructs, removing a long, slender, single-sided copper knife from her satchel. Once the guanaco sees the knife, it goes stock still before trying to bolt, but Reia has a firm grip around it. “Antares, help me hold it down! But watch its hooves, I don’t want you getting hurt!”

Antares nods dutifully. He had said he wanted to help, after all. The boy grabs the guanaco’s hindquarters, restraining it while keeping at an angle where its legs can't kick him easily. Once the guanaco is held suitably still, Reia carefully places the tip of the knife against the side of its neck, and pushes it in.

The first attempt goes awry. Reia, not having had much practice in recent years, misses the vitals, the blade catching on a bone as the old guanaco makes a horrible screaming sound which can surely be heard over half the village. Antares blanches and looks away, a little bit sickened.

“Damn… Come on, you’re only making this harder on yourself.” Reia hisses to the guanaco.

“Ooh! Ooh! Let me try!” Alunya reaches up and wrenches the knife free, eager to help.

“No!” Reia shouts, sternly, and grabs Alunya’s wrist with surprising strength, making him drop the knife. As the copper blade clatters across the ground, Alunya’s chipper expression almost immediately gives way to crying as Reia’s grip lessens, and she leans down to pick up the knife. “I mean, don’t pick up sharp objects, you could hurt yourself!” She says in a panic, half-scolding and half trying to calm him down. With a frustrated sigh, she places the knife back against the guanaco. “Just stay there, I’ll get it.”

Alunya blinks up at her blearily and curls his legs up, his blubbering mixing with the guanaco’s screaming to make an unholy cacophony.

Finally, the guanaco’s wailing is cut off as Reia drives the knife through the jugular. The struggling of the animal, already not very strong, as it was old and scrawny to start with, gradually diminishes as it loses consciousness before collapsing. “Alright.” Reia sighs heavily, and gets down on her knees over Alunya. “Come on, little ‘Lunya… I just didn’t want you to get hurt. You’re not old enough to use a knife.” Reia chides gently, while Alunya rubs his eye, his lip quivering.

Antares hesitantly uncovers his ears. At least it isn’t screaming anymore… He sighs with relief, while Reia tries to comfort Alunya.

“Antares, can you help me stretch the guanaco out? I have to go take Alunya inside.” Reia asks. Antares bites his lip unsurely, looking at the still-warm corpse with a degree of queasiness, but uncertainly nods his head.

Following Reia’s instruction, the guanaco is lifted and placed on its front, stretched out so that it is easier to work with. Reia soon comes back outside to relieve Antares and take over. “Go try and calm down Alunya, I need to make sure we get this thing butchered in time for the festival.” Reia instructs, calmly but authoritatively.

Antares frowns. “But, I can help…” He starts, but Reia wags her finger, interrupting.

“Now, now, what did I say about knives? I’ll show you how to do it one of these days, but I don’t have time right now, with the festival tonight. Plus, I don’t want Alunya running off somewhere while I’m working. Please, Antares, I’m counting on you to be the responsible one, ok?”

Antares puffs out a cheek, upset, but nods. Be mature. Adult’s don’t cry over silly things like this. Antares reminds himself, reluctantly heading inside.

“Alunya?” Antares calls out, finding the younger boy sulking in the corner by the fireplace.

“...Huh? Oh, what is it, Ant?” Alunya’s voice is unusually dull for the normally indefatigable young boy.

The corners of Antares’s mouth tug down in an empathetic frown, and he slides down to sit next to his brother. “Are you OK?”Antares prods, unsurely. This isn’t really his forte, if anything Alunya is usually the one trying to comfort him when he gets upset.

Alunya crosses his arms, puffing out a cheek and looking off into the distance before replying in an unmistakably pouty voice. “I was just trying to help…”

Antares sighs. What would Mom do to cheer him up..? He doesn’t really know. But then, he remembers that morning, and an idea pops into his mind.

“You said you wanted to play with me today, right? Mom’s out worrying about the guanaco. If we are quiet, we might be able to get outside without her noticing, as long as we aren't gone too long.” Antares suggests. Should I really be thinking this? I’m supposed to be the responsible one. But when Antares sees how Alunya perks up at the suggestion, he knows that it’s too late to take it back.

“Really? You mean it, Ant?” Alunya squeals. “I mean, you did promise you’d play with me today!”

Antares hushes Alunya anxiously, glancing out the front door. “Y-yeah, we should have at least a couple hours before Mom is done dressing the guanaco. But keep it down, we don’t want her to hear!” Antares hisses out.

Alunya beams up at Antares, throwing both arms around Antares, overbalancing the older boy. Despite the differences in ages, Antares notes with some discomfort that Alunya is nearly the same size as him now.

“Oof. Alright, alright, let’s go.” Antares crawls out from under Alunya and up to his feet. “Quiet now!” Antares hushes Alunya, as the two of them delicately sneak out of the window in the back of the hut. Where are we going to go play? Antares wonders, but Alunya has already taken his hand and drags him excitedly onwards.

“C’mon, now that you’re with me, we can go into the forest! Mom showed me what things are good to eat a week ago, I can show you now!” Alunya proclaims eagerly.

Antares hesitates again. Should he try to talk Alunya out of going into the woods? Their mother is counting on him to be the responsible one, after all. But… How long had it been since he’d gone exploring? Alunya isn’t the only one who was bored from Antares having chores every day, after all. Before long, the argument in Antares’s head resolves itself in Alunya’s favor, and the two boys vanish into the woods behind their home.

[...]

Alunya sprints up the hill with a yelp, arms outstretched as usual, while Antares jogs along after him. The white birch forest is a beautiful shade of orange and white this time of year, and thankfully the autumn means the underbrush has died down enough to make walking through the woods relatively easy.

The woods are quite pleasant; Granted, even when the two of them are back in the village, nature is never exactly far off. But it still feels a tad different when there are no buildings or noises of people in sight. Getting lost isn’t too much of a concern, since one can always just head towards the low ground and follow the river if they really need to find their way back home.

As Antares caught up with Alunya, his little brother had started prying some mushrooms off of a tree on top of the hill, turning around to offer some to Antares. “Here! Mommy said these were…” Alunya pauses for a second while he tries to remember what they are called, before just shaking his head, whirling his hair around. “Uhm, I don’t remember what she called them, but they’re really tasty! Try them!”

Antares stares down at the mushrooms dubiously. They are mottled brown with reddish tones, pretty wide and flat, shaped kind of like a pancake. “Are you sure these are ok to eat…?” He mumbles, unconvinced.

Alunya smiles back at him cheerily. “Mom said they’re good for you and will help us grow up big and strong!”

Antares shrugs and takes a hesitant bite, contemplating the flavor before his eyes light up and he immediately devours another two. “Let's take some of them back home with us, we can use them to season the meat while it's cooking!” Alunya suggests. Antares nods and helps him collect the mushrooms off of some of the trees. Once they have about two handfuls, Antares unslings his satchel from his shoulder. “C’mon, give me all you picked, we can put them away here.”

Alunya offloads his collection of mushrooms onto Antares, and while Antares sees about stuffing them into his satchel, Alunya is already taking off again, running up to the slope at the far end of the hill. Only taking a brief look down the hill to make sure there was a clear route down, Alunya dives down into the leaves without hesitation and rolls down the hill.

Antares looks over at the sound of Alunya giggling, and chases after him. “Hey, wait for me!” Antares cries out, diving down into the leaves and following suit down the hill.

As Alunya reaches the bottom of the hill and hears, and then sees, Antares following along after him, a mischievous smirk quickly finds its way onto his face. Diving down with his knees below where Antares is rolling, Alunya braces himself against the ground, forming a slope up with his legs, so that when Antares rolls into him, the momentum carries him up onto Alunya’s lap. The force of impact slams against Alunya’s abdomen, but he had braced himself properly, and didn’t budge an inch. Antares blinks up at him in a confused, dizzy daze. “Huh..? Alunya?”

Alunya’s smirk grows as he then reaches down to pet Antares’s hair. “What a time to take a nap, silly. But if you need my lap as a pillow, I’m willing to provide.” Alunya pronounces in a mock serious tone. Antares blushes and hides his face, frantically scrambling to stand up. Alunya brushes himself off as well, blowing a leaf that was stuck to his face away with a quick motion. Surely, if Reia could see him, she would be terribly upset at how he had ruined the neat and tidy look she had given him that morning.

None of that is anywhere in Alunya’s thoughts, however, as he catches the sight of something enticing under the leaves near one of the trees and skips over to the specimen. Kneeling down and brushing away the leaves, he admires his find; a branch of a tree that must have snapped off in some windstorm, completely barren of leaves.

Eyes shining, Alunya reaches down and picks it up. It really is a nice stick; something sloughed off the bark on one end, so it has a smooth grip. There’s even a little notch in the wood, slightly higher up, that made it rest in his hand just perfectly! Holding it in both hands and twirling it in a flourish that looks far more elaborate in his mind than it did in real life, he can just about imagine himself holding a sword—Although, given that he has never actually seen a sword, the imagery is pretty vague in his mind.

His reverie is broken by another branch suddenly bashing against his, with a satisfying thud. Alunya recoils and looks up, to be met with Antares with a competitive smile on his face. “En garde!” Antares pronounces, holding his “sword” outstretched in one hand with a competitive smile on his face.

Alunya yelps in surprise, falling back on one foot. Antares draws his stick back near his cheek and waits for Alunya to be ready. Alunya returns with a cheeky smile, and pulls his own stick back into a ridiculous overblown stance. As soon as Antares is satisfied that Alunya is ready, he swipes forward with his stick, which Alunya neatly blocks by raising the middle to where Antares’ contacts it, holding his own stick at both ends like a quarterstaff.

Antares shoves Alunya’s weapon away and swipes forward in a horizontal motion with both hands, but Alunya just leans backwards barely enough to avoid the strike, falling back on his right foot before shoving his weight forward and swinging overhead. The blow strikes Antares on his shoulder—it might have hurt, if Alunya hadn’t deliberately softened the blow once he saw it was going to land home.

Antares huffs in frustration while Alunya looks at him smugly. “Haha, first blood is mine!” Alunya pronounces, gesturing dramatically up at the sky, although Antares is quite obviously not bleeding. Antares places both hands on his stick again, narrowing his eyes. “Oh, now you’ve done it! Time to show you the pecking order around here!”Antares announces, swinging his ‘sword’ in an uppercut from right to left, moving it quickly with his wrist rather than swinging with his whole arm.

Alunya deftly ducks under the blow, but Antares follows up with another swing in the opposite direction, mostly horizontal to the ground but at a slight downward angle. Tucking in his legs, Alunya rolls backwards in a summersault, coming up quickly while Antares freezes in surprise. Smugly, Alunya quickly settles back into his elaborate stance, while Antares shakes his head in frustration. How is Alunya able to move like that…?

Letting his passion get the better of his reason, Antares swings his branch in a wild flurry of blows intended to catch Alunya. First diagonally, which Alunya just barely manages to block, then a horizontal blow aiming at his head that probably would have done some real damage if Alunya hadn’t ducked under it. And finally, he pulls the stick back behind his head and swings it around with all his might, Alunya crashing his own into it at full speed at the same time. There is a resounding crack as they both meet, and each stick snaps in half, pieces careening off into the underbrush, leaving the boys with just short, broken lumps of wood.

Antares stumbles back and then falls down onto the ground, landing spreadeagle on his back in the leaves, panting heavily, while Alunya slumps down next to one of the trees nearby.

There is a long pause while the two of them catch their breath, before Alunya sits up and looks over at Antares, thoughtfully. “What does ‘En Garde’ Actually mean?”

Antares ponders it for a moment, before shrugging. “I dunno, I just remember it from one of mom’s stories.” There’s a long silence as Antares looks up at the sky, holding a hand over his eyes, before he sits up. “We should get going, who knows when Mom will get home. We don’t want her to know we were out.”

Alunya strides over to be above Antares and offers a hand down to him, smiling. “Aye-aye!”

Antares takes Alunya’s hand, grunting while he reaches his feet again. Looking at Alunya, he frowns slightly. Although he looks just as pretty as ever, Alunya is also completely messy, covered in mud, bits of grass, and leaves.

Alunya cocks his head and looks back at Antares inquisitively. “Hm? What are you thinking about, Ant?”

“You’re all messy, if we go back like this then Mom will definitely know I let you run off into the forest…” Antares grimaces as he continues. “She might even keep us home during the festival as punishment.”

Alunya squeals in abject terror. “Whaaaat? But it’s the only day you have off!” Alunya protests, with his mouth agape and bright silvery eyes wide open.

Antares rubs the back of his head. “Why don’t we go down to the river and clean off? I could brush the leaves out of your hair, too.”

Now Antares is giving him trouble about his hair!? “Not you toooo!” Alunya whines. Antares looks around the forest, as if embarrassed someone might have heard despite their obvious isolation, as he hushes Alunya.

“But wouldn’t you rather I do it than Mom? I won’t fuss over you as much, and you know she’ll freak out if she sees you like this.” Antares points out, hissing as though trying to keep his voice down.

Alunya puffs out a cheek, pouting, and crosses his arms, but relents. “Fineee…” He grumbles.

[...]

By the time the two of them reach the river, Alunya has gotten over his mood and then some. Before he can jump straight into the water, Antares quickly grabs his arm and yanks him back. “Wait, you don’t want to walk home with soggy clothes, do you?” Antares asks, to which Alunya rolls his eyes up into his head thinking for a moment before shaking his head vigorously.

Antares strips his clothes off and lays them out on a dry rock a ways above the stream before testing the waters, while Alunya simply jumps right in with a whooping shout as soon as his clothes have been thrown into a disheveled pile on the ground. The river isn’t very deep, but he is still far from full grown and so it’s enough that he can get about clavicle-deep; probably not safe to jump into, given the slippery and potentially sharp rocks, but Alunya seems to get by alright.

Alunya looks back at shore, treading water. “What are you waiting for, Ant?” He calls out, leaning back in the water.

Antares gives him a sheepish look, standing just ankle deep. “It’s cold!” Still, he is the one who suggested it in the first place, so after a long hesitation he wades down into the water. He definitely won’t be staying there for long;just enough to look at least a little bit tidy. Alunya is already down at the deepest part of the water, leaning back slightly with his feet just off the muddy riverbed so that he is treading water and not standing still.

Grabbing Antares’s arm, Alunya suddenly yanks him down into the deepest parts of the stream. Antares lets out an ear splitting screech. “Ahhh! Coooold!”

Alunya just giggles. “C’mon, Ant! You gotta get in the water sometime!” He announces, cheerily, moving around in the water without any seeming effort. It’s perhaps impressive that the boy is such a good swimmer, considering a lack of any proper training; still, Antares feels nervous. Reia had told them not to go down to the river on their own, since they could drown.

Thankfully, at this time of year, the water is flowing pretty slowly, so it isn’t like he can get swept away. At least, as long as they don't go too far downriver. Taking a deep breath, Antares dunks his head into the water, shutting his eyes tightly as the cold shocks him, giving him an immediate headache.

As soon as he is sure he has been thoroughly soaked, he bursts his head back out of the water and rubs his face to try and clean it. Alunya, of course, is doing nothing of the sort, instead just paddling around the river, diving under and then splashing back out.

“Oy, Alunya, you’re not going to get clean just paddling around, you know.” Antares calls out. “C’mere, let me try and take care of all that grime.” Antares reaches over and, after getting Alunya to hold still, starts working on cleaning up his complexion.

Alunya’s skin is actually already relatively clear, but there is still a leaf stuck in his hair that hadn’t rinsed away easily, and some scraps of grass or mud are practically glued to his face. As Antares reaches forward to rub away the grime, he once again reveals the boy's delicate jawline and small, upturned nose.

There isn’t much need to go over the rest of Alunya’s body, seeing as it’s submerged in the water already. And besides, it isn’t like Reia would see it once Alunya is fully dressed again.

“You need to get clean, too!” Alunya announces. Antares nods and starts rubbing his own face down. But as Antares is distracted, Alunya’s face coils into a mischievous smirk, and he slips away, creeping around his brother before suddenly surprising him with a huge wave of water. Antares yelps from the cold as he is doused, closing his eyes as his hair drips icy water. When he opens them up again, he is met with Alunya’s smug smile, his face brightly shining in the midday sun.

Antares narrows his eyes competitively, and stealthily swirls his arms around under the water. After building up enough momentum, he hurls a wave of water back at his brother in retaliation, but Alunya simply dives down below the water before it can hit him, resurfacing a second later with a cheerful giggle and huge splash.

Antares' breath catches in his throat for just a moment, spellbound, as the droplets Alunya had thrown into the air catch the sunlight, perfectly sparkling in front of his youthful frame and radiant expression.

Dear Hylicia, I think my brother might be an angel.